“Fight! I don’t care who you were before. I don’t care how old you are. Fight, before there’s nothing left to fight for. Die right here, if you have to. At least you’ll deprive the Overseer of something he needs for his dark doings. This is the battle of every man, woman, and child. This is the battle of our lifetime. Resist! Stand up and say No before your voice is lost—and all others are crushed also.”
The silence was absolute, even from the Endeavor.
Then someone started clapping. “I’m with you, Captain!” a man shouted. More people joined in until it was deafening.
I didn’t want cheering. I wanted commitment.
“DW 12 cleared a path for us. Made it look like an attack that barely missed us. Guy’s a genius,” Merrick said.
“Can we be friends now, darling?” Sanaa asked. “Maybe friends with benefits?”
Merrick grunted. “Jumping in ten…nine…eight…”
“Jumping in eight seconds!” I called out. I had no idea what it would feel like to jump with zero gravity. The thought began to terrify me just as the lights came back on, the systems whirred to life, and a hundred people crashed down, screaming.
I managed to twist in the air and landed mostly on my front, smacking down like a pancake. Pain rang through my body, a hot-cold hammering in my bones. I couldn’t move a muscle and groaned out the bit of air I had left in me. Breathing in again was a struggle. My lungs didn’t want to expand. My ass was killing me.
“Seven…six…five…”
A woman tried to tug her hand out from under my hip, jostling my aching backside. I winced and scooted over. A kid sat on my ponytail, pulling my head tight against the floor. He put his small hand on my forehead and held on with sticky fingers.
Our eyes met. The kid smiled. I smiled back, half grimace.
“Four…three…two…one…”
I closed my eyes. Darkness crashed down on me, both crushing and a huge relief. My bones ached under the pressure, my mind blanked, and I’d never been happier to race headlong into the mysteries of hyperspace.
* * *
“Tess? Tess!” Someone shouted in my ear. I opened my eyes. Lots of people stared at me, but they were all silent. I rubbed my forehead, confused.
Everything flooded back at once. Had I fallen asleep during the jump? Or blacked out? I’d never passed out in my life except due to blood loss—which couldn’t be ruled out right now. I sat up and pain shot through my bottom. My head spun.
“Merrick?” I croaked.
“We’re here,” he told me. “About to touch down on Nickleback. I’ve got eyes on the Stench. She made it but hasn’t landed yet. You all right in there?”
Relief squeezed an abrupt breath from my lungs. “Um…” I looked around. Everyone seemed fine. Rumpled and anxious, but okay. “Yeah. Looking forward to getting out of this box.” It stank in here. And it was starting to feel small. Really small. Where was the door? I wanted out.
A familiar anxiety gripped me, but I didn’t move. I was afraid I wouldn’t be very steady on my feet yet, and people blocked me in every direction. The reality of what we’d done started to sink in. We had about two-hundred-and-fifty escaped prisoners to relocate. We couldn’t bring them to the Fold. That was too many people to trust with the rebellion’s biggest secret. We couldn’t leave them here. Humans hadn’t completely deserted Nickleback, but they would soon. There were giant spiders eating everyone in sight.
The Mooncamps maybe? That was the safest bet, but that just meant more mouths for Raz to feed, and we hadn’t even found him any new food with this totally off-the-rails heist.
Merrick landed. There was no mistaking the soft jolt. The second we touched down and stopped moving, my pulse went haywire, pounding dizziness into my head. I swallowed. A cold sweat broke out. We didn’t leave the Endeavor’s doors open when we docked in places only to air out. We did it because otherwise, I freaked out.
Phantom restraints cinched around my wrists and ankles. I could practically smell the cold antiseptic environment of the Overseer’s basement laboratory and feel the bright glare of the overhead lights in my face. Tension banded tighter and tighter around my chest until breathing felt like a joke.
Not moving. Closed space. Trapped. Get out!
I sprang up and lunged for the door, spots marring my vision. I’d changed the code when I locked myself in here and punched in the simple star pattern that was Jax’s and my backup. If I’d been knocked out—or worse—he would have known the code to open the cargo attachment.
The door slid sideways with a whoosh. Gabe was right in front of me, his smile so big. This is the life! his excited expression screamed at me while I tried to breathe and convince myself I wasn’t a claustrophobic mess. The life we always talked about! We’ve got it, Tess!
I turned away from him, my pulse thundering in my ears. Sanaa was also there, looking like we hadn’t just been to hell and back. Not a glimmer of sweat. Not a hair out of place. A small smile tilting up her lips. She looked fresh and relaxed, as if she’d just come from the spa and not from a space battle that had left at least two holes in my ship.
I gulped down a breath.
Merrick turned the corner, jogging toward us from the bridge. Something rose in me, an emotion I had to beat down hard or risk bawling in front of people who needed to think I was a rock.
A rock could still hug, though, right?
I dodged Gabe and threw myself at Big Guy. He caught me, his body and grip huge and strong enough to make me feel safe. I even stopped worrying about the Endeavor’s doors still being closed right now—probably a good thing, considering the spiders. Merrick rocked me a little. My feet didn’t touch the floor anymore, and I was fine with that. My pulse evened out, and my lungs got back to work. I felt almost normal again when he set me on my feet.
As I stepped back, the look Merrick gave me arrowed straight to my heart. Approving. Affectionate. Almost paternal. The only man who’d ever looked at me that way was Uncle Nate. But unlike my uncle, Merrick hadn’t abandoned me. He’d come back for me when I needed him most.
My throat burned with a thousand tears I wouldn’t let out. I’d just been scared out of my mind, our original plan had exploded in stardust, and my entire body hurt, but everyone was counting on me to pull it together and make decisions for the whole group.
Static crackled in my ear a second before I heard Shade’s voice. “Tess?”
“I’m here! Where are you?” My heartbeat took off like a rocket.
“We just landed. We stayed in orbit until we were sure you guys made it.”
“You’re on the plateau?”