“Powerful? That’s the truth.” William could attest to that. He and Angelica shared a look, but he could tell she still didn’t harbor any bad feelings from that one incident. She patted his knee gently.
“Will this device you plan to use on me help with that also? I don’t want to have to forever avoid flora in the future.”
“Yes. The genetically-modified scent of the flowers here is somehow connected to the implant in your head, but not to worry, it’s a diabolical creation of the Forbidden Zone, and not a part of any regular flora. Also, the device Sapphire is about to use disables the implant and any subroutines connected. This district doesn’t have the same issues with invasion of personal freedoms or the heinous practice of hidden aroma drugs enabling the enslavement of those caught on this side of the border.”
Angelica placed her hand on his forearm. “Guess I should have been curtsying as I said, ‘Your Majesty,’ all this time, after all.” He returned her smile of reassurance, but again mentally distanced himself in the wake of the only memory he held from before his time here.
A sunset wedding in a castle, dancing with a beautiful bride.
Sapphire rummaged around in the backpack, and Vidarr went back to his co-pilot duties.
The device she pulled out of the pack looked like a pair of dark glasses to shield against the sun except there were huge, distended telescope-like pieces around the rims. She placed the ear pieces on his head, and looking through the eye holes was just black.
“You’ll need to keep your eyes open. There will be a quick, bright, and blinding flash of light. But it will disable what they planted in your head for pain control. And it would be best if you could sleep for a time directly afterward.”
William dutifully stared in the darkness of the glasses, barely noticing the intense radiance of the device’s beam into his head as he tried to put himself back into his only memory. Once the treatment was over, Angelica helped him get comfortable so he could sleep.
The final overwhelming questions blaring in his head before he dozed off involved that bride in his memory. If Angelica’s tattooed lover was real, it was likely his dream bride was also real.
But who was the she?
Some part of him buried deep sparked to life and reminded him that the bride he danced with shared a deep-seated connection to him. For as much as William wished he wasn’t a married man, the feeling he got when he thought of the woman in his dreams made that wishful thought dim drastically. The bride was significant to him. Very significant. He knew she was.
Another wicked thought drifted in to his brain. If this bride of his dreams was indeed his wife, how terribly she would hate him once he told her that he would rather have a life with Angelica and Jeremy instead of with her?
* * * *
Jeremy had never been so delighted to get away from a planet as he was to leave Lord Harcourt’s dusty dominion. Especially since he knew his lordship likely expected them to return to his Den of Iniquity at any time begging to be reinstated into his Den or Arena.
He wondered how long the man would wait before figuring out that they weren’t coming back. The scouts he sent out tomorrow would find nothing. Not even if they followed the trail he’d left them. He’d certainly decide they’d died out in the terrain elsewhere and never that they’d escaped in a hidden shuttle. Unless Bergeron had already spilled the beans. No matter.
He and Vidarr worked quickly doing only the barest necessity for the startup prep before takeoff. He personally checked the cloaking device three times to ensure no one would see them liftoff from the planet. Jeremy almost laughed joyously out loud when the engines engaged. Instead, he took a dignified and extremely gratified breath, glancing over one shoulder, so grateful that he’d found Angelica and that they were about to be free.
He’d been here less than twenty-four hours and it had been way too long.
The thrusters beneath the craft pushed them straight up until he engaged the engines. “And away we go,” he said, jetting the shuttle toward the pre-arranged coordinates twenty klicks on the other side of the Forbidden Zone, where he expected the Stargazer to be waiting for them. The trip should take six hours, give or take.
Drew had been instructed to remain close to the border until the shuttle’s return, or for five days, whatever came first. They were well within the window, and Jeremy expected his small crew would be waiting eagerly for their return. Drew would give him a knowing look once they boarded with Bergeron cuffed and unconscious. His second-in-command had been right about his gut feeling. He pictured Drew gleefully hauling the traitorous engineer off to the small detention area they had onboard the Stargazer. This also gave him joy. He got the girl and the villain in the same run.
Jeremy wished he could send a message ahead to expect them and an estimated time of arrival, however, he’d have to uncloak, and that just wouldn’t work in this instance.
Not until they were safely over the border and far away from the Forbidden Zone.
William had dozed off sitting up after the treatment, but Angelica only rested quietly with her eyes focused on the front of the shuttle. She was currently seated behind Vidarr’s chair, watching him pilot the ship. He knew she’d rather be the one in the pilot’s seat regardless of how much pain she was in. She must truly be hurting to forfeit that pleasure.
Bergeron was racking up demerits in Jeremy’s revenge book, like a card player accumulating chips during a championship match. Jeremy planned to ensure that he never saw the light of day ever again. No deals, but hard penal colony time for his numerous crimes.
Two hours into the flight, Vidarr pointed at the onboard fuel gauge. “That’s not correct, is it?”
Jeremy looked at where he pointed. The fuel was limited on a shuttle, as the craft was typically only used for short trips. They’d used a fourth of their fuel tank’s remaining capacity just jettisoning out of the planet’s orbit. Jeremy hadn’t expected to be bringing along so many people, but he’d planned for it anyway, on the off chance any others needed rescuing with Angelica.
