“Yeah, that sounds like our Ben,” Matt answered, dodging a series of plasma bolts as a pair of PD fighters strafed across the flank. Sharp tones echoed across the flight deck, indicating one of the shield nodes had overloaded with the hits. “Damn it. Bad time to be frozen. I’m getting killed here.”

  “Get us to orbit asap,” I said, my voice getting stronger with each passing second. “Fly straight if you have to. The shields can handle it.”

  I caught sight of Emerald out of the corner of my eye as she reached the sofa. She had stopped in the kitchen to have Asshole make her a bag of popcorn. “What did I miss?” she asked, tossing a kernel in her mouth.

  “We’re still alive,” Quasar replied.

  “So, nothing exciting.” She squeezed between Zar and me to sit on the couch. “Popcorn?” she asked, leaning the bag toward me.

  “I can’t move my arms,” I replied.

  “I can put some in your mouth.” She stuck a couple kernels against my lips. I didn’t really want it, but I knew that popcorn was better than nothing. It might help me recover more quickly. I pulled it in with my teeth and ate it. “Good, right?” she asked as she kept feeding me the popped kernels.

  “Hold on!” Matt shouted, pegging the stick forward. Instead of climbing, we dove toward the trailing PD starfighters, forcing them to peel away as the ship rocketed through their midst.

  Emerald’s popcorn flew out of the bag in response to the maneuver, spilling all over Quasar and me. “Oops,” she said.

  “Matt, you’re going the wrong way,” I complained.

  “Who’s driving?” he snapped back, still in a sharp dive. “You just said I had this.”

  “I also said to go up, not down.”

  “Too bad.” He threw Head Case into a corkscrew, spiraling down toward North Lapul at breakneck speed. The PD starfighters regrouped and chased after him, joined by the new squadron bolting in from orbit. Eighteen starfighters trailed us, their energy blasts visible through the forward transparency as they zipped past, missing their target. Leo shouted with joy every time he took out an incoming missile, and there were more than a few.

  The city rose quickly toward us, the high towers of Mushari technical like spears aimed our way. We were coming in too hot. There would be no way to avoid crashing into a building at this speed, disintegrating Head Case, destroying the impact site, and killing thousands. I wanted to scream at Matt to pull up and slow down, but I knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t listen. The only good news was that the proximity to the city had forced PD to stop shooting, giving us a breather from their constant barrage.

  “Hey Ben, do you remember all those times we went out driving and I practiced drifting and powersliding?” he asked, keeping his eyes out the forward transparency.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “This is a spaceship, not a car. There’s nowhere to drift to except into the ground.”

  “That’s not really my point. The point is, those moves are about the right amount of power at the right time.”

  “So?”

  He didn’t answer right away. Head Case screamed past the upper floors of the Mushari building, with no way to come out of it before colliding with the street.

  “I think I just peed a little,” Emerald said, laughing. “We’re all going to die!”

  Without warning, Matt hit the retrorockets and pulled back the stick. But that wasn’t all. He nimbly moved two fingers from the throttle to activate the anti-gravity controls and quickly pump them to full. The ship shuddered hard from the effort as the ship leveled and then overcorrected, the change in force pinning us down hard on the couch. I thought Matt would open the mains again, but he held them back as proximity warnings screamed from the speakers, switching over to a collision warning as the lower floors of North Lapul’s buildings came into view. The deep whining rumble of the ship sent shockwaves through the air, shattering windows on the ground as we neared them. The airframe creaked and groaned, threatening to give in to the pressure, the horrible popping inside the ship warning that it was about to come apart at the seams.

  A quick flick of the wrist leveled out Head Case. The next thing I knew we were skimming over the tops of the vehicles along North Lapul’s main thoroughfare, riding the anti-gravity wave like a surfboard. Matt did open the mains then, sending us bursting forward at even greater speed, powering through the city in a matter of seconds. The maneuver, and the speed we’d gained from it, gave us additional distance from the surprised PD starfighter pilots. They had slowed to circle the area, no doubt expecting us to bury ourselves downtown.

