Shade took my uninjured hand in his and brushed his thumb across the inside of my wrist, a slow swipe that sent a shiver through me. “Stay safe. Stay with me.”
I nodded. “You too.” I squeezed his hand back.
A muscle flexed in his jaw. His mouth flattened, and he dropped my hand as we came up on the two hundred and fifties.
“What’s the status out there, Merrick?” Shade asked.
“Still surrounded. Four hovercrafts now—and some combat cruisers in the area, according to the radar.”
Shade swore. I winced. Fiona looked worriedly at Jaxon, who didn’t react. He stared straight ahead as though no one had spoken.
Fear churned in my gut. One-man fighter ships were bad news on the best of days, and today was already terrible.
I peeked at the digital display again. Just one more level. I braced for the doors to open, hoping Merrick had come up with a plan to get us out of the elevator.
The lights blinked out. The lift jerked to a standstill. My heart jackhammered in the darkness, and then an emergency light flickered on in the top corner.
“Merrick?” The others stood stock-still, all bathed in a faint orange glow and as wide-eyed as I was. “We stopped with one floor to go. What happened?”
“Power just went out in the whole tower,” he answered. “They shut it down. Can you get out through the ceiling?” Bang. Bang. Gunshots rang outside again.
We all studied the top of the elevator, taking stock of the person-sized emergency exit.
Shade turned to me. “On my back, starshine.” He cleared broken glass out of the way and bent down, bracing one knee and a hand against the bottom of the elevator.
“Fi’s smaller.” I pulled her over and helped her sit on Shade’s shoulders. She got her balance and he stood, putting her high enough to reach the safety hatch above us. Shade braced her legs with his arms, and Fiona yanked on the lever. It didn’t move. With a grunt, she pushed harder.
“I can’t…get it.” Grinding her teeth, Fiona put all her weight behind it. She shook her head. “It’s no good. I’m not strong enough.”
Fiona slid off Shade’s back, crushing glass into dust as she landed behind him. I was about to try when Jax nudged Shade aside and took his spot on one knee, his other leg bent and braced in front of him. He tapped his thigh and nodded. Without waiting for more of an invitation, Shade stepped onto Jax’s big thigh, reached up, and grabbed the lever. He pulled hard, and the seal broke with a suction pop of rubber. He flipped the hatch open, leaving a dark hole in the ceiling.
Shade hopped down and turned to Fiona. “Climb.” He lowered his center of gravity and laced his hands in front of him.
Jax stood and helped steady Fiona as she stepped onto Shade’s foothold, her hand on Jax’s shoulder for balance. Shade lifted as she reached up and grabbed the edges of the opening. He sent her partway through, and Fiona wiggled the rest of her way out of the hatch. On top of the elevator, she turned and reached for me.
I did the same, using Shade as a stepping stool and Jax for balance. Fiona helped pull me through and someone pushed on my feet from below, making the climb easier.
I sat up and glanced around, trying to adjust my eyesight to the dimness. It was even darker in the shaft but just bright enough to see the ominous outlines of gears and wires pressing in on us. It reminded me of some of the tighter, darker mining tunnels below Hourglass Mile.
I burst out in goose bumps and looked over my shoulder, half expecting to see a guard with a whip looming over me, his arm cocked back, the threat obvious. But only the doors to our platform sneered down at me—a tight-lipped vertical barrier next to a rung ladder that ran the entire length of the elevator tube. There wasn’t a crack of daylight. Where was Merrick?
I swung my gaze back around and peered through the hatch. Shade was down on one knee and offering up his thigh as a step stool the way Jax had earlier.
“I’m too heavy,” Jax mumbled.
“Stop stalling.” Shade’s tone brooked no argument. He looked at Jax expectantly.
Irritation flared in Jax’s expression—the first sign of life in a while. Scowling, he set his foot on Shade’s thigh and hefted himself partway through the hatch. Fiona and I helped haul him the rest of the way up, although the men did most of the work on that one. We were all breathing hard by the time Shade jumped, grabbed the rim of the hole with both hands, and heaved himself up to join us.
He stood, taking my hand and tugging me up with him.
