“Each of those surgeries was your own choice. I never said you needed to be stronger or faster.”
“How else could I compete with you? You’re the Raven, never bested in a fight. Able to make people follow his command with only a look and the power of his own voice. And now I find you’re a king of a super race. I say that’s too many blessings for one man, even if he is the Raven.”
Celdrake looked at him, his eyes cold. “I say it’s time to share the wealth, brother.” A cheer went up behind him from the crew, and Lyk realized now that the loyalty he thought he’d inspired could be transferred to another with minimal fuss, presuming a large payday in the offing.
“Things have gotten too strange around here,” Celdrake said. “So we’re returning things to normal and going back to what we know. Robbing and selling. This time, it just happens to be information.”
“You can’t do this. You can’t expose my people like this.”
Celdrake shrugged. “You’re supermen. You’ll be fine.”
Before Lyk could reply, the channel was cut. “Fuck!” He scrambled to connect to Marek’s ship, to give his brother a heads-up on what was about to happen. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get through. “He’s jammed us.”
Ally shook her head. “Rotten pirates. Do you see now why I didn’t want to trust one?”
“Except I’m the one you didn’t want to trust, and I’m not the one fucking us over right now!” Lyk turned, heading to the locked cabinet filled with weapons and supplies. “We need to act quickly. They’re going to need some kind of diversion to be able to sneak away without my brothers pursuing.”
The console buzzed in alarm and Ally looked up, concerned. “I think they just found their diversion!”
CHAPTER 22
ALLY
An explosion rocked the ship, knocking Ally to the floor. Lyk caught himself against the cabinet. Then he leaned down and scooped her up, setting her back on her feet. She watched as she unlocked the cabinet and started to pull out an enviro-suit.
Shoving a suit into her hands, he told her to put it on. She obeyed without hesitation, fumbling her way into the suit and attempting to zip it up with shaking hands. Meanwhile, Lyk was zipped into his and arming himself. He turned back to her and took the zipper out of her hands, zipping it up with a quick jerk.
“Can you use a laser rifle?”
Ally shook her head, fear climbing into her belly. “I… never…”
“That’s fine.” His tone was brisk. “Take this instead. Just point and shoot. But make sure you don’t point it at me.”
She looked down at the small laser pistol he’d shoved into her hand. Although she’d become quite skilled with the precision laser tools at the centipede processing plant, she’d never even held a pistol before.
Lyk gripped her arms, leaning in and putting his transparent helmet against hers. “We’re going to be okay, remember? The oracle said it would all work out.”
Ally laughed crazily, and it echoed around the inside of her helmet. The world had turned upside down, and she no longer knew what was going on.
Another blast rocked them, the console sparking before catching on fire. “Why don’t your brothers stop them from shooting at us?”
“They aren’t shooting,” Lyk said grimly. “All of this is from the self-destruct protocol, in case of capture. If Celdrake shot at us, my brothers would be on him quicker than he could blink. This way, my brothers assume my shuttle is malfunctioning and everyone rushes in to help. Meanwhile, Celdrake sneaks off on my ship and blasts through the wormhole, selling news of its existence far and wide.”
Lyk pulled her back to the rear of the shuttle, near the hatch. “We need to stay far away from that fire.”
“You said your brothers would rush to help us,” she said, clutching him with difficulty because of the enviro-suits.
“They can’t tractor in the ship because it’s on fire. If it explodes inside their bay, it could set off a chain reaction in one of our ships, leading to more deaths. We need to give them a little help.”
Lyk positioned himself at the locking pad in front of the hatch. Ally watched as he overrode the locking mechanism. He pulled a cord out of the suit’s storage pocket and clipped one end to his suit’s belt. “Come here.”
Clipping the other end of the cord to her suit’s belt, he cupped her helmet. “Stay close to me. We need to get away from the blast if it happens, so I’m going to push off hard. Just hold on tight.”
The hatch opened, and the air in the cabin started to whoosh out. Lyk wrapped the cord around his arm a few times, then winked at her. “Here we go!” He squatted low before pushing off hard with his legs.
Ally had a moment to ponder his leap into space before she was suddenly tugged along after by the cord.
He must be incredibly strong, she thought as his velocity hurled them away from the ship. She looked back to see the fire blazing on the console. The viewscreen suddenly cracked, then crumbled. It looks like everything could explode any second.
