Page 4 of Star-Crossed Captive
The corridor quaked again. Red emergency lights flickered. Quieter blasts echoed from farther away. He shifted her weight forward, like he would set her on her feet, and her heart stuttered. Would he release her? Her hope crashed when he pushed her against a bulkhead, a firm hand on her stomach to keep her still.
His icy eyes flashed. “Make a sound and I’ll kill everyone in there.”
She shivered, shoved away, but he pulled her against him, chest against her spine and breath in her ear. He lifted her hand and pressed her PALM flat against the control panel. The door slid open a second before he threw an orb inside a maintenance bay.
She heard a shout, then another. People scrambled. A thick fog poured out into the corridor. Another blast rumbled through the station, vibrating through her feet. The Tellusian pushed her inside the chaos of the bay.
The smoke from his device shrouded them. Her heart beat in her ears as they wove through ships and people. She yanked her arm, but he held tight, propelling her forward at a swift pace.
A defender stepped in front of them. There was only a second of struggle before he fell to the deck, his throat slit. A whimper escaped her lips. She pressed them together, so tempted to scream, but the Tellusian’s threat rang in her head.
She stumbled, tripping on a ship’s ramp. Panic stabbed her chest. He tugged her upright by her wrist, and she cried out. His eyes narrowed on her face before he pushed her into a Raven, a scout ship.
She wrenched her arm, gasping at the second stab of pain. “Let me go!”
He pulled her inside, past the hatch, and closed the door with a slap of his hand on the side panel. The ramp rose on a whine.
Clank. The door sealed shut, mocking her last shreds of hope. “You said you wanted off the station.” All heat left her body, her limbs becoming numb. “You don’t need me.” Her last words came out a whisper.
When he shoved her into the co-pilot’s seat, she knew she should be struggling but couldn’t make her limbs work. With quick fingers, he pulled the restraints over her shoulders and between her legs.
She stared at the unfamiliar buckle, her hands shaking as she tried to pry it away from her chest.
The Raven’s engines hummed, the Tellusian’s fingers flying over the controls. Voices blared from the speakers; someone had left the media feed running when they’d powered down.
“…Calypsons need to be eradicated. They might not be as violent as Tellusians but their influence is insidious, polluting minds, and we—”
He turned it off, then the ship lifted, tilting into a hover. The smoke around them dissipated. With their camouflage drifting away, the defenders on security detail fired. Pink shields rippled, enclosing them in a protective cocoon.
Nia stared at the closed blast doors through the Raven’s viewer, her heart beating in her head.No way out.
An energy pulse left the shuttle.Boom.
The bay door crumpled. Bile rose in her throat as debris flung out into space a second before the SNAP shielding initiated. The Tellusian pushed the throttle and her head jerked against the headrest.
They launched into a war zone.
Laser fire flashed beside them. She screamed, gripping the arms of her seat. The enemy’s fighters mixed with CORE Marauders. A Tellusian Destroyer loomed in the distance, colossal, its all-black construction an omen of more death to come. The shuttle turned and she caught sight of the medical station.
Her heart cracked into a million pieces. Most ofElara Fivewas destroyed, including her triage bay. The other parts were covered in Tellusian pods.People farming.
“We’re a non-combative medical station.” The words whispered through her dry lips as anguish crashed over her in waves. The control panel blurred in front of her as the Raven changed trajectory, the battle through the viewer morphing into indistinct blasts of light against the darkness.
It felt like someone had ripped her chest open.
The Tellusian spoke into his comm in a language she didn’t understand. Pods detached from the station to head to the Destroyer. The larger fighters shot away, disappearing into the stars. A high-pitched humming noise filled the Raven a second before they followed.
Tremors began low in her belly and traveled to every limb. She was going to be a Tellusian slave, forced to... She swallowed against the dryness in her mouth. Everyone had heard the stories: people forced into the sex trade, or made to do manual labor until you broke and were tossed out an airlock.
Staring out the viewer, she gripped the straps at her shoulders so tight they cut into her skin. The unmoving stars made it seem as if the ship stood still, but they must be traveling close to the speed of light. A deep breath through her nose did little to calm her.
She didn’t know how long she stayed that way, staring at nothing, when a small bit of hope spiked through her. With her uninjured hand, she pressed the cool metal of her locket under her uniform. If she could get alone, she could turn on the inert tracker hiding inside it. Someonewouldsave her.
For once, she was grateful she’d listened to her tyrannical mother.
Heart pounding, she glanced at her captor without turning her head, surveying him from top to bottom. She should have realized he wasn’t a defender: too-long black hair and a light growth of beard. All the defenders she knew had their hair cut short to the scalp, even the women. Despite his injuries, he’d been strong enough to carry her through the station.
His white knuckles on the controls drew her gaze. She scanned lower, beneath his seat. Blood dripped to the deck, a small puddle forming.
