by Eva Delaney
I pulled back, and Po did too. His hands fidgeted in his lap. I wanted to reach out and hold him but hesitated. Would it mislead him again or confuse him about his feelings for me?
“I never know what to think about stuff like this,” Po whispered.
“I don’t always love well or right, either.” I shook my head. “I’m learning, and you can too.”
“I think you love deeply, but hidden like an underground lake that reaches to the core of the moon.”
I stared at him with my mouth open.
He shrugged. “But what do I know?”
“We can figure it out together,” I said. “How to know which feelings to follow and which to kill.”
“Maybe,” he said, but he was watching Ursa. His gaze fell to his feet. “You’re not angry with me, Cal?”
“Part of me is. Before Orion came back, I would have hated you, but now I understand how easy it is to believe lies. You were young and naive and lonely.”
He smiled sadly at me. “We’ll grow together if…if Orion is okay with it.”
“Po, I—” I trailed off, not knowing what to say. My body felt hot and my stomach roiled, and I couldn’t tell if it was from fear or excitement.
Whatever it was, I had to ignore it until it went away, before I hurt Orion or mislead Polaris more than I already had.
Fuck, did I just make things worse for him? Confuse him further? I tried not to look at Antares or Ursa. They heard all of this, and I couldn’t bear to face their judgment, whatever it was.
Major’s chair creaked as he spun it away from the table of branches and computers. Ms. Sweet Potato loafed on his lap with narrowed eyes.
I sighed in relief at the interruption; I wouldn’t have to answer Polaris right away.
“We found your spy,” Major said.
Chapter 29
Antares, Po, and I watched Ursa’s array of computer screens as she cycled through every image of Agent Winters her trees had captured. There were massive gaps where Ursa’s eyes didn’t reach, both above and below ground.
Antares led the search. I hated giving him the lead, but he knew how to piece together a target’s intentions and movements from clues. I was a pilot—I knew how to hunt prey in the open. Building a profile from bits and pieces was foreign to me.
Antares asked Ursa to follow certain leads, find other angles, check other districts.
“She arrived on a supply ship belonging to the Sigana family,” Antares explained as he studied images on Ursa’s screens.
“Why would she flee the Rigel court to a Supremacy stronghold like Etrea?” I said.
“She was a stowaway,” Antares said, pointing to an image of a silver-haired woman crossing a docking bay.
The woman looked to be in her forties. She wore combat boots and dark green cargo pants like she was military. My gaze fixed on her hair—short and white.
“She jumped on the first ship leaving the Rigel court and it landed here.” Antares pointed to other images, constructing the story. “She took an elevator to the upper level.”
“My eyes didn’t see her on the lower levels again for weeks,” Ursa said.
“Yet, she didn’t leave Etrea,” Antares said. “She re-appeared here a week ago.” He pointed to an image of the same woman in a tree-lined hall and another of her in an underground bar. She sat with a rough man decked out in weapons.
“A bounty hunter?” I said.
“Maybe,” Antares said.
“She went with him voluntarily.” Ursa pulled up a photo of Winters and the same man among the crowds in a tunnel. The date stamp was from last week.
“See there,” Antares said, pointing to a dark-haired man behind them. “He was in the bar too. He’s following Winters.”
My stomach clenched. “Shit. This was just a week ago.” If I hadn’t detoured to Vinera, we would have been here to help Winters before that man started following her. I glanced at Antares, waiting for his accusation, but he kept watching the images.
“They crossed over to the Rora moon,” Ursa said. “Then went above ground a few days ago. My eyes don’t reach there.”
“Any news reports of fights on Rora?” Antares said.
Major shook his head. “I watch the reports all day to keep ahead of trouble. Nothing.”
“Winters and the man with her are still free. Neither look like the type to go quietly,” Antares said.
I looked at Polaris. “You hacked into the cameras before. Can you do it again? Track the surface level on Rora moon?”
He nodded, his expression serious. “I can build a program that will hop from camera to camera, but that will take days.”
