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“I’m getting that bounty money, Talis Critas,” he said, palm caked with whiskey, blood, and glass. He walked toward the exit.
“They’ll just murder you,” I said. “If you’re even granted access to their planet, you are a human, vastly inferior to so many of us in the universe. And you—you’re inferior to your own kind. They will take me, kill you, and stand me on trial. You will have failed.”
“A deal is a deal,” he said.
He wouldn’t make it there to get the money, anyway. Even if he did survive the trip and their brutality, what kind of a life could he make? I had no doubt he was running through those thoughts in his mind without really studying the consequences. He was so cunning at times, but his greed was strong.
“Just leave Mia alone,” I said. “Whatever you decide to do, this is about me.”
He stopped and didn’t even turn. Facing the door, he just laughed. “Mia? That pretty little sunflower? How do you expect me to hold back on that one?”
I was tiring. Hung in the air, I could feel my blood flow cold. It was hard to keep my eyes open for more than a few seconds at a time. I was wanted, dead or alive, and he was leaving me here to die.
Cade walked over to a screen on the exit door. He punched in a few numbers, before the lights flashed over our heads. Soon enough, the alarm systems blared like a screaming heartbeat:
“Emergency shutdown period has begun. Please initiate offline sequence overhaul or all systems will be terminated.”
Layered in red-and-white glaring lights, I closed my eyes and shook my head. The last month had been the worst in history.
I was giving up. In a few minutes, the ship would self-destruct. All the food would perish. The oxygen levels would begin to decrease. Those in the cryo-chamber would suffocate in their plastic body bags, woken from a nightmare, knowing one thing only: the people of Earth had failed.
Cade grabbed the crowbar and headed for the exit. Before he got through the door, he stopped and smiled. “You know what? Screw the bounty. This ship is going down, but yours is attached to the cargo hold, right? I’m thinking that I take sweet Mia. Who knows? Maybe we find a way out of this mess.”
They would die from his insolence. My child would eat its way through her womb before they could get out of here.
“When I find you, I’m going to ruin your body. I’m going to erase you from this universe. Do you hear me?”
Cade stopped, but he merely laughed.
He left. He was going to find my woman. I was powerless to stop him.
This was how it felt to be in love. An eternal fire, biting close to your ankles.
Despite my failures, there was still time. I heard the sound of footsteps coming from the other end. A person shrouded in darkness appeared. As the figure limped past the sequenced lights from the computers, they came out of the darkness, carefully wielding an assault rifle. She was covered in blood, and nearly fell over when she saw me.
“Juliana?”
“Help me,” she whimpered.
But just before I could get her to explain, I looked up.
Everything seemed to slow down. Cade appeared one last time. “On second thought, you can both take the bounty and shove it.”
He waved, and I watched his other arm crack the airlock loose. As soon as the door whooshed open, he ran, diving down into the ducts underneath the platform.
“Juliana!” I screamed. “Hold on, dammit!”
The door opened, and that’s when our bodies flew out into the vast darkness of space.
12
Mia
Running.
Running. The center starts to chip.
It will not hold.
