Chapter 41
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Evelyn raced behind Aiden as he took off toward the bridge, alarms blaring and lights flashing.
“L.I.N.D.A., zoom in on that ship,” Cairn was saying, fingers flashing across his control deck. The view screen showed a small blob moving in the distance. The computer amplified the image, blowing up the blob into a detailed rendering of a ship. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aiden pale.
The rest of the crew and Mathias rushed onto the bridge in twos and threes. Evelyn saw Veselko flip a switch and expose a panel that looked to be the controls for the ship’s defense system.
“Ship is registered to the Mystic Morsels company.”
Nannette glared at Mathias. “Didn’t see this coming?”
He was staring into space, eyes fuzzed. Seeing.
“Well, they’ve found us. Any ideas how?” Aiden asked, turning toward Lillian. She was scrolling through a tablet furiously. Evelyn watched Cairn bring up the shield settings, maxing them out as the ship on the screen got closer.
“Likely there was a bug in the comm call. Shouldn’t have gotten through; I patched that hole in the last system update,” she muttered. “Ivan’s not that savvy.”
Tariel looked sheepish. “I may have, uh, not updated my communicator.”
Lillian glared at him over the top of her tablet. “Excuse me?”
“May have?” Elenor sputtered.
“It always wants to update when I’m about to do something else. So I click the ‘later’ button and go back to whatever I was doing.”
“If we all die because you’re addicted to communicator games, I will find you in the afterlife and stalk you forever,” Lillian said, pointing her tablet at him menacingly.
“I will follow you with a spectral kazoo and give you the most humiliating theme song imaginable for all eternity.” She shook her head before going back to typing on her tablet.
Evelyn bit her cheek to stop from laughing at the threat. Aiden was hunched over next to Cairn, discussing evasive maneuvers. The Dawn lurched, changing directions abruptly as they attempted to lose their pursuers. Cairn’s hula dancer bobbled furiously from its mount on the helm.
“Can’t we just jump?” Nannette asked.
“Need to prime the system. We’ve plenty of fuel, but it’s going to take a few before we’d be able to spin up that engine, plus a shit ton of math and chart verification to make sure we don’t wind up colliding with anything,” Cairn said.
“I’m programming a path to confuse their ship’s systems so I can go do all that bloody calculating and get us out of here, but it’s going to take a beat. ”
Evelyn bit her lower lip, her eyes on the view screen. The ship had corrected course and was following the turns the Dawn had made while trying to make up the distance. She felt a warm hand grasp hers and turned her head to see Veronique.
“He’s really quite good at this, cher. Don’t worry,” she said.
Evelyn nodded. She’d never doubted any of their abilities.
They were obviously capable and resilient.
One couldn’t successfully smuggle under the eyes of the GPC for years without getting caught otherwise.
But Aiden and Veronique had been very wary of this Pearl person, and Evelyn didn’t think it wise to take their concerns lightly.
As she stood and stewed, Aiden called out coordinates, doublechecking Cairn’s preset evasive plans with him.
Evelyn’s stomach was churning, the constant jostling of the Dawn taking a physical toll while the looming ship on the view screen took a mental one.
The combination was a dreadful lullaby, and she was drifting into a state of melancholic peace as she berated herself for getting the crew into this position.
One more fucked situation that’s all my fault.
The entire ship jolted as the first strike hit the shields.
“Shields at seventy-five percent,” L.I.N.D.A. informed them. “Automated jump logistics paused.”
“Unbe-fucking-lievable,” Veselko muttered under his breath. His fingers flew over the controls as he sent a return volley to the pursuit ship.
“They took the contract. They’re gonna follow through,” Nannette said, her tone grim. She was still staring at Mathias. He was sitting in one of the passenger chairs, staring into space. His head was tilted to the side.
Evelyn decided not to panic until the precognitive did. Surely if he saw their impending doom, he’d make a face that betrayed something other than concentration. She realized she was still holding Veronique’s hand and squeezed it.
A hail alert popped up on the view screen. Aiden denied it. “Fuck off,” he muttered, swiping furiously at the controls.
Elenor, Nannette, and Tariel departed for the armory to gather weapons lest the Dawn be boarded. They wanted everyone armed to the teeth in case the Twins tried to breach the ship.
Evelyn privately thought they were overreacting a little. She knew the power of a reputation, knew how it could do ninety percent of the heavy lifting in a situation if one knew how to wield it properly.
They’re two people. How bad could they possibly be?
