Jordan (15 page)

George growled, yanked, and tore the leash from her hand, then bolted for the
Draco.
With a frown she turned to Gray and Jordan. “Did we just have the mother of all hallucinations?”

Jordan rolled his shoulders as if to clear the tension. “If so, the dog had one, too.”

George made a beeline for the ship, covering the distance on his short legs quickly, and scratched the hatch to enter. When
no one immediately opened the airlock, he stood on his hind legs and barked for admittance.

Gray raised his handheld. “Tennison?”

“You aren’t going to believe this.” Tennison’s voice thrummed with excitement. “We didn’t open the hatch, but the hold’s stocked
with food. Enough to feed us for a year.”

A year? Her knees weakened. Was that how long Devid expected them to be gone?

When a loud boom reverberated through the thin air, Vivianne automatically ducked and looked up. Three slender silver spaceships
had just broken the sound barrier. As they descended and braked, their shields hit the atmosphere and flames flared.

While she stared, Jordan grabbed her arm. “Run. We’re a sitting target on the ground.”

So was their ship. Vivianne lunged into a full-out sprint.

Tennison’s voice came over their handhelds. “We’ve got company. Hostile.”

“You’re certain?” she asked.

“They’re locking weapons on the
Draco.
Get back here. Now.”

Gasping for air in Shadow’s thin atmosphere, Vivianne sprinted for the
Draco,
running toward the one place those ships would surely attack. But they had no choice—staying here would likely get them just
as dead.

Legs pumping, lungs burning, she ran alongside Jordan and Gray. Without trees or roads for perspective, judging the distance
was difficult. It was farther than she’d thought.

Suddenly the ships disappeared from the sky. But Jordan and Gray weren’t slowing, so she kept running.

“Hurry,” Jordan urged. “They’re orbiting. We have to launch the
Draco
while they’re on the back side of the planet.”

“I’m trying,” she panted.

Jordan spoke into the handheld. “Open the airlock.”

From their angle she couldn’t see it open, but George stopped barking and disappeared inside.

Another few steps. Sweat beaded her forehead and dripped into her eyes. She could see the ships returning on the horizon.
Her legs felt like lead, and Jordan and Gray were pulling her now, but she couldn’t keep up with their longer strides.

“I’m slowing… you down,” she gasped. “Just go without me.”

Jordan yelled, “We aren’t leaving you. So if you die, we all die.”

Talk about motivation. The sting of his words gave her an extra spurt of adrenaline. She told herself she didn’t need air.
If her lungs couldn’t grab enough oxygen, she’d just run without it.

Still, she staggered the last few yards. Jordan picked her up and carried her, running full tilt into the
Draco.
After setting her on her feet, he sprinted for the engine room.

Gasping for air, she made her way to the bridge. Jordan had to reinstall the Ancient Staff to power the ship. Meantime, maybe
she could keep the ships from attacking. “Open communications.”

Through the viewscreen, she watched the ships as they flew in ever closer.

“You’re good to talk,” Tennison told her. “But they have us in a weapons lock.”

Anger forged her voice in steel. “Back off, or we’ll blow you out of the sky.”

Tennison leaned over his monitor. “I think… yes. They’re slowing.”

Surely her threat hadn’t worked?

“Come on, Jordan.” Vivianne paced. “We need power.”

“Message coming in,” Tennison reported.

“Put it on speaker,” Vivianne said.

A cold and arrogant voice crackled through the speaker. “Prepare to die.”

Despite herself, she shivered.

Jordan spoke over the intercom to the enemy commander. “Go to hell, Trendonis.”

Cold laughter mocked them. “Earth is about to fall. And this time, you won’t be able to stop us.”

Jordan swore.

She signaled Tennison to cut communications. Somehow she didn’t think the two men cursing each other would do them much good.
But something else beyond Trendonis’s threat against Earth niggled at the back of her mind. The exchange had seemed oddly
intimate. The hatred… personal.

