With a quiet pop, Liezl put a hole in the guard's chest. She had no time to register the dead body on the floor, the one she put there, its glowing liquid skin still shimmering. Shoji still did not slow, even to look back for the source of the gunshot, to make sure he didn't have a bullet in his back. He ran the one hundred feet and cut down everything in his path.

  Until he reached the door. And he stopped.

  He turned to stone, rigid, solid, unmoving. The door was a slab of metal with no window, no defining characteristics that set it apart from any other, but he looked at it like it was covered in the most beautiful portrait he'd ever seen, an expression of vivid joy so arresting it made his heart stop.

  He handed Liezl the tracker. He’d clutched it so tightly since removing it from that box that Liezl forgot it was not part of him. He swiped the access card again and opened the door.

  10

  Shoji's face was a rapidly-evolving series of emotions. The stoicism gave way to reluctant hope, which sparked and blossomed into a sudden, hot rush of joy. And then that sucked the oxygen from the room, and Shoji was gasping, panicking.

  Two people were bound and sitting up against the wall. Shoji knew them instantly, but Liezl wouldn't fully recognize them for a very long time, long after they'd spoken their names, and they embraced and drank tea together. Kinsey Pilbauer and Isaac Filmore did not look like themselves at all.

  They were both pale and sickly. Kinsey's hair had lost its color, now mostly white. It was gnarled and stuck to her face. Isaac's head was shaved to the scalp, which was nicked and cut and colored with dried blood. Both were gagged.

  Shoji dropped to his knees in front of them. He removed their gags and pulled them both to him, squeezing their faces to his chest. When they came away, all three were crying.

  Kinsey said, "No," over and over, repeating it like a mantra in her weak voice.

  Shoji said, "Where?"

  Isaac gestured with his chin to a darkened corner of the cell.

  Shoji reached into that darkness and pulled out a teddy bear. A ratty cloth thing, sewn together by bits of shirt gathered from here and there, stuffed with the insides of a mattress. He held that grotesque thing to his chest like it was the only thing in the universe that mattered, like that thing was the reason he crossed the cosmos.

  "Trap," Isaac said, his voice cracked and dry.

  But Shoji didn't release the bear. He made no sign that he felt trapped. Gave no indication that anything other than that bear mattered.

  "Hello," a voice said over the station's comm system. It was sounded as fluid and beautiful as the Baz looked. "I've been waiting a long time for your return, Captain Mora."

  Finally, Shoji lowered the bear, but he kept it in his hand. "It's commander now, actually."

  The voice laughed. "Congratulations. Now, if you don't mind, I would love to host you here on the command deck. We can finally finish our conversation."

  "Sure thing, Warden," Shoji answered.

  "Good," the warden said. "A ride is on its way to you now. I would like all your friends to accompany you as well. I think this talk will go quicker with the appropriate incentives." The soft static cut off, signaling the end of the conversation.

  Shoji stooped down and offered his arm to Kinsey. She groaned as he helped her to her feet. "Help Isaac," he said to Liezl.

  Liezl did so. They all stepped out into the hall. "I feel like I'm missing something."

  "That was the warden," Shoji said. "He oversees all the prison stations in this sector. We have some history."

  A motorized flatbed cart rolled up the hallway and stopped in front of them. Shoji helped Kinsey on, and then did the same for Isaac.

  "And is there a reason we're just doing what he asks?" Liezl said. "Why aren't we running?"

  "Auto-turrets in the walls. The warden will activate them if we run." Shoji pointed to a trunk mounted on the rear of the cart. "Put your gun in there."

  Liezl did as instructed, but she moved like extra weight were on her limbs. As soon as she closed the lid on the trunk, the cart began to move.

  Shoji walked alongside it, cradling the bear in his arm like it was a newborn. He looked down at Kinsey, who had finally stopped muttering. "Told you I'd be back."

  "I knew you would," she whispered through cracked lips, voice broken. She nodded toward Isaac. "He didn't."