  Too bad was right. Too bad on them for underestimating Matt. And shame on me for not trusting him the entire time. Having built an abundance of speed, he angled Head Case's face skyward and we resumed our reach for the stars, streaking upward with a fresh wind in our proverbial sails. PD tried to recover, their starfighters regrouping and resuming the chase. They launched nearly a dozen additional missiles, all but one of which Leo somehow managed to shoot down. The last one hit the rear shield node and detonated, giving us a little more of a push upward but otherwise failing to penetrate our defenses. We continued climbing, the starfighters falling further and further behind.

  “How the hell did you do that?” Emerald cried in awe. “That was amazing!”

  “Druck used to tell me he knew a pilot who always swore anti-gravity could be used like a springboard,” Matt replied. “The pilot said the math checked out, but he was too chicken shit to try it himself because if it didn’t work he’d end up a stain on the landscape. Now we know for sure. It works.”

  “You could have killed us all,” I said, nearly left speechless by his response. The maneuver had been more than risky. It was suicidal.

  “But I didn’t,” he answered, looking back at me. “And we both know there was no other way out.”

  I shook my head, unable to be too angry with him. He was right. Against all odds, we’d made it past the next layer of Planetary Defense. “That was truly awesome flying, Matt. But we haven’t escaped yet.” I pointed to the sensor grid. The Royal Sentry that had remained in orbit was moving on an intercept course, and I had no doubt starfighters would start launching from the huge ship at any moment.

  “They won’t be a problem,” Matt said. “Just like before. We shrink down, sneak past, and scale back up just in time to go to hyperspace. Badabing badaboom!”

  “Don’t start,” I laughed, starting to relax after the harrowing escape. I didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but he was right. We had gotten in past the Sentry. We could get out the same way.

  “Popcorn?” Emerald asked, holding another piece near my lips. I found I was able to move my head a little now, and I snatched it from her fingertips with my teeth, drawing a laugh. She picked up a few more kernels from my lap and shoved them in her mouth.

  As expected, starfighters began streaming out of the Royal Sentry, quickly changing course and vectoring in our direction. Head Case reached the upper atmosphere, remaining on a direct path toward the Royal Guard ships.

  “Don’t wait until the last minute,” I said, watching the next line of defense drawing closer.

  “Stop backseat flying,” Matt replied. “Scaling down in three. Two. One.”

  He reached up to move the slider only he could see. It was always hard to tell from inside the ship if anything happened, especially at a distance from a point of reference, but I didn’t notice that anything had changed at all.

  “Shit,” he cursed, reaching up and moving the slider again. “What the hell? Leo?”

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “The scale action isn’t working,” he replied.

  “That’s impossible. Sigils don’t just break.”

  “Impossible or not, it isn’t working.”

  The Royal Guard starfighters were getting close and would be in firing range within seconds.

  “Leo, are you trying it?” I asked.

  “Hold on,” he said, mimicking Matt’s maneuver. “It’s not functional, Captain.”

  “Shit!” Matt shouted more loudly. “What could have happened?”

  “It doesn’t matter what happened to it,” I growled. “We need to get past those incoming ships.”

  “We barely made it past twelve PD starfighters,” Matt cried. “How are we going to get past thirty, plus a Royal Sentry?”

  “I don’t know. You’re the MarioKart expert. You don’t have a blue shell up your ass, do you?”

  “Right now, I kind of wish I did.”

  I stared out of the forward transparency, able to see the Royal Sentry clearly in the distance, the starfighters like freckles in the darkness. We’d been in a hole before, but I really couldn’t think of any way out of this one.

  “We can try to blast our way through,” Emerald suggested. “Keep a solid line of cover fire going and hope it’s enough.”

  “No,” I replied. “That would mean shooting at the Royal Guard.”

  “So? What have they done for us lately? They’re taking orders from the enemy.”

  “But they don’t know it,” Quasar argued. “We’d have to kill good men and women so we could survive.”

  “I might be okay with that.”

  “I’m not,” I said.