Sean frowned at the viewscreen. “Each ship has launched four missiles.”

There was no place to run. Nowhere to hide.

“Power’s ramping up,” Tennison reported. “But the engines won’t be hot before those missiles…”

“How long have we got?” Vivianne asked, her pulse pounding.

“Three minutes.”

“Can we trigger those missiles to detonate early?” she asked Gray, who’d swiveled into the science station.

“Hell, we’re talking alien technology. I don’t know what makes them tick.”

“Throw some energy at them,” Vivianne ordered. “Radio, Electromagnetic. Laser. Maybe we’ll luck out.”

“Two minutes.”

Gray’s hands blurred over the console. “Nothing’s working.”

“How much power have we got?” Jordan asked as he strode onto the bridge. The sight of his strong face, his lack of fear, and
the determination in his jutting chin gave her hope.

“Not enough power to take off,” Tennison said, his voice steady.

Vivianne’s stomach churned. If the
Draco
was destroyed, Earth’s best hopes of defeating the Tribes would disintegrate with them.

“Missile strike in one minute.”

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away.

—G
EORGE
C
ARLIN

S
o what do we do now?” Vivianne asked.

“Working on an idea,” Jordan murmured, his expression as hard as industrial diamonds.

“Thirty seconds until impact.”

A shiver shimmied down her back. “You don’t have a plan, do you?”

“It’s a work in progress.” Jordan made an adjustment at the command center and pulled up the hyperdrive screen.

What was he doing with hyperdrive controls when they were still on the ground? From their current position, the
Draco
couldn’t safely initiate hyperspace maneuvers. On planets, the transporters were tied deep into the bedrock, which allowed
them to launch in a predetermined direction. Here, with the ship merely parked on the surface, engaging the hyperdrives could
blast them straight up, or straight down, where they’d end up encased in the planet’s core.

Jordan had started a two-second burn. He was blasting off—without setting a course. They could end up in a fold in space or
inside the heart of a star or a black hole.

“Ten seconds until missiles impact.”

Lyle ran onto the bridge, eyes full of panic. “We’re going to die.”

“Not yet.” Jordan slammed the hyperdrive into gear.

She sucked in a breath. Held it while the streaks of hyperspace flickered and replaced normal space.

As they popped back into sub–light space, she finally breathed out a sigh. The
Draco
was intact.

“Any sign of Trendonis and his ships?” Jordan placed a steadying hand on her shoulder. No doubt he could feel her trembling.

“He’s the least of our worries,” Gray said.

Jordan kneaded her shoulder. “Don’t be so certain. Trendonis can track a comet by its dust.”

She should move away before anyone noticed. But his fingers felt too damn good as he kneaded her knotted muscles.

Lyle’s voice trembled. “You know Trendonis?”

“Yes,” Jordan spat.

“Are this ship and Earth under attack because that man hates you?” Lyle asked, this time his tone thoughtful.

“I’m not that important.” Jordan stepped away from Vivianne, turned to the command console and busied himself with the nav
system. “Lay in a course for Tempest,” he ordered. “Use Devid’s coordinates.”

“We aren’t lost?” she whispered.

Jordan grinned. “Courtesy of Devid, we’re the proud owners of a galactic set of star charts. The best I’ve ever seen.”

She walked closer to the viewscreen and stared into space. While there was nothing particularly fascinating outside, she needed
a little distance from Jordan. “How far is Tempest?”

“We need to be heading to Earth to warn them, not onto another alien world and into a damn hurricane,” Lyle said.

“Earth’s already been warned,” Jordan reminded him.

Both Lucan and Marisa had brought back reports of the Tribes’ intentions to attack Earth. The planet had already prepared
as well as possible.

When no one said anything more, Lyle stalked off the bridge.

Gray peered at his screen, a green glow from the monitor highlighting his worry as well as the silver in his hair. “You want
the good news or the bad news?”

