fingers with surprising strength. “We’ve been ghosts for five years already, child. You gave us many more days.”
The heat of unwanted emotion crawled up my throat just as my console delivered new information with a warning signal. Incoming cruiser—starboard side. 200 meters.
I glanced 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.
Jax hit the small, round button that had saved our lives countless times, and everything went dark and weightless as the Endeavor shot through space. My bones seemed to crunch and shudder and then pop back to normal again as the ship slowed almost immediately. 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 outside com blared like that awful prison whistle again, sending through Bridgebane’s now-furious voice. “Captain Bailey, you are 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 would do anything for the Overseer?
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 only a few moments earlier. If she’d had to get out of it before leaving her secure experimentation lab, it was 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. Botanists got really attached to their plants.
“What the hell is going on?” Fiona stalked toward me, her high, dark ponytail swinging angrily as she walked. “I just cracked my head on the wall when you dragged me out of my lab and then jumped without even telling me to brace myself. And just when I was getting close to making a breakthrough with those new cure-alls, too. I’m even wondering if they can cure Shiori’s blindness. They’re full of good stuff—like, superpower stuff.”
“Those vaccines just got us followed practically into the mouth of a black hole,” I said, motioning toward the bridge windows.
Fiona looked around, and her eyes widened at the sight of so much absolute darkness.
“Holy shit!” She gaped at me. “Are you crazy?”
I gave a small shrug. “The Dark Watch was breathing down our neck.”
“The Dark Watch is always breathing down our neck!”
“Yeah. Well, this time, they’re trying to board the Endeavor 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. We’ve been leaping almost nonstop for three days, and 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, her usual space-rat pallor taking an abrupt dive toward ashen.
“And then they’ll either board the ship or blow us up,” Jax added solemnly. “Either way, we’re toast.”
I caught Shiori’s serene expression out of the corner of my eye as I nervously tucked my bangs behind my ear. 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 the military was acting as though this particular batch 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 complained about the near-constant jumps. He hadn’t so much as asked for food or water or a freaking loo in the three days we’d had him. I’d