“At least they’d have to find the Fold first,” I said, more as self-reassurance than anything else. Spinning words to allay my guilt didn’t make them any less true. In terms of protection, the Fold’s cloaked appearance and shifting whereabouts were almost as effective defenses as massive pain and possible death.
I glanced at Shade. He did not look good. Neither did Fiona, but neither was quite as bad as I would have thought. After the initial shock, they’d turned white-knuckled and started groaning through gritted teeth, their eyes squeezed shut against some kind of awful compression that remained a mystery to me. Jax, who’d done this dozens of times, was in worse shape, still contorting in terrible pain and uttering noises that I’d never tell him about.
In the body, red blood cells lasted about four months, while white blood cells only lived for a few weeks. Were Shade and Fiona benefitting from my immunity, even to this sickness, but to a far lesser extent? The dose I’d dripped into their wounds had been much larger than the small injection both Jax and Fiona had gotten at the orphanage. And my blood was still fresh and alive inside them, not needing whatever was in the serum to make the benefits last.
The gravitational warp spat us out on the other side of whatever the hell that really was—and into wherever the hell we really were now. The shouting and moaning abruptly stopped.
“What…was that?” Shade asked, his breaths still heaving. He looked pretty freaked out. First-timer and all that.
The Fold defied explanation, and a long time ago, I’d decided to just go with it. I gave him a reassuring smile. He’d have to get used to it—assuming he stayed.
My stomach sank with a feeling I didn’t want to analyze. He and I probably needed to have a talk one of these days.
Steering was more important right now, and the Fold was as packed as ever, with ships zooming all over the place. The main structures spread out in an ever-expanding, floating strip of metal and lights—a dozen immense spacedocks, all connected, all busy like a hive, and all powered by the big, bright stars of the Tarrah System. For the moment, at least.
I flew us toward the towering constructions, avoiding the heaviest traffic by taking a lower approach. The buildings didn’t orbit anything. They just hung there, the Fold’s own gravity holding them in place and taking them wherever the concealed pocket went. The Fold didn’t have borders. It simply fit whatever was in it at the time, and I wondered what in the past it had sheltered, and what in the future, when we were all dead and dust, it would decide to protect.
I almost felt sorry for all the millions of people who didn’t even know it existed. It was like a living thing, a hidden treasure, and part of me was absolutely certain it held the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe.
But that was for someone else to discover.
I gave our identity to the technicians on the first docking area with a vacancy indicator above its plasma-shielded platforms. The series of passwords I had was slightly out of date, and the guards got twitchy until Fiona figured out that the head technician was her friend Macey’s cousin, and she knew him. He sent us on to a better dock, closer to the center of the Fold’s structures.
I zipped off before he could change his mind, since an inner dock would significantly cut down the walk when I had to approach the rebel leaders about the serum. I couldn’t wait to get rid of that stuff.
At the same time, the thought of people using it also made me feel sick.
Ignoring the churning that kept bubbling through my gut, I manually guided us through the shield pressurizing the platform we’d been assigned to and then slowly flew us toward the back wall where we could plug in. The docks here were too closed in for a natural recharge, so we had to rely on stocked energy from the solar panels on the Fold’s main constructions to boost our power levels back up.
The moment the Endeavor was docked, I shut down the propulsion system and sagged in my chair. I hadn’t slept in more than fits and starts for days. I hadn’t showered since…
I grimaced. A lot had happened since then.
But we were safe. I could breathe again. I could mourn Miko, knowing her body had