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  The bushes behind rustled and his head rolled on his shoulders as she struggled to look behind.

  He tried to lift the rifle, but his shoulders merely shrugged.

  The bushes shook again and a rodent emerged. It looked up and him and squeaked before turning tail and disappearing back into the brush.

  Several bugs buzzed around his flicking ears. He didn’t even have the strength to swipe them away.

  He tried to get up from the stump, but his legs wobbled and almost buckled under him. He leaned against the stump again, gathering his strength.

  His arms shook as he lifted the rifle strap over his head, letting the heavy weapon fall to the mud.

  Fox tested his balance and found he could stand again. He set off for the islet, his feet sinking into the muck.

  He stumbled forward, falling face first in the water. He broke the surface, his nostrils flaring.

  He trudged through the mossy water, and threw himself onto the islet. His arms rebelled, but he forced himself onto his knees and crawled for his ship, looking for something he could throw to get Corri’s attention.

  His arms gave way and his face sank into the muck.

  Something ahead swished.

  He willed his head out of the sludge and saw a pair of human legs approaching.

  Corri’s body shook under his weight as she helped him upright.

  She half-dragged him onto Hopper, the ramp closing behind them.

  Corri set him against a stack of crates as she reactivated Hopper’s stealth drive. She returned her attention to Fox, her eyes bulging. “Are you okay? Where have you been? You told me you wouldn’t be long.”

  Fox tried to stand and crashed against the bulkhead, panting. “I ran into…trouble.”

  “What’s wrong? Wait, you can talk? Are you hurt?” Corri ran to him and offered an arm for support.

  He brushed her away and pointed to his throat. “Long story.”

  “That looks bad. You’ll need antibiotics. I saw a med kit in the mess. Let me fetch it. Hopefully we can patch you up.”

  “I’ll be okay. I just need a shower. And meds. And a solid block of sleep.” His stomach growled. “And something to eat.”

  His eyes closed and the darkness took him.

  12

  Jump Gate Delta

  Kelvin flicked the manual-auto toggle and toot control of Sable, leveling her with Delta Gate. The giant monolith hung silently in space before him, Sable a mere flea in comparison.

  He squeezed the controls, slowing Sable as they got close to their designated waiting point. The subtle rumble of the ship’s mechanical systems vibrated through his fingers, and the muscles in his back eased for the first time since the Delta Games.

  He’d been wrong about the military being his home. Inside the cockpit was where he belonged. He slowed his breath and reclined in his seat, savoring the moment.

  “How are you holding up, Mister Perry?”

  “I was doing okay right up until you spoke. Do you really have to call me that?” He and Lora had been reunited less than day and she was already getting under his skin. He smiled. Definitely feels like home.

  “Winding you up is the best part of my job”

  “How come you don’t get an alias?”

  “Only field agents get an alias. ID’s costs a lot in terms of resources.”

  “Field Agent Ernest Perry, huh?” He said, liking the feel of the words in his mouth. “Now, I could get used to that.”

  “Sure. If you wanted everyone to know you were an agent.”

  “I bet you wormed your way out of an alias so I couldn’t tease you.”

  She chuckled. “What’s your progress?”

  “On approach to the Jump Gate Delta processing point.”

  “I hope you’ve been taking care of my girl?”

  “She’s a real beauty,” he said gently stroking the controls. “I think she’s starting to like me.”

  “Have you loaded your jump coordinates?”

  “Check.”

  “Good. The gate’s onboard system should let you through without a hitch.”

  “Should?” Tension started to creep back into his shoulders.

  “Don’t worry, we cleared your ID through all the official channels. We just haven’t received final confirmation from gate authorities. But that’s normal.”

  “What? Why didn’t anyone tell me this?” Kelvin did his best not to shout. If officer Hilden kept his cool while killing two men, he could sure as hell keep his head together while flying. “Didn’t you say the gate defense system has more than twenty plasma canons.”

  “Relax. Like I said. It’s normal.” He could hear a smile in her voice. “Besides, they’re called defense canons for a reason. They are there to stop unwanted visitors from the other side.”

  “Try telling that to that pilot who got blown away out here last year.”

  “That was a malfunction. An anomaly.”

  “If you say so.” He pulled on the brakes and Sable’s fore-thrusters puffed, slowing him to a stop. “I’ve arrived at Process Point Indigo.”

  “I’ll leave you to it then.”

  The gate’s request to connect with Sable flashed on the cockpit display.

  Kelvin swiped, granting access.

  “License designation Ernest Perry detected. Processing jump request.”

  Kelvin tapped the controls and whistled a tune.

  “Error,” the gate’s computer announced in his ear. “Please resubmit request.”

  “Lora, it didn’t work.”

  “Just do as she asked and resubmit the request.”

  He sent the request a second time and watched the gate, his shoulders tense.

  “Error,” the gate’s computer announced in his ear. “Please resubmit request.”

  A long list of weapons lock warnings registered on his display.

  “What the hell Lora? They’ve locked canons. You said this would work.”

  “I said it should work. Ignore the canons. They’re simply standard protocol. They won’t open fire unless they consider you a threat. Try again.”

