Chapter 13
Vesh
The trap was waiting at the Gate. We cleared the last debris field and found twelve Scythe interceptors between us and Velerion space. Weapons hot. Formation spread wide enough to cover every approach. Waiting for us. Priya stared at the tactical display. “That’s more than three.”
“Twelve.”
“On a scale of one to we’re-definitely-going-to-die?”
“Eleven.”
She looked at me. “You made a joke.”
“No.”
“That was absolutely a joke.”
The lead interceptors began to move.
“Celebrate later,” I said.
The Wraith had no weapons, one damaged engine, and seven percent core power after the final run.
We could not fight twelve ships. We could not even outrun one.
More important, no one knew we would be approaching from this direction.
Not command. Not Wroxxon. Not even General Aryk.
This was my private detour through unmonitored space. The interceptors shouldn't be here.
“They didn’t get the route from the traitor,” Priya said. "This wasn't on any mission briefs. So how did they find us?”
"I don't know." I opened every transmission record from the last eight hours.
The Wraith had remained silent. No active sensors.
No navigation handshake. No contact with Alliance systems. Another encrypted pulse left our hull.
It lasted less than a tenth of a second.
The Scythes adjusted formation immediately.
“There,” I said.
Priya saw it. “We’re transmitting.”
“A command-frequency burst. Buried deep inside our systems.”
“Can you shut it off?”
I tried. The system rejected my authorization, which should have been impossible. It was my fucking ship. “No.”
“Then cut the transmitter out. Unplug it. Something."
“It is integrated into the ship's core computers. If I disable it, we lose everything. Engines. Navigational control. Life support.”
“So the traitor didn’t even need the mission briefs. It sabotaged the ship. Probably every ship."
The implications were staggering. The same tracker could have been inside the ship when Tavik died.
And during every solo mission after. Six years spent believing I could hide while someone inside our own command always knew where to find me.
I did not have time to be angry. The lead Scythe came within weapons range.
“Incoming.” Priya rolled the Wraith as the first volley crossed our bow. The engine groaned. Warning lights filled her display.
“Core at six percent,” I said.
“Find me a way out of here.”
There wasn’t one. The interceptors had built their formation perfectly.
Four covering the Gate. Four moving toward us.
Four holding wide to prevent an escape into the debris field.
We could turn around and go back the way we came, but we'd be dead in a few hours.
We didn't have the power reserves to last long.
The Wraith shook as another shot clipped our damaged side.
“Hull pressure dropping,” I said.
“How long 'til the air is gone?”
“Four minutes. If they don't hit us again.”
Priya’s hands tightened on the controls. “We didn’t come this far to die now.”
“No.”
I copied the shipyard recording and all of our mission data into the pilot's escape capsule. The status indicator turned green, ready to launch. Priya saw it.
“What are you doing?”
“Preparing a second option.”
“We agreed. No deciding for both of us.”
“I remember.”
“Then stop.”
I did not. The Wraith’s individual crew capsules could survive a Gate transit.
Priya’s launch rail remained functional.
Mine had been destroyed with the starboard wing.
Her capsule was small, fast, and coated in the same scan-absorbing alloy as the Wraith.
Once it separated from the ship, the Scythes would have difficulty seeing it.
She would be nearly invisible and moving at incredible speed.
They Scythe wouldn't be able to stop the capsule from reaching the Gate.
Especially if every one of them was looking at me.
“All of our ReCon data is loaded into the escape capsule,” I said. “The navigation system is locked on the Gate.”
“Turn it off.”
“No.”
“Vesh.”
“When I give the command, you launch.”
“No. I'm not leaving you." Her fear hit me through our bond. Sharp. Immediate. Mine rose in response. Not fear for me. Fear of losing her. Watching her die. I couldn't do that. Not again.
“Priya, listen to me.”
“I'm listening. I’m also not leaving.”
“The Wraith is transmitting our position. Your capsule will not. I can overload the core and make this ship bright enough to draw the entire formation. You take the recording through the Gate.”
“And you?”
“I keep them occupied.”
“With no weapons.”
“They do not know we are empty.”
“For how long?”
I did not answer.
“For how long, Vesh?”
“Long enough.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is the only one I have.”
She released the controls and turned toward me. “No. You do not get to do this. Tavik put his side of the cockpit between you and a gun, and it destroyed you. Now you want to put me in a pod and make me watch you do exactly the same thing? No.”
“Tavik saved my life.”
