Rogue’s Gambit

Rogue Star: Book Eleven

Ava York

Contents

Indira

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Epilogue: Indira

Letter from Ava

Indira

Captain Dejar rounded the corner with a scowl marring his usually kind face. I had been listening to the quiet hum of the ship as we maintained orbit around Mars, but Dejar’s heavy breathing was enough to shake me out of my reverie.

“Captain,” I nodded, falling into step with him. He returned my greeting with only a grunt of acknowledgment. Undeterred, I carried on.

“I was wondering if we are going to meet soon,” I said. “I’m anxious to know our next steps.”

He said nothing in response. I bit my cheek to quell my rising irritation. I followed him, not realizing he was walking to the quarters he shared with Kalyn until he stopped before the doorway.

“It would be unwise to follow me further,” he growled. I took a step back.

“Apologies,” I muttered.

I turned on my heel and walked away. I heard the door to Dejar and Kalyn’s chambers open. From inside, I could just barely make out the muffled sound of Kalyn crying. My heart broke for her.

It was only natural that she’d be so distraught. Her mother had helped organize the most devastating attack the Terran System had ever known.

Weeks ago, we’d discovered that Kalyn’s mother, Adastria, had helped arrange the destruction of the Persephone Station as some kind of twisted first act of an alliance with the Dominion. Adastria wanted the Terran System to be included within Dominion space and was willing to offer up her own daughter’s life to do it.

When that was discovered, Kalyn was crushed. It took some time, but she rallied. Returning to the Terran System was tougher for her than it was for the rest of us, for obvious reasons. She didn’t see Adastria as her mother anymore. She saw her as an enemy and a threat.

All of us onboard the Rogue Star figured that Adastria had already betrayed us, and the Terran System, once so it couldn’t get any worse. How stupid of us.

Kalyn recovered from the shock of her mother’s betrayal once, but couldn’t do it a second time. Not when her mother was responsible for so many lives lost.

I fought the urge to turn back at the sound of her soft sobs. Dejar quickly closed the door. I lingered in the corridor for a few moments, unsure of what to do.

In the end, I decided to go to the dining hall. Most of the Persephone women convened there since all of our rooms were too cramped to be good for anything other than sleeping.

I entered the hall to find clusters of silent and furious women sitting at empty tables. There was usually an endless stream of food coming from the kitchen. Right now, there was nothing.

“We need to do something,” I blurted because I could think of nothing else to say.

Maris barked out a dry laugh. Xyla looked at me with dull interest before a glower took over her features again.

“The captain hasn’t given orders,” Aryn said. “There’s not much we can do until then.”

“Bullshit,” I groaned. “The captain and our commander are just as shaken as we are. We can’t rely on them to give orders right now.”

“There’s a little thing called the chain of command,” Maris said. “We follow it for a reason.”

Maris was the last person I’d ever expect to reference respecting a chain of command.

“Besides, the captain’s made it clear that we’re going after the Dominion,” Lynna piped up.

“We have a single ship,” I exclaimed. “Going after the entirety of the Dominion is a fool’s errand at best and a suicide mission at worst.”

“If you want to get the captain in here to speak, go for it. Until then, I’m not doing anything without orders.”

“Kalyn is in no position to give orders and the captain is going to let his anger get the best of him,” I argued.

“No one is saying you’re wrong,” Shenna said as she absentmindedly petted one of her creatures. “We’re all shaken. It’s difficult to get organized when our leader is just as shaken as we are.”

I tapped my foot as my mind raced to come up with some kind of solution. I couldn’t take another day of waiting around for something to happen.

“Kalyn is our Commander.” I perked up as an idea came to me.

“Very good,” Aryn smirked.

“Commanders always have a second-in-command. Kalyn never elected one,” I went on. “Kalyn’s second-in-command could make decisions for her while she’s indisposed.”

“Why don’t you do it?” Lynna suggested.

“I’m not qualified,” I stammered. “Kalyn’s supposed to choose her second. What about Shenna? Or Aryn?”

“Kalyn’s not speaking to anyone but Dejar right now,” Maris pointed out. “Dejar is ready to combust at any moment. And they don’t have the presence that you do.”

“Let’s speak to Aavat, then,” I said. “He’s the First Mate. He’s allowed to make decisions in the captain’s absence.”

“He’s not technically absent, though,” Shenna pointed out.

“He’s absent enough,” I replied. “Shall we speak to Aavat?”

The Persephone women agreed. I couldn’t help but smile. Finally, something was happening. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. I’d be happy with that for now.

Bana

One week after the Dominion attack and I was so busy it was amazing my hands had not fallen off yet. I was carrying a load of scrap metal salvaged from parts of the wrecked city to the warehouse we had been working out of. A few small ships from the human fleet were harbored inside the warehouse.

Jik, a Gaed mechanic who’d been glued to my side for the last five days, rushed up to me.

“Those won’t do,” he sighed heavily, and pressed his hands against his slightly bulbous eyes. “That one’s too rusted. That one’s cracked. That one wouldn’t withstand the pressure of air travel. Honestly, have you ever built a ship before?”

“Built with my bare hands? No,” I shook my head.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Designed several models from little space Skimmers all the way up to intergalactic dreadnoughts? Absolutely,” I smirked. “What do you think I did before I became a soldier?”

“I don’t think about you often enough to ponder it,” Jik replied. I tipped my head back and laughed. The longer our days got, the more irritable Jik got. Pushing his buttons was one of my few sources of entertainment. I tried not to do it too often, but he couldn’t seem to help creating perfect opportunities.

“Any chance you could convince the humans to hand over their blueprints as we help them try and rebuild their fleet?” I asked. “Unless I have something to go off, I’ll just keep bringing back scrap, hoping it fits our needs. I’m not familiar with human metals and building techniques.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Jik said. “But you can’t blame the humans for being guarded.”

“I don’t,” I sighed heavily.

Aliens from another galaxy, a galaxy most of the humans hadn’t even known existed, swooped down and destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives in the blink of an eye. Even though no one in the Rogue Star crew had anything to do with the attack, I could understand the human’s reluctance not to give proprietary information out to aliens.

“I could try repair techniques I’m already familiar with,” I offered. “But there are no guarantees the human ships will be able to withstand them.”

“Better not.” Jik clicked his forked tongue. “There’s no reason to strain their already limited resources.”

“Fair enough.” I put my hands on my hips. “You know, even if you were to secure the blueprints, I don’t think this fleet will be operational for months. That’s even assuming we get the necessary materials.”

“Which we probably won’t,” Jik finished my thought. “It’s looking rather hopeless, isn’t it?”

“Don’t say that,” a voice came from behind me. I turned to find Commander Aavat.

“Don’t look so surprised to see me,” he chuckled when he got a look at my expression.

“Sorry, sir. I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”

“I know. I’ve been locked in meetings with everyone under the Terran sun. Dejar is still tending to personal affairs,” he said tactfully.

“I understand.”

The familiar wash of rage swept through my mind and, like always, I pushed it back. Not now. Not ever.

“Are things really as hopeless as our ever-optimistic Jik seems to think?” Aavat gave Jik a friendly clap on the shoulder, which Jik didn’t seem to appreciate, though he said nothing.

“It’s looking that way, sir,” I nodded.

“In that case, I hope you won’t mind if I pull you to another, more pressing assignment.”

“I’ll do whatever you need me to do,” I shrugged. Truthfully, a change of scenery sounded nice. One more day in this warehouse with Jik for company was going to drive me insane.

“I need you to go to the Hark System.”

My eyebrows shot up. I wasn’t expecting that big of a scenery change.

“Sounds exciting.”

“It is. We know the Dominion is going to target the Hark System next. We have proof. I want you to bring the proof to whoever is in charge over there and negotiate an alliance,” Aavat explained.

“I’d be honored to, sir,” I stammered. “But why me? Surely you have someone more qualified.”

“This is Dejar’s area of expertise,” Aavat said heavily. “He’s not in the right mindset to negotiate anything, and time is short. I respect your talents as a soldier and as an engineer, but what I need right now are your interpersonal relationship skills.”

“I have interpersonal relationship skills?” I blinked.

“You’re not an asshole,” Aavat shrugged. “That’s good enough for me right now.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment, sir.”

“Does that mean you accept?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Great.” Aavat clapped me on the shoulder. “Follow me back to the Rogue Star. There’s some debriefing that needs to be done. And you’ll need to get to know your team.”

“My team?”

“Of course,” Aavat said over his shoulder as he started walking out of the warehouse. “You didn’t think you were going by yourself, did you?”

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the mission itself, sir,” I admitted as I fell into step beside him. “Does the Hark System know we’re coming?”

“We’ve tried to get a message out to them, but we don’t want to risk alerting the Dominion either,” Aavat explained. “It’s likely going to be a surprise visit.”

“How do we know they won’t react in a hostile manner?”

“We don’t. But you have aerial combat and ground combat training, so you should be fine.”

Fantastic.

Aavat and I boarded the Rogue Star. The usual flurry of activity I expected to see on the ship was absent. He led me into a small meeting room. To my surprise, Indira sat in one of the chairs. When she saw me, she smiled. I grinned back.

She and I had been friends since the humans came aboard the ship. None of the women had trusted us Shein at the time. Indira didn’t either, but she was also smart enough to realize that playing nice would get her farther.

She sat next to me in the dining hall one day and started talking to me about my tattoos. I believed her curiosity to be genuine at the time. From then on, we ate together often. A friendship formed. Though, if I was being honest, I had felt something more than friendship for her for a long time now.

She wasn’t interested. If she was, I would’ve noticed. It was for the best, I supposed. Now wasn’t the time to lose focus. Still, I was happy to see her.

“Indira,” I grinned. “What brings you here?”

“Aavat has an assignment for me.” She was practically wiggling with excitement. Indira didn’t like to sit still for too long. Sitting on the Rogue Star for the last week must’ve been torture for her.

“What a coincidence.” I took the seat next to her and looked at Aavat.

“I told you that you weren’t going alone,” Aavat said to me.

“I believe you said the word ‘team’,” I replied.

“Two is a team. Besides, the only transport we could scrounge up that has more than one seat and room for enough provisions to get you to the Hark System isn’t very big.”

“The Hark System?” Indira shot up in her seat. “That’s on the other side of Dominion space from here, isn’t it?” I couldn’t miss the spark of excitement in her eyes.

“That’s right,” Aavat nodded. “I need you-”

“That’s so exciting!” she gushed and turned to me. “Have you been there before? What’s it like?”

“I’ve never been,” I told her. “I’m excited to see what it’s like.”

“What do you think they eat there?” she wondered. “I hope it’s human-friendly.”

“If you don’t mind,” Aavat spoke up, “I’d like to continue with the briefing.”

“Right.” Indira shrunk down in her seat and gave Aavat a shy smile. “Carry on.”

“Why, thank you,” Aavat gave a mock bow. “There’s one stop you’ll need to make after the Hark System.”

“We get to go somewhere else, too?” Indira blurted excitedly. I fought to hold back my smile.

“You’ll be going to Tola,” Aavat replied. “That’s where you’ll find the rest of your team.”

“Aren’t Wyann and Paila in Tola?” I asked.

“That’s right. They’ve been lying low, but now is the perfect opportunity to retrieve them,” Aavat explained.

“I agree,” I nodded. “Any extraction procedure you’d like us to follow?”

“Trust your gut. I don’t know what you’ll be facing when you get there.”

“When do we leave? I can’t wait to get started!” Indira was already out of her seat, ready to get going right then and there.

“Be ready in two hours,” Aavat instructed. “The vessel you’re taking is still being fine-tuned.”

“The vessel took damage during the Dominion attack?” I asked.

“Yes, but everything should be fine.”

“Famous last words,” Indira snorted.

“Are you sure you want to go?” I asked her. “It sounds like it’s going to be dangerous.”

Hurt flickered in her eyes, but she quickly covered it up with a bright grin.

“Are you kidding? I’ve been pestering Aavat all week for something to do. Isn’t that right?” She turned to Aavat with a smug smile.

“That’s right.” Aavat suddenly looked weary. Indira must’ve worn him down. “She’s technically the second-in-command now, after Kalyn.”

“Is that so?” I turned back to Indira. “Congratulations on your new title.”

“It’s not that big a deal,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand, but I could see how proud she was under her demure exterior.

“I disagree,” Aavat said. “Kalyn won’t be up for much. The women will look to you now.”

“All the more reason to sit this one out,” I warned her. As much as I wanted her to come along, I couldn’t stand the idea of putting her in danger.

She’d escaped the clutches of the Dominion once, after all

“Aavat asked me specifically.” There was an edge in her voice now, though her smile didn’t falter. “I’m going.”

Panic flared in my chest. I’d just have to keep her safe, whether she liked it or not.

I forced a smile. “In that case, I’ll see you in two hours.”

I reached out to shake her hand, which she shook with a confused look.

“See you then,” she replied, and left the room.

“What was that?” Aavat asked once we were alone.

That was my past bleeding into my present.

I sighed. “That was me being an idiot.”

Indira

Well, that was weird.

It almost sounded like Bana didn’t want me to come along. I thought we were friends. Why wouldn’t he want me around?

To be honest, I’d wanted to be more than friends with him since the moment I saw him, but there was never a good time to talk about it. Being wanted criminals and never knowing if we were going to live to see the next day took priority. Not to mention all the shady business with the Dominion and Adastria. It was just one life-threatening distraction after another.

Good thing I hadn’t said anything in the past, now that Bana didn’t appear to want me along. Didn’t he trust my abilities? Granted, he’d never gotten a chance to see me in action, but I was alive, wasn’t I? That counted for something.

I walked into my quarters and looked around. I didn’t have much worth packing. Before I loaded up, I needed to ask Aavat what kind of weapons I should check out from the armory.

A soft knock on my door startled me. I assumed it was Bana, coming to apologize for being so weird in the meeting. Instead, Kalyn stood in my doorway.

“Oh! Commander, I wasn’t expecting you,” I stammered. “Come in. I’d offer you a place to sit, but there isn’t one.”

“It’s fine,” she said with a tight smile. The usual warmth in her expression was gone. It looked like smiling was taxing for her. “I won’t keep you. I know you’re heading out soon.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got time.” I checked the timepiece on my wrist and let out a gasp. “Actually, I have ten minutes. Where did the time go? I have next to nothing to pack!”

“Pack while I talk,” Kalyn urged. “I don’t mind.”

“Thanks.” I flashed her a smile before grabbing a bag I’d made out of a discarded grain sack.

“I have an assignment for you,” she said. I went still and looked up at her, brow furrowed. “It’s to be completed while you’re on your mission for Aavat.”

“What do you need?”

“I want you to tell our story to as many people as you can,” Kalyn said. “Tell them everything, from the Persephone Station to what my mother did. Leave nothing out.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “But why?”

“You’re going to help forge an alliance, right? This will make your case all the more sympathetic,” Kalyn replied.

“But do we want to garner pity? Will that make the Hark System feel secure in an alliance?”

Kalyn’s expression brightened.

“Very good question,” she nodded with approval. “I knew you’d be good at this job.”

“You knew about the assignment?” I asked.

“Who do you think recommended you? Lynna told me about how you’ve been trying to rally the women while I’ve been…recovering.”

“That’s mostly because I can’t stand being idle,” I said with a dismissive wave. “But I appreciate you putting in a good word. I’m so excited for this opportunity.”

“Good. Enthusiasm like yours is hard to come by, especially now.”

I couldn’t help but beam at her words.

“Now, about spinning the right story,” Kalyn moved on. “You’re right. We don’t want to appear downtrodden and pitiful to the Hark System people, but we do want them to understand the devastation the Dominion is capable of.”

“So, be honest but not pathetic?”

“Exactly.” Kalyn smile looked more genuine now. “Consider this a training opportunity.”

“Training?” I tipped my head to one side.

“When you get back, we’ll have work to do,” Kalyn said. “I want to establish an official chain of command when you return.”

“Oh?” I wasn’t sure what else to say.

“Captain Dejar and crew have a distinct chain of command. I’ve seen how beneficial it is to the day-to-day running of the Rogue Star. Every crewmember knows exactly what their place is. I don’t feel like that’s the case for the Persephone women.”

“It’s been difficult knowing what to do lately,” I admitted. “We all felt lost.”

“That’s my fault,” Kalyn let out a sigh.

“No, it’s not,” I said firmly. “You reacted in a natural, totally understandable way to something shocking and painful. None of us hold anything against you. In fact, we’re glad you took time away for yourself.”

“I appreciate that.” Kalyn smiled weakly. I could see tears brimming in her eyes. She looked away suddenly, probably to blink back her tears. My heart went out to her.

“Recent developments aside,” she said with a sniff, “we still need more organization around here.”

“Right,” I said brightly, eager to move on to a subject more productive and less painful than Adastria’s betrayal.

“I’d like your input when you return.”

“Mine?” I blinked in surprise. “Are you sure? Wouldn’t Lynna or Maris be more qualified?”

“Perhaps, but they aren’t the ones who took the initiative. You did.” Kalyn gave me a knowing smile.

“Fair,” I conceded. “But you don’t know me very well. How do you know you’re making the right choice?” I felt foolish for arguing against Kalyn’s wishes, especially when I only stood to benefit from her offer.

“I know you better than you think,” Kalyn replied. “Your mother is a renowned geneticist and she’s passed her gifts on to you. You were set to follow her footsteps when you were sent to the Persephone Station for your sentence. The others regard you as ‘an annoying beam of sunshine’.”

“Excuse me?” I sputtered.

“Maris’s words, not mine,” Kalyn chuckled.

“Oh, in that case, I’m honored,” I laughed. I knew Maris well enough to know that most of her insults were actually compliments. It had taken me forever to figure that out.

“My point is, you’re not as invisible as you think you are. I wouldn’t make this decision based on an isolated incident,” Kalyn continued.

“I’m surprised,” I said. “I didn’t realize you were that-”

“Observant?” Kalyn arched her brow.

“No! I know you’re observant.” I backtracked quickly. “Just, with everything going on, I haven’t been on the front lines or anything. Not like the others have.”

“But you took over the duties of others when they were needed elsewhere. You kept the place running. Why are you making this so difficult?” Kalyn laughed.

“I’m not trying to, I swear!” I placed a hand over my mouth to stifle my giggle. “This is all just such a surprise! I’m grateful for any opportunity you’re willing to throw my way.”

“Good. If things go the way I want them to, there will be more opportunities for everyone. Oh, by the way, it’s been ten minutes.”

“Shit!” I shrieked, threw my bag over my shoulder, and bolted out the door.

“We’ll talk when you get back?” Kalyn called after me.

“Sounds good, Commander!” I shouted over my shoulder.

I ran off the Rogue Star as fast as my legs would carry me.

“Just in time,” Aavat said as I approached. “I was prepared to send them off without you.”

“Commander Kalyn wanted a word with me before I left,” I panted.

“Ah,” Aavat nodded.

“I forgot to check stuff out from the armory,” I suddenly realized.

“Don’t fret. I’ve stocked the ship with everything you might need.” Aavat patted the wall of the cargo bay affectionately. “Are you ready?”

“I think so.”

Aavat knelt down so I could use his leg as a step for climbing into the space vessel. It was a small but streamlined little ship that could be managed either manually by a pilot or run on autopilot if needed.

I threw myself into the first open seat and started digging through my bag, worried I’d forgotten something. After double- and triple-checking everything, I leaned against my seat with a sigh.

“Settled in?”

I jumped at the sound of Bana’s voice. He occupied the seat beside me. I felt like a jerk and an idiot for not noticing him until now.

“Nervous?”

“Just a little,” I replied. I still remembered his odd comments from before.

“I was worried you’d changed your mind,” he said.

“I thought that was what you wanted.” I furrowed my brow.

“No!” he said quickly. “Well, sort of. I don’t want anything to happen to you on this mission, regardless of how capable you are. Trust me, I know you’re capable. I just worry because you’re my friend.” He struggled over the last two words.

“I see,” I said.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “If Aavat hadn’t picked you himself, I would’ve requested you.”

“Really?” I tried to sound casual, but I couldn’t quite pull it off.

“Of course!” Bana grinned. “We’re in for a long flight. I need someone to play crossbrack with.”

“I know some other games we can play,” I suggested.

“You’re just tired of me constantly beating you at crossbrack,” he smirked.

“No,” I insisted even though that was sort of true. “But don’t you want to learn some human games? Hangman is one of my favorites!”

“That sounds violent.” Bana looked concerned. “Is it an appropriate game for such a small location?”

“It’s a word game,” I explained with a barking laugh. “You have to guess the word I’m thinking of before your stick figure dies. But you can only guess one letter at a time.”

“Stick figure?”

“Pass me your datapad.”

Bana handed his datapad over and I opened it up to a blank note page. With my finger, I drew a basic stick figure.

“That’s a stick figure.”

I sketched out the basic outline of a hangman game and made enough dashes to accommodate the word ADVENTURE.

“This is the word I’m thinking of,” I explained. “Each dash represents a letter. Now, you guess a letter.”

“Krix,” Bana said.

“What?”

“Krix.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

Bana took the datapad from me and drew a symbol next to the hangman game.

“That’s a letter from your alphabet, isn’t it?” I realized with a laugh.

“Of course!”

“I don’t know your alphabet. The word I’m thinking of is spelled in the human alphabet.”

“I don’t know your alphabet, either,” Bana chuckled.

“Well, I know what we’re doing until we get to the Hark System,” I grinned. “It’s time for you to learn you A-B-Cs.”

Bana

“We are entering Hark territory in approximately twenty minutes,” said Brey, one of the Gaed pilots assigned to this mission.

“How long until we’re in range of their sensors?” I asked.

“Five.”

“Once we’re in range, halt. We don’t know if any of our messages made it through to them. We don’t want them to mistake us for aggressive outsiders. Radio their command center. Make it clear we are not a threat.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Is there a way to figure out if our messages got through before we draw potentially dangerous attention to ourselves?” Indira asked.

“If there were, I’d do it,” I replied.

“Fair enough.”

We glided closer to the border of the Hark System. Unfortunately, from where I sat, I couldn’t see much of anything. I leaned past Indira in an attempt to get a view between the pilots’ seats.

“Sir,” Armex, the other Gaed pilot called from up ahead. “Our message has been received.”

“Any response?”

“It looks like a fleet is already en route to meet us. We must have tripped a sensor or shown up on someone’s radar a while ago.”

“A whole fleet?” Indira looked at me with worry shining in her eyes and her brow furrowed. “Is that normal?”

“I don’t know the Hark System well,” I admitted, choosing my words carefully. “But in my experience, no. A whole fleet coming to greet one small ship isn’t normal.”

“One small foreign ship,” Brey emphasized. “The Hark people could already know the Dominion is planning something. Perhaps they believe we’re spies or an indicator of an invasion.”

“That wouldn’t be favorable,” I rubbed my chin.

“No kidding.” Indira barked out a laugh, but it was dry and humorless.

I mentally flipped through what I knew of the Hark System, which admittedly wasn’t much.

“Shall I try to get the flagship on the comm?” Brey asked.

“Yes,” I decided. “If they answer, hopefully we can—”

As if on cue, our radio began to ping.

“Tell me that’s the flagship pinging us instead,” I said.

“Looks like we’re in luck today,” Armex sighed.

“This is a Rogue Star companion vessel requesting permission to enter the Hark System,” Brey said into the radio.

“We have no allies or contacts under the name Rogue Star,” a clacking voice came through the speaker.

Indira and I exchanged a look.

“We are formerly of the Dominion, currently residing within the Terran System. We have urgent news for the Hark System authoritative power.”

“You’ll speak to me first,” the voice replied. “I am High Admiral Krax of the Hark System fleet. Your vessel may connect to our transmitting network so that we may discuss this further.”

“Got that?” I asked the pilots.

“Yes, sir,” Armex said.

Within moments, the front viewport of the vessel transformed into a screen. A species of alien I’d never laid eyes on took up most of the window.

“It’s a…crab? Kind of,” Indira said in a low voice. I wasn’t sure what a crab was. Hopefully, it was a complimentary term.

High Admiral Krax was a wide creature with a mandible-like mouth and eyes that rose from his head on thin stalks. Instead of five-digit hands like Indira and I had, Admiral Krax had giant pincers. His skin looked like it possessed natural armored plating in addition to his military uniform.

“Greetings,” I said with a sweeping gesture. “I’m Bana, a Shein from Dominion space. Brey and Armex are Gaed pilots from Dominion space, as well. Indira is from the Terran System. We mean you no harm.”

“If you wish to enter the Hark System, you are required to go through our visitation process. We received no indication that a Rogue Star companion vessel was coming to our system,” Admiral Krax said gruffly.

“Our apologies. The Terran System is classified as non-evolved. No offense,” I muttered to Indira who waved me off. “The Terrans do not possess technology capable of transmitting a message outside their own system.”

“You could have sent a message from Dominion space,” Admiral Krax pointed out.

“Uh, no. Actually, we couldn’t,” I said. I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain why without making us look bad. Maybe Admiral Krax wouldn’t ask.

“Explain.”

Damn.

“It’s a long, complicated story,” I offered. “My crew as well as a group of exiled humans discovered a plot amongst the Dominion.”

“I and over a dozen human women were sold to the Dominion by a Terran official in exchange for acceptance within Dominion space,” Indira piped up. My chest tightened at her words, and I fought with memories. My sister…

By the time I was able to force my attention back to the present, I’d missed a few steps in the discussion, but not many.

“Wait a moment,” Admiral Krax said thoughtfully. “Yes, I’ve heard of those Terran women. Some of them have rather touching tales.”

My jaw clenched, then I shoved everything back down where it should be. I locked the box and focused on the mission.

“You’ve seen the video streams?” Indira asked.

“Some. They had a large broadcast range,” Admiral Krax explained. “My sympathies are with your people, but we cannot get involved in an intergalactic conflict against the Dominion.”

“What if I told you that you didn’t have a choice?” I asked.

“That sounds like a threat,” Admiral Krax snapped his mandible. I glanced at his pincered hands. I wondered if the Hark people used weapons in battle or if they relied on their hands. I didn’t want to find out.

“It’s not. It’s a warning,” I said. “We have evidence that the Dominion is planning an attack on the Hark System.”

“What sort of evidence?” Admiral Krax snarled.

“Plans of attack. They’re all on this drive.” I pulled the data drive out of my pocket and held it for the Admiral to see. “I can pull everything up for you so you can see for yourself.”

Admiral Krax pondered for a moment and conferred with crewmembers I couldn’t see. I heard him mutter something about viruses and tech warfare. I assumed he was putting some kind of precautions in place.

“Show us your information,” Admiral Krax said suddenly.

“Right away, Admiral.” I slipped around Indira and wedged myself between the pilots’ seats. A few taps and clicks later, the Dominion’s attack plans were displayed on my screen.

“Do you see them?” I asked.

Admiral Krax didn’t answer, but I saw his eyes darting around where his display window would be. He must’ve been reading the plans.

“There’s no time of attack,” he barked. “It doesn’t say when the Dominion is coming.”

“That’s why we flew out here as fast as we could,” I explained.

“The Dominion has already attacked the Terran System,” Indira spoke up. “We’ve seen how they do it. We can help the Hark System prepare, if you’ll let us.”

“I expect you want something in return,” Admiral Krax grumbled.

“Either of you want to explain that one?” I looked to the Gaed pilots.

“We are part of a rebel faction that stands against the Dominion,” Brey explained. “We have the support of the people within Dominion space. Our goal is to expose every illegal, inhumane plot and scheme the Dominion has inflicted upon our homes.”

“I see,” Admiral Krax said thoughtfully. “Such as?”

“Kidnapping,” Indira blurted. “The Dominion takes women from unsanctioned planets and sells them to the highest bidder, as if they were animals.”

“We can prove that, if you like,” I said.

“Aside from access to our system, what more will you need?”

“Access to resources and knowledge of your military,” I replied.

“We have our own knowledge to share, as well,” Armex added.

“We will grant access,” Admiral Krax nodded. “However, do not think you’ll have free run of our base. You’ll be closely monitored.”

“That’s more than fair,” I agreed.

“Allow the fleet to escort you into the Hark System,” Admiral Krax said. “I’ll have a smaller vessel waiting to meet you and guide you into port. I assume you’ll need shelter?”

“That would be appreciated,” I said.

“Fine. I’ll have something arranged. Don’t expect luxury.”

“We’d never be that much of an imposition,” Indira peeked over my shoulder to grin at the Admiral. He didn’t appear to be as taking with her charm as I was.

The Admiral closed his monitor without saying goodbye.

“I suppose that’s that,” I nodded. “Brey, Armex, move the vessel in with the fleet.”

“Yes, sir.”

I took my seat beside Indira.

“That was tense,” I chuckled.

