Given the choice, I’d rather have Bridgebane firing on us. But I also remembered the holes in Tess’s hull. Her uncle kept up appearances almost too well.
“Don’t go too fast or you’ll pass me,” Merrick warned. “We turned and are backing toward you now.”
“Got it,” she said. “Who’s at the back door?”
“Gabe,” Merrick answered.
An image of Tess coming through the vacuum seal and jumping into Gabe’s arms was not what I needed right now. It slammed into my brain on repeat.
“He’s gonna fire!” Asher couldn’t hide his panic.
“Just go with it,” Tess said.
“Go with it?” Asher’s what-the-fuck voice almost squeaked.
“I told you! Seal off your bottom level!” Tess obviously had more confidence than I did that Bridgebane wouldn’t aim for something vital that could tear apart the ship.
“Okay. I sealed off the living quarters,” Asher said. “But I’ve got Mace and Nic at the doors.”
“And we’ve got Gabe and Sanaa.” Tess hissed in pain as if she’d moved wrong and hurt herself. “Fiona, you’re on the bridge?”
“Yes,” the botanist answered. “And my plants better not be sucked into outer space, or I will personally dismantle DW 12 and make Bridgebane eat a poison mushroom.”
“I like this woman,” Mwende said. “She has fire.”
For some reason, Jax looked at me. He blinked. “Fiona.”
“Jax?” Her voice seemed less confident now.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “For yesterday. At breakfast.”
A slight pause followed his apology. “I forgive you.”
He drank down her words with a hard swallow. His eyes haunted, he turned back to the monitor.
For fuck’s sake, if he didn’t realize I forgive you was actually I love you, he needed to have his head examined. ASAP.
For the next thirty seconds, I watched the monitor along with everyone else. There wasn’t any space between us and the Stench now. Asher was just lining us up at the air lock.
“Almost there…” he said.
Our cargo unit jolted hard as we rubbed up against the Unholy Stench in a way that wouldn’t have happened if we’d had time to gently drift in. People gasped. The infant wailed now, a raw scraping in my eardrums.
“He’s firing!” Asher’s shout got lost in the rumble of an explosion, the deep roar rolling through the coms. We shook also. Metal grated as we scraped against the ship. Alarms blared on the Stench, shrieking like that kid.
“We’ve got damage! Nic? Mace?”
They both answered Asher’s frantic call. Jax did his best to steer us back into position.
“Stay focused,” Tess said. “Make the vacuum attachment.”
“We’re bleeding crap into space. It’s all over the place!”
“Crap can be replaced,” she snapped. “A hundred and fifty people and your crew and captain can’t. Make. The. Seal, Asher. Now!”
“Yeah. Yeah, I got it.” Asher quieted the alarms and got back to work. He’d have to line us up with precision again. Under pressure, that was hard.
I figured I’d see if I could drag myself a dozen feet and do something useful while our fate hung in the balance. It was a struggle, but I managed to reach the terrified mother who could barely breathe, let alone calm down her child. I sat beside her and held out my arms. She passed the infant over. I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl. It was dressed in brown. I laid its bald head in the crook of my arm and stuck my little finger in the kid’s mouth. The baby looked up at me and sucked. Blessed silence.
“We’re in place,” Asher said. “Nic!”
Tension locked my shoulders. I waited.
“Done!” Nic cried in triumph.
“Go!” Tess shouted. “Don’t wait for us. We’ll meet you on Nickleback.”
The imminent reality of leaving Tess behind sent panic blasting through my chest.
“Everyone sit!” Frank bellowed.
These people didn’t need to be told twice. They sat.
Boom! Bridgebane hit the Stench again. We shook hard along with her. The baby’s eyes widened, but it kept sucking. My heart pounded against my ribs like a professional boxer with a speed bag, punch, punch, punching as fast as it could.
“We can’t take another hit like that. Gotta jump now,” Asher said.
Before I knew it, a yell ripped from my mouth. “Tess!”
“Get ready to take a bullet out of my ass, cupcake.”
“I—” Darkness folded in on me. Hyperspace wrapped her arms around us, and everything went weightless, quiet, and blank. I cradled the baby as my stomach started to writhe and tumble, words I didn’t get to utter lodged tightly behind clenched teeth.
—love you.
Once again, I was too late. The words burned in my throat, and Tess and I were light-years apart already.
Chapter 17
TESS
It was so freaking quiet all of a sudden. The Unholy Stench was gone, taking Shade, Jax, its crew, and that whole cargo hold away with it. They’d detached first from the DWALSH and had taken the brunt of the chase. I would be the focus now. And the Endeavor. We weren’t lined up yet. We still had to make the attachment, and I’d never felt so alone in my life. If it weren’t for the two big blobs near me on the radar, I’d have panicked.
The Endeavor and Dark Watch 12.
Who’d ever have thought I’d find DW 12 looming over me reassuring?
I swallowed, and it tasted like fear in my mouth. “Merrick?”
“Reverse thrusters,” he ordered.
“Brace yourselves!” I shouted. I couldn’t turn to see if anyone listened. If the yells and flops of people on metal were any indication, I didn’t give them enough warning.
My hips rammed into the edge of the console. I gasped, the jolt echoing in my injury. Who the hell gets shot in the ass?
Me, apparently.
Just before we started moving backward, I killed the power to the thrusters and waited for Merrick’s instructions.
“Stay there, Tess,” he said. “I’ll do the maneuvering.”
I lifted my hands from the console. “What’s Bridgebane doing?”
“Sending a lot of threats and warnings.”