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Heather’s hand covered her mouth as she stared at the explosion.

Three more ships exploded around them as the station’s lasers targeted them.

Loka maximized power to the shields on the Koob ship, re-routing power from heating, lights, and filtration systems. “We’ll survive a couple of blasts before the ship’s shield disintegrates.”

“It won’t get us far enough away. The station’s lasers will take us out too.”

“I’ll evade the attack,” Loka said. He was no hot shot when it came to flying but had been in enough simulations to learn a few evasive moves. He had to hope that would be enough.

“Scan complete,” the ship’s computer said.

“They know we’re in here,” Heather said. “Any second now, they’ll lock onto us.”

Loka pushed the engines to maximum, feeling the ship shudder beneath them. “We’ll be ready to go to warp drive in five minutes.”

“We can’t jump now?”

“The ship has been powered down for too long. The engine isn’t ready.”

“And the wormhole is too far for us to get to it in time,” Heather said.

“Try the comms again. If nothing else, we can send out a message asking for help. Those left behind on the station will still get help.”

Heather press the comms button. “Still nothing.”

The ship shuddered again. Loka didn’t ease back on the engine’s power. They had to get as far away as possible.

Instead of speeding up, the ship slowed. Loka checked the readings on the panel. Everything seemed normal. Still, they continued to slow.

He hissed a curse under his breath.

“What’s wrong with the ship?” Heather asked.

“Nothing is wrong with it. We’re being dragged back to the station by a tractor beam. We’re not going anywhere.”

Chapter 13

Heather’s heart raced so fast she felt dizzy. “Is there any way out of the beam?”

“If we fight it, it will rip the ship apart,” Loka said. Still, his hands skimmed across the panel as he adjusted power flows.

“We can’t let them get us. They know we tried to escape.”

“I can’t figure out why they haven’t blown us out of space like the other ships. Why drag us back to the station?”

Heather drummed her fingers on her knees. “Do you know who was on the ships that were blown up?”

“I only spoke to one of them. It was an alien.”

Concern slid over Heather. “What if the other ships only contained aliens? What if they’re interested in this ship because there is a human on board? We saw how they treated us. They wanted all humans in the holding cells on the station. The cyborgs didn’t seem bothered what happened to you.”

“They consider you an asset,” Loka said. “They want you back. They want to keep you alive.”

Dread clutched at Heather’s stomach. “They’re going to do something awful to the humans they capture, aren’t they?”

Loka took hold of her hand. “Many races consider you a big commodity. They want access to what you’re supplying. Many aren’t prepared to wait to be matched with a suitable female through My Single Alien.”

“They take what they want, even though they’re not allowed it?” Heather heard the wobble in her voice. “It has to be the Banti behind this. Since they’re banned from using our services, they’ve decided to get what they want anyway.”