I reacted without thinking, throwing myself into a forward dive. Quasar did the same, and blue bolts of energy flashed over us, crackling and dissipating when they hit the wall ahead.

  “Stun rounds,” she said. “They mean to take us alive.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” I replied.

  “Me neither.”

  The shooting stopped almost as quickly as it started. Keep stood over us, using the glove to absorb the stun energy, the blue bolts warping as they were pulled into the catalyst. That didn’t stop the two Marines who had caught up, though they did stop firing their rifles, reaching instead for their sidearms.

  Keep released the absorbed energy back at them, catching them off-guard. The blue blasts hit them both in the chest, the energy crackling through their armor with enough force to bring them down a few feet behind us. Quasar raced back to them, plucking their rifles out of their frozen hands while they looked on.

  “Whatever happens, tell Nattic we aren’t the bad guys here,” she said. “You’ll figure that out sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.”

  She ran back to Keep and me, passing me the other rifle. Just in time. Another pair of palace guards fired on us from the intersection ahead, using the corner as cover. Keep pulled them both into the open, and Quasar and I hit them with enough stun energy to bypass their armor, freezing them up.

  “We’ve been spotted,” Matt snapped. “A freaking army just poured into the motor pool.”

  “What about the hopper?” I asked.

  “Too close for them to stop us. But how do we get the garage door open?”

  “It should be automated based on identifier,” Keep replied. “It’ll open for you. If it doesn’t, blast it.”

  “With what? I thought starhoppers weren't armed?”

  “Come on, Sherlock. This is the Empress’ personal short-range starship. And you think it isn’t armed?”

  “Right. What was I thinking?” Matt answered.

  We reached the stairwell, pushing through the door. Immediately, stun blasts came up at us, and we barely fell away from them in time to avoid being hit. We had entered recklessly and nearly paid the price.

  Like before, Keep absorbed the initial burst of energy, dispersing it back at the palace guards on the stairs. He only managed to take out one of them as the others ducked behind cover.

  “Not this way,” I said, diving back out into the hallway with Keep and Quasar behind me. The rest of the Marine unit turned the corner as I got to my feet, sidearms ready to fire. I turned my head away and activated the light sigil, creating a flare of bright illumination between us that blinded them, giving us a chance to slip around another corner. “Which way to the underground hangar?” I asked.

  Keep pointed ahead. “Not far, but we’re going to have to take the emergency exit.”

  “What emergency exit?” Quasar asked.

  “I’ve reached the hangar exit,” Alter said. “I haven’t been spotted yet.”

  “We’re coming to you,” Keep said. “Be there in a jiffy. Mattie?”

  “On our way as soon as Druck figures out where the thruster start is. Good thing this ship is armored.”

  “And then some,” Keep said. “It’s the push button on the right, just past the yoke.”

  “I knew that,” Druck said. The whine of thruster ignition came through his comm. “We’re in business. See you soon, sweethearts.”

  “I’m reading a boatload of orbital defense fighters moving in on the palace,” Gia announced. “And it looks like three Royal Sentries are positioning themselves overhead. I don’t think you’re getting out of this one. Maybe you should surrender.”

  “Why the hell would we do that?” Druck answered before anyone else could. “We’re just getting to the good part. I think someone here is looking out for their own hide.”

  “What?” Gia said. “No, that’s not it.”

  I had to admit, her tone was incredibly unconvincing. “Sounds like that’s it to me.”

  “Fine. You know I can’t afford to be caught aiding and abetting you. I’ll lose everything.”

  “Sedaya already tried to kill you once,” I replied. “If he gets what he wants, you’ll still lose everything.”

  “Bennie, we turn right up ahead,” Keep said. “Fifty feet.”

  I looked ahead. “There is no right turn fifty feet ahead.”

  He glanced back at me with a smirk. “There will be.”

  “Gia, if there’s anything else you can do to help us with that neural link of yours, now’s the time,” I said. “If you’d rather take your chances with Sedaya, at least help David get to the hotel roof.”

