Andi’s gaze fell on a pair of jagged orange claws that just barely poked out from beneath the sofa, ready to ensnare an ankle. Gilly’s bloodthirsty puffball of a feline had grown increasingly problematic in the weeks without its owner, destroying cables, gnawing through the foot of Dex’s cot and leaving piles of stinking waste all over the engine room.
She was beginning to wish that the Fellibrag had been left behind on Arcardius, but naturally, Gilly had made sure Havoc was safely tucked aboard the ship before assuming her guard duties at the Ucatoria Ball. And now it was up to Andi to make sure Gilly’s beloved pet somehow survived the next few weeks, until they could come up with a plan to rescue her and the other girls.
“Getting the mission done is always the hard part,” Lon said, drawing Andi back into the conversation at hand, smiling morosely as their eyes met. His fingertips trailed dangerously close to the edge of the Adhiran cowhide couch, where Havoc swatted and missed.
Andi leaned back into the cushions, sighing deeply. The wound on her chest no longer hurt when she breathed, which was the only positive progress she seemed to have made in the three weeks since she’d awoken.
Andi knew she was being overly dramatic, and that they weren’t completely at a dead end. A few days ago, they’d finally had their first breakthrough. Dex had managed to secure a connection to the galactic feed, which was essential to their plans.
Unfortunately, that connection had only confirmed their worst fears.
The world they once knew was far gone. Endless propaganda now littered the feeds, Nor Solis the figurehead of this new world. Her reign of compulsive power had spread to every system, from Phelexos to the farthest reaches of Tavina. Hiding out in the nebula may have kept them safe from the virus, but that protection also made Andi feel incredibly alone.
Isolated. Hopeless.
But she would not accept defeat. Not when the lives of her girls were at risk.
“Okay, let’s lay out what we know already,” Andi said, needing everything clarified once more before they did...who knows what, she thought. They couldn’t move forward with any of the plans they’d concocted thus far without more information.
Lon tapped a command into the holoscreen on the coffee table and pulled up a picture of a young man with green hair and dark skin. He would have looked like any other person she might pass on the streets of any city in the galaxy—if it weren’t for the network of silver veins glowing beneath the surface of his skin.
Andi had seen this photo before. They all had. The first time she saw it, the sight had puzzled her to the core. She was very familiar with body modification, but had never seen anything like this in all her travels across Mirabel.
“People infected with the virus are left with a visible marker of the compulsion—those silver veins,” Dex said wearily, as Lon pulled up other photos of people with a similar mod. “Which makes things more than a bit difficult for us. We can’t just waltz into Arcardius and get the girls back. It would be obvious that we’re not under Nor’s mind control.”
“We would be captured and infected, too,” Andi said, understanding his point.
“Not we,” Lon said, eyeing them both. Andi and Dex had both been shot with the virus during the Ucatoria Ball. They hadn’t been affected the way the others were, which they all hoped meant Dex and Andi were somehow immune. Lon, on the other hand, had never been exposed to it, and Andi wasn’t willing to risk his freedom on the vague hope that he might be resistant to the virus, as well.
Besides, since Lira wasn’t immune, then it was unlikely Lon was, either. He was Lira’s twin, her counterpart, half of Lira’s heart.
And if Andi saw him fall, some part of her knew it would be like losing Lira all over again. He was part of her crew now—and he was the only one who could feed Havoc without risking dismemberment. The hideous creature had grown to love Lon, in its own demented way, and didn’t claw Lon’s arms to ribbons nearly as much as it did her and Dex.
Andi could hear Havoc purring from beneath the couch, ready to strike again.
It was a cunning move, those silver veins—something Andi had to grudgingly admire, as much as it complicated things for them. Still, there had to be some holes in Nor’s master plan, and Andi relished the thought of blasting them wide open.
Dex rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Stubble had started to shadow his face, and Andi tried not to dwell on how attractive she found it. He’d had a beard during the year they’d spent together, after she fled Arcardius the first time, and Andi couldn’t help being reminded of the happier times in their relationship when she looked at him now.
He pulled up their brainstorming sheet with a tap of two fingers. “Well, I think out of these three ideas...none of them will work in the current climate.”
Then Dex wiped the screen clean, erasing the mission plans they’d so carefully drafted together during countless hours of work over the past three weeks.
“Dex, you’re as bad as Alfie sometimes!” Andi snapped, all feelings of nostalgia disappearing in the wake of her aggravation at him.
“Well, seeing as he’s not here,” Dex said, eyeing the silver holoband encircling his wrist, “someone has to fill in for the time being.”
The AI had been dismembered during their short stay at Averia, where General Cortas and his family had once lived. Andi had managed to save his memory chip, knowing that Alfie had gathered vital information about Valen’s blood and DNA when he’d tested him on their ship after leaving Lunamere.
And though Alfie’s chip was now tucked away in Dex’s holoband, they hadn’t yet been able to resurrect the AI by connecting him to the galactic feeds. He’d remained as useless as ever, and likely would until they left the nebula, when he was able to get a real connection.
Andi snatched the holoscreen away and undid Dex’s action, saving the document. But even as she did so, Andi couldn’t help feeling that Dex was right—the more she looked at their ideas, the more she wondered if any of them could actually work.
1. Dress up as Xen Pterran soldiers, sneak onto Arcardius and kidnap the girls.
Andi thought this plan of Dex’s could potentially work—if they had clearance, which they did not. Plus, she had a faint inkling that he just wanted to don a disguise, like the top shows on the social feeds. Those were all gone now, Nor having erased the social aspects of the feeds, replacing them with her propaganda.
Dex was always one for theatrics. But she knew better than ever now that theatrics rarely worked in real life.
After all, playing the part of the Bloody Baroness only ever got people killed.
Then there was Lon’s all too reasonable idea.
2. Negotiate
If they had something to bargain with, it could work...but all they had were a few guns and her ship, which was not up for negotiation. She would even go as far as to offer Nor her life for those of her crew, but she doubted Nor wanted her dead that badly. Andi was no one. Just a ghost lost to the stars, as far as the galaxy was concerned. Valen, on the other hand...