Rising Tides

by Rebecca Royce

  “Fuck, listen to me, Amber.”

  I shook my head. “No, you listen to me, you two, and Shane if he can hear me. I love you more than anything. The girls will love you that way, too. You’re coming home. You promised me. All three of you did. So you hold on. They have a plan to find you. And if you can’t help, then you don’t help. You just stay as you are and hold on.”

  “Amber,” Amari’s voice broke which almost destroyed me. “I fucking love you. I’m sorry. I’m always failing. I did promise we’d come home. We’ll hold on as long as we can. I promise you that. There’s nothing I want more than to just be home with you.”

  I sucked in my tears and tried to send just love instead. “Your cousin cheats at cards. I’m convinced.”

  Hunter laughed. “He does.”

  This was better. This was what they needed to hold onto. “You should have seen the Sandlers coming back. It was such a scene. They had a huge fight because they couldn’t find Paloma. I had to manage that. Then everyone got drunk. Well, not me. I’m obviously not drinking. And Hunter, your design worked. The babies are safe inside of me with the machine constantly fixing it from the inside out.”

  “Inside of you?” Hunter’s voice lightened. “Really? I didn’t even think of that. Who converted my design? I need to thank him.”

  “Ari and Lewis. Guys, the water is fine.” Or it was before I left.

  “Shit,” Amari’s voice was low. “The ticking is louder, saying the elevator is coming. Amber, we need to cut this off. I don’t want them to know we can do this. I love you.”

  Hunter sighed. “I hate the ticking on this ship. Yes, love you. And Shane loves you, too.”

  My energy flew back into me. Dizziness wafted through me, and I thought I might faint. I pulled my knees to my forehead. Okay. I had information to give over to Kelton and Melissa. I’d lied to them, and I didn’t feel bad about it. Something was wrong with Shane. He’d been awake, and he’d passed out. He would never have done that, never not spoken to me if he could have stayed awake. We were all covering up what would be the most concerning.

  Nothing would break Amari short of something happening to his brothers. Or me. I pulled myself up and sat on my bed. I wasn’t making it to the door. This energy thing took a lot out of me. I grabbed my wrist, poking the chip that would let me communicate with others on Malice.

  “Brenden, I need help.”

  The door opened instantly. I should have known he’d been outside the whole time. Nothing had changed just because we were on the ship. He was letting me think I got to wander by myself but he was there.

  “Amber?” He walked straight to me. “What’s wrong?”

  “I talked to them and now I’m dizzy. Hand me my scanner. It’s over next to the bed.”

  The head of my Z did as I asked. I quickly scanned myself. Dane was here. He’d help if I needed it. All of the numbers were good. The babies were good. This was just overwhelming exhaustion from whatever had taken place.

  “I’m going to nap.” I handed him the scanner. “I don’t have a choice. Between the pregnancy and this, I’m done. Listen, tell Kelton and Melissa the Chens are being tortured. They didn’t say it, but I can tell. Shane is injured. They’re in constant movement. That’s all I could tell.”

  Brenden nodded. “Right away. Rest. I don’t want them to kill me when we get them back.

  I crawled to the center of the bed, face planting into my pillow.

  A hand touched my shoulder, and I darted awake. Melissa sat down on the edge of my bed. “I’m sorry. I remember the exhaustion you’re under. I did it once with twins, too.” She stroked my hair. “I keep thinking we should get in touch with your mother, but if you’d wanted that you’d have done it.”

  It was nice to have her here. I was sure she hadn’t come in to offer me comfort, but I’d take it for a minute if she was doling out babying.

  “I don’t want to talk to her. I know Paloma made some kind of peace with her, but I don’t want to see her. Maybe ever again. I’m sorry if that makes me… hard.”

  She shook her head. “I am the last person to tell anyone how to treat their parents. You have plenty of reasons to want to be done. Well, we’ve found Artemis, and we are going to try to get Blaze’s attention. I thought you might want to be here for this.”

