Rax asked.
A steady heartbeat thrummed underneath my fingers. Reaching across the bed, I felt for Lena’s pulse. Pulling back the blanket covering them as carefully as I could, uncovering the red-tipped darts sticking out of Sonia’s right thigh and Lena’s left hip, I ground out,
Rax barked.
Tig said on a separate channel.
Captain Jones ordered, his commanding voice rumbling between my ears.
Once Rax arrived, I ran from the senator’s suite, listening to Tig and Morgath bring the captains, as well as the rest of the crew, up to speed.
Freddie asked, his smooth, calm voice in my head making me stumble on my way back to the elevators.
Tig said.
I asked, reaching the elevator bank, pushing thedownbutton, waiting.
I commed, my throat cinching tight as a knot as I pushed the button three more times.
he growled.
Captain Jones took control, barking out orders over the all-crew comm, but on a private line, Tig’s ID blinked.
she commed in a pained whisper as I stepped into the elevator, my finger hovering over the button for the main deck.
Slamming my hand over the button for the docking bay instead, I commed,
Tig pleaded.
I clicked off the comm before I accidentally admitted that if Reya had a hand in harming Sai in any way, I’d kill her myself.
Rejoining the all-crew comm while the elevator doors slid open again, I shouted,
Captain Jones boomed.
But when I heard Sai’s panicked voice echo down the hallway to the B-gate airlocks, Garran himself couldn’t have kept me away.
Tig cried.
Captain Jones ordered.
I bellowed.
It was Freddie. He’d found me on a private comm.
His next words, uttered in a broken, desperate plea, were a sledgehammer to my chest.
I didn’t want to leave him. I had no idea what was about to happen. I might never see him again, speak to him again, hold him again. The thought was unbearable. But I’d lived with the unbearable for years. And if I could save another mother, or mothers, from ever having to live with it too, I’d go to the ends of the Known Universe to do it. Even though my heart was breaking, I had a chance, a chance I hadn’t been given five years ago. I only hoped he would understand. I clicked off the comm, wiped my tears away, and sprinted for airlock B-4.
32
I whipped around the last turn toward the airlock so fast my ankle rolled, ducking into a vestibule when the shrill whine of blaster fire erupted down the hallway.
Sai’s voice came through strong in my mind.