The same program he had given Asherah. I shuddered.
“In the meantime, I can access individual cameras directly, but I need to be close to them to do it.”
“You’d be so much help to our cause here, Aris,” Ursa said wistfully. “With my trees and your hacking, we could gather enough intel to liberate Etrea.”
She was right that Polaris could do so much good here. But if he stayed, I’d lose him. That might be for the best. Clearly, I confused him, and Po and I hurt Orion. Still, the thought of losing him made my heart ache.
“Can you get us through the underground to Rora moon without us being tracked or followed?” Antares said.
“I can’t prevent the queen and her assholes from seeing you on cameras. I can tell you where her people currently are.” Ursa flipped through images on the screens, showing us different corridors and pointing out the Supremacy soldiers—including undercover ones she knew by sight.
Ursa and Major plotted out a path and timing that would take us clear of the regular patrols.
“You two are kick-ass,” Antares said.
“I know,” Ursa said, and I snorted. “Now for disguises. A change of clothes will help cover your tracks on the cameras. They’re looking for rebels in Rigel gear.”
She glanced to Major, who stroked his bearded jaw in thought. He paused, plucking a cup of chocolate milk off the table and sipping it through a straw. Then, he finally answered. “The mechanic tunics might do it.”
“They have sleeves, right?” Antares said.
I shot him a look. All the men on the crew were happy to show off their arms and chests, except for him and Polaris. And even Polaris had undressed for zero-G tag and exercise. Antares never even rolled up his sleeves.
What was he hiding?
I wanted to corner him and ask, but there wasn’t time now. We had a spy to rescue.
“What about Mr. Pancake?” Antares said. “The guard recognized him.”
“I’ll give you a messenger bag to tuck him into,” Major said. He returned to sipping his chocolate and stroking the orange cat.
Ursa shuffled us into separate rooms to change into the clothes they provided. I sighed as I gave up my flight suit. With the Firebrand gone and The Uprising believing we were traitors, it was the last sign of my command.
The self-cleaning garment had been with me for the last three weeks. At least I could keep the seal of office that was pinned to its chest. I tucked it into the pocket of the loose-fitting beige tunic Ursa had given me.
It was thigh length with a front pocket and a roomy hood. I donned close-fitting leggings underneath. It made me look like an average worker rather than a rebel leader.
It almost hurt, given how thin my hold on command already was.
Oh well, once we rescued Winters, we would be heroes. We’d prove we weren’t traitors and we’d help bring down the Supremacy. I’d make up for my failure at Sule and for my mistake of going to Vinera.
Peace was within reach for the first time in generations. I never believed it would be in my lifetime, and now I was about to reach out and grab it.
I stepped through a doorway of blue leaves and brown branches back into the living room. Ursa flicked idly through images on one of her screens. She froze, finger poised above the touch screen. “Ah, shit,” she said.
“What?” I said
, rushing to her side.
“I found Winters, but…” She gestured to the screen.
It showed a freeze frame zoomed in on a woman and three men on an elevator. Despite the hood pulled over her hair, I caught a glimpse of white.
She was with the man from the bar and the dark-haired man who had been following them. A third man loomed over her with a gun large enough to make Rux jealous. He wore a green and gold Rigel uniform. He was the only one of them armed and he watched Winters like a Satorian hawk.
My heart stopped.
“She’s been captured,” I said. “She did go quietly.”
“Or the Supremacy covered up the fight,” Major said. “Not everything makes it to the news.”
“Whatever the reason, we need to save her. When was this?” I said.
“Ten minutes ago,” Ursa said.
I whirled to Polaris and Antares. “Po, keep checking the cameras as we run, can you do that?”
“If I have to.”
“Do it. We have to track Winters down now before they harm her or take her off Etrea.” I turned back to Ursa. “Can you find the rest of our crew and get a message to them? We’ll need a rendezvous point.”
“Tell me what they look like,” she said. Her hands flew over her keyboard as I described Orion, Hamal, and Rux, and as she explained where we would meet.
