“What about Evie?” she said, her voice small.
Lyk frowned. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I have to do this. It’s my fault. I brought my crew here.”
Ally let out a long breath. Lyk moved in to take off the helmet, then cupped her cheek. “You will go with Marek to Vartik. This changes nothing. They’ll still figure out how to get Evie back, and I’ll be back to help before you know it.”
“No,” she said.
Lyk froze, his expression concerned.
Ally patted him on the arm. “It’s my fault your crew knows about the wormhole. If I hadn’t snuck to call Kara, they wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint your location.”
“That’s only partially true. I believe Kara could find me no matter where I was in the universe.”
“She wouldn’t give you up,” Marek grumbled. “We traced the call.”
“See!” Ally shook her head. “I’m worried about my sister, but I’ve realized that I can’t save her by myself. I can help you get your ship back though.”
“A pirate showdown isn’t a place for a delicate female.” Marek’s tone was firm, and it made Ally bristle.
“I bet your wife would have a different opinion about that. Should we call the Queen and let her decide?”
Lyk chuckled. Putting his arm around her, he beamed at his brother who scowled and hung his head. Turning to Ally, his smile grew smaller. “There really is no reason for you to tag along, though, and I don’t want to put you in unnecessary danger.”
“There is a reason for me to ‘tag along,’ and it’s to save your ass. I’ve got a plan, an idea of how we can get control of the ship back.”
“Is that so?” Marek asked, skeptical.
Lyk hugged her tighter, his tone defensive. “If my female says she has a plan, then she has a plan.”
Ally beamed, proud of Lyk’s faith in her. Even if it was misplaced.
Well, at least I’ve got a few minutes to come up with a plan.
CHAPTER 23
LYK
Zelup’s ship might even be faster than his own cruiser, which made Lyk burn with jealousy. His brother always had the best toys. It came with the territory when you were the commander of Vartik’s considerable military forces.
“They couldn’t have entered the wormhole any longer than seven minutes ago, calculating your ship’s speed against mine,” Zelup announced. “We can catch them.”
“That still gives them a considerable advantage. How are we going to determine which path they took?”
Zelup frowned as he typed on his console. “I wish Nojan were here to explain this damn thing, but here is a rudimentary schematic of the wormhole.” The viewscreen flashed with what looked like a tornado with multiple tails.
“It has five exits?” Lyk asked, amazed.
Zelup nodded. “Six, if you count the entrance near Vartik.”
“This thing is a godsdamn game changer.” For Vartik to have sole access to this system of rapid transport throughout the galaxy would mean a priceless advantage for his people. But if others found out about the wormhole and ended up discovering they could land on the doorstep of the mythical Vartiks, a priceless advantage became a liability.
“As you can see, the tunnel nearest Vartik has a long runway until it gets to this juncture, here.” Zelup pointed from the one end of the tunnel, the one nearest Vartik, to a point where it split into three. From that junction, one tunnel later split in two again, meaning there were five possible directions Celdrake could take if they didn’t catch him in time.
“That runway takes longer than seven minutes to traverse?”
“Definitely.” Zelup alerted his crew to their entry into the wormhole. “If we max out our speed, we should be able to overtake them with a few minutes to spare. We don’t tend to go maximum velocity because of the drag the wormhole creates itself, but in this case, it’s necessary.”
The ship shot forward, the thrust from the ship’s engines magnified exponentially by the pull of the wormhole. On the viewscreen, the stripes of colored light that made up the wormhole’s composition seemed to elongate and blur.
