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“That’s it. Good little Gente. You get in there and sit tight. If you’re lucky, we’ll keep you alive and see if we can find some cells in the prison quadrant.” Eden waved the gun at the cage.

They climbed inside, and Wren slammed the door shut and locked it.

“Phase one complete,” she said. “Now, let’s go cause more chaos.”

***

Striker studied the trajectory of the Gente ship from the cockpit of the Apocalypse. He backed up and stepped on Rexx’s foot.

“Watch it.” Rexx grunted and shifted to one side, his expression fierce.

“Shouldn’t you still be heavily sedated and tied down so you don’t kill anyone?”

“Angel tried. She’s out of drugs.” Rexx flexed his biceps. “Ash talked to me.”

“He got you to see sense?”

“He reminded me about chains of command. He got me to agree not to be a dick.”

“That must be a constant struggle.”

Rexx shoved him away.

“Settle down, guys, or I’ll kick you out of here. The Gente have to make a stop soon,” Cleo said. She stood in the cockpit with Striker, Rexx, Blaze, and Ash. There was barely any room to move, but everyone was focused on getting their missing crew back.

“I still think we try a direct assault,” Striker muttered.

“They’re flying on metro fuel tanks,” Cleo said. “They need to stop at least once a day to let the engines cool and fill up.”

“Which means they’re stopping at Koovit or the Dansak space station,” Blaze said.

“And that’s when we grab them,” Striker said.

“Those locations are two hours out.” Rexx growled. “It’s too long.”

“It’s the best shot we’ve got to get the others back,” Cleo said. “We’ve waited this long. We have to get the timing right.”

Striker growled his own frustration. He’d been following every order for over five hours and trying hard not to argue with Cleo every time she made them wait.

A part of him felt lost since Wren had been taken. He wouldn’t feel whole again until she was back in his arms.

“Keeping the force field at such a high strength will be draining their power,” Cleo said. “They could even divert to Tebook. That’s less than an hour from here.”

“We keep tracking them until they make a move,” Blaze said. “The second we get a chance, we get our crew off there.”

The cockpit door slid open. Sloane walked in. Dark shadows sat under her eyes, and her hair was scraped on top of her head. “Any news?”

“We’re still tracking them,” Cleo said. “How’s it going in the lab?”

“Good. The last of the animals have been processed. They’re all doing okay. A few of them have illnesses, but they’ve had their shots, health checks, and have been fed. They should all make it.”

“Wren will be happy to hear that when she gets back,” Cleo said. “She was determined to get them all here safely.”

“She should never have helped that fleur ibex,” Striker said. “You should have pulled her back as soon as the Gente suggested she examine it.”

Cleo sighed. “Striker, you know what Wren’s like when it comes to an injured animal. I could have told her that, but she’d have disobeyed me.”

“Wren never breaks the rules,” he said. “If you’d made it an order, she would have retreated. She’d be here, instead of...” He waved his hand at the expanse of space in front of them.