“You didn’t look tense,” she said. “You looked like you’ve done this a million times before. I was shaking in my boots.”

“Good thing the Admiral already knew about the Persephone women,” I said. “I believe that helped our credibility.”

“Do you think we’ll be able to ward off a Dominion attack?” she asked me.

“I don’t know,” I frowned. “I’ll have a better idea once I see what we’re working with. At least we’ll be more prepared than we were when the Dominion came to the Terran System. The tech is better, too.”

“True,” she nodded. “It still makes me worry, though.”

I reached out and gave her shoulder a squeeze.

“I’m worried, too.”

Indira

It had been one hell of a week. Bana got right to work finalizing the alliance with the Hark System, however, there was a small catch. The Admiral, as well as the other figures of authority, insisted on meeting with Captain Dejar and Kalyn, as well as the rest of the Rogue Star crew.

Captain Dejar was against coming to the Hark System at first. He didn’t want to risk leaving the Terran System vulnerable. Kalyn managed to convince him.

Valtic had worked with the Terran authorities to put together new security protocols that coded all messages from Terran space, as well as from us. The Dominion would one day crack the code, but for now, Captain Dejar wasn’t worried about messages being picked up by the Dominion anymore.

The Rogue Star crew then spent a few days installing a glorified security system around the borders of Terran space. If the Dominion came back, the Rogue Star would be notified and then could return to help.

The Rogue Star arrived in the Hark System just a few hours ago. To be honest, I was grateful Captain Dejar and Kalyn were here to finalize the alliance. I was honored with Aavat selected me to accompany Bana on this mission.

However, I was a trained geneticist. I had no political or military background. Bana was a soldier, at least. He was far more qualified for this sort of thing.

I sat in a pure white conference room with an oblong black table and chairs that were just floating slabs. Sitting on them felt strange. I felt the electromagnetic currents thrumming through the slab as it bobbed in the air. There was no back to the chair so I sat ramrod straight, trying to look professional.

Bana was on my left. This was not the first time we’d sat in a room like this. It was the first time we were mostly quiet, though. Captain Dejar, Kalyn, and our new friend the Admiral, as well as a few other Hark authority figures, engaged in a rigorous back and forth.

“Alliances are fragile,” Admiral Krax said. “Your crew benefits from this alliance more than we do. How can we be sure we aren’t pouring our resources into a bottomless pit?”

“I’m not sure what you mean by that,” Kalyn said with a tight smile.

“You’re an exiled trading vessel that relies on the goodwill of others,” the Admiral pointed out.

“That’s not the case,” Captain Dejar interjected.

“Perhaps your intentions are noble, but if the Rogue Star isn’t here, how can we be sure you aren’t gallivanting off with our resources?” the Admiral pressed.

“The Rogue Star has other obligations in the Terran System,” Captain Dejar argued. “We can’t sit here idly while the home system of half our crew is in shambles.”

“You have my sympathies,” the Admiral said.

“Will you allow us to speak privately amongst ourselves?” Kalyn asked the Hark officials. “There may be a way to leave more of the Rogue Star crew within the boundaries of the Hark System. However, we must discuss it first so that we may protect all of our interests.”

“I’ll allow it,” the Admiral nodded.

Glad to be up from the most unsupportive seat in the galaxy, I walked out of the conference room with Bana.

“You look a little pale,” he joked.

“Do I really?” I reached up and touched my cheek.

“No, but you look happy to be out of there.”

“I’m just glad the professionals are handling the nitty-gritty bits of this alliance,” I sighed.

“You’ve done a splendid job so far.”

“I don’t feel like I’ve done anything,” I shrugged.

“You and I laid the foundation for this alliance by bringing the files with the Dominion attack plan, as well as getting them to trust us,” he said. “The only reason we’ve gotten as far as we have is because we make a good team. That means you’re doing a good job.”

My cheeks grew hot. I looked away so Bana wouldn’t see.

“Thank you.” Suppressing my massive smile wasn’t an easy feat, but I managed it. “I think we make a good team, as well.”

If Bana was going to say something else, he didn’t get the chance.

“Indira!” Kalyn’s voice rang out behind me. She quickly fell into step with me. “Mind if I steal her away, Bana?”

“By all means,” Bana grinned good-naturedly. “Be sure to return her in once piece. The Admiral likes her more than he likes me.”

“That’s not true,” I protested.

Kalyn looped her arm through mine and led me back to the Rogue Star. Since it docked, I hadn’t yet boarded the ship that had become my home. We passed several other Persephone women. I only had a moment to exchange a brief hello before Kalyn ushered me into the captain’s office.

“Have a seat,” Kalyn said. “Anywhere but Dejar’s chair. He’s very protective of it.”

I settled into a seat near the massive three-dimensional map floating in the center of the room. I tried not to gawk at it, but it was hard not to. It was a stunning holograph.

“You’ve done well,” Kalyn praised as she slid into a chair beside me.

“You think so?” I chewed on my bottom lip. I wasn’t a naturally nervous person. I just didn’t like being thrown into a situation without proper training. It was a stroke of pure luck that I hadn’t fumbled the Rogue Star into war with the Hark System.

“Absolutely! I half expected you to get blown up the moment you entered the Hark System.”

I felt the color drain from my face.

“Joke!” Kalyn raised her hands. “That was just a joke. I knew you’d be fine. Aavat knew it, too. You and Bana work well together.”

“Oh.” The air left my lungs in a rush. I forced a laugh. “Yeah, Bana is the best. He and I get along.”

“I’ve noticed,” Kalyn said with a knowing smile. I felt my cheeks grow hot for the second time that day.

“Was there something specific you wanted to talk about?” I asked. Hopefully, I didn’t sound rude. I just knew that if we started talking about Bana, I’d start blushing and smiling like an idiot. I didn’t think anyone aboard the Rogue Star knew how much I liked him. I wanted to keep it that way for a while longer, at least until I figured out what I was going to do about my growing feelings for him.

“Dejar and I want to split the Rogue Star crew into two teams,” she explained. “Half will remain here to put the Admiral at ease. The other half will see to our other obligations.”

“I think the Admiral will be pleased with that arrangement,” I nodded. “He’s not as stuffy as he makes out to be.”

“Oh?”

“We met the other day,” I explained. “Nice guy. He’s a real family man.”

“I wouldn’t have guessed that,” Kalyn said thoughtfully. “I never thought about Hark family units.”

“Surprisingly human.”

“Good to know.”

“Are you and Dejar going to each stay with a team?” I asked.

“We aren’t sure yet,” Kalyn frowned. I knew the idea of being away from Dejar wasn’t appealing to her. They weren’t just a commanding unit, they were each other’s emotional support, as well.

“Aavat can always take one team,” I suggested. “You and Dejar will probably be more useful in the Terran System.”

“We’ll work it out somehow,” Kalyn smiled.

“Will I stay here or go back to the Terran System?”

“You’ve done so well and you seem to be on good terms with the Admiral. I’ll keep you here.”

“And Bana?”

“Bana, too.”

I willed my expression to stay neutral, but I don’t think I did a good job.

“Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

“Yes,” Kalyn grinned. “I wanted to talk more about establishing a chain of command.”

“For the Rogue Star?”

“That’s just it,” she leaned back in her seat, making herself comfortable. “Why should we stop at the Rogue Star?”

I furrowed my brow.

“I don’t follow.”

“Mars is in shambles. Everyone’s too busy repairing their own lives to worry about a ruling government,” Kalyn explained.

“You want the Rogue Star crew to run Mars?”

“Not exactly,” Kalyn shook her head. “But I do think we’re in a unique position to place trustworthy, honest people in the seat of Mars government.”

“Then you and Dejar are definitely more useful in the Terran System,” I said.

“There are other factors to consider. We’ll see,” she replied. “Our main priority is spreading ourselves out so we can accomplish more, but not spreading so far that we’re ineffective. I’ll keep you informed of any decisions.”

“You don’t need to,” I said quickly. “Just tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it.”

Kalyn tipped her head back and laughed.

“I’m going to! You’re shaping up to be an excellent second-in-command. I want you to be prepared to take on more responsibility. I can’t be in two places at once. I’m going to need your help.”

“In that case,” I grinned back, “don’t hold back.”

“That’s the attitude I’m looking for! Go ahead and call it a day,” she said. “Dejar and I can handle the rest of the negotiations. You’ve earned a little break.”

“Thank you, Commander.”

When I left the captain’s office, I made a beeline for the dining hall. I’d missed the Rogue Star food this past week.

When I rounded the corner, I spotted Bana also heading into the hall.

“Bana!” I called.

He paused, turned, and smiled when he saw me. His smile made my heart do a funny skip. I took a calming breath. I couldn’t allow myself to get carried away with this little crush. I needed a clear head for Kalyn’s sake.

That didn’t mean Bana and I still couldn’t be friends.

“How was your meeting?” he asked when I approached.

“Very productive.”

“That’s great,” he said. “I’m glad everything is falling into place. Our job is far from over once this alliance is settled.”

“I know.”

He opened the dining hall door for me and followed me in.

“We should get Wyann and Paila once everything is finalized. Maybe we can convince the Admiral to lend us a few vessels for protection.”

“That’s a good idea,” I smile. “I wonder how they’re holding up.”

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Bana said. “They haven’t reported anything new. No news is good news in a situation like this.”

“Still, I’ll feel better when we’re all in the same system again.”

“You might be waiting a long time for that.”

Bana

There was nothing but silence as we left the Hark System.

I could hear the gentle hum of the engines as the spaceship glided across the emptiness of space, but that was it. Indira had already fallen asleep in her seat, her chest rising and falling at a steady pace, and our two Gaed pilots were busy supervising the ship’s navigation, not a word between the two of them. They were friendly when they had to be, but when it came to their piloting duties, they were single-minded to a fault. Not that I cared. As long as they got us to Tola safely, I was fine with their quirks.

Leaning back in my seat, I took a deep breath and tried to settle in. We had a long way to go until we finally reached Tola, and I would need the rest. With no idea of what we’d find there, it was better for me to be prepared.

Sleep refused to come.

I kept my eyes open for a long time, merely staring out into the vastness of space. It didn’t take long, though, before my gaze was drawn to Indira. My heart started beating slightly faster as I took in her figure, the gentle expression on her face enough to make my chest feel tighter.

I didn’t really know what it was about her, but every time I laid eyes on her, it was if the universe stopped moving. Time always came to a standstill, the two of us the only thing that really mattered.

My raging thoughts, my past, my family, all disappeared.

For her.

Indira.

“Get a hold of yourself, Bana,” I muttered under my breath, forcing my eyelids down. It didn’t help much. Even with my eyes closed, images of Indira insisted on dancing in the theater of my mind.

The only thing that managed to help was the red color that took over the screen mounted in front of my seat. It was bright enough to make its way past my shut eyelids, and I quickly sat straight in my seat and leaned forward to see what was going on.

The sensor reading had taken over my screen, and I could see nine red dots blinking there, just a couple of minutes away from our position. “Crap,” I growled, immediately tapping the screen for more information. There wasn’t much there. The ships approaching our position were small- to mid-sized, it seemed, but that was the only intel available on the screen. “What the hell’s going on?”

“Pirates,” Brey replied, his voice even and controlled. That did little to reassure me. Even if he didn’t seem to be worried about the situation, an encounter with a pirate fleet was never something to be happy about.

“Can we outrun them?”

“Doubtful,” he continued. “They’ve closed in on us with some kind of cloaking device that masked their position from our radars. They’ll be on us in less than one minute.”

“Thirty-seconds, actually,” Armex corrected him, and I felt my stomach lurch. There was no time for us to prepare.

“What’s going on?” Indira said in a mellow voice, and I turned on my seat to see her running one hand through her hair while stifling a yawn.

“Pirates,” I said. “They’ll be on us fast.”

“Oh, crap,” she muttered, sounding more awake now. In her voice, though, there was no panic. Even though she was nothing but a frail little human, she didn’t scare easily. I respected that. “What do we do now?”

“I don’t—” The rest of my sentence died in my throat as the alarms started blaring through the ship, all the lights turning red. The Gaed reached for the controls in a hurry and banked the ship to the left, the G-forces from the sudden movement gluing me to the seat. “What the hell was that?”

“They fired at us,” Armex replied. “Warning shot, though. Easy to dodge.”

I gritted my teeth as I tried to think of what to do, and then I gritted them some more as I finally saw nine ships cutting through the emptiness of space right beside us. They looked like old models, something that had been patched together in a hurry, but they were fast. They slowed down as soon as they caught up with us, keeping our pace while having their weapons locked on us.

“They’re hailing us,” Brey said.

“Put them through,” I growled. A couple of seconds later, the main screen on the ship was taken over by an image of an alien I had never seen before. He was sheinoid in appearance, but there were ridges and grooves under his pale blue skin, as if small horns were hiding there. He wore a tattered robe over a tactical vest, and I immediately noticed he had a handgun holstered on his belt. He wasn’t one to run from physical confrontation, if it came to that.

“Greetings,” he said, a cocky grin taking over his face. “It’s always a pleasure to see Dominion officials in this corner of the universe.” I tensed up, immediately realizing what had happened. We had been using Dominion frequencies for our ship as we made our way out of the Hark System, an attempt to fool any Dominion patrols in the zone, but now it seemed like we had outsmarted ourselves.

“Hang on,” I said. “There has been a misunderstanding here. We are not—”

“Alive,” he finished my sentence for me, his grin widening. “At least not for long.” With that, he cut the comms link, and the alarms started blaring once more.

“They’re firing at us!” Indira cried out, but the pilots already knew it. They performed a couple of fast evasive maneuvers, pushing the engine to its absolute limits, and I merely gritted my teeth as I tried to hold on to my seat. We broke past the pirates’ formation by diving down and then back, but that just meant they kept on firing back at us.

“Focus on that one,” I tried to tell the Gaed, signaling the one-man ship on the screen. The other ships were always following its lead, and it had been the one hailing us, so I assumed that had to be the ship with the leader. If we took it out, maybe we could try and parley again. Of course, the ship was too fast for us. We tried to outmaneuver it, and even fire a couple of shots from our weak weapons systems, but it was to no avail.

Eventually, the ship passed us and performed a quick loop right in front of us. A fraction of a second later, and we were pinned between it and the rest of the pirates, all their weapons trained on us.

“Hold tight,” one of the Gaed said, and I immediately felt my seatbelt biting into my chest as we dove down in a hurry, right when the pirates started firing. My jaw slackened as I saw the light of the lasers cutting through the darkness of space, and I stopped breathing when I saw the leader’s ship explode.

It had been hit by his own fleet.

“That was close,” I whispered, sweat trickling down my brow. One of the lasers had hit the rear of our ship, but we seemed to be fine. “Let’s try and hail them again,” I commanded Brey, but he just looked back at me over his shoulder and pursed his lips.

“Our comms unit has been damaged,” he finally said. “We can’t reach out to them.”

“Shit.”

There was no way we could take on eight pirate ships by ourselves. I was counting on brokering a truce, or at the very least trying to convince the pirates we weren’t Dominion officials, but now my plan had been shot to shit.

“There’s an asteroid field close by,” I said, tapping my screen at a furious pace. “Take us there and then kill all engines and secondary functions.” Maybe if we managed to hide from them, they’d give up on us. It was a long shot, but I didn’t know what else to do.

I glanced at Indira as the Gaed zigzagged toward the asteroid field, doing their best to avoid the barrage of lasers being shot at us, and my heart tightened as I realized how scared she was. It was understandable. Our lives were now on the line.

“Do it now,” I cried out once we flew into a cluster of asteroids, and a second later darkness took over the cabin. All the screens died, and I felt my body become as light as a feather as the gravitational unit was turned off. With no radar to guide me, I unbuckled my belt and tried to peer out the windows. There was no sign of the pirates, but I knew they’d be waiting for us all the same.

“What do we now?” Indira asked me, her voice crackling a little.

“Now we wait.”

* * *

Forty-three hours later I looked around me.

I stirred in my seat as I glanced out the window once more. We had been hiding here for almost two days now, and still the pirates insisted on remaining. I saw their ships carefully navigate through the asteroids as they looked for us, and every time that happened, I felt nauseated. Sooner or later, they were going to find us, and once that happened...well, that’d be the end of the road for us.

“I think I finally got it,” Indira said as she climbed out from a hole in the back. She had removed a vent door from its place and crawled inside to try and get a hold of the wiring, in the hopes that she'd be able to fix the comms unit, but I hadn’t maintained much hope on her plan. I had been wrong.

“Let’s try and contact them,” she continued, immediately sitting down and nodding at the Gaed. They turned on some specific power panels, and she started tapping on her screen at a furious speed. Just a couple of seconds later, and she turned her screen off once more. “Alright, and that’s done.”

“What exactly did you do?” I asked her. She hadn’t tried to hail them, and she sure as hell didn’t have the time to do much on her screen.

Smiling, she gave me a little wink. “I just sent them some of the material we had on the Dominion. You know, what the Dominion would call lies and propaganda. If that isn’t enough to convince these assholes we’re not part of the Dominion, then I don’t know what is.” Checking something on her keyboard, she looked back at me again. “The comms unit is fully functioning, as well, and I’ve left it on for when they decide to reach out.”

It didn’t take long.

“Pirate ship is hailing us,” I said as a light began to flash on the console. I pushed the button to receive the transmission.

A pirate came back on the screen. He looked at us.

“You are not of the Dominion?” he asked, skeptical.

“No,” Indira responded. “We hate the Dominion. We seek to destroy them.”

“We seek to destroy the Dominion, as well,” the pirate said. “How do we know we can trust you?”

“You can’t,” Indira replied. “But we’re going to have to trust each other if we ever want to defeat the Dominion. They have us mistrusting each other and they come in and take advantage of it.”

“We used to be honest merchants, before they blacklisted us,” the pirate growled. “We were pushed to the fringes of the known galaxy and forced to act like animals to survive.”

“We were kidnapped from our systems so that we could be experimented on,” Indira replied. “You may have seen some of the videos of the Terran women?”

“Those were your friends?” the pirate asked, his face softening.

“That was me and my friends,” Indira replied. “We look to exact vengeance.”

“Humph,” he considered, finally nodding. “And you shall have it,” the new pirate leader said. “And we shall help.”

With that, the screen went dark.

“Unbelievable,” I muttered, reading through the message the pirates had sent us afterwards. The intel Indira had sent was enough for them to believe us, and they were now offering us to escort us out of the Hark System.

“You did it.” Smiling, I looked at Indira and reached out, placing my hand on top of hers. I gave it a soft squeeze, her fingers nestled against the palm of my hand, and then I just lost it.

Before I knew what I was doing, I leaned toward her and kissed her.

Indira

“Almost there,” I announced, looking at my screen as the Gaed pilots allowed the ship to be pulled into Tola’s orbit. Three days had passed since we left the Hark System, and we had finally arrived at our destination without any incidents. There was that thing with the pirates, sure, but luck was on our side then.

The pirates were a ragtag group of ex-merchants, and they had decided to band together and steal from the Dominion after they had seen heavy taxes levied against their homeworld. They weren’t fans of the Dominion, and that allowed us to fall into their good graces pretty easily. At least, after they saw proof of who we were. Sure, their leader had died during the skirmish, but none of the pirates really mourned him. A disgruntled merchant that had once worked directly for the Dominion, he was more interested in plunder than the welfare of his own crew.

Even though we had been extremely lucky, I could tell Bana was impressed with the way I had fixed things. Especially because he had told me as much. I had figured out how to get the comms unit back on, and I had talked with the pirates directly, and those two things seemed to be enough for him to realize I could pull my own weight.

I enjoyed having his admiration, there was no denying it, but there was more to it than just admiration. The way he looked at me...there was something there. Why else would he have kissed me? I knew it had been a spur-of-the-moment thing, yes, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Three days of travel, and the memory of that kiss still burned bright in my mind.

“I have something,” Bana muttered beside me, and that was enough to derail my train of thought. Turning in my seat, I looked at him and watched as his fingers flew over the holographic keyboard in front of him. “There’s an encrypted sign being transmitted out of Tola, and it’s using the same kind of encryption we agreed on with Wyann. It has to be him.”

“Is it a message? What does it say?”

“I’m still trying to decode it,” Bana replied, the look of concentration on his face making him look even more handsome. His green eyes were narrowed slightly, and the muscles on his forearms bulged as he kept on working the keyboard. God, why did he have to be so goddamn attractive? Once more, the memory of that kiss returned in full force, and I had to take a deep breath to push it back. I had to keep my wits about me, now more than ever.

“Alright, I think I got it,” Bana continued, nodding to himself. “They’ve been holed up in a small apartment for a couple of weeks, and they want us to meet them there. They say it’s safe.”

“Got it,” I nodded. “When do we leave?”

Turning toward me, Bana grinned.

“Now.”

The Gaed didn’t need any further instructions, and they quickly set course as Bana fed them the exact coordinates. Thirty minutes later, we were touching down on some barren wasteland, tall sandy dunes surrounding the small oasis we had found on the outskirts of the town Wyann and Paila were in.

“The two of you stay here and look after the ship,” Bana told the Gaed as he grabbed his rifle from the weapons compartment. After he checked it for ammo, he handed me a small handgun, which I strapped to my belt. “Indira and I will go into town and check on Wyann.”

“Understood,” the two Gaed replied in unison. They seemed happy with the fact they wouldn’t have to leave the ship. They probably felt more comfortable inside a cockpit than anywhere else, but that didn’t surprise me. As the skirmish against the pirates had proven, they were true aces when it came to flying a spaceship.

Bana and I set out into the desert by ourselves, but the weather wasn’t as harsh as I had expected it to be. It was warm, but not in an oppressive way, and the sand reminded me of the Terran beaches. As we had landed close to town, it only took us thirty minutes or so before we started seeing the first buildings in the distance.

“Keep this over your head, alright?” Bana said as a complex of rundown buildings of what seemed like an industrial town appeared on the horizon. He grabbed a couple of old looking cloaks from his bag and handed me one. Putting it on, I threw the hood over my head. “We don’t know who’s watching, so we want to tread carefully.”

“Got that,” I replied, looking straight into his green eyes. That was a mistake. Every time I looked into his eyes, it felt as if the air around us grew heavy with electricity, and my body started fighting against the rational side of my brain. Clearing my throat, I averted my gaze. “Shall we go now?”

“Yes,” he nodded, and started walking toward the first row of buildings, sturdy constructions that were probably meant as a buffer between the town itself and the desert. We navigated through cramped alleys and narrow streets, a lot of them packed with tired looking aliens plying their wares, and we somehow managed to find our way into a run-down residential area.

“That’s the building,” I whispered, checking the coordinates on Bana’s datapad. In front of us was a three-story building that seemed to be on the verge of collapsing, a rusty metal stairwell snaking its way up the outer wall.

Taking the lead, I started climbing it.

Before I knew what was happening, someone placed his hand over my mouth and dragged me into one of the apartments. I panicked and started flailing my arms, but it was useless. Whoever was holding me was far too strong for me.

“It’s okay,” a voice I recognized finally said, and I opened my eyes to see Paila standing in front of me. Her hair was disheveled, and the clothes on her body were old and dirty, but she seemed fine. She was even smiling.

Turning on my heels, I saw Wyann standing right behind me. He let go of me at once, and gave me an apologetic shrug.

“Sorry, we gave you the wrong apartment number,” he muttered. “We have to be careful.”

“You did good,” Bana said. He had followed after me the moment he saw me being dragged into the apartment, his rifle in his hands, but he quickly lowered it once he realized what was happening. “Are you being watched?”

“We are,” Wyann nodded. “We were followed across the galaxy by a Dominion bounty hunter. I have no idea who she is, but trust me when I tell you that she’s good. We’re lucky to be alive.”

“Is she here on Tola?” I asked, and this time Paila was the one who answered.

“No, we think she left a couple of weeks ago,” she said. “We think she had something more important to take care of. But it doesn’t really matter. She has left a team of operatives behind, and they've been doing their best to hunt us down. Wyann has been trying to come up with a plan to get rid of them, but with just the two of us...” She trailed off then, but the truth was an obvious one. There was no way Wyann and Paila could defeat a well-trained team of operatives by themselves.

They needed help.

“Screw them,” Bana growled all of a sudden. “We’re here now. We have a ship waiting on the outskirts of town. Let’s just leave Tola and leave those guys behind.”

“You think they don’t know you’re here?” Wyann laughed dryly. “They let you come into town, Bana. They probably wanted you to lead them here. There’s no way we’ll manage to escape these assholes.”

There was a moment of silence between the four of us, but Bana broke it by cracking his knuckles loudly. Taking one step toward Wyann, he clutched the other Shein’s forearm in a warrior’s greeting and offered him a grin.

His next words were completely devoid of hesitation.

“Then we fight.”

Bana

“Are you sure this is going to work?”

“It’ll work,” I replied, looking to the side and offering Indira a smile. The shadows had grown long around us, and I could barely see her, even though she was lying on the ground right beside me. Only a few flickering lights on the street provided any illumination, but that wasn’t enough to fight off the darkness that had fallen upon the small town.

Grabbing my binoculars, I popped the lever that switched them into night-mode and waited as my eyes adjusted to the green light. I honed in on the petite figure of a woman strolling down a cramped alleyway, and my heart sped up as I realized we were mere minutes away from a fight.

“Paila’s here,” I whispered and even though I couldn’t see Indira, I still felt her nodding. “It won’t be long now.” Running my tongue over my parched lips, I set my binoculars aside and perched my rifle on the edge of the wall. Indira and I were lying low on the building right across the street from where Wyann and Paila’s apartment was, and we were purposefully drawing the bounty hunters—or whatever they were—to what we hoped to be a successful trap.

The plan was a simple one. Even though Wyann was pretty sure the bounty hunters knew they were in town, they still hadn’t managed to locate their specific whereabouts. They were keeping a tight cordon on the area, keeping track of all comings and goings, and they were ready to make a move once they figured out Wyann and Paila’s hiding place. Now we were going to use that to lure them in.

We’d sent Paila on a supply run, and had her walk through the busiest streets in town. It’d only be a matter of time until someone spotted her, and then she was to allow them to follow her back to the apartment. Once the bounty hunters decided to make a move, we’d be ready for them.

Or so I hoped.

My heart tightened into a fist as I watched Paila climb the stairs, the metal creaking under her weight, and I held my breath as I saw a figure furtively moving in the alleyway where she had just been.

They were here.

“Get ready,” I muttered under my breath, watching the scene unfold through the scope of my rifle. I saw Wyann open the apartment door for Paila, and then the two of them moved out of sight as the shadowy figure started furtively climbing up the stairs. Gritting my teeth, I scanned the surroundings of the building and saw three more figures get in position. Hopefully, that would be the entire team.

“Just tell me when,” Indira whispered, and I reached for her and laid one hand on her shoulder. I waited as the man moved near the door, a rifle in his hands, and laid his hand on the door handle. “Now,” I growled, squeezing Indira’s shoulder. She squeezed the detonator trigger in her hands and, just a fraction of a second later, flames engulfed the entirety of Wyann’s apartment.

The sound of the explosion was loud enough to make my chest vibrate, and I was pretty sure that everyone in town was now awake. Hell, even our Gaed pilots had probably heard it. Wasting no time, I trained my rifle on one of the other men and fired, a grin tugging at my lips as I watched him crumple to the ground.

“Come on, come on,” I repeated over and over again, trying to look for the other two men. There was no sign of them anywhere. “Crap. Wyann, come in. Are you and Paila safe?” I asked into my comms unit, and anxiety washed over me as I heard nothing but static. Thankfully, the comms crackled a couple of seconds later and Wyann’s clear voice came through it.

“Safe and sound. We left right before the explosion,” he told me. “We’re already on the move.”

“Good.” Jumping to my feet, I slung my rifle over my shoulder and pulled Indira up beside me. “C’mon, we gotta go.” She just gave me a quick nod and followed as I made my way down the building’s fire escape. I went as fast as I could, keeping my eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. Of course, by now there was nothing ordinary about the scene.

Tall flames were licking the building in front of us, and the street was littered with debris. People of all races were streaming out of their apartments to see what the hell had happened and loud, confused voices had now taken over the night. Hopefully, that would help us during our escape. If we blended in with the crowd, maybe the remaining bounty hunters would miss us.

“Come in, Bana,” my comms unit crackled again.

“Go for it.”

“We took down another one of those guys,” Wyann said. “There’s only one left, but I can’t seem to find him anywhere. Watch your back, he won’t give up easily.”

“Roger that,” I growled, adrenaline coursing through my veins. “We’ll meet at the rendezvous point.” Clenching my jaw, I grabbed Indira’s hand and started cutting a path through the crowd in front of the burning building. I led her through a maze of narrow streets, hoping that we’d lose anyone on our trail, but I quickly realized it was to no avail.