But she also knew Nannette felt better armed for bear, and if hauling around blasters and knives made her feel better, she wasn’t going to stop her.
The ship rocked from another hit, the Twins’ smaller vessel gaining on the Dawn quickly as they shook off course from the impact.
“Shields down to sixty-five percent,” L.I.N.D.A. informed them.
Cairn let out an impressive stream of curses as he turned from his calculations. Veronique’s grip on Evelyn’s hand tightened. Veselko lined up another shot and fired. The shot hit, but did nothing to deter the smaller vessel. Their ship was closing in quickly, closer every time Evelyn blinked.
She felt so fucking helpless. She wanted to do something.
She looked across the bridge at Mathias.
His eyes were refocused. He had crossed his legs and folded his hands neatly in his lap.
He looked like he was waiting for a bus, patient expectation the only expression on his face.
The others had returned with the weapons and had begun passing them out.
Evelyn tucked a blaster into the band of her pants.
Another hail came across the screen. This time, Aiden answered it. A beautiful woman’s face filled the screen, her glowing brown skin illuminated by the flashing lights of her own ship’s warning system.
“Fuck off, Pearl,” Aiden said. “I’m a little busy.”
“Just hand over the princess, Aiden. Hand her over, and you and yours can be on your way. Lillian’s spent so much time retrofitting that ship, I don’t want to see all her hard work go to waste.”
“Fuck off, Pearl,” chorused the crew of the Dawn.
“Evelyn is mine. So you and Ivan can have fun chasing us around the galaxy until the heat death of the universe. I will not be handing her over anytime soon,” Aiden said.
His arms were crossed, eyes blazing. Pearl arched an eyebrow.
Evelyn was very glad she wasn’t in the camera view; her cheeks were on fire.
One thing about this man, he doesn’t know the meaning of hard to get.
“See ya,” Aiden said, and cut the connection.
Veselko shot at the ship again.
“Cairn, how are we looking?” Aiden asked.
“Better than before L.I.N.D.A. paused the jump proceedings. I bypassed, got the mechanism charged. It’s ready to go, but if the shields fail before I can finish the maths, they’ll be able to board.
I’d like a little more distance and a clear path,” he said, wrapping a hand around the back of his neck. “We could jump, but it would be risky.”
Aiden nodded. “Their ship’s so small, it’s easy to keep getting in the way.”
Evelyn felt Mathias’s eyes on her, burning into the back of her head.
For fuck’s sake just tell me, seer.
“Brace for impact,” L.I.N.D.A. said. “Laser-cannon fire incoming.”
Veronique’s grip was so tight, she was crushing the bones of Evelyn’s hand.
Heart racing, Evelyn gripped the chair in front of her and widened her stance.
She was still thrown off her feet when the blow hit.
Veronique’s elbow wound up in Evelyn’s ribs, her knee had met the other woman’s chin.
The lights in the room turned red in warning as the ship’s shields fell.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Cairn chorused as he left his calculations to regain control of the helm. The bottom of Evelyn’s stomach dropped out.
All my fault.
Mathias nudged her.
She looked up at him from the floor with a scowl. “Gonna clue me in? I’ve felt you trying to bore into my skull for the last ten minutes.”
“Generally I don’t like to give spoilers, but in the essence of expediency, I’ll make an exception,” he said. He cleared his throat. “Sure was a nice display of flora in that lobby.”
She stared at him. “What fucking good is that going to do?”
“Cairn seems to want shields back pretty badly.” The ship rocked as Cairn maneuvered them out of the way of the next blow.
When she realized what he was suggesting, she gaped at him. “He loves those plants,” Evelyn protested.
“Cher, I assure you, he loves being alive more,” Veronique said. “He’ll get over it. I’ll fuck him into a state of forgiveness.”
“This is insane,” she said, but she scrambled up from the floor and ran into the lobby.
The beautiful, lush plant life filling the atrium pulsed with a sprawling net of chaotic energy that momentarily stopped her in her tracks.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
She approached the central display and brushed a finger down a leaf. The glossy green frond was so smooth under her skin. Evelyn pressed her palm to the plant and closed her eyes.
She pulled, but the strands of power thrashed against her, unwilling to leave their place in the universe. Energy this alive didn’t want to vacate the place it was rooted.
The alarms blared loudly in her ears. They didn’t have time for this. Evelyn crushed the sympathy she had for Cairn’s beautiful botanical display and forced her power to dominate the energy in the room.