Taking several deep breaths to steady herself, she watched the last ship lumber towards them, her muscles thrumming with anticipation. Cool calm descended over her as the last seconds ticked away and the ship began to slip into the vortex.
Wait ... wait ... now!
Both Shadows sprang away from the ring, launching towards the massive ship disappearing into the wormhole. Fighting the hungry pull of the vortex and the roaring force of the vessel's engines, they struggled to get behind the shielding flaps that protected the ship's fragile engine venting before they were ripped apart. A bare moment before the rear of the ship vanished into the wormhole, they settled into the protective crevice between the flaps and the venting, carried safe and undetected through the ring.
Sin wiped a film of sweat from her forehead with a trembling hand, wishing she could contact Del and make sure he was all right. He'd been beside her the whole way, so she hoped he'd been able to attach in time, but the wormhole denied her communication or sensors of any kind. She would have to wait until they came out the other side to find out if he'd survived.
It was a long wait. By the time they burst out of the wormhole into a different solar system, her stomach had formed a hard knot of nausea and the muscles at the back of her neck had clenched into steely bands of pain. The instant her systems came back on line, she kicked her Shadow away from the surface of the ship and hunted anxiously for Del. When she saw the dark form tumbling beside her, she had to bite down on her lower lip hard to keep from crying out in relief.
But they weren't safe yet. In a reversal of their previous maneuver, they had to battle the expelling force of the vortex and the fierce barrage of the ship's engines to reach the Anchor Ring quickly enough not to be detected. Fighting for control, Sin concentrated with grim determination on the task at hand. Distracting herself with thoughts of Del could kill her.
After what seemed like hours, but was probably only seconds, they settled side by side on the surface of the ring as the spinning slowed and the hole flickered out of existence. Breathing deeply to calm the racing of her heart, Sin clenched her jaw against the almost irresistible urge to contact Del. They had to wait until the way was clear before detaching from the ring and leaving this system.
When their piggyback ship was out of range and the ring had begun to spin again, they launched from its surface and raced away from detection. As soon as she was able, she contacted him.
"Del? Are you okay?” Sin couldn't see any faltering in his Shadow, but she still chewed her lip anxiously until she heard his voice.
"Still in one piece, anyway,” he rasped.
She gasped in silent relief for several moments before she could respond. Trying for a light tone, she commented, “Every time we do that, I say never again. Want to take our chances with a courier ship for the way back?"
"Best idea you've had all day,” he answered, but his deep voice was still rough with strain.
Frowning with worry, she sighed, “I could use a drink."
"You and me both,” he muttered.
"Too bad I forgot to pack one."
"You're fired,” he shot back, and she chuckled.
"Don't write me off yet. I did remember to pack restoratives. That should take the edge off.” Reaching behind her, she pulled the pack onto her lap and opened it, digging through the provisions and equipment to the medicinals. Debating for a moment whether she should use an oral or injectable, she finally settled on tearing open a packet with her teeth and swallowing the cool, stinging fluid. Almost immediately, she felt a loosening in her muscles and a surge of energy as her body absorbed the restorative.
"Better,” she heard Del mumble and nodded to herself. Yes, he did sound better.
"There's also drinks and munchies if you're in the mood."
"Uh, how long are you expecting us to be out here, anyway?” he asked with a dubious edge to his voice, and Sin smirked to herself, wondering if he was eyeing the large amount of provisions or the waste disposal and sanitizer units.
"Shay rule number one—prepare for all contingencies."
"I thought your rule number one was no one touches you,” he said with wry humor.
Sin frowned in discomfort for a moment before she remembered that she'd said that to the pirates. With a grin, she murmured, “I've got my own set of rules."
"I noticed."
Not knowing how to answer—his bland tone gave no indication of what he'd meant by that—she stayed silent. Increasing her Shadow's speed, she sent the coordinates of the factory to Del, along with the course she meant to take to get there. It wasn't a straight line, since they had to stay away from any area that might be populated to avoid detection, but if they maintained a high speed, they should get there swiftly enough.
He made no comment on the course, and the silence stretched between them for a distance. The monotony of the unchanging black of space wore away her relief and elation at their survival of the trip through the rings, allowing other things to surface. Namely, the pain and humiliation of her late-night visit to Del's quarters. Stirring in restless defense, she searched for something to distract herself, something that would keep her mind on the business at hand.
She was about to describe that morning's communication with Griffin to Del when he broke the silence instead.
"Did you know,” he said in a voice that was just a shade too casual, “that AIs aren't just programs you can use and throw away?"
Lifting her eyebrows in bemusement, she replied, “You don't say,” in a dry tone.
"Never had one before. I'm guessing I'm not real good at it, though, from the way Cassie lit into me yesterday."
Sin tensed at the mention of her friend's name, but Del wasn't finished.
"She spent half the night grilling me and the AI, fixing whatever it was I screwed up with Sam. I told her if she was gonna give AIs to idiots like me, she ought to hand out instruction manuals at the same time."
Feeling a smile tug at her mouth, she cleared her throat before asking with hesitant care, “Cass thought there was something wrong with Samantha?” Was that the only reason she'd been in his quarters?