  "That is...totally true," Isaac said. "Had my money on you dying before you got off the station."

  "I lived to prove you wrong."

  Impossibly, all three of them smiled.

  Though she'd known each of these people for years now, Liezl felt like she was setting eyes on them for the first time. It wasn't their haggard appearances, or their dimming spirts, but the way they interacted. The same people she had known had broken apart and reformed to create a wholly new unit. The quiet tension that always bubbled under the surface was gone, replaced by a fondness, a warmth that she could only attribute to family. Though they were marching toward death, having only just been released from squalor, they were happy to see each other.

  "Don't worry," Shoji said. "I didn't crisscross the universe just to die back where I started."

  "I know," Kinsey said, no concern in her voice. "You're too stubborn for that."

  Liezl bit down to keep the one question that was screaming in her mind from bursting out her mouth. Where is Beck?

  The cart stopped at a looming bulkhead door.

  Liezl leaned forward and whispered over Shoji's shoulder, trying to keep her concern hidden from Isaac and Kinsey. "Would be nice to know the plan here, Commander."

  Shoji turned from the others, surprising Liezl by mirroring her delicate approach. "No time. Just stay close to them. And be ready."

  The door split down the middle, each half sliding away and disappearing into the wall.

  The command deck of the prison station was smaller than most would expect. Shoji thought he'd taken a wrong turn when he stepped onto one during his earlier escape attempts. He realized later that the bridge didn't need to be any bigger because it didn't need to accommodate many personnel. With the majority of station operations being automated, the monitoring and decisions happened inside the walls.

  The command deck existed primarily as an office for the warden. His desk sat in the middle. A wall of monitors that flashed with scenes from across the station was to the left of that. The walls were adorned with plaques and pictures, ornaments testifying to the ego of the man occupying this space. The room was nothing impressive. The only feature that drew Shoji's attention was the wall of multiglass behind the desk. It stretched the entire length of the room and reached from floor to ceiling. If you stood close enough, you could imagine yourself floating alone outside.

  The man was no different than the room he stood in. The warden tried to cover his unimpressive nature with flash, and failed. The result was a contemptible cutout of every officer Shoji had ever crossed who didn't deserve his position. A man who spent more time trying to convince others of his grandness than he did accomplishing anything.

  "Captain Mora," the warden said. He leaned against the front of his desk, arms out to his side to support his weight. Even his nonchalant posture was forced. "I'm so glad to have you aboard again."

  "It's commander," Liezl said. She clamped her mouth shut, not intending to correct the man who intended to throw them all in a hole for the rest of their lives.

  The warden turned his attention to her. The smile slid like an eel from his liquidy face. In that instant, he showed his true self, the petty tyrant who enjoyed watching others waste away. "You are new. I understand humans require a bucket for their...natural functions. You will be provided our best bucket. I'm nothing if not welcoming."

  "Don't bother." Shoji poked a needle into the warden's balloon, bursting his moment of sadistic pleasure. "We won't be staying."

  The warden chuckled. Another forced gesture. What he wanted to do was wrap his smooth fingers around Shoji's neck and squeeze until everything under the skin popped. "I missed your humor. Though I love my work, it has been lacking those intermittent jolts of laughter." He waved the guards over. "I'm afraid the punishment for attempted escape is quite severe. You and your friends may want to say your farewells now. As for this new one—"

  "Where are they?" Shoji asked.

  The swirling surface of the warden's face stilled, like a pond freezing over. His smile cracked the ice. His eyes drifted to the bear in Shoji's hand. "Malfek expressed personal interest in Dr. Snyder. A rare thing. As for the child..."

  Something inside Shoji snapped. A rubber band stretched too far, finally it ripped and lashed out in all directions. He moved faster than any on the command deck could have expected, giving no time to react. He jabbed the warden in the throat with his natural hand, dropping the bureaucrat to his knees. He launched the harpoon in his metal arm into the chest of one of the guards. Shoji jumped toward the impaled guard, simultaneously firing his thrusters and retracting the harpoon. Using the dead Baz as a shield, Shoji charged the other guards, quickly dispatching them with ruthless efficiency.

