* * *
The blast rocked the small shuttle, the two Prillon warriors shouting curses as they were tossed around like bouncing balls in the back. When they regained their feet, the eldest of the two cousins strapped himself in to the co-pilot’s seat.
“Where is your mate, Dorian?”
I checked the scans and searched the screen before me. Saw nothing. “I don’t know.”
The comm line opened and I knew who it was before I heard Seth’s voice. “Tell me Chloe wasn’t in the middle of that blast.”
“I don’t know. We’re searching for her now.” I didn’t need to tell him how desperate I was to find her. He could feel it.
“Keep me posted.” Seth closed the link but I paid him no attention, my entire being focused on finding the only woman in the galaxy who mattered to me right now. My brave, fearless mate.
“I see something.” The Prillon next to me pointed to his sensors and enlarged the screen. It was Chloe, the back of her armor charred and frayed. And she was hanging onto Angh’s back, dragging him with her. Relief flooded me at the sight of her, alive.
The warlord appeared to be unconscious.
What the fuck had happened out there?
“They’re still on the other side of the net.”
“Can you get a reading on their life signs?” I asked. The co-pilot ran his hands over the controls, re-linking the ship’s system to the armored space suits Chloe and Anghar wore.
“Anghar is critical. Oxygen low. His suit is losing pressure and his core body temperature is too low.”
Fuck. “What about Chloe?” She wasn’t Commander Phan at the moment. Not to me. She was mine. Chloe. My mate.
“Oxygen low. She’s not as cold, but she’s running out of air.”
“How much time do they have left?” I asked.
He scanned the control panel. “Less than five minutes.”
“I’m going after them. Either of you don’t want to come along, jump in a space suit and go the other direction.”
My co-pilot grunted as if insulted, and his cousin knelt on the floor behind us. “You’ll have to ram the net. I will put on a flight suit and get ready to retrieve them.” The Prillon warrior rose, walked to the back of the shuttle and started to put on a space suit like the ones Anghar and Chloe wore. I’d have to get him close enough to pull them in.
“We should fire at the net first,” my co-pilot said. “This ship has a few weapons.”
I reached for the ion blaster controls. “Brace yourselves. We’re going in hot.”
“Excellent.” The Prillon roared behind us as I opened fire, careful to aim away from where my mate drifted, practically helpless.
The blast hit and amazingly, the hub exploded, a burst of energy traveling along previously invisible lines to the next hub…and the next. The entire net went down in a cascade of red fire and explosions of sound so loud they rocked the small shuttle. The ripple effect of each blast pushed Angjar and Chloe farther and farther away from the shuttle.
“I’m going through.”
“Do it.” The Prillon behind me slammed his hand down on the manual control, sealing me and the co-pilot inside as the back of the shuttle emptied of atmosphere. He was hooked to a secure point just inside the exterior doors, the cold dark of space stretched out before him as I raced toward the net.
“Contact in 3, 2, 1.”
The hull of the shuttle rammed the blasted remains of one of the net’s hubs. The engine strained and I pushed through until the structure shattered.
I reached for the comm even as I raced to my mate. “Commander Karter, this is Captain Kanakar.”
“Go ahead, Captain.” The commander’s voice was clipped, all business, and I could hear the chaos of battle on the control deck of the Battleship.
“The net is down, sir. The battlegroup is clear to push through.”