Unlike Kldyn, Yl’ln wasn’t bound by her pride. She wasn’t dismissing Vytln as a threat because she believed herself to be superior. She knew she wasn’t. That was why she had picked Kldyn over Vytln to begin with. Even injured, she was giving Vytln the entirety of her focus, attention, and strength. She took him seriously.
And Vytln was holding his own, but he wasn’t making any progress. It was all he could do to keep his guard up and keep her from taking advantage of his bum knee.
What really struck her, however, was just howemptyboth of their expressions were.
They were exes. Former lovers. Sure, Yl’ln had chosen Kdlyn and Vytln had chosen Haven, but their having new partners didn’t mean their past was erased.
But by the hard, focused look on their faces, therewasno past between them. They were nothing more than enemies, strangers with opposing goals. It was interesting how similar they were. She could understand, looking at them now, even with absolutely nothing for the other on their faces, why they had once been partners.
However, Haven was his partner now, and she wasn’t going to let her baby fight with his back against the wall.
Bringing up her arm, she began tapping on her tablet. Her termites – and the nanobots they had claimed – were still working to slowly eat holes all over the ship. To disharmonize the subspace crystals. To overload the engine. It was so hot down there now that the engineers couldn’t even stay any longer. Her termites couldn’t either. But they didn’t have to. It had gotten to the point that the engine was past the point of no return. It was a powder keg rapidly heating, just waiting for the spark that would set it ablaze.
Which meant she could set her termites to doing something else. She sent the commands, then ran past the bodies of the dead lvtls to the console controls. Her termites were able to meet her there, helping her because the controls weren’t written in Standard – which she could only read to a small degree anyway.
But with their help translating them, she got them into Standard, then found the gravity control. It didn’t take long – maybe thirty seconds in all. But when it came to a fight, to the pure physical effort required to fight, she knew that thirty seconds could be an eternity.
The gravity, however, turned off instantly. She heard the gasp from behind from Yl’ln as she lost control in the weightless environment. Haven, holding onto the console so she stayed on the ground, looked back to check on Vytln.
Yl’ln, who relied on quick movements to move around her larger, stronger opponents, did not take to the change in gravity well. Vytln, who was grounded and defending, relying on remaining steady and unmoving, however-
He took to the change in gravity very well. Pushing off the wall Yl’ln had driven him into, he slammed his elbow forward intoher gut. She flew back, nothing to pull her down and stop her body from crashing into the wall on the other side of the bridge.
Vytln, his weight no longer pushing down on his injured knee, had an even better range of movement as he pushed himself off, chasing her down.
Haven looking forward again, this time, she had her termites getting the navigating information from the console and downloading it into her tablet. She didn’t know what any of that information meant as she had no experience navigating. But she could give it to Sway or one of the others and they’d be able to figure out where Alred brought them.
If they couldn’t just ask him directly. She was hoping they could do that, rendering this all pointless, but just to be safe…
With the information downloaded, the ship set to explode, and a nearby evac pond they could steal, they had everything they needed.
Haven locked down the consoles. She gathered her termites, the remainder that weren’t acting as the hinge on Vytln’s knee and turned to run to the hatch.
She spared her mate one last glance, but without gravity to aid her movement, Yl’ln was at a disadvantage. Leaving him to it, she opened the hatch and pulled herself inside. She had to get that body out and unlock the mechanisms she’d set that was keeping it from launching.
Chapter 51
Vytln
Vytln had never fought Yl’ln before. He’d seen her fight, and he’d been the target of her anger and her blows back when they were lovers. He knew how hard she hit. He knew how dangerous she could be. He respected that about her, even now. He admired how she didn’t give up. How, even at a disadvantage, she still put up a fight.
But she wasn’t nearly as good as his Haven.
Haven had taken over and destroyed an entire starship on her own. She had seen him injured and gave him the ability to fight. She’d seen him struggling and given him the advantage. She was a wonder to him. For him.
Even now, as Vytln was grabbing Yl’ln by the mask of her helmet and throwing her out into the hall, Haven was hauling the body of the male he’d killed – he was pretty sure that was a cousin – out of the evac pod. Without gravity, it was easy for her to move even that large body. She tossed him into the air and let him float away as she pulled herself back down.
Vytln, one hand on the ceiling, his body floating weightlessly – relieving the pain on his broken knee – looked out as Yl’ln got back up.
She glared at him, her teeth clenched in an angry snarl.
“Let me go,” she said, voice reaching him through the comms. “You owe me that at the very least, J’tll.”
His old name in her hissing tone was almost nostalgic. If he was the kind of male that was affected by things like nostalgia.
“This is the life you chose,” he said simply. “This is the death you chose.”
“Give me one evac pod! Let me go! I swear, you will never see me again!”