As we stepped into a shadowy alley, a tall figure wrapped in a cloak stepped out from the shadows. He was almost as tall as I was, and even though he wasn’t as muscular, I could tell his slender frame would give him the upper hand when it came to agility. He was wearing military-style boots and, even though his cloak masked most of his clothes, I could still see the contour of a tactical vest underneath it. His face was covered by a metallic mask, the kind used by black-ops agents, and I knew that it was crammed full of all kinds of sensors that would give him the advantage in a close-range fight.

“Get behind me,” I told Indira, and then aimed at the figure. My finger rested easily on the trigger, but none of us made a move. The air grew heavy with tension, and I found myself holding my breath. “Let us through and maybe you’ll get out of this—”

I was cut short by the sound of gunfire and heavy slugs flying past my ears as I pushed Indira to the side. Throwing myself against the wall, I fired back at the bounty hunter, trying to move from cover to cover as he kept returning fire.

I counted every single shot he took and, once I was sure he’d have to stop to reload, I left my cover position and opened fire again.

It was too late.

He was already on me, his hands stretched as he reached for my neck. His boots landed on my chest, and all the air left my lungs as I crashed to the ground, struggling to avoid getting pinned down. He moved fast, almost too fast for me, and adrenaline took over as I glimpsed him grabbing a knife from his boot. He slammed it down, but I somehow managed to avoid a fatal blow by rolling to the side.

The blade buried itself in my arm, and I let out a yell as I felt the cold, merciless bite of the metal as it tore into my flesh. Reacting on pure instinct, I crushed my fist against the man’s mask, pain shooting up my arm as my fingers connected with it.

That didn’t seem to do much.

He just tried to stab me again, the blade making a straight dive toward my heart and—

“Don’t even think about it!” Jumping out from behind him, Indira wrapped her arms around the man’s neck and pulled. He tumbled to the side, confused, and that was all I needed to kick the knife out of his hands. Seizing the opportunity, I reached for my belt and grabbed my handgun.

“Let go, Indira,” I shouted and, once I was sure she was out of the way, I squeezed the trigger. I hit him in the chest twice, but then I remembered he still had his tactical vest on.

Closing one eye, I held my breath and aimed for his neck.

That did the trick.

He clasped his hands to his neck, but it was already too late for him. Red blood sprayed from his neck and onto the walls, leaving a macabre painting there, and it only took a couple of seconds before he leaned back against the wall and slid down to the ground.

“Is he dead?” Indira asked, her eyes wide with fear.

“As dead as dead can be,” I replied, unsteadily getting to my feet. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

“Wait, you’re hurt,” she said and, before I had the chance to protest, she tore a piece of her shirt and immediately applied a makeshift tourniquet on my arm. I just watched her do it, surprised at how brave she had been.

She knew she didn’t stand a chance against the bounty hunter, but she still dove forward and saved my life. My respect for her kept on growing each and every day. “Much better now,” she whispered once she was done, her eyes on mine.

I briefly thought of kissing her, but loud voices coming from the end of the alley stopped me. Now wasn’t the moment for it. We had to meet up with Wyann and the others, and we had to do it fast.

Thankfully, we managed to leave the town without any other incidents. If there were more bounty hunters in town, they had missed us. Wyann and Paila were already waiting for us near the ship, and they started waving at us the moment they spotted us walking through the dunes, relief washing over their faces.

“C’mon, let’s leave this shithole,” I said as we all climbed back onto the ship. I sunk into my seat as the Gaed pilots fired up the engine and, just a couple of minutes later, we were breaking through the atmosphere and into safety.

At last.

Indira

“Come in,” I heard Dejar say, and I took a deep breath before pushing the door open. After spending so long as someone of almost no importance aboard the Rogue Star, it was slightly jarring to find myself right in the center of everything that was happening.

“Happy to see you,” Kalyn smiled as I walked in. She was sitting beside Dejar, and the desk in front of them was littered with piles of documents and schematics, the screens that had been mounted on the wall displaying more information than I could comprehend.

To run a rebellion was no easy thing, it seemed.

“Thank you,” I smiled back at her, taking a seat as she waved at an empty chair.

Apparently, the pirates we had met in the Hark System had turned around and decided to join the movement, just as long as they remained free to plunder Dominion ships. In a way, they wanted to go from pirates to privateers.

They hated the Dominion with a passion, and if a war helped them make some money in the process...well, they were a smart bunch, it seemed. Just as long as they were on our side, I didn’t mind any of it.

“I want to congratulate you, Indira,” Dejar started, both his elbows resting on the desk as he looked straight at me. He was intimidating, his presence fierce and commanding, but he put me at ease at the same time. No wonder he was in a leadership position. Only a true leader was capable of handling that dichotomy. “I was really surprised when a bunch of pirates reached out to us. They spoke highly of you.”

“I didn’t do much, really,” I said, blood flushing my cheeks. I wasn’t exactly used to being praised like this, especially when the stakes were this high. “It was only a matter of having them see the right things. Once I showed them we stood against the Dominion, that our enemy was a common one and that we were all on the same side, it was easy.” Truth be told, I never really expected the pirates to turn around and seek to ally themselves with us.

If anything, I had just gotten lucky.

“Be that as it may,” Kalyn said, that smile still on her lips, “you did a terrific job, and things are now looking up. Our alliance with the Hark System is now a solid thing, and to have these pirates on our side is a definite plus. Since you’ve done so well, we were thinking of having you be the first voice to any of the parties we need to talk to.”

“Wait,” I stammered. “What are you saying?”

“We want you to be our official negotiator,” Dejar replied. “It’s a position of importance, as you’ll have to deal with government representatives and all sorts of diplomats, but Kalyn and I are confident you’re the right person for the job.”

“I don’t even know what to say.”

“Say yes,” Kalyn laughed, reaching across the desk to lay her hand on top of mine. “I know we’re asking a lot of you, but you can do this.”

“Thank you,” I nodded, feeling a knot in my throat. Could I really do it? What if I screwed things up? This wasn’t a game. Lives were at stake. Billions of them. “I’ll do my best.”

“That’s not all,” Dejar continued, and his tone becoming even more serious. “There’s something else we want to ask of you. You have a background as a geneticist, I gather?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then we’re going to need you on another project. I know it’s a lot we’re asking of you, but right now it’s all hands on deck. You’ll have to work with Ren on a way to counteract one of the new weapons systems the Dominion has been developing. We found out about it from the files Wyann and Paila sent our way, and we have decided to prioritize this.”

“A weapon? What are we talking about?”

“We’re not entirely sure, but going from the schematics, it’s something that can potentially kill you from the inside out. Some sort of bioweapon, I’d say, but I’m not an expert. I’ll have to trust you and Ren to figure something out. Thing is, we cannot face something like that unprepared.”

“I have no idea what something like that might be,” I admitted, “and I’m not sure of how much help I’ll be, but I’ll give it my best shot.”

“That’s all we’re asking of you,” Kalyn said, gently squeezing my hand. “That’s all, Indira. I apologize for summoning you like this, but we simply can’t waste any time. Now, though, go get some rest. You must be exhausted.”

“I am,” I smiled, her words sort of permission for me to feel the tiredness in my muscles. Nodding at the two of them, I rose and walked out of the office, my mind spinning. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I now was the rebellion’s chief negotiator, not to mention that they wanted me to work on some crazy secret weapon the Dominion had been developing.

God, Kalyn was right.

I needed to rest.

I headed straight toward my cramped little room inside the Rogue Star and plopped myself down on the bed once I was inside. I didn’t even bother with taking my clothes off. I just threw myself on top of the mattress and looked up at the ceiling, trying to make sense of all the thoughts bouncing inside my head.

The weird thing was, most of my thoughts had nothing to do with my new position as chief negotiator, or with the Dominion weapon. No, most of my thoughts just circled back to Bana, the memories of everything we had gone through replaying themselves behind my closed eyelids.

The most prominent memory, though, was of that kiss.

I still couldn’t understand why he had done it. Sure, emotions were running high—we had just convinced a bunch of pirates not to murder us—but that didn’t tell me much about his motives. Could he be interested in me? Or was it just a spur-of-the-moment thing?

Then there had been that moment in the alley.

After I had applied the tourniquet, I was pretty sure that he was going to kiss me...but he didn’t.

“Stop it, Indira,” I admonished myself, but it was almost impossible to stop. I couldn’t stop myself from reliving that kiss, and the way his lips had fit on mine so perfectly. I felt my body heat up as I imagined how it would feel to have his hands on me, to allow him to tear the clothes off my body.

I dragged my teeth across my bottom lip as I imagined running my fingers over his naked body, and that pleasant heat started going lower and lower until it took up residence right between my legs.

“Alright, enough,” I muttered, jumping to my feet and ambling toward the sink in the corner. I splashed my face with cold water and, after closing my eyes, took a couple of deep breaths as I tried to push all thoughts of Bana to a dark corner of my mind. Fully knowing that I wouldn’t be able to get any sleep now, I simply walked out of the room.

There was a rebellion going on, and Ren needed my help with that weapon.

Even if I couldn’t do anything about it, at least I’d keep myself busy.

Bana

“Crap,” I groaned, struggling to get the wiring into its proper place. I was trying to integrate a power unit module on the outer fuselage of a small fighter, but it wasn’t an easy task. Even though the Gaed and the Hark were making tremendous progress on integrating their different technologies, there was still a lot of work to be done.

More often than not, that meant a lot of different parts didn’t work without some adapters built with the specific purpose of integrating the different technologies.

But to take down the Dominion, I’d put up with anything.

Removing my oil-covered fingers from the hole in the fuselage, I looked down at my feet, scanning the various parts littering the floor of the hangar. When I found what I was looking for—a Gaed-Hark adapter for the wiring—I picked it up and attached it to the ends of the wires sprouting from the fuselage.

“Finally,” I grumbled, somehow managing to put the wiring in place. Wiping the sweat off my brow with the back of my hand, I covered up the hole with a metallic panel and moved on to the next part of the fuselage.

I was just about to start removing the next panel when I heard a familiar voice a couple of yards away from me. Without fully turning, I looked over my shoulder to see Indira stroll through the hangar in that carefree way of hers, greeting everyone as she went.

A lot of the mechanics and servicemen stopped what they were doing to wave at Indira, and she flashed them a bright smile and waved back at them. I watched her go until she disappeared out of sight, and then leaned back against the fighter and let out a heavy sigh. She was the kind of person that made friends easily and, although I found that endearing, it was also a bit hurtful.

I had never been as friendly as she was, and finding friends had always been a strenuous task. It was hard not to be jealous of her, especially when she walked through the hangar almost every day on her way to the lab. I had no idea what she was doing there, holed up with Ren, but I was pretty sure it had something to do with the Dominion. After our return from Tola, it seemed like Dejar had finally started paying some serious attention to Indira’s skills.

Of course, Indira’s new job wasn’t the reason I kept thinking about her. No, not at all. It was that damned kiss. It had been almost a month since we kissed, right after she saved us from those pirates, and things hadn’t exactly progressed since then. We were back to being friends, as if that kiss never happened in the first place, and that frustrated me every time I saw her.

It was maddening.

I had never been the kind of guy to hesitate over every little thing, but right then I was at a complete loss. I had no idea what I should do to move things forward. Maybe go up and talk to her? But what would I even tell her in the first place? Should I ask her out?

“Daydreaming, are we?” I heard a deep voice say behind me, and I turned on my heels to see Aavat standing there, arms folded over his chest. Even though he was a massive guy, he had the unsettling habit of silently sneaking up on people while they were working. Or, as he put it, daydreaming.

“I was just thinking of something,” I quickly said, clearing my throat as I picked up a wrench from the floor. I was about to remove another panel from the fuselage when Aavat laid his hand on my shoulder.

“Never mind that right now,” he said. “There’s something I want you to see.”

“Right now?”

“Right now,” he echoed. Patting my back, he spun around and started walking across the hangar. Not sure what to do, I threw the wrench back into the toolbox and followed after him. We made our way through cramped corridors and service elevators, and it didn’t take long before I realized we were on our way toward one of the main hangars. There weren’t many of those here, but they were large enough to house a ship as large as the Rogue Star.

There had been rumors that a large ship was supposed to dock in Hangar C3 today, but I wasn’t too big on rumors. I just kept my head down and did what I was supposed to do. I had absolutely no idea what I was going to find in that hangar.

“Is it a ship?” I asked Aavat as we stepped inside another elevator, one that led straight toward Hangar 3C.

“Not just any ship,” he replied with a smile, but said nothing else.

A couple of seconds later, the elevator doors opened to reveal a busy hangar, one three times larger than the one I had been in before. At the center of it was a massive ship, almost the same size as the Rogue Star.

The most impressive thing, though, was the fact that the ship seemed to have been designed as a Rogue Star clone. If you were familiar with the original one, you could spot the differences right away—the bolts used in the fuselage were different, for instance, and the landing pad was a completely different model—but it took a trained eye to do that.

For all intents and purposes, I was looking at an almost perfect copy of the Star.

“I can’t say I was expecting this,” I whispered, hands on my hips as I walked under the ship and started looking up at the ship’s belly, trying to spot more details that would give it away as a copy.

“A gift from our new friends, the Harks,” Aavat said, leaning against the landing pad as he waited for me to complete my inspection. “It took them the entire month to retrofit it so that it’d look the same as the Rogue Star. We’ve added some new features to it - including a hangar bay for fighter ships, as well as improved weapons. What do you think?”

“All this in a month? I’m impressed.” Scratching my chin, I gave the ship another look. “I gotta ask, though...why retrofit it like this?”

“It’s all part of Dejar’s plan,” Aavat replied. “He wants to use the Rogue Star as bait to draw the Dominion out of one of their strongholds. Of course, nobody really wants to use the Star like that. We’d risk losing it.”

“So you had the Hark build a decoy, huh?”

“That’s right,” he nodded. “And I’m going to command it.”

“Fantastic!” I exclaimed. Aavat was one of the finest men I had ever worked with, and he was probably the most competent guy to serve as captain of a ship. Anyone serving under him would be lucky. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you, but that’s not all.” His smile widened as he said it, and then he took one step toward me. Laying his hand on my shoulder, he gave it a squeeze. “You’re going to be my second-in-command, Bana.”

I just looked at him, not sure if I had heard him right.

“Me? As your second? Why?”

“You’re good at what you do, Bana,” he replied. “The others trust you, and you have already proven yourself countless times. Hell, you secured our deal with the Hark, and you extracted Wyann from Tola.”

“I had help.”

“We all have help,” he continued. “That doesn’t change things.”

“Thank you,” I breathed out. Reaching for him, I grasped his forearm. “I’ll do my best not to disappoint you.”

“I’m sure you will.” Nodding, he spun on his heels and started walking out. “Take your time getting to know the ship. It still isn’t mission-ready, so we might have a few weeks of waiting around before we’re ready to go.”

“Got that.”

Once I was alone—aside from the hundreds of soldiers and mechanics working in the hangar—I sighed audibly, feeling the weight of responsibility on my shoulders. I prided myself on flawlessly executing whatever task I was handed, but being second-in-command to someone like Aavat was slightly overwhelming. Still, this was great news. I was finally getting some recognition, and a lot of trust was being placed in me.

I had to admit I liked that.

Smiling to myself, I immediately realized that I had to share the good news with someone. Even though I wasn’t the kind of guy to go around telling the world about my life, I needed to share this.

One name popped in my mind right away.

“Indira,” I whispered, and my heart started kicking and punching against my ribcage. I had to tell her the good news and more than just that, I had to tell her I needed her as more than just a friend. I hadn’t told her before because I knew she was busy, but I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

I valued her friendship, no two ways about it, but it simply wasn’t enough.

I needed more.

And I’d have it.

Indira

If all the negotiations I was involved with went like this, I wouldn’t have questioned Kalyn so much.

I had never expected dancing during alliance discussions.

Honestly? It was a relief to see everyone having fun. Everything had been dark and frightening lately, and now some of the taller Otlers, our newest allies, were twirling a Persephone woman in each set of their four arms, hopping and stepping to a synth beat Maris had managed to pull out of some dusty, unoccupied corner of the ship.

There was food everywhere, drinks, jokes, laughter. The Otlers didn’t seem to have a problem with bringing crews in on the negotiation process.

“I like all of us to go into things with all four eyes wide open,” Gert, their chief, told me when I asked, resting one of his hands on my shoulder and another on my forearm. Otler culture was pretty tactile from what I gathered, and they didn’t mean anything by it. Didn’t seem to make our Shein crewmates particularly comfortable, but—

Laughter erupted from down the table, where Aavat had just beaten one of the Otler mechanics’ double-handed attempt to arm wrestle.

But that’s what the drink’s for, I thought to myself, taking another sip of my glass.

“Oh, but we should have told you that we had decided to join the cause before we came,” Gert said, slamming a palm on the table. He was starting to look a little green in the cheeks, which seemed to be one of the Otler signs of drunkenness. He pointed one of his four bony fingers at Srak, his second, who was seated across the table. “I told you, didn’t I, to keep me from being such a hardass?”

“You did,” he responded, raising a glass.

“It’s not a problem,” I told Gert. “We’re prepared for almost anything anymore, and we appreciate your willingness to help. They’ve hurt us deeply, and we will defeat them even if we have to do it all by ourselves.”

A round of applause rose up and bounced off the metal of the deck as the last synth song ended, changing into a Shein space shanty that got Shar, Orrin, and even Dejar singing along.

But not Bana.

He was in the corner, glass in hand, watching the Otlers, the Persephone women, the general fun of everything, and frowning. Not like him—the Bana I knew would have managed a prank or two by now. Qal had managed to turn Emmery’s hair green and make one of Shenna’s critters speak Pronarian already.

Bana was a little more well-behaved than Qal, but not like this.

I caught his eye, gave him a little wave. He raised his glass to me in a mock-salute, and went back to staring daggers at—Gert’s hand?

It was on top of mine now, sure, the other on my side of the alien still on my shoulder as he talked with Orrin about how to get the Otlers’ tech to fit into the fleet’s needs. But that was nothing—

Gert’s hand slammed onto the table again, this time hard enough to make glasses rattle. The Shein shanty cut off as a couple of the Persephone women jumped, me included. The Otlers dropped the hands of their dance partners, and a couple of the Shein slowly got to their feet.

Gert stood on the mess bench, all fourish feet of him as straight as the Otlers’ curved spines would allow. “What’s your implication then? That we don’t have as much stake in this as you?”

“That’s not our implication at all,” I started, lost but trying to smooth this over. Gert ran over the top of my words.

“We have as much hate for the Dominion as any Shein or Terran on this ship. I have been indentured to them, as was my father before me, and his father before him, back for centuries. We have been brought low by their malice and demands, a once proud people now stooped and shortened with the greed of our overlords, and you dare—you dare—”

“—we dare to rise against them, just as you do, Gert.” I laid my hand on his shoulder, as he’d done with me. “We dare to imagine a galaxy without their tyranny and their violence. Your way of life was destroyed by them, your families were hurt and caught in the crossfire, and so were ours. And we can’t express how grateful we are that you’ve offered to be such staunch allies. We can’t take you up on the offer fast enough.”

Gert stopped staring at Orrin just long enough to catch my eye, then looked down to my hand on his shoulder. One of his three fisted hands uncurled and rose up to pat the back of mine.

“And the Otlers are grateful to have such staunch allies here, as well. Didn’t I tell you,” he pointed a finger at Srak, “to keep me from being such a hardass?”

Srak shrugged all four of his shoulders in a little wave, and took another drink as he nodded.

In the silence, Gert’s laughter was loud. “It’s not right to derail such a hopeful gathering with imagined slights. Please continue, drink, eat, dance!”

A small cheer rose from over by the dance floor, and Qal took a huge swig of his drink and started in on a bawdier version of the Shein shanty from before. Things settled back into their joy.

Crisis averted.

I snuck a look at Bana, hoping to see—I don’t know, something on his face. Maybe a smile. Maybe a little pride.

Instead, he was dour, angry. His eyes were trained on Gert’s arm.

I traced its path to where Gert’s hand rested on the back of my neck, just below the edge of my hair.

Oh.

Oh.

I felt a bit of color rise up in my cheeks. Bana was jealous? Of someone touching me?

I took the last of my drink like a shot, made my excuses about the heat, and wound my way into the shadows at the edge of the cargo bay, where Bana’s hair blended in and his white-gold skin stood out.

“Is everything alright?”

I stepped just a little closer to him. I knew what I saw. I knew there was something there. God, all this wasted time.

He blew a breath out and uncrossed his arms the second I was within easy reach. “Yes, of course. Everything’s fine.”

I tilted my head. “Are you sure? Because you’ve looked a little…” Jealous. Possessive. Off-kilter. Like maybe you wanted more than just a kiss?

“Off.”

“It’s nothing.” He glared a last set of daggers at Gert, and then his eyes drifted a little further up. “Well, I suppose it is something.”

I turned to see what he was watching—Aavat stood not far behind Gert, talking with Dejar. He raised his glass, and Bana raised his back in a small salute.

“That looks like a definite something,” I told him.

“Aavat’s been given command of the decoy ship,” he told me, sipping from his glass.

I narrowed my eyes and took the glass from his lips. “That doesn’t explain anything. Spill.”

He watched me as I took a sip—and then almost coughed my lungs out. He was not drinking the weak stuff I’d been sipping on, that was for sure.

A corner of his mouth ticked up, and he settled a hand on the back of my neck, where Gert’s had been. The wave of heat that rushed through me was not just the alcohol.

How many times have you thought about him behind you, holding you down by your neck?

“What’s Aavat’s new ship got to do with you, though?”

“Much like you and your drink,” he started, taking his cup back and finishing the last bit of it, “he wants a second.”

I felt a swell of pride and excitement lift me up onto my toes, even as irritation rolled through me at his joke. “And?”

A full-force, toothy smile split his face. He leaned past me to set his glass down, close enough that I felt his breath on my ear.

Did he know what he did to me? What he was doing to me now?

“And he wants me,” he said, voice low, breath teasing my hair.

I felt a grin of pride spread over my face, and threw my arms around his neck with an excited squeal.

And that was it. I couldn’t have helped it if I tried. I’d blame the booze, blame the laughter, blame the dancing, blame anything I needed to if he rejected me, but—

“He’s not the only one who wants you,” I whispered to him, and then brought my lips that bare inch closer to his.

One of those huge, strong arms wrapped around my waist immediately, hands firm on my hips and then drifting down to my ass. He dragged me closer, and bit at my bottom lip until I opened for him.

The noise of the party probably covered my sounds for others, but not for Bana. He heard every hitch of breath and tiny moan I made, every needy little sound, and stole them, kept them, until he finally let me up for air.

He pressed our foreheads together. “I can’t go back to being your friend this time, Indira.”

“Then don’t.”

I dragged his mouth down to mine again, already too caught by him to say much. He backed me up a step, and then another, until I could feel the massive swell of his arousal and my hips hit the table behind us, rattling the glasses there.

He pulled away, breath heavy, shoulders heaving. I wasn’t much better, already wound tight from just a kiss.

“Don’t stop,” I begged him. “Don’t stop, please, take me to my room. I don’t think my roommate is home.”

The look that came over him was practically feral. There was no negotiating necessary—he was already mine.

Bana

Indira fumbled at the door to her room behind her, caught between the heat of my body and the cold steel walls of the ship, legs wrapped around my hips. I did my best to make it difficult for her, dragging her mouth to mine, tugging her tighter to my cocks with a strong grip on her hips, a hand in her hair. This woman destroyed whatever good nature I usually had—I was done joking, done laughing, done waiting. I’d wanted her for too long.

From the moans, she wasn’t disagreeing.

She banged her fist against the door in a rare display of anger, and I nipped at her pulse to watch her jump. I wanted to suck a mark there, wanted to leave marks all over her, but I wasn’t sure what this was yet.

I knew what I wanted. I knew what she was for me.

But humans seemed to need time.

I was not going to jeopardize this by making decisions for her.

She trailed her fingers along the lines of my tattoos, soft first and then sharper when I couldn’t hold myself back anymore and sucked a mark on her neck.

The sound she let out might have made me believe in the divine.

She pulled at my hair, trying to sink her fingers in it and was forced to stop by the band at the back of my neck. She almost growled, completely unlike herself, then tugged it out of my hair and threw it.

And then she took a small, hungry breath, eyes wide. The fall of my hair cut the light above us just enough and set my tattoos bioluminescing faintly, the blue glow of it showing off her surprise.

“God, you’re beautiful,” she whispered, fingers softly tracing the lines and curves across my neck, my shoulders.

“Yes, you are.”

She groaned, first in annoyance at my joke, and then in pleasure as I trailed a thumb over the point of her breast, peaked beneath her shirt.

I dragged my nail over it next, watched her pulse jump under the sweet red mark I’d sucked there.

She slapped her hand against the door, trying to find the handle, frustrated, as she dragged my mouth down to hers. Her hips thrust into mine, grinding against my cocks and making me hiss. “Bana, the door won’t—god, don’t stop—it won’t open.”

I dragged my nails down her thighs, pushed them further apart. “Something’s open.”

“I swear, Bana, if you don’t—ah!”

She squeaked as I lifted her higher, her weight barely noticeable, and kicked in her door, sending it bouncing off the wall of the tiny room.

“Bana!”

I took us through the open door, headed toward the bed. “Would you look at that?”

“My door!”

“I’ll fix it,” I told her, biting at her lush bottom lip to hear her gasp before I dropped her on the bed.

She squeaked again, bouncing as the light frame of her cot took the sudden weight. She hesitated, fingers still on the hem of her shirt. “I don’t know if this is going to hold us both.”

Hot need throbbed through me as I kicked her door closed, shutting us into the darkness together.

My tattoos took on their full luminescence, the blue lighting the tiny room enough to see her mouth drop open.

“Oh, wow,” she said, eyes tracing the patterns on my shoulders and chest in the low light. I’d been made fun of enough for the choice of luminescent ink that it made this moment all the sweeter.

And then she looked down as I undid the ties on my pants. Her mouth dropped open fully when my two cocks rose, unhindered.

“Oh, fuck,” she whispered. “I don’t care. Fuck me.”

“As you wish,” I told her, following her down onto the bed.

We got her shirt off, her pants, the little underthings she wore beneath them. Every touch of her skin was soft, warm, the blue catching in every cranny, highlighting every ridge. In the light, the tips of her breasts looked almost lavender, and a bar sparkled in a piercing through one of her nipples. She arched and moaned every time I pinched at them, so beautiful, her hips dancing.

“Bana,” she moaned, tugging at my hair as I sucked one peaked tip into my mouth, tugging at that silver bar. I’d never seen something like that before, and the hard metal was so at odds with her soft skin, distracting me, making me even harder than before.

“Bana, please, I’m so wet.”

I bit at her nipple a bit to reprimand her for fussing, then trailed a hand down to where I could smell her the strongest, the hot, vital scent of her. I could get drunk on her scent.

My Indira.

My mate.

Mine.

My fingers smoothed along her folds, over the spot that made her gasp and cry, and gathered a taste of her sweet juices.

I needed more of it the second it hit my tongue.

I dragged her hips up, her legs over my shoulders, blocking out some of the light from my tattoos, and settled my mouth over her, twisting my tongue into the channel spilling sweetness. One, two, three strokes of my tongue and the brush of my thumb over that spot that made her quake, and I felt her ripple and gush around my tongue.

“What is this?” I asked her, letting her have a moment to breathe, gentling my thumb over her pleasure spot.

She laughed out a breath, short, sweet, a little tired already. “Clit, it’s a clit. For not knowing the name, you’ve sure got the use down—oh.”

I slid a finger into her channel, watching her eyes flutter closed as I curled it, thrusting, calling to her. I wasn’t any expert in human biology, but Shein women had a spot inside them—

“Fuck, oh fuck, Bana, what are you—how are you doing that—fuck, fuck!”

I slid my tongue back down over her clit, keeping up the hook of my fingers and the pounding rhythm. Indira didn’t need the gentleness and coaxing, not now, not anymore—she took it immediately, fiercely.

“Oh, fuck, Bana, I’m coming!”

And frequently.

She tugged me up by my hair, demanding, needy. “Please, stop being gentle, oh fuck, please, I want to feel you in me.”

At her words, any control I had left snapped.

I took her mouth sweetly, grinding against her as my secondary cock writhed against that lovely clit, waiting for just the right moment.

“Ohhh, that’s what that one is for,” she gasped, and shuddered.

I nipped at her neck as I slowly slipped the broad head of my primary cock between her slick folds, pausing as her breath hitched.

“Are you alright, sweet one?” I growled, breath hot at her ear. I could wait. I could stop.

