The universe slowed back into view, Head Case emerging into space a few AU shy of Bushara’s designated drop zone. From this distance we could scan the near side of the planet’s orbit without being picked up by control. It was impossible to forget we were still fugitives in the Spiral, now more than ever. I still had a two hundred million electro price on my head, an impressive sum that could set any of the others up for a life of luxury. I might have wondered if Druck, even Emerald in one of her less lucid moments, or possibly Leo and Meg, planned to collect before we’d gone to hyperspace. After the last five days, it would be a betrayal deeper than I believed even they were capable of committing.

  “Shit,” I said after only a few seconds out of hyperspace. The first ship that popped up on the long range sensors was too big to be anything but a Royal Sentry. Another joined it a moment later. “Double shit.”

  “Two sentries?” Quasar said from the sofa. “It’s almost like they knew we were coming. Like they know we’re searching for Hiro.”

  “They do know,” I replied. “At least, Legrond knows, and he told Sedaya, who told Blorb, who as the Empress, directed the Royal Guard to send ships here. I can only imagine what Keep and the Duchess are going to run into when they reach Jaito.”

  “Maybe, but nobody knows who Dryka is right now,” Matt countered. “Radiance isn’t blueburned.”

  “I think they’ll figure it out when she makes for Bracken,” I said.

  “We should worry about ourselves right now,” Quasar recommended. “How are we going to get down there?”

  “That should be easy enough,” I said. “We can scale Head Case down, slip right past them at the size of a golf ball.”

  “As fun as that sounds,” Matt said. “What happens when we embiggen ourselves?”

  “We might not need to. We infiltrated Sanguine Studios in Head Case. We need to access their mainframe, just like we did there. Same scenario, same playbook here if we need it.”

  “It won’t be that easy, Captain,” Leo said. “We used up most of the thick cabling we had left when we plugged into their systems. We had to cut the rope to get out of there, remember?”

  “Can’t Asshole make some more cable?” I asked.

  “I don’t think we have enough of the right materials in the hopper.”

  “Can we feed it what we need?”

  “I’m not sure. Therein lies the complication.”

  “Understood. Plan B, we move further out of sensor range and I transit a group of us planetside. Now that I know how, it’s like having a Star Trek transporter on board.”

  “That’ll leave you drained and starving when we get there,” Quasar said. “If Blorb sent two Royal Sentries here to watch for us, you don’t think Sedaya planted a Gilded or two here? Or a few archons at least? We need you at full strength.”

  “Good point,” I agreed. “Back to Plan A. There has to be somewhere on the planet we can scale up Head Case, disembark, and then shrink the ship back down to hide.” I looked out at Bushara, another blue marble similar to Earth. “Look for farmland or something along those lines?”

  “If we still had the Mustang we could drive from the sticks,” Matt said. “In our current situation, we’d have to walk.”

  “That's better than not getting there at all,” I replied.

  “True.”

  “Why don’t we swim?” Emerald asked. “I have a really cute bikini I was saving for Oceania, but I guess I could make a new one before our vacation.” She jumped off the sofa. “I’ll go get it!”

  “Emerald, hold on,” I said. She froze stiff, as if we were playing a game. “You’re going to walk through downtown Lapul in a bikini?”

  “Yeah, we’re trying to avoid drawing attention,” Matt said.

  “Oh,” she replied, disappointed. She slunk back over to the sofa and dropped back down it.

  “It’s not a completely bad idea,” I said. “Lapul is on the coast. Leo, can Head Case hold up underwater?”

  “She’s already airtight, Captain,” Leo replied. “But we can’t go too deep. The hull won’t hold up to excessive pressure.”

  “Can we go deep enough to avoid detection?”

  “I think so.”

  “I need you to do a little better than that.”

  “Hold on.” Leo tapped his comm badge. “Meg, Grizz, the Captain wants to know if Head Case can submerge deep enough to avoid notice from Bushara’s Planetary Defense.”

