Page 120 of Star-Crossed Captive
Simultaneous exhales filled the stifling silence. The three technical officers stepped away from the table, visibly shaken. The commodore braced her hands on the holotable and hung her head like she needed a minute.
Nia lowered her shoulders from where they’d lifted around her ears.
“No time for breaks,” the commodore said not a minute later. “Return to what you were supposed to be doing in the first place.”
There was still an air of urgency swirling in the command center, but the sick sensation of impending doom had faded. Adrenaline easing from her body, Nia focused on healing Mace’s muscles a strand at a time. By the time she was done, his back would be more synthetic than not.
“Sir!” A technical officer at the holotable shouted. “I’ve gotOrion’sweapons on line.”
“Fire at those Guardians,” Cache ordered.
An overwhelming hum filled the command center, followed by an internal groan and a hollowclank, as though a giant flicked its fingers against the outside ofOrion. Nia lifted her head to look at the viewer. A spear of red shot from the station and connected with the closest Guardian. She gasped.
The weapon cut the ship in two like a knife through flesh.
“Target another Guardian,” Cache ordered without missing a beat.
The station hummed again, and the beam of light cleaved another ship.
All those lives.Nia blinked the moisture from her eyes as she refocused on Mace’s wound. This was what the war had brought them to: two peoples who’d destroy each other with a flick of a switch. Her throat tightened painfully.
“Betel,” the commodore ordered. “Destroy all the Marauders about to make suicide runs.”
“I’ve got navigation,” said one of the techs over top of Betel’s, “Yes, sir.”
“Get us the hell out of here.”
A moment later,Orionshuddered, and Nia pulled her tools away from Mace’s wound to brace herself against the deck. She stared at the information scrolling across the holotable’s surface. The ship she’d been on, thePhalanx, imploded on the way by, scuttled.
Orionlurched around them, moving forward with a groaning jerk, then accelerated to high speed, absolutely still. The amount of power needed to move a station this size boggled Nia’s mind. The reason for four of those massive engine cores was suddenly quite clear.
“You three,” the commodore’s voice rang out as she addressed her warriors. “Clear the rest of this station a deck at a time until reinforcements can be brought over. Grey, take these CORE techies to the brig until they can be processed.”
Three, “Yes, Sirs,” echoed as Nia continued to heal Mace’s wound. Now they were safe, the noise of the command center faded into the background as she concentrated.
Nia was finishing with the one side of his back when she realized the commodore drew near. She lifted her head when the imposing woman squatted beside her.
“How’s he doing?” the commodore asked.
Hands bloody, Nia pushed the hair away from her face with her forearm. “Better. I need to take him to a sickbay. He needs more fluids and blood. He also needs a large bulk of tissue synthesized, but I’ve healed the worst of it.”
The commodore nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer, but worry lingered in her eyes. “You said something about a traitor.”
Nia nodded, then focused on Mace’s wound. What she was about to say…it would sentence the man to a horrific death and go against everything she’d believed in.
But when she thought about what he’d done to her…all those deaths he’d caused onOrion…
She swallowed and kept her gaze on the blood on her hands while she moved the regenerator over Mace’s spine. “There was a man on thePhalanx, one who I thought was an agent. I saw him alone in the engine core the day before the attack, and from the way he was trying to kill me, I’m pretty sure he was the one responsible forOrion’sbreach in security.”
“You can identify him?”
“Yes, and he wore a doctor’s uniform, was supposed to be heading here to provide medical aid. At least that’s what I heard someone say in the hangar.”
“Mouse!” The commodore’s shout made Nia jump.
“Yes, sir?” the tech with huge eyes came closer.
“Have all medical personal heading here detained for questioning. Don’t let anyone leave for any reason. Keep them in B2 for now.”
