Chapter 1
A thick quiet hung in the air, almost tangible. You could even taste it, if you thought about it. Metallic, like new blood. No one moved. We stared at one another through the pulsing orange light, waiting. We were all thinking the same question. What the hell just happened?
Jordin next to me was the first to break out of the trance. He reached up, palm open, like an awkward salute. He was just trying to shield his eyes — the emergency light blinked not two feet from his head. It fluxed hypnotically, dimming away and then flaring back to blinding brightness, showing our faces like coppery ghosts, blank and ghastly.
As soon as Jordin moved everyone lurched into action.
Case stumbled a step and grabbed for his holster, found it empty. Beth dissolved into a puddle of panic, grabbing at the latch to the sealed door of the conning station and blabbering incoherently. She tugged it and kept on tugging it, even after the first try failed. As if her puny strength could somehow make it budge. As if I wouldn't kill her myself if she managed to unlatch it. Something had just taken out the power on a delta class prison brig in deep space, and she wanted to leave the only safe place on the ship. Idiot.
Case met my gaze. "Eryn."
I didn't speak. I glanced pointedly at Beth, still sobbing over the rigid latch. Case didn't look at her, but let his eyes drop down to my side with the slightest nod. I let go of my gun with one hand and felt across the rough blue canvas of my jumpsuit. I could feel the frayed edges of the torn fiber before the tips of my fingers registered warmth, and wet. Case kept staring at me, eyes wide as bullet holes, one little wrinkle creasing the smooth line of his forehead. I shook my head. Keep it to yourself, I wanted to tell him. He did anyway. Case wasn't a fool. He just cared too much.
Jordin hadn't seen the silent communication between Case and me. He had finally gone from irritation at the blinding rusty beacon to actually trying to turn the thing off. We had almost adjusted to the half-darkness and the quiet — except Beth, still hysterical — when our little world rocked again. Hard. We all pitched off-balance, slamming against the instrument panels and into each other. My head hit Jordin's shoulder and stars showered across my vision. He grabbed hold of me to try to steady me, or himself, but as soon as his hand hit the spreading patch of blood he jerked away.
"God, Eryn!" he croaked.
He reached out as if to examine the wound, but I shoved his hands away. "Leave it alone, Jordin. Get that damn light to stop blinking. Case..." My voice died as I met his gaze again, then I managed, "Status?"
He just stared at me, his head tremoring back and forth.
"I'm so sorry."
His face turned white, then a gruesome greenish hue, like he was about to vomit.
"Snap out of it, Case. I need info."
I finally realized he was pointing. His gun, wedged under the console where the last lurch had jammed it. My hand pressed hard against the throbbing hole in my side. Had Jordin fixed the light? I couldn't tell if it was still blinking or not. Everything in my vision throbbed. I thrust out a hand, grabbing at Jordin's sleeve.
"Beth!" I shouted. The girl was still tugging on that cursed latch."Pull yourself together. I need..."
Pain killed the words. I doubled over, grinding my teeth. Case seemed to get it, finally. He pushed himself upright, clapped a hand on Beth's shoulder and hauled her away from the sealed door.
"Eryn needs twenty mil of pep, now. Take care of it."
Beth turned huge doe-like eyes in my direction, watching me under a mass of sweat-soaked brown curls. She just kept staring for what felt like minutes on end, until Case shook her shoulder and propelled her toward the med hatch. She fumbled to open the slick steel box, hands shaking pathetically as she poked at all the vials and syringes. Useless. If she couldn't get a grip she was going to be absolutely useless. It wasn't the first time I'd had my doubts. I hadn't liked her from the first minute I met her, and it wasn't because I envied her looks and that sweet seductive air that got all the men gawping at her. I'm not that shallow. Usually. I had enough to worry about.
My legs rocked, going numb. I forced myself to sit down on the cold floor, bracing my boots against the console. Jordin crouched next to me, his already pale face even ghastlier in the light. Still blinking.
"Jordin, fix it!"I hissed.
"The light doesn't matter."
He had his head close to mine, so close I could feel the golden fringes of his shaggy hair tickling my forehead. I slammed a hand against his shoulder, shoved him away.
"You questioning me, Jordin? Now? Get it done." Glanced at Case. "Beth doesn't need you supervising." Paused, studied Beth. "Well, maybe she does, but she won't get it. Tell me what you know."
Beth went on fumbling with the bottles, oblivious to my insult. Case finally stumbled to the console, but even from my place on the floor I knew the screens had all got blown to hell. Case didn't need screens. He shoved a gloveless thumb against the scan, in the same motion tapping the band of his cap to invoke the heads-up. I listened to the subtle flick of his fingers against the keys, watched his head sweep side to side. Somehow he'd gotten OBSTAT privileges. How had he managed that? I knew he was smart, too smart for his own good, but I didn't know he could access the observation screens without an ounce of effort. And he was my own second. Sometimes I wondered how much I actually knew any of them.
"Shots came across port," Case said, staring off in that direction. He squinted, then shook his head."Can't see the vessel. Comp got no read on what it was. Make, model, origin, nothing."
"Impossible. Who could it possibly be? Asia? Europa? They don't come —"
A sudden biting sting in my shoulder cut my words short, made me wince. I hadn't even seen Beth coming at me armed with a vial and a needle. After the prick subsided a wash of tingling heat radiated from the injection, down my arm, up my neck. For a minute my vision went red, my heart pounded fiercely, and every nerve in my body pulsed like they'd gotten a jump start.
"Bandage," I said, glaring at Beth hovering paralyzed beside me. "Stitch it."
"Wait, I see..."
Case didn't get to finish before the ship lurched again. I saw the world spin, heard more than felt my head slamming into the metal brace behind me. God save us...