and his clothes stained with blood, she panicked. Tears burned her eyes, and she fought off the hysteria that threatened to take hold.
Stop.
Think.
She gulped in a shaky breath and closed her eyes. What do I do? How do I save him?
A thought started to form, and she shoved to her feet. She switched on the navigation panel, sacrificing a small amount of their already meager power to find their location. Their ship appeared on the screen, and her knees went weak as she saw how off-course their hyperdrive jump had been. The missile that had hit their ship must have caused more than only one malfunction. They had jumped too far. That explained why the general power supply had been nearly drained. They had exceeded the range of the hyperdrive fuel cell by a huge amount.
But they were even closer to the Valiant than she had expected. If she could make contact, a rescue dart could reach them in less than two hours. A bigger ship with hyperdrive could reach them in minutes. She glanced down at Terror. If she raided every first aid kit she could find, it was possible she could keep him alive that long.
Maisie jumped into action, shutting down every single part of the ship that wasn’t necessary to sustain them. She considered running an umbilical from the escape pod to the main system but decided against it. If no help came, that pod would be their only chance. There was enough power left in the fuel cell to run the life support systems for five hours. They would have no navigation control, and it was going to get cold because their only heat source would be from the radiation shielding. It would be miserable, but they would survive it.
She flopped onto her backside and untied the knotted laces of the too big boots she had been wearing since the safe house. She tugged the boot off her foot and peeled away the insole to uncover the emergency beacon General Vicious had given her. She thanked every star in the universe that Terror’s best friend had given her the very thing she needed to save their lives.
She pried open the panel where the ship’s transponder was housed. She tugged the identification chip from its slot and threw it aside. She slipped the general’s beacon into the open slot and reset the transponder. She held her breath, waiting for the green light to blink.
When it finally did, she relaxed for a single second and then clambered to her feet. She searched the ship for first aid supplies and carried everything she found to the cockpit. Over the next hour, she worked to start IVs and administer medications to both men. The analog guide wasn’t as helpful as the onboard medical programs would have been, but she made do.
After receiving some fluids, Devious came to for a few minutes and squeezed her hand. “Maisie.”
“Don’t talk,” she urged and smiled reassuringly. “Help is coming.”
“No,” he said, trying to sign. “You have to run. Don’t stay here.”
“I can’t leave you or Terror. You’re both very sick.”
“They’ll kill you on sight.” He grimaced with discomfort. “I couldn’t save Kris. It all went wrong. Everything went wrong.”
“I know,” she said, trying to assuage his guilt. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not.” Devious shuddered with pain. “Nothing that happened to you was ever okay. Your mom, my brother, Randy, Flint,” he listed off the people who should have protected her but didn’t. “Me,” he added angrily. “We all used you. You were just a tool we exploited.”
“Hush,” she said, starting to cry. “Please. It doesn’t matter now. I’m alive. I get to make my own choices now.”
“Go,” he urged. “Flee.”
“No.” She gently touched his hand. “It’s my choice to stay.”
Devious fell unconscious before he could argue with her. Not having the mental bandwidth to handle his rambling confession, she shoved aside his words for another time and got to her feet to check on Terror.
His fever continued to climb, and he started to tremble from the chill in the air. She rolled him onto his side to tuck an emergency blanket under him and then another over him. She had given him a cocktail of medications from the kit that were listed under the poison tab in the medical guide. She could only hope and pray they would work.
Feeling helpless, she sat with her back against the control console and placed Terror’s head in her lap. She combed her fingers through his dark hair and kept