She rocked her pelvis, just a bit, and I tensed, frantic to hold still. “Yes,” she sighed after what seemed like an eternity, but I knew was only seconds. “More, more please.”

Slowly, deliberately, I drove into her tight heat, her fingers clawing across my back as I claimed her.

And she claimed me, every inch of my skin, every iota of my soul.

Finally, I rested, sheathed fully inside her tight walls.

“More,” she whispered, and bucked her hips against mine.

“Happily,” I promised, and proceeded to build a punishing rhythm, pounding into her as she tightened around my straining cock, her body, her touch, her scent becoming my entire world.

Indira trembled beneath me, her moans and cries pushing me, spurring me to drive deeper, harder, faster into her.

Her back arched and she screamed, and then the legs of the cot gave out on a particularly hard thrust, and we spilled to the floor.

We exchanged a look, ridiculous, cautious, and then burst out laughing.

“I don’t think you’re done yet,” she finally said when she got her breath back, delicate fingers brushing over my aching length.

“Never done with you, no,” I answered.

She rolled to her knees and shot a mischievous grin over her shoulder as I groaned. How could any woman, anywhere in the galaxy, make me want her even more?

I knelt behind her, sliding one hand around the front to pinch at her nipples, the other dipping lower to flick at her tight pleasure bud. Pulling her tight against me, the thin length of my secondary cock squirmed between her ass cheeks, teasing and taunting the star of her entrance as she moaned.

“You like that?” I whispered, lips brushing over her neck, right below her ear, as she shivered, her back pressed against my chest, open and wanting.

“Yes, no, I don’t know…” she moaned.

I bent forward, carefully aligning the hard tip of my cock with the folds of her pussy as her breaths became shallow, needy.

“Then we’ll wait until you do,” I promised. “But for now…”

With one hard push, I thrust my entire length inside her, pulling her deeper onto me as she spasmed with pleasure.

“Oh fuck,” she whispered, eyes fluttering closed. “Fuck yes, please, do it, please—”

She was hot, tight, desperate for it, already begging, wailing as she was driven up to the edge of an orgasm again.

“Don’t stop, Bana, please, I want it.”

I fisted a hand in her hair, dragging her head back to nip at her neck. “You’ll have to be clearer, sweetheart.”

“I want to feel you come inside me. Need you to come with me.”

I smiled against her skin, took her pulse in my mouth.

There was nothing I wanted more. And I’d deny her nothing. I set about working both of us up and over the edge, relentless, driving, caught in the sweltering grip of her, the little moans and pleas, then shouts as she came again.

There was no hope for it then, not with my cock caught in the endless pull of her body, our hands laced, our mouths fused. I felt my primary cock pulse once, twice, swell with it, and then spill my seed deep in her.

We lay in the aftermath, locked together, breathing as one for long, quiet minutes, pressed close and taking in the feel of each other’s skin.

“I can’t believe it took us this long,” Indira said into the quiet darkness, tracing a glowing line on my arm. “I almost don’t know what to do, I’m so used to wanting you and not having you.”

“I know,” I told her, taking her lips for a final kiss. “I know it took us too long, but it’s done now. No more fear, no more waiting.”

“Oh,” she said, a quirk in her brow and her tone. “No waiting, huh? That means you’re up for round two?”

I took a moment to capture the expression on her face, open, wanting, loved, and then rolled us, settling her on top of me as she squeaked.

I was hard again. I would always be hard for her.

“Why don’t you find out?”

Indira

I stood in the empty conference room, my hands flat on the table as I looked around me. There were empty water glasses all around, and most of the chairs had now been pushed back against the wall. Random pieces of paper littered the surface of the large table, and I knew I could pretty much spell out verbatim what was on them.

The meeting with the Otlers had been a grueling experience—we had remained locked in this room for the past fourteen hours—and the final deal had only been penned down a couple of minutes ago. While before the conference room had been nothing but chaos, a deep silence now ruled the inside of these four walls.

Running one hand through my hair, I sank into my chair and closed my eyes. I needed to take a moment. I was mentally exhausted, probably more than I had ever been, and the worst thing was that I couldn’t relax. Every time I closed my eyes, I remembered all the work ahead of me. There were countless meetings to attend, dozens of different political factions to court, and life-or-death deals to be finalized.

A negotiator’s life wasn’t an easy one.

To top it all off, I still had a lot of work to do at the lab. We were making some progress with the new Dominion weapon—although not as much as I’d like—and I was aching for some time away from all the politicking just so I could do some real scientific research. If the Dominion had a secret weapon to deploy, one that we didn’t know how to counter, all the backroom dealing could turn out to be useless.

What I really would like to do, though, had nothing to do with more meetings or lab work. More than anything, I wanted to spend time with Bana. It had taken a lot of time before we both admitted how we felt toward each other and ow that it had happened, I found myself wanting him even more. Not that I was surprised. His performance in the bedroom had been incredible, to say the least.

Of course, my interest in Bana went beyond his bedroom skills. I couldn’t say exactly what it was that drew me to him, but there was something there alright. He was strong when he had to be, but he could also be kind and caring. He was always up for a good laugh, unlike some of the other Shein, and I always felt happy to be around him.

All that just made me want more and more. I didn’t know if what we had was a relationship but, hell, I wanted to be with him more than anything else. Ever since my arrival at Persephone Station, I had thought life would be nothing but constant toil and strife; with him, I felt hopeful about the future once more.

“Alright, cut it out, Indira,” I muttered under my breath, groaning as I got to my feet. Slowly, I went around the table and started collecting all the documents, carefully stacking them up and preparing them for the shredder. Even though I had been cautious not to have anything of importance on paper, it paid to be careful.

Once I was done with the documents, I left the conference room and started making my way toward the lab. I took my usual route, the one that went through the hangar where Bana worked, and my heart sank when I realized he wasn’t there. Now that he had been assigned as second-in-command under Aavat, his whereabouts had become harder to guess.

I had never told Bana this, but the path through the hangar was the longest one I could take. The lab was one of the most accessible places on the facility, but I always went there through the hangar just so I could see him. More often than not, we didn’t even speak, but that mattered little. I just wanted to see him, even if just for a second.

“Looking for Bana?” One of the Shein mechanics asked me, rolling out from underneath a sleek fighter, streaks of oil covering his face. “He’s in Hangar 3C, last I heard.”

“Oh, that’s fine,” I quickly replied, blood rushing to my cheeks. Was it that obvious that I was looking for Bana? Was everyone already aware of what was going on between the two of us? “I’m just heading to the lab,” I continued. With one quick smile, I spun around and rushed out of the hangar, my cheeks burning with embarrassment. I was the rebellion’s chief negotiator—I couldn’t have people look at me as if I was some love-struck teenager.

Raking one hand over my face, I stopped right before the lab doors and took a deep breath. Pressing the palm of my hand against the sensor, I waited until the screen turned green and the doors slid back into their partition. Slowly, I grabbed one of the lab containment suits from the hanger and put it on. Once I was sure I was properly dressed, I pressed the red button on the wall and waited as the sprinklers on the ceiling sprayed me with disinfectant, ensuring I wouldn’t contaminate the lab itself.

“What are you doing here?” Ren said the moment I strolled into the workspace. Even though he was also wearing a suit, I could see his surprised expression reflected on his visor. “I thought you were dealing with the Otlers this week.”

“Already took care of it,” I replied, barely hiding a smile. Almost everyone was expecting the negotiations to last for one or two weeks, but I had managed to finalize a deal in just a couple of days. The Otlers were tough negotiators, but once I found some common ground, it all become smooth sailing.

“That was fast.” With both hands on his hips, he gave me an appreciative nod. “You’re doing a lot for Dejar on that front. Are you sure you should be here with me? I can ask Dejar to get me someone else.”

“Nonsense,” I said with a little wave. “I like working here. I might not have as much time as I’d like, but being here in the lab is what’s stopping me from going nuts.” That and Bana, of course, but I wasn’t about to share that with Ren. As much as I liked the guy, I didn’t want to share that much of my personal life with him. “So, did you make any progress this week?”

“What do you think?” he laughed.

“You tell me.”

“Come here and check this out,” he said, walking toward one of the workstations where four microscopes had been set up in a row. “I went back to sort through the information Wyann got, and decided to try something new.” Waving at one of the microscopes, he invited me to take a peek. The suit I was wearing wasn’t that practical when it came to working with microscopes, but thankfully there were digital screens amplifying whatever Ren had cooking in there.

“Is that blood?” I asked him, immediately recognizing the shapes on the screen.

“That’s right. Notice something strange?”

“There’s some kind of bioagent in there, as well,” I whispered, watching as small particles infiltrated the red blood cells. “What is it doing?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but that bioagent seems to be integrating itself with the blood cells. I created it based on the Dominion documents we have, but it’s not working as it’s supposed to. I think that its purpose is to infiltrate the blood, change it, and fill it with a bioagent that’ll make the victims susceptible to what the Dominion wants them to do. Biohacking at its finest.”

“Holy crap,” I muttered. This was so much more dangerous than a simple weapon. If the Dominion had a working prototype of this, the implications were terrifying. “They’re trying to mutate species into a perfect race, aren’t they? One they can easily control.”

“Seems like it, yes.”

“Not good at all,” I said as I sank into one of the chairs. Dejar had to be warned right away. “Have you told Dejar about this?”

“Not yet,” Ren admitted. “I wanted to be sure of what I had.”

“Have you gone through all the information we got from the Dominion?”

“Some of it,” he shrugged. “But there’s a lot of it that I still haven’t managed to decrypt. My guess is that there’s a lot more information in all these documents, but it’s gonna take a while before we can read them. Last I heard, Emmery’s doing her best to crack it, so we might have good news soon.”

“Alright,” I nodded, my mind already working up a storm. Pushing myself to my feet, I took a deep breath and smiled at Ren. “Let’s get to work with what we have.”

“What do you want to do?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” I asked. “We have to develop something to counter this Dominion bioagent.”

“A cure?”

“Damn right.”

Bana

“Haul those out,” I said, pointing at the crates littering the floor. “And then check in with the engineers. I want to know how long till the new weapons systems are on.”

“Yes, sir,” the Gaed around me cried out in unison, clicking their heels as they saluted me. Military protocol had never been observed inside the Rogue Star, but now that our rebellion was becoming something to be taken seriously, some of the higher-ups wanted more structure to the way we were operating.

It was slightly disconcerting to have people saluting me, especially because most of them weren’t even Shein, but was I starting to grow accustomed to it. I thought the Gaed would object to saluting and obeying someone that wasn’t one of their own, but thankfully things had been going as smoothly as possible.

At least when it came to the team. If we were talking about the new ship, the Rogue Star imitation, there was still a lot that needed to be done.

Despite the excellent work the Hark had done on changing the ship’s appearance, especially when it came to the hull, its innards were a complete mess. The engines needed to go through a few rounds of thorough maintenance and fine-tuning before being inspected by Maris and Orrin, all the weapons systems needed to be upgraded, and most of the rooms needed a good scrubbing.

All in all, the ship would need at least one more month before it was fit for any kind of operation.

I didn’t really mind it.

I had always enjoyed working with my hands, and this job provided me ample opportunity for that. My engineering knowledge also ensured I could properly run the other engineers in charge of this operation, and that was something that let both Dejar and Aavat be at ease.

As much as they trusted the Gaed and the Hark, we had never worked as closely as this with any of them. The fact that someone they trusted was in charge of this meant they could focus on something else, and not have to worry that their new decoy ship would blow up during its first takeoff.

Taking one final look at the cargo bay, I nodded to myself and then started making my way toward the engine room. A ship as large as this needed reliable engines, and the model the Hark had been using was known to have some issues if it didn’t go through regular check-ups.

As I strolled into the engine room, I immediately noticed Aavat standing beside the team of engineers hunched over some panels and schematics of one of the engines. The outer core of the engine had been stripped of its metal casing, and hundreds of different wires snaked out from the gigantic metal block and onto the floor.

“Come to check up on me?” I laughed, closing the distance between me and Aavat and gripping his forearm. Even though the new military protocol called for a salute, we both felt more comfortable with our old ways. Soon enough, though, it was probable that we’d have to start setting the example.

“Do I need to check up on you?” he fired back, gripping my forearm as he returned my warrior’s greeting. “You’ve been doing a great job so far, Bana. I don’t think you need me around to babysit you.”

“Then why have you come all the way down here?”

“There’s something I want to ask you,” he replied, and I couldn’t help but notice a trace of hesitation in his voice. That was unusual. Aavat wasn’t the kind of man to hesitate. Pursing my lips, I waited for him to continue. “As you know, I’m still trying to assemble a crew for this ship. And we don’t have a medical officer, which is why I’m here right now. I was thinking of bringing Indira in.”

“Indira?” I repeated, my brain suddenly freezing as it tried to process the implications of having her on my crew. If she came aboard as a medical officer, then she’d be exposed and at risk. After all, if the ship was to serve as a decoy, then that would mean we’d be risking our lives on a daily basis.

I didn’t mind risking my own life, but Indira’s?

My sister’s face flashed in front of me, and I almost stumbled, pushing it back away.

“Yes,” Aavat nodded, unaware of my lapse. “I’m aware the two of you have grown close, so I thought I’d asked you if her presence aboard the ship would be a problem.”

A problem.

Indira had been dragged into the middle of a war. That was the problem. But where would she be the safest?

“No,” I replied slowly. “But are you sure about this? Indira’s a geneticist, not a medical doctor. I’m not sure if she’d be able to perform that role.”

Smiling, Aavat slapped my arm.

“I think it’s time you start paying more attention to the women in your life, my good friend,” he laughed. “Indira has been working with Lynna a lot, and she knows much more than you’d expect. More than just being capable of acting as a medical officer, Indira is an all-around competent asset. She’s one of the smartest people we have.”

I didn’t say anything to that. I just rocked back and forth on my heels, digesting what he had told me. I thought I knew Indira pretty well, but maybe Aavat was right. I should start paying more attention to her.

“What about Dejar?” I finally asked. “He’s leaning heavily on her when it comes to the politics of this rebellion.”

“Indira’s a great negotiator, there’s no doubt about that, but there aren’t a lot of parties willing to meet with us right now. Dejar and I think it might be beneficial to have Indira out there in space. We don’t know what we might find out there, and her negotiation skills might come in handy.”

“Fair enough,” I said, giving Aavat a curt nod. I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d be okay with Indira risking her life in space but, in the end, that wasn’t my choice. If Indira wanted to accept the job, then there was little I could do but support her.

“That’s all, Bana. I’ll be seeing you around.” Nodding back at me, Aavat strolled out of the engine room, saluting the Gaed engineers he passed in the cramped hallway. I stayed there for a while, motionless, pretending to watch the engineers work. In truth, I was already imagining how it’d be to work alongside Indira.

She’d be in charge of the medical bay, which meant I wouldn’t have to boss her around that much, and that position would keep her out of harm’s way most of the time. Even though I was reluctant, I couldn’t deny I was happy about having her with me. If she remained working here as a negotiator, then we’d have to be apart for long stretches of time.

“You okay, sir?” one of the engineers asked me, looking at me with narrowed eyes. I had been standing on the same spot for so long that I probably looked like I had lost my mind. Clearing my throat, I gave him a quick nod.

“Yes,” I said. “Keep up the good work, guys.”

After returning their salute, I quickly made my way out of the engine room. I went through the maze of cramped corridors at a hurried pace, and only slowed down when I went down the ramp that led into the hangar. My plan was to head straight toward the lab where Indira was, just so I could tell her the news, but it seemed like that wouldn’t be necessary.

“I just heard!” she cried out, looking up at me as I came down the ramp. She was standing at the bottom of it, her cheeks flushed, and I could tell she had probably run all the way here just so she could see me. “We’re going to be working together!”

“We are,” I laughed, placing my hands on her hips as I finally closed in on her.

This was worth it. Having her near, having her where I could protect her, was worth everything.

Lifting her off the ground, her body as light as a feather to me, I looked straight into her eyes and kissed her.

Everyone working in the hangar could see it, but I really didn’t care. As far as I was concerned, the entire world could know that we were together.

I was proud of it.

“Will I have to call you boss from now?” she purred softly.

My arms stiffened around her, and they weren’t the only things. “Only if you want to,” I managed.

“I’ll have to think about it, yeah,” she laughed, dragging her teeth across her bottom lip as she said it. My heart skipped a beat, rushing boiling blood through my veins, and I felt a furious heat take over my body. This woman made me feel things I had never experienced before. It was more than just desire or lust. It was something just as incomprehensible as it was powerful.

“Maybe we should discuss our new roles somewhere more private,” I teased her, and the way her expression lit up told me everything I needed to know. Game on.

As I gently put her down on the floor, she placed one hand on my chest, right over my heart, and winked at me.

“Lead the way.”

Indira

This new ship wasn’t the Rogue Star, but it was pretty close. I stood on the observation deck, marveling at the sea of stars around me. It wasn’t as large as the observation deck on the Rogue Star, and the windows needed a good cleaning, but the windows only went in yesterday, so it was understandable that they weren’t quite ready yet. The tear in the hull was almost fixed - the new containment systems on the ship for hull breaches meant that ships could be repaired in space. It was shaping up to be a rather comfortable living arrangement.

“Have you thought of a name yet?” Bana asked me. “Aavat insists he’s saving all his naming ideas for Shenna’s menagerie, so it’s up to me.” He squeezed my hand. “So it’s really up to you.”

“I think so.” I looked up at him with a sneaky smile.

“What are you thinking?”

“Just wait a moment. You’ll see.”

Bana opened his mouth to ask another question, but I placed a finger over his lips.

We waited in silence for a few moments before he spoke again.

“Am I supposed to be seeing something? Hearing something?”

“Just wait,” I insisted.

Sure enough, within a minute, low, sweet sounds reverberated through the air around us. The metal hull of the ship hummed with the pure energy of the sound.

“Is that what I think it is?” he asked.

A star whale floated through space, humming softly to itself. Its giant eyes were closed, like it was napping as it drifted. It was joined by a second star whale, who playfully bumped its head against the underside of the first.

“I want to call the ship the Star Whale,” I declared. “It seems fitting.”

“I didn’t think star whales lived this far out.” Bana’s voice was filled with awe. It was hard not to be in awe of those creatures.

“Me, either. They seem to like the ship, though. I’ve seen them a few times over the last few days,” I said.

“Maybe they think it’s one of them,” Bana suggested.

“I don’t think star whales are that dumb,” I laughed. “But I always thought they traveled in larger groups than this.”

“Maybe they’re a mated pair.” Bana tucked me under his arm. I settled in against the warmth of his side.

“That makes the most sense. Maybe they’re trying to find a little corner of space to start their own pod.”

“That sounds like a nice life,” Bana said thoughtfully. “Have you ever thought about doing something like that?”

“Not really,” I shrugged. “It’s not an option in the Terran System. For the most part, we get to choose when we have children, but we rarely get to choose a mate. All of the top breeding human men have a long waitlist.”

“Oh,” Bana said thoughtfully.

“Sorry, I know it’s a weird thing to talk about,” I laughed.

“It’s just hard for me to wrap my head around,” Bana admitted. “I can’t imagine not being able to pick someone to start a family with.”

“So, a family is one of the things you want?”

“Definitely. I figured I’d be there by now. I didn’t expect the Dominion to disrupt my life so much.”

“You’re telling me,” I chuckled.

“I don’t look at it as a bad thing,” he said. “It brought me to you, after all.”

“When you put it that way, you’re totally worth getting blown into space for.”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to do that more than once.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

We watched the star whales lazily twirl around each other for a while longer. I took a deep breath, savoring the moment of stillness. Things had been so busy lately. I woke up at the crack of dawn every day and I didn’t stop moving until my head hit the pillow at night. With the Rogue Star crew scattered, I’ve had to take on nearly double the responsibility to keep things on track here.

“We should get back to work soon,” Bana said as if reading my mind.

“Give me just another moment,” I said. “I’m not ready to deal with work just yet.”

“What else do you have to get through today?” he asked.

“Planning the raid is top priority right now,” I replied.

There was an under-guarded Dominion outpost not terribly far into Dominion space. We had it on good authority that it was teeming with weapons, ammo, and other tools of destruction we might find useful. Aavat wanted the Star Whale’s repairs done within the next day or so.

“We’re testing all of the systems tomorrow,” Bana said. “There are a few little kinks I’m going to work out this evening before dinner. And likely after dinner.”

“Don’t push yourself on too little sleep. The last thing I want is to fire a missile and trigger the window washing systems,” I joked.

“Are you planning on firing missiles anytime soon?” he asked with an arched brow.

“Look, if I’m having a bad day and a Dominion ship floats into my line of sight, I’m probably going to fire something at it. I’m just stating facts.” I raised my hands in defense.

“That’s reasonable,” he nodded.

“Do you know if the Rogue Star has reached Gaed yet?” I asked.

“They’re still en route. Their last check-in was half an hour ago. We should be getting a message or a ping soon.”

“Good. I want to talk to Lynna sometime between dinner and passing out,” I said.

“Medical stuff?”

“Yeah.” I ran a hand through my hair. Even though I kept it short, it still managed to look disheveled.

“I have to order supplies before we raid the weapons depot,” I explained. “I’m not sure what we need. I want Lynna’s input before I blow through a chunk of our funds.”

“Aren’t you meeting with the Ramoon military leader later?”

“Oh, shit.” I closed my eyes and dragged a hand over my face. “That’s right. I scheduled the meeting before dinner, though. I should have plenty of time.”

I wasn’t looking forward to meeting with the Ramoons. They lived on the outskirts of the Hark System, and with good reason. From what I’d learned, they were an unpleasant people that don’t like interacting with outsiders.

From my research, I’d learned that their skin had the same appearance and sturdiness of boulders. They had no sense of humor to speak of. Metaphors, idioms, and expressions didn’t go over well with Ramoons. As someone who frequently relied on the off-beat joke here and there, I knew I was in for a tough meeting.

“Want me to store a plate of food in your cooling unit just in case?” Bana asked.

“Please,” I laughed dryly. “I have a sinking feeling that my meeting with the Ramoons will not be a quick one.”

“I’ve heard stories about those guys,” he nodded. “For a bunch of sentient rock-creatures, they’re highly selective. They tend to destroy things they don’t like. They don’t like most things.”

“Great! I’m feeling so much more confident now,” I rolled my eyes.

“Are you bringing someone into the meeting with you?”

“Aavat will be there. Some of the Hark guards will be around,” I said.

“As long as you’re not left on your own to deal with this, I’m okay.”

“Want to tag along?” I playfully bumped his shoulder.

“I would, but I have a mountain of work to get through still,” Bana sighed heavily. “Most of the systems require delicate handiwork.”

“I would lose my mind if I didn’t have opposable thumbs,” I sighed and shook my head.

“Exactly. More Gaed mechanics should be coming over either on the Rogue Star when it returns or on their own vessels,” he explained. “It’ll be good to have more mechanical hands on deck.”

“You could always teach me,” I grinned.

“When do either of us have time for that?”

“If I’d known I was going to be this busy, I wouldn’t have spent so much time too scared to tell you how I felt,” I smiled.

“At least we have these moments.” Bana gave my shoulder a squeeze. I rested my head against his chest and watched the star whales slowly play around each other.

“These moments keep me sane,” I sighed.

My wrist unit beeped. I lifted it and peered at the monitor.

“And, just like that, the moment has to end. I’ve got to prep for that meeting.”

“I’ll catch up with you later, okay?” Bana pressed a kiss into my forehead. “If there are those potato-fish things for dinner do you want any?”

“A double helping, please,” I beamed. “I don’t know what they are and I don’t want to know, but they’re delicious.”

“Noted,” Bana grinned. “With any luck, I’ll see you between now and tomorrow.”

“I’ll come banging on your door when I have a free moment, I promise.”

I squeezed his hand as I left the observatory.

As I walked through the halls of the Star Whale, I felt refreshed. Spending time with Bana was my reward for a hard day’s work. I couldn’t think of a better motivator than that. Saving countless people and systems from the greedy iron grasp of the Dominion was a close second.

Bana

“How are the ancillary engines holding up?” I asked our chief engineer. He worked on his terminal for a couple of seconds, his fingers flying over the keys, then looked back at me over his shoulder and nodded.

“They’re ready,” he replied, and then it was my turn to look back at Aavat. He was sitting in the captain’s chair, arms draped over the armrests, and his lips were pursed tight. His expression was a mask of patience and control, but I was pretty sure that under the surface there was a lot of anxiety going on.

We were taking the Whale for its first real test, and only now would we know if the ship was strong enough to handle interstellar travel for long periods of time. I was confident in the job we had done, but we’d only know for sure once we pushed the ship to its limits.

“Are the coordinates in?” Aavat asked me, and I glanced at the navigation officer, a spindly Gaed with smart eyes. He nodded at me, and I returned the gesture. Sitting in my own chair by the weapons console, I buckled up and waited for Aavat to give the order. He drummed his fingers against the armrest, sucked in a deep breath, and only then did he do it.

“Go for it,” he said, raising his voice so that his words filled the entirety of the bridge. The entire crew sucked in a collective breath as the engineers fired up all the engines at once, and a deep thrumming sound started growing in intensity.

I looked out the main window, the darkness of space stretching endlessly ahead of us, and held my breath as the ship finally launched itself forward. The distant stars became streaks of light as we jumped through space, and no one said a word as the entire bridge started to shake like the inside of a blender. I gritted my teeth, hoping that the repairs we had done would be enough to stop the ship from coming apart, and breathed out with relief once the engines started slowing down.

“Position,” Aavat asked, and the navigation officer typed something on his console and wheeled his chair around.

“We’re just outside the Hark System,” he announced, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips. The Gaed weren’t exactly the best at displaying their emotions, but they sure as hell had a hard time hiding them once they surfaced.

“Great,” Aavat continued. “Take us for a spin. I want to test for maneuverability.”

“Hang on,” I said, spotting something on my own console. The ship was picking up a faint radio signal coming from somewhere in the vicinity, which meant there had to be a ship nearby. “Is anybody seeing what I’m seeing?”

“I see it,” the navigation officer said. “It’s a distress signal, and it’s coming from a small ship.”

“It could be a trap,” I muttered quietly, although that was unlikely. We had kept all reports concerning the Whale and this test as classified, and it was highly unlikely that the Dominion knew we were here. And if they didn’t know, it was impossible for them to set up a trap.

“Any Dominion readings in the vicinity?” Aavat asked. Once the Gaed officer replied in the negative, Aavat took a deep breath and gave him a nod. “Then I want to see what we’re dealing with. Let’s get closer.”

“On it, sir.”

It took ten minutes for us to have eyes on the ship. It seemed like a merchant’s small vessel. It was bullet-shaped and only had viewports at the front, which suggested most of its size had been devoted to holding cargo. According to the readings from our scans, the life-support systems were already starting to fail, and the engines had died hours ago. That didn’t concern me much, except for one small detail—there seemed to be a life form aboard the ship. Suddenly, our flight test had turned into a rescue mission.

“We’ll have to board it,” Aavat declared, and I noticed the hesitation in his voice. It wasn’t easy to be a ship’s captain, especially when the unexpected started happening. We didn’t have much of a choice, though. Even though we had to keep the Whale’s existence as top secret, we simply couldn’t ignore a stranded ship with someone aboard. “Bana and Zadden, I want you to take point on this. Gear up and take some tactical officers with you. Whoever’s in that ship, we’ll have to retrieve them.”

Unbuckling my belt, I jumped to my feet and gave Aavat a quick salute. Without saying another word, I went toward the door that led out of the bridge and waited for Valtic to join me. The two of us made our way toward the shuttle pad, and radioed for a few security members to join us. Once we got to the shuttle, there were three of them in there, all of them sporting space-flight gear and high-powered rifles.

“We’re not expecting much trouble,” I said as I grabbed my own space suit and rifle. “But keep your guard up all the same. We don’t want to take any unnecessary risks. Valtic, can you pilot?”

“Why do you think Aavat wanted me to come with you?” he laughed as he climbed inside the small shuttle. “You know I’m a much better pilot than you.”

“Please,” I scoffed. “I could fly circles around you with my eyes closed.”

“Really funny,” Valtic said. Even though we were trying to maintain a strict militaristic discipline inside the ship, most of the Rogue Star’s old crew were having a hard time adjusting to strict protocol. “Just get us there fast. We might not have much time. According to our scans, whoever’s in there is in a pretty rough state.”

“On it,” he said, and, once we were all buckled up, he fired up the engines and carefully guided the ship out of the Whale’s small hangar. I kept looking out the window as we approached the small bullet-shaped ship, and only looked away when it was time to roll. Aside from Valtic, who would remain in the shuttle, we all fastened our helmets and ensured our rifles were fully operational.

We left the shuttle in single file.

