by Paige Tyler
* * * * *
She tried to find a good time to slip in and talk to Rade, but the man never seemed to stay in one place long enough for her to get a word in. Probably because he thought she was trying to corner him so she could complain some more. She wasn’t surprised when he made himself unavailable.
Without even realizing it, Laken found herself wandering toward the mess two hours later. She knew she wouldn’t be welcome at the meeting, so she just stood off to one side by the door, hidden from view of anyone inside the room as she listened in on their conversation.
“Can you show someone how to do it?” Rade asked.
Silence met his query for a moment. It was followed by a sigh, then Dev’s voice. “Captain, I barely know how to do it myself. I can follow the steps Laken showed me, but I don’t really understand what I’m doing. If the Federation has changed the codes again, then everyone on the shuttle is screwed. I’ll go and do the best I can, but I’m not guaranteeing anything. Like I said, it would be better if Laken went along and handled the codes like she did back on Fensor.”
Laken chewed on her lower lip. Fensor was the planet where the crew had run into all those problems and Jorn had gotten shot. Dev was talking about the cloaking algorithm she had generated.
“Bringing Laken is out of the question,” Rade said. “You can handle this. I have faith in you.”
Another sigh from Dev. “Captain, I appreciate your confidence in me, but I don’t think you realize how big a risk you’re taking by putting all of this on me. I’ve seen Laken do it one time and I barely understood half of what she was doing. If we’re halfway to the planet and we run into a problem, I’m not sure I’d know what to do about it.”
“Well, you’ll have to handle it because we don’t have another option,” Rade said.
Before she even realized the implications of what she was doing, Laken stepped into the room. “Yes, you do. I’ll go with you instead of Dev. I can modify the cloaking algorithms if anything changes.”
Rade looked at her in surprise, as did the rest of the crew. She didn’t know if they were more stunned that she’d been eavesdropping, or that she’d volunteered to go with them. Laken could hardly believe she was offering to go with them herself. She had wanted to find a way to make it up to them, though, and this was the best way to do that.
“Absolutely not,” Rade growled. “It’s too dangerous.”
Laken frowned. Rade apparently had no problem putting the whole shuttle crew at risk, but he didn’t want to endanger her? That was ridiculous. “And how dangerous will it be if I don’t go?” she countered. “Dev said it herself. If you’re halfway there and you lose the sensor cloak, you’re screwed.”
Rade opened his mouth to argue, but Dev spoke before he could say anything. “You know she’s right, Captain. She’s not officially part of the crew, but she’s the only one who can do this.”
Laken could tell from the expression on Rade’s face that he wasn’t convinced, but before she could try to persuade him, Kellen spoke.
“I agree with Dev,” the older man said. “Taking Laken with you is your best option.”
Rade was silent as he studied her. “All right. But you do exactly as I tell you. Understood?”
Relieved he had agreed to let her help at all, Laken nodded her head in agreement. As everyone began to file from the room, however, the full realization of what she had just agreed to struck her. She’d just volunteered to be part of a dangerous, clandestine mission to break through a Federation blockade. What the hell was she thinking?
* * * * *
Laken was still a little self-conscious about wearing the snug-fitting breeches and shirt Dev had given her to wear. While she and Dev might be the same height, the other woman didn’t have the same curves Laken had, so the breeches were a little tighter than she would have liked. It wasn’t like she could wear a dress, she told herself as she headed down to the cargo hold.
The rest of the crew was already there and waiting for her. Rade was standing beside the shuttle with Kellen, and he glanced up as she walked over to them. Laken felt herself blush as his smoldering gaze ran over her curve-hugging outfit. It was hard not to think of his hands roaming all over her when he looked at her like that.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” she said. “Dev had some last minute stuff to talk to me about.”
Rade nodded, but said nothing. In the silence, Kellen excused himself, leaving her and Rade alone together. Laken stood there feeling awkward, wanting to apologize to him for the hateful things she had said earlier, but not knowing quite what to say. It was Rade who finally broke the silence.
“Why did you volunteer to come along on this job, Laken?”
Laken had put her long hair back in a loose bun and she tucked a stray strand behind her ear. “Dev told me about the medicine you’re delivering and why it’s so important. It seemed wrong to just stand by and let something like that happen if I can help stop it.”
Rade regarded her thoughtfully for a moment, but before he could reply, Finn poked his head out of the shuttle.
“We’re ready whenever you are, Captain,” the man said.
Rade gestured to the shuttle, indicating to Laken that she should go ahead of him. Smoothing her hands down the front of her breeches, she walked onto the shuttle. Keir, Finn, Jorn and Vance had already taken their seats and were waiting for them. Laken quickly slipped into the empty seat beside Finn while Rade took the one up in the front next to Keir. A moment later, Keir was guiding them through the loading doors and out into space.
