CHAPTER 4

  The passage to Kirillia went more smoothly than I could have hoped or expected. Keep and Justus managed to stay away from one another, and time plus plenty of calories worked to bring my chaos energy storage back to full strength. The full glow of my mutated blood impressed Keep, though it didn’t counter his dismay when I told him I had fed all of the sigil-inscribed catalyst we had on board to the assembler on Omega Station to make my construct. That left him with only the push ring he had squirreled away from Lyke during his capture, and I made sure to tease him about where he had hidden it on more than one occasion.

  Needless to say, Keep’s return had improved my mood somewhat. So did the fact that we were enroute to rescue Matt and the others. Not to the point that I was happy. I couldn’t be content until my full crew was back on board. Enough that I noticed Ixy, Kat, and the others came to me more readily when they were looking for something to do or some way to help, and we spent more time chatting about more personal topics. It was harder with Ixy because of her need to take deep breaths to produce words I could understand, but I did learn that unlike spiders, xixitl laid only one egg, one offspring at a time and that she was one of six siblings. She was also the only one who had left their homeworld to seek adventure, starting as part of a salvage crew where her particular abilities proved incredibly useful. I still wanted to know how she had wound up in the crate in the Junket, but there hadn’t been time for those details yet.

  I continued training with Kat and his Litter, though I was a lot more careful with how much effort I put in during any single session, mostly keeping the work short. I cycled through using different sigils against the rebels, and they worked on group tactics to help counter specific approaches, improving quickly against push especially, but also reflect and disperse. Keep stopped by to watch a few of our practices, coming away impressed not only with the unit’s growing skill and my abilities, but also with my leadership through the exercises. He told me a few times he had made the right choice selling Head Case to Matt and me, convinced without us he would have lost the Star and the fight against Sedaya long before Omega. Even though we had lost the Star there, he was sure we would have our chance to get it back.

  I could only hope he was right.

  “Attention all-hands,” I said over the shipwide comms from my position in the pilot’s seat. “Disengaging hyperdrive in ten minutes. Time to secure yourselves.”

  I glanced over to Justus in the co-pilot seat. He wasn’t a trained pilot, but we had gone through the controls and as far ahead in training as we could short of directly flying Head Case. At this point he had a basic understanding in theory of how everything worked. He just needed a chance to put it into practice. This wouldn’t be it. Not when we expected Sedaya knew we were coming and would no doubt have put his forces on alert. Kirilia was in his territory after all, and nearly every ship in orbit around the planet likely flew under his flag.

  “Are you good?” I asked.

  “I’m ready if you need me, Captain,” he replied, doing his best to sound confident when his body language betrayed his nervousness. I appreciated his effort.

  “Keep, are you sure about this?” I asked, looking at him over my shoulder. He and Meg were on the sofa, him to observe and Meg to bark orders to Leo in engineering in the event we ran into trouble and needed a quick fix. Unfortunately, Head Case’s design hadn’t included systems monitoring on the flight deck so the twins would be able to see what was broken without me passing the info along. Letting her get a look at the center console to provide exact direction was more efficient than me yelling at them over the comms to fix the broken thing.

  “Yup,” Keep answered. “Step one, get close. Step two, Konami-code. Step three, win. Badabing badaboom!”

  “I like step three,” Meg said.

  “You and me both, Pixie,” Keep agreed. I raised an eyebrow in response to the exchange. I knew he and Meg had become fast friends, though I wasn’t sure how or why. They didn’t seem to have anything in common, and I knew Keep wasn’t looking for any kind of romantic involvement. He was still too in love with his deceased wife.

  “Can you not call Meg, Pixie?” Justus asked. “It sounds too much like Ixy, and it’s bound to lead to confusion.”

  “Seriously?” Keep said. “Are you that desperate to find something to hassle me about?”

  “I am serious. It has nothing to do with hassling you. We can’t afford for any member of the team to get mixed up about what they should be doing at any given moment.”