  “Submerge?” Grizz said. “As in, underwater?”

  “That’s right.”

  He groaned softly while he thought about it. “By my estimate, we’re fine up to a hundred meters. That should be more than enough.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Positive. Pixie, do you concur?”

  “I do,” Meg said. “The hull is thin but the internal atmosphere will counter a lot of the pressure. We might get some minor flexing and dimpling, but nothing too serious.”

  “Thanks, team,” Leo said, disconnecting the comms. “We’re good to go, Captain.”

  “How are we going to get to the surface?” Quasar asked.

  “I can take care of that,” I replied. “And it won’t use too much energy to do it. A lot less than transiting.”

  “I’m ready!” Emerald blurted, excitedly scrubbing her palms together.

  “Ben,” Gia broke in, her voice coming out of the speakers embedded on the flight deck. She startled me enough to make me flinch. “Are you there?”

  “Can you stop doing that, please?” I said, my hand clasped to my rapidly beating heart. “Have you ever heard of knocking?”

  “That was knocking,” she replied, obviously amused. It was easy to forget she was a glorified AI and not the real thing. Could she see me too? How? “Sorry, Ben. I estimated your arrival time and figured you had arrived. Now that I’ve established greater network redundancy, I have more leeway to communicate without risk of being compromised. I understand you need to access Mushari Technical's primary mainframe. I think I can help.”

  CHAPTER 11

  “That’s…not ideal,” I said, after listening to Gia’s plan. “We don’t have anyone onboard qualified to implant your neural link, and no offense, but nobody wants to have you in their head all the time.”

  “I wouldn’t be in your head,” Gia replied. “I would have a direct connection, but of course I’m not going to keep talking or listening the entire time. Plus, the neural link can’t read a person’s mind. I tried cracking the Mushari datastore remotely, but their firewalls are too well built. Every time I managed to get one key, they reorganized the others and replaced the one I captured. They must be using a pretty advanced AI system to be able to do that. Which might be a great clue that we're on the right track. They wouldn’t need their systems locked down so tightly if they didn’t have something tremendously important to hide. Something that they knew would interest us. In any case, with direct access through the neural link, I’m confident I can recover the data we need.”

  I didn’t respond right away. It wasn’t that I didn’t think the plan would work. Living, breathing Gia had impressed me with her ability to get into secure networks, and her digital replica’s processing power was magnitudes greater. It just seemed almost too convenient, the way she had popped up as soon as we reached Bushara with a ready-made plan of attack. Then again, what else would the supercomputer have to do over the last five days? I had already mistrusted her once over something she didn’t do and completely embarrassed myself. Was I going to make the same mistake again?

  “Fine, but even if I were to agree to have the link installed, we still don’t have anyone on the ship who can do the surgery.”

  “I can arrange for a modder in Lapul to perform the implant,” Gia answered.

  “One who won't rat me out or try to kill me for a shot at the bounty?”

  “That might be a little more challenging, but I think I can make it happen. I have connections, and can make it worth their while without incurring the additional risk trying to kill you would entail. Especially since I don’t think a body modification expert would stand a chance against you, sigiltech or not.”

  “I appreciate the vote of confidence,” I said.

  “Wait a second,” Emerald said. “Ben, you can’t implant the neural link in your head.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “If the modder did want the bounty, it would give them an easy opening to kill you.” She lowered her voice to a deep rumble. ‘Oh sorry, I accidentally gave him too much anesthesia. Whoopsie!’”

  “I won’t be there alone. I’m sure a simple if anything happens to him you die threat will suffice.”

  “No, she’s right,” Matt said. “Nevermind the bounty. What if your current physiology messes with the link? Or even burns it out or something. We don’t know how the device might react to your mutated DNA.”

  “Ooh, good one,” Emerald cooed. “Keep that up and I might have a new boyfriend.”

  “Matt’s reasoning is valid, Ben,” Gia said. “You shouldn’t be the one to carry the link.”

