Blast.She glanced at the Tellusian. He’d locked out the controls before taking his nap.Bastard.
Maybe she could try to override the lock from the main terminal. Licking her dry lips, she sneaked to the front of the Raven, leaving the blanket on the bench. Two more silent steps and she stopped next to his outstretched legs. Keeping her gaze on his bare chest, she counted to a hundred before she was truly satisfied he remained asleep.
Swallowing, she braced her hand against the main terminal, then leaned over his legs. Her heart pounded hard in her chest as she searched for the pod’s override. She found it on the far side, blocked by the bulk of his half-naked body. Slowly, she reached over, keeping her eyes locked on him for any hint he was about to wake up. Fully stretched out, she touched the control and it beeped, making her jump.
Her gaze shot to his face, certain she woke him. But he remained asleep, his breaths even. Popping on her tiptoes, she read the message on the panel: Passcode Required.
No!She didn’t have any hacking skills, wouldn’t know how to generate her own passcode.Now what?
The front panel lit up like a festival, beeping frantically. The Tellusian straightened. She hopped to the side, arms flailing to get away from him, and lost her balance.
“I didn’t do it!” she shouted out of self-preservation reflex.
Thwack. She landed sideways in the co-pilot’s seat. He caught her wrist, pulling her upright. She hissed out a breath and yanked her arm away.
“Does it still hurt?” he asked, glowering.
She shook her head, face heating. He’d touched her skin. Being a doctor, a surgeon, she needed to touch her patients, but that was different. CORE citizens didn’t touch, not skin-to-skin unless you knew them intimately, a friend or family member. And even then, the touch was limited.
He faced forward, his fingers skimming over the controls of the ship. “Get strapped in.”
His tone had her obeying. With shaky hands she pulled the straps over her shoulders and between her legs. Then, out of the corner of her eye, something in the deep of space glinted on the viewer.
“What are those?” she asked, the moisture in her mouth evaporating. The ship skimmed over a network of black orbs ranging in sizes, some moving, some not.
Those can’t be what I think they are—
As soon as her restraints clicked into place, he veered them off their trajectory at a furious speed. A scream lodged in her throat. She would have smashed to the roof it hadn’t been for artificial gravity and her buckle. All she could do was stare as he wove through the orbs at a suicidal speed.
We’re in a blasted minefield.
Chapter four
Nia’sheartthreatenedtoburst from her chest. The mines went on as far as she could see, packed together tight.
She glanced at the warrior beside her. He was unhinged,psychotic. Even a slight jostling could destroy them. Her stomach rolled. Instinctively, she reached for her PALM, needing a suppressant to tamp her emotions, then flinched when all she touched was her own skin.
With no way to regulate her internal turmoil, she gasped each breath. Her fingernails dug into the arms of her seat as they veered sharply. The ship leveled out then banked in the opposite direction.
It seemed like they weaved in and out of the mines for an hour. Finally, the space between the mines grew wider, allowing the ship more room to maneuver. As her breaths slowed, something large glinted ahead. She squinted.
A space station flashed into existence. Her lips parted. At first it looked like an elongated version of one of the mines, but as they neared, longer extensions became visible, as well as voids near the center.
In a heartbeat, it was gone again. She blinked. Did she have some sort of brain injury from the attack? But no, it was still there. Faceted shielding fooled her eyes, concealing a station like none she’d seen before. A Tellusian Destroyer docked to the side of the dark, oblong shape, looking like a miniature toy—and those warships rivaled CORE Guardians in size.
The closer they flew, the more the bulk of the station blocked out the minefield. She gripped the arms of her seat tighter, her eyes scanning the ships and shuttles of every size entering and exiting docking bays. Larger vessels used docking ports like the Destroyer.
“What is this place?” she asked around the lump in her throat, her trepidation growing.
“Orion,” he said, then switched to that language she couldn’t understand. His comm buzzed in his ear, someone’s voice on the other end.
How did she not understand it? She was fluent in the main CORE languages and had a grasp of all the others. What dialect was he speaking?
The cockpit darkened. She leaned forward, looking upward as they flew beneath one of the station’s long arms. They entered a shaft, the black of the crisscrossed construction and the lights ahead the only things she could see. He stopped the ship, then they descended, surrounded by the metal composite of a chute. She squinted against the bright as they lowered into a docking bay.
Ships moved everywhere, coming and going, settling onto pads or lifting off. She peered through the side viewer, watching people in brown coveralls scurry beneath them. Tiny at first, they grew in size as they descended. The Raven landed with athump. Maintenance workers disappeared under the ship.
When the warrior undid his buckle to rise to his feet, Nia reached for hers. A heavy hand settled on her shoulder, and she gasped, gaze flying to his.
