A Star Pilot's Hero (All the Stars in the Sky Book 2)

by Eva Delaney

  “A safe house for local rebels. Ursa and Major inscribed its coordinates in the DNA of a yellow mutant leaf. I found it in their bedroom with Ms. Sweet Potato.”

  He smiled at the cat who loafed on a table among computer screens. Mr. Pancake sat on the floor and peered up at her, as he had been doing for an hour.

  “How did you read a leaf’s genetics?” I said.

  Polaris dug into his backpack and pulled out a small handheld scanner from his toolkit. “By being prepared.”

  I snorted. “Who says you can’t be a hero?”

  He ducked his head. “I don’t know about that, Cal, I just carry a lot of tools.”

  “Hey, Po?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Is that a hydrospanner in your pants or are you just happy to see me?”

  “I…um…both?”

  I laughed. Polaris ducked his head and chuckled.

  I caught a movement from the corner of my eye and turned to see Orion watching us with a thoughtful expression.

  I crossed the room—all two steps—to him.

  He pressed a hand against the small of my back and leaned in against my ear to whisper, “I’m just making sure he doesn’t hurt you. If he ever does, this arrangement is over.”

  I nodded. “He might not even come with us after we rescue Ursa and Major. He has family and people here to protect.”

  Orion shot Polaris a look, but the other man didn’t notice. He was too busy checking his tools and rearranging them in his kit.

  “Don’t cause trouble,” I said to Orion.

  “I won’t if he doesn’t give me a reason to.”

  “All you men cause trouble all the time.”

  “You’re welcome,” Antares cut in.

  I sighed and stepped out of Orion’s arms and to the room’s door. The dark corridor would give me some peace and quiet, especially with Antares, Rux, and Orion here.

  As I reached the door, one of the computer screens flared to life, showing the golden steps of the palace. It was the queen’s news feed where she executed people live.

  Everything was still and the steps were empty—for now.

  Polaris stared at it.

  So much for taking a break from the men.

  He fiddled with his tools, lining them up neatly on the table, while his eyes were glued to the screen.

  I went to stand next to him. “She and Major are still alive. We’ll free them tomorrow once Antares’s people drop off the explosives.”

  Polaris said nothing, carefully poking each tool with a single finger.

  I wrapped an arm around his shoulders, and he melted into me, the sweet man.

  “Are you worried about facing Queen Asherah?” I said, hoping no one would overhear, but knowing they would. “Don’t be. If everything goes according to plan, you won’t even see her.”

  He shuddered against me. “What if…what if a part of me still loves her? Love makes room, right?”

  I swallowed a lump in my throat. It was part fear that I wouldn’t get to keep him and part sadness for him. “What does your heart say?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged and took my wrist in his hand, stroking the sensitive inner skin with his thumb and sending a shiver through me.

  “Maybe if you try writing it out as an equation,” I said. “I don’t know. Love = P x C divided by Doug or something.”

  He chuckled. “Or write an algorithm that tells me the answers. I’ve been running from her and Ursa for years. I still don’t know how to understand what happened between Asherah and me.”

  “We’ll figure it out together,” I said.

  “Here’s the scary thing,” Po said. “I don’t know what I’ll feel or do if I see her.”

  “You weren’t wrong to love her,” Hamal said. He sat against the wall, still recovering from the stun shots and the adrenaline. “Asherah was wrong to use that against you. Choosing love is never wrong.”

  I hoped he was right. I glanced at Orion. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, eyeing us.

  Po and I said nothing. With my arm around his shoulder and his thumb stroking my wrist, we watched the news feed, hoping we got our supplies and rescued Ursa and Major before the queen dragged them onto those steps.

  After a while, yawns overtook me, so I left Polaris to slump against the wall next to Hamal. I wanted nothing more than a silent, dark room, but that wasn’t an option.

  “How are you feeling?” I said to Hamal. If I had to sit with him, I might as well check on him—and enjoy the view of his bare chest and abs.

