Rogue Pursuit: A Space Opera Adventure (Shades of Starlight Book 1), page 29
But he could no longer justify saying his was the only way, not after seeing more of the galaxy, meeting Perrin, learning the truth about his old friend.
“I’ll never be okay with it,” he said grudgingly, “and I don’t know if I’ll trust you again. But I understand. I guess.”
Kel blinked. “Thanks,” he said, his voice quiet.
Tai watched through the view screen as his mom shot at the mercs again.
Another reminder that the way he’d been raised wasn’t infallible.
Yes, they needed to stop the mercs. But surely there was a way to do it without endangering innocent civilians. One more demonstration that his mom’s methods weren’t his. Would he be willing to fire if he had to? If he were in charge? He hadn’t even enjoyed gambling with the pirates, and those people had a choice to fight. Not like scientists trying to protect their families.
“Sure you want to follow her steps?” Kel’s always-kind tone held no mockery, just simple concern.
Tai scowled at the way his old friend read his thoughts.
On the screen, a grappler shot toward the Cobalt ship. It hooked the tail, which promptly exploded, and the ship careened toward a mountain. The agent ejected at the last second.
A quiet laugh escaped through Tai’s nose.
“She’s something, isn’t she?” Kel asked.
Tai sniffed, sensed Kel watching him.
“Do you like her?”
“In this business, liking someone isn’t an option,” Tai said.
Kel tilted his head. “Maybe you’re in the wrong business, brother.”
Perrin skipped onto the bridge. “You can close the hatch now.”
Kel gave her a wary look, eyes wide.
Tai smiled faintly as he entered the command. “All that for a few bad pickup lines?”
“I’d forgotten how scary you can be,” Kel said.
He didn’t appear to mean it in a good way, like Tai did when he said something similar. He loved Perrin’s feisty spirit and cleverness. No wonder Kel and Perrin’s relationship hadn’t worked out.
In the few minutes it had taken them to eliminate one opponent, the mercs had gained altitude. Tai’s mom was still on their tail.
Tai aimed their ship up, and they joined the race into the clouds.
The mist shifted around them, eliminating their view of the other ships except a flash of metal here and there. Only the sensor readings revealed which was their target.
A blast clipped them, sent them spiraling. Tai righted the ship and regained altitude.
They emerged above the clouds into the atmosphere, the planet’s ring directly above them. They must’ve reached the equator.
The ring’s small ice and rock particles pinged against the hull.
“They’re going to reach the wormhole first,” Tai said.
“That will give them what, a thirty- or-forty-minute head start?” Perrin asked. “How long were we in that one?”
“It felt like hours. Months. Eternity.”
She rolled her eyes, but he’d accomplished his goal, which was to make her smile. “Stop being so dramatic. I’m pretty sure it was less than forty minutes.”
Kel leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “We still have to fight your mom for who goes in next, and you know she won’t let it be us.”
Perrin tapped the console. “We could… You’re going to hate this, Tai.”
Her words took a minute to register. Was that the first time she’d said his actual name, not Officer or SARC or Ace or something sarcastic? In her mouth, it sounded low and husky, like a word saved for special occasions, and it sent a thrill through his heart. “Say it.”
“Well, this has been done before…” she said.
He no longer enjoyed her tone. “What?”
“If you can dock with their ship and cut our engines before the wormhole closes around them, we should be able to catch a ride.”
Tai blinked. Chest tightened. “I feel like I can’t stop asking if you’re sure you’re not insane.”
“I thought only one ship could go in at a time?” Kel asked quietly.
“One engine or energy source at a time,” Perrin said. “Like how messages won’t transmit until there’s no ship inside. But those big colonizer ships have small transports and escape pods and stuff. As long as there’s only one signature, it’s fine. Technically they could probably tow us. As long as our drives are turned off.”
“Out of all your crazy ideas, I like this one least.” But Tai gunned it to try to catch the mercs, even as he forced his mind away from thoughts of passing through that awful wormhole again.
“Really? It’s worse than dueling with pirates? Or—”
“Stop reminding me.”
She shrugged. “Everything turned out fine.”
“Once again, you and I have very different definitions of a word. Okay, here goes.”
“Sounds like I missed an interesting trip,” Kel said.
The ship groaned as Tai maxed out the speed. Dodged a shot, then another.
A final burst put them right next to the mercs’ ship.
“Wormhole in one minute,” Kel announced.
“We’re too close for their weapons,” Perrin said. “Now’s your chance.”
Tai rammed into the airlock docking port. The ships took over, sealing together automatically.
“Ready to cut engines.” Her finger hovered over the console.
With a shudder, the ship settled into place.
“Now,” he said, and she hit it.
Their engines powered down, and silence descended on the bridge.
The mercs’ ship filled the left half of the view screen. On the right half, the wormhole opened, the same pale yellow and swirls of deadly color. Tai suppressed a shudder. Surely there had been another way.
“Tai, what are you doing?” His mom’s voice rang out through the comm.
“Making sure they don’t get away.”
“I want that device,” she said.
“I know.” She probably heard the exasperation in his reply.