  “Ben, you know what will happen to the Hegemony if Sedaya gets his way. Not to mention, we’ll all die.”

  “I understand we’re trying to stop something much worse than shooting down a few starfighters from happening. But at what price, Em? Do we beat Sedaya by turning into him? Do we justify sacrificing our morals and ideals because we might be able to stop a war? I don’t want innocent blood on my hands. We have to be the good guys, which means we can’t kill other good guys, no matter the cost.”

  “I agree,” Quasar said.

  “Me too,” Shaq buzzed.

  Emerald shrugged. “It was just a suggestion.”

  Still searching for an answer, I looked down at my paralyzed hand. My veins had a slight blue glow, the chaos energy returning as I digested my earlier meal. “I’ve got a little juice back,” I said. “I might be able to shield us long enough to punch through.”

  “You’ll die,” Quasar said.

  “Maybe, but at least it would only be me. I’ve been living on borrowed time since Omega Station anyway.”

  “No,” Matt said. “There has to be another way.”

  “I’m open to suggestions, but we’re almost out of time. Leo, prep a hyperspace jump. We need to be ready to go when we reach the other side of that ship.”

  “Aye aye, Captain,” he replied. “Where to?”

  “Anywhere but here. Make it a short jump. Radiance should be out of hyperspace by now and I want to check on Dryka and Keep.”

  “Aye aye.”

  Tense silence fell over the flight deck. We had run out of viable options. It was the only chance we had left. I activated the construct, wincing in pain as chaos energy spread across it. I was too weak to do this. But I had to try.

  I closed my eyes, visualizing a net of reflect around the entirety of Head Case, preparing the action in my mind before executing it in the real world. Just the thought of using the sigil made me dizzy, the pain in my chest nearly unbearable. I didn’t cry out, refusing to let the others see. If they did, they would try to stop me.

  I opened my eyes, prepared to die to save my crew.

  Before I could, a new starship appeared on the sensors, nearly as large as the Royal Sentry in front of us. Its dark black shape blotted out the stars behind the Sentry, my heart skipping a beat in response.

  Dominator.

  Lyke had come for me after all. Had Legrond come too and arranged it or had Lyke learned of our location from Sedaya or Blorb? Either way, she had arrived just in time to put the final nail in our coffin and guarantee that there would be no escape. Wrapping Head Case in reflect might be good enough to break through the Royal Guard’s defenses. It wouldn’t be enough against the sigilship. There was no point in even bothering.

  “Damn it,” Matt said. “Not now.”

  “I can’t get a final course, Captain,” Leo said. “Not with so much traffic nearby.”

  “I know,” I replied morosely. “That’s why we needed to get past them.” I waited for Lyke to hail us. She seemed to like to brag.

  “Captain,” Leo said. “The sensors are getting a strange reading from Dom—”

  He went silent as a bright flash filled the transparency. It only lasted a few seconds, but when it faded, the Royal Sentry was in pieces, looking as though it had been ripped apart by a gorathi’s claws.

  “Oh my—” Emerald said before falling silent with terror.

  Staring in shocked silence, we watched as dozens of light spears shot out from Dominator’s hull, each of them enveloping a Royal Guard starfighter in the same bright balls of light, tearing it apart when the energy dissipated.

  “I’ve got a path through,” Matt shouted. “Hold on!” He punched the throttle all the way open. Head Case and Starbright’s thrusters launched us forward, shoving everyone hard into their seats. One second passed. Two seconds. I kept my eyes on Dominator, waiting for the light spear that would tear our ship apart. Three seconds. Four. We hit the debris field from the starfighters, the small fragments of what remained destroyed or deflected by our shields. Five seconds. Six. Why hadn’t Lyke hailed us already? Why the radio silence?

  Why were we still alive?

  Seven seconds. Eight.

  “Captain, I have a hyperspace route,” Leo announced.

  Nine seconds.

  “What are you telling me for? Get us the hell out of here!”

  Ten seconds. Leo executed the jump. It took three more seconds for the hyperspace field to form around us. Thirteen total seconds during which Lyke could have destroyed us at will, but didn’t.