"Sam's a new installation. My brother and I named her, but I guess that's the only thing we did right. Cassie tore me up one side and down the other when she found out I hadn't been paying enough attention to Sam. How was I supposed to know I was supposed to bond with her?” he muttered with such baffled disgust that Sin had to muffle a snicker.
It sounded like Cassie. As a matter of fact, it sounded much more like her than a late night liaison with a fellow pilot. From the first day they'd brought her home, she'd been almost as single-minded and dedicated to their purpose as the Shays.
"She sure does know how to make a guy feel stupid. I understood about one word in ten that came out of her mouth—at least, what I heard of it. I was out cold when you came to tell me about the mission."
His voice had reverted to that careful casualness again, and Sin felt a slow warmth spread through her and a smile curl the corners of her mouth. Thank the Suns they were in different ships and she couldn't reach him. Containing her longing with an effort, she held her tongue.
After a moment, he sighed and said in a voice like rough velvet, “She's not the woman I want, Sin. You know that."
Her eyes slid closed, and she sank down into her seat as the warmth became a throbbing, molten heat at her center. The Shadow responded to her weakness, a surge of power roaring through her as it picked up more speed, urging her towards complete abandon. Biting the inside of her cheek hard, she clutched the armrests with desperate fingers and wrestled herself and the ship back under control.
She couldn't acknowledge his last comment, not without starting a conversation that was going to get her into very big trouble. So, taking a shaky breath, she said as lightly as she could, “Cass makes everybody feel stupid. She can't help it—she's got more brains than all of us put together."
He was quiet for a moment, and Sin started to worry that he would
n't follow her lead away from the other subject. Remembering his angry persistence on the hauler, she gnawed on her bottom lip until he said, “I believe it. Does she create all your AIs?” His tone was bland, but his voice still held a faint huskiness that sent a shiver over her skin.
"No, our AI development was there long before Cassie arrived, but it got a big boost when she came on board. That was her specialty before we got hold of her."
"That and slicers, I'm guessin',” he said with dry humor.
"Actually, she didn't know anything about slicers before she came to us."
"How's that possible? She knows these Shadows inside and out."
"She learned,” Sin drawled, and then chuckled when he made a disgusted sound. “Makes you sick, doesn't it?"
"I think my IQ just slipped a few points."
She laughed softly, and an easier silence settled around them. Sin checked their progress. They still had time before reaching the Fringe, so they didn't need to cut communication just yet.
"So what was your plan for getting in when we get to the factory?” Del asked.
"I don't know. I haven't seen the place yet."
"That's what I thought,” he sighed.
Sin grinned. “Losing confidence in me, Del?"
"Of course not—failure's not an option, right? I'm just looking forward to the challenge."
She snickered at the heavy lace of sarcasm in his voice. “Way to be positive, pilot. That's why I brought you, to help me get in."
"Well, hell, what's to worry about, then?"
She laughed, suddenly realizing how much she was enjoying herself. The chance to be with him without having to govern her every expression or impulse was irresistible and enervating. As long as they didn't stray onto a topic that would lead them to disaster, she could enjoy being with him without guilt.
"Say, what are these round, brown things?"
She grinned, assuming that he'd gotten into the provisions. “Those are chewy nut clusters. Kai can't get enough of them. He says they're a food group all their own. I suspect he might even kill for them."
"Thank you,” Del breathed with exaggerated gratitude.
With a quirk of her lips, Sin played along. “For what?"
"For giving me ammunition. Dealing with your brother isn't easy. I figure a nut cluster addiction'll help."
She laughed, picturing Del leading Kai around with a handful of clusters. “He's not usually susceptible to bribery, but you might have him there."
"I was thinking more like verbal ammo, but bribery's a good idea, too."
"Battle of wits?"
"Wouldn't wanna go unarmed."
Snickering, Sin pulled a bottle of water out of her pack and took a swallow. “In that case, let me tell you all of Kai's weaknesses."
"You're a goddess,” he said solemnly, and she couldn't help but smile in delight. “Deceptive and sneaky, but still a goddess."
She laughed again, reveling in the freedom of it. It wasn't often that she got the chance to just be herself, not the corporate predator or the conscientious employer or her Shadow persona—just herself, just Sin.
"Kai's greatest weakness is women."
"Not much of a newsflash, Sin—he is a guy,” Del responded with dry humor.
"Just wait, the ammo's coming. Let me tell you a little story about Kai's greatest weakness."
Sin proceeded to tell him about a riot that had happened a few years ago on the Shay station. It was started by three women who owned different businesses in the commons, the station's marketplace. They'd discovered, to their immense dissatisfaction, that they all had one thing in common—Kai. Later, they had called it a trade war between their businesses, though their products had all been so dissimilar as to make that claim laughable.
"The cleanup cost was enormous. After that, to decrease the odds of a repeat of that mess, I forced Kai to make a solemn oath to never have a relationship with any woman on the station again."
"It's not like there aren't other women in the universe."
"Sure, but neither of us hardly ever gets to leave the station for pleasure. Most of the time, it's on runs like this, out in the middle of nowhere."
