21. Zyrus

21

ZYRUS

Ryklin cursed when we entered Sector J, but none of us slowed down. The bond between Astrid and I was growing stronger with every step, and I knew we must be getting closer. We'd run out of station soon enough if we weren't.

What if she'd been taken off the station?

I'd lost her once, I refused to lose her again.

There was a loud metal-on-metal screech coming from farther down the corridor, and I sped up, putting everything I had into the final sprint.

A door labeled SHIP REPAIR, SECTOR J slid open when we came into range. There were two men in the room, both human, one wearing a black jumpsuit and the other dressed for the boardroom.

"You can't be in here," the well-dressed man sputtered.

Instinct had me punching him in the face before sense could catch up. He crumpled, and the other man pulled a blaster.

But Drex was quicker. He lunged and caught the man's wrist, twisting it until the weapon fell to the floor. Drex drove his elbow into the man's face, and he went down, right next to his boss.

Where was Astrid?

The screeching of the door opening stopped but was followed by a blaring horn and the sound of a metal conveyor belt starting up.

We were in a small control room with a large window that looked out into the repair bay where a severely damaged ship was slowly being pushed towards the open bay doors that led to the air lock.

And the bond inside me screamed that Astrid was there.

I moved without thought, even when Ryklin grabbed hold of my shirt to keep me from sprinting into danger. We didn't know if there were more hostiles out there. All I knew was that Astrid needed me.

On the ground, the men were starting to groan and come to, but Drex had grabbed the fallen blaster and had it trained on both of them.

"Let him go," he told Ryklin.

The hold on me vanished.

I went through the door into the repair bay, calling Astrid's name. A part of me expected an assault of blaster fire or worse, but there was nothing.

Until there was a feminine scream.

I ran towards the slowly moving ship and nearly plunged into the repair bay under the thin conveyor belt that was holding it up. But it was the sight of Astrid hanging from the ladder on the opposite side that stopped me cold.

She was dangling from the edge, her body trembling, fingertips white with the effort of holding on and slipping by the second. She looked up, and her eyes went wide.

"Zyrus! I can't hold on." Her fingers spasmed, and her shoulders jerked, but she didn't fall.

It was like an explosion went off inside of me. Adrenaline flooded through me, and I didn't hesitate. I leapt forward and ran down the center of the conveyor belt, the sound of the grinding machinery and the scraping of the ship's hull on the ground thundering in my ears.

I wouldn't let Astrid fall.

I finally closed the distance between us and grasped her hand, jerking her up onto the conveyor under the ship. We were nearly through the air lock doors, and Astrid was breathing hard. I wanted to clutch her close and kiss her until we both forgot how to breathe.

Later.

I kept a tight hold on her wrist and carefully guided her under the drooping wing of the broken ship. But the conveyor was still moving us forward, and now that I was paying attention, it was faster than I thought. We moved forward, but it still pulled us back. And with the miniscule width, we had to be careful about how we stepped. One wrong move, and we'd plunge at least ten meters and two stories below.

Why hadn't Ryklin or Drex stopped the conveyor belt?

We were too far into the air lock to see what they were doing, and I couldn't waste time worrying about that, not when my mate and I needed to get out of there.

"When those doors close, the exterior door is going to open," Astrid yelled over the clanking around us. "We need to get out of here."

"Trying!" The ship was no hope. One wing drooped lifelessly to the side, and I could see a gigantic crack in the hull. We might last a few extra minutes with the ambient oxygen in the craft, but it was even worse than a last resort, and I wasn't about to try it. "I need you to trust me."

She put her hand in mine. "I do."

I swung Astrid onto my back and let my instincts drive me, one gigantic step after another clearing the conveyor belt until I was past the bay doors and we were out of some of the danger.

Until a wide blaster shot nearly had me and Astrid toppling down the drop. With no ship to dodge, it was easier to keep my balance, but with my mate clinging to me, my center of gravity was off, and I almost fell anyway.

We came to a walkway, and I stepped onto solid ground, carefully letting my mate back down to her feet. Then my claws were out, and I was ready to fight.

But Ryklin and Drex had it under control. The man in the suit was in a different position now, jacket smoking from where a blaster shot had hit him in the shoulder, knocking him out. The other man had his hands raised and wasn't trying to fight.

"He had a hidden blaster," said Drex.

That explained the stray shot.

"Is Alice here?" Astrid looked around my shoulder, eyes darting around the cavernous room. "They have Alice. We have to find her."

I cursed. Of course they had Alice. Putting someone else in peril was the only reason my mate would have run off like she did. And judging by how we'd found Astrid, I feared for Alice's chances. And, unlike with Astrid, we had no hope of tracking her.

Drex was tying up the two men when I crouched down in front of the man who was still conscious. "Where's the other woman?"

"I don't know!" He jerked his shoulders, like he was trying to wave his hands around.

"Astrid …" She didn't need to see this.

"If you're going to torture him, I'm not stepping out of the room. Not this time. Where's Alice?" She took a menacing step forward.

The man looked between all four of us and came to the right decision. "I really don't know for sure. But we've been using a couple of rooms in this sector." He listed them.

I nodded to Drex, and he shot the man, using the lowest setting on the blaster. It would knock him out for awhile but no other harm done.

It would have been faster to split up, but we didn't know how many people were holding Alice or if more of Vastrien's men were skulking around Sector J. The first room was empty, but there was evidence that someone had been using it—disturbed dust and boxes set up as chairs.

We heard the shouting before we made it to the second room.

"Put it down, Yoree!" That wasn't Alice's voice.

Drex, Ryklin, and I set up a formation, Astrid hanging back without being told. We approached the door, Drex in front since he was the only one with a blaster.

Two shots rang out, and they didn't come from him.

There was more commotion, and we bust through the door to find a woman kneeling beside Alice's chair and working at her bonds, with Yoree and another man unconscious on the floor. She jerked her blaster up when she heard us enter.

It was the woman who'd been following Astrid and Pippa a few weeks ago. She was wearing her station security uniform.

She lowered the blaster. "Everything is under control," she said. "I'm with security. This is a restricted area, and you need to clear out."

"Give me the blaster, Drex." I held out my hand, and he placed it in my palm. It felt like an old friend as I pointed it at the woman. "You're working for them."

The woman's brow furrowed in confusion, but her blaster didn't falter.

On the chair, Alice moaned in pain, barely conscious.

The woman gritted her teeth. "Yoree there paid me two hundred credits to follow some woman around for a few days. Then I got suspicious when that bastard showed up with a black eye and offered me more to do worse. I've been tracking him ever since. And as soon as I get this woman to medical, I'm arresting everyone in Sector J, and I'll let a judge sort it out on a penal colony a million miles from here."

Could I believe her?

She lowered her blaster and started working on Alice's bonds again, heedless of the weapon I had trained on her.

"There are two more men over by the repair bay." Astrid slipped in behind us. She came up next to me and put her hand on my arm, guiding the blaster down. "They've been trying to make sure that no one can get off of Nebula. I have a hundred people down there waiting for a rescue."

The security woman cursed. "One more freaking mess." The rope came free, and Alice slumped to her side as if strings holding her up had been cut. "Give me two days, and if they're not up here … "

We waited for her to finish.

Astrid walked forward and helped Alice up. She was conscious enough to stand, but barely. "I'll hold you to that," said my mate.

And we left the scene.