  I sat up. “I do. Thanks. This is Blaze. So let me ask you, do you think there’s any chance Blaze—the Super Soldier and master strategist—is not fully aware that our ship is here?”

  She grinned. “Oh, he knows. We just need him to talk to us. That is frequently the hardest part. If he ignores us and won’t take our messages, we might have to fire.”

  They were going to fire on Blaze? Yes, I had to get up. Not that I could do anything, but I didn’t want to be lying in my room asleep if we suddenly got into a battle with a Super Soldier, all of us in old ships that had once been created together.

  “Who wants to talk?” C.J. spun around in his chair. “Who knows Blaze best? Is it you, M?”

  “I know him but not best. He dealt much more with Amari than me, which was fine by me because other than my son-in-law, I find the Super Soldiers to be really scary, if I’m being honest.”

  I waved my hand at her in dismissal. “Look at Rohan and Canyon. They’re all just looking for love like the rest of us, to feel human, to feel… wanted, purposeful. Normal.”

  She laughed. “That may be true, but I’m here to tell you the time it takes to get them to the point where they can even speak to women is scary. The three on that ship are not there yet.”

  “Does it have to be Blaze? I know Wade pretty well.”

  C.J. pointed at the control. “Go say hi. See if they answer.”

  I touched the talk button. It was important to do new things all the time. Someone had told me that. This was the very first time I’d hit a button and spoke into the vastness of space to hope a hidden ship answered.

  It was more than slightly intimidating.

  “Hi, Artemis, this is Amber Chen. Hi. I hope you can hear me. We’re here to talk. I know you have reason to be suspicious, but I think almost all of you know me and…”

  Malice’s screen turned on. Blaze stood there, his arms crossed over his chest. “Stop. Secure channel now.”

  Melissa answered him. “We don’t know your channels. We’ve been trying.”

  “Where is Amari? He knows them.” He hit some numbers and a secure channel appeared on Melissa’s tablet. I didn’t want to know how he knew how to do that. She entered the channel and the conversation continued.

  “That’s why we’re here. They have my husbands.”

  His face fell. “Come aboard.”

  The screen faded. I looked at Melissa. “I guess we’re going aboard.”

  “It would seem that way.”

  There had been something in Blaze’s expression when I said Amari was missing. He’d cared. Those Super Soldiers might not be so far from ready to join society as she thought. At the end of the day, what mattered was how we cared about each other.

  I didn’t know why I was able to take a deep breath when we boarded Artemis. Malice had been a great ship, done just what we needed, but somehow Artemis just felt better to me. Maybe because in her walls I’d found my husbands again—well, really for the first time. It was as though nothing bad could happen there.

  In the conference room, Melissa faltered and laughed. “Someone painted?”

  “Kellan can’t stand disorder. The walls peeling… bothered him.” Blaze nodded toward the other Super Soldier. “He fixed it. So Amari is missing.”

  We’d been wrong when we thought there were three Super Soldiers on the ship. There were four. Blaze. Anders. Kellan. Corbin. All four of them. They were often together, although Blaze was always in charge. Trenton joined us in the room, and I spoke. I still hadn’t seen Wade.

  “It’s not just Amari. Shane. Hunter, too. I’ve communicated with them.” I wasn’t going to elaborate. Next to me, Kelton nodded slightly. He agreed.
We were keeping my abilities to myself. For now, anyway. “We are looking to draw Evander out.”

  “Oh, I see.” Anders looked between us. “You want us to expose ourselves to Evander.”

  I nodded. “We do.”

  “Evander wants this woman. They want her so much they are chasing us through the galaxy. There is every chance they are out there right now. They appear out of nowhere. They have some sort of… cloak. I like your husbands very much. However, I care a great deal more that Evander not get whoever it is they want. They aren’t interested in her just because she’s beautiful. Or because she’d bring a lot of money on a marriage mart. Any female would do that on the other side of the galaxy; there are so few left.” He shook his head. “There is something about Sienna. The more any of us spend time around her unconscious form, the more we are certain of it. Wade has been the most affected.”

  I cleared my throat. “Affected how?”

