Swallowing with an effort, Lena scrubbed a hand across her eyes to dry the tears that had puddled in them and moved shakily to enter the shaft again. Her heart seemed to stand still in her chest as she looked down.
“Don’t look down! Look at me!”
Too late! She didn’t think she could’ve made it this far if Dax hadn’t been behind her all the way, blocking her view of the miles of shaft below her, giving her the reassurance that he was there to catch her.
Never mind that she hadn’t actually believed he would, that she’d been afraid the whole time that if she fell she was going to take both of them down.
She needed the illusion of safety he’d given her.
“Lena! Get your ass up here!” Dax bellowed abruptly.
Stiffening her spine, still quaking like a leaf, Lena moved into the shaft and began struggling upward again. A jolt went through her when she felt a hand brush one shoulder. He caught her arm as she slipped, heaving upward. She managed to grip one side of the top edge. Her feet sought traction, slipped and she pedaled upward. Relief so potent it made her absolutely limp went through her when she tumbled to the roof in Dax’s arms.
She didn’t really have a chance to enjoy the sense of security, though.
He pushed her off almost at once and got to his feet.
More slowly, wondering what they were going to do now, Lena gathered herself into a ball and looked around to see what he was doing.
Without hesitation, he loped across the roof to what looked like a water tower, or perhaps some sort of electrical maintenance box. After feeling around the thing for a handful of moments, he pulled a small object from it. Glancing upward, he went still, as if waiting.
Lena looked up too. She could see nothing but blackness, the slightly paler black of clouds against the night sky and winking stars.
As she watched, however, one star seemed to detach itself from the others and shoot downward.
“Make it quick!” Dax muttered, drawing her attention.
It took more of an effort to push herself to her feet than she’d thought it would, Lena discovered as she gathered herself and tried to stand. She managed to get to her knees, wobbled for a moment and then, dragging in a deep breath, stood. Even with her legs braced apart, she almost fell down again when she looked up at the bright spec of light shooting toward them.
Staggering, catching her balance with an effort, she glanced at Dax questioningly.
“We’ve got company,” he growled warningly. “Quit fucking around and get down here!”
Lena felt her jaw go slack. Who was he talking to, she wondered blankly? The warning ‘company’ hit her right between the eyes just then, however, and she whirled to look around the roof for the threat as Dax charged across the roof toward a boxy looking protrusion.
He’d barely reached it when a door opened in one side, disgorging guards. Four men carrying automatics charged past him without seeing him, heading straight for her. She didn’t wait to see anything else. Letting out a shriek, she whirled and ran.
“Get down!”
Lena reacted instantly to Dax’s bellowed command, slamming into the roof top and plastering herself against it even as the scream of laser blasts filled the air above her head. Cringing, without any place to run to even if she was near enough to reach any kind of shelter, she covered her head with her hands. Around her, she heard yells, the sizzle of the taser, laser blasts, and then above that, drowning out all of the other noises, the shrill whine of an engine. Heat seared her, blown away from her almost before it touched her by a hard blast of air.
Pulling her hands from her head when the sounds of battle diminished, Lena turned her head first one way and then the other to see what was happening. Hovering just above the roof ledge was an enormous deep space craft. A dozen men had spilled from the gang way extending from it and were running across the roof. The four guards she’d seen, like her, were plastered face down on the roof, their arms above their heads.
Dax knelt beside her and hauled her to her feet. “That’s our ride.”
Stunned, Lena got up with an effort and allowed him to lead her across the roof toward the waiting craft.
“Bring them,” Dax yelled above the roar of the ship’s engines. At once the soldiers prodded the guards to get on their feet, herding them toward the gangplank with the tips of their guns.
“Hustle it!” Dax barked as everyone began pouring on board again, his hand tightening around Lena’s arm as he pulled her to one side to allow them to pass.
Still stunned and bewildered by the turn of events, Lena stood docilely beside him, trying to figure out how it was that a ship had been waiting for them. The troops filed in, disappearing down a narrow gang way and through an air lock. The whir of the gang plank being retracted caught Lena’s attention, and she turned, watching as it disappeared into a crevice, like a tongue into a mouth, and the outer door closed.
“The prisoners have been secured, Captain Morris,” said a male voice.
Lena’s head snapped around so quickly a bone in her neck cracked. A shockwave washed over her as she stared at Dax in wide eyed disbelief. “Morris?”
He turned to look down at her. His blue eyes were as cold as ice. “Good.Take this abomination down to Mel. When she’s patched it up, secure it in the brig. We’ll see what information we can get out of it.”