Her tone softened. “Be careful.”
“See you on the other side,” he said.
The colors swallowed them, cutting off the comm and sealing them in a dying wormhole with a ship full of mercenaries and a device that could destroy the galaxy.
31
Tai ignored the colors on the screen, and tried to ignore the rattling that threatened to shake them loose from the other ship.
The mercs had no doubt begun preparing to breach the airlock as soon as they realized the smaller vessel had docked. Which meant they needed to act.
“We have forty minutes to take control of that device,” Tai said, “before we exit the wormhole and the mercs use it and my mom is—”
He didn’t finish, didn’t need to—before his mom was stranded, same as his dad. Perrin and Kel both knew.
On the screen, the colors sputtered and flashed in time with his pounding heart.
“Let’s move.”
He was taking charge like this was his team. His mission. He needed to remember it wasn’t. Kel and Perrin had a different objective than he did. But he couldn’t take the ship alone. He hated having to rely on people while also keeping an eye on them.
“I found your grappling gun,” Perrin said. “Got anything else? Night vision, grenades?”
Kel cleared his throat. “I may have loaded a small armory. Or, I mean, the ship I rented may have already come stocked with one.”
“Yeah, because that happens,” Tai muttered.
“Not the time,” Perrin said. “Lead the way.”
The cabin Kel was using as a storeroom had a wide selection of equipment. Where had he acquired all this? Stolen from the Confed? Tai’s blood boiled and surged again, and he repeated Perrin’s words in his head—not the time. Stopping the mercs came first.
He watched in amusement as Perrin selected a stunner with two extra power cells, a belt full of grenades, a plasma knife, and a gauntlet that emitted a charge strong enough to knock a person out.
He savored her enjoyment as she strapped them on before he remembered she might use those weapons on him soon. He helped himself to his own selection.
“I knew I missed you,” she said.
“Really?” Kel asked.
She patted the new stunner strapped to her thigh. “Of course. You know I love having a gun.”
Tai snorted at the disappointment on Kel’s face. His old friend didn’t seem to agree with Tai that Perrin looked extra hot loaded with weapons.
“Fourteen mercs,” Kel said. “Plus one of the scientists is on their side, the younger man.”
“Okay,” Tai said. “Fifteen hostiles. We go in through the airlock, the way the scavs did to us. Take control of the device in the engine room, then the bridge. If we find the scientists on the way, they can help us with the device.” He turned to Kel. “You only have one gas mask?”
Kel nodded.
“Then I’ll go first. Perrin next.”
“P should stay behind,” Kel said. “It’s too dangerous.”
She whirled on him. “I can take care of myself.”
Kel met her gaze. “I know you can. Who taught you those self-defense moves? But I’d feel better if I didn’t have to worry about you.”
“I’d feel better if you let me make my own decisions.”
“Enough,” Tai said, trying not to imagine Kel and Perrin sweaty and grappling as he taught her self-defense. “Perrin’s the best shot. And she’s right, she can handle it.”
“Thank you.”
Kel raised his eyebrows at Tai. “I see you found a new partner.”
Tai wouldn’t go that far. Not anymore. “Considering my old one sold me out, hardly. She’ll complain if she isn’t part of the action.”
Perrin wrinkled her nose.
“Stay here—” he told Kel.
“Where’s he gonna go?” Perrin asked. “We’re in a wormhole.”
“I was going to say,” Tai fought the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, “stay here and dampen communications throughout the ship. Then the mercs can’t warn each other we’re coming.”
Kel nodded. “Good plan.”
“Oh. Okay.” Perrin checked her stunner. “Ready.”
Tai led the way to the airlock, throwing a gas grenade into the mercs’ hallway. It clattered and rolled, bouncing with the shaking of the ship. A cloud filled the corridor, and he ducked back, tugging the gas mask over his mouth.
A few seconds later, he tossed out a decoy to see if anyone still shot. Two did, so he followed the gas with a concussive grenade.
After the flare of light faded, he and Perrin advanced, weapons raised, him with the gas mask around his neck, though he’d given the night vision goggles to Perrin. If the mercs cut power, he’d rather her be able to see to shoot.
They passed four unconscious bodies, and Tai kept count in his head. Eleven left—ten mercs, plus the evil scientist.
Perrin knelt next to each with a hypo-needle she’d found filled with a tranquilizer similar to what he suspected filled her darts. She jabbed each merc in the neck to make sure they didn’t wake.
The ship shook and rattled hard enough to send Tai stumbling into a wall.
He sure hoped the pilot knew what he was doing. He didn’t remember the wormhole being this bad before. But Perrin had been at the controls then.
Shots came from around the next corner.
He and Perrin worked as a team, switching off firing. She tossed a grenade, but the mercs were prepared this time. Two charged.
Tai concentrated on the larger, while the suspicious woman from earlier swung at Perrin. He ducked a blow, jabbed his elbow. The ship shuddered, sending him and the merc into a bulkhead. He took a blow to the kidney. The hallway didn’t allow much room to maneuver. The merc drew a knife. Tai swung his plasma rifle up, dodged the knife, and used the butt of the weapon to knock the man out.