“Impressive.” The muscles in Shade’s arms and shoulders were something to look at. I’d admire them very thoroughly if we lived through this.
He leaned forward and kissed me. The quick, hard contact shot warmth from my lips to my toes. My hands curled in his shirt, holding on for a second. Our eyes locked and then Shade stepped back, checking on Jax and Fiona.
I checked on Merrick. “Hey, Big Guy, can you make it to the lift and pry the doors open? We’re climbing out of here.”
“Gimme a minute.” A door whooshed in the background. The sound of Merrick’s running feet reached us. “There are six elevator tubes. Which do I open?”
“Middle shaft, inner side,” I answered, gripping the cold metallic rung in front of me. Before I lifted my boot to the ladder, I glanced at Jaxon.
He rolled to his knees and staggered upright. The way he creaked told me every movement cost him. Running around and climbing and jumping definitely weren’t doctor recommended after taking a violent shocking.
My throat thick with worry, I turned back around and started climbing. “We’re on our way up, Merrick. Get ready.”
A harsh grunt chuffed over the audio connection followed by what sounded like ripping metal.
What in the galaxy? I frowned down at Shade. Through the shadows, his eyes met mine in mutual question.
“Merrick?” Shade followed me up the ladder.
“On my way.” Pounding feet. A door whooshed again. More gunfire.
“You go first, Fi.” Jax sounded so tired. I glanced down again, uneasy.
“Not a chance.” Fiona planted herself like one of her bushes. “You go first, or I’m not moving.”
Jax stuck out an arm and herded Fiona toward the ladder. She dug in her heels, skidding over the top of the elevator.
“Don’t be stubborn,” Jax grated. “Just go.”
“No,” she growled.
“Come on, Fi!” I snapped down at her. “Merrick’s coming. Let’s not give the Dark Watch more time to get into position to kill us.” At least four hovercrafts waited outside with armed soldiers just itching to shoot the blood and guts out of us. At this point, we only stood a chance because Merrick was a super soldier and Shade had wisely set explosives.
“If we’re all out, I’m afraid he’ll just sit down and give up!” Scowling, Fiona tried to shove Jax forward. “You first.”
“Quit it, or I’ll fucking carry you up,” Jax snarled.
“Fine.” She stepped right up to him, challenging Jax to do just that. They stood toe-to-toe, glaring at each other.
“Jax isn’t a quitter,” I said. “Now move it. Both of you.”
Unfortunately, a tiny part of me wondered if Fiona was right. Sometimes, when Jax shut down and got that misery-clouded far-off look in his eyes, I worried there was a chance he wouldn’t fight so hard to make it out of some bad situation the next time. I knew for a fact he would have walked straight into a toxic explosion seven years ago on Hourglass Mile if a terrified nineteen-year-old girl hadn’t literally been dumped on his head as a prison partner. Keeping me safe had kept him alive. But now, I had Shade in my corner. Would that make a difference to Jax?
I sure as hell hoped not.
“Fiona, get on the ladder. Jax will follow when there’s room.” Right now, we couldn’t move anyway. I was at the top, Shade was behind me, and Fiona could bar
ely fit a foot on.
A stab of daylight suddenly appeared, piercing my eyes with brightness. I blinked as huge hands gripped the edges of the doors like claws, prying the panels apart with a crunch of metal. Merrick’s shiny black face appeared, dripping sweat and grinning when he saw us. Some kind of shield protected his back and now me from a constant barrage of gunfire.
“What is that?” I slipped through the crack and stood in the shelter of Merrick’s big rectangular shadow. He’d strapped a huge metal panel to his back with cargo belts and bungee cords from the Endeavor. Shade came out behind me.
“Your kitchen door.” Merrick gathered us close and covered all three of us as we ran in a cluster toward the ship’s open entrance. Bullets pinged off the shield. Sparks flew, streaks of orange in my peripheral vision.
“My door?” Shock gave way to admitting it was good thinking. The panel was taller and wider than Merrick and made of the same space-worthy armored metal as the rest of the ship. I grinned. “Who needs privacy in a kitchen?” It was a communal space anyway.