  And then we were gone.

  CHAPTER 31

  We didn’t stay in hyperspace long. After two minutes, the universe shifted back into focus, Head Case coming out of the field still moving at speed. With nothing around us but empty space, there was no reason to decelerate. Nevertheless, Matt fired the retro thrusters, slowly killing our momentum. With that done, he gave Leo the stick, threw off his helmet, unstrapped himself from the seat, and practically vaulted over it to get to me.

  “Ben,” he said, the worry obvious on his face as he knelt in front of me where I sprawled on the sofa. “Shit. You’re crazy, you know that?”

  “I’m not crazy,” I replied. “I just wasn’t going to let Quasar die. Besides, the feeling is coming back in my extremities. Slowly.” I could move my head and neck again, and I could wiggle one of my big toes. It was a start.

  “I’m just glad you made it out of there alive.” He squeezed my knee hard enough for me to feel it. "I just wish you'd quit taking such huge chances. One of these days—"

  “I’m glad you got us away from Bushara alive.” I interrupted, not wanting to hear what he was about to say. It wasn't something I didn't already realize, but it was something I didn't want to let myself overthink.

  Matt stood up. The look on his face said he still wasn't happy with me, but I was glad when he let it go. “I didn’t do that. Admiral Lyke saved our butts.”

  “Which I don’t even pretend to understand. The only way it makes sense to me is that she’s working with Succaath instead of Sedaya. But if she is, why doesn’t she just say so?”

  “Maybe the rest of her crew doesn’t know that,” Emerald suggested. “So she has to make it look like she’s working for Sedaya. Or maybe…" She smiled demurely at me."...she just thinks you’re too cute to kill.”

  “I don’t think that’s it,” Matt growled. “Too ugly to die, maybe.”

  “I’m more worried about that sigil she used,” Quasar said. “Is that one in the Grimoire? Because it was nasty.”

  I slowly shook my head. “I don’t remember that one in the Grimoire. But Legrond said David had cooked up some pretty sick sigils. I bet that was one of them. I don’t even know what to call it.”

  “It might have been a combination,” Leo offered. “She hit so many of the ships at once. Is multiply a sigil?”

  “That sigil was in the Grimoire,” I said, nodding. “I don’t have it on my construct though. Maybe it’s etched into the ship? I’d need to ask Keep. Which reminds me. The collator is in my room. Em, can you get it for me?”

  “Sure,” she said, popping off the sofa. Wayward kernels of popcorn fell off her onto the deck. “I’ll clean that up when I get back.”

  “Hold that thought,” Matt said, putting his hand out to stop her. “Ben, the only thing you’re doing right now is going to sick bay. You need a scan.”

  “To tell me what?” I argued. “That I overdid it and paralyzed myself? I already know that.”

  “We need to know if you did any permanent damage.”

  I shrugged. “If I did, then I did. If restore can’t fix it, then there's nothing else we can do.”

  “Still, I think you should run the diagnostics Justus left you. The whole reason he created the program was so you could monitor your condition over time, and this seems like the perfect time to take a read on it.”

  “Okay,” I said, relenting. “After I talk to Keep. He and Dryka should have reached Jaito, and maybe even the Bracken factory, by now. I’m worried about them.”

  Matt sighed. “You should be more worried about yourself.”

  “Every second I’m alive is a bonus. I’d rather worry about the future of the Spiral and Earth, not to mention my crew and Dryka's. Which includes Keep. We have the intel we were looking for; they don’t need to go to Bracken anymore. If it’s a trap like we thought, there’s no reason for them to step into it.”

  Matt moved his hand out of Emerald’s path. “Go ahead.”

  “Yippeee!” she cried, slipping past Quasar and running off the flight deck.

  “What are you three even wearing?” Matt asked, finally noticing our still-damp club outfits. “And why do I suddenly have Stayin’ Alive stuck in my head?”

  “We intercepted three Mushari employees at a club,” Quasar explained. “And used their identifiers to gain access to the mainframe. I assume Gia already gave you the name of our person of interest?”