  “Okay,” I replied. I hadn’t really wanted to do it anyway. “In that case, are any of you willing to—”

  “Oh, I’ll do it!” Emerald shouted, throwing up her hand and bouncing back to her feet to jump up and down. “Pick me! Pick me!”

  “Wait, you’re worried about how the link might interact with the Captain, but you want us to give it to you?” Matt said.

  “Yeah, why not?”

  “Because you’re not exactly…how do I put this…stable.”

  “What does that have to do with it?”

  “What if that has a carryover effect on the neural link? You might cause it to glitch or something.”

  “That’s not how it works.”

  “Are you sure? Like, a hundred percent sure? Because we really can’t afford for anything to go wrong.”

  Emerald hesitated. “You just lost your shot at me, blondie.” She looked at me. “I can do it, Boo.”

  “I know you can, but I’m not sure that’s the best idea. You’re valuable as a fighter, but you can’t get into the middle of anything if you have the link installed. You’d need to stay on the sidelines to protect it.”

  “Oh. Well." Her excitement vanished as she lost interest in hosting the link. "I guess I’ll still do it if you need a volunteer.”

  “Don’t look at me, Captain,” Leo said. “I’m happy right where I am. I don’t want any more responsibility.”

  “At least you’re honest,” I replied.

  “I’ll do it,” Matt and Quasar said at the same time.

  I could have kissed Zar for volunteering and saving me from having to let Matt take the implant. He’d been through enough with Succaath and seemed to be happy learning to be a starship pilot. He was willing to go back into the field to help the team; that’s the kind of person he was, but I was sure he didn’t really want to either.

  “Are you sure, Zar?” I asked, turning away from him.

  She nodded. “Aye, Captain. I’m sure.” She glanced at Matt. “You’re going to be needed here. Leo knows how to work the controls, but he’s a much better engineer than he is a pilot.”

  “That’s true,” Leo agreed.

  “I don’t know that I’m much of a pilot, either,” Matt said. “I got us in and out of hyperspace. Big deal. I don’t have any space combat experience.”

  “Neither do I,” Leo said. “And I hate the idea of killing anyone.”

  “I am willing to kill whoever I have to without hesitation to keep my teammates safe. So there’s that. But I’m also supposed to be the leader of the away team. I’m in charge when we aren’t on the ship.”

  “We can swap roles if you want,” I said. “You can be in charge on the ship, and I’ll be in charge when we’re away.”

  He smiled. “I appreciate the sentiment. And that arrangement might have worked okay before. But things are much more serious now, and you’ve already proven you’re the better leader a hundred times over. You’re in charge, Ben. All the time.”

  “Are you serious?” I asked, uncomfortable with the idea of not splitting the duty with him. “You still own half the ship. Really, you paid for the whole thing. You should own all of it.”

  “You aren’t dying anymore. We’re back together. You restored my vision. What else could I possibly need? I’m good, man. Seriously.”

  “If you change your mind—”

  “I won’t.”

  “But if you do.”

  “Maybe after we take out Sedaya and his minions. Until then, you’re the boss, Boss.”

  “Okay, but you’re still my second. When I’m planetside, you’re the captain.”

  “How about XO?” Matt said. “I always kind of wanted to be an XO.”

  “Hugs and kisses?” Emerald said. “Yes, please.” Smiling sweetly, she clapped her hands.

  “Executive officer,” Quasar explained.

  “I know. I was just kidding. You need to work on your sense of humor, Zar.”

  “XO it is,” I said, turning to Zar. “You’re sure about this?”

  She nodded. “I think I’m the best choice.”

  Emerald gasped and ran off the flight deck without explanation, confusing everyone and leaving a moment of befuddled silence in her wake.

  “Oooookay,” I said. “Gia, find us a modder. You’ve got about an hour before splashdown.”

  “Splashdown?” she replied.

  “We’re going to submarine Head Case to infiltrate Lapul. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”

  “Copy that. Gia out.”