Floating through space, we secured our approach by using metallic hooks designed to tether us into place. One of the tactical officers tried to pry the hatch on the merchant ship open once he was in position, but then just shook his head. We’d have to blow our way in.

I waited as the rest of the team deployed tiny explosive charges around the hatch, and held my breath as the surgical explosions took place. It was never wise to start blowing shit up in space, but sometimes it couldn’t be helped. This time, luck seemed to be on our side, though, and we managed to pop the hatch open without causing the ship to depressurize.

With me taking point, we all floated inside the ship. Even the gravitational unit seemed to have died, which meant anything that wasn’t bolted in place was floating freely. Despite a reasonable cargo bay, the ship only seemed to have enough space for a small crew. More than ten people and it’d start getting cramped.

Taking my time, I made my way toward the front of the ship, my hands holding tightly to my rifle. I made my way into the control room, and it was there that I found what we were looking for.

The woman was sitting in the pilot’s chair, her long black hair floating around her shoulders. Blood trickled from her nose and onto her cracked lip, but that did little to ruin her beauty. There were bruises on her neck and arms, and it didn’t take much to know there’d be a lot more bruises hiding underneath her clothes. Whatever had happened on this ship, it had been rough.

“We found what we were looking for,” I told Aavat over the comms unit. “It’s a female, and she’s in bad shape. I don’t recognize the race, but she has a lot of similarities with humans.”

“Never mind that,” Aavat replied. “Just bring her in.”

“Roger that,” I said, floating to the side as the other guys on my team got busy with the woman. They cut her seat belt, managed to place her inside an oversized space suit, and placed a helmet over her head. Careful not to hurt her, we pushed her body toward the cargo bay, hoping we’d manage to get out the way we came in.

“Hold on,” I said as we entered the cargo bay. There were a lot of metallic crates in there, but my eyes were immediately drawn to what looked like a large barrel with wiring spilling from it. Carefully, I approached it. “Get out of here, fast!” I bellowed, my stomach lurching as I recognized what was inside the barrel.

Explosives.

Gritting my teeth, I honed in on the small digital display with a countdown, but I couldn’t read the runes in there. In any case, I didn’t need to translate them to know their meaning—time was running out. Fast.

I followed the team as they floated out the hatch, pulling the woman after them, and breathed with relief as I realized Valtic had piloted the shuttle closer to where we were. Sweat ran down my back as we climbed inside the shuttle, and I was clenching my jaw so hard that my teeth hurt.

“Floor it!” I cried out the moment we were secured inside the shuttle. Valtic didn’t need me to say it twice. The shuttle dove down, and I held onto the unconscious woman to prevent her from being thrown against the walls. In that exact moment, a bonfire of color spilled into the shuttle. I looked up and out the windows to see the bullet-shaped ship we had just left explode, tall flames licking the large metal fuselage until the vacuum snuffed them out.

“Shit, that was close,” I breathed out. “Too damn close.”

Indira

“Don’t worry,” I said, trying to sound as kind as I could. “You’re in good hands now.” Pressing a button on my console, I looked up at the woman and smiled as a glass dome started sliding over her body. Dark bruises covered most of her body, especially in the places where the seat belt had been, but she didn’t seem to be bleeding internally. If she were, she would have died hours ago.

“Thank you,” she muttered meekly, the translator struggling to process her words. She spoke in a dialect I didn’t recognize, nor did anyone aboard the ship, and I had no idea what species she belonged to. She looked humanoid in appearance, and from a distance she could be mistaken for a human female, if you ignored the pale green tint to her skin. Once you were close enough, though, the differences were easy to spot, especially when it came to the eyes: the irises were far larger than a human’s would be, and they didn’t leave any space for the white to show.

“What do you have?” I asked Zayn. My second-in-command in the med bay, he was a quiet but capable man. He sat beside me, hunched over the medical console, and his eyes were narrowed as he read the results of the scan we were doing.

“No internal trauma or anything that I can see,” he whispered. “It’s mostly the bruises.”

“Well, that’s some good news.”

“There’s something odd here, though,” he continued. “She seems to have a neural implant of sorts in her head, some kind of neural inhibitor.”

“A neural inhibitor? What is it doing?”

“I have no idea,” he shrugged. “Hard to tell without cutting it off her.”

“Christ,” I breathed out, raking one hand over my face. I didn’t like the sound of that one bit. Sighing, I realized we wouldn’t get any more information through medical scans. I would have to go and talk to her. Thankfully, she had regained consciousness after Bana brought her into the bay. She seemed a bit dazed and confused, but otherwise fine.

Tapping the medical console, I forced the glass dome to slide back into its partition and then walked from behind the console and toward the woman. I grabbed a chair and sat beside her, doing my best to keep a smile on my face.

“How are you feeling?” I asked her. She grimaced, as if my question reminded her of all the bruises covering her body, and tried to get up. I placed one hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her to remain lying down. “Easy now. Don’t push yourself.”

“I’m sore all over,” she groaned. Her tone was quiet and serene, and there was a kind of musicality to it. “Where am I?”

“A spaceship,” I replied, fully knowing I had to be careful with the information I allowed her to know. “We’re in the Hark System. We found your spaceship stranded right outside of it.”

Closing her eyes, she bit on the corner of her bottom lip, the lines on her forehead deepening. Even though she seemed to be going through a lot, nothing she did tarnished her beauty. Unlike any human female, her beauty seemed almost ethereal and unreal, just one step removed from what you’d imagine when reading a fairy tale.

“Do you know how you ended up here?” I insisted, and that brought her down to the real world. She opened her eyes and looked straight into mine, parting her lips as she prepared to speak.

“I do,” she muttered. “We were making a cargo run, transporting fresh supplies to a small mining colony in a nearby system, when we were attacked by a Dominion crew.”

“Who’s we?”

“Me and my crew,” she replied. “I run a small transporting company. Just something that can support me. It’s hard to do with the Dominion enforcing all kinds of strict rules, but we’ve managed to make it this far. Until today, anyway.”

“Why did the Dominion attack you?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered, and her voice seemed to crack for a fraction of a second. “They came out of nowhere, told us they wanted to see our cargo manifest, and then they came aboard. They looked into everything, and then started accusing us of being spies.” Closing her eyes, she sighed heavily. “I don’t remember much after that. I know one of them pushed me and hit me with his gun, and they must’ve thought they had killed me. That’s why I was left behind, I think. They must’ve thought I was dead, and so they just abandoned me.”

“Alright,” I whispered, carefully laying my hand on top of hers. “What’s your name?”

“Skadi.”

“Okay, Skadi, you’re safe now. Try to get some rest, alright?” She just gave me a weak nod and closed her eyes, and it didn’t take long before she drifted off. I sat there, just looking at her for a couple of seconds. Her story seemed credible enough, and she had the bruises to prove it, but there was something in here that didn’t quite fit.

What it was, I had no idea.

“Indira,” Zayn called me, and I looked back at him over my shoulder. “Aavat has sent us a message. He wants to see you right now.”

“Very well.” Jumping to my feet, I started making my way out of the med bay, but stopped right before I left. “Keep an eye on her, Zayn. Don’t let her out of your sight.”

He looked at me for a moment, trying to decipher the true meaning behind my words, but in the end, he just gave me a nod. Still replaying the woman’s words in my head, I made my way through the maze of corridors in the Whale and quickly found myself standing before the bridge. The sentry posted there waved me in, and everyone on the bridge looked at me as I walked in. My eyes found Bana’s in a matter of seconds, and I gave him a coy little smile before I turned all my attention to Aavat.

“I want to hear your thoughts on her, the inhibitor, and all the rest. I trust your judgment on this, Indira,” he said in an even tone.

“I’m not sure about anything,” I admitted, running my tongue over my lips. “Her story seems to be a credible one, but I can’t say that I trust her. It makes sense for the Dominion to act like she said they did, but why would they leave timed explosives behind? They could’ve just blown the ship up once they were ready to move out. Again, I’m not saying that she’s lying, it’s just that...I’m hesitant to trust her.”

“What about the inhibitor?” he asked. “Anything we can do about it?”

“We can’t do much about it without cutting it off her, which is a dangerous procedure. We can’t do it without risking her life.” I hesitated for a moment, but then decided to continue. “It must emit some kind of signal, though, so maybe Zayn can try to pick up on it. If he does, we might try to hack it and see what it’s all about.”

“Then do it,” Aavat said. “Also, I want security to be on hand at all times. I don’t want her to roam the ship freely, and I don’t want you and Zayn alone with her. Until we trust her, or until she’s off the ship, we have to be careful.”

I was supposed to be the ship’s medic, and my job was all about keeping people alive and healthy, no matter who they were. This rebellion, though, was blurring the lines. To care for people wasn’t just enough. Distrust and paranoia were now an essential part of the job. We knew what the Dominion was capable of, and if we were too quick to trust...then we would be quick to die, as well.

“I agree,” I finally said. “We have to be careful.”

Bana

I took a large gulp of the coffee, groaning as it burned my tongue.

I had never been a huge fan of relying on food or drinks to keep me going, but, after the Persephone women taught us how to brew some good coffee, I had become a bit of an addict. I tried not to rely too much on it, but on days like these, it became almost impossible to go without it.

I had spent most of the night working at the computer, trying to find some information on Skadi, but it was useless. There were no records of her or her family, nor did I find anything about her species. It was as if she didn’t exist. Also, the records on the mining station she had mentioned were scarce, and I couldn’t find anything about supply runs.

That wasn’t exactly suspicious, as sometimes things like that were kept off the books to keep costs down, but it was enough for me not to feel at ease.

But if she’d been attacked, betrayed by the Dominion, she’d have my support in getting back on her feet. We all knew how that went.

Some of us more than others.

“How’s it going?” I heard a deep voice say behind me, and I straightened in my seat as I realized it was Aavat. I was so focused on the screen in front of me that I hadn’t even heard him step inside my office. “Did you manage to find anything yet?”

“Nothing,” I admitted, leaning back in my seat and pinching the bridge of my nose. “It’s as if she’s a ghost. She says she’s a Tienli, but no one knows what a Tienli is or where to find them. There’s no information about them on our computers, and not even the Hark or the Gaed seem to have any records about them. If her species really exists, they’ve been flying under the radar for a very long time.” Sighing, I wheeled my chair around and folded my arms over my chest. “But she’s not going to be a problem for long, right?”

“Wrong,” Aavat sighed, and then it was his turn to fold his arms. He looked down at the floor for a while, as if he was trying to find the right words, and then looked back at me. “The Harks refuse to grant her customs access till they verify her identity. If we can’t prove who she is, then they don’t want her around.”

“Aren’t they being a bit too paranoid?”

“Can you blame them?” Aavat shrugged. “They just became a part of a do-or-die rebellion against the Dominion. Trust is a rare commodity right now. They’re more than willing to help us out, but they don’t want to take unnecessary risks.”

“What the hell are we supposed to do now? It’s not like we can throw her out the airlock.”

“We’ll have to keep her around for the time being,” Aavat said. “I don’t like it, but it’s not like we can do anything about it. We’ll have to come up with a solution after.”

“After what?”

“After we’re done with our first mission. We just got our marching orders,” he continued. “Dejar has pinpointed a Dominion weapons depot in the documents that Wyann retrieved, and he wants us to target it. The Whale is ready for some action, and Dejar wants to keep the ball rolling.”

“And are we going to do it with that woman aboard?”

“We don’t have an option. We’ll keep her under watch in the med bay, and I’ve instructed everyone to be careful around her. She might have to come with us, but she doesn’t need to know anything about what we’re doing. The less she knows, the easier it’ll be for us to drop her off later. We can’t afford to have a stranger like her being privy to confidential information.”

“I don’t like this,” I sighed. “Not one bit. The Hark might be wise not to take unnecessary risks, but that only means we’re the ones doing it. I’m not against helping people, but she’s a complete unknown in all this.”

“You don’t believe her story?”

“I don’t know. It makes sense on a surface level, but there’s something that’s not quite right about her.”

“I agree, but it is what it is.” Taking one step toward me, Aavat laid his hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Let go of it for now, and put some of the tech guys on it. You need to rest.”

“When are we leaving?”

“We’re leaving right now. We’ll be there tomorrow morning,” Aavat said. We had only returned from our flight test a couple of hours ago, but it seemed like our stay in the Hark System would be a short one. I didn’t mind it. I was ready for it. “Get to your quarters, read up on the mission material, and then get some sleep, Bana. Tomorrow’s going to be a wild day.”

“Alright,” I sighed, groaning as I got up to my feet and stretched my back. I walked out of my office with Aavat by my side, and then started making my way toward my quarters after we said our goodnights. Once there, I sat at my small desk and turned on my computer terminal.

Just like Aavat had said, the mission documents were already there. I spent half an hour going through it, double checking the coordinates and trying to pinpoint any possible threats we’d face, and only stopped once I realized I was too tired to go on. I was about to throw myself on top of the mattress when I heard the door slide back into its partition. I almost reached for my gun, instinct getting the best of me, but then I remembered that I didn’t have to. Aside from me, only one other person had the lock combination.

“I thought you were resting,” I told Indira as she walked in, her hair tied in a bun. She was wearing her white medical officer coat, and I couldn’t resist but appreciate how well it fit her. She looked amazing.

“Couldn’t get any sleep,” she said with a worried smile. Closing the distance between us, she threw her arms over my shoulders. “Aavat just told me we’re heading into battle tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I know. Are you afraid?”

“Can’t say that I am,” she whispered. “Just worried.”

“About what?”

“About you,” she continued, her eyes locked on mine. “Just promise me you’ll be careful tomorrow, and that you won’t do anything stupid.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“That’ll have to do, then,” she breathed out. With that, she went on her tiptoes and crushed her mouth against mine.

And, just like that, the entire universe faded into nothingness, our kiss the only thing that really mattered.

Indira

His lips were everything.

I closed my eyes as he ran his hands down the sides of my body, and a shiver shot up my spine as he held me by the waist. Taking a step forward, he pressed me against the wall and pinned me there, my heart beating so hard inside my chest that it felt like my rib cage was rattling.

Allowing instinct to take the wheel, I grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head. Without a moment’s hesitation, I ran my fingers down his naked chest, enjoying the hard contour of his muscles.

He always looked and felt so strong.

In his arms, I was never afraid.

“I want you,” I whispered against his lips, and he responded by kissing me even more intensely. Prying my lips open with the tip of his tongue, he allowed one hand to roam over my breasts, and I let out a quivering moan as he massaged my flesh, my nipples growing hard against my bra.

“Not as much as I want you,” he finally said, pulling my shirt over my chest. Unclasping my bra, he yanked it off me and took a step back, his eyes immediately darting to my naked breasts. Desire washed over me, a wicked wetness taking over that sweet spot between my legs.

I wasn’t the only one succumbing to desire.

Just one quick glance, and my heart surged as I saw two hard shapes straining against the fabric of Bana’s pants, his cocks throbbing with lust.

Cocks.

It shouldn’t have been such a shock. There’d been plenty of whispers between the Persephone women, once some of us had paired off with the Rogue Star crew.

Whoever thinks women don’t have as dirty conversations as men has never met any, of any species.

But there’s a big, big difference between being told, and seeing.

Did I say big?

Even bigger in feeling.

They were both large, the thinner, more flexible secondary sitting right above the girth of the primary. With a shiver, my entire body remembered how it had felt for him to be in me.

Possessing me so completely, so tenderly.

And now I wanted more.

Smiling, I reached for him with both hands and grabbed them, wrapping my fingers around their thickness. I started stroking his cocks over the fabric of his clothing, and Bana just gritted his teeth and exhaled sharply.

Closing the distance between us, he leaned in and brought his mouth down to my breasts, not wasting a second before he wrapped his lips around my right nipple. He sucked it into his mouth, twirling his tongue around my aching bud, and flattened the palm of one hand right against my mound. I was wet before, but now it felt like there had been a flood between my legs.

Aching for more—so much more—I started swaying my hips, pressing my aching pussy against the palm of his hand. It didn’t take long before madness took him.

Grabbing my hand, he spun me around and threw me on top of the bed, quickly climbing after me. His hands made quick work of my boots, and then he proceeded to my pants, pushing them down my legs in a commanding manner.

“Now,” he growled. “I need you now.”

He only slowed down when I was wearing nothing but my drenched thong, every part of me driven mad with lust.

Before I knew what the hell I was doing, I’d tugged his pants down and hooked my fingers in his boxer briefs. My heart did a somersault inside my chest as I pulled it all down, his two cocks springing free, and I allowed a wicked grin to take over my lips.

Leaning in, I grabbed the smaller cock with my hand and took my mouth to the other one, reaching for its tip with my tongue.

I closed my eyes as I pushed down, carefully taking his thickness inside my mouth, and held my breath as I rolled my lips down as far as I could go. He laid both his hands on top of my head and groaned softly.

I went on the offensive right away, stroking him with one hand while I bobbed my head back and forth. I felt precum on the tip of his cock, its saltiness coating my tongue, and I allowed that maddening flavor to make me go even faster. I pushed myself to the absolute limit, more than willing to have him explode inside my mouth, but he had other plans.

“No,” he growled, pulling his cock out of my mouth. “We’re just getting started, Indira.” Placing one hand on my waist, he hooked his fingers in my thong and pulled the elastic band against my outer thigh. I heard the fabric tearing, and then the cool air in the room lapped at my naked pussy, my fluids dripping down my inner thighs.

“Take me,” I breathed out, the words leaving my mouth before my brain could even filter them. “Take me right now.”

I didn’t need to say it twice.

The moment the words escaped my lips, Bana reached for me and hooked his fingers on the backs of my knees. He dragged me across the mattress toward him, then climbed on top of me after pushing me down, the skin of his broad chest like fire against me.

I threw my arms around his neck and laced my legs behind his waist, trapping him in place. I arched my back as he grabbed one of his cocks and pressed his tip against my drenched inner lips, and the fire of lust and pleasure started incinerating everything inside my head as he eased himself inside me.

His thickness strained against my inner walls on the way in, and I only realized I had been holding my breath once all of his inches were buried in me.

“You’re so damn tight,” he growled, resting his forehead against mine. Holding my gaze, he started rocking his hips and thrusting, his cock sliding in and out of me at a growing pace. I held his gaze for as long as I could, but it didn’t take long before my eyes started rolling in their orbits, pleasure whipping incessantly at my nerve endings and making me lose all control.

I clawed at his back with my fingernails, digging them into his flesh hard enough to draw blood, but he didn’t seem to care.

If anything, he just started ravishing me even harder than before, pistoning into me with the fury of a man whose lust knows no bounds.

“So good,” I cried out, my voice bouncing off the walls of his cramped quarters and returning to me as a lustful echo. “So fucking good.”

“And it’s going to get even better,” he replied with a growl. Before I had the chance to do anything about it, he pushed himself off me and forced me to roll to the side. Once I was lying on my stomach, he grabbed my hips and pulled my ass up, positioning me on all fours.

I felt vulnerable and exposed, and I was absolutely loving it.

When he closed in on me and sheathed his cock up to the hilt inside my pussy, I didn’t moan, I screamed. My voice shot up my throat like a volcano, and I let pleasure turn into sound so violently that I knew I’d have a sore throat for the next few hours.

I didn’t mind it one bit.

“Harder,” I begged him, thrusting back until the sound of his thighs slapping my backside filled the entire room. He obliged willingly, using the power of his muscled hips to thrust so hard I had to place my hands on the wall for support. I closed my eyes and surrendered to the moment, the onslaught of sensations leaving me completely delirious.

I could feel his cock flying in and out of me, and while his other one remained trapped between my ass cheeks, each time it throbbed, it caused a moan to escape from my lips. One of Bana’s hands remained on my right breast, his fingers squeezing my flesh, but he didn’t stop there—doing it suddenly and without warning, he started pinching my hard nipple while reaching his free hand around my waist, two of his fingers immediately finding my clit.

“I think I’m gonna come,” I blurted, surprised I had been able to form a coherent sentence. There was an electrical storm raging inside my head, and my body was burning from the inside out. Whatever rationality still existed in me had already checked out, and nothing but instinct remained.

“I don’t want you to think,” he said, thrusting so hard I thought he was going to split me in half. “I want you to come right now.”

His words slithered their way into my mind and, after quickly attaching themselves to my own thoughts, they gave me one final push and I just obeyed them. Gritting my teeth, I felt as if my pussy became even tighter than before, electricity crackling under my skin as a tidal wave of pleasure crashed through me.

I came, and I came hard.

And still he drove into me, the onslaught of sensation between his hands, the pounding of my clit, the teasing, the writhing against the star of my ass were enough to bring me back over the edge again.

“That thing you asked before,” I stuttered, barely holding onto the words, “I’ve decided I do like it.”

He paused for a moment, as he caught up to the previous conversation. “Oh.” He leaned over me, raining a trail of featherlight kisses across my shoulders until I wriggled against him, still impaled on his length.

“Your wish is my command,” he murmured, then he withdrew, just enough for the tip of the secondary cock to probe against my back entrance.

With every breath, he went deeper, until I split open around him, lost in his touch, pleasure practically ripping me open.

“Bana,” I begged, not even knowing what I wanted, what I needed.

But he did.

Reaching around my hip, he pinched my clit lightly, and my mind unraveled.

Slamming myself back against him, I started swaying my hips like a madwoman, hellbent on making him come with me, and it only took a couple of seconds before he joined me in oblivion.

His cock started throbbing inside me, and a fraction of a second later, I felt him spill the warmth of his seed all over my pussy until I collapsed on top of the mattress.

I took a moment, just trying to catch my breath, and then rolled to the side to find Bana smiling at me. In his hands was a warm towel, one that he gently cleaned off the skin of my back before pressing a new one into my hands. Leaning in, he kissed my forehead and brushed a stray lock of hair away from my face.

“I have no idea what you did to me,” he whispered, “but I—”

“Whatever you’re gonna say,” I cut him short, laying one finger over his lips, “say it tomorrow. After you’re back in my arms, safe and sound.” Looking into his eyes, I smiled. “That’s all I want. I want you back in my arms tomorrow, and I want you to promise me that’s going to happen.”

He took a deep breath, but held my gaze.

“I promise.”

Bana

“And here we go,” I whispered, grabbing the armrests of my chair so tightly I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d just come off. Every single crewmember on the bridge was on edge, but I trusted them to do their jobs.

Aavat and I had handpicked the lot of them, and we were confident in their abilities.

Doing my best to remain focused, I glanced at the display on my console and watched our approach.

The facility was cunningly hidden -- a massive complex built within a giant asteroid, all hidden by a surrounding asteroid field. The weapons depot protruded from the asteroid’s surface, overshadowing the rest of the smaller structures studding the rocky face.

We’d take what we could, then destroy the rest. Anything to hurt the Dominion and its operations was fine with us.

“Shields up,” I commanded, fully aware that by now our presence would have already been noted.

The Dominion couldn’t know we were about to strike this specific depot, but I was sure every single one of their facilities would be ready to fend off a direct assault.

I was about to tell the crew to bring all weapons systems online when a sudden explosion rocked the entire ship. My seat belt kept me in place, but my head snapped so far forward that I still hit the console, the coppery taste of blood filling my mouth.

“Crap,” I muttered. “What the hell was that?”

“Mines,” one of the engineers cried out, another explosion taking place right beside us. “We’re already trying to maneuver out of here.”

“All weapons systems online,” I pushed past my gritted teeth, my heart beating faster as I saw a swarm of fighters flying out from the weapons depot.

As my mate would say, shit.

This wasn’t in the files we’d stolen.

Not only would we have to contend with a minefield, but now we had a swarm of fighters to fend off.

This was starting to look like a trap.

“There are too many of them,” one of the officers cried out, the klaxons braying out their alarms. I glanced at our radar screen, my stomach lurching as I saw countless red dots closing in on our position.

“Shit,” I growled, turning around to look at Aavat. “We might have to leave.”

“I know,” he said, his lips pursed so tightly they had turned white.

“No one’s leaving,” a vaguely familiar voice cried out over the intercom, and Aavat and I exchanged a confused glance.

We looked at the comms officer, and he just gave us a shrug as he entered codes like a madman, trying to find out what was going on. “Someone hacked into our comms system,” he said. “But I have no idea who they might—”

“We’re friends, that’s what we are,” the voice continued, and the main display on the bridge lit up to show the face of a man I immediately recognized as the newly appointed leader of the pirates. “Sorry about hacking your comms system, but we thought you might need some help kicking ass.”

As he spoke, dozens of ships started appearing beside the Whale, all of them in a chaotic formation.

They sped up and formed a protective barrier in front of our ship, and the Dominion fighters slowed down as they appraised the situation.

“Well, glad to have you here, boys,” Aavat finally said, his words brimming with relief. “Let’s give ’em hell.”

“We’re on it,” the pirate leader said, and the display with his image went off a fraction of a second later. The pirate ships moved forward, firing their lasers in an almost random way, but they hit their targets flawlessly. Dominion ships exploded right in front of us, the shock waves of those explosions making the Whale rock in place, but Aavat was quick to seize the moment.

“Get around them,” he yelled at the navigation officer, and the Whale quickly started outflanking the combat zone.

I directed my focus to the weapons systems and started locking all our missiles into place. The Dominion fighters were busy, and they wouldn’t be able to protect the weapons depot.

“FIRE!” I shouted once the depot was within range, and held my breath as a dozen high-powered missiles shot out from the Whale. They cut across space at breakneck speed, shattering the far side of the asteroid base.

The explosion was massive enough to engulf a few of the Dominion fighters, but our navigation officer reacted fast and pulled us out right before we were hit by the shock wave.

I still felt my belt biting into my chest as the G-forces mounted up.

“Turn us around,” I heard Aavat shout over the fray. “Let’s help those pirates.”

Sitting straight in my chair, I gritted my teeth as I looked out the viewport and saw the area ahead of us littered with debris.

The Whale would have to take its time getting into the combat zone, but without our help, the pirates would still be heavily outnumbered.

Releasing my seat belt, I jumped to my feet.

“We have to get our new fighters out,” I said, looking straight at Aavat.

“Our fighter squad isn’t ready for such an operation,” he said coldly. “Their training isn’t complete, they don’t have a squad leader, and—”

“I’ll lead them out,” I interrupted him. “We can’t stand aside and let those guys be decimated like this. They came to save our asses. The least we can do is return the favor.”

There was a moment of silence, then Aavat closed his eyes and sighed.

“Fine,” he said. “But be careful. We’ll try to help out as soon as we move past the debris.”

“Understood,” I replied, and then dashed off the bridge as fast as I could. My heart was beating at a thousand miles an hour as I reached the hangar, a dozen of our pilots already standing at attention.

They seemed scared.

“Just follow my lead,” I told them as I grabbed a helmet and climbed up the metallic ladder that led into the cockpit of one fighter. “Let’s kick some ass.”

Checking my control panel to ensure the fighter was fully operational, I waited until I had clearance from the bridge and revved up the engines. A couple of seconds later, and I was cutting through the darkness of space at blinding speed, the palms of my hands damp with sweat as I tried to avoid the burning debris that littered the area in front of us. The rest of the squadron lagged behind me, but I didn’t care.

Just ahead of me, the pirates were being beaten to a pulp, and I was hell bent on not letting the Dominion lay waste to one more of these guys. We didn’t have enough allies to let them go lightly.

“I got you covered,” I said into my comms unit as I mowed down a Dominion fighter on a pirate’s tail. The rest of my squadron caught up with me a couple of seconds later and, flying in close formation, we swept through the Dominion fighters just as easily as a rock would break through brittle glass.

“Form up behind me,” I shouted as I realized only a few Dominion fighters remained. With the pirates bringing up the rear, we did a quick flanking maneuver and descended on the Dominion fighters, firing a barrage of laser fire in their direction. They tried to zigzag through it as best as they could, but they didn’t stand a chance. “They’re done for, boys.”

Of course, I spoke one second too early.

The last remaining fighter must have sensed he only had a couple of seconds left to live and, instead of wasting them on a futile effort to retreat, he looped his fighter around and decided to ram himself into my ship in a suicide attack.

My breath caught in my throat and, for a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, I thought that was it.

The Rogue Star.

My friends and crew.

Indira.

I was about to lose everything, and all because I had been an arrogant asshole that thought he could take on the world.

Suddenly, the Dominion fighter exploded.

I dove down as fast as I could, flying through the flames and hitting some debris as I went, but I was alive. Still not sure what had happened, I looked at the rear-view display to see the Whale floating right above the pirates.

Aavat had saved my ass just in time.

I saw multiple pirate ships latching on to the depot. They began using mechanized arms and tractor beams to loot most of the base in quick fashion. Within minutes, they had emptied large portions of the main building.

As the pirates left the looted base, they fired multiple shots, destroying the structure they had been foraging through just minutes earlier.