  “I don’t see how Ixy and I would get mixed up,” Meg said. “She’s a xixitl who would primarily participate in unit-level combat. I’m a ship’s engineer. If the Captain asks Pixie to fix a shield node, I don’t think Ixy’s going to spring into action.”

  “Besides, nobody else calls her Pixie except me,” Keep added.

  “So far,” Justus said. “But that’s how nicknames always start. And that’s a contrived example. What if there was a ship’s emergency and the Captain needed Ixy to clear the elevator shaft? You might think he wants you to fix something while he intends for her to pry open the doors or something.”

  “Talk about contrived,” Meg said. “And even if the Captain was concerned about confusion, don’t you think he would just say Meg instead of Pixie?”

  “What if he forgets?” Justus countered.

  The nav timer hit zero, disengaging the hyperdrive. The universe bent back into focus. “Enough,” I barked at the others on the flight deck. “We’re here.”

  The jump coordinates dropped us close to Kirillia, but not too close, giving the sensors time to do their work while we remained outside of the standard drop zone. Fortunately, the sensors in the ears were somewhat redundant, each one holding a similar array. While the damaged ear’s electronics were mostly offline, the other was able to cover, albeit with reduced fidelity.

  The first handful of seconds were the most tense. The view out of the forward transparency revealed an Earthlike world, a little smaller with slightly higher gravity. Nearly a hundred ships dotted space around it, the vast majority little more than specks of dust against the planet’s surface from our current position. The outlier sent a chill down my spine before the sensors had a chance to officially identify it. I knew immediately by the size and shape what kind of ship it was.

  “I spy with my little eye a Royal Sentry,” Keep said, leaning forward so his face was next to my shoulder.

  “I see it,” I replied.

  “Don’t panic, kid. Just follow the plan.”

  The grid on the console began filling in, revealing the ships orbiting Kirillia and revealing a handful more located further away from the planet than would ever be considered normal. Scouts forming the outer edge of an enlarged sensor web. It didn’t come as a surprise to any of us that they were there, or that we were undoubtedly showing on their sensors as well. But it didn’t matter who was chasing us or how many there were. We didn’t need to get into a fight with obviously superior forces.

  All we had to do was get close.

  “Attention all-hands,” I said again over the shipwide comms. “The jump is complete. Hold onto your asses.”

  I pushed the throttle forward, sending a jolt through Head Case as the reactor kicked out power, feeding it not only to the mains but also to Starbright’s large thruster. During our time in hyperspace, Leo and Meg had gone outside to jury-rig it to the control system with a pair of thick cables. Now, pushed back in my seat despite the counter-inertial systems, I nearly whooped in excitement as I vectored the ship toward Kirillia.

  The comms lit up, signaling an incoming hail. At the same time, a handful of ships orbiting the planet started moving away from their positions. So far at least, the Royal Sentry remained in place, perhaps waiting to see how the other vessels fared.

  “Should we answer that?” Justus asked, glancing at the blinking light.

  “Sure,” I replied. “Why not? Open the channel.”

  “Aye, Captain.” He leaned forward slightly and flipped the toggle switch.

  “Head Case,” a deep voice said. “This is Captain Beauregard of the Royal Sentry Illiana. Cut your thrusters and stand down at once, or you will be destroyed. I repeat, this is Captain Beauregard of the Royal Sentry Illiana. Cut your thrusters and surrender or be destroyed.”

  “He sounds serious,” Meg said behind me.

  “Very,” I agreed, activating our end of the comms. “Captain Beauregard, this is Captain Murdock on board Head Case. I’m sorry, Captain, but standing down isn’t an option. Whether you realize it or not, there’s a war going on, and we’re on the same side. Duke Sedaya took my crew. I’m here to get them back, and nothing is going to stop me.”

  “Your crew are all fugitives from Persephon Penal Station, Captain Murdock,” Beauregard replied. “Just like you. And Duke Sedaya’s already ordered his forces to kill you on sight, something well within his rights as this is his domain. If you surrender to me, I can prevent your needless death.”