I was putting a lot of trust in someone I barely knew. It was unnerving, strange, like the gravity had suddenly disappeared.
Behind me, Mr. Pancake whined, and I turned to see Antares tucking him into the messenger bag.
“Time to go,” I said.
“Just a moment,” Ursa said, jumping up. She faced Polaris in his deep blue tunic and green cargo pants. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and he pressed his palms to her upper back.
“I’m going to fix it all,” Polaris promised her.
“Coming back is enough,” she said. “That was all I wanted.”
He didn’t answer, but I knew it was because he didn’t agree with her.
Antares stepped up next to me, watching Po and Ursa with a sorrowful look. He donned a blood red tunic over his usual long-sleeved black shirt, so his arms remained covered.
“Are you hiding scales under those sleeves?”
“No,” he said.
“Do you have siblings?” I asked.
“No,” he said and didn’t provide more info. Of course.
I sighed, exasperated. “Po, we’re in a rush.”
He stepped away from Ursa, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and picking up his new tablet.
“Bring my brother back in one piece,” Ursa said. “Inside and out.”
“What, wait, why…I don’t know what you mean by the inside part,” I said.
Antares rolled his eyes. Ursa narrowed hers.
But Po smiled at me, that warm, shy smile with dimples. “Let’s save the galaxy, Commander.”
Chapter 30
“Left!” Po shouted.
I hit the horn on the steering wheel and held it down. The stolen hover car screamed its warning as I cut across three lanes of traffic. Other cars honked and swerved around us. The hover car jostled as I piloted it down a narrow alley on Etrea’s surface.
“Whooohhoooo,” Antares said from the passenger’s seat.
In the back seat, Polaris kept his gaze on the tablet, hacking and scanning nearby cameras for signs of Agent Winters and the men who had captured her. We had tracked them across Rora moon’s underground and back to its surface.
I hit the brakes on the stolen hover car, and it jerked to a stop before a stained-glass wall with a red door in its center. Another one of Etrea’s mismatched buildings from centuries of changing hands. Each new ruler built over the existing city with their own style, making every building a mash-up of different designs. Brick on the bottom, topped by concrete with jagged edges, topped by smooth rounded glass. Nothing in Etrea’s style quite made sense.
“Should I drive through that wall?” I said to Po.
“Yes,” Antares said.
“I wasn’t asking you,” I said.
Alarms blared somewhere behind us.
“The queen and her soldiers aren’t happy with us.” Antares grinned. “Well done.”
“Shit,” I said. We had traveled across two of Etrea’s moons without being noticed thanks to Ursa’s info on patrol movements and Polaris watching camera feeds as we went.
But the moment we stole a car, the Supremacy was on us. My driving didn’t shake them. If I had been in a ship those maneuvers would have thrown them off. It didn’t work so well with a car that traveled a meter off the ground and refused to go higher.
“Just what we need, assholes following us as we chase assholes,” I said. “Po? Where do we go from here?”
He didn’t answer.
“Po?” I said, turning around in my seat. He stared at the tablet. Beyond him, through the rear window, a tank-like hovercraft barreled toward us. Its guns would make even Rux drool.
“I guess we really did piss them off. Po, out of the car,” I ordered.
He didn’t look up from his camera hacking as he followed the order.
“Maybe they want to hire you to fuck shit up for them,” Antares said with a sly grin and a wink.
I couldn’t help but smile back at him. When we caused trouble, he looked happy, almost youthful and boyish in a way he never did otherwise.
“That way,” Po said, looking up and pointing to a narrow blue door. It was tucked into a corner where a brick wall met the glowing stained glass one. “I think Winters is heading to docking bay 8A nestled in a cavern below.”
“Shit,” I said. “Shit, shit, shit.”
If they got on a ship before we reached them, we might lose all trace of Agent Winters and her captors. Once they hit the jumpgate, we wouldn’t be able to track their next location.