“Just tell us,” Jordan ground out, his fingers tightening on the console.

“The hyperspace trick shot us halfway to Tempest. At sub–light speed we should arrive in eight hours.”

Vivianne remained tense. “And the bad news?”

“The entire weather system has splintered. Where there were ten hurricanes before, now there are fifteen.”

She didn’t understand his concern. If the hurricanes were breaking up into smaller storms, that would make landing on the
world easier. “What’s bothering you?”

“The intensity of the storms isn’t diminishing.” Gray punched up the viewscreen and displayed the planet. Sean gasped beside
her. Each storm had its own distinct swirl and its own eye, but the major storm systems blanketed the oceans, blocking the
entire island from view.

Sean whistled. “I’m clocking wind speeds of over four hundred miles an hour.”

Vivianne stared at the swirling eye. “This hull isn’t designed to fly in that kind of weather.”

“We’ll have to wait out the storm,” Jordan agreed, folding his arms across his chest, but she recognized the stubborn tension
running through him. He wasn’t giving up, and he wouldn’t turn back.

As if sensing her worries, George trotted onto the bridge and headed straight to her. She lifted him up, and he tried to lick
her ear.

His breath smelled like hamburger, and despite all her concerns, her stomach growled. “I’m heading to the galley for food,
then to the cabin for some rest.”

She hoped Jordan would join her. She had so many questions to ask him in private. But ever since Devid had mentioned Trendonis’s
name and then Trendonis had attacked, he’d been tense, brooding, and even less communicative than usual.

She entered the galley and accepted a salad from Knox.

The other woman grinned. “Enjoy. I never knew fresh vegetables could taste so good.” She handed her a small carafe. “Raspberry
dressing with nuts and mandarin oranges.”

Vivianne slid into a chair, drizzled the dressing over the salad, and stabbed a carrot. “When you’re hungry, almost anything
is good. But you’ve outdone yourself. This is fantastic.”

Vivianne closed her eyes and let the taste slide over her tongue. The years of hunger during her childhood had made her appreciate
good food.

“So how are you and Jordan getting along?” Knox asked.

“I don’t know.” Vivianne opened her eyes, scooped up lettuce, baby peas, and fried noodles, and took her time chewing. “He
told me not to count on him, but back there on the planet he refused to leave me behind. That could have cost us our lives.”

“Of course he wouldn’t leave you behind.” Knox sat across the table from her. “Did I mention I have six brothers?”

“You did.”

“Well, one thing I’ve learned about men is that they often say one thing and do something else.”

“And which do you listen to?”

“I go with my heart.”

Vivianne laughed. “I take it you and Darren—”

“Are going strong.” Knox sighed. “He hasn’t told me he loves me, but he does.”

“How can you be so sure?” Vivianne asked.

“When the ship went cold, he gave up his spacesuit for me.”

Maybe he would have done that for any woman. Some men were chivalrous that way. But Vivianne kept the thought to herself.
She saw no reason to ruin the dreamy look in Knox’s eyes.

When Darren entered the galley, Vivianne informed him that his shift on the bridge began soon, then she retired to the cabin
and slept. She awakened in the morning to an empty bed. But Jordan had invaded her dreams. Moisture seeped between her thighs,
and her breasts tingled.

She tossed aside a pillow, determined to ignore her needs. If Jordan had come by, he’d left no evidence of his presence.

Either something new was wrong or he was avoiding her. Maybe both.

As she stretched she expected the tingles to fade, but instead the sheet seemed to caress her skin and the scales on the insides
of her limbs undulated. Heat flushed her neck and… Damn it. Not now.

Gritting her teeth, she dressed and forced herself to think about their current situation.

Jordan had told her the Tribe leader Trendonis had destroyed his world. He’d said he knew Trendonis by reputation. But was
that the entire story? And could the animosity between them be affecting Jordan’s judgment? Would returning to Earth and using
this ship to fight the Tribes do any good?