Chapter Thirteen
“Well that was rougherthan I was expecting,” Ben said, which was pretty much the understatement of the century.
Allie powered down the slip’s oversize engines and sat in her chair as her heart tried to beat out of her chest. Terror. That had been terrifying, and she couldn’t quite find the words to describe how much.
“You did good,” Shank said. He reached out and caught her hand in his.
“I think my bruises are bruised,” Becca complained softly. Allie felt the same. The pilot’s harness had dug deeply into her shoulders, but that was nothing compared to the headache between her eyes.
“That was rougher than anything I’ve ridden through before,” Shank agreed. “What happened?”
Allie laughed. She was just an inch shy of hysteria. “I’m not sure, but I think another ship dragged their hyperspace thread across ours. The bubble we were riding nearly collapsed.” Allie’s logical brain forced her to pay attention to business. She ran her hands over the instruments, checking for any immediate danger. Most of her emotions had turned into little screaming animals that raged in the back of her head. It made her headache exponentially worse. “We should check on your mother’s ship and see if she took damage.” She stopped as it occurred to her that she was about to meet the woman who hated her. Loathed her. Hell, the woman probably had dreams of throwing Allie out an air lock.
“Oh God. Mom.” Shank forced his way through the cramped cabin. Even with Ben, Copta, and Becca pressing themselves to the sides of the slip, he could barely squirm through. Slips were clearly not used for large cargo or entire crews. Shank said they were often used to transport a sedated kidnap victim, and that was about what would fit in here comfortably—one person on the large bench and one pilot. Luckily, the five of them liked one another well enough to shove into a space built for two.
The back hatch opened, but Shank didn’t rush out. He froze in place, and Ben, who was standing behind him, raised his hands in surrender.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Shank blurted out. He then added a lot more in his language. Ben blocked their view of whatever might be out there, but Allie was guessing people with guns.
“It’s strange,” Copta said as she leaned against Allie’s seat and watched. “I do not know his language, and yet I would place a bet on my ability to translate what he is saying right now.”
“Yeah, he’s not subtle,” Allie agreed.
Copta looked down at her. “It makes me wonder what sort of mother raised him,” she said. With that, she moved over to Becca’s side and took her hand. Ben glanced over his shoulder at them, smiling before he followed Shank off the slip, his hands still held high.
That was when Allie could finally see the armed escort who had met them in the hangar. A dozen or so men, some with long hair like Shank’s and others with almost military-short hair, all stood with weapons pointed at them. Shank was off to the side, loudly arguing with a woman who had long, graying hair. Unless Allie was badly misinterpreting things, several of the men were amused as hell. The woman tilted her head toward the ship, and Allie recognized Anpaytoo’s profile.
“Oh for the love of God,” Allie muttered. Ignoring the guns and the shocked expressions, she shoved past the others and walked right toward Shank and his mother. A man darted to get in front of her, and Allie pushed him off to one side while she stepped in the other direction. It let her dodge him nicely, but when a second man with a more determined expression blocked her, she stopped and looked right at Anpaytoo. “I don’t know much about slip mathematics, but Wara was a good teacher, and that was not normal. Did a fourth ship cross our path?”
Even under the best circumstances, crossing hyperspace threads was dangerous. Ships could end up pulled light-years off course. The bubble of normal space that slid along the thread could even burst, exposing a ship to hard hyperspace, which would rip it apart immediately.
Anpaytoo raised her chin and looked at Allie the way someone might look at a bug. Allie glared right back. If Shank was telling the truth about Claire, his mother had a right to be a little twitchy about his taste in women. Allie tried to keep that in mind and not snap at the woman.
“Command has increased patrols,” Anpaytoo said. “Hopefully they will only notice that they crossed one thread, or they will be asking what other ship would have been in the area.” She turned her angry glare back to Shank. He crossed his arms. “Chankoowashtay? A slip? You had Wara teach her the mathematics of a slip?”
“Caj did that,” Shank said firmly.
“Because you talked him into foolishness, which seems to be your great skill.”
“You forgot being the best belly gunner you ever had, and my amazing ability to outmaneuver a unit of Nicve marines trying to kill me after they blew up my rig.”
Anpaytoo had beautiful dark skin, but she turned absolutely ashen at Shank’s words. One of the older men stepped to her side and holstered his gun so he could slip a hand under her elbow. “You should sit,” he said.
Immediately, she was pushing him away. “I’m fine,” she barked when she clearly wasn’t fine. She had turned an unhealthy shade of gray, but her sharp gaze went to Ben. “And were you one that hunted my son?”
Danger charged the air so it felt thick.
Ben gave her a crooked smile. “No, ma’am. I’m the one who turned against my unit to side with these idiots. That’s why I’m not in a Nicve unit anymore.”
That made her stop. Becca moved so she was in front of Ben. He tried to grab her and pull her back out of the way, but Copta caught his arm and stopped him. “Do you two mind?” he asked wryly.
“We don’t mind at all,” Copta said without letting go of his arm. Now several of the guards were openly smirking, and Ben just rolled his eyes.
Anpaytoo seemed far less amused. “Playacting is well and good, but this is serious.”
“They’re worried that you’re going to act irrationally,” Allie said. She managed to avoid saying that Anpaytoo was acting a little irrational right now.
The woman gave Allie a look that could have stripped paint off the side of a house. “Perhaps you would like to tell me what the rational solution is here?” Anpaytoo’s voice had a calm that made Allie think of the way an afternoon day would go quiet right before a tornado would strike. She glanced over, and Shank had his hands fisted at his sides.