  “Damn it,” Gia cried. “I never should have gotten involved with you in the first place. What the hell was I thinking?”

  “You were thinking it’s the only reason you’re still alive.”

  “Okay, I’m still with you. We’ll meet you on the roof. Shit. The Empress is going to take my planet for this. My career is over.”

  “Respect,” I said. “You’re doing the right thing.”

  “Here we go,” Keep said, his sleeve glowing.

  The entire building started shaking—at least the part of it closest to us—sending rumbling vibrations through the floor. Keep threw his hand forward like he was punching the wall, and the push blasted away the stone, exploding it outward into the Grand Corridor.

  “Mattie, you need to catch yourself and Quasar,” he announced as we changed direction. The Marines reached the hallway behind us, gunshots screaming past as we broke for the hole.

  I activated my sigiltech ring, eyeballed the number of steps to the edge of the newly created opening, and closed my eyes.

  In my head, I imagined Quasar and I reaching the edge and jumping off, the push from the floor catching us both and subsiding slowly, lowering us almost gently.

  The fear drained from my body as I sensed the energy flowing through the ring. My feet lost the floor, but I didn’t panic. What I saw in my mind’s eye was exactly what would happen.

  I opened my eyes, looking down as we dropped toward the floor, supported by an upward force that made it feel as though we were going down a slide rather than free falling.

  “Woooo!” Quasar shouted beside me, enjoying the ride.

  Keep landed first, turning and pushing the Marines back as they reached the hole. Quasar and I landed on our feet near him, a door out of the palace right in front of us.

  I started toward it until a wave of dizziness overtook me, dropping me to my knees.

  CHAPTER 25

  “Not now,” I whispered, down on my knees and trying to stop my head from spinning. The catalysts felt cold on my fingers, and my hand refused to move. It was like the sigil sickness, but it hadn’t hit my whole body or stopped my breathing. Why? Because I had used only a portion of the power available to me. Either way, I struggled to get back on my feet. To continue moving toward the motor pool exit. “Not now,” I repeated when my legs refused to push me all the way to my feet.

  “Keep!” Quasar shouted, looking back at me and getting his attention.

  “Bennie,” he cried, seeing me down on one knee. “Zar, pick him up.”

  I shifted my eyes, unable to get any words out through the weakness as Quasar scooped me up from the floor and slung me over her shoulder like a sack of grain, leaving me looking down at her ass as she carried me through the door.

  “Stop right there!” a guard shouted, and Quasar pulled to a quick stop. “Drop your weapon.”

  I saw Keep’s feet move, bringing him toward us.

  “You! Halt!” Another voice shouted. “Hands up! Don’t try anything or we shoot.”

  “Okay,” Keep replied, stopping. “You got me.”

  A vibration from the ground ran up Quasar’s legs and small pebbles on the pavement outside the palace started shifting. I knew without being able to see that the shaking came from the underground hangar door sliding open.

  “You’re all—”

  It was all one of the guards managed to get out before falling silent. A thud, his body hitting the pavement, followed. Gunfire rang out, and I would have flinched if I could have. Except it wasn’t aimed at us. A second thud of bodies dropping preceded a third. Quasar shifted, firing her stun rifle over and over. I spotted the reflection of Keep’s sleeve on the pavement, lighting up as he used it against the guards. The glow faded a few seconds later, the threat temporarily neutralized.

  “Thanks for the save,” Keep said to Alter as she joined us near the motor pool door.

  “Let’s move,” she said, the shifting thrum of the starhopper’s thrusters getting louder. Displaced air washed over me, followed by the lighter whine of an extending ramp and the hiss of an opening hatch. Quasar darted forward, rushing up the metal ramp and into the ship, Keep right behind her.

  “Get Bennie strapped in,” he said to Quasar. “Alter, take over for Druck.”

  “Ben,” Matt said, rushing over to me. “Is he okay?”

  “He’s having an episode,” Keep said. “Not sigil sick or he wouldn’t be breathing. I’ll calm him once we’re out of here.“

  “I’m okay,” I croaked out. “Rings.”

