.
The soldier’s hand lifted, reaching for the helmet, trembling as it moved upward.
Andi leaned forward and removed the helmet herself, wondering why she was doing it, even as the soldier’s face was revealed.
“Help me,” the soldier gasped, this time not through a com, but through bloodied lips.
A young woman with eyes the color of a clear sky. Her skin was an ashen gray instead of its usual ocean blue, and pain filled her eyes as she stared up at Andi, breathing her last few breaths.
“Lira,” Andi whispered. “What are you doing here?” The shock faded, giving way to horror as she stared at Lira’s rapidly paling face. Andi gathered her friend’s fallen body into her arms, choking on a sob. “I’m so sorry, Lira. I can stop this. I can fix you.”
But the blood was pooling out of Lira’s lips now.
“Come closer,” Lira whispered. Her chest rattled, heaved, as she sucked in a breath.
Andi bent down, agony shredding her heart. How had she done this? How had she not known her best friend was inside that uniform?
She felt Lira’s wet lips touch her cheek as she spoke again. “You killed me. You killed us all.”
Then Lira began to laugh. A sickening, howling laugh that struck Andi deep, rattling her bones. She skittered backward, away from her friend’s dying body. Her head spun as she turned, realizing Lira’s laughter had multiplied.
The fallen Xen Pterran soldiers were gone.
In their place, it was her crew who lay dying.
Gilly, with braids the color of fire.
Breck, her beautiful dark skin now coated with blood.
Lira, those sky-blue eyes growing empty and cold.
All of them, barely alive and bleeding out.
“No,” Andi said, nearly choking on the word. “No, this can’t be happening.”
She lifted her hand, realizing she was gripping the dagger again. It was wet with their blood, and yet she didn’t remember any of the hideous act. Andi’s body felt a million miles away, her mind screaming at her to make sense of the scene. To change it.
“Very good, Androma,” a woman’s voice said from behind her. “Now bow to me, before you become like the rest of them.”
Andi turned slowly, her heart filling with dread. For she knew that voice, and the monster who possessed it.
Queen Nor Solis, the leader of the Olen System, stood in the cargo bay of the Marauder. Valen hovered beside her, both of them smiling like demons released from the mouth of hell.
“I will never bow to you,” Andi seethed.
Then her crew members stood, dead no more. They moved to flank the queen, expressions of adoration on each of their faces. And seeing her girls at Nor’s command, like a pack of smiling wolves...
The sight brought Andi to her knees.
She’d lost them.
She’d failed them.
And now she would die.
* * *
Andi woke with a start.
The horrors of her dream were vanquished as a new nightmare materialized before her bleary eyes. Red lights flashed in the doorway to her quarters, in unison with the blaring sirens that resonated across the ship. Confusion racked her brain until realization came rushing inward.
She’d fallen asleep studying a map of Solera, Lon and Dex in charge of charting their course...
Something was very wrong.
Andi leaped up from her cot and ran into the main corridor. With each step, the clamor of the alarms felt as if it was vibrating in her bones. Her tired muscles screamed as she hoisted herself up the ladder, almost running into Lon as she scrambled onto the landing. He was kneeling on the ground before the door to the bridge, twiddling with wires.
“What’s going on?” she demanded.
“The ship is going into meltdown,” he told her. “I don’t know why. But everything is shutting down, including the doors. I can’t seem to get them open.” He dropped the two multicolored wires in a huff.
“Where the hell is Dex?”
Lon helplessly held out his hands, and Andi let out a growl of frustration. “Move aside, unless you want to land your ass in the med bay.” Lon hurriedly backed away as Andi pulled Gilly’s double-triggered gun from her belt and fired the stunner at the door’s scanner in a hail of sparks and smoke.
The door teetered on its hinges for a moment before falling inward with a rattling bang.
“There, it’s open.”
Lon whistled as he looked at the gun. “That thing is awesome.”
Andi rolled her eyes and rushed inside.
The control panel on the dash was going haywire. Holographic blueprints drifted across the console, lighting up many areas of the ship in flashing red. Too many.
“Memory?” Andi called out as she slid into Lira’s pilot seat. “Run a diagnostics scan.”
Memory’s voice crackled over the ship-wide com, weakening with each word. “Fuel leak in the engine room. Oxygen levels at thirty-four percent and dropping.”
Both of which were their lifelines—though by the looks of it, neither would be viable for much longer, at the rate they were dropping.
“Well, that’s just great,” Andi said sarcastically. She wished, desperately, that Breck was here. Her head gunner knew the ins and outs of the Marauder’s mechanical room like the back of her hand, and while she couldn’t always fix the problem, Andi knew she could’ve at least bought them more time.
But she wasn’t here. And any attempts they made to fix whatever was wrong would waste time they didn’t have.
“What the hell is going on?” Dex cursed as he came running through the door, Havoc hot on his heels. The creature leaped for his legs, but Dex kicked it off.
“Easy!” Lon shouted, reaching out his arms as Havoc yowled and barreled into them, horns just visible beneath his layers of fuzzy orange.
“The damned thing is trying to kill me before the ship does!” Dex snapped.
“Took you long enough to get here,” Andi said, sending him an annoyed look.
“I was having a great dream.” He came up next to her and nudged her shoulder. “You were in it, actually—”
Andi cut him off. “Spare me the details.”
Dex glanced at the floating blueprints. “Well, this looks bad,” he said, stating the obvious.
Lon stepped up to the console, Havoc cradled in one arm as he entered in a code that blessedly turned off the alarm. He’d learned a lot in his time on the ship. Lira would have been proud.
He turned back to Andi and Dex. “I know we wanted to have a better plan before jumping to Solera, but I don’t think time is something we have anymore.”
“Do we have enough fuel to make the jump to hyperspace?” Dex shifted his gaze to the fuel gauge, which was running dangerously low. The control panel still blinked a furious red.
Lon