Merrick cracked a smile as he scooted forward at a side shuffle, shielding us. The bottom of the door grated against the platform, adding to the almost deafening cacophony of automatic weapons, engines, and megaphones blaring orders we were never going to listen to.
“Genius,” Shade yelled, keeping his head low and his feet moving.
Something more powerful than a bullet slammed into the door panel. Merrick lurched, just barely keeping his balance and nearly knocking Shade and me over. An explosion boiled around us, sudden and searing. We huddled behind the shield. I gasped, squeezing my eyes shut until the blaze subsided.
“Go!” Merrick urged us onward. At the open starboard air lock, he angled his armored back toward the hovercrafts as Shade and I vaulted up into the ship and scrambled behind opposite sides of the doorframe. Three Grayhawks waited in my corner. I slid two toward Shade and picked up the other. We both flattened ourselves against the walls and hammered off shots at the Dark Watch. Merrick hurried back toward Jax and Fiona at a loping side step, his shield gouging the tarmac.
“You take the ones on the left. I’ve got the right,” Shade shouted over utter chaos. I nodded and kept shooting, my hearing dulled by the roar of gunfire.
“Good thinking with the explosives!” I could see them now that I was looking in the right direction, mines of some kind dotting the outer section of the platform. “What are they?”
“Incendio charges,” Shade answered.
“Never heard of them,” I hollered back.
“Big noise. Big fire. Not a huge range of actual destruction but intense at the source. Not a good idea to land on them.”
I nodded. Shade’s forward thinking was the only reason the hovercrafts hadn’t touched down and goons weren’t swarming the dock right now.
“That’s my whole supply. Was hoping to get them back.” Shade tossed me a roguish smile that curled around my racing heart and steadied it. “Not looking so good.”
No, but the incendios had saved our butts so far—along with Merrick. “Those won’t stop them from fast-roping it down.” While discreet, the explosives were visible and avoidable to feet, even if a whole hovercraft couldn’t wiggle a landing spot around them.
“Then keep shooting, starshine. They’re not going to pop over the sides and slide down with us aiming at them.”
Probably not. Goons were well known for their highly developed sense of self-preservation. It almost rivaled their penchant for abusing power. The two likely went together.
A new sound punched my ears like bad music—the whine and thump of more sophisticated engines. The individual cruisers Merrick had picked up earlier on the radar buzzed our tower. A group of them raced over the city skyline before swinging back around, noses—and weapons—pointed toward us.
Dread cramped hard in my stomach. Shade and I glanced at each other. Those cruisers would have firepower the Endeavor’s outer armor couldn’t deflect as easily as bullets.
My gaze flicked toward the elevator tubes. Jax and Fiona were out. A small missile exploded against the shield, and I cried out in fear for them. Merrick nearly buckled, but Jax helped prop him up while Fiona burrowed into Jax’s chest, hiding her face from the blast. Grimacing against the heat, Jax used his free arm to protect the back of Fiona’s head.
I quickly scanned the hovercrafts, found the source of the missile, aimed, and fired. My bullet sparked off the launcher and the soldier wielding it ducked behind the armored wall of the hovercraft. Merrick and the others started running again. I unloaded bullets toward the same spot and didn’t let up until my gun clicked, empty.
“Shade! The missile launcher!” I pointed.
Shade kept the goon down with his second Grayhawk until the others made it to the ship. I threw my empty gun behind me and reached for Fiona. She clambered up while Shade covered Jax and Merrick. Merrick half lifted Jax inside and then leaped up after him. The huge door on his back forced Shade and me away from the opening. Without turning, Merrick slapped his palm down on the door control. The panels slid shut, and everything went totally silent. For a moment, my own heartbeat was the loudest thing in the air lock. Then I sprang into action.
“Let’s go! Shade, get to your cruiser and power up. Jax, you’re Captain of the Endeavor until I get back. Merrick, you’re the navigator.”
“Go. I’ll catch up.” Merrick went to work on the buckles keeping the door on his back.
We turned and ran. A moment later, I heard the heavy panel drop and the safety door to the air lock close behind Merrick. He caught up in a flash.