  “When we’re done here, you should go see him. Judge for yourself. He’s functioning fine. A very good doctor, but it’s obvious that the more time in her presence he gets, the more his situation increases. I have no answer for it.”

  I was interested in this but not until we settled this with Blaze. “What if we changed ships? You took Sienna and went onto Malice. We stayed here. Exposed ourselves to Evander. She’s not at risk and you have more of an edge because now they don’t know what ship you’re on.”

  Corbin looked at Blaze. “That’s not a bad idea.”

  Trenton cleared his throat. “There’s a hit out, so to speak, on Artemis. There isn’t one on Malice. I could take Malice to any space station and hide us. Or planet. I like Amber’s plan.”

  I’d never met Trenton before recently, but he was Ari’s friend. I could see why. They both looked like they’d been through hell and come out the other side beaten up but still standing. What was his story? Not like I had time to ask. Maybe later.

  “Then that is what we do.” Blaze nodded. “We’ll switch…”

  An alarm sounded and everyone spun around. Trenton held up a tablet. “Evander is here.”

  Blaze nodded. “It’s the big ship. They have some system that allows them to fog up space. It was awful. But we got away.”

  “We’re familiar with it,” Melissa spoke through clenched teeth.

  “Not again,” C.J. jumped up. “Cooper.”

  Melissa’s quietest husband rushed to the tablet. We were on Artemis. What was he going to do? “I can control Malice from here. Helps that we’re all not on that ship.”

  I was enormously grateful to have left my cat at home. Blaze hit a button and Cooper’s tablet displayed on the screen in front of us. Malice spun in a circle before it pushed out a black smoke I’d never seen before.

  ‘What’s happening?”

  “This is what Hunter did,” Cooper supplied without looking up. “This is how you battle it.”

  Anders tilted his head. “Fascinating.”

  Next to the main ship, five small ships appeared. They were old, sort of decrepit looking. “What are those?”

  Melissa scowled. “They keep their cleanup crews on those. They don’t care if they live or die. They won’t fire, and we leave them alone. If we disable the main ship they just kind of float dead in the air. Huge problem when planning during battles. It was Amari who figured out to leave them alone. Waste of resources to bother with them.”

  It sounded like Amari had figured out how to think like Evander did. That didn’t surprise me in the least.

  “We go on that ship.” Kelton turned around. “They’ll know where the Chens are. We’re disabling it. Come on. We go on.”

  “Good thought.” Blaze grabbed a weapon and strapped it to his waist. “Let’s do this.”

  I didn’t have a thing to say. Everyone was leaving the ship except Brenden and Matt. My head Z shook his head at me. “Don’t. Too much of a risk for you. Stop and think about it. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”

  He was right. “Okay. I’ll stay here and see what is going on with Wade.”

  Anxiety fueled my steps. We might have been getting the answers we needed right now. Or the part of me that was hopeful somehow wondered if they were on that ship. Probably not. But maybe.

  Wade stared out the window at the ship we were getting ready to board. He turned to look at me. “Amber. I’m so glad to see you.”

  He had dark circles under his eyes. I wanted to scan him immediately. What happened here?

  “Are you okay?”

  Wade shook his head. “I don’t know, actually.”

  “Blaze indicated that something might be very wrong. He thought it might be because of Sienna. Talk to me. I need the distraction. Let me check you out.”

  Wade pointed at the med machine. “Sienna is in there. I took her out of cryogenic sleep but the machine is keeping her under because she has the flu. GH231-01 flu.”

  I shuddered. The Gs were all fatal. We couldn’t cure them, not one, not ever. I walked over to look down at her. “Do you think you’ve somehow caught the flu?”

  “No. I feel fine.”

  I put my hand on his forehead. He didn’t feel warm. “Something is wrong with you, Wade. That’s my medical opinion without having run a scan.”

  “I can’t sleep, Amber.”

  That was fixable. I put my hands on my hips. “Shall I prescribe you something?”

  “No.” He walked over and looked down at Sienna. “I’m sure I could sleep if I let myself.”