We had to catch up and rescue Winters, this mission, our futures, and the galaxy. I couldn’t let us fail when we were so close.
The blue door was an old one, the kind you have to open with your hand. It wouldn’t budge, so I drew my gun, shot the handle off and kicked it open.
“Go!” I shouted.
Mr. Pancake darted through the door. Now that we had been spotted, there was no point in keeping him trapped in a bag.
Antares guided Po, who was still looking at the tablet, still working, thank the stars. I paused to glance at the tank as a squad of armed men climbed out.
Fuck, we couldn’t lock the door against them. We had to run.
The door led to a dark stairway that delved down into bare rock. Unlike the rest of Etrea, it didn’t smell of trees or bodies, but of earth, rock, and damp.
I followed the men and Mr. Pancake down the steps by the light of Po’s tablet. At least the dark and the narrow steps would make it easier to defend against the Supremacy soldiers. They could only come down one at a time.
Fuck, if I had trusted Antares or if I had accepted my new crew sooner, we would have been here a week and a half ago. We could have saved Winters and brought her home.
Whatever happened to her next was my fault. I had focused on saving myself rather than saving her when she needed the help more than I did.
“I know where to go,” Po said.
Boots echoed on the steps above, rushing toward us.
“Lead the way and hurry,” I said, drawing my blaster, flicking it to stun, and firing blindly behind me.
Our footsteps pounded at the stone stairs as we raced downward. The hall echoed with the shouts and bootsteps of the following soldiers.
We raced through a twisting maze of maintenance rooms, pausing to lock every door behind us. It wouldn’t stop the soldiers, but it should slow them. I hoped.
Ahead of me, my men stopped and I crashed into Antares. He put one hand on the wall to steady himself and the other grabbed my waist to steady me. For a moment, I remembered pushing against him and Orion in the secret compartment. I shook the thought away. Now wasn’t t
he damn time. These men were terrible for my focus.
I glanced around Antares to a locked door. Polaris dropped to his knees, prying open the control panel to plug his tablet into it.
Fuck, he needed time to hack the door’s lock. I spun with my gun drawn to face the soldiers coming our way. Antares stood shoulder to shoulder with me, blocking Po with his body.
“If you hear shots, run,” he said over his shoulder to Polaris. “Don’t look back, don’t wait. Take Mr. Pancake and go.”
Po frowned. I hoped he would listen and wouldn’t try to stay behind to help us. “It’s up to you to save Agent Winters and The Uprising,” I said.
“Yes, Commander,” he said, grim and dull, and I wasn’t certain if he was serious.
I tightened my grip on my gun, waiting to see if we walked free, died, or woke up in a cage. I took deep breaths, not to calm myself—the anxiety kept my senses sharp—but to steady my hand for shooting.
“So,” Antares said, eyeing me sidelong with that mischievous grin. “I bet I can take down more assholes than you.”
“You’re on, gloomy.”
“You’re on, hot stuff.”
“After this, you’re in trouble for calling me that,” I said.
“I hope so.”
“Cal?” Polaris said, softly.
“Yeah?”
“If this goes badly and we…split up or you know…bad stuff…I want you to know that—well, I guess, what I’m trying to say is. Are you a gas giant?”
“What?” I said.
“Because you got me tidal locked; I can’t turn away.”
Antares chuckled. “Cute.”
“I…umm….” Somehow, I was the one stammering now instead of Polaris. I shook my head clear. “Run away if you can. Save Winters, not me.”
We waited, the dark room echoing with the sound of oncoming boots.
The door hissed open behind us. “Go,” Antares said, meeting my gaze, his expression dead serious.
“No, you go first. I’ll cover our retreat.”
“You still don’t trust me,” he said.
“Hurry the fuck up,” Po said.
I laughed, startled by his rough command. It was so unlike Polaris.
Antares and I turned and tried to go through the door at the same time. We slammed into each other, our shoulders crashing and sides pressing together as we squeezed through. I caught a whiff of his scent. Strange how each of the men smelled differently and yet I liked each one.