  “I don’t think you heard me, Captain. Not going to happen. Murdock out.” I closed the comms, watching the grid as the ships that had broken orbit closed on us, vectoring to meet Head Case.

  “Bad guys dead-a-head,” Meg said, laughing. “Get it?”

  I smiled at the corny joke despite myself, even as I twisted the stick and punched the throttle a little harder, sending Head Case rocketing along a new vector, trying to shoot around them. They updated their navigation to match, hoping to intercept us well out in front of the planet’s orbit.

  Illiana had started moving, slowly rolling over in space and opening up her primary hangar to let Hegemony starfighters begin pouring out into the black. Smaller ion trails ignited ahead of the massive starship, only a handful at first but quickly growing into an entire squadron.

  “Keep,” I said, looking back at him. We expected trouble, but this was more than we had bargained for.

  “Step one, get close,” he replied, resting back on the sofa and looking way too unconcerned. When the first shot from the incoming ships hit the shields, he didn’t bat an eye.

  “Easy for you to say,” I grumbled, returning my attention to the action in front of the ship and the grid. “You aren’t the one trying to fly through this shit.”

  “Nope,” he replied. “If I were, I wouldn’t be so confident.”

  I pushed the throttle a little harder, giving Head Case another burst of speed. Of course, every bit of velocity I added now would need to be removed later, one way or another, making it more and more risky for me to keep speeding up. Watching the enemy closing from orbit while the further-flung ships charged in from their guard positions, I knew there was no other choice.

  The Royal starfighters gained quickly on Sedaya’s ships, the four groups of five fighters each dancing around the larger, slower cruisers to get into attack formation. They maneuvered to fire from multiple planes and angles, creating a field of fire that added much more punch to the Kirillian defense force. I added more velocity in response, desperate to punch through before they could complete the pattern.

  Head Case burned hundreds of kilometers each second, racing at a speed I’d never before reached. Sharp beeping in my ears informed me of an attempted torpedo lock, the grid showing a pair of Sedaya’s warships as the sources. Twisting the stick and pulling back, I threw Head Case into a sharp corkscrew, making it more difficult for the vessels to achieve a firing solution. Except the move led me right into the line of fire of one of the starfighter groups. They opened fire with abandon, sending dozens of energy bolts zipping across space toward us. Changing vectors, I winced as the Royal fighters kept pace, their bolts peppering the shields on Head Case’s starboard side. The shield grid showed two of the nodes going offline sooner than expected.

  “Shit,” Meg cursed behind me. “That shouldn’t have happened.” She tapped her comm badge. “Leo, C-6 and C-9 are having power coupling issues. We need them back online, stat.”

  “Where are they?” Leo replied.

  “Deck Five, near the ceiling in the back,” she specified before closing the comms. “The nodes are on the outside of the ship and unreachable, but if the wiring running to them is the problem, he can fix it.”

  “Every little bit helps,” I said.

  “You should prep the cannons,” Keep said.

  “No shooting back,” I replied. “That’s what we agreed to.”

  “Bennie—” Keep started to complain.

  “I know, they’re Sedaya’s ships. But that’s only because Kirilia is in his territory. Besides, we need to save the reactor to make another jump. I’m not having Matt get killed because we didn’t manage our power levels well. We don’t have the Star anymore.”

  Keep didn’t say anything else as I threw everyone hard into their restraints to avoid another torpedo lock. Between the royal starfighters and their orbital defense, we were in deep shit. Trying to stay a step ahead of the enemy. I more often than not failed, at least where the starfighters were concerned. Energy bolts lit up space around us as Head Case shook, rattled, and rolled its way through the chaos. I didn’t know if the pilots were just that good or their ships were just that much more maneuverable. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to shake them.

