Chapter 28
“Real mature guys,” Juston said. “I try to take a nap and you guys go get us captured by the fucking felines.”
“Not my fault,” Cal said. “I don’t know how they got past our cloak.”
Gemma watched as Juston took up a position at another station. “The cloak is still transmitting, so they must have some way to override it and still pick us up.”
“They shouldn’t even know we exist, let alone that our ship is cloaked!”
Gemma wondered how they knew. She’d only caught traces of the Vartik race in the data stream. Cal had been careful to hide their tracks, and she doubted a race as ignorant as the Vanfians seemed to be would be able to find them from the clues she’d pieced together.
The ship rocked again under another hit. “Cal, we can’t take many more shots. Your hull is close to fracturing already.”
“So we take the fight to them harder,” he growled, making a sweep in front of the line of police vessels flanking the much larger Vanfian ship. “Now!”
Gemma sent off a series of carefully timed shots. With each, she hit the main power relay, shorting out their systems. Five ships went dark.
“Good shooting, baby,” Cal crowed. “Now can you do the same on the other side?”
The ship swooped, but before Cal could get them in position, another hit from the Vanfian vessel took out their navigation array. They couldn’t steer, which meant they couldn’t aim.
“Shit!” Cal said, slamming his fists against the control.
“What now? Do we start swinging our dicks and beat them to death?”
Cal made a rude gesture at his brother, and Gemma shook her head. “We surrender.”
Two pairs of Vartik eyes looked at her quizzically. “Honey,” Cal started gently. “You don’t understand—”
“Oh, I understand,” she interrupted, perhaps a little more tartly than was necessary. “We’re outgunned and vulnerable. We can keep fighting and risk them blowing up the ship and us inside it, or we can surrender and buy time to figure out a better strategy.”
“I don’t think—”
“I do.” She hit the communications button. “We surrender. Don’t fire.”
“Fuck,” Juston spit out, his face disgusted.
Cal frowned, but then nodded at her. “It was probably the right decisions. Our Vartik pride sometimes gets the better of us.”
The tractor beam engaged, and the three of them watched with bated breath while the ship was slowly hauled toward the larger vessel. They were tugged into a large bay that had a shield protecting the ship’s innards from the cold reaches of space.
“What now?” she asked the brothers. She’d never been in a hostage situation before.Unless you counted the last fifteen years at RPS, she reminded herself.
Juston shrugged, as if what happened next was obvious. “They board us, take us prisoner, and likely torture us before they drain our blood and sell it on the black market.”
Gemma’s eyes widened in shock. This was the fate they were facing? Then she remembered that they’d just faced off against a pack of demons bent on taking them to Hell. Literally.
Taking a deep breath, she pasted on a broad smile. “Got it. Okay, so here’s what we’re going to do.”
It wasn’t long before the Vanfians were beating at the hatch. “Open up, Vartik scum. Or we’ll burn our way in.”
The next part won’t be fun,but it’s necessary. She nodded and Juston hit the control to open the hatch.
The bridge was shortly thereafter flooded with a stench she hadn’t been expecting. Gemma covered her nose, taking in the feline bodies that filled the bridge.
“Hands up, Vartiks!” There had to be a dozen of them crammed onto the bridge, all of them pointing weapons.
Gemma put her hands up and watched as the brothers slowly followed suit.