“Probably,” he said, but was unconcerned.
He pointed at the trajectory map between them, showing where they’d taken off from and how far to their destination. The computer showed a fuel deficit. “Doesn’t this say we’re not going to make it to our destination? I know I’ve been away for a while, but aren’t you worried that we’ll run out of fuel before we reach the rendezvous point?”
“That would be true, however, I calculated that we’d need extra fuel to return to the Stargazer, so I ordered four additional fuel cells to be stored in the supply lockers behind Bergeron’s limp body. That will be more than enough.”
Angelica, still looking like she was in extreme pain, reached across and put a hand on his shoulder. “Who did you order to put the fuel cells in the locker?”
Jeremy’s entire body went rigid as he recalled the unsettling answer to that question. “Fuck,” he whispered angrily, wishing he’d taken the time to check it himself before they departed the planet. “Bergeron was supposed to do it.”
She winced as she nodded. “We’d better check then. I don’t think he planned an exit from District Six.”
Angelica rose, squinting like her head hurt worse after Sapphire’s treatment to cure her.
“We only need two additional cells to make it across the border,” Jeremy said, watching her. Maybe only one if we jettison the cloaking apparatus somewhere along the way. Which would only work if there weren’t any Slaver ships close by.
Once at the back of the shuttle, she whipped open the fuel cell locker doors. Her ashen expression of dismay and head-to-toes body slump was all he needed to understand that Bergeron was a worse fucking traitor than he’d initially suspected.
“And yet, the locker is empty,” she said quietly, but he heard her all the same.
“How far can we make it?” Vidarr asked.
“Nowhere near the Forbidden Zone border,” Jeremy said, his mind racing to solve this problem. A
ny frustrating way he calculated it, they needed at least one more fuel cell, and two would be better, to make it safely out of District Six territory. “Or we could de-cloak the shuttle close to the border, and hope we don’t get caught.”
Vidarr pointed to the proximity chart, and the line representing the border. There were three, no four blips representing Slaver Border Control capture ships on this side of the Forbidden Zone line. “And those dots on the chart?” he asked. “Won’t they see us if we de-cloak?”
Jeremy pushed out a sigh. “Yes. And likely they will.”
“Can their ships out run our shuttle without the cloaking device?”
He repeated the exact same words. “Yes. And likely they will.”
Seated behind him, Sapphire scooted forward in her chair, asking, “What are we going to do?”
Vidarr sat up straighter. “Can we jettison extra weight, not associated with the cloaking apparatus?”
Jeremy shook his head. “Not enough. Besides, the shuttle doesn’t have the capacity to jettison anything but fuel.” He glanced over at Vidarr. His head was turned looking over one shoulder. Jeremy read his mind.
“Shoving Bergeron out the airlock won’t help. And truthfully, we don’t have the ability to do it anyway without the rest of us being sucked into space with him.”
“If we speed up, and once the engines cut out, could we possibly drift over the edge of the border…eventually?”
“Possible, but honestly it’s too chancy with the traffic along the border. Without power or propulsion, we also lose guidance. And eventually our cloak. And then finally life support. We’d drift over the line, but likely none of us would survive.”
Vidarr pushed out a breath. “Anyone else have any ideas, good, bad, or otherwise?”
Angelica walked slowly forward until she kneeled between the pilot and co-pilot seats. She pointed to a place on the map in the opposite direction of where they were headed. “Can we make it to this location with the fuel we have?”
Jeremy mentally calculated the distance with the fuel remaining and said, “Yes. Barely. We’ll be on fumes.”
“But we won’t have to de-cloak or lose any function, right?”
He nodded. “Right.”
“Do it,” she said. “Take us there.” He sent her a puzzled look, but then a flash of inspiration about why she’d ever send them into the middle of nowhere filtered into his brain. Excellent. “I love you, Angelica,” he said reverently, knowing exactly what she’d done.
Vidarr sent a worried gaze to Jeremy. He was unsure if his co-pilot was concerned that Jeremy would do it or that he wouldn’t.
“You understand that’s the opposite direction of the border, do you not?” Vidarr asked Angelica.
“Yes,” she said confidently. She stared out the shuttle’s front view and recited the coordinates again.
“It’ll be fine.” Jeremy plugged the numbers carefully into the shuttle’s navigation system. Vidarr put a hand on his forearm before he pushed the button to change course. “You both understand that this will put us further into District Six territory.”
“Yes,” they both said in unison.
“And you aren’t even going to ask her why?”
Jeremy grinned. “Nope. I trust her.”
“With directions?”
“With everything.”
“Besides,” Angelica said with a laugh. “He’s already figured out where we’re going and what will be waiting for us when we get there.”
Vidarr smiled, shook his head and removed his hand. “I guess it’s beyond foolish of me to ask. I’m only the co-pilot after all.”
Angelica laughed and told him what Jeremy had figured out on his own.
“My ship the Mirage is hidden at those coordinates.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Angelica wanted to kiss Jeremy. One for trusting her and two for instantly figuring out why she was leading them out into the middle of nowhere District Six territory without needing a detailed play-by-play explanation.