  More shield nodes went offline, overheating accordingly as they took on too much damage. Their loss exposed the backside near one of the thrusters, a dangerous spot to be unprotected. I sent Head Case into a wild spin, keeping our stern hard to target as we drew ever closer to orbit. The Royal Sentry accelerated, doing its best to block our path or at least get a few torpedoes off at us as we shot by.

  “Almost there,” Justus said, watching the part of the feedback I didn’t have time to keep an eye on. “Ten seconds, Captain.”

  “Prep the autopilot,” I replied.

  “We’re coming in too fast and too cockeyed for autopilot,” Justus answered. “We need to slow down and flatten out.”

  “If we slow down and flatten out, we die,” I said, an energy blast hitting the shields in front of the transparency for emphasis. It created a nearly blinding light on the flight deck. My visor adjusted quickly, saving my vision.

  “If we don’t slow down and flatten out, we don’t stand a chance of reaching Sanguine Studios," he said, referring to Kill Spree's production company.

  “Fine,” I growled. “If we need to slow down, then we’re going to slow down.”

  I flipped Head Case over, smoothing the evasive maneuvers and pushing the throttle all the way forward. The thrusters slowed us in a hurry, shoving all of us back into our seats as we faced the less dense group of enemy ships at our rear. The move worked, sending most of the shots well past us and throwing off any potential torpedo locks, causing the starfighters to overshoot. It failed because the reduced velocity gave Illiana the time it needed to get ahead of us.

  Fresh torpedo lock attempts reverberated in my ears, and I estimated about five seconds before total annihilation.

  “Autopilot’s ready, Captain,” Justus announced.

  “Are we close enough?”

  “Aye.”

  “Do it.”

  The stick stiffened as Justus turned over control to the ship’s computer. It would fly Head Case into the atmosphere, all the way down to the studio. If we let it. I didn’t worry about that right now, focusing instead on using the stick for another purpose.

  Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, thumb, trigger.

  The target lock tone went solid, our straight flight line allowing Illiana to get a torpedo lock. Ahead of us, I watched the ion plumes appear as the projectiles launched from her forward tubes, a half dozen in all coming our way. At this distance, they would only need a few seconds before impact.

  Too close to avoid. Powerful enough to blow us to bits.

  “Keep, I input the code,” I ground out at the building Gs, flicking my eyes back to him. “Nothing happened!”

  He still looked like he didn’t have a care in the world, raising his eyebrow at me in response to my panic. “Are you sure, kid?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure. Nothing changed. We didn’t start glowing. We didn’t go into transit. Nothing changed.”

  “Then how are you still talking? Those torpedoes should have hit us four seconds ago.”

  My face froze. He was right. I whipped my head forward, but the torpedoes had already streaked harmlessly past us. Looking at the grid, I saw all of the ships that had been on our tail were slowing down in a straight line, acting like they didn’t know where we were.

  “Keep,” I said, looking back at him. “What did you do? Are we cloaked?”

  He shrugged. “Not exactly. Take a peek at the control menu through your AR interface. You should be inside a new option. For shits and giggles, I set it to execute automatically on the first use."

  I hastily brought up the augmented reality menu, eyes opening wide at the new setting displayed in front of me. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  CHAPTER 5

  “What’s wrong, kid?” Keep asked, a strong hint of amusement hanging from the question.

  I stared at the setting, headed simply as Scale. The slider bar underneath was already dragged over most of the way to the left, with the lowest setting on the end labeled microscopic and the largest on the right marked ginormous. From where the bar currently sat, I figured Head Case had shrunk to about the size of a golf ball.

  “This is impossible,” I said breathlessly. A quick look at the sensor grid showed the ships around us remained as confused as I was, drifting through space, no doubt wondering where we had gone.

  “Impossible is an awfully strong word coming from someone whose blood glows blue,” Keep replied.

  “Fair enough. How did you do this? Sigiltech would use too much power, and the sigibellum doesn’t work.” I looked back at him again. “If you tell me Pym particles are real, I might lose it.”