The red com button flashed again, and then Bridgebane’s voice came through to the Endeavor’s bridge like he was sitting right there. “We see you have three cargo holds and a vacuum attachment that looks like the lab that was recently stolen from the Lyronium System. Prepare your starboard port for a boarding party. Any lack of cooperation on your part will be taken as hostility, and we will not hesitate to fire to recover the lab by force.”
The communication went dead, and my heart slammed so hard against my ribs it left me short of breath. I leaped out of my chair and searched the upper, lower, and side windows. No Dark Watch 12 in sight. Bridgebane must have been hovering behind my ship—and looking straight at the stolen lab.
“Jax! Power up with what we’ve got. And tell Miko her jump range the second you know it,” I ordered.
“It won’t do any good.” Jax started flipping the necessary switches anyway. “They’ll just follow us and start shooting.”
I glanced out the windows again and then pressed my lips together, trying to hold back what was probably the worst decision of my life. “Then jump us closer to the Widow.”
“What?” Miko squeaked. “We’ll get sucked in.”
“Well don’t jump us that close!” I kicked the lock on my chair and then shoved the whole seat back and out of my way. I didn’t plan on sitting down again while taking four other lives into my hands and also protecting the vaccines that could save thousands of people from the diseases that still ran rampant in the galaxy’s civilian populations.
I watched to confirm that Miko’s hand was flying over the navigation controls before I punched my own hand down on the yellow internal communications button. “Shiori! Get to the bridge. Fiona! You too! Do not stop to collect your plants. This is an emergency.”
I swung my eyes back to Jax, nerves riding my spine like an icy comet. “Tell us when we’ve got the juice.”
“We’re good to go,” he answered. “At least to Miko’s new coordinates.”
I nodded. Now we waited for the other two. Usually, I’d just tell them to brace themselves for a jump, but right now, with the Dark Watch threatening to fire on our back end, I wanted everyone up on the bridge.
Every second lasted an eternity with the warship DW 12 and Captain Bridgebane breathing down the Endeavor’s comparatively minuscule neck. I stood there. I didn’t shake. I didn’t move. My head felt numb. But I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. Not in fear, although there was plenty of that, too. No, it was rage boiling in my chest.
Shiori finally rushed through the bridge doors first, her fingers gliding along the wall. Miko ran to her grandmother, took her by the hand, and then quickly guided the older woman toward my abandoned chair. With her good arm, Miko practically threw the tiny Shiori into my captain’s seat, strapped her in, and then locked the chair back down again, not leaving me much room at my console.
Miko raced back to her navigation controls. Shiori blindly reached out to me.
“I think I got us into big trouble,” I said, taking her fragile hand.
Her skin felt paper-thin, and the veins stood out, but Shiori squeezed my fingers with surprising strength. “We’ve been ghosts for five years already, child. You gave us many more days.”
The heat of unwanted emotion climbed up my throat just as my console flashed with new information. Incoming cruiser—starboard side. 200 meters.
I shot a look at Jax. “We can’t wait.” Fiona was going to have to deal with taking a fall.
He nodded, and I grabbed the edge of my console for balance.
“Go!” I cried.
Jaxon hit the small, round button that had saved our lives too many times to count, and everything went dark and weightless as the Endeavor shot through space. My bones seemed to crunch and shudder and then bounce back to normal again as the ship slowed practically before it got moving. That was the shortest jump of my life.
I shook my head to clear it and then studied the view outside the bridge’s windows again.
Mighty Powers that Be… The Black Widow was all I could see.
“You’re certifiable, Tess,” Jax murmured.
Yeah. I kind of had to agree.
I swallowed hard. “They won’t follow.”
The com blared like that awful prison whistle again, sending through Bridgebane’s clipped voice. “Captain Bailey, you are now under military arrest. Jump again and all crew members on board the Endeavor will be deprived of a trial. Our boarding cruiser jumped after you, and DW 12 followed. Prepare for entry on your starboard side.”
I cursed. How could I have forgotten that Bridgebane was as ballsy as I was?
Fiona burst onto the bridge, spitting mad. She was barefoot and wearing leggings and a tank top, which probably meant she’d been in a hazmat jumpsuit a few minutes earlier and had needed to get out of it before leaving her secure lab. No wonder she hadn’t shown up in time for the jump. At least she’d listened to me and hadn’t stopped to collect her specimens. The botanist had her priorities, and they were plants.
“What the hell is going on?” Fiona demanded. “I just cracked my head on the wall when you jumped without even telling me to brace myself. And I swear, I’m this close to finding a cure for Shiori’s blindness. Those vaccines are full of good stuff—like superpower stuff.”
“Those vaccines just got us followed practically into the mouth of a black hole,” I said, sweeping my hand at the bridge windows.
Fiona looked around, and her eyes widened. “Holy shit!” She stumbled back. “Are you crazy?”
I gave a small shrug. “The Dark Watch was breathing down our necks.”
“The Dark Watch is always breathing down our necks!”
“Yeah. Well this time, they’re trying to board us as we speak, and a warship got close enough to get visual confirmation on the stolen lab.”
“So jump the hell out of 14!” Fiona cried.
“We can’t. The Endeavor’s power is too low to do anything other than play cat and mouse around the Sector until we completely run out of juice.”
Fiona snapped her mouth shut.
“And then they’ll either board the ship or blow us up,” Jax said. “Either way, we’re toast.”
I caught Shiori’s serene expression out of the corner of my eye as I swiped my overlong bangs back. Shiori was always asking me to meditate with her and Miko, but I never wanted to sit still. Maybe I should have. She looked a lot calmer than I felt.
The Endeavor jolted from the hard bang of Dark Watch 12’s boarding cruiser latching on with a vacuum seal. Obviously, we hadn’t opened the port.
“Starboard side has our most solid door,” Miko said. “It’ll take them a while to break through.”
I nodded. But break through they would. They had all the tools.
“I don’t get it,” I muttered out loud. The intensity of this chase was baffling. Vaccines were important, yes, but it was as if these ones were liquid gold.
I turned back to Fiona. “Has the big guy said anything about the vaccines?” He hadn’t threatened the crew in any way after we’d carted him off by accident along with the floating lab. He hadn’t tried to reach the bridge. He hadn’t even asked for food or water or a freaking loo in the three days we’d had him, or complained about the near-constant jumps. I’d offered him the basics more than once, but he never took me up on anything. He was big, quiet, and stoic in the extreme. I liked him. And I’d better go get him.