“I left it cloaked and hidden there, so no one would steal it.” Angelica did a secret dance of joy. She’d wanted to get her ship back since the moment she remembered where it was, but she never would have risked a trip across the Forbidden Zone to retrieve it.
Vidarr asked. “How will you de-cloak the ship so we can board it? For that matter, how will we be able to find it at all in the first place, if it’s still cloaked and hidden from view.”
Jeremy pointed to a console. “I have one answer for both of your queries. All of the Dalton Prime ships are linked together for emergency operation. I just have to send out a signal from this craft, and it will show up on our radar. We can also signal for the back hangar to open for us using the same private connection. We’ll fly right inside the shuttle bay. Any other ship wouldn’t see it.”
Angelica added, “Even if we de-cloak for a little bit and anyone catches a blip on their long-range radar, they won’t see it for long and it will register as a space rock or something.”
“Also, the Mirage can definitely outrun the Slaver’s ships even if we do have to de-cloak for some reason.” There were other issues to work through once they bordered the Mirage, since it had been sabotaged, but they’d deal with them upon arrival. If we can just make it there.
Jeremy punched the coordinates in and they circled around, heading in the opposite direction of their previous trajectory and away from the border.
“How did you know the Mirage had cloak capability?” Angelica asked Jeremy.
“Gray told me before I left for this trip. It’s not noted in any of the specs or blueprints. The only time you’d ever find it out is if you engaged the captain’s override code.”
“Yes. That’s exactly how I found out. I guess Gray wanted his ship back.”
“He wanted you found first and foremost. Locating the Mirage was a secondary mission parameter.”
She nodded, watching the fuel gauge more closely than Jeremy and Vidarr did. At less than five percent of fuel remaining an ugly warning sound startled everyone in the ship, save William, who slept hard after Sapphire’s treatment, and a still-unconscious Bergeron.
“How far?” she asked when the noise was silenced.
“Thirty klicks,” Jeremy said. “Give or take.”
“At twenty klicks, we should send out a shuttle-to-ship ping just to make sure of the exact location, okay?”
“Okay,” he said with a grin. He already knew. She knew he did. But Angelica wasn’t used to being in the backseat, so to speak. Her head still throbbed a steady rhythm, but getting the chance to retrieve the Mirage gave her focus and helped sideline the pain.
She took an unguarded moment to stare at Jeremy’s beautiful profile. The shadow of a day’s whiskers along his jaw gave him a rogue-like sexy as hell look.
Way before this chaos, she used to wake up to see him watching her as she slept. His gaze wasn’t always on her face, sometimes he stared down her body as if in awe. Often his profile—as his gaze traversed the length of her body—was the first thing she saw when her eyes opened to greet the day.
Not a bad view, then or now.
He turned and caught her staring. Not looking away, he asked, “How’s your head?”
“Still attached, I think.” Barely. The pounding beat of pain had lessened to a degree, but she couldn’t sleep like Will currently was. The device Sapphire had used on him sapped his strength. Probably just as well, he didn’t need to witness the panic and chaos about to set in with the rest of the conscious crew.
The fuel gauge hit four percent. “Are we going to have enough fuel, do you think?” Vidarr asked aloud the question on the tip of everyone’s lips.
“Sure,” Jeremy said, and immediately slowed the speed of the shuttle in half. “We should still have easily almost one whole percent left once we dock.” Please let us find the ship in time to dock.
At twenty klicks, Jeremy sent a ping in a three hundred and sixty degree range around the shuttle
searching for the exact location of the Mirage. It was possible it had drifted slightly, although she’d set the stabilizers. After ten seconds nothing registered.
He waited until they were fifteen klicks away from her coordinates and repeated the ping in all directions. No signal back. Nothing in the area.
Then another ping at ten klicks.
Then another at five klicks.
A ten second wait yielded nothing. Angelica panicked at the five klick failure. She reviewed the memorized coordinates in her head again. A rush of frustrated breath came through her lips. Jeremy put a hand on her knee, patted her twice, and sent out another ping.
Ten seconds went by.
Nothing on radar.
Fifteen seconds.
Nothing.
The fuel gauge dropped to three percent, and a red light started flashing urgently. Vidarr pushed a button on the console, and the flashing stopped.
Jeremy’s hand moved toward the ping button yet again, but before he touched it…a faint blip showed up on the radar panel in the northwest quadrant of where they were. Jeremy slowed the craft again, and turned to a northwest heading.
Another ping.
Another stronger blip came up on screen only two klicks away. They should be able to see the ship out the forward view screen, but apparently the cloaking device was still operational.
Jeremy sent a coded command signal to link with the Mirage. Angelica didn’t breathe until the remotely operated connection came up on his console. She leaned over his shoulder and recited her captain’s override pass code so he could input it, sending the control authority for the back hanger of the ship to open.
As if they’d stumbled upon another dimension opening up against the backdrop of stars, the hanger door of the Mirage appeared like a three-sided square of blue low light out in the middle of nowhere in space. Jeremy banked their shuttle into a wide arc, moving ahead at a good clip as the door continued to open.
Sexual Memory [Dark Colony 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 26