“That man of yours is standing right here,” Zeke said. “And as long as I have you around to deflate my ego on a regular basis, I’ll be fine.”
“It could be worse,” Shank pointed out. “You could be dead. Honestly, we were running fifty-fifty on whether you two would be decomposing corpses in some landfill.”
“You are terrible,” Allie said, poking Shank.
“Nah,” Jacqs said. “He’s telling the truth. I mostly thought we were going to end up dead, but the bats decided that if human soldier units could become miner units, they weren’t going to question it.”
“Miner units?” That sounded ominous.
Jacqs shrugged.
“When we get you out of here, you’re welcome to join my people, no kidnapping. Promise,” Shanks said.
Jacqs smiled at him. “Thanks.”
“Jac and Zeke, galactic pirates,” Zeke said in a grand voice. “Yeah, that’s going to take some getting used to. Still, it’s a better option than any of our others.”
“We could still go back to your folks,” Jacqs offered, but even Allie could hear the unhappiness in his voice.
“Yeah, no.” Zeke didn’t even pretend to consider that option. “They’re going to want me to turn myself in, and then Command will either use me for PR, or they’ll turn me back over to the bats. After being one of the few survivors of Siros Two, I know how much trouble it causes when you’re a hero. I’d rather be a pirate.”
“My father wouldn’t believe me if I told him straight out that Command was going to drop me in a cell and lose the key. He believes all the law-and-order stuff,” Allie said with sympathy. “He really thinks the world is fair.”
“And they deserve to live in their illusions,” Zeke said. He looked around as they passed the landing site and headed into the hills. “How far away did you park, Grah?”
“Blame Ben. He had the plan to sneak planetside and hide the ship.” Allie made sure to speak loud enough for Ben to hear since he was trailing behind, watching their retreat.
“Tactical advantage,” Ben called back.
Jacqs grunted, so Allie thought he was unhappy, but then he added, “At least someone remembers this is a war zone.”
“Actually, it’s not,” Shank said. “But this is a raiding party, and we’re stealing bat slaves, so the same things probably apply.”
Allie was about to complain about everyone’s very disturbing use of the wordslavewhen a figure came running over the hills where they’d hidden the ship. It took a second for her to realize it was Copta. She had a gun strapped to her leg, and her head scarf had come loose so her hair blew in the gentle breeze.
“The ship is putting out a signal,” she called as soon as she was close enough. Her cheeks were red from exertion, and she was gasping for air.
Ben came running. He took his gun and handed it over to Jacqs, who silently fell back to the rear position. “What sort of signal?”
Copta shook her head. “Becca is trying to shut it down, but it’s some sort of distress signal, and it hijacked all our comm systems. We’re broadcasting into space.”
Allie felt the blood rush from her face. She had one of those moments where terror overrode all ability to control her limbs. They were in bat territory, stealing bat property, and now their beautiful ship was screaming for all the universe to come and have a look.
Zeke was the first to break free of the shock. “Back to the ship, double time. When we hit the ship, Allie get on that tech. Copta, grab any supplies you might have. If we have to bug out, we’ll head back to the place where Jacqs and I have been staying. It’s buried, and the bats may have more trouble picking up life signs there.”
When Allie opened her mouth to point out that they’d picked up life signs in the house easily enough, Zeke gave her a quick shake of his head. “Debate later. Try to shut this thing down now. Double-time it.”
Try to shut the signal down—that really was the best plan. Allie turned toward the ship and started running up the gentle slopes. The incline hadn’t been difficult when walking, but soon enough her legs were burning from the effort, and still, fear drove her to run faster. They had to get to the ship and shut that signal down, or they would all be either dead or the newest slaves.
