G'baena's Pirates (19 page)

Devlin nodded. “The oxygen should remain at least until we enter the planet’s upper atmosphere. Be out of there before then. I don’t fancy explaining to Trey how his brother ended up a frozen prince-icle.”

Ben laughed as he left the room, but Devlin was quickly distracted by yet another problem, this time with the inertial modifiers. Fucking tin can of a spacecraft! Without the inertial modifiers online, they wouldn’t be able to go much faster than a few hundred kilometers an hour, and then only if everyone was strapped into place. He didn’t even want to imagine the agony it would cause someone with broken ribs. Double fuck! They couldn’t take off until he had the damn things online.

“Ben,” he called, hoping the man was still in hearing range. “What’s Trey’s ETA?”

“About half an hour, give or take,” Ben said, as he came back into the helm of the small craft. “What’s wrong?”

Damn empaths. Devlin was doing a great job of hiding his agitation in a physical sense, but he couldn’t hope to fool Ben’s empathic senses.

“I have a problem with the inertial dampeners and the environmental systems. Drag everything you can into this area, especially food, bedding, and clothing. We’ll have to make do with this space for now. Maybe I can fix the environmental controls on route, but the inertial modifiers need priority, or we’ll be one very slow moving target.”

Ben nodded, moving quickly to gather as many supplies as they could cram into the small space. Devlin barely noticed Ben’s hurried movements as he concentrated on identifying and fixing the ship’s problems. He breathed a little easier when he found propulsion and navigation working correctly.

Just two issues to deal with.

* * * *

G’baena could feel Kam’s agitation. So could her sisters. She pulled the girls closer together, grateful at least that her mother was sleeping. Whatever painkiller the medical assistant had given her for the night was working brilliantly. Thank the goddess for small favors.

“Please state your purpose for flying in this area,” an official sounding voice boomed through the ship’s comms. G’baena’s fear threatened to overwhelm her, but she wrestled the emotion back under control, needing to have a clear head if she was required to defend her family.

Kam looked calm. He wasn’t, but he’d managed to control his body language so that he looked it, exactly the way Devlin did under stress. G’baena shook her head at the strange observations she made under stress.

“This is transport seven-seven-niner.” Trey’s voice was steady, but he spoke with an accent, rolling his consonants as he spoke. “I have a couple of passengers I am hoping you could help me with. I think they enjoyed their business meeting just a little too much, and both look ready to regurgitate their dinner.” He paused a moment and then said dramatically, “Aww, shit, make that
have
regurgitated their dinner. Oh, goddess, that stinks. I would mighty appreciate you taking them off my hands.”

“Negative,” came the quick reply.

“Aww, shit, they just yakked again, and they already gave me the wrong address twice. Can you escort them home or somethin’?”

“Negative. If they cannot remember where they live, drop them at the nearest Jjedere Station.”

The Jjedere vehicle moved away from them without contacting them again. G’baena breathed a quick sigh of relief and shook her head at Trey’s ingenuity. Maybe they’d get off the planet without incident.

* * * *

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Devlin mumbled under his breath. He was so frustrated he wanted to kick something, preferably this hunk of worthless metal laughably called a spaceship. Every time he fixed one problem, it caused another, and he scrambled to fix them all in time. He stopped, though, when he noticed his hands were shaking. He couldn’t afford to let his family down. He’d finally found them and had every intention of keeping it that way. He took a deep breath, finding that iron calm that had helped him through many crises, and went back to work.

* * * *

“Kam,” Trey said calmly. “We have several more problems heading our way. I’m guessing our fugitive status already hit the news. Make sure the women are wearing the safety harnesses. Things are about to get bumpy.”

Kam moved immediately to help G’baena, G’darlee, and G’deece into the emergency harnesses. Flynn cried out but mercifully stayed asleep as he maneuvered her into a sitting position and secured the straps tightly. He hoped that the snug fit might hold her still enough to protect her ribs.

He checked his weapons and then moved to the cockpit to check Trey’s. He barely managed to control the urge to tap his fingers agitatedly against his thigh as he watched the approaching blips on the radar screen.

This wasn’t good.

* * * *

“Dev, they’re coming in hot.” Ben didn’t sound worried, but they’d both been pirates long enough to know that “hot” was not good.

“Do we know how many?” Devlin asked, as he continued to work with the ship’s systems to get inertial modifiers online. Ben sat at the ship’s radar console, flicking through various scans and images before finding the one they needed.

“Six,” he said, with just a hint of worry.

“What the fuck happened?”

* * * *

“Bae, do you remember the basic weapons training Dev gave you?”

She nodded, equal amounts of determination and panic clashing in her gut. Kam took a small stun pistol from inside his jacket and handed her the weapon.

“Safety is already unlocked. All you have to do is point and shoot.”

She nodded again, anger replacing her fear. All she was doing was trying to protect her family, and she’d stun as many Jjedere as she needed to make sure her mother and sisters were safe.

G’baena held her breath, her heart pounding wildly, as the transport craft lurched drunkenly.

“Ben,” she heard Trey say into the communicator. “We’re not going to be able to outrun them. Is the ship ready?”

“Negative, but Dev has a plan. We’ll meet you at these coordinates.”

Kam didn’t move a muscle, but she felt his worry when he glanced at the coordinates. G’baena had no idea what the numbers meant, but judging by the emotions coming from Kam and Trey, it wasn’t good.

* * * *

“Have you ever done this before?”