  Bright orange blood spilled over the floor.

  Shoji tracked orange boot prints across the deck as he walked back toward the gasping warden. "Don't talk about him. Ever."

  "F-fool." Even struggling to breathe, the Baz's voice was silky. "Malfek has your mate and child. They may as well be in the heart of a star. They are gone to you."

  Shoji grabbed the warden by the neck and lifted him to his feet. "Where are they?"

  The warden's exterior melted completely. He made no attempt to hide himself now. "You think the Commander of the Baz Armada reports his whereabouts to me?"

  Shoji put his wrist-blade to the warden's throat.

  "It won't matter," the warden said, voice shaking despite his attempt at bravado. "Kill me, and you won't walk off this bridge. I locked it down the moment you entered. Touch the door and autoturrets will drop from the ceiling and cut you in half."

  Shoji released his grip on the warden's neck.

  A smile like an eel slithered across the warden's watery face. He rubbed his neck and then straightened his clothes. He was pleased with himself. "You've only been gone a short time. Did you forget who I am so quickly?"

  "I didn't. But there's something about me that you never knew." An uncharacteristic smile appeared on Shoji's face.

  Liezl read the future in it. She positioned herself between the wall of multiglass and Kinsey and Isaac.

  "Because I left it on the other side of the universe," Shoji said. "But I got it back."

  It felt like a bomb detonated in the center of the room. The concussive wave slammed into Liezl's chest, knocking the breath out of her lungs. Shards of glass flew inward as the window exploded and was replaced by a gigantic metal foot.

  The warden was knocked forward and collided with Shoji, who remained rooted like a tree. The warden's eyes moved from Tin Man's foot to Shoji's face, his jaw hanging open, his watery skin stilling to ice.

  "I brought a friend," Shoji said before driving his blade through the warden's neck.

  Tin Man's foot replaced the wall, but it did not form a perfect seal. The breathable air was sucked out through the seams. Shoji pressed a button on his wrist, and the airlock on Tin Man's foot opened. Liezl was already moving, half supporting and half dragging Isaac behind her. Shoji picked up Kinsey and carried her. Once he set her down inside Tin Man, he returned to the warden.

  He sliced off the dead Baz's hand and slapped it down on a biometric scanner on the warden's desk. Shoji deactivated the automated defenses and opened all the prisoner cells.

  He stepped inside Tin Man and uncorked the hole they'd just made.

  11

  Liezl expected the station to go off like a flash bomb behind them as they flew away. She didn't learn until later that Shoji went back to release the prisoners. A hot wave of guilt washed over her when she realized what her assumption meant: that she believed Shoji would have detonated the station with all those people still inside.

  But his face. His eyes. So cold and faraway. The way he ruthlessly killed those Baz guards but seemed so detached while doing so. How he was the opposite when he killed the warden. How he seemed to delight in it.

  She felt guilty for her assumption, but she didn't believe she was wholly wrong in making it.

  Liezl all but dumped Kinsey and Isaac in the engineering compartment once they boarded. She gave Wiggins and Krust no indication as to their responsibility to these new crew members, who looked like they were decomposing, and smelled like it, too. And she said nothing to Isaac and Kinsey as to why they were looking at Jason Wiggins, former CEO and well-known human garbage.

  She hurried to the cockpit, expecting a battle or an explosion, or maybe just spurred by the adrenaline burning through her. But when she burst in, she found only Shoji calmly in his control harness. The teddy bear was propped on the monitors in front of him.

  He didn't jump at her urgency. He didn't bark orders. He gave no indication that they'd just entered the escape phase of a jailbreak. "We're clear," he said. "Go check on the others."

  It felt like a dismissal, but Liezl said, "What about—"

  "Kinsey and Isaac are your priority." His tone was sharp. "We're going to dock with the destroyer. We'll use their med-bay."