  He smiled at me with his warm eyes crinkling. “My head feels like it’s packed full of cotton from the stun shots and my body feels shaky from the adrenaline. Besides that, I’m fantastic.” His voice was heavy and tired, which I had never heard from him before.

  “I’m glad you’re not dead,” I said.

  He laughed like faraway thunder. “You’re good with the sweet talk, cupcake.”

  My neck flushed. “Call me that again and your balls will feel worse than your head.”

  He frowned. “Sorry, I forgot…how about Nia?”

  “Huh?”

  “Like the end of Calpurnia? Is it okay to call you that?”

  “Why do you have to call me anything besides Calpurnia or Commander?”

  “I don’t know,” Hamal admitted. “Rion has a name for you and so does Antares. I wanted one, something between us.”

  My heart fluttered in my chest, but things between Orion, Polaris, and I were still too fresh and fragile to risk adding another man. That might change.

  But not today.

  “You better get some sleep,” I told him instead.

  “Have you slept since we’ve been here?”

  I shook my head. “It’s not exactly comfortable. I must be getting soft after years of living on a ship with a bedroom.”

  Hamal was silent for a long moment. “If you want, you can rest on me. I’m plenty spacious.”

  I laughed despite myself. “Maybe I will, but first you need to lie down and sleep.”

  “Yes, Commander,” he said with a salute and a grin.

  My face flushed as it always did when Hamal looked at me. This time, I didn’t try to hide it. What was the point when they all knew about Orion and Polaris?

  Hamal stretched out on his back. He took up a lot of space in the small room, but he was injured, so we let him.

  I leaned against the wall next to him and closed my eyes, hoping to sleep. As a fighter pilot, I slept sitting up in the cockpit on long journeys to blast some Supremacy sites. That was a while ago, and I wasn’t certain if I could still do it. But it would be risky to sleep in the hall where a guard might come stomping down the corridor.

  Eventually, I gave up and curled up on the floor with my arm under my head and dozed off. When I woke, the room was quiet but for the soft breathing of the men.

  Something warm, solid, and a bit fuzzy rose and fell under my cheek. I opened my eyes to see a broad chest coated in dark hair.

  My heart leaped. I must have shifted onto Hamal in my sleep.

  I stole a glance toward his face. He was still asleep, thank the stars, so he wouldn’t know I had taken his offer.

  Behind me, someone hot as a furnace curled against my back. I glanced over my shoulder. Polaris slept back-to-back with me. Orion stretched out on his other side while Rux sat upright, head lulling.

  Antares lounged in the room’s only chair with Mr. Pancake on his lap. Ms. Sweet Potato crouched on the armrest, glaring at them both.

  “You were supposed to wake me to take over the watch,” I whispered.

  He shrugged.

  “Do you ever sleep?”

  “Nightmares,” he said and refused to elaborate, like always.

  “Are they actually worse than reality?”

  Antares met my gaze with his steady dark eyes. “You think this is bad? This—a failed mission, a tiny room, friends likely to die—this is nothing. This is a vacation.”

  “Are you
ever going to tell me what happened to you?”

  “I don’t like to talk about it.”

  I sighed and lay back down on Hamal’s chest.

  The room was nearly silent, and I was warm and comforted and safe, despite the army searching for us.

  I didn’t have to be alone to revel in silence, calm, and warmth. I was doing it right here with my crew, which was something I had never believed possible.

  Even if we never found Winters, one impossible thing had already happened: I was content with other people.

  Now it was a matter of assaulting the palace and communications hub without losing any of my men.

  Chapter 40

  “Come back to me, flyboy,” I whispered to Orion at the crossroads where our two teams parted ways.

  “A piece of my heart beats in your chest. You better bring it back,” he said.

  I smiled and tangled my hands in his hair, pulling him down for a kiss. The press of his lips made my whole body feel warm, like a steamy shower.

  “Mmm,” he moaned against my mouth, and I chuckled.