  “Consider me a threat is a fairly ambiguous term.” He resubmitted the request, his hand squeezing the controls tight…just in case. “They might consider an unauthorized traveler a threat, for example.”

  “That’s not how it works, Kelvin,” she argued. “Quit being so touchy.”

  The weapons lock warnings vanished.

  “Request granted.”

  “I told you so,” Lora said in her usual arrogant tone.

  “Phew,’ Kelvin wanted to remove his helmet to wipe the sweat from his forehead. It seemed to happen a lot since removing all his hair. He took a deep breath. “Thanks, Lora.”

  “No worries, Kelvin. It’s my job.”

  Kelvin imagined he heard the touch of a smile in her words.

  Lightening sparked across the gate. A flash of white light exploded across the cockpit window and faded to reveal a swirling tunnel of every color.

  “Alright, I’m going in.”

  “When you reach the other side, we can keep in touch using the quantum comms unit, but the computer will take time to process so expect delays.”

  “Thanks for the reminder. That run down you gave me back at the hangar was a crash course if ever I had one. It’s a good thing Sable can take care of most things on her own.”

  “Don’t get too comfortable,” she said. “You’ll need to take control if a fight breaks out. Her automatic weapons system is more advanced than anything I’ve ever seen, but we didn’t have time to fully calibrate it.”

  “Don’t worry, dog-fighting is what I do.”

  “Don’t be getting too cocky either. Drahk fighters might not be the most complex machines, but they overwhelm their enemies with numbers.”

  “That’s why we’ve got that fancy pulse gun things you told me about.”

  “The electrical pulse canon. Yes. But you can only use it once per charge. Getting better batteries would
have drawn too much attention.”

  The hairs on Kelvin’s arms stood on end and the surface of his skin began to tingle. “I’m about to hit the event line.”

  “Safe travels,” Lora said, the channel crackling. “I’ll chat to you on the other side.”

  “Thanks.”

  Kelvin edged Sable forward and the swirling vortex grabbed her nose, pulling her in. Kelvin held his right hand out and watched his fingers curl and spiral at odd angles. His cockpit controls warped and bent. Another flash erupted and Sable was sucked inside.

  Sable exploded from the vortex and everything weaved together in waves as space and time settled back to relative normalcy.

  The stars continued to swirl and shimmer outside, but they too eventually settled back into place.

  Kelvin took several deep breaths as his head stopped spinning, trying to stop himself from passing out. His stomach gurgled and he reached for his helmet’s suction system with practiced movements. He reached the switch and the rubber clamped around his mouth just as he puked, the whizzing pump sucking undigested food and bile into Sable’s waste system.

  He spat into the mouthpiece several times, trying to get rid of the chunks remaining in his mouth.

  He unclipped his helmet and cleared his throat as he reached for his water bottle. He sucked on the valve and swished the liquid around his mouth before swallowing it. He repeated the process until the taste of acid had gone.

  “Gets me every time,” he muttered.

  He punched the coordinates for Roth into his controls and Sable’s engines hummed loudly as she accelerated.

  He was about to deactivate his display when an encrypted message pinged on the screen. It came from Lora on the QC. That was fast.

  He played her recording.

  “Hey Ernest. Just to let you know that I looked up Doctor Michelle Riley as you asked. I couldn’t find any record of her, not even in the archives. I was about to call it quits, but I decided to cross-reference with Delta Fleet databases. I found a file marked top-secret. Almost everything inside was redacted. Something about this doctor doesn’t feel right. I’ll keep digging. Hopefully I can come up with something more solid before our next communication. Lora Goff out.”

  Kelvin brought up his control settings and activated the record application. He swiped the record button.

  “Ernest Perry, reporting a successful jump. I’ll be setting course after sending this report. With the jump drive’s help, I hope to reach Roth within two days. Thank you for the information. I look forward to learning more. Stay safe. Ernest Perry out.”

  He toggled the control and sent the reply via quantum communicator.

  Kelvin unclipped himself and made his way to the cabin in the rear. He undid his suit and climbed into the narrow bunk. The rest of the journey was going to take a while.

  May as well try to catch up on some much-needed sleep while I still can.

  13

  Guess Work

  Fox awoke with a start and found himself tangled in sweat-drenched sheets. He tried to climb out of the cot, but his legs turned to jelly and he slid to the floor.

  Corri rushed into the cabin. “You shouldn’t get out of bed. The swelling only started going down today.”

  She helped him back onto the cot and he leaned against the wall. “How long have I been out for.”

  “Two days and a bit.”

  “Really that long?”

  “The fever broke yesterday, but you’ve had nightmares the entire time you were out. I doubt you got enough sleep. You kept calling for Michelle.”

  Fox’s heart skipped a beat. He checked the suture in his arm. “You did this by yourself?” he asked, changing the subject.

  Corri’s face turned red. “I hope it doesn’t hurt too bad. I’ve never done it before.”

  “It’s a very clean job. Well done…and thank you.”

  “Oh, it’s nothing. I just followed the instructions Hopper gave me.”

  “It’s still good for a first time. It seems you’re a natural.”