“And broke your heart.”
“Both can be true.”
“We go through together or not at all.”
“Then the data dies with us.”
“We’ll find another way.”
“There is no other way.”
She flinched. I hated the words. I hated the truth more. The interceptors fired again. Priya grabbed the controls and dove beneath the volley. The Wraith’s hull screamed.
“Core at five percent,” I said. “Three minutes of air.”
“I can make the Gate.”
“No.”
“Twelve ships. No weapons. One engine. The formation is complete.”
“Then help me break it.”
“I am.”
I armed her escape capsule. The harness locked across her chest and hips. Priya looked down, then at me.
“Unlock it.”
“I cannot.”
“Liar.” She fought the harness. The emergency system held. “Vesh, don’t.”
I took control of the Wraith and turned us away from the Gate. The four approaching Scythes changed course to follow us.
“The plan will work,” I said. “I will head toward the debris field. When they break formation to follow, the Gate will be exposed. Your capsule launches and runs straight through.”
“I don’t care about the plan.”
“I know.”
“I care about you.”
“I know that, too.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Then don’t leave me.” The words nearly destroyed what discipline I had left. I reached across the console and took her face in my hand.
“You taught me how to want a life again,” I said. “You taught me that needing someone is not weakness. I believe you. This is not me choosing to be alone. This is me making sure the woman I love survives.”
“I will hate you.”
“No, you will not.”
“I will try.”
“You are very determined.”
Her breath broke on something between a laugh and a sob.
The bond carried all of it. Her terror. Her anger.
Her love. I leaned across the console and kissed her.
She kissed me back like she could hold me in the cockpit with her mouth.
Her hands caught my uniform. I let myself have one second.
Two. The core alarm sounded. I pulled away.
“The data has to reach command,” I said. “Raya’s new ship could destroy Velerion. The tracker data proves there is a traitor on the inside. If we both die, they'll never know.”
“Send the recording without me.”
“The capsule needs a pilot after the Gate transit.”
“Vesh—”
“And I cannot fly your body home.” My voice cracked on the final word. Priya stopped fighting the harness. “I cannot,” I said again. “I have done it once. I will not do it with you.”
“So you’re making me do it?”
“No. I intend to survive.”
“Liar.”
The Scythes closed behind us. I increased the core output beyond every safety limit. The Wraith’s signature flared across the tactical display. Large. Bright. Impossible to ignore. The enemy fighter formation at the Gate began to shift.
“They’re following,” Priya said.
“Yes.”
“Vesh, please.”
I put my hand over hers on the capsule control. “I love you.”
“I love you too. That’s why you can’t—”
“Find the traitor. Stop Raya. Live.”
I launched her capsule. The protective shell closed around her seat.
Explosive bolts fired. The pod shot away from the Wraith and disappeared from my damaged sensors.
The bond did not let her disappear from me.
Her scream tore me to pieces as I turned the Wraith toward the debris field and opened every channel.
“Xandraxian patrol,” I transmitted. “This is Lieutenant Vesh of Velerion. Your formation is slow, your pilots are predictable, and Queen Raya is a coward. Come and prove me wrong.”
Eight Scythes broke formation and turned toward me. Four remained at the Gate.
“Excellent,” I said.
I drove the engine to full power. The Wraith entered the debris field with weapons fire behind her.
I flew the narrowest gaps, using rock and the last of my maneuvering jets to keep the interceptors focused on the bright signal from my core.
One shot struck the aft compartment. Another removed what remained of the starboard wing. The Wraith kept flying.
Through the bond, I felt Priya moving away from the fight. Fast. Terrified. Alive. The first Scythe followed me between two rotating slabs of rock. I rolled at the last second. It did not. The explosion consumed the ship behind it. Ten remained.
My sensor display failed. I flew on instinct and what little I could see outside the ship's canopy, tried to sense the debris moving around me. An enemy round tore through the cockpit wall. Air screamed out through the breach. Emergency seals deployed, too slow to stop the pressure loss.
The Gate flashed at the edge of the remaining display. One small pod approached it. Priya. The last four Scythes holding the Gate finally noticed her. They turned. Too late.
I overloaded the core. The Wraith lit the system like a homing beacon.
Priya’s pod reached the Gate. For one second, the completed bond blazed between us. Love. Fury. Fear. A promise that this was not over.
Then the Gate took her.
She was through.
I smiled and turned the Wraith back toward the fight.