she had no idea if her team’s plan was being carried out or if the Druckers had overpowered and captured—or killed—them all. Qin had sent a brief and belated response to her last warning, and that was the last message she’d received.
“I shouldn’t message Bjarke or Qin while it’s possible they’re in battle.” Bonita pushed her floating braid out of the air in front of her face. “It could distract them.”
“Do you want me to message them?” Viggo asked.
“How would that be less of a distraction?”
“I am discreet and circumspect.”
“One of your vacuums is whirring past my ear and up the wall. Non-discreetly.”
“The dust rises when there’s no gravity,” Viggo said. “I discreetly checked in with Casmir earlier. He did not mind.”
“He’s too polite to say anything if he did mind.” Bonita glanced at the long-range scanners. “I wish he and Kim had come along in another ship. My gut tells me this isn’t going well.”
“They are experiencing difficulties of their own. There are far more mercenaries attacking the station than anyone expected.”
“Fantastic. So it’s a crap day for all.”
“My day is thus far adequate.”
A proximity alert went off on the console.
“That has just changed,” Viggo said ominously.
“What now?” Bonita leaned over to check, but she needn’t have bothered.
A massive gray warship similar to the one attached to the Star Mirage appeared on the forward display, so close she could see streaks from the last time someone had washed the hull. She could have almost reached out and touched it.
The ship sailed over the Dragon—lining its airlock up with hers?
Bonita swore and pulled the navigation arm up to her chip. “Is that the second Drucker warship? How did it poof over here?”
“It’s not the second one. It’s a third. With a slydar hull.”
Her swearing turned into a groan as she fired up the thrusters to back the Dragon away. But it was far too late to avoid being captured.
“I believe,” Viggo said cautiously as the hull continued past on the display, “it’s just flying past us.”
“Nobody flies that close unless they’re making a point.”
“It’s possible both are true. If they don’t stop, they’re on course to join the ship attached to the Star Mirage.” A moment later, he added, “Ah. That’s not good.”
“What now?” Bonita curled her fingers around the armrest in her pod.
“The second Drucker ship—the second visible ship—is flying toward the first.”
“Qin and Bjarke and Asger must be attacking it successfully.” Bonita hoped it was a successful attack. “And the Druckers are sending reinforcements.”
“It’s possible that if a third ship is here and camouflaged… the rest of their fleet is also here, and we never knew it.”
The tail end of the ship flew out of view of the display, leaving them looking at stars again. Thanks to the slydar hull, the warship soon disappeared from the scanners, but Viggo was right. The course it had been on was clear. Qin and the others were about to have a lot more trouble.
Bonita commed Queen Dya’s ship—none of the pirates were paying attention to it as it flew away.
“Did you know about this, lady?” Bonita demanded without preamble, then realized Dya was too far away and wouldn’t have seen the hidden ship.
“That the second warship would join the first?” she answered the comm personally. “It seemed likely. Did your friends not anticipate that? I thought I was helping them. Tell Jemadari he owes me.”
“You can tell him yourself if he and everyone else on that ship don’t get obliterated. There’s a third Drucker warship. And maybe a fourth and fifth around here somewhere too.”
“I know nothing of that. I attempted to help you with your goals, because I wished to see certain nefarious parties snubbed. Don’t blame me if you can’t pull off your ambush.”
Dya closed the comm.
Bonita glowered at the console. “With help like that, we’d all be better off sleeping with our enemies than our friends.”
“Another warship is approaching,” Viggo said as the stars on the display were once again blotted out.
A ship almost identical to the last, except with a green hull instead of gray, followed the same path as the last one had.
“There’s Number Four.” Bonita shook her head. “We might as well assume the fifth is here too.”
She sent a warning to Bjarke. Even if it would distract him, she had to risk it. He needed to know about this. They all did.
How they would deal with so many ships, she didn’t know, but maybe if her friends succeeded in capturing the first from within,