The Maine’s hum increased in volume as the ship hovered in place. The strips of lights illuminating the vehicle bay turned off when a seam appeared in the middle of the blast door asits two sections slowly slid to the sides and down. The darkness of the tunnel outside matched that around them, though Bea seemed unconcerned with it and simply guided the Maine toward the exit without even putting on the Augmented Visor lying on top of the central console.
Aiden didn’t know all that much about flying spaceships aside from the basics, but pilots usually relied on AugVisor systems to assist with most of their manual maneuvering.
“Baby angel, you ready?” Bea gave Nyle a shit-eating grin and stretched her fingers before grasping the ship’s controls with a flourish. “Man, I can’t believe Rick—” She groaned. “Fuck that piece of shit, I was starting to like him!”
“I’m ready, Bea!” the blond chirped, donning a visor like the one she clearly didn’t seem to need.
“Kristen?” Bea said, her eyes locked on the tunnel.
“Reset’s done and I’ll have the bracket up and running in three minutes.”
“One and a half and we fuck in the engine room.”
Kristen growled over the comms, cursing again in that language Aiden didn’t quite recognize.“One and a half and you’re also wearing that stuff with the straps Nyle got for you.”
“Deal.”
Aiden couldn’t help the smile and Darren was in the same boat too, his lips curving up subtly. Placing a hand on Darren’s shoulder, Aiden braced himself as Bea picked up speed.
“Alright, boys. Ready or not, here we go!”
She pressed on. They moved slowly, rounding the curved section toward the exit in a smooth arc around sharp edges and protruding rocks, then swerved left to avoid coming in sight of the diffused beams of light the hostile ship had aimed into the opening.
Charged silence settled over them and dread climbed up Aiden’s spine, though before it could overtake him, the Maine was rushing forward and past the ship hovering by the entrance, then pivoting in place. Nyle shouted an affirmation that he’d locked onto the ship, and in the next moment, the Maine shook with a bone-rattling shudder as the anti-armor gun discharged a thin blue laser beam at the enemy.
Mesmerized, Aiden watched through the viewport as it pierced the gray, sleek body of the GN vessel. Nothing happened for a few loud heartbeats, then the laser retracted as the guns powered down, leaving the ship unscathed until a series of explosions tore it apart and lit the cliffy surface of the asteroid in a wash of orange and red.
“Kristeeen?” Bea urged, her hands flicking through alerts and warnings flooding the central console, “I’ve gotfourinbound!”
“Then you better get us moving, B,” Kristen said from behind them, running into the cockpit red-faced and panting.
Bea blew him an air kiss and gripped the ship’s controls, powering up all kinds of systems. “You’re a star.” Rolling her shoulders, she focused on the blackness beyond the reinforced glass as proximity alerts cautioned of approaching hostiles. “Time to give them a run for their money.”
In one fluid spin, the Maine pivoted to the left. Its hum changed to the one Aiden was so familiar with now that the ship wasn’t running in suboptimal mode, settling into his chest as the core came fully online. The Maine accelerated a moment later, just as the first of the four GN vessels emerged from behind a section of jagged spikes near the hideout’s entrance.
Aiden didn’t get a good look at it. In the span of a few blinks, Bea had already circled the asteroid, gaining distance and speed on their pursuers. Still, his heart tried to jump out of his chest asthe warnings of imminent impact and incoming projectiles and shield damage kept going off around him.
Would Marcus really have his men shoot them? With Darren onboard? Now that Marcus knew where the hideout was, he probably thought he didn’t need Darren anymore… At least until Rick showed him Sara’s data and told him about the second part of the legacy.
Profound relief washed over Aiden, diluting the anger coursing through him. They hadn’t cracked the earring. Rick didn’t know what was on it.Rick who was his best friend and who had betrayed him.
It stung and Aiden felt like he couldn’t breathe. He wondered when it had started, when Marcus had tainted this friendship. Was it when he’d found out Aiden was posing as a warden in Horizons? Or had it been before that? Maybe as early as high school when Aiden had made his first ever real friend.
Because if Claudia had been lying to him from the start, what was to say Rick hadn’t as well?
Maybe it had all been a lie, an ongoing performance. Aiden sifted through his memories, through all those times he’d shared with Rick, but he couldn’t pinpoint a moment. He couldn’t find a clue or a hint or something to tell him if any of it had been real.
Still, he should’ve seen it. He should’ve been able to tell. He should’ve paid more attention instead of living in his head and holding onto things he should’ve long let go. The more he thought about it, the more he was mad at himself. For not paying attention, for obsessing over Claudia, for allowing his anger and grief to blind him to the world around.
Aiden took a deep breath, steeling his resolve. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. He felt heartbroken, like he’d lost something precious, but he didn’t give in. He’d let Claudia go, even if it had taken him so long, and he was going to let Rick go too. Quietly and without a fuss, because unlikeAiden Gray, Aiden Kesley wasn’t alone. He had people counting on him.
The pressure in Aiden’s chest heightened, but he didn’t let it overwhelm him. He accepted it and waited it out, acknowledging the sad ending of a friendship he had hoped would last. On an exhale, the suffocating sensation passed, leaving quicker than he’d expected. Rick became just another lie, another thing to bury in his past. Another memory to join Claudia’s.
Another tragedy that Marcus had caused, though one that Aiden wasn’t going to dwell on.
As the warnings abruptly died down and the asteroid got lost in the uniform darkness of space, Aiden’s gaze landed on the wooden box with Sara’s AI. She was safe, she was here with them. Except, all the data she possessed was now also in the hideout’s network, waiting for Marcus to seize it.
Aiden’s stomach churned. Marcus was about to discover what the Valrais Legacy was, and there was nothing he or any of the others could do about it. They couldn’t go back—it was a suicide mission because they simply didn’t have the numbers. They couldn’t prevent Marcus from finding out what the rings truly were, and once he knew they had the second one, he was never going to stop chasing them.