Del was silent for a moment before he started to chuckle. “You're an evil woman, Sin Shay."
"My brother thinks so,” she responded smugly. “But you've seen how women react to him—if I left it up to him, there'd be a riot every other day."
"I hate to break this to you, Sin,” he rumbled in a voice that sent chills dancing from her head to her toes, “but men react to you the same way. You're pretty much a riot waiting to happen yourself."
Gritting her teeth against the surge of heat that flooded her body, she schooled her voice to sardonic amusement as she said, “Ah, so that's why Kai made me take the same oath.” He chuckled again, but before he could pursue that line of thought, she continued, “But there's more ammo. I know of at least one woman who is immune to my brother's charm."
"No kidding. Who is this paragon?"
"Liaena Griffin."
"Griffin? As in..."
"The daughter of, yes. She kicked Kai in the shin when they first met, and it's been war between the two of them ever since. It drives Kai crazy that she wants nothing to do with him."
"Poor guy,” he drawled without a hint of compassion in his tone. “I'll have to give him my sympathies next time I see him."
"That's the spirit. Don't forget to mention how sorry you are about his lack of female companionship on the station, too."
"First chance I get,” he said with such relish that she laughed again. His tone sobering, he continued, “Looks like we crossed into the Fringe."
"Already?” she murmured to herself with a pang of regret. “We'll have to keep communications to a minimum from here on in. Run as silent as we can."
"Will do,” he responded, and Sin wondered if it was just wishful thinking on her part that he sounded disappointed.
Keeping a careful eye on the long-range sensors, they traversed the meandering course towards their goal, but Sin had chosen their path well. They saw no one until they zeroed in on the location of the factory, which turned out to be a bit of a surprise.
Chapter 22
"Holy hells,” Sin heard Del whisper, and had to agree.
What stretched out before them was a roiling, turbulent nebula, the kind that could swallow whole star systems without a hiccup. The coordinates of the factory put it somewhere in the outer edge of this monster, still dangerous, but not as deadly as the flaring, violent center of this sun nursery. It was the perfect hiding place—who else would be crazy enough to go in there?
Sin sighed. “Feeling crazy today?” she asked Del.
"Every day since I met you,” he answered with an edge that made her grin.
"Let's do it, then."
She didn't worry about being overheard by the factory. It would be just as blind and deaf to their presence as they were to it. Without the exact coordinates, they'd never have found the place, even if they had thought to search the nebula. With slow caution, she headed towards the leading edge, scanning the chaotic currents of dust and gases for a path that wouldn't pulverize them.
"There,” Del murmured and slipped past her towards a darker area, a still pool between conflicting currents.
With a hum of approval, she followed. It was still a rough ride, their Shadows buffeted by waves and riptides of force, the distant ripples of protest and exaltation from newborn stars at the violence of their birth. Concentrating on keeping her Shadow steady, the sudden appearance of the factory took Sin by surprise, and Del's curse told her that it had done the same to him. With a wrench, she spun her slicer away from the dome of force that covered the facility and dove into a boiling mass of dust and gas.
Fighting for control, she wrestled her ship to the edge so that she could scan the area around the factory. Del's Shadow appeared suddenly at her side, and she heard him curse again as he nearly collided with her.
"Well, this i
s fun,” she said in bland tone and heard him grumble something in reply. “The good news is we weren't seen. The bad news is I have no idea how the hell we're going to get in there."
The factory was a sprawling station, lumped together in an ugly assortment of additions as if the place had been put together piecemeal over time. Surrounding it in a glowing bubble was what looked like an energy force field, which Sin supposed was to protect the place from the wrath of the nebula. It pulsed in time with the flare of lights reflecting through the gas currents, a reddish beat like a pumping heart. It looked about as penetrable as the nebula's center.
"I suppose we could go find one of their couriers to hijack and trick our way in there, but that'd take time we don't have, and where the hell would we look? Unless we waited just outside the nebula, catching a ship as it entered, but I'm not sure how long—"
"I've seen this before,” Del interrupted her in a thoughtful tone.
"Do tell,” she responded dryly, fighting a strong gust that tried to sweep her Shadow away.
"It was one of Trevani's lessons for me,” he said, his voice taking on a bitter edge. “I wasn't exactly thrilled to be Core, so he and Brax were assigned to handle me, keep me in line. They took me along when they went after some rich tech-type who was trying to get out from under the Core. When we ran him to ground, we found him holed up in a place that had a shield just like that one. Took us a couple of days to hack out its frequency, but we managed to make a hole."
With a frown pulling at her brows, Sin ignored their situation for a moment to ask, “What did they make you do?"
There was a pause before he answered in a harsh voice, “I didn't kill him."
"But they made you hurt him."
"Yeah,” he rasped, “and for nothing. He wouldn't or couldn't give us what Trev wanted, so he had Brax kill the guy. Anyway, I think I remember the frequency."
With a grimace, Sin followed his lead away from his painful past. “Can you test it without alerting them?"
"I think so."
"But if we do make a hole, they'll know, won't they?"
Sunscapes Trilogy Book 1: Last Chance Page 29