Starcrossed - Bianca D'Arc Page 0,75

her what they had and how to use it. They all looked up when Tigh entered the bridge.

“Thank you all,” he said, overcome by the determination he saw on all of their faces. “I understand there is a recording of the abduction?”

Just like that, they got back to business. The petite ensign everyone called Tiggy motioned Tigh over to her station. She was Ginny’s coms officer, he recalled, and she was sitting at the primary coms board on the Phenix, with his own coms officer backing her up. They had the display screens up and running to show Tigh what Ginny had recorded.

He watched the take down with his jaw clenched. He heard Ginny declare what Xeer had told him—that this was an inside job. Someone—likely more than one person—on the inside had betrayed them. He vowed they would find those responsible and bring them to justice, but first, he had to rescue his mate.

Ginny had been so brave. He was impressed, all over again, at how cool his mate was under fire. She had left the device behind, ordering her people to do all they could to get away or leave clues. At least one more of those human recording devices was out there, with Krysta. He’d heard them discuss it, and Ginny had told her friend to save it for later. But what about the other woman?

“Sally was co-piloting.” Tigh stated. That had been easily seen on the early part of the recording. “Does she also have one of the recording devices?”

Tiggy looked up at him. “We all do,” she answered a bit sheepishly. “Captain told us to keep them with us at all times, just in case, but I can’t guarantee Sally had hers with her today. She should have, but there’s no mention of it on the recording we have.”

“Understood.” Tigh watched the rest of it, his gut twisting in knots to see Ginny tossed into an air car like a sack of grain. “Is there any way to track these devices?”

“Yes,” Tiggy said at once, giving Tigh hope. “Captain said to keep that to ourselves, but I think she meant it for just this sort of situation. If the floater is recording, I can track it, but if it’s in standby, or shielded, there’s no signal for me.”

“This hangar is shielded, so we’d better launch,” Tigh said, already moving toward his command chair. “Start scanning as soon as we’re airborne.”

“Aye, Captain,” Tiggy replied, giving Tigh a little start of surprise. He supposed he was the captain of this ship, but he hadn’t expected the title. Just one more of a dozen new titles he’d never expected to wear.

He talked to the other stations, finding everything in readiness. On his command, they flew through the open hangar doors, using their atmospheric drive. Although this ship was fully capable of traveling in space, it was also small and maneuverable enough to do well near the surface of a planet.

He had wanted to take the ship out for a shakedown cruise—more for him than for the ship, itself. He hadn’t gotten the chance to do so before now, but he would certainly put this little marvel of cutting edge jit’suku technology through its paces today.

“I’ve got a signal!” Tiggy didn’t look up from what she was doing, but her expression was relieved. “Make that two signals. The XO and the navigator’s floaters are both operational and broadcasting.”

“Can we see the feed or is it strictly a homing beacon?” Tigh asked the woman.

“At this range, we can only use it to get closer. Once we’re near enough, I should be able to get enough of the transmission to give us something.” Again, Tiggy focused on her board, but the news was good.

Tigh felt a grim satisfaction go through him. They would at least be able to track the women to their current location. That was a damned good start.

Ginny woke by slow degrees. It was like coming out of a fog, and she realized she must have been drugged into unconsciousness by whatever was in that gas grenade. She only hoped it hadn’t harmed the babies, but she couldn’t really worry about that at the moment. Her first priority had to be getting out of this mess, so she could get to her own doctor and be assured that the babies were okay. She tried to take heart in the fact that she felt all right and her abdomen didn’t give any indication of problems. She hoped it would