  “I always wanted to be a doctor.”

  “And you might be one yet.” He cleared his throat and found it dry as sand. “Could you please fetch me something to drink? I’m parched.”

  Corri passed him a metal canister. “You should drink plenty of water, but I’ll make you a hot drink.”

  He accepted the canister and drank deeply, the liquid making him feel rejuvenated. He wiped his wet lips and set the canister aide. “Ah, that’s so much better.”

  Corri brought two hot drinks and ration packs from the replicator and sat on the cot next to him.

  She offered him a cup. “I don’t know what it is, but it tastes a little like coffee.”

  “Thanks.” He took a sip, savoring the flavor even if it was a little too hot. He picked up a ration pack and swallowed it in three bites before going in for a second pack.

  She sipped on the drink and sighed. “Who is she?”

  “Who?” He glanced at Corri sidewise, suspecting he knew exactly who.

  “Michelle. She sounds important.”

  “I’d rather not talk about it.”

  “Before the Drahk killed my father, he used to tell me that talking about problems made it easier to heal.”

  “I don’t need to heal,” he said, trying not to sound angry.

  “I’m no shrink, but it sounded like you need to heal to me.”

  “We’re not talking about it,” he said, sitting forward and putting his drink on the cot-side unit. “Anyway, we need to focus on getting out of here.”

  Corri cocked and eyebrow. “We’re leaving already?”

  “What do you mean already? You have a problem?”

  “What about Sasha? You said you were going to get her out of the city…that it was your job.”

  “Did I bring Sasha back with me?”

  Corri glared at him. “No. Of course not.”

  “That’s because I couldn’t get to her. They’re holding her inside the spire. The place is heavily fortified. Even if she was still in the factory…” He sighed, feeling ill all of a sudden. “It doesn’t matter anymore.” He decided not to go into detail about how Lord Vismark had set him up and his suspicions that someone inside ASTRA might be causing problems.

  “So, you’re going to just leave her in there. Fox, she’s just a kid.”

  He struggled not to grit his fangs. “In case you didn’t notice, the city is full of child slaves. And you said it yourself. I’m in no state to do anything in my current condition. I need medical attention and rest before I can be any use to anyone. Let’s worry about getting Hopper off the ground.”

  “Okay,” she said finally dropping the subject. “Do you need me to do anything?”

  Fox shook his head. “I just need ten minutes. Then I can work the controls myself.” He caught her giving him an accusing glare. “What? If I go back in like this, I’m as good as dead. I thought we’d dropped it.”

  “We have,” she whispered. “It’s just sad is all.”

  “We can’t let every loss get to us,” he said with more acid than intended. He shook his head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to lose my temper. But it’s just a matter of time before we’re discovered. We need to get out of here soon. Maybe ASTRA can arrange something for Sasha. I’ll ask around when I get back to HQ.”

  A dull thud came from the other side of the ship and a bang rattled through Hopper like a hollow drum.

  “What was that?” Corri said with worry in her eyes.

  Fox climbed out of the cot, holding onto the rail for support this time. “That was a sign that we’re too late.”

  “I thought you said they couldn’t see us when we’re cloaked.”

  He reached for the wall terminal and double-checked Hopper’s systems to make sure they were, in fact, still cloaked. All the readings were normal. It didn’t make sense. “I don’t know. Maybe they found a scanning frequency that picked us up anyway. The Drahk around here are more sophisticated than usual.”<
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  “What do we do?”

  “That depends on what kind of weapons they’ve got with them. Help me into the cockpit.”

  Corri helped him keep steady as he climbed into the flight chair. He kept the blast shutters activated and brought up Hopper’s external camera feeds.

  Several Drahk units surrounded the ship.

  He ran scanners and they counted thirty-one Drahk heat signatures.

  “Shit.”

  “What is it?” Corri asked at his shoulder.

  “We’re surrounded and they have artillery in the sky.”

  “Can we run?”

  “Not with that bird above us.” He brought the Drahk gunship up on the display and pointed to it.

  “Then what?”

  The gunship fired a round and another bang rang through Hopper.

  “If they wanted to kill us, they would have done it already. Perhaps we can negotiate.”

  “Negotiate?” she all but shrieked. “These are Drahk we’re talking about.”

  “I met their leader.”

  “What?”

  “No time to explain, but he wanted me to do something for him. We can use it as a bargaining chip.”

  Corri stared at him speechless.

  He pointed to a panel behind her. “Give me the medi pack.”

  She fetched the green case from behind the panel.

  He rummaged through the pack for the injector and a vial containing a cocktail of his own making.

  Pressing the injection gun to his arm, he pulled the trigger. Warm relief instantly flowed to his extremities. “That should keep me going for a few hours.”

  “You’re really going to go out there?”

  “We both are.”

  “I can’t,” she objected. “I can’t go back there.”

  “We don’t have any other choice. Either you stay in here and die when they blow the ship, or you take your chances with me.”

  “How do you know they’ll blow your ship?”

  “I’m hoping they won’t, but as you pointed out, these are Drahk we’re dealing with.”

  Another round rocked the interior.

  “I’d rather die inside the ship then.”