Page 7 of The Alien's Stolen Rebel

Aside from the treasure stored here, the hangar was no better maintained than the one I’d arrived through. Piles of garbage, scavenged parts, and barrels of Void-knows-what gave cover to any potential attacker, and my shoulder blades itched under the gaze of a hypothetical shooter.

Worst of all, a maintenance hatch cover lay on the deck. Had someone else found their way here? Or just another sign of the station’s poor maintenance?

I had no time to find out, and it didn’t really matter unless someone attacked me. Still, I kept a wary eye out as I hurried across the hangar and climbed the ramp.

TheStarshadowwas as beautiful inside as out. Smooth, clean lines uncluttered by the ostentatious decorations I’d expected from an imperial pleasure yacht. Perhaps the cabins were more decadent, but the central corridor that ran the length of the ship betweenthe bridge and engine room was awe-inspiring in its simplicity.

To my relief, the bridge had the same simple aesthetic. Though the gold-plated controls looked decadent, they were all in the standard imperial layout. Of course, they didn’t respond to me when I first slid into the pilot’s seat. I pressed my codebreaker to the bioscanner mounted on the console and let it work its magic. The ship’s security had been state-of-the-art a century ago, but the entire galaxy had decades of experience cracking Vehn codes since the empire’s fall. For which I thanked the Stars, as the door I’d entered through chose that moment to spill open, heavily armed guards running in. The controls lit up, the engines thrummed, and the flight controls came to life in my hands. It felt like theStarshadowdemanded to be flown.

Some guards opened fire on the ship, plasma bolts and laser beams glancing harmlessly off theStarshadow’sdiamond shell. Stupid. If by some miracle they damaged his prize ship, Frax would reward them by skinning them alive.

The smarter guards ran straight for me. With their access codes, I couldn’t lock them out, and if they got aboard, things would get much tougher for me.

A closed hatch would slow them down while the engines came online, so I reached for the hatch controls. And froze, seeing movement out of the corner of my eye.

She was unmissable, unmistakable. Who elseaboard Caliban station would wear a dress like that? Frax’s human fiancée leaped from behind a group of barrels and sprinted for theStarshadow. My finger hovered over the switch that would lock her out.

It was the sensible thing to do. I owed her nothing. If I waited for her to reach me, so would the guards. If I wanted to take this prize, the only smart move was to seal the hatch and leave. As soon as I was on the other side of the airshield, I would be much safer.

I muttered a string of curses and checked the ship’s progress. The engine readouts were still red. A ship this powerful took time to wake up, and trying to rush it was ill-advised. It beat not using it at all, though. I hit the lateral thrusters, sending theStarshadowskidding sideways.

Warning lights sprang up, a constellation of angry stars telling me everything was wrong. The shields were still down, the weapons inoperable, and the hyperdrive hadn’t even begun spinning up. Life support had priority call on all power, leaving even the maneuvering thrusters with an intermittent charge. Local scanners were offline too, leaving me blind aside from what I saw through the diamond windows.

The hanger spun past, and I did my best to keep track of my position as I flew away from the airshield and safety. It was stupid, insane, and unlikely to work. I couldn’t even see the human as I tried to aim the ramp toward her. Collision sensors went off in every direction—maneuvering like this in a hangar was not safe and the ship wanted me to know it.

The human female reached the ramp moments ahead of the first guard. I heard the thump of someone jumping aboard, hit the hatch control, and punched the thrusters. The airshield leaped closer, and I thanked the Stars that my new companion had good instincts.

As soon as she was aboard, she’d put an airtight door between her and the still-open ramp. She should be safe there, I thought, just as we crossed the airshield into space.

Alarms sounded, warning holograms appeared, and the ship lost pressure to the main corridor. Behind me, the bridge hatch slammed shut with a loud bang.

Inside the hangar, the guards hastily pulled on spacesuits. The fastest of them were already running toward me, ready to leap across the void.

That’s a new one. Usually, it’s me boarding someone else’s ship.Their commitment to Frax was impressive. Brave, perhaps stupid, and daring. I respected that combination. It reminded me of my siblings.

Between them and the ships undoubtedly being readied for launch, I had to speed things up. Digging into the ship’s system settings, I prioritized what I needed right away. Weapons could wait, so I dropped them to the bottom of the list. Hyperdrive too, no point in it without main thrusters. Life support? Well, I needed to breathe, and so did the human. The rest of the ship didn’t need air or heat or gravity.

Those changes freed enough power to the thrusters for theStarshadowto bolt forward, and I twisted her away from Caliban, leaving a squad of guards to sailthrough the space they’d expected the ship to be. They flailed, but with no means of propulsion, they had no way to catch me.

I hoped someone would pick them up. Any soldier willing and able to leap into space for their boss deserved to be recovered, even if they were my enemies. Hell, I’d recruit them for my crew if I ever met them again.

A new error message pinged for my attention, and the thrusters cut out again. I frowned and reset it, but the error popped up as quickly as I dismissed it. Something was wrong. The engines shouldn’t take this long to power up, most systems ought to be online now.

Instead, more systems were losing power, cabin life support included. I stared at the display in horror. Had I saved the human just to kill her?

5

RACHEL

If I caught up with him, I didn’t know whether I’d thank or punch whoever was stealing my escape ship. When he’d come into the hangar, I hid, not daring to poke my head up to see who it was. Maintenance? A cleaning crew? A pirate looking for a score? I prayed for anything but the pirate. Ireallydidn’t need the ship stolen out from under me.

Then the guards arrived with a hue and cry, blasters blazing. Fuck. Definitely a pirate, then, and he was already aboard. My odds of escape dropped to almost zero.

But not quite zero. I hung onto that as I braced myself to do the impossible.

I burst from cover, sprinting for the ship as fast as I could move in my wedding dress. The guards would surely have reached it first if the thief hadn’t done something insane. Flying a spaceship inside is a careful,delicate process, but he didn’t care. He simply fired up the maneuvering thrusters and sent the ship skidding my way, ramp first.

By luck or skill, it worked. He didn’t crash into a wall, nor did he crush me flat; the ship stopped dead, one step ahead of me, and I leaped onto the ramp. The moment my feet touched it, he fired the thrusters again, and I hung on for dear life. Behind me, a guard narrowly missed his own leap onto the ramp, and I scrambled aboard the ship, diving for the nearest door. I barely made it before the ship, ramp still open, crossed the forcefield into space. Air rushed out, the door slammed shut, and I was stuck, at least until the ship’s airmakers replaced the corridor’s atmosphere.

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