Plasma fire scorched the air above her head as she ducked back inside and he threw himself in after her, slamming the hatch shut behind him.
“Strap in!” He was already moving towards the cockpit, ignoring the blood streaming from a gash on his arm. “They’ll have reinforcements coming!”
She raced to the passenger seat, secured Ari in the emergency harness they’d rigged for her, and buckled herself in just as theVagabond’sengines roared to life.
The ship lurched. Through the viewscreen, he saw the fallen Grorn, and more Grorn pouring into the docking bay, but then they were out into the black. The asteroid’s scarred surface fell away beneath them, shrinking to a grey smudge against the endless dark.
“They’re launching,” he said, his voice tight as he manipulated the controls. “One ship, maybe two. They’ll try to intercept before we can make hyperspace.”
“Can we outrun them?”
“In open space? No.” His lips curved in something that wasn’t quite a smile. “Good thing we’re not in open space. Hold on,” he warned as the viewscreen filled with tumbling rock.
The asteroid belt stretched around them in every direction—a chaotic maze of spinning debris, some pieces the size of houses, others the size of mountains. TheVagabonddove into it without hesitation, banking hard around a chunk of iron ore, threading between two smaller fragments that scraped close enough to leave marks on the hull.
The ship rolled. Twisted. Dropped into a gap that looked far too narrow and emerged on the other side with centimeters to spare. Behind them, he caught a glimpse of two sleek black vessels, faster and more maneuverable than theVagabond.
But he wasn’t trying to evade them. He was leading them.
“There,” he growled. “Come on, you bastards. Follow me.”
Another impossible turn. Another gap that shouldn’t have been a gap. TheVagabondscreamed through the asteroid belt like a creature born to it. One of the pursuing ships clipped an asteroid, and he saw the flash of the impact and the vessel spinning out of control before vanishing from view. The second ship pulled back, hesitating at the edge of the densest cluster.
And then they were through.
Clear space opened ahead of them and he immediately threw them into hyperdrive.
The stars stretched into lines. The asteroid belt vanished. And they were free.
For a long moment,no one spoke.
Emma sat in her seat, Ari cradled against her chest, and tried to remember how to breathe normally. The baby had already fallen asleep—the steady thrum of the hyperdrive apparently more soothing than terrifying. Her small face was peaceful, her silver skin catching the soft light of the cabin.
Doren hadn’t moved from the pilot’s chair. His hands still rested on the controls, though there was nothing to control now. TheVagabondflew itself in hyperspace, following whatever course he’d programmed before the jump.
She could see his reflection in the darkened viewscreen. The set of his jaw, the tension in his shoulders, the way his ears lay flat against his skull. He looked... shaken. Genuinely shaken, in a way she’d never seen before.
“Doren.”
He didn’t respond.
“Doren.”
Finally, he turned. His blue eyes met hers, and she saw something in them that made her chest ache. Fear. Not the adrenaline-fueled fear of combat, but something deeper. Something that lingered.
“I almost lost you.” His voice was rough. “Both of you. If I’d been five minutes later?—”
“But you weren’t.”
“If the grenade hadn’t worked?—”
“But it did.”
He shook his head, pushing up from the chair. The movement was jerky and graceless—so unlike his usual fluid motion that it alarmed her more than anything else.
“I shouldn’t have brought you here.” He paced the small cabin, his tail lashing behind him. “I knew it was dangerous. I knew the Grorn might be searching for the same artifacts. I brought you anyway because I was so goddamn obsessed with finding the Vault that I?—”
“Stop. I’m fine. Our daughter is fine.”