  I exhaled sharply, trying to release some of the tension in my nerves. “Matt, bring us in.”

  “Me? Are you sure you don’t want to do it?”

  “If you can’t get us in, you won’t be able to get us out, and if we’re in desperate escape mode there won’t be time for me to make it to the flight deck. But I don’t think they’ll spot us when we’re tiny, anyway.”

  “In that case, I’m on it. Prepare to be miniaturized.”

  The doors to the flight deck slid open and Emerald rushed back in cradling a decorated cake in her arms. Congratulations Zar was written across the top in red icing. She brought it over to Quasar. “Congrats! I made you a cake.”

  “Asshole made the cake,” Matt said.

  “Close enough. It was my idea. I would have put candles on it but I didn’t think I could get them up here without them going out. You know how candles are.”

  “Thank you, Emerald,” Quasar said, accepting the cake with a mischievous glint in her eye. She moved fast, lifting the cake and shoving it hard into Emerald’s face, grinning as she smashed a chunk of cake into her mouth. “How’s that for a sense of humor?”

  Icing and chunks of cake clung to Emerald's cheeks. She stood absolutely still as the chunks slid down off her face and plopped on the deck. We all stared at her in silence, waiting for her to react. At first, her face turned so red I thought she might launch a counterattack. Then she chewed and swallowed the bit of cake and icing in her mouth, licking some of the buttercream from her lips.

  Suddenly, she doubled over, laughing hysterically. “That was awesome!” she cried. “I totally didn’t see that coming!”

  I shook my head. With any luck, Mushari wouldn’t see us coming either.

  CHAPTER 12

  “Matt, scale us down,” I said from my position behind the pilot station. Even with my boots maglocked to the deck, I gripped the back of the pilot seat just in case we needed to make any hard maneuvers. If that wasn’t enough to counteract any g-forces that made their way past suppression, I could always use sigils to keep my feet under me.

  “Aye aye,” he replied, flipping to the menu as if he were an old pro. From the moment I gave him the stick and my vote of confidence, he had taken the ball and run with it, showing the grit and determination he had often displayed back home. There was no doubt in his body language, no question in his voice. Once he had decided to learn to pilot Head Case, he had studied hard, and now it was time to put his training into practice.

  There was no obvious internal change to the ship, but the scale down was immediately apparent as the Royal Sentries and other smaller craft orbiting Bushara took on a new size perspective. Yet, at this close range, the effect remained relatively minor in our forward transparency. Likewise, losing size didn’t cost us any velocity. We continued racing toward the planet, a fastball aiming at the corner of the strike zone, bypassing the Royal Guard’s most advanced ships.

  I believed our plan was solid, but there was still some question as to whether or not the pilot of the closest Sentry had seen us shrink down and had reported it to his superiors. Hopefully, if he'd witnessed the event, he had convinced himself he was just seeing things. Quasar said it was possible for the Sentry's sensors to be tuned to pick up objects as small as we were. If that was the case, they could have adjusted their sensors to account for our thruster burn, but even if the Sentries could spot us that way, they would be hard-pressed to engage. However, neither Grizz nor Meg believed the Royal Guard could have updated their targeting computers fleetwide to handle something our size. It was their opinion that updating a critical component like that over the air wasn't something they would ever attempt to do.

  “Ready or not, here we come,” Matt said, as all of us watched the closest Sentry quickly loom larger and larger.

  “We should be in sensor range by now if they can spot us,” Leo said. “No sign of activity from any of the ships. I don’t think they see us.”

  “Mmm,” Emerald said from the sofa behind me. “This is good cake.” I glanced back at her, watching as she scooped a little more of the icing from her hair and stuck her finger in her mouth.

  “Gross,” Quasar said.

  “My hair is clean,” Emerald countered. “So what makes it gross?”

  “It just is.”

  “Don’t get too close,” I told Matt. “Any quick moves from the Sentry could set us on a collision course with them and knock us around pretty good if we collide.”