  Everything inside her wanted to press for more, but Liezl knew that would lead only to dark stares and grunts. She left the cockpit, hands shaking from adrenaline that now had nowhere to go.

  Kinsey and Isaac had pressed themselves together. They communicated with whispers and micro-movements, years of practice keeping their thoughts hidden from prying eyes and ears. They looked like they'd been moved from one cell to another. Their eyes narrowed on Liezl as she dismissed Wiggins and Krust, ordering them to check levels on the engine and see if they'd sustained any damage from kicking in the side of the prison station. She squatted in front of the former captives.

  "Do you remember me?" Liezl asked.

  Kinsey let out a chuckle, then winced at the pain. "Of course. Just wondering what a bureaucrat, a CEO, and a hostile alien are doing in my ship."

  Krust leaned around, appearing from behind the engine casing. "I'm not a bureaucrat," he said. "I don't know what that is."

  "You're the hostile alien, idiot," Wiggins snapped. "Danbury is the bureaucrat."

  "I don't feel hostile," Krust said.

  Liezl sighed and shook her head. "We're still working on our team building, but they know what they're doing."

  "They better," Kinsey said. "Don't want any amateurs messing with my engine." Her eyelids became heavy and started to droop. The mere act of speaking made her tired enough to fall asleep mid-conversation.

  After an initial spark of concern, Liezl was soothed by the idea that Kinsey no longer felt the need to stay alert and allowed herself to rest.

  Isaac didn't rest so easy. His face was a map of worry lines and tense muscles. It glowed with unasked questions. Liezl was happy to see she wasn't the only one in the dark.

  Liezl sat on the floor and crossed her legs. "Must be weird being back on Tin Man."

  Isaac seemed to chew on the sentiment.

  "I think Tin Man is glad to have you two back."

  Isaac clenched his jaw. "It's just a ship." It was meant to sound dismissive, but Isaac was never able to successfully hide his feelings under his cutting words. The tremble in his voice was painfully clear. Eager to change the subject, Isaac said, "What's surprising is seeing you here."

  "Didn't think I had it in me?"

  "No."

  "Well, Kyle is a real bigwig now, so he was too busy to hop across the universe and take on a hostile empire."

  Isaac leaned his head against the wall behind him. Kinsey slid over and rested her head on his shoulder. He acted as though it was as natural as breathing, like she was an extension of him. He looked up, through the floor. "I didn't think he'd come back."

  "I don't think there's anything that could have stopped him."

  "I know there isn't anything that could have stopped him from trying. I should stop being surprised when he doesn't die."

  Liezl saw the bear again, clutched in Shoji's hand, the first time she felt on the verge of understanding this new man she followed across galaxies. "Beck."

  The name was a jolt to Isaac's already-fried nervous system.

  "Malfek took her?"

  Isaac's chin fell to his chest. "Right after Shoji escaped. I don't know if it was related." He cut himself off. "Of course it was related. Malfek knew Shoji would be coming back. Maybe with the army that repelled the Vhast. He wanted to understand how we were able to do all of the things we've done. They classify humanity as a backwater species."

  "How did Malfek know? That Shoji would come back." After everything they'd been through to get here, after what very little she had seen of this system so far, Liezl couldn't fathom escaping a prison station, flying to that moon alone, and jumping to the other side of the universe, only to turn around and come back.

  Isaac studied her. "You know why."

  She couldn't fathom it because she didn't have what Shoji had. She'd never even considered trying to have what he had. "His family is still here. Beck. And their child."

  Isaac's eyes welled with tears. "Cullen. Their son. He just turned two."

  Liezl felt like she'd just fallen over, though her back went as rigid as a steel rail. "And he... Is he..."

  "Malfek took them both. Wants to use Cullen as leverage, probably. He's been trying to crack Beck since we got here." His face shifted. "How long has that been exactly?"

  "Three years."

  It looked as though someone reached in and switched the power off inside Isaac's head. His eyes unfocused and his facial muscles went slack.

  "Do you know where he took them?" Liezl pulled Isaac back.