  Matt dropped into the seat beside me, taking my hand and tapping on the sigiltech rings to release them from my skin. Almost immediately, a wave of relief passed through me. I tried to exhale, only to find myself coughing roughly, doubling over from the effort. At the same time, the starhopper’s ramp retracted, the hatch closed, and I felt the G-forces despite the counter-inertial tech as Alter launched us away from the palace.

  “I managed to force clearance for the Empress’ ship through orbital control,” Gia said over the comms. “But they’ll figure out it’s been hacked soon enough. And they’ll figure out it came through my servers at some point. David and I are headed for the roof. You’d better pick us up there.”

  “I’ve got you,” Alter replied.

  I stopped coughing, looking down at a bit of blood that had sprayed onto my hand. Glancing at Matt, I knew from his pinched expression he knew as well as I did what it meant..

  “Just hang in there,” he said.

  I released the restraints on the seat. I wanted to get up front to help Alter. The dizziness had subsided, though I still felt sore in the back of my throat.

  “Where are you going?” Keep said, strapped into the seat on the other side of the wide aisle. He thrust his finger toward the rear. “Bathroom’s that way if you need to puke.”

  “Co-pilot,” I said, pulling myself forward.

  “You can barely stand, kid.”

  “Co-pilot,” I repeated, fighting my way to the flight deck. Druck had switched to the co-pilot seat, and he looked at me over his shoulder as I entered.

  “Captain, are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” I replied, though that was only about thirty percent true. “I’ve got it.”

  He didn’t argue, abandoning the seat so I could replace him. I dropped into it and quickly strapped in, looking out of the forward transparency. The starhopper approached the roof of the Galaxian just as Gia and David came out of a service access door. Further in the distance, plenty of flashing lights maintained the perimeter around us, tricked into allowing us to leave. On the holographic sensor display, an incredible number of military ships maintained an ever wider position around us. Whatever Gia had done, she had either managed to convince everyone chasing us that the Empress really was on this ship or that we weren’t the droids they were looking for.

  I lowered my head as the rooftop split in two, my mind still spinning. I didn’t understand what had just happened, other than there was some strange new interplay between my cancer and the catalysts. It brought my mind back to the third component of my situation. Nurse Alter had said my blood was different in ways she couldn’t explain. Was the interaction between mutated cancer cells and the catalyst causing that? Or was it the other way around? Did that have anything to do with my newly discovered control over sigiltech? Or would I gain control over the strength of an action only to be rendered unable to use it without suffering symptoms of both afflictions?

  It was a strange line of thinking considering the situation. Alter dropped the starhopper onto the hotel roof, the sound inside the spacecraft changing as the rear hatch opened to let Gia and David in. On the grid, the configuration of defensive ships around us began to reorganize, the once hesitant orbital control starfighters coming at us in a straight line.

  Whatever Gia had done had bought us about thirty seconds, and was over now.

  “We’re buckled in,” Gia said. “Get us out of here.”

  Alter lifted the starhopper off the rooftop and hit the throttle, shoving me back in my seat as the nimble spacecraft shot up and away from the Galaxian. The aggressive movement seemed like a signal to the ships giving chase. Warning tones blared across the flight deck as missiles launched from the defenders, streaking toward the rising starhopper.

  There was no panic in Alter’s reaction. She tapped on hand and thumb controls on the yoke, sending flares out behind the starhopper as it gained altitude. The projectiles hit the decoys and exploded, leaving us unharmed. For now.

  “We need to get to hyperspace,” Matt said. “And get out of here.”

  “No,” Keep countered. “This ship has limited range. They can send Royal Sentries to every planet we can reach and catch up to us before we can refuel. Not that anyone would be dumb enough to refuel the Empress’ personal ship.”

  “So what are we supposed to do?” Druck asked. “There’s no point running away if we’re just going to get caught again.”

  “Gia, you said Head Case is still on the Sentry that collected her?” Keep asked.

  “That’s right,” she confirmed.

