The doctor shrugged, but his smile turned slightly more genuine.
“They let you keep it?” I asked.
“It’s not a weapon.” He adjusted the little white instrument in his hand, positioning his thumb over the On button. “And I may have given the soldier inspecting me a false prognosis for a flesh-eating skin disease to distract her.”
Frank barked a laugh. “Have at me, Doc.”
The doctor fired up the laser and began the healing process, one hand on Frank’s shoulder to steady him, and what might’ve been his first smile in a long time tugging at his mouth.
While the doctor worked and I sat there, useless, Jax evaded the dots on the monitor, trying to get away from the security hub and out into open enough space for Asher to pick us up. No windows and shitty visuals made it hard to know who we were avoiding. Dark Watch cruisers trying to block our path? Jax made a couple of abrupt moves that left people clinging to one another for balance and the doctor muttering a curse.
Watching Jax at the console set my teeth on edge. Even though my arms didn’t work, I itched to take control.
Jax hissed the second before we collided with something and dipped hard. I toppled over, crashing sideways like gravity came up to eat me. With zero control over my body, I couldn’t catch myself, and a resounding thud went through my skull. My vision swam. Blurry figures shouted and fell down. I blinked, but the chaos remained. Limbs and kids and human shit sliding all over the place. I groaned.
“Jax!” Caeryssa yelled.
“I see it!” Jax banked again hard. Everyone slid toward the far wall, screaming. I started to roll away, and the doctor reached out and grabbed me. He jerked me to a stop with one hand, finished with Frank with the other, and turned off the laser. “Everyone okay?” he asked.
Frank gaped at him. “If we live through this, will you join my crew?”
The doctor grinned. Then sobered. “You’re serious?”
“You got anywhere else to go?” Was that a hint of flirtatiousness in Frank’s voice? I was pretty sure it was—and that Jax could stop worrying about Fiona taking off with the captain of the Unholy Stench one of these days.
“I’ll think about it,” the doctor said. And I could tell he would.
My head still rang, but the shot of adrenaline from that hard hit must’ve loosened the stun blasts’ hold on my limbs. I shook out a leg. A shoulder. Parts of me moved again. I sat back up against the wall next to Frank.
The doctor moved away from us but kept Frank in view, his brow knitting. He snuck another glance.
Had the universe just made a match? It was hard to miss the stars in Frank’s eyes as he watched the man who’d just healed him. As for the doctor, he looked more confused than opposed.
Jax kept us on a steady course. The Stench moved toward us. Next to Jax, Caeryssa gripped the edge of the console for balance while she pounded her other fist against her numb leg as though trying to wake it up.
“You all right, Tess?” I asked. She’d been awfully quiet.
“For now,” she answered. “They’re mostly on you guys. You doing okay? Jax?”
Jax grunted, a snarl fixed on his face. There was a lot in his expression that he didn’t usually show people, all that blistering hate and rage. It was a good thing he wasn’t looking at the cargo. They might try to jump ship.
Jax dodged another something, but more came in fast. He was a damn good pilot, even with this piece-of-shit box. If no one shot at us, we might stand a chance.
A behemoth of a blob suddenly appeared on the radar. I wasn’t sure if the sight of it was terrifying or a relief. DW 12. The galaxy’s fucking premier warship. Because Bridgebane would be the one to mess with this escape after setting it up. And I knew he’d shoot the stuffing out of the little guy. I’d seen Tess’s ship when the Endeavor landed on my doorstep.
Caeryssa gasped, making Frank turn to the monitor.
“Holy fuck, look at that,” he said in horror. For the first time, he looked genuinely scared.
What had he gleaned from Tess’s conversation with Mwende over the coms? Not enough to know this wasn’t catastrophic. A ship like that usually spelled a guaranteed death sentence to a bunch of rebels fumbling through the Dark.
“Dark Watch 12 just showed up,” Asher said in a strangled voice. “What do I do, Boss?”
I leaned toward Frank and quietly told him, “That’ll be the uncle.”
Frank’s blue eyes widened, then narrowed. “You hear that, Ash?”
“Heard,” Asher choked out. “Belief hasn’t set in yet.”
“Don’t worry, Asher. I feel the exact same way most of the time,” Tess muttered from her cargo hold.
I kept my eyes on the monitor, watching the huge ship close in on what I thought was our cargo box next to the Unholy Stench. Everyone in here was watching the same thing, terror a new stink in the room.
“He better not blow us up,” Frank muttered. “Any of us.”
Caeryssa shushed him, her eyes darting to the people in the cargo hold.
“The warship is turning its phasers on us!” Asher hollered. “Tess!”
“Hold steady,” Mwende said.
“Keep going, but he’ll fire on you. Don’t think he won’t.” Tess’s warning came three seconds before an alarm wailed on the Stench.
“He grazed us, like a warning.” Asher silenced the alert. “Threw me off course, but we’re close. I’ve almost got you.”
“Seal off your bottom level,” Tess said. “You too, Merrick. Oh no! Bonk! Where is he?”
“I’ve got him, Tess,” Merrick said. “Don’t worry.”
“He’s on the bridge?”
“Yes.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Tess and that cat. I might’ve been kind of attached to the tabby myself.
“DW 12’s sending out warning messages to all cargo cruisers in the area,” Asher said. “Evacuate. No attachments allowed.”
“Don’t back off. Keep coming,” Jax said. “Is that you on my doorstep?”
The door we’d come through was the only place on the cargo hold to make the seal. Asher confirmed his position. “Yeah, we swung around. Reverse thrusters. Stop now.”
Jax did as Asher directed. The abrupt slowdown jostled our human cargo again. A baby started crying. We were in the home stretch. Where was Tess?
As if I’d asked out loud, she suddenly gave an update. “I’m higher than you and going faster. DW 12 got between us and the Ewelock phasers. They can’t shoot at us now.”