“I have my cruiser,” he said. “I’ll help fight them off so the Endeavor can get out. I’ll stick with you guys instead.”
“No.” I nixed Merrick’s idea for several reasons, including one I couldn’t admit to. “Fiona can’t fly or navigate, and Jax can’t do it alone.” He’d just been electrocuted and hit over the head. The Endeavor needed a backup pilot, and Fiona wasn’t it.
“The ship needs a recharge on the way to Mooncamp 1.” Shade slid a small square detonator box from his cargo-pants pocket as he ran. “The Outer Zones couldn’t be farther from here, and we used a lot of energy to get to Korabon fast.”
I’d planned on the Endeavor sticking around here for a few days to recharge. Guess not.
“Make it a two-jump journey.” I turned to Jax. “What’s your plan, partner?”
“We’ll go to Maylewatch,” he answered. “Stay in high orbit and recharge from their sun. When the core’s up to full power again, we’ll head to the DT Mooncamps.”
I nodded. “Sounds good.” Maylewatch was about halfway there, quiet and out of the way, and had a nice bright sun to shine on our solar panels. “Like Shade said before, we can all lie low for a couple of days and then meet on day three to finally drop that food off.” We’d been carting a huge haul around for weeks—since before I found the enhancers or met Shade.
Jax confirmed with a bob of his chin. I watched him out of the corner of my eye, looking for signs of concussion or weakness. “Might as well feed some people before we all die trying to break into Starbase 12,” he said.
I snorted. Gallows humor was still humor, and Jax was holding up.
Shade veered toward the main cargo hold and his cruiser, his tread light and fast. There were both agility and danger in every step he took. I saw it in the way his mind worked, too. It made me glad he was on my side now.
I turned right with the others and ran toward the bridge. I had to make sure they were all set and say goodbye to Bonk.
The Endeavor quaked. Jax and I looked at each other. “Bullets can’t do that.”
Jax shook his head. “But those fighter cruisers can.”
They’d looked about double the size of Shade’s star cruiser. We’d be more maneuverable, but their phasers would pack twice the punch.
“Brace yourselves,” Shade said over the coms. “I’m detonating some of the charges. It’ll give us a smoke screen and keep them back.”
A second later, a roar erupted and the whole platform shook. Even with Shade’s warning, I nearly lost my footing and banged hard against the wall. The rumble quieted. The Endeavor didn’t shudder again.
We burst onto the bridge. A wary Bonk ran like a streak from under my console and jumped on me. I caught him midair and screeched to a halt, holding him against my chest. He climbed higher, his claws pricking my neck. Whiskers tickled my jaw. He didn’t purr, and his ears lay flat. Bonk hated loud noises, and I was pretty sure shaking the whole damn ship didn’t help.
I dug little cat nails out of my neck and bent to deposit Bonk on Jax’s old, crumpled-up sweater. He sat. His tail swished, and greenish-yellow eyes accused me of setting him down unfairly and way too fast.
“I gotta go, Bonk. You take care of my people.” I kissed his gray-and-black-striped head and rubbed my fingers under his chin just enough to get him to angle up and give me better access. “Eat. Play. Live.” I gave him a final pat. “I’ll be back.”
“Take him with you.” Jax looked over his shoulder as he set himself up at my console. He flipped switches, opening the main cargo bay. I had to book it to Shade’s cruiser. We’d fly out and create a distraction while the Endeavor got away.
“No time to get his stuff.” I popped up and gave Jax a fierce hug, whether he wanted it or not. “Take care of him, partner.”
Jax squeezed me back. “He’ll have food and water. I might even let him sleep on my pillow.”
That’s it! I pulled back, my eyes widening. “You need a pet, Jax.”
“Bonk’s enough.” He shooed me toward the door, shaking his head.
I shuffled backward, my heart firmly planted on the bridge. Was I really about to leave the Endeavor? Watch her fly off? “His litter’s in my closet.”
“I know.” Jax turned back to the controls when the whole ship trembled again. I shifted my balance. The Dark Watch was back at it with guns we couldn’t ignore.
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