Laken nervously kept an eye on the sensor read-outs. The codes she had written up previously still seemed to be working, so they should be able to slip through the Federation’s perimeter without them knowing the shuttle was ever there, but she kept her fingers poised over the keyboard just in case she had to change something at the last moment. Even though everything seemed to be going fine, she was still tense the whole flight down to the planet. She couldn’t help but notice that the rest of the crew was laughing and joking as if they did this every day.
Once they reached the surface, Laken automatically followed the rest of the crew out of the shuttle. Though it was nighttime, she could see that the area where they had landed was heavily wooded. It was also rather hilly, so she couldn’t see very far in any direction. She supposed it was a good place to hide the ship while they delivered the medicine.
Laken walked over to the small personal transport vehicle that she had first seen them use what seemed like a lifetime ago back on Seguu.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Rade asked.
She pivoted around to look at him. “I’m going with you,” she said, as if that should have been obvious.
“Oh no, you’re not,” he said firmly. “I want you to stay here in the shuttle with Keir. I want to make sure you’re someplace safe.”
Laken couldn’t help but frown. There it was again. For someone who was supposed to be a merciless pirate, Rade spent a lot of time worrying about her safety. She looked from the three men climbing into the transport to Keir, then back at Rade. She folded her arms and glared up at him. “Let me get this straight. You think I’ll be safer with Keir and his single weapon than I will be with you four big, strapping men and all of your weapons.” She turned to give Keir an apologetic look. “No offense intended.”
Keir held up his hands. “I completely understand. I’d rather go with them than stay here, too. If the Federation was able to track us, this is exactly where they’ll be coming first.”
Rade’s mouth tightened as if he would argue further, but Vance interrupted. “Captain, we need to get going. We’re already running late.”
Rade scowled at Laken. “Fine. You can come. But only because I don’t have time to argue with you about it. And don’t even think about moving your butt out of this transport unless I tell you to.”
Climbing into the personal transport before Rade could change his mind, Laken settled herself into the seat just as
Vance put the vehicle in gear.
A short, but very bumpy ten minutes later, the transport pulled to a stop in the center of a large clearing. Laken looked around, but couldn’t see anyone. Maybe they were in the wrong place. She was just about to mention that to Rade when several figures walked toward them from the edge of the clearing. The two parties spent several long moments staring at each other until, at a signal from one of the men, another transport entered the clearing.
Laken expected there to be some complex form of negotiation, but not a word was said as both Rade’s crew and the other men began transferring the cases from the back of one vehicle to the other.
Suddenly, from overhead a piercing rumble interrupted the quiet of the night. Startled, Laken glanced up just in time to see three shuttle-sized vehicles zoom past their heads. Moments later, the ground around them began to erupt as explosions rocked the clearing. Around her, chaos ensued as half the people began firing at the shuttles, while the rest hurriedly continued to load the cases of medicine.
“Get the medicine out of here!” Rade shouted above the noise of the explosions. “We’ll cover you.”
Laken barely realized what was happening when a hand grab her arm and yanked her out of the transport. She couldn’t understand why they would abandon their means of escape until a huge blast threw her and Rade to the ground a few moments later. She looked up just in time to see a large fireball engulfing the transport. Rade must have known they would target the vehicle. She wondered how he knew.
She winced as the sound of laser fire filled the air. The shuttles must have dropped off Federation soldiers into the forest beyond the clearing. She’d never actually seen real gunfire before, except on the news-vids, and had never imagine it could be so loud. She didn’t even realize Rade was shouting at her until she felt him grab her shoulder. He thrust a gun into her hand. Though it was a smaller version of the one he held, it still felt huge in her hand.
“Ever used a gun before?” he asked.
Mutely, she shook her head. She’d never even held one before.
“It’s easy,” Rade told her. “Just point and shoot.”
Her heart pounding in her chest, Laken’s hand tightened around the gun as she crouched down beside Rade. “Shoot what?”
“Anyone that’s not us,” he said. “Finn, take Laken with you and get back to the shuttle. I’ll lay down some cover fire to give you time to get away. If I’m not thirty seconds behind you, don’t wait for me.”
Laken had been staring at the gun in confusion, but at his words, she jerked her head up. What did Rade mean by that?
From his crouched position on the ground, Finn gave Rade a frown. “You sure about that?”
“I’m sure,” Rade told him. “Go!”
Finn nodded his head, then took off at a run in the direction of the shuttle, stopping only long enough to grab Laken by the arm. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw Vance and Jorn following behind them as they entered the woods and raced toward the area where they had landed.