  This was getting more and more bizarre. It had absolutely taken my mind off the fact that everyone had invaded an Evander ship.

  Amber…

  A female voice swept through my mind, and I jumped. That wasn’t my voice, and it wasn’t my husbands. What in the hell was that?

  I spun around and Wade pointed at me. “You heard her.”

  Okay. My heart was in my throat. “I heard something.”

  He shook his head fast. “You heard it. I know you did.”

  I pointed at the unconscious woman. “Was that Sienna? How was that Sienna?”

  “I don’t know. She talks to me. In my head.” He pointed to his forehead. “The others can’t hear her. They don’t. They’ve all gotten very protective of her. But I was the only lunatic hearing voices until you just did. You did.”

  I nodded. “I did. I heard her voice.”

  He sagged. “I thought I was going to have to go away somewhere, but I don’t want to leave her. Why don’t I want to leave her? She’s a patient. I’ve had thousands of patients. I’ve been a doctor since I was twenty. I treated patients while Evander locked me away. I don’t get attached. Maybe I don’t have a heart.”

  He grabbed his head. “She says I have a heart.”

  “Maybe we need to step away.” I took his hand. “She’s okay. We’re going to leave her for a minute or two. We’re going to go out in the hall.”

  The ships outside turned, and as they did, I twisted to look at them through the window in the hall. Wade covered his eyes with his hands. “There have never been any reputable examples of psychic ability recorded in human history. It doesn’t exist.”

  “It does, Wade.” I had an example of it in my own life. “I’ve seen it, and I’m not easily swayed. I won’t get into the details.”

  He leaned against the wall. “This is why they want her. I bet she’s recordable. They want her to be some kind of weapon. I could ask her, but I don’t dare. I won’t really talk to her. I don’t answer. She talks, hears me if I say things, but I don’t talk to her. That’s too far. I won’t. She can talk in my head, and she’s dying. Is it because of the flu?”

  “Wade… I…”

  My tablet dinged, and I turned it on for a message from Melissa. “We’re in a battle we’re winning. So far no signs of the Chens.”

  A loud ticking noise assaulted my ears. “What is that sound?”

  “The cleaning ships. They’re attached via speaker. It’s obnoxious. A terrible sound. Hold steady, Ambe
r. If there’s something to find we’ll find it.”

  She disconnected. A ticking noise. Tic. Tic. Tic. Fuck, that was what my husbands had said. I tried Melissa back, but I got nothing. They were in a battle.

  “What happens to the ships, the cleaning ships, if the big one fails?” I stormed toward the docking bay without even thinking.

  “Where are you going?” Wade called after me.

  I didn’t answer him, grabbing onto Brenden’s arm when he caught up with me. “They’re on one of those ships. The ticking. They told me about the ticking. They’re on there. We have to go find them. I’m worried about it. They’re… I can’t explain it. Intuition. Maybe I’m fucking psychic. We have to go.”

  Brenden touched his ear. “I can’t get anyone on the line. Are you sure?”

  “How can I be sure? I’ll never be sure. But somehow I know. Brenden, we have to go.”

  He held up his hands. “Come on. You and me. I’ll keep calling the others. We’ll get through. They’ll meet us there. This is insanity. They’re going to kill me.” He wasn’t talking to me anymore. “I’m supposed to guard you but I never can. You throw yourself into danger. You never stop. And I respect every decision you make.”

  Matt ran up next to us. “Where are we going?”

  “The cleanup ships. Get your fiancé on the line. I can’t reach him.”

  I swung around. “This is not important right now, but I knew it.”

  Matt touched his ear. “Too much interference. We’re going to the broken down ships.”

  We were. If I was wrong, I’d never insist anyone had to do anything again. I’d sit still and keep quiet, letting the experts run this. My body buzzed. They were close to me. My energy called out to theirs. I sent them love. I wasn’t meditating, but it felt like I could.

  The smallest love came back. One of them. Hunter. The others had faded. This was bad. “Hurry, Brenden. Get us there fast.”