He spun in time to watch Perrin shock the woman with her gauntlet. The second merc stiffened and crumpled to the floor.
He nodded at Perrin, and she nodded back.
Nine to go.
She covered the hall while he used a scanner to access the ship’s specs and locate the remaining mercs.
“Three life signs on the bridge, three in the engine room, one outside what I assume is a brig, with three more inside, likely the scientists. And two heading our way.”
He pointed to the hallway that branched to the right. They pressed themselves against the wall. Tai watched the mercs’ progress on the scanner. Mouthed “three, two, one.” Perrin let another grenade fly. After the light flare faded, the dots on the screen stopped moving. He raised his gun and peeked around the corner. Two more soldiers were down.
Despite his anger at his friend, Tai admired the thorough job Kel had done stocking his armory. The grenades were handy.
Another roll of the ship sent them sprawling.
“Sure you don’t want to take the bridge?” Perrin asked as she climbed to her feet.
“Might be a bad idea while we’re inside a wormhole, incapacitating the person at the controls.”
The ship jerked and shook.
“On the other hand,” he said, “if we go now, you can take over. You fly much better than whatever idiot they have up there.”
“Aw, I’m flattered. I’m at least one step above idiot.” Perrin tapped the bulkhead with her fist. “This ship is solid, but the pilot obviously doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
How incompetent was he? Tai recalled the burnt-out prism core. The multiple parts that broke on their ship last time. The asteroids that waited on the other side. He’d been so focused on the mercs, he’d forgotten the other dangers.
Perrin put a hand on his arm. “I’m sure we’ll be fine. They have scientists on board who have been studying the wormholes. They know what they’re doing.”
For a moment, Tai allowed himself to enjoy the touch of her hand, gentle on his forearm, and the understanding in her eyes. He appreciated her attempt to reassure him. But he swallowed and stepped away. He didn’t need another reminder of how much he liked her, not when their next stop was the engine room—where she wanted to destroy the evidence he needed to hand over to his mom.
Engine room it was, no matter how terrible the current pilot.
He checked the scanner again.
“Looks like the brig is on the way to the engine room. We’ll start there in case we need the scientists to help us disconnect the device.”
She followed, stopping to peer out a window where the wormhole blinked and pulsed. Tai averted his gaze from the colors and the girl who loved them.
Tai watched for life signs on his scanner as they advanced. Perrin kept her stunner raised. When he signaled, she whirled around the corner and shot the guard outside the brig.
The holding cell had a standard energy barrier. Three scientists—the older woman and the middle-aged man and woman—sat in the small space, watching him cautiously.
Tai located the controls and deactivated it, but the scientists made no move to stand.
“You’re free now,” he said. “We’re here to stop the mercs. Most of them are already unconscious.”
The older woman lowered her chin and stared at him. “How do we know you’re any better?”
The man nodded. “Yes, what do you plan to do with the device?”
Tai studied their expressions, wondering what answer they wanted.
“That’s sadly still up for debate,” Perrin said before Tai could reply. “But I will do my best to make sure not a single wormhole is harmed.” She leveled Tai with a challenging glare.
“Who do you work for?” the older woman asked her.
“Myself,” Perrin said.
The woman turned to Tai. “And you?”
Tai didn’t want to tell them. They probably saw him as no different from the mercenaries. In the past, saying he was with the Confed made him proud, convinced he was one of the good guys. But he suspected these scientists might not see it that way.
“What would you have done with your device?” he asked instead of answering.
The man set his jaw, met Tai’s gaze. “We intended to destroy our research, before York sold us out to mercenaries.”
A spark of surprise flashed through him. “You’d delete your life’s work?”
The woman, who seemed to be the leader, finally stood, although she remained in the cell. “We don’t want to be responsible for unleashing that technology on the galaxy. Better to sacrifice our efforts than risk what might be done with our discovery.”
Perrin’s eyes shone with admiration.
Hesitation hummed in Tai’s chest. Kel was willing to risk revealing himself and getting caught committing treason. These brilliant people were ready to give up years of work. He recognized the power of this tech, but surely they were being overly cautious. Weren’t they?
“I can’t make any promises,” he said, “but we do need to disconnect the device so they can’t use it. Now. Will you come with us to the engine room?”
The three exchanged glances, a silent conversation, before the older woman led the way out. “We’ll help.”
Tai debated giving one of his stunners to the scientists to guard their backs, but decided he’d rather leave one side unprotected than give them a tool to use against him. He was already nervous that Perrin had weapons, but he needed her and had no choice. She kept her gun pointed ahead while Tai checked the scanner. Three people still in the engine room. But they couldn’t risk a grenade around the equipment.
He assumed Perrin wouldn’t be foolish enough to fire at the device while it was attached to the ship.
He motioned the scientists to stay back and nodded at Perrin. They dove into the room. She rolled and came up firing, taking out two men standing over a console.
Tai ducked behind another console and aimed. The last scientist, the traitor, stood next to the wormhole-killing device. Tai lined up his shot carefully before stunning the man. Then hurried to the device.