Dev shook his head, denying the fear that beat at the back of his brain. His calculations needed to be perfect. Everyone he loved was on that transport, and he refused to let them down. He ran the diagnostic again, satisfied that the ship’s systems could withstand his desperate plan.

“Go,” he said to Ben, as he continued his work to get the inertial dampeners online.

He felt every movement as the ship lifted off the ground and hovered momentarily. Devlin glanced at the pile of supplies that Ben had dragged in earlier and hoped to hell that the fucking things didn’t shift and bury him when the ship moved at speed.

“I’ve got the cloaking technology running for the moment. The reflection of G’trobia’s twin suns should make us invisible physically as well as on radar, but I don’t know if my patch job will hold for long. Don’t waste a moment.”

Devlin braced himself as Trey set the course to the rendezvous point and engaged the engines. Everything that wasn’t held down slid toward the back of the room, but thankfully, Devlin managed to keep his footing and avoid the clutter.

“Ben, ETA two minutes,” Trey reported.

“We’ll be there.”

* * * *

Kam trusted Devlin with his life, with his heart, and with his and G’baena’s future. He knew that the man he loved wouldn’t take unnecessary risks. If Devlin believed that intercepting their small transport craft midair was the safest way to rescue them from the authorities who pursued them, Kam trusted him to do it.

A soft calm stole through him as he watched the radar screen. Two other Jjedere vehicles joined the pursuit, making eight in total. They were only a few hundred meters from the coordinates Devlin had sent them.

“Now.” Ben’s voice sounded so confident that even Trey seemed to relax just a little as he cut all power. Kam felt the ship begin to freefall. Their forward momentum and the aerodynamic design of the vehicle meant they fell in a wide arc toward the ground, but they were definitely falling, and thanks to the fact that Ben had needed to disable the emergency systems so that he could cut all power, they had no hope of getting the transport running again.

If Devlin’s plan failed...

Chapter Fourteen

“Cargo hold doors are open, and the cloak is still functioning,” Ben said, as Devlin took the ship’s controls and matched their speed and trajectory to the falling transport. He knew they didn’t have much time, seconds at most. As the smaller vehicle fell, it picked up speed. The more speed, the heavier the landing would be, and the greater the chance of the transport punching through the ship’s cargo hold and killing them all.

“Got them,” he said, glancing at the screen showing the inside of the cargo bay to confirm visually. The small craft seemed to hover in the large area but was still falling, the illusion created by the fact that this ship followed the same downward path. Devlin carefully adjusted the heading, bringing the transport into physical contact with the cargo bay floor. He continued to adjust their speed and trajectory gradually until the transport was no longer falling. Only then did he chance a smile.

Sweat trickled down Devlin’s spine. The whole maneuver had taken less than twenty seconds but had felt much, much longer.

“The Jjedere vehicles have abandoned pursuit,” Ben reported happily. “Apparently, a transport disappearing before their eyes has caused some confusion.”

Devlin smiled, relief making his laugh just a little louder than he’d intended.

“Apparently,” he agreed. “But let’s get out of here before the cloak fails.”

Ben nodded and took back helm control.

* * * *

“What?” G’baena demanded when she saw the relief on Kam’s face. They were being chased by goddess only knew how many Jjedere, and the man was happy.

“Dev has us,” Kam replied with a wide smile.

“I don’t understand. How does he ‘have’ us? We’re still moving.”

“True, but—” His explanation was cut off by the outer door being opened.

G’baena’s finger was on the trigger of the stun pistol, but Kam’s warm hand wrapped over hers and gently removed the weapon from her grip. And then Devlin was there, his strong arms wrapping them both as she tried to understand where he’d come from.

She started to cry, her relief and confusion conspiring to turn her into a blubbering female. Goddess, she hated that.

“It’s all right, baby girl,” Devlin whispered into her ear. “We’re almost home.”

She nodded, rubbing her cheek against the soft material of his shirt, inhaling his familiar scent. “I’m sorry,” she managed to mumble, as she swiped at the tears with the back of her hands.

“It’s been a rough few days,” he said, as she pulled from his embrace. “I think you’re entitled to a few tears.” She sniffed, trying to control the urge to throw herself into his embrace again and never let go.

“What do we need to do?” she asked, feeling proud that the words were at least clear.

He nodded, and she could feel his genuine approval, but she needed to stay strong, not to please him, but to be true to the person she wanted to be, the person her freedom gave her the choice to be.

“I need you and Kam to get Flynn and the girls and as many supplies as you can into the forward compartment. The ship has a few minor problems, so it’s going to be a cramped trip.” She nodded, not really caring if she had to sit on the floor under the pilot’s console as long as she was close to Devlin and Kam. Sharing space with her mother, sisters, and the two men she’d once been betrothed to paled in significance when compared to what could’ve happened.

She hugged Devlin quickly and then turned to reassure her sisters. She felt, rather than saw, Kam and Devlin embrace, and then Devlin was gone. She sucked in a huge, determined breath and then bent to check on her mother, determined to get everything done as quickly as possible.

* * * *

“Keep us on this heading,” Devlin said, as he walked back onto the bridge. He ducked under the console to the left, undid the panel, and found the problem. Such a small little connection, but enough to keep them practically crawling. He fixed the connection, reset the diagnostic program, and waited. As soon as it beeped the all clear, he reset the inertial modifiers, and immediately, all feeling of motion stopped.