  I stepped back, and he saluted me before slipping away into the crowds with Hamal and Rux. They had the dangerous job of assaulting the Ansible Communications Hub located in the soaring golden spire of the palace.

  Polaris, Antares, Mr. Pancake, Ms. Sweet Potato, and I had the deadly job of downing the palace’s security and breaking into the dungeons.

  After parting ways, we blended into the crowds in a twisting tunnel that led toward the palace square.

  Yet again, I dressed like a noble lady. This time, I donned Rigel green and gold so that I looked like a loyalist. This gown was high cut above the knee and trailed low in the back to give me more room to move. I wore black leggings underneath.

  I probably looked like Lady Camilla, who had thoroughly screwed us.

  “Thank you,” Polaris said next to me.

  “For what?”

  “You’re risking everything for my sister.”

  “I’m sure you would do the same for mine if she was still alive.”

  This was the first time in years that I had gone more than a week without talking to my memory of Celene. I squeezed my eyes shut. Was I losing her now that I wasn’t alone in the world?

  “I’d like to hear all about her one day,” Po said.

  I had never told anyone else about her, not even Orion. He knew I had a sister who had protected me and died, but that was it.

  She was mine and not for anyone else.

  “I don’t talk about her,” I said stiffly.

  Polaris nodded as though that made perfect sense. “She’s yours.”

  I pressed my lips together. “Thank you for understanding.”

  “We all need something of our own. Sometimes I worked on the Firebrand’s engine just to get away from the others and to get some quiet.”

  I snorted. “I thought you were obsessed with maintenance and safety.”

  “Both,” he said. “That’s one reason why I like you. Everyone makes me tired, but not you. You understand quiet.”

  “You know, sometimes I joined you working on the ships to get away from the noise of the others.”

  Polaris smiled, showing off his perfect teeth in a rare wide grin.

  We walked in silence, except for the sounds of the crowd chatting. Their voices echoed and blended together in the narrow tunnel. I glanced back to make sure Antares and the animals were still with us. I caught his dark gaze through the press of people and nodded once.

  “I was thinking…I’m not much of a hero even when I try to be,” Po said. “I wanted to save Ursa, but instead I led Castor right to her.”

  “Now you’re going to rescue her. You brought people safely through the asteroid belt at Star Keeper, you guided people home. You kept their ships running so that they could return to their families. That’s heroic in a quiet way.”

  “You really think so?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Everyone in The Uprising has a role to play, and all of them are needed. Nobody can fly into battle without someone to repair their ship and help them come home after. That’s what you do. A steady, guiding light.”

  We rounded a corner and the tunnel widened, opening onto the palace square. I adjusted the gown’s golden hood to shield my face as I stepped out onto the planet-light of Etrea.

  On the surface, a dome protected the city, and it glinted above like a sheet of duraplastic over our heads. It made me feel trapped in a way that narrow passages didn’t. In the underground, you were away from the sky, but it wasn’t blocked off. It wasn’t unreachable. You just needed to travel upward.

  But under a dome, the sky and its freedom were locked away. You could see but not touch.

  It felt wrong.

  The gas giant ate up half the sky, like a blue-green ocean above our heads. Its light turned Polaris’s eyes to a sky blue that made me oddly sad, longing for a home that no longer existed.

  “What is it?” he said as I gazed into his eyes.

  “You know, we haven’t actually been alone since…well…falling in love. At least, since I fell in love,” I said. “So when we get out of this and have alone time, what should we do?”

  Po ducked his head.

  “Save some electricity,” I suggested.

  “What do you mean?”

  “By turning off the lights.”

  “I would rather watch,” he said with a slow smile. “I want to see you come.”

  I blinked as heat flushed up my neck and down between my legs. I hadn’t expected that from shy Polaris. I grinned at him, remembering my last time with Orion when I had hoped someone would come by and watch.

  “I’ve got a lot to show you,” he said. For once, he stared directly at me, not ducking his head or blushing.

  I raised my eyebrows and remembered the hot, determined look in his eyes when he kissed me. What would he do with me?