“Get your ass back in here,” Aavat’s voice came at me through the comms unit. “All of you. We’ve got more work to do.” There were a few hoorahs over the comms, but the only thing I could do was breathe out with relief.

Falling back into formation, I followed the others back into the Whale’s hangar, my uniform drenched with sweat. I had stared death in the face, and I had survived. It was a miracle.

“Oh, crap,” I muttered as I climbed out from my fighter. The hangar was completely packed with ships and pilots, all of them ecstatic from our victory, but my brain processed little of it.

Instead, it just focused on the angry woman marching straight toward me, fire burning in her eyes.

“Indira, I can explain,” I started, but she was having none of it.

“You promised me!” she cried out. “You told me you’d be careful.” Before I could stop her, she cocked her arm back and slapped me across the face hard enough to leave a mark. Then, looking straight into my eyes, she wrapped her arms around me. “I thought you were going to die.”

“I’m right here,” I said. “I’m not gonna leave you, Indira.” Then, remembering all that I had left unsaid, I took a step back and placed both hands on her shoulders. Smiling, I leaned in and brushed my lips against hers. “I love you, Indira. You won’t get rid me of me that easily.”

She parted her lips for a moment, and then shook her head softly, still processing what I had just told her.

“I love you, too,” she finally said, and fell back into my arms. I pulled her tight against my body, and only then did I realize that everyone in the hangar had been watching us.

By then, it was already too late—everyone started whistling and clapping, chanting my name, as if a declaration of love outweighed a victory against the Dominion.

In my eyes, it really did.

Indira

I sprung away from Bana when the clapping started. I’d hardly noticed the crowd of pirates, crewmembers, and Harks before. All I saw was Bana. All I felt was relief and undeniable love. I still felt those things now, they were just tinged with embarrassment.

Bana leaned down so his mouth was by my ear.

“You’re turning red. It’s a good color on you,” he teased.

I pulled back and playfully swatted his shoulder.

“I’m just saying. Red and gold make a lovely color combination.” He was doing everything in his power not to burst out laughing.

“Don’t get mad when I redecorate your quarters then.” It was a lame comeback but I couldn’t think of anything else. Over the last hour, I’d gone through every emotion on the spectrum and I was feeling a little dazed.

“As long as you’re sleeping beside me, I don’t care what color my quarters are.” He spoke softly so that only I could hear him. However, his words caused me to turn so red that the nature of his comment wasn’t a mystery to everyone around us.

“Save it for later,” Aavat said in a warning tone, though I could see humor winking in his dark gaze.

“You’re going to get us in trouble,” I whispered, elbowing Bana gently in the ribs.

“Did you see what I just did? I think I’ve earned a free pass for the rest of the day.”

“Fair,” I shrugged. “But the rest of us still have work to do.”

“That’s a shame.” His smile was disarming. I almost melted right there on the spot. “I was hoping the good doctor could patch me up.”

“The good doctor on this ship is Zayn, not me,” I smirked. “He’ll be more than happy to patch you up.”

“Can I trouble you for a massage later?”

“If you let me work now,” I winked, “you’ll be rewarded later.”

“I can do that.”

I waited with Bana until Zayn arrived to escort him to the med bay.

“As touching as that display was,” Aavat said after Bana was gone, “you still have a long day ahead of you.”

“When do I not?” I joked. “What do you want me to do?”

“Now that she’s stable, and doesn’t seem to be a threat, I want you to talk to Skadi,” Aavat said. At the sound of her name, an unsettling chill crawled over my skin. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something about Skadi made me uncomfortable.

Hopefully, I’d have a better idea of her after we chatted.

“Do you want someone to go with you?” Aavat noticed my hesitation.

“No,” I shook my head. “She has no weapons. The room is under surveillance. She’s pretty banged up, to boot. I’ll be fine.”

“Take a radio. Just in case.”

Aavat took the device clipped to his belt and passed it to me. I clipped it onto my back pocket.

“Is she ready now?” I asked.

Aavat nodded.

I made my way to the med bay where Skadi was still recovering. When I approached her bed, she tensed, as if she was expecting to be attacked.

“I’m sorry to sneak up on you,’ I said quickly. “I wasn’t sure if you were sleeping or not.”

“It’s all right,” she laughed awkwardly. “It’s become a habit now.”

I pulled up a chair and sat beside her cot. I noticed she wasn’t hooked up to any monitors. In fact, she looked for all the world like a young woman lounging in bed.

“Can you guess why I’m here?” I asked her.

She ran her dark tongue over her gleaming white teeth.

“You want my life story, don’t you?”

“Well, I don’t think we need to go that deep,” I said. “I just want to know what led up to you being where we found you. You might know something that can help us.”

“But do you know something that could help me?”

“Maybe. I won’t know until I know, you know?”

Skadi tipped her head. Her long, shiny hair rippled in the low light of the room.

“You seem nervous.”

“Not nervous,” I said. “I’m simply unsure of how to go about asking you questions that might be difficult for you to answer. I’m not a fan of causing pain and discomfort.”

“Then you are a rarity in this universe.”

Something gleamed in Skadi’s eyes that shook me down to my core. I couldn’t name it. Part of me wondered if it was all in my head.

“I try to be.”

“How about I start from the beginning and you can pick out the bits you think are important?” Skadi offered.

“If that’s what you’re comfortable with.”

“I was born on a planet called Nouko,” she began. “It’s not a gentle planet. It’s covered almost entirely in jungle. Very hot and humid. Carnivorous plants are a big problem there. My brother was eaten by one when we were small.”

“I’m so sorry,” I mumbled, caught totally off guard.

“I don’t remember it,” she waved me off. “Though apparently I was there.”

“Not remembering can be a blessing sometimes,” I said.

“Indeed.” She gave me a funny smile. “Losing a family member to the plants wasn’t unusual for my people. I had a rather normal childhood on Nouko.”

I couldn’t imagine losing a sibling to a ravenous jungle plant as normal. Then again, there weren’t many species who’d think the Terran breeding system was normal, so who was I to judge?

“My father was hired by the Dominion shortly after I came of age,” Skadi went on. “We were thrilled. Nouko didn’t have a stable economy. My mother and father never recovered from the loss of my brother. We had plenty of reasons to leave. No one from Nouko had ever been selected to work for the Dominion.”

“Is Nouko located within Dominion space?” I asked.

“No,” she replied. “That’s why we were so excited when my father got the job. We believed it was the first step to being recognized by the Dominion as an evolved planet. We had all these dreams of the Dominion helping us control the carnivorous plants, donating soldiers to protect us, and looping us into their booming economy. I thought I had a future.”

“Sounds like a dream come true.” I smiled weakly.

“That’s what we thought. We should’ve known it was too good to be true.”

“What happened?” I found that I was on the edge of my seat. Something about Skadi was…captivating. She reminded me of a snake I once saw on Earth. It was pitch black, but when the sun caught its scales, it shimmered green, purple, and blue. It was beautiful to look at, but its venom was deadly.

I tried to shake the feeling off. I had no reason to distrust Skadi. She was as much a victim as I, or any of the Persephone women.

“Eventually, I had enough of a life to start my own trading business. I was doing pretty well...until now.”

“Do you know what attacked you?”

“Yes.” Her eyes glinted, hard and cold, like steel. “The Dominion.”

“The Dominion?” I repeated.

“I didn’t realize it until it was too late,” she continued.

“Okay,” I nodded.

“I’m sorry I can’t tell you more.” Her voice sounded so small, my heart went out to her.

“It’s okay. You’ve told me more than you realize,” I said. “Can I ask one more thing? I’ll leave you to rest afterward, I promise.”

“Sure,” Skadi nodded.

“When you arrived, we found something in your head. It’s some kind of inhibitor. We’re still trying to sort out exactly what it does. Can you tell me anything about it?”

“Yes,” Skadi nodded her head. “It allows me to control a childhood agoraphobia that I never conquered, and to interact with other species without being paralyzed with fear.”

I looked at her in hesitation.

Skadi offered me a weak smile.

“I fear I’ve worn you out,” I said. “Thank you for talking to me. I’ll leave you to rest.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

Skadi suddenly looked exhausted. She lay back on her pillow, her hair spread around her like a dark halo.

“You did fine,” I assured her with a smile. “You rest. We’ll talk later.”

Skadi was already nodding off by the time I left the med bay.

All feelings of distrust were banished from my body. She wasn’t all that different from the group of women we rescued before

I was glad she was here, where we could look after her and offer her protection. The next thing on my to-do list was to arrange more comfortable accommodations for her.

I decided that, before I said anything to anyone, I wanted a second opinion on Skadi’s story. Bana might have a better idea of what she needed than I did.

It was time to talk to him.

Bana

The space around the asteroid base was silent, filled with nothing more than debris as the Star Whale made our docking approach.

While the weapons depot had been destroyed, there were still other minor support structures that we knew had escaped the damage surrounding the depot.

Most likely nothing to loot, but possibly still worth investigation.

Bodies and debris floated through space, shattered and frozen from the pressure of the void, and our sensors showed no hostile ships for lightyears.

It was quiet on the ship, even so.

The crew was tense, gripping their weapons tightly, their voices hushed if they talked at all.

My eyes settled on Indira, the door of the airlock bulkhead hissing closed behind her as she crossed the deck with the few other personnel remaining behind.

She was more beautiful than all the stars in the sky.

People shuffled out of her way, finding space that hadn’t been in the crowded off-loading zone to let her through to me, no doubt still titillated by the display of her passion last time we were in this corner of the ship.

At least most of them had the decency not to stare.

I offered her a hand, drawing her close as her palm settled on mine. A wave of heat and need washed through me as it always did, the scent of her rising to call to me. But it was tempered by fear.

We have so much more to lose now. I have so much more to lose.

“Please, no crazy stunts this time.”

“I’ll be as safe as I can.”

She nodded, eyes a little wide with fear, and rocked forward just a bit, rising up for a kiss before she stopped herself, eyes scanning the deck, no doubt remembering the applause and wolf whistles after our last exchange.

She blushed, just slightly. I ran my thumb over her cheek.

“What, no free show?”

She smacked my chest, her normal lightheartedness rising through her again. “I don’t work for free.”

“Mmm, I’ll have to remember that.”

Her eyes widened as I ran my finger over the barest hint of a mark I’d left on her pale skin, just peeking out above the neckline of her clothes.

She opened her mouth to snark something at me, but the first word was lost in the metallic clang of the ship locking onto the depot’s loading dock.

We both looked through the viewport to the darkness and sparks of the graveyard beyond.

“Docking seal green, airlock opening in ten, nine, eight…”

My eyes met hers, and the heat and fear rolling off her were rivaled only by the love rolling off me.

“I’ll come home to you,” I promised her.

“Or I’ll kick your ass,” she assured me.

I cleared the decontamination spray of the airlock’s bulkhead with a smile on my face, weapon sweeping through the darkness, sure of my woman’s love.

There were corpses on the floor, damage to the structure of the docking bay, sparks flying, green-blue emergency lights flashing. Life support was clearly still operating—we’d established that before we left the ship.

What we weren’t able to get a clear lock on was if there were any active life signs.

This structure had come through the battle unscathed, its hull and shielding uncracked.

But we couldn’t get clear readings.

Which was interesting.

Something else had happened here.

“No visible signs of trauma,” a Hark said, bending down to inspect one of the corpses. Several others reported the same of the dozen or so bodies on the floor.

“It’s like they just… stopped.”

“No signs of life anywhere in the facility.”

“Floor’s reading clear of mechanical workings, no traps that we can see.”

“Air reads clear of chemicals, radicals, ions… everything. Nothing here is lethal.”

I took a knee to inspect a Dominion officer’s skull, perfectly intact, skin pale but undamaged. It was like they were sleeping.

“Sir!”

My attention snapped to the sure tones of a Gaed soldier, further into the facility than the rest of the group, behind a wall of glass faintly glowing purple. He had his weapon aimed at a body slumped over a console.

I hurried over, weapon sweeping for potential threats. I didn’t like this. I didn’t like any of this. I’d seen plenty of dead species in my times, and none of them had died like this.

“What is it?”

He gestured to the console. “It’s not a depot, it’s a development center. Look at the files he was trying to access.”

I moved the Dominion officer to the side with my weapon. Under him, difficult to make out through the encryption but intelligible to those familiar with Dominion engineering, were schematics and chemical formulas for a bioagent of some kind.

“I don’t like this,” the Hark nearest the airlock said, nudging a body with his boot and watching it flop.

“It’s a blood infiltration mechanism. Indira was showing me her preliminary research, this looks like the same formula.”

“But what is it for,” the Gaed asked.

“I’m not sure. It looks similar to a cryonic formula, but something’s wrong.”

“Sir,” a Shein called from the other side of the room.

“This structure here, though, that would not be interactive with organic material. I don’t see a purpose for it,” the soldier said.

I held up a hand, trying to piece this together. This knowledge was important to the rebellion. “Get me a data stick, set about downloading as much of this as you can,” I told the nearest engineer. She saluted me, moving to rifle through some cabinets.

“Sir, they’re twitch—”

I looked up, annoyed with the interruption, and found my infiltration team tense, weapons aimed at +the bodies, clearly not believing what they were seeing.

I didn’t believe it either. They were—

An ear-splitting frequency blasted over the speakers of the research center, high-pitched enough that I had to clamp my hands over my ears, my weapon falling slack on its strap in the process. I couldn’t hear it, but I saw the mouths of my team open on screams, their hands covering their ears, too. Those who managed to negate the reaction and hold onto their energy weapons had faint streams of blood trailing from their ears.

The bodies that were twitching sat up, getting to their feet in fits and starts. Their eyes were completely empty, hauntingly so, all intelligence and soul gone.

I felt horror lance through me. This broke even natural laws.

“Fire on the Dominion,” I ordered, as soon as the ear-piercing tone let up.

It was already too late for some.

They were fast, unreasonably so, past the boundaries of what I thought organic biology could produce. They jumped farther, arms blurring, and went for the throat.

We fired, fired, fired. I saw two drop, then five, then seven, all with horrible screams.

The only thing that seemed to work was multiple shots to the head.

Eventually we prevailed.

Some people got scratched. A few bitten. Some had hurt themselves in the fall of being attacked by those things.

“Contact Indira, have her prepare the med bay. You, collect samples for further study, blood, brains, whatever there is in easy reach. You, get that data archived, backed up, and back on the Star Whale.” I slung my weapon behind me. “The rest of you, harvest what you can find, take the injured back to the ship, and do it quickly. We’re getting out of here and destroying even the memory of this place.”

“That’s not wise,” the Hark nearest the airlock said, pushing a corpse off himself. He had on a power suit. “We have an opportunity here.”

“I don’t care about the umbba opportunity. You saw them, they’re soulless. The Dominion have taken everything from them.”

“But Captain,” a human female said, Emmery, if I wasn’t mistaken, “if they’re programmable, they could be of use.”

“No. Absolutely not. We are not in the business of programming life.”

“This is despicable,” another Shein said.

“This is an atrocity,” said the male who had discovered the data on the computer, poring over it. “You don’t understand, it steals the ability of the synapses to read neurotransmitters locally. They’re trapped. The Dominion has—”

I turned to him and took in the pale, frightened face beneath the shock of brown hair. His hands were shaking. His voice was horrified.

“What are they doing?”

He looked at me, fear written all over him. “They’re creating slaves.”

A Gaed near the airlock spit on the floor. “Krelling monsters.”

I looked to my team, their faces of horror equal to my own.

“We take whatever documents and weapons we can harvest. We leave the dead and destroy the rest of this place. You have your tasks—move out.”

There was no dissent, necessarily, no overt dissent. But I could see the judgment, the contempt on some of their faces as they set to their tasks.

No matter. Aavat left me in charge of this mission for a purpose. And I was beginning to think it was to handle exactly this sort of thing.

Indira

“What if we recalibrate the joints?” an engineer looked between me and Ren expectantly.

I blinked back at him.

“You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you?” he asked.

“No, because I’m a geneticist, not a mechanical engineer,” I sighed and placed my head in my hands.

We’d been in the lab for nearly four hours now. Except now the lab had been turned into a space for any sort of research. Our tiny rebellion faced too many technical problems to have the luxury of each specialist only working in their specific, tiny field.

Ren’s idea was that all of us, even from vastly different disciplines, could help brainstorm with each other, come at problems from new angles.

Sometimes it worked well.

Sometimes I couldn’t even imagine where to start.

Our task for the day was figuring out a way to make the Gaed shields stretch over a greater amount of space without compromising their structure. So far, everything we’d tried failed.

I had also been asked to see if I could look at ways to maybe make a cure for the Dominion weapon, but hadn’t had time to even start my research yet.

Ren had managed to make a few miniature shield generations. The mini shield's power was to scale. So far, we’d been able to stretch the shield to cover the table the apparatus sat on before the shield lost any integrity. Our goal was to encompass the entirety of the lab without mini shields. We were a long way off.

“Any news on when the Gaed engineers will get here?”

“Not since yesterday,” I replied. Once the Rogue Star returned to Gaed, some of the Gaed rebels were meant to come here and assist. Since we were heavily reliant on their tech, it would’ve been useful to have some experts on hand. However, there were many details to work out amongst the Rogue Star crew and the rebels.

Technically, we hadn’t gotten permission from the Hark officials to bring Gaed rebels into their system.

“So, it’s up to us then?” Ren chuckled.

“Unfortunately,” I laughed.

“It’s not so bad. We’re not entirely clueless.”

I gave Ren a long look.

“Well, I’m not entirely clueless,” he amended. “I have some background with similar tech. Eventually, we’ll work it out.”

“I might as well start taking notes. My only suggestions are to twist and turn various dials while pressing a different combination of buttons,” I joked.

“That’s my plan, too,” Ren replied.

The ridiculousness of our predicament got the better of us. That, and the fact that we hadn’t left the lab in four hours. We burst into hysterical laughter that resulted in Ren doubled over, clutching a table so that he didn’t fall. I sat in my chair with tears streaming down my cheeks and a deep ache in my belly.

“I hope Aavat isn’t watching us on the security cameras.” I wheezed.

“I hope he is!” Ren countered. “The Shein deserves a good laugh.”

“Fair point,” I giggled and wiped my eyes. “If only the Terrans and the Gaed could see us. How would they feel knowing their safety is in the hands of two giddy rookies who were never meant to get this far?”

“Give us more credit than that,” Ren chuckled. “We’ve come this far.”

“That’s true. We’ve done rather well for ourselves, haven’t we?”

“That’s the spirit. Now, in your expert opinion as a geneticist, how can we manipulate these shields to make them stronger?”

“If I could take this shield and breed it with another shield, I might be able to help you,” I replied.

“Unfortunately, it’s not shield mating season,” Ren clicked his tongue.

“That’s bad luck,” I shook my head. “That was my only plan.”

“Back to turning and twisting dials at random, then?”

“So it would seem.”

“You don’t think we’ll blow anything up doing this, do you?”

“I don’t think so,” I said thoughtfully. “If we do, it’ll be a small explosion. These mini shield generators aren’t that powerful.”

“For now.”

“Amp them up little by little. Extremely powerful, wide-range shields are useless to us if they cost too much energy to power,” I said.

“See? You’re not completely clueless.”

“Thanks,” I laughed dryly. “I like to think I have a fair amount of common sense.”

“Seriously, Indira. You’re doing better than you give yourself credit for. We’re all scrambling to do things we don’t know how to do, from calibrating alien shields to organizing raids. You make the process easier. I’m glad you, Bana, and Aavat are at the helm of this operation. I think we all would’ve been killed by now if you weren’t.”

His words touched and surprised me. For a moment, I couldn’t speak. My hand went to my chest as if I could pull the words out of my throat by force.

“Thanks, Ren,” I said at last. “I appreciate that. I’ll tell Bana you said so, as well. I’m sure it’ll brighten his day.”

We returned to our daunting task and had actually made some progress when a crewmember entered the lab.

“Indira, there’s a transmitted message waiting for you in your office,” he said.

“Do you know if it’s urgent?” I asked. “And why not contact me on my comm?”

“The comm system is temporarily down while we make some upgrades,” the crew-member replied. “I didn’t check the message myself, ma’am, but was just told to come tell you.”

“I’ll go look, just in case.” I turned to Ren. “Can you handle things here while I’m gone?”

“The shields are in good hands,” Ren replied.

My office was really just a desk in the living room in the quarters I shared with Faline.

Faline wasn’t there when I entered. My console monitor lit up the room. I flicked on the light and approached the desk. I was getting a tidal wave of transmissions. That wasn’t normal.

I swiped through my inbox. Messages from weeks ago piled in. I must’ve gone offline somehow and all of the backed-up messages were finally reaching their destination.

Most of the messages contained information I already knew, but there was one from Paila marked urgent. It was dated shortly after we’d collected her and Wyann.

The message was short. Paila had found out that the bounty hunter that had nearly killed her and Wyann was spotted recently. There were no other details.

If Paila’s accounts were true, and I had no reason to believe they weren’t, then this bounty hunter was a dangerous player in our game. I decided to call Paila. I’d rather know everything about this bounty hunter and never meet them than know nothing and find myself face to face with them now that we were heading away from the depot to report our findings back to the Hark. As far as we’d been told, the coding Valtic had put on our transmissions still held, so it was okay to reach Paila.

“Paila, do you copy?” I called once I opened a transmission line.

“I can,” Paila’s voice sounded a bit staticky, but I could still understand her.

“I’ve only now received your transmission about the bounty hunter,” I said. “I was hoping to get some more information.”

“I sent that ages ago,” Paila gasped. “Why didn’t it reach you sooner?”

“We’ve had a slew of technical complications here,” I replied. “What should I know about this bounty hunter?”

“Well, we managed to evade her in that little apartment,” Paila said. “However, I believe she knows we left the planet.”

She? I wasn’t expecting that.

“Do you think we were followed?” I asked.

“It’s possible. Did you get my transmission detailing her appearance?” she asked.

I scrolled through my inbox.

“No, I don’t see anything,” I replied.

“You’ll know her when you see her,” Paila warned me. “You’ve never seen a creature so stunning in your life. I’m not sure what race she is, but that doesn’t matter. There’s none like her roaming around the galaxy. At least, not that I’ve seen.”

My blood went cold in my veins. I cursed myself that we weren’t sending files but just talking via the voice transmitter.

“Paila, this is very important.” I tried to stop my voice from shaking. “Tell me exactly what she looks like.”

“She has long dark hair and green skin,” Paila replied. “But it’s not just her appearance that’s striking. It’s something about her, I can’t quite describe it. It’s like she’s on fire from the inside out. You just look at her and…feel her anger. It’s impossible to describe.”

I thought about that look I’d seen in Skadi’s eyes when she told me her story. I couldn’t place the cold, steely look at the time, but I could now. It was rage. Not white-hot rage that maims and blinds everything in sight, like a fire. Her rage was like ice. Pointed and sharp.

“Paila, listen closely,” I dropped my voice down to a whisper. “We picked up a young woman a while back. She was caught up in some Dominion wreckage. She matches that description.”

“You need to get her under guard now. However, many guards you think you’ll need, triple it. I can’t stress enough that she’s dangerous, more dangerous than you can believe. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating her.”

“Let the others know the situation. I’ll comm back when I can.”

“Go, quickly! Be careful.”

I disconnected the transmission and scrambled around for my radio. I’d left it in here somewhere. But where?

Perhaps I’d left it in the lab, I didn’t know. I’d been running around like crazy for days on end. Time bled together. I was losing track of everything. Somehow, I’d managed to let a violent criminal onto my ship.

I’d known there was something off with Skadi. I just knew it. I should have trusted my gut. I shouldn’t have let myself get so emotionally invested in her story. Was any of it true, I wondered? The mark of a perfect liar was the ability to seamlessly blend lies and truth together until it’s impossible to untangle them.

I couldn’t find my comm. I must’ve left it in the lab.

I took a deep breath and shook my arms. I needed to calm down. I would get everything under control. Skadi didn’t know that I knew. I had time to fix this.

I opened the door to my room with the intention of telling Bana what I’d discovered. He’d know what sort of guard a woman like Skadi required.

I’d taken one step into the corridor when pain exploded in the back of my head. My vision blurred. And darkness closed in around the edges of my sight. The world tilted on its axis.

I fell.

Bana

It was hours past sundown when I finally called it a night. I checked my time unit and swore. I’d truly meant to finish up the day’s work sooner. Indira and I were going to have dinner together at a reasonable hour for once. Looked like that wasn’t going to happen tonight, after all.

I hoped she was still awake. I wouldn’t blame her if she wasn’t. We planned to have dinner together most nights, but one of us almost always got out too late and the other would go to sleep.

I sent her a comm message as I walked through the Star Whale. On my way to her quarters, I was stopped three times and asked to solve three different problems. Another hour had passed by the time I made it to her door. The strange thing was, it was open.

“Indira?” I called softly. No answer. I called her name a little louder but still received no response.

“Faline?” I called, thinking Indira’s bunkmate might be inside.

Still no answer.

I pushed the door open with my foot, letting more light into the room.

“Whatcha doin?” Faline’s gentle voice came from behind, startling me.

“Indira and I were meant to get dinner,” I explained. “She’s not here.”

“She isn’t?” Faline’s brow furrowed. “But the door was open?”

“It was,” I confirmed.

“She and I are both really good about locking the door when neither of us are here,” she said with a frown.

“She’s been running around a lot lately,” I offered. “It’s possible she simply forgot.”

“Maybe.” Faline’s frown stayed in place.

“Do you know something I don’t?” I asked her.

“I’m not sure,” she said thoughtfully. “She left the lab hours ago. Ren said she came back to the room to check on something. An urgent transmission, I think.”

“Did she go back to the lab after she received it?” I asked.

“I don’t think so.” Faline chewed on her bottom lip. “Ren didn’t say anything about seeing her again after that. He and I figured she went after whatever the transmission was about.”

“It would be on her console, wouldn’t it?” I asked.

Faline nodded and opened the door, giving me permission to enter her room.

“Thanks,” I nodded.

She and I walked over to Indira’s console. It was powered on, but locked.

“Any idea what her passcode is?” I asked Faline.

“I figured you would know better than I.”

I plugged in Indira’s birthday but it didn’t work. I tried a few other dates that might be significant to her, but those didn’t yield any results either.

“I don’t think we’re getting into this console tonight,” I grumbled.

“What about the cameras?” Faline asked, pointing to a small camera mounted in the hallway. It looked right into the room when the door was open, which it currently was.

“That’s a good idea. I’ll check the feeds and you keep looking for her, okay? She’s probably around here somewhere,” I smiled, though I had a sickening feeling in my gut.

“I’m sure she fell asleep somewhere.” Faline said, squeezing my shoulder.

“Right,” I nodded. “We’ll find her.”

I entered the security room and pulled up the feed from the camera outside of Indira’s room. It was a stroke of pure luck that it was placed so perfectly.

The camera recorded everything within three hundred and sixty degrees. It automatically compiled the section of footage taken of her door for me to view.

Several hours ago, Indira went into her room and shut the door. She didn’t stay there long, perhaps only twenty minutes. When she came out, she looked frantic. She threw the door open, paused in the doorway, and went back into the room. I couldn’t see much of the room, but I could make out her figure whenever she darted by the door. She appeared to be frantically searching for something.

There was a shadow on the wall. Someone was walking by, but I couldn’t see who it was. Suddenly, the shadow disappeared. It didn’t walk out of frame. It simply disappeared. I rewound the footage and slowed it down.

No, the shadow hadn’t disappeared. It had simply gone in a direction I wasn’t expecting. The shadow didn’t move horizontally out of frame, like someone walking. It abruptly moved vertically to get out of frame. How was that possible?

Indira appeared in the doorway once more. This time, she seemed ready to leave. She took one step out of her room, then, quick as lightning, a dark shape struck her on the back of the head. She stumbled before sinking to her knees, unconscious.

I waited, my heart pounding in my chest and blood rushing in my ears. Seconds later, the shadow moved again.

The woman we’d rescued, Skadi, dropped to the floor. Her smile was cruel. Her eyes glinted in a way that just looked…wrong.

She scooped up Indira and hurried off camera. I tracked them through various camera angles. Somehow, Skadi knew exactly which corridors would be empty and when. She made it through the Star Whale without passing another living soul. A pang of guilt shot through me when I watched her pass my workroom. I was right on the other side of that door, not even five feet away, when Indira was taken by. I had no idea. How could I not know? I should’ve felt something. I should’ve known something was off.

I lost sight of Skadi and Indira once she headed for one of the unmanned pods. The pods were supposedly too small to be caught on planetary sensors, so the Hark had not probably even noticed that one had left the ship. But they were on the Hark surface now. I had to move quickly. That footage was taken hours ago. Skadi could be anywhere in the city.