  “Are you crazy?” Quasar said. “How are we supposed to even get into the hangar of a Royal Sentry like this, never mind take a different starship back out?”

  “I’m still working on that part,” Keep admitted. “Alter, just don’t let them destroy us. Gia, link to this ship’s computer and mark the target.”

  “This isn’t going to work,” Gia replied.

  “It has to,” I said, backing Keep up. He was right. There was no going back. If we surrendered, they might not even put us back in prison. They might just kill us outright. I was at peace with that for me, especially following my bloody coughing fit, but not for the rest of the crew.

  “I’m marking the target,” Gia said. “Alter, it’s up to you to get us there.”

  “I will,” she replied, just as she sent the starhopper into a sharp change of direction that yanked me against my restraints. Ion blasts flashed past, missing wide. A quick glance at the grid showed more starfighters coming in from orbit, preparing to drop straight down on our heads.

  She would try, but seeing the sheer volume of defenders moving to stop us I didn’t like the odds. Then again, this was the Empress’ personal starhopper. To underestimate its capabilities would probably be a mistake.

  Alter must have had the same thought, because she didn’t try to maneuver away from the oncoming starfighters. She tapped buttons on the yoke, and one of the screens on the dashboard changed, showing a schematic of the starhopper and the sudden deployment of a bunch of guns all around the vessel.

  “Ben, are you well enough to shoot?” she asked, glancing over at me. “The system sees everything around us as friendly.”

  “Even though they’re shooting at us?” I replied.

  “It’s not a smart system,” she pointed out.

  “Yeah. I’ve got it. But how does it work without augmented reality?”

  She reached over and tapped on the command screen beside the yoke, flipping through menus. A big, red ARE YOU SURE? popped up on the screen. She tapped yes, and a second holographic projection displayed in front of me, with the starhopper in the center and Atlassian defenders all around us.

  “I don’t want to kill them,” I said. “They’re not doing anything wrong.”

  “It’s us or them, Ben,” Alter answered. “Do you want it to be us?”

  “No,” I replied. “But these are ion cannons.”

  “So?”

  “Gia, can you access the power output of the ion cannons?”

  “Let me see. Yes.”

  “Cut it in half.”

  “What are you doing?” Alter asked. “You’ll still disable them. They’ll still crash.”

  “Not before the pilot has a chance to punch out,” I replied. “I’m not killing good people for doing their jobs. Not if I can help it.” It bothered me that she was arguing. I thought we’d come to an agreement on that.

  “Have it your way,” she said. “Select targets by tapping on them on the projections. The targeting computer will figure out the rest. Based on full power weapons, anyway.”

  The grid was filled with enemy ships, but the most important targets were the starfighters bearing down on us. I reached out to select one, my hand disturbed when Alter changed our direction again, throwing me off target. I used my left hand to stabilize my right forearm and tried again, selecting two of the incoming fighters, then choosing two behind us, taking advantage of the ship’s array of guns.

  Ion blasts poured out of the cannons, dimmer than I was accustomed to, their range reduced. As an attack, the blasts were pretty ineffective. But they did force the fighters to take evasive action, helping throw them off as they unleashed an assault of their own. We shook as some of the blasts hit the starhopper’s shields. More powerful than most shield systems on ships this size, they absorbed the blows with ease.

  The starfighters became visible ahead, ion blasts surrounding them as our targeting computer got a bead, sending shot after shot into them. The reduced power and their shields let them survive the barrage, and they barrelled past and slowed to come back around.

  “We could have gotten two of them off our backs there,” Alter commented.

  “Just get us to the Sentry,” I replied.

  We shot toward orbit, the Sentries looming overhead, including our target, marked with a yellow outline. The ion cannons continued firing at the targets I had set, managing to disable one of them while we climbed. A heavy slew of energy poured endlessly toward us from the orbital control starfighters, who practically had us surrounded. Alter navigated expertly, reducing the number of hits against the shields, but we both knew we couldn’t last out here forever. Not with our cannons using half the power, needing twice as many strikes to bypass shields. My desire not to hurt anyone innocent might cost us our escape.