Laken was glad she had Finn to guide her. Running as fast as they were through the dark forest had her feeling lost and disoriented, and she knew she never would have been able to find the shuttle on her own. As they ran, she kept glancing over her shoulder for Rade, but she saw no sign of him. Back in the direction of the clearing, she could hear the sound of rapid laser fire.
“Where’s Rade?” she shouted at Finn.
Finn slowed, but only for a moment. “He’s holding them off so we can get back to the shuttle. He’ll catch up to us if he can.”
Laken came to a sudden halt and jerked her arm from Finn’s grasp. Finn and the other two men stopped as well, turning to look questioningly at her.
“What do you mean, if he can?” she demanded.
“The captain knows what he’s doing,” Vance said. “He knew we’d never get the shuttle off the ground if they were on our heels. He’s giving us time to get away.”
Laken’s breath hitched as she realized what Vance had meant by that. “Rade’s not coming, is he?”
The three men were silent for a moment as they all looked at each other.
“He ordered us to go, so we should get moving,” Finn said quietly. “Don’t let his sacrifice be wasted, Laken.”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You’re just going to leave him?”
“He’s the captain and it’s what he wants us to do,” Jorn said.
She shook her head in disbelief. “Well, he’s not my captain.”
Without another word, she turned and ran back in the direction they had come.
“Where are you going?” Finn shouted after her.
“To go get Rade!” she yelled back, not even bothering to slow down.
Laken half expected them to try to stop her, but a quick glance over her shoulder showed that they were already continuing in the direction of the shuttle. She supposed she couldn’t blame them. They were used to doing exactly what Rade had told them to do, and he had clearly never steered them wrong. But she couldn’t leave Rade like that, not after he had rescued her so many times. She had no idea what she was going to do when she got back to the clearing, but she had to try and do something.
She didn’t have to go as far as the clearing to find Rade, however. Following the sounds of laser fire, she found him crouched down behind a large felled tree, shooting into the forest as quickly as his pistol would allow.
Laken didn’t announce herself, but jumped down behind the tree beside him and began firing her laser. She was surprised by the way the weapon bucked in her hand every time she pulled the trigger. As inexperienced as she was with it, she doubted she was hitting anything, but she kept firing anyway.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Rade dart her a look, then do a double take as he realized it was her and not one of his men beside him.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.
“Rescuing you!” she shouted back.
Rade swore. “Get out of here right now and go back to the shuttle!”
Before Laken could answer, a roar came from overhead, and she glanced up to see their shuttle flying past them at full speed. She looked at Rade. “So much for that idea.”
Turning back to the forest, she began firing again, this time even faster. But it quickly became apparent that it was futile. There must have been hundreds of Federation soldiers in the woods around them, and there was nothing either Rade or Laken could do to keep the men from surrounding them. Within moments, the tree they were hiding behind became as much of a trap as it was a form of protection.
Rade grabbed Laken and pushed her to the ground. “Get down.”
Laken would have argued that she couldn’t shoot from that position, but suddenly Rade grunted and she felt his hand slip from her shoulder. She pushed herself up to see him tumble to the ground. She scrambled to his side, her heart in her throat. To her relief, she didn’t see any blood or even a scorch mark anywhere on him, but then she realized she had no idea if a laser even left a mark. He just couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be.
Before she could lower her head to Rade’s chest to see if he was still breathing, Federation soldiers surrounded her from all sides. She lifted her pistol, prepared to defend Rade no matter what, but quickly realized it was hopeless as every man pointed his weapon in her direction.
“Drop the weapon or we’ll shoot you now!” one of the soldiers ordered.
Laken hesitated for a moment, but then realizing she had no choice, she slowly lowered the weapon to the ground. Swallowing hard, she looked at Rade still unmoving beside her. He had to be alive. He just had to be.
Chapter Nine
Rade groaned. Shit. It felt like he’d been kicked in the chest by a morac mule. Stun wounds might not bleed, but they sure hurt like a sonofabitch. Not that he was complaining. At least the Federation soldiers hadn’t killed him. He only prayed they hadn’t hurt Laken.
Concern for the beautiful redhead immediately made him f
orget about his own discomfort. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he started to push himself into a sitting position, only to stop abruptly when he realized something was lying half on top of him. Or more accurately, someone. Laken.
Rade wondered if she had been stunned as well, and was relieved when he felt her stir. A moment later, she jerked upright to gaze down at him.
“Rade, thank God!” She threw her arms around him and burying her face in the curve of his neck. “I was afraid you’d never wake up.”
Laken felt warm and soft against him, and his arms automatically went around her. He held her close for a long moment, relief at finding her unharmed coursing through him. Finally, reluctantly, he set her away from him and sat up to look at her. Several strands of hair had come loose from her bun and she had a smudge of dirt on her cheek, but other than that, she seemed fine.