Jadis.
Betta.
Their thoughts were as one, their breathing as one, and the rush of fluid, memories, and emotions gathered between them, coursed through them, and brought a new beating heart into being. Its cries of sentience became a part of the two, now three, and also one.
We made a child. Our child.
It was difficult to identify whose thoughts were forefront. In the end, the emotions were the same, an outpouring of desire, love, pain, fear, and pride. It was obvious that this state could not be maintained. There were flaws and they would unravel slowly over time.
It can be saved.
It was painful. Every pore—every nerve ending—cried out as one. They reabsorbed all that had come from them until there were two again, and one. The last parting was the more painful. Their minds and emotions disentangled as the connections dissolved and the wings fell away to dust.
Jadis and Betta floated in the zero gee, arms clasped around one another, each body seeking comfort in the other that was no longer possible. When he made to pull away, Betta brought him in close, smashing her face against his scaled chest.
“No!” She screamed and wept, the emptiness at her core burned a searing pain through her.
Jadis wanted to echo her scream. Instead, he held her tighter, loosening his grip after a few moments, worried he might hurt her. “We saved it. We can bring it back. When we’re ready.”
Betta forced her next cry down, her fists tight on his shoulders. She was going to argue with him, tell him that he didn’t understand, but she knew, without understanding how, that he did understand. The alarms went off next and the gravity slowly returned to the room.
Reluctantly, they separated. Both noted the shredded state of their clothing, revealing glimpses of dark flesh covered in sweat.
Jadis brought up his interface and Betta swiveled the console to herself. She knew all of his access codes, how to access every system, and anything else she needed to know about Jadis’s ship. Not only that, she knew D’yanna. She knew her as if she were her own childhood friend. More importantly, she knew exactly what Jadis wanted done.
“I’m not showing any ships in range. What’s the alarm?” Betta asked.
“Debris,” Jadis said softly. “You—”
Betta swallowed down her fear. “I’m magnifying.”
Jadis duplicated her screens to his interface. A piece of debris floated past that could have been a part of the station. Not for the first time, he wished he’d opted for the long-range scanners when he still had flush accounts on the darkNet. “Ship’s time says we were… thirty hours?”
Betta’s console beeped and she brought up multiple messages from the feds, from Teena, from Manager Tylen, and even from the Queen of Five herself. “Looks like we have a lot of catching up to do.”
“Betta—”
“Not now.” Her voice went quiet. “Not now, Jadis. Let’s figure this out. We’ll talk later.”
“I’m just so sorry!” He burst into tears. What was wrong with him?
“It’s not your fault. Stop blaming yourself. Now, let’s see if we can save our stations before His Majesty has to intervene.” Betta sent a connection request to Teena.
Chapter Ten
Separate
“Betta!” Teena’s face was a mixture of relief and fear. “Are you okay? Where is that bastard! What did he do to you?”
Betta considered her words, looking from Jadis’s sour face to Teena’s impudent one. An array of memories that were not her own flashed through her mind. “You know, you only have yourself to blame for the way she thinks of you. If you want a better relationship with her, you’ll have to continue to show her that you’re not that person. And how could you ask about Andy?”
Jadis only nodded.
“I’m fine,” she said to the holographic image. “We had some technical issues that cut off our comms. I’ll explain later. Jadis has been a very good host, surprisingly. Do we have an idea of what happened to the power stations? All we see is debris so far.”
“The Queen of Five happened. The station is under repair currently. There were a few Antogin workers on the primary power station. There were two casualties. The Antogin in question damaged their communication array. They have been subdued and are being held in the brig. The feds have charges against them all. The Queen of Five has a lot to answer for.”
The pain was as strong as a sledgehammer sliding into her skull. Both Jadis and Betta flinched at the same time.
“Sensors,” Betta commanded.
Jadis nodded. “Tatical.”
Betta brought up the sensors as well as live footage of the hull. Even for it being a cheap ship, she allowed that Jadis made good choices for upgrades. Orienting her view on a shadow near the cargo bay doors, she was able to make out an Antogin in a space suit crawling along the hull.
Alarms cascaded across the console. She reminded herself to tell Jadis there were quieter ways to do this. “Cargo Bay Two. Starboard!”
Betta reached below the captain’s chair and tossed Jadis a pulse pistol and grabbed one for herself. He caught the weapon easily, disengaging the safety and charging the mechanism. She laughed at how easily their shared memories became a part of them, though her heart squeezed with fear. Jadis joined her with a grunt of approval as they rounded the corner to the cargo bay.
The titanium doors were magnetically sealed against the vacuum that resided on the other side.
“Couldn’t be a transparent door?” Betta sighed. “Space suits?”
Jadis was already in the supply closet, reaching for the only two spacesuits he owned. He’d only tried them on for fun, and they were tight along his lower section. Betta had to help him seal the flaps and check the levels. Minutes later they were ready to depressurize the ship and open it to vacuum.
They never got the chance. The door burst open in a blast of sparks and debris. The vacuum sucked the remnants of the door and Betta into the cargo bay in a blur. She extended her pulse pistol, counting as she blurred through the smoky interior. From her perspective, time slowed again and she caught a flicker at the corner of her eye. It was enough for her to point, aim, and fire at least two pulses before she was thrown entirely into empty space.
Orienting herself, Betta pulsed a few blasts from her pack in order to get a better view of Jadis’s ship, The Endeavor. She smiled at the memory of finding it at an old mining junkyard hidden between two moons. The amount of bargaining, favors traded, and bribes given just to get access to the junkyard was extraordinary. But Jadis never gave up.
She allowed a few more pulses to stop her acceleration. The Endeavor finally came into view. A few pieces of debris hurtled past her. She was pretty far out. Nearly five kilometers according to the readout on her display. Betta could just make out the hole the Antogin cut into the ship. There was more debris drifting out from the cargo hold.
Betta nearly struck herself in the head. Turning on her comms, she called into the dark. “Jadis! Jadis! Can you hear me? Jadis!”
Silence. Static. “Glad… alive! Kind of busy here. Think you can get back in the ship and help?”
Betta studied the controls again. The diagrams that she called up pointed out that the ship was still accelerating. What she wouldn’t give to have Jadis’s ability to mentally call up the ships systems.
“Jadis. I need you to slow the ship or I’m not going to make it back. Jadis! Do you copy that?”
Again silence. Were they experiencing some sort of delay? Betta began her trajectory. She aimed for far ahead of the bow in anticipation that it would take the ship some time to slow. The calculations the suit handed her were questionable. It couldn’t account for the ship’s deceleration, and she didn’t have the time to work out the solution herself. Another look at the control diagram and Betta released one long pulse from her pack. Her fuel level was reduced to seventy percent while her oxygen levels were already at sixty.