Or worse.

My stomach dropped.

Skadi could’ve gotten off-world by now.

What I didn’t understand was why. Why would she take Indira?

The why wasn’t important right now. I’d worry about the why once I had Indira back.

I sent a message to Aavat’s comm unit, explaining where I was going and why. I told him about the security footage in case he wanted to see for himself, and that Skadi had smuggled herself and Indira down to the Hark surface.

After a quick stop in the armory, I bolted out of the main doors.

It was late. The port wasn’t as bustling as it normally was during the day.

Once I was certain Skadi and Indira weren’t at the port, I started asking around.

“Excuse me,” I asked one of the Hark guards. He clicked his mandible at me in greeting. “Did you see two women go by? One was green, the other was human. The green one would’ve been carrying the human.”

“I only just started my shift,” the Hark guard explained. “I would’ve remembered seeing something like that.”

“Keep a lookout for them, all right?” I pleaded. “The human is in danger and the green one is a danger to all of us.”

“I’ll make a note and put out a lookout,” the guard assured me.

“Thank you,” I nodded before dashing off.

“Excuse me!” A small voice called after me. I skidded to a stop to find a small Hark child peeking out from behind some crates and shipping containers.

“Are you okay over there?” I called out, fearing the child might be stuck.

“I saw a green lady,” the Hark child said.

“You did?” I quickly jogged over to the child and knelt down to be on his level. “Do you know where they went?”

“The green lady carried the other one in the direction of the old port,” the child explained.

“What’s the old port?” I asked.

“It’s not far,” he explained. “At the end of the dock, go left and just keep going. You’ll know it when you see it. It looks just like this one except for it’s all rusty and no one goes there anymore. I don’t know why the green lady would want to take her friend there. It’s not a safe place to play.”

“You’re right, that doesn’t sound safe,” I said. “Thank you for your help. Once I find my friend, I’ll come back this way. I’m sure she’ll want to thank you for your assistance.”

“Okay, mister,” the child said. I think he was smiling at me, but his mandible made it hard to say for certain.

I took off running in the direction the child had pointed. Sure enough, I found the old port. No one was around. All the docks were empty. There was only one building. If they weren’t on the docks, they had to be in there somewhere.

I moved slowly, careful not to make more noise than necessary. I listened against the silence but heard nothing.

When I stepped through the door into the building, I expected it to be trashed. It wasn’t It simply looked like whoever had been there before left and never came back. Sure, no one was taking care of this place anymore, but it didn’t look like anyone had trashed it, either.

Moving slowly and carefully, I began my search for Indira.

I really hoped that child knew what he was talking about.

Indira

The ringing in my ears was so loud it drowned out everything else. My vision was a sea of darkness erratically punctuated by smears of yellowish light. I didn’t know where I was. I couldn’t make heads or tails of anything.

Another bolt of pain shot through my skull. I attempting to raise my hand, thinking applying pressure to my temples might relieve the pain, but my arms wouldn’t move. They were strapped to my sides with a length of rough rope. Frayed filaments sliced against the raw skin of my wrists.

My legs were bound, as well. A length of rope squeezed against my ribs, fully binding me to a chair.

“Don’t struggle,” a sweet voice cooed from the darkness.

Skadi.

It was all coming back to me now. She was the bounty hunter that had nearly killed Paila and Wyann. I’d brought her onto the Star Whale. Hell, I was prepared to give her first-class accommodations after the story she’d fed me.

I got played. I walked right into it. I’d ignored my gut feeling, and this was the result.

I was stupid and I put everyone in danger.

“Didn’t you hear me?” There was a hardness in Skadi’s voice now. “Don’t struggle! Do you really think you’re going to get away?”

I said nothing. I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of eliciting a response from me. What I needed to focus on were the ropes that bound me. It wasn’t stiff new rope. It was old and frayed. Skadi had tied it in tight, complicated knots to make up for that. If I kept applying pressure, eventually the rope would weaken.

“I’m talking to you!”

I didn’t see Skadi lift her hand. I only felt the explosion of pain behind my right eye when her blow found its mark. I couldn’t hold my head up. I let it loll onto my shoulder.

“What do you want?” I barely got the words out.

“I want information,” Skadi replied.

She placed her hand on the back of the chair beside my shoulder and leaned in close. She tipped the chair back so the front legs came off the floor. My body jerked instinctively in an attempt to stop me from falling.

“I don’t know anything,” I spat.

“Lair!” Skadi shrieked. “I’m giving you a chance to be honest. Save yourself some pain and just tell me what I want to know.”

“Were you really kidnapped by the Dominion?” I asked.

Skadi rolled her eyes.

“What do you think?”

“I think you’ve had a hard life,” I said. “I think you believe that becoming this sort of angry, violent person is the only way to stay alive.”

Skadi’s eyes darkened.

“Maybe you know less than I gave you credit for,” she hissed. I must’ve hit a nerve.

Skadi stalked away, leaving the suspended legs of my chair to crash harshly down to the floor. The impact reverberated through my body. My joints barked in pain and my teeth clanked together.

She returned with a chair of her own. She placed it in front of me and took a seat.

“Look,” she sighed. “This doesn’t have to be painful. This doesn’t have to be scary. I’m giving you a chance to make this easy. Do you realize how rare that is?”

“I’m honored,” I coughed.

“You should be.” Skadi narrowed her eyes. “Most people don’t last this long tied up in front of me. By now, they’ve usually lost a good deal of skin.”

A sickening chill rolled over me, but I kept silent.

“Tell me about the rebels,” Skadi said.

“What rebels?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Skadi warned me. “Just because I’m giving you a chance doesn’t mean I’m not prepared to force information out of you.”

She reached for her hip and grabbed the black hilt of a blade I hadn’t noticed until now. She removed the blade from its sheath. The blade was as black as the hilt. She held it with care and affection like it was a beloved pet rather than a weapon.

“Tell me about the rebellion,” Skadi repeated.

“Do you work closely with the Dominion?” I asked.

Skadi shot up from her chair. She stepped over to me, looming over me with a vicious snarl. She took the onyx blade of her knife and placed it against the inside of my arm. With just a little bit of pressure, the knife bit into my skin. A hair-thin line of red appeared on my skin. It didn’t hurt much.

Skadi wasn’t finished.

She reached into her pocket and produced a flat, pouch, tinted to match her skin exactly. She unsealed it and spilled the tiniest amount of silvery powder into her hand. With a swipe of her finger, she spread the powder over the small laceration.

Searing pain exploded in my arm.

“What is that?” I yelped and thrashed, trying to pull my arm loose, but the rope wouldn’t give.

“A little something of my own invention. You’re one of the first people to experience the final product,” she smiled. “It’s rather ingenious, don’t you think? I only made one tiny slice and you’re already in agony. I still have so much of your body to cover.”

I clenched my jaw and willed the fear in my heart to stay hidden. I didn’t want Skadi to see how terrified I was.

Skadi lazily strolled back to her chair and took a seat.

“Now,” she ran her blade over her gloved hands, “the rebellion. I know you have another ship. Where is it?”

I said nothing.

Skadi didn’t appreciate my silence. She stood up and walked back over to me. I braced myself, expecting another slice to my skin and burning powder to follow. Instead, I received a sharp slap across my face.

“Where is your other ship?” Skadi screamed.

Again, I said nothing. I’d worked too hard to sacrifice the strides we’d made against the Dominion. I truly believed the Star Whale, the Rogue Star, and all of the alliances we’d struck along the way had a true chance at making a change in our respective galaxies.

I wasn’t going to be the weak link in the chain. Skadi wasn’t going to break me.

She wasn’t.

Skadi let out a frustrated cry. She slashed out with her blade, hitting me near the collarbone. The blunt impact of the blade hurt more than the slice it left behind.

“You’re a fool to think you can overpower the Dominion,” she said.

So, she did work for the Dominion after all.

The Dominion possessed a fleet large enough to wipe out the Hark home planet, Gaed, and Mars in one fell swoop if they wanted to. Why bother sending one woman with massive anger issues to do all of their dirty work? What was the endgame?

“The Dominion is foolish to think they can continue to oppress people and get away with it,” I spat back.

“Oh, great,” Skadi rolled her eyes. “You’re an idealist.”

“I suppose I am,” I considered. “Or maybe I’m someone who doesn’t like being blown up and hunted across several galaxies for crimes that aren’t actually crimes.”

“That’s not for you to decide,” Skadi replied.

“The Dominion’s proven to be corrupt and evil to the core,” I said. “Surely you must know that.”

“Enough.”

Skadi walked behind me. I craned my neck but couldn’t see her. I heard the sound of rattling chains and felt something heavy on my wrists. She’d attached something to me, but I couldn’t tell what.

Skadi walked back into my line of sight. Instead of taking her seat to threaten me some more, she walked to the wall. There was a rusty old lever that completely blended into the wall.

“Let’s see how well this old machinery has held up,” Skadi said with a wicked smile. She slowly pulled the lever. Above me, I heard the clank of rusty gears grinding together. Whatever was attached to my wrists started to lift.

My arms rose as much as they could in their present position. My shoulders creaked and pain struck as they were forced into an unnatural angle. I craned my neck enough to see a thick chain suspended above me.

Skadi meant to suspend me in the chair.

The back legs of the chair came up first, tipping me forward. Every bone in my body felt the strain of being supported by my bound wrists.

I bit down hard on my bottom lip. I refused to cry out. I refused to give Skadi any satisfaction. That was, until one of my shoulders slipped from its joint.

I screamed louder than I’ve ever screamed in my life. Muscles, tendons, and bones stretched and twisted themselves into unnatural positions as I thrashed against my binding.

“Tell me what you know,” Skadi taunted.

I was going to pass out. I was going to die.

Fear rose up in my throat like bile.

There had to be something I could tell her. Not enough to ruin our plans, but enough for her to stop. I’d do anything to make it stop.

“Bana,” I whispered. Thankfully, Skadi didn’t hear me. “I’m so sorry.”

“Talking to yourself already?” Skadi called. She pushed the lever again. The chain stopped dragging me up but it didn’t release me, either. I dangled about a foot off the ground. “I didn’t think you’d descend into madness so quickly. Your mind is weaker than I thought.”

“Fine,” I whimpered. “I’ll tell you what I know.”

“Good girl,” Skadi cooed. She released the lever completely. I crashed to the floor, chair and all.

“Indira!” A booming voice filled the empty room. At first, I thought I imagined it.

“Ah, a rescuer. How quaint,” Skadi sneered.

I forced myself to open my eyes. My vision was blurry, but I managed to make out Skadi storming toward a tall figure at the end of the room. The weak light illuminated his golden skin and familiar tattoos.

Bana.

Bana

If Indira hadn’t screamed when she did, I never would’ve found her.

The room where Skadi kept Indira was below the building. The only way down to it was a narrow stairway that was all but hidden in the darkness. I must’ve walked by it three or four times before Indira’s scream. I was that close to giving up the search and looking elsewhere for her.

I arrived just in time to see her bound in a chair and suspended about a foot up. When she hit the floor, there was a sickening crunch. She must’ve broken something.

Once my gaze settled on Skadi, I saw red. Nothing else mattered to me but smashing her head to a pulp on the concrete floor.

Skadi had the audacity to look annoyed. She flipped a black blade in her hand and tucked it away.

“I don’t like interruptions,” she snarled.

“That’s unfortunate,” I replied. “Who are you?”

“None of your business,” she shrugged.

“You’ve threatened everything I hold dear,” I said. “That makes it my damn business. Who are you?”

Skadi said nothing, she simply smiled. Something about her smile, lovely and serene, made my blood boil. I envisioned myself knocking every single one of her pearly teeth from her mouth.

I had to keep my temper. As much as I wanted to strangle the breath from her lungs, I couldn’t. She needed to be properly interrogated. The information she knew could turn the tides of the rebellion permanently in our favor. I had to be smart.

“Bana,” Indira croaked. It took every ounce of my self-control not to run to her. If I did, I felt certain Skadi would attack. What I needed to do was keep Skadi focused on me and away from Indira.

“If the Dominion has something on you, we can help you,” I offered. “The Dominion wronged all of us. That’s why we’re rebelling. If you join us, we can help.”

Skadi’s brow furrowed. She tilted her head to one side, her long dark hair cascading down like a shiny black waterfall.

“What makes you think I need help?” she asked.

“I know a little bit about how the Dominion works,” I said. “I suspect they’ve done to you what they did to my sister.”

I didn’t want to talk about this, especially not to Skadi, but I had to buy time.

“What do you think was done to me?” Skadi asked with a smile.

“I think you were forced into a deal with the Dominion,” I said. “My sister was taken as a way to settle a family debt.”

“That sounds like a personal problem,” Skadi pouted. I clenched and unclenched my fists, willing myself to reel in my temper.

“I think you had a similar problem,” I replied. “My sister ended up in an auction. I know she was sold but I was never able to figure out who bought her. The Dominion ran the auction. I hold them responsible for what happened to her. I can’t help her, but I can help you.”

“Again, what about me makes you think I need help?” Skadi’s voice was biting. “Look at me!”

She flung her arms out, displaying herself.

“I suspect you know what I’m talking about,” she purred. “You haven’t attacked me yet. You know what that tells me?”

“That I don’t want to fight you if I don’t have to,” I said.

“No,” she clicked her tongue. “I’m not a fool and neither are you. You’re buying time. I know you’re in constant communication with the other factions of your little ragtag team. You know all about me.”

“Apparently, I don't, if you’re not willing to take help when it’s offered,” I replied.

Anger sparked in her eyes. That was the wrong thing to say. She advanced on me, but didn’t draw her weapon yet.

“I have taken down armies without lifting a finger,” Skadi snapped. “There is no creature that I cannot best. There is no enemy I cannot fell. Who do you think gave me that power? The Dominion. Everything I am, every drop of superior blood in my body, is thanks to the Dominion.”

“But at what cost?” I asked.

Skadi tipped her head back and laughed.

“No cost was too high”, she said. “The power, the abilities, were worth the price.”

“One day you’re going to wake up and realize that’s not true,” I shook my head.

“Like your sister?”

I snapped my head up.

“What did you say?”

“I knew her,” Skadi said with a casual flick of the wrist. “At least, I believe I did. Not a lot of Shein women come through the Dominion’s facilities.”

“You’re lying.”

“Maybe,” Skadi shrugged. “But you still want to hear it. Your sister was tough. She withstood the tests the Dominion ran on her. However, her blood was weak and polluted, as it is with all Shein.” She sneered at me. “Your sister would never achieve the level of perfection that I am. I laughed when they shipped her off to auction like the cattle she was.”

My temper snapped. I couldn’t hold back anymore. I launched myself at her, pinning her against the wall. I drew my arm back, ready to let my blow fly, but somehow, she wiggled away from me.

“There’s the fighter,” she grinned. “I was beginning to wonder if you had a spine or not.”

“I can’t wait to feel yours snap,” I spat and lunged at her again.

She was faster than I. She danced backward, evading my blows without breaking a sweat.

Thankful I’d stopped by the armory before departing the ship. I pulled a gun from its holster and took aim. I didn’t want to kill Skadi, not yet. She still needed to be pumped for information. I hoped Aavat would let me do the honors.

I wasn’t a naturally violent person. In fact, I actively avoided violence. The fact that I ended up as a soldier was a real shocker for everyone back home.

For the first time in my life, I craved bloodshed. I wanted to see it drip from her mouth and nose.

I aimed at her leg. I pulled the trigger.

Skadi dove to evade my shot. I shot again and she evaded again.

I was prepared to shoot a third time when I realized where Skadi was. She stood dangerously close to Indira. Her knife was drawn, hovering above Indira’s pale skin. I could see Indira more clearly now. She looked terrified. Her shoulder was in completely the wrong place.

In my moment of distraction, Skadi made her move. She darted around me, striking out with her knife. I managed to block her and move away, but she’d planned for that. She kicked out, the heel of her boot catching me square in the stomach.

Air rushed from my lungs, and I stumbled back, tripping over the chair that held Indira.

I fell on top of her. She cried out in pain, thrashing against the ropes that bound her.

I scrambled to get off her as quickly as I could. The toe of my boot caught her in the ribs.

“I’m so sorry,” I said frantically.

“It’s okay,” she rasped. “I’m glad you’re here. Just take her down.”

“I will,” I swore.

“Will you?” Skadi’s voice was unsettlingly musical.

I whirled around just in time to feel the cold sting of her blade between my ribs.

“Bana!” Indira shrieked.

I reached for the hilt. The only way I’d have a chance of surviving this is if the knife stayed put. Skadi knew that, too. She drove her fist into my ribs, inches from the blade. The blast of pain weakened my grip on the hilt.

She slid the blade out of my body and tucked it away dirty. I clamped my hand over the wound to stop the flow of blood, but there wasn’t much I could do.

“Now, where were we?” she asked Indira.

“Go to hell!” Indira shrieked.

I sank to my knees, trying to keep still. If I was going to save Indira, I needed to pick the perfect moment. I’d only have one shot before blood loss got the better of me. The side of my shirt was already soaked through.

“Stop right there!” a voice bellowed.

Skadi, Indira, and I turned.

The guard I’d spoken to before, along with two dozen other guards, burst into the room with their weapons drawn.

“Take her down,” I said through gritted teeth. My energy drained out of me. I couldn’t stay upright anymore.

Skadi turned to me, her gaze burning with hatred.

I looked at Indira. Tears welled in her eyes as she strained against her bindings. She was trying to get to me.

I smiled at her.

Then everything went black.

Indira

I wasn’t sure what was going on with the guards and Skadi. My entire being was focused on Bana. His breathing was steady but he was losing too much blood. He lay on his side with his eyes closed. Despite my bound limbs and the searing pain, I inched closer to him. My progress was slow. Every bone in my body hurt.

“Watch her!” one of the guards shouted.

I pulled my attention from Bana to see what was going on.

Skadi charged the group of guards with her blade drawn. I’d never seen anything like it. She was fearless. As much as I hated her, as much as I wanted to see her dead and gone, I was still in awe of her. It made me feel sick to my stomach.

The guards raised their weapons and fired at Skadi. Somehow, she dodged every shot, sometimes just by the skin of her teeth. As she reached the first line of guards, she sliced with her blade. She took one down right away.

Others whirled on her. She blocked and evaded every blow. The Hark kept tripping over their many legs and fumbling with their pincers. They weren’t designed to catch smart, quick prey like Skadi.

She made it to the stairwell and darted up. The guards pursued her.

“Wait!” I shouted. “You need to help him!”

A handful of the guards turned back. They rushed over to me, clipping at the ropes with the claws.

“No, help him!” I pleaded. “Can’t you understand that? Help him! Not me!”

The chair was pulled away from me and the ropes discarded.

“Don’t move her yet,” one of the guards said. “Let her rest until help arrives.”

“What about him?”

“Don’t touch him,” the guard said. “If he moves too much, he’ll only bleed out faster. The time’s against us with him.”

“Don’t say that!” I whined.

I sat up. My shoulder sagged in an unnatural way and hurt like a bitch every time I moved, but I didn’t care.

“Don’t move,” the guard urged.

“If you’re not going to help Bana, I will,” I said through gritted teeth. “Radio the Star Whale. Get ahold of Aavat. He’s the captain of the vessel. Let him know what’s happened.”

“All right.” The guard clicked his mandible. “Just don’t move anymore. You don’t want to hurt yourself more than you’re already hurt.”

“I don’t care.”

I half dragged, half crawled my way to Bana.

“Bana,” I whispered when I was close enough. I reached out and touched his arm. “I’m right here. You’re going to be okay.”

There was a pool of blood around him. It soaked into my pants and the edge of my shirt.

“Let me put pressure on your wound,” I said to him. “I have one good arm.”

Bana grunted and nodded weakly.

I placed my hand over his.

“On three, you’re going to move this hand and I’m going to take over. Okay?”

“Get somewhere safe,” he murmured so softly I could barely hear him.

“I am somewhere safe,” I said. “Wherever you are is where I’m safe. Are you ready to move your hand?”

Bana nodded slowly.

“One. Two. Three.”

He slid his hand off his side and I covered his wound with my hand. I used all of my weight to apply pressure. Bana winced in pain.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “This sucks, but you’re going to be fine.”

“We’ve called your ship,” the guard said to me. “Someone is coming.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Sir!” Another guard scuttled into the room from the stairway. “The woman got away.”

“What?” I snarled. “There were twelve of you. How did she get away?”

“Her skills are unparalleled,” the guard shrugged.

“If she’s out there, she’ll come back,” I snapped. “You have no idea what kind of beast you just released into your city.”

“All guard units have her description. We’ll put out a blast to civilians, as well. With enough pressure, we’ll force her off-planet before she can cause any more damage.”

“That’s your solution?” I sputtered.

“Gentle,” Bana croaked.

“Sorry!” I turned my attention back to him. My hand was sticky with his blood. My breath came in quick, ragged gasps. Panic had my throat in a vise grip.

I couldn’t lose it now. I had to stay calm for Bana.

“Ma’am, you don’t look so good,” one of the guards said to me.

“I was just strung up and tortured. Of course, I don’t look good.”

“No, I mean you look ill.”

I felt ill. My skin felt clammy and hot. It felt like someone was sitting on my chest.

“I’m fine,” I insisted. “It’s just nerves.”

Bana let out a wet, rasping cough. I turned my attention to him. His golden skin looked pale. His breath was slow and shallow.

“You’re going to be okay,” I soothed him. I wished I could do more. I wanted to put my arms around him but I couldn’t move my other arm.

“I don’t think I am,” Bana said slowly. His eyes were open now, but he didn’t look like he was seeing anything.

“Of course, you are,” I forced a smile. “Help is on the way. If you’re lucky, Zayn will patch you up in the med bay instead of me.”

“Indira,” Bana whispered. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.”

“It’s amazing that you found me at all,” I said. “You saved my life. Now I’m going to save yours.”

Bana shook his head.

“I’m out of time, Indira.”

My heart twisted in a way far more painful than anything Skadi had done to me.

“No,” my voice wobbled.

“You’re going to be fantastic,” Bana whispered. I didn’t know what he meant by that, but I didn’t have a moment to ask him. He started coughing again. Blood bubbled up between his lips. Skadi’s knife must’ve pierced his lung.

“Bana,” I whimpered.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

I pulled myself as close to him as I could.

Bana’s eyes were closed. His chest rose and fell one more time, then went still.

“Bana?” I gave him a small shake. “Bana!”

“Indira!” I recognized Aavat’s voice but I couldn’t look away from Bana.

I felt people kneeling beside me but I couldn’t look away from his face.

“He’s going to be okay,” I said to no one in particular. “He’s going to be okay.”

“Indira, you need to move back so we can help him,” Aavat said.

Only then did I look away from Bana. When I turned my head, the world went blurry and not just because of the tears streaming down my face.

“You’re going to help him?” I asked. My tongue felt thick in my mouth. Words struggled to come together in my brain.

“Yes,” Aavat assured me. “And we’re going to help you, too.”

“It’s just my shoulder that’s messed up,” I said dismissively. My head no longer felt like it was secure on my shoulders.

“It’s more than just your shoulder,” Aavat told me. He took my arm in his hand.

“I need to apply pressure!” I protested.

“Bana doesn’t need you to apply pressure anymore.”

“What?”

I looked back to Bana, but he was gone. There was just a large bloodstain where he’d been.

“Where’s Bana?” I shrieked and thrashed against Aavat.

“He’s on his way back to the ship,” he explained. “They’ve put him on a stretcher.”

That didn’t sound right.

“But I have to help him.”

“Indira, I need you to listen carefully,” Aavat said. “You’re badly injured, and I think you’ve been poisoned.”

“Poisoned?” The word didn’t sound real as my mouth struggled to form the syllables.

“Look.”

Aavat held up my arm. I didn’t notice anything at first. It was impossible to focus on one spot for more than a second. Then I noticed a thin line on my arm.

That’s right. Skadi had sliced me.

Around the line was a sickly green webbing.

The powder! It was designed to do more than just cause pain. It looked like it had done something to my blood.

“I-”

I didn’t know what to say. Chills crawled over my skin. I started to shiver.

“We’re going to get you back to the ship, too,” Aavat assured me. “Just hang in there.”

“Okay.”

After that, I wasn’t sure what happened.

Someone helped me onto a stretcher. It wasn’t comfortable.

I remember slipping a bit as I was taken upstairs to the dock.

I watched the night sky as I was carried. I couldn’t see any stars. The yellow-toned dock lights were too bright.

“Are you all right?” a small voice asked.

I turned to find a Hark child keeping pace with my stretcher.

“I think so,” I lied and smiled so the child wouldn’t be afraid.

“I saw that green lady take you,” he said. “And that gold guy came looking for you right after. I told him you were in the old dock. Was I right?”

Tears filled my eyes.

“Yes, you were right. You saved my life,” I told the child, who happily clicked his little mandible.

“The gold guy said he’d come back, but it looks like he got hurt. Is he going to be okay?”

“Yeah.” I forced a smile. “Once I get some medicine, I’ll tell him I met you. I think it’ll make him happy.”

“Great! Feel better soon!”

With that, the child ran off.

As I was loaded onto the Star Whale, I wasn’t sure if the child was real or if I’d imagined him. Skadi’s poison was working its way deeper into my system. I could feel it in my veins.

“Bana,” I whispered.

I looked around, but everything was blurry. I couldn’t see him.

I was still searching for him when someone stuck me with a needle. I felt warm and calm. I didn’t fight as unconsciousness took me.

Bana

“Do you have any of those potato-fish things?” I asked the new chef we’d hired for the Star Whale. She was a Hark called Mitka. I couldn’t tell if she liked me or not.

“They’re called Baltkliks,” she grumbled. “And yes, I have them.”

“Can I get an extra helping, please?” I asked.

She narrowed her stalked eyes.

“Why?”

“Indira can’t get enough of them.”

“She’s awake?” Mitka’s eyes brightened.

“No,” I sighed heavily. “But the smell of Baltkliks might wake her up. It’s worth a try, I think.”

Without another word, Mitka scooped a huge pile of Baltkliks into the container I’d already piled high with enough food for two.

“If this works, I’ll give you all the credit,” I said with a wink.

“You’d better.”

I left the dining hall and made my way back to the med bay. As soon as I entered, Lynna was there waiting for me. She didn’t look happy.

“Bana,” she began with a sigh.

When Captain Dejar and Commander Kalyn had gotten word of what happened to us, Lynna was sent over right away. My wounds were child’s play for her. She had me patched up in no time. Technically, she hadn’t discharged me, which is why she was standing before me with a scowl.

“I just went to grab some food,” I said with a lazy smile. “Want some?”

“Yes,” Lynna nodded. “But that’s not the point. You can’t just get up and do whatever you want.”

“You let me play charades yesterday,” I countered.

“I didn’t let you play charades,” she protested. “You kept yelling answers from your cot.”

“And then I joined the game.”

“And I kept yelling at you not to pop your stitches or strain yourself. Advice which you also didn’t listen to,” Lynna clicked her tongue.

“Sorry about that,” I grinned. “You did a great job patching me up a second time.”

“Get in your bed before I rip open your stitches and refuse to sew you back up.”

I could see Lynna fighting a smile.

“Sure thing, doc,” I said, winking. “Grab a plate. There’s plenty of food.”

“If you were hungry, you could’ve just said something.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

I offered Lynna food from the container as a peace offering. She was less grumpy once she’d had a bite or two.

“Leave the Baltkliks for Indira,” I said.

“The what?” Lynna asked with a full mouth.

“The potato-fish things.”

“Bana,” Lynna said in that voice I hated to hear. “There’s no indication that she’s going to wake up today.”

“I was hoping the fishy potatoes might persuade her.”

Lynna’s expression softened.

“It might,” she agreed. “The strangest things can bring people out of comas.”

“I’ll give it a try now, if that’s okay?”

“Sure,” Lynna nodded. “I’ll give you a moment.”

I brought the container of food to the cot across from mine.

It was always strange looking at Indira like this. Aside from the gnarly scar on her arm, she looked like she was sleeping.

When I’d awakened two days ago, I learned about the poison Skadi had rubbed into Indira’s wound. It was an unknown poison, but it wasn’t a complex one. Lynna and Zayn were able to figure out a basic antidote, but it wasn’t perfect, which was why Indira had yet to wake up. Her body was still working through the toxins and the trauma. At least Indira wasn’t awake when her shoulder had to be forced back into place.

“I brought your favorite,” I told her. “Can you smell it?”

I held the container close to her face, but nothing happened.

“I’ll save you some, just in case,” I said. “Lynna’s angry with me. I snuck out of the med bay to get food from the dining hall. I bribed her with food. I think it worked.”