  But now wasn’t the time. It never was.

  So, I broke our gaze and eyed the square. A cross-section of Etrea’s people from Supremacy nobles in golden clothing to workers in basic tunics packed the space. They lulled around as though waiting for something to happen.

  “Oh fuck.” I whirled to face one of the massive screens that lined the square just as it flared to horrible life. My stomach clenched like a fist about to break a nose.

  It showed the gilded palace steps. Five stories of gold stairs leading to massive silver doors that were flung wide open.

  At the top stood Castor, dressed in a perfect black suit trimmed with gold. His yellow eyes were cold as deep space as he glowered at the crowd.

  Next to him, Queen Asherah’s silky green gown trailed so long that its train covered most of the landing. She looked down her perfect nose at the crowd and even at the soldiers who lined the steps to protect her.

  That dress said she didn’t have to fight or run. She was unmovable and exactly where she belonged. I clenched my fists.

  But it got worse.

  On the step, two people were strapped into chairs.

  No, no, no, no.

  Ursa and Major stained against their bindings. That wasn’t what bothered me the most. It was the electrodes on their heads, tucked under their thick hair. Each electrode trailed a wire connected to a waiting computer.

  Mind melters.

  Asherah and Castor were going to pick apart their minds, memory by memory, right there on the palace steps.

  They were going to drive Ursa and Major to madness, then stupidity, then braindead shells while we watched.

  “Well, that’s a trap,” Antares said at my shoulder. I jumped, startled.

  “Stop sneaking up on me,” I snapped.

  He looked as un-Antares as was possible. The blue-green light from the gas giant gave his pale skin an almost mermaid or alien-like sheen. He wore a form-fitting green vest over puffy white sleeves and carried a black briefcase in his left hand.

  As always, Mr. Pancake sat at his feet, oblivious to the trouble he was walking
into with his human. Or maybe not oblivious, but not afraid if he had his Antares with him.

  “I know it’s a trap. Did one of your people sell us out?”

  “I doubt it or else those Rigel assholes wouldn’t be so obvious. This…” he nodded toward Ursa and Major. I couldn’t bring myself to look at them, to face that they may die horribly because of us. “This is to draw out someone when you don’t know where they are or what they’re doing.”

  “Fuck,” I said. He was right. It was a trap.

  “Hell, Castor and Asherah have done us a favor.”

  “How?” I said.

  “Now we don’t have to break into the dungeons.”

  I gave him a skeptical look. “Yeah, we just need to fight off the shit ton of guards circling that stairway.”

  “Yeah, it’s not a fair fight,” he said. “They should have brought more guards.” He grinned.

  I snorted and grinned back. I knew Antares was reckless and careless, but fuck if he didn’t appeal to a part of me that was the same.

  “We need to rethink our plan,” I said. “Po?” I glanced over my shoulder and saw only the press of the crowd.

  I turned in a frantic circle, searching for him. My blood ran ice cold.

  He disappeared again, the motherfucker!

  A surprised gasp rippled across the crowd like a wave.

  “Asherah,” someone boomed from the giant screens. I would recognize that voice anywhere. It was the voice that greeted me when I returned to Star Keeper; the voice that warned me about upcoming missions; the voice that tried to talk me out of doing careless and reckless things.

  Now, he was doing a reckless thing.

  “I’m the one who knows how to make or break Etrean leadership,” Polaris said. He stood on the steps before the line of heavily armed soldiers. Ms. Sweet Potato stalked the step at his feet, loathe to be apart from her human.

  Queen Asherah glared down her nose at him.

  Polaris pulled his shoulders back and raised his chin. “Asherah, take me and let them go.”

  Chapter 41

  Ursa’s scream, like a heart crumbling to dust, drowned out all other sounds. “Aris, run! Get away!”

  I took two steps toward Polaris, and Antares grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

  I raised my fist, ready to deck him for trying to stop me. He lifted his arm, ready to block me.