“No, it didn’t!” Lynna called from the front of the med bay.

“What happened to giving me a moment?” I called back.

“This is a small med bay. There’s not a lot of places I can go,” she shot back.

“Do you see what I’m dealing with here?” I joked to Indira’s sleeping form. “You should wake up soon. We can terrorize Lynna together.”

“I can still hear you!”

“Then consider yourself warned,” I laughed.

I reached out and stroked Indira’s cheek.

“I hope you wake up soon. There’s something I really want to ask you. I’ve been wanting to ask you for a while now, but we got so busy with the rebellion and the Star Whale. It didn’t seem like the right time.”

I focused on Indira’s hand, the one she’d held against my wound when I was bleeding out. What she did saved my life.

“You also need to wake up so I can thank you,” I said softly.

I took her hand in mine and ran my thumb over her soft skin. She felt warm, which was a good thing. It meant that her blood was circulating properly. I’d learned quite a bit about the human body over the last two days. Perhaps Lynna would certify me to work in the Star Whale’s med bay.

Indira’s fingers twitched in my hand.

“Thank me for what?”

My eyes shot to her face. Her eyes were open, though just barely. She opened her mouth and tried to take a deeper breath. She started coughing.

“Lynna!” I shouted. “She’s awake!”

Lynna rushed to my side and started checking Indira’s vital signs.

“Don’t try to do anything just yet,” Lynna instructed. “Focus on slow, steady breaths.”

Indira did as she was told. I refused to let go of her hand.

“You’re going to be okay,” I smiled at her.

“What happened to me?” she asked.

“Don’t worry about that right now,” Lynna urged. “Let’s just worry about getting you back on track.”

Indira looked at me. She didn’t look afraid. In fact, she looked more serious than I’d ever seen her.

“I want to know,” she said to me.

“Okay,” I nodded. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“We shouldn’t cause her unnecessary stress,” Lynna urged.

“I think she’ll get more stressed out if she feels like we’re keeping something from her,” I countered.

“Please,” Indira whispered.

Lynna hesitated.

“Fine, just let me monitor your vitals.”

Indira and I let Lynna do her work. Once Lynna was satisfied, she allowed India and me to have some privacy.

“The last thing I remember is Skadi sitting in front of me in a warehouse or something,” Indira said.

“She took you to an abandoned dock and pumped you for information.”

Now there was fear in Indira’s eyes.

“What did I tell her? Did I betray the rebellion?”

“No,” I shook my head and laughed. “You didn’t tell her a thing. She cut you, she poisoned you, she dislocated your shoulder, but you didn’t say a word. Otherwise we would have found out by now.”

“She…” Indira trailed off.

Her breath came in rapid puffs.

“She hoisted me off the ground,” she said in a wobbly whisper.

“She did.” I didn’t see any point in hiding things from her, especially if her own memory was coming through.

“She stabbed you.”

“She did.”

“I thought you died.” A sob broke loose. Fat tears rolled down Indira’s cheeks. I sat down on the cot and pulled her into my arms.

“I didn’t die. That’s what I wanted to thank you for. You saved my life. You kept pressure on my wound and you refused to leave my side. I’m here because of you.”

“And I’m here because of you,” she said. “I remember you bursting into the warehouse. You found me.”

“I did. I have no idea how those guards knew to come to the old dock.”

“There was a Hark child who saw everything,” Indira said. “I remember talking to him when they brought me back to the Star Whale. He said he talked to you.”

“That’s right,” I grinned. “That kid told me where to find you.”

“We should recruit him,” Indira said with a small smile.

“Good idea.” I brushed the tears off her cheeks. “Speaking of recruits, everyone is talking about how Skadi couldn’t crack you. People are signing up left and right to help us out because they’re so impressed with you. People believe we have a real shot at making a change.”

“I can’t take credit for that,” Indira shook her head.

“You don’t have to. People are giving you credit.”

“Work must be piling up,” she sighed.

“Don’t worry about that right now,” I said. “We’ve been managing.”

“I’m going to have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll help you get up to speed,” I grinned. “How about you wait at least an hour before diving back into the thick of it. You did just come out of a coma, after all.”

“Maybe,” she offered a weak smile. “Were you talking to me before I woke up?”

“I was.”

“You asked me something, didn’t you? Or you wanted to ask me something?”

I smiled.

“You heard that?”

She nodded.

“I wanted to know what two humans in the Terran System would do if they loved each other. Before the breeding crisis, I mean.”

“Oh.” Indira’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Two people would date if they liked each other. Then, usually, they would move in together.”

“After that?”

“In most cases, they’d get engaged and then get married,” she explained.

“How does that work?”

Indira gave me a curious look.

“One of the people in the relationship will buy a ring. Sometimes they arrange a special date. Then they ask their partner if they will marry them.”

“A ring, huh?”

“Yes,” she said slowly. “Bana, what are you getting at.”

“I don’t have a ring, so I’m not sure I can ask what I want to ask.”

A huge smile spread across her face.

“I don’t have a special date planned, but you woke up from a coma. That counts as something special in my book.”

“Bana.” Indira looked like she was ready to cry again, but not out of sadness or anger.

“Will you marry me, Indira?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” she squealed, and threw her arms around my neck. I did everything I could to make sure her body was supported in its weakened state. “Yes, I’ll marry you!”

She kissed me. When she did, the entire world fell away and only we remained.

Indira

“It’s a good thing you proposed when you did,” I said to Bana as we left our room that morning. Ever since I’d been discharged from the med bay, I’d been bunking with him. “This walk is the only time we’re going to have together today.”

“What’s on your plate?” he asked, lacing his fingers through mine as we walked.

“Hiring,” I joked. “So many people are flooding to join us.”

“That’s fantastic!” Bana grinned.

“It is,” I agreed. “However, what’s not fantastic is that everyone has to be vetted before we can give them a role.”

“Let me guess. That falls to you?”

“Correct,” I nodded. “It’s going to take me eons to get through them all.”

“That explains why Aavat wants me to design more space vessels,” he replied. “He wants at least twenty designs.”

“How are you going to build that?” I asked.

“That’s a great question. I have no idea. Unless Aavat has a secret hold of building supplies I don’t know about, those vessels are going to be pretty pictures on a datapad for a long time.”

“Maybe I’ll find someone who owns a scrapyard in my applications,” I suggested.

“Or better, a vessel manufacturer.”

“It’s possible. I’ll keep an eye out for things like that so I can fast track them. You know what would be really great?”

“What?”

“More doctors. Versatile ones.”

“Lynna’s pretty versatile,” Bana said.

“She’s an expert on humans and is quickly becoming an expert on Shein,” I agreed. “However, we’re taking on more races than I can keep track of. It would be nice to know that we can take care of all those who are joining the cause.”

“Look for Piptons with a construction background,” Bana advised.

“What’s a Pipton?” I asked.

“They live on a planet in central Dominion space. They usually make colonies close to major cities and outposts. They can build anything out of anything. They each have twelve hands, so it’s fair to say they’re the best multitaskers in the galaxy.”

“Maybe you should look these over with me,” I suggested. “I don’t know any species names or skills.”

“I’d be happy to,” he grinned, “as long as you don’t mind telling me the ships I’m designing are satisfactory.”

“I don’t know anything about alien spacecraft,” I said. “I barely know anything about Terran spacecraft.”

“That’s okay. I mostly just need the ego boost.”

“Oh! In that case, I’m more than happy to boost your ego.” I lifted onto my tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek.

“I knew I made a good choice when I asked you to marry me,” he grinned.

“I made a good decision when I said yes. Now we just have to find time to plan the wedding,” I joked.

“We’ll be married when we’re retired,” Bana replied.

“At least we’ll have plenty saved up for the honeymoon.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a special vacation for married people,” I explained. “Basically, we flaunt our newlywed status and fuck a lot.”

“Can’t we have a honeymoon now?” Bana winked.

“As much as I’d love to drag you back to bed and never let you go, we have a rebellion to launch,” I giggled.

We entered the workspace we shared with Aavat. He was nowhere to be found. I assumed he was with the Hark Admiral or in another equally important meeting.

My console had been moved from the room I shared with Faline to here. After Skadi’s attack, I didn’t feel comfortable working there. The workspace was a central location. If I was attacked again, it would be much harder for it to happen unnoticed.

I doubted Skadi would return. No one had seen her since she escaped the old dock. I wondered if she was off-world, or in hiding right under our noses. Delegating a team to investigate her was on my to-do list, as well.

“Would you look at that?” I gasped when I powered up my console.

“What?” Bana leaned over my shoulder.

“This column on the right is all people expressing their desire to join the rebellion. The column on the left is new transmissions I need to look over.”

“I’m so glad I get to sketch out spacecraft all day,” Bana chuckled and pecked me on the cheek.

“Very funny.” I stuck my tongue out at him before returning my attention to the console. “Actually, before you get too deep into your sketches, take a look at this.”

Bana returned to my side.

“Paila sent over some more info.” I opened the transmission and allowed the console to transcribe it into easily readable text.

“Looks like the Dominion is in more trouble than they bargained for,” Bana clicked his tongue.

The transmission contained information about fractures within the ranks of the Dominion.

“It looks like some are disagreeing about the best ways to exert absolute control,” I said thoughtfully. “With any luck, they’ll destroy themselves from the inside out. It’ll be like a snake eating its own tail.”

“We could go on that honeymoon a lot sooner if that’s the case,” Bana joked.

“Don’t hold your breath. Looks like the Dominion universally wants control. They haven’t deviated from that.”

“Maybe we can slip a few of our own in there to stir things up,” he suggested.

“I like that idea. I’m just not sure I want to do something so risky with Skadi still out there. She’s a wild card. She can derail our most carefully laid plans and cause devastation, to boot.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Bana assured me. “Don’t try to take on too much at once.”

“Easier said than done.”

He returned to his workstation and I returned my attention to the console.

“Hey, Bana,” I called across the room. “Come look at this.”

Bana sighed and walked back over to my desk.

“Another transmission?”

“Better. A summons.” I opened the transmission. “We’ve been called back to Gaed.”

“Have we?” Bana lifted his wrist to examine his comm unit. “I better get in touch with Aavat and see how he wants to prepare.”

“Before you go, I want to ask your opinion about something.”

“Ask me anything.”

“I’m assuming we’ll be reunited with our sister ship,” I started. “Do you think it’s safe to bring up Adastria?”

Bana took a deep breath.

“That’s tricky.”

“I know. The last thing I want to do is derail Kalyn. She’s been so focused lately. Disturbing that could be detrimental to us.”

“That depends,” he said. “Do we think Adastria is still a threat?”

“I have no intel on her. I’m not sure if anyone else does, either.”

“She helped orchestrate a devastating attack on her own planet. She was willing to destroy her own government to avoid prosecution and to get on the Dominion’s good side. Not to mention what she did to Kalyn. I believe she’s still a threat,” he declared.

“That’s enough for me to start making inquiries. I’ll be delicate.”

“Good call. I’m going to track down Aavat and get everything in order to travel back to Gaed. I’m sure the Hark Admiral has a whole stack of formalities for us to get through before he’ll authorize us to leave.”

“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.” I lifted one brow.

“Neither can I.”

Bana planted a kiss on the top of my head before leaving the workspace. Once I was alone, I reached out to Paila.

“Hi, Indira. What can I do for you?” came her chipper voice.

“I just got your intel about the Dominion,” I said. “That’s incredibly helpful. Inside fighting is a good sign for us.”

“Glad to be of service. I have a feeling you didn’t just call to say that, so what’s up?”

“Do you or anyone you know have anything on Adastria?” I asked.

“Um, no.” Paila was caught off guard. “We’ve been avoiding the subject of Adastria since the attack.”

“I get it,” I replied. “However, I think she’s still a threat. I’d feel better if I knew where she was.”

“I’ll put some feelers out, but I can’t promise anything,” Paila said.

“That’s more than enough for me.”

“Anything else while you have me on the line?”

“Anything on Skadi? I know you have next to nothing to go on, but I’d sleep better at night if I knew where she was, too.”

“Nothing, I’m sorry. I’ll keep trying.” The sympathy in her voice caught me off guard.

“Th-thanks, I appreciate it. I’ve got to run. I’ll see you soon. We’re heading back to Gaed.”

“Let me know if you need anything!”

Once the line was disconnected, I took a shaky breath.

Not knowing where Skadi was affected me more than I thought. Suddenly, I was anxious to get out of the Hark System and as far away as possible from all of Skadi’s potential hiding places.

Bana

I spent most of our journey back to Gaed helping Indira sort through everyone who wanted to be part of our rebellion. Captain Dejar and Commander Kalyn were recruiting all of the muscle and fighters, which left everyone else to Indira and me.

“Look!” she gasped. “A shipyard owner! I told you one would show up.”

“Give me their info, I’ll contact them personally,” I said. Indira transferred the application to my datapad. “The location isn’t ideal. They’re about as far from Gaed as one could get.”

“It’s better than nothing,” Indira shrugged. “And there’s still a huge stack to go through.”

“Putting together the muscle must’ve been easier than this. No wonder Captain Dejar kicked this assignment over to us.”

“We’ve made a big dent in the applications,” Indira replied with a laugh.

“What’s funny?”

“It’s funny that people have to apply in order to join a rebellion,” she said. “I know it’s the only way to manage the influx of people interested in joining, but it still strikes me as funny.”

“As long as you’re happy,” I teased.

“Married life is going to suit you just fine,” she smirked.

“Speaking of married,” I leaned in close to her, “when do we do that?”

“I’ve been giving that a lot of thought,” she replied. “At first, I wanted to wait until things were more settled. Now, I’m not so sure.”

“I’d marry you right now if you asked.”

“Good,” she beamed. “I want to get married sooner rather than later. Who knows? The Dominion might blow us up tomorrow.”

“Something tells me that’s not the usual mentality of someone engaged to be married.”

“Maybe not, but has there ever been a marriage like this before?” She arched a brow. “Two different species uniting in matrimony in the middle of an intergalactic war.”

“When you put it that way, we’re the first,” I conceded. “So, wedding next week?”

“Sounds perfect.”

Indira leaned over to kiss me just as Brey announced that the Star Whale had docked in Gaed.

We’d taken no more than of step off the ship when a call from the Rogue Star came in.

“Bana speaking,” I answered.

“This is Captain Dejar requesting your immediate presence at the Gaed rebel headquarters. Indira is required to be present as well. I’ll send the coordinates.”

“I know where to go, Captain,” I replied.

“We’ve selected a new location,” Captain Dejar corrected me. “Ensure your comm unit is secure and erase the coordinates once you memorize them.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What’s going on?” Indira asked.

“Captain Dejar wants us both to report to the new rebel headquarters,” I replied.

“New? That makes sense. This movement is getting too big to contain within a dingy pub,” she chuckled.

Her comm unit pinged.

“Kalyn just sent me something.”

Indira pulled up the new transmission.

“Bana,” she gasped.

“What? Are you okay?” I reached out and touched her shoulder.

“Yes, but this is more than just a meeting,” she explained. “Captain Dejar and Kalyn invited every high-ranking non-Dominion official willing to support our cause.”

I faltered a step.

“That changes things,” I said.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” Indira looked up at me with worried eyes. “Kalyn didn’t ask me to prepare anything.”

“I’m sure they simply want us to sit in and listen. They would’ve given us more advanced warning if we were required to plan something.”

“You’re right,” Indira said with a shaky nod. “But what if you’re not right?”

“Then we’ll talk about what we know. You’re good at that. You’ll blow them away.”

“I appreciate your faith in me,” she smiled weakly.

“You’ve done nothing to convince me that you aren’t capable, smart, resilient, and resourceful.” I squeezed her shoulder. “And you won’t be alone.”

“Thanks to you, I’m never alone.” She took my hand in hers. “Neither are you. You’ve got your datapad with you, right?”

I nodded.

“If they ask, you can talk about all the spacecraft you’ve been designing. We aren’t going into this emptyhanded.”

“We’ll be fine.” I pressed a kiss into her forehead.

The coordinates led us to a building that didn’t look like much from the outside. In fact, it looked like a series of abandoned buildings, trailers, and shipping containers stacked up and around each other. It blended in perfectly with the rest of the city.

On the inside, it was a completely different story. Everything was sleek, state of the art, and brand new. This must’ve been one of Captain Dejar and Kalyn’s projects while the Rogue Star was stationed here.

Beings from more species than was imaginable hurried through the halls. Indira and I followed the crowd into a huge conference room. Captain Dejar and Kalyn were already there, as was Aavat.

Indira and I took seats side by side.

“I’m so glad your ship arrived on time,” Kalyn whispered. “It was getting close.”

“I would have put some speed on the Star Whale if I’d known about this sooner,” Aavat said.

“Apologies, old friend,” Captain Dejar clapped him on the shoulder. “We didn’t want to risk telling anyone who couldn’t be here for certain. All of the messages and transmissions about this event needed to be kept on local networks.”

“I’m assuming we control the networks now?” I asked.

“Indeed,” Captain Dejar grinned.

“We’re hoping to do what you two managed to do with the Hark System,” Kalyn said.

“Only on a grand scale?” Indira supplied.

“Exactly. Everyone in this room has a ship, an outpost, or something else valuable to our cause. They’ve all expressed interest. This is an excellent opportunity to calculate our resources and make a cohesive plan.”

“Did you receive Paila’s information on the Dominion?” Indira asked.

“About the internal conflict? Yes,” Kalyn nodded. “I have every intention of exploiting that weakness.”

“There’s one more thing I wanted to talk to you about,” Indira spoke to Kalyn in a low voice. I knew it must have something to do with Adastria.

“Yes?” Kalyn blinked curiously.

“About your mother,” Indira whispered.

Kalyn’s face darkened.

“I’ve been looking for her,” Kalyn admitted. “I’ve been so busy organizing this that I haven’t had the proper time to dedicate.”

I saw relief ripple through Indira.

“Adastria will be brought up here on our list of enemies,” Kalyn said.

Dejar squeezed her hand.

“Skadi should be on that list, as well,” I said.

“Oh, she is,” Dejar said. “The whole Hark System is looking for her.”

“I suspect she left the system shortly after evading capture.”

“So we have no eyes on her, either,” Indira sighed.

“She’s not here. That’s what matters,” I told her.

“Are we ready to begin?” A raspy voice belonging to a skinny green creature with one eye and three fingers on each hand asked.

“We are,” Kalyn smiled brightly. She and Dejar stepped up to a podium and began speaking.

“We’re here as a formality,” Aavat muttered to me. “Everything they’re going to say is something we already know.”

“I’m glad we’re here, regardless,” Indira whispered back. “History is happening today and we get to witness it.”

“Ever the optimist,” Aavat smirked.

I listened carefully to every exchange between Captain Dejar and any of the leaders summoned here today.

“We have it on good authority that the Dominion is started to crack from the inside out. I’d like to prioritize finding those cracks and applying pressure,” Dejar said. “If we can take the Dominion down from the inside, we can spare a great deal of bloodshed.”

“But what’s needed, should bloodshed be necessary? I have soldiers eager to join the fight, but the Dominion leveled a tax on my planet’s ports that makes space travel nigh impossible.”

“I can help with that,” I said, standing before I could stop myself.

Aavat gave me an approving nod. I pulled out my datapad and pulled up the ship schematics I’d recently finalized.

“I’ve designed a series of ships for the purpose of creating a single fleet. The ships range in size from standard transport vessels all the way up to military dreadnoughts. There is still time to add certain species-specific modifications to individual vessels,” I explained.

“Will these schematics be available to us to look over?” another ship captain asked.

“You can arrange a meeting with me to view them,” I said. “You can ask whatever you want then.”

The ship captain considered my words for a moment before nodding with approval.

“Bana is an expert when it comes to designing and supervising the construction of vessels,” Kalyn spoke up. “He took on rebuilding the human fleet when the Dominion attacked my system.”

Everyone appeared satisfied with the idea of a united fleet. I took my seat.

Indira took my hand and gave it a hard squeeze. She was beaming from ear to ear.

“And you were worried about sounding foolish,” she taunted.

“I’m just glad my designs might see the light of day,” I joked.

“I’m proud of you, dearest,” she whispered.

Those words made everything worthwhile.

The meeting wrapped up several hours later. Everyone felt solidified in this alliance that started as a scrappy gang of criminals.

“I think that went well,” Indira said as we walked out of the conference room hand in hand.

“I agree. I think we’re going to have a day or two of downtime before launching back to work,” I said.

Captain Dejar and Kalyn expected the meeting to last several days. Aside from some one-on-one discussions they wanted to have with certain leaders, we’d taken care of everything in just a few brief hours.

“I have an idea what we can do on our day off,” Indira said with a grin.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I arched a brow.

“Want to get married?”

Epilogue: Indira

If someone had asked me what my ideal wedding was when I was a girl, standing on a spaceship deck with bandages wrapped around my freshly tattooed hands, wearing grubby pants and a white jacket over my shoulders, and gazing out with my shirtless, blue-glowing husband-to-be over the backs of two star whales would not have been what I said.

But now, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The floor had the capability to become translucent, and the view was spectacular.

Bana unwrapped the bandages from my hands, and I unwrapped the bandages from his, showing the same glowing, unique set of markings. Dejar joined our hands and arms, binding them together, palm to palm, elbow to elbow. I could feel the heat Bana let off even more intensely through my sensitized palms.

“Is he yours, for now and forever?” Dejar asked me.

“He is.”

“Is she yours, for now and forever?”

Bana looked at me, eyes alight, faint smile quirking his lips, bruises and cuts from his fight with Skadi finally, finally fading. He laced our fingers together.

“She is.”

It wasn’t much like a human ceremony in most respects. The Shein had ideas about things. But it was perfect, it was beautiful, it was a cross of both our cultures.

And it didn’t have many rules, which meant when I rise to my toes to kiss Bana, it dissolved into wolf whistles and applause that covered up Dejar’s final words.

But it was done. We were married.

“I love you,” Bana whispered against my lips.

I kissed him again, letting it be answer enough.

“Come,” he shouted to the room at large, the men, women, Shein, Gaed, Harks, Otlers, and whole array of others gathered in the cargo bay of the Star Whale, watching us with bright eyes. “Help me celebrate my union with the love of my life!”

Cheers rose, the crew with instruments struck up in the back, and I saw Aavat and Qal carrying out entire kegs of Dominion liquor, no doubt part of the loot the pirates had given us.

We were in for it.

The party went on for hours. Qal spiked even the specifically labeled non-alcoholic punch, we ate through more rations than were advisable, the Otlers showed us some of their very complex, bouncy mating dances on one of the tables and the tops of several shuttles and planetary roamers. The Shein sang with the Gaed, the Hark gave me some truly beautifully crafted science tools and a couple rare flowers, it was—

It was magical.

And the entire time, I couldn’t manage to look away from Bana for more than a few seconds. And he couldn’t keep his hands off me.

He kissed me and dragged his hands all over my thighs, my ribs, my ass, my core while we danced. He bit at my ears, gave no protest whenever I dragged him off into the shadows to take his mouth and have him pin me against the wall, and answered every joke anyone made about it with a raised eyebrow.

The only set of congratulations he took seriously were Kalyn’s, when she stopped us just after the ceremony, before she retreated to her room again.

“I can tell you love each other,” she said. “Let that carry you. Let it build something for you. Let it comfort you. And Indira?”

I snapped to attention, still not used to being second-in-command and therefore just about equal with her. “Yes?”

She winked at me. “Let me know if you want any help with anecdotal research on, ah, alien biology.”

I blushed.

Bana threw his head back and laughed, and it was like light and music wrapped together. By the time I was done smacking him in the chest, Kalyn was gone.

Eventually the deck went dark, someone rigged up flashing lights, and Maris pulled out her old recordings of Earth nightclub music. Bodies gyrated, danced, paired, the air smelled of heat and sweat and, honestly, sex.

I gave up resisting, clung to Bana’s neck, and wrapped my legs around his waist.

“Take me home,” I told him, nibbling at his earlobe, tracing the bioluminescent tattoos shining at full force. “God, just—take me.”

He didn’t need much more encouragement than that.

I lost track of the steps he took, caught up in kissing him, feeling how strong he was, testing the stab wound gently to see if it was fully healed. I couldn’t believe it, not yet.

“I almost lost you,” I told him, burying my face in his neck while he set the door to lock down, coding in an override.

“You can never lose me now, Indira,” he said, dragging his nose along mine. “We are one.”

And with that, he lowered us down onto the desk chair in his room, of our room now, settling me in his lap, right over the throbbing ridges of his cocks.

I moaned, a conflicted wave passing through me. I was needy, my chest tight with fear despite the time that had passed since the attack, drunk on everything from booze to joy to the energy crawling through the ship, the vital celebration of life going on in the cargo bay.

I untied his pants, reaching through the gap to swipe at the head of one of his cocks, testing the fluid there.

“I’m still scared,” I admitted. “Scared that none of this is real, that we didn’t really survive.”

“Trust me to make you know we’re alive?” he asked, the heat of his words almost enough to push me over the edge already.

I nodded. “Anything you want,” I answered.

I trusted him. With my life, with my body.

With anything he wanted.

“Just feel,” he commanded, then his hands gripped my hips and lifted, turning me.

He fisted a hand in my hair and dragged my head back hard enough for me to feel the sting, to want more. He bent me over the desk in front of him, my hands glowing in the faint light of distant stars, his hand snaking down to feel how hot and wet I was from just this.

“What I want, is it?”

“Bana,” I moaned, as I felt him tug at the pants clinging to my ass. And then he tore the center seam with barely any effort and dropped them to the floor.

“I want you to feel my touch, long after we’re done. I want you to feel me, know I’m with you, with just a thought,” he said, dragging two fingers up my soaked core, finding no underthings.

He paused, and I felt him catch a breath.

“What a perfect mate for me you are,” he murmured, “brave and beautiful, and filled with surprises.” Then he knelt behind me, pulling my hips forward to make space for him to suck and nibble at my wet folds..

I felt my knees start to shake immediately, felt the pressure rising, cresting. Three, four flicks of his tongue, the slide of two beautiful, thick, glowing fingers pushing into me, reaching to hook on my G-spot while he suckled my clit, perfectly, beautifully, and god, I was close, I was so close.

“Don’t stop, oh fuck,” I begged, grinding back into him, stripping my shirt off as best as I could, and reaching for the clasp on my transparent lace bra.

He slapped my ass, gave me a hard, hard thrust of his hand and growled onto my clit.

I fucking exploded, clinging to the edges of the desk, moaning, shaking, grabbing onto his hair to drag him closer.

He didn’t let up, pounding my G-spot until it got difficult to stand, until my grip on the desk went white-knuckled.

He pushed me, pounded me, ate at me endlessly until I collapsed for him, driven up into a second orgasm, helpless but to shake and beg for him.

Finally he stood behind me, reaching for my hip, pulling me closer, and I felt the broad head of one cock brush my pussy, the other sliding between my ass cheeks.

I couldn’t stop saying his name, begging for it, almost blind with how good it felt already. And then he took both my wrists in one of his hands and slid me onto both his cocks.

My mind short-circuited after that.

The girth of him, the thick, endless slide as I begged for more, for harder, for him to never stop. He grabbed at my hips, my waist, my throat, my hair, hands trailing over me, telling me I was good, I was perfect, spitting all those beautiful, foreign little words as I felt his cocks ripple and pulse inside me.

He pulled me back by my hair, slapped my ass again, and I felt the last little bit of fear vanish.

Nothing could come between us.

We wouldn’t let it.

“Bana, please,” I begged, the sensations so strong, promising to wipe everything else away.

He pulled my head back with a fist, teeth brushing over my neck, covering me like he never had before and fucking so deep I could feel him pulse once, twice, a third time.

“I love you, Indira. Nothing can stop that. Nothing will take you from me.”

“Bana,” I whispered, eyes rolling back, and the orgasm crashed over both of us, the heat of his seed spurting into me, the power of him washing over me, until the lights above the deck blurred with the stars in space, and all I could hear was his whispered I love you before I was completely insensible.

I know that, at some point, the heat of him disappeared and then returned with a soft blanket. He curled me up in his lap on the chair, and we fell asleep with a view of a nebula far out in space.

I woke once, maybe twice, to my husband, my mate, kissing my hair, whispering love into my ear, keeping me safe.

So when the battle alarm rang in the morning, I didn’t startle like I normally would. I woke, calm and ready to face the new challenge, my fingers locked with Bana’s, the whorls of our bioluminescent tattoos a perfect continuation of each other.

I kissed him once, and we both turned to grab our weapons.

As long as Bana was next to me, I was happy doing anything.

Letter from Ava

Step by step, all the pieces are falling into place.

Rogue’s Revenge will be out this December!

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XOXO,

Ava

Copyright © 2019 by Ava York

All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.