“We’re down to backup power and reserve oxygen,” Raphael was back online, but his voice was faint, the transmission patchy and crackling with static. “Our main powerbank was damaged by a blast-surge. It’s nothing Monroe can’t fix, but it’ll take some time. You’d better rug up, because I’m going to kill the heat, and as you’ve probably already noticed, I’ve dimmed the lights and reduced the internal gravity.” He sighed. “Jumping through the Netherverse uses a lot of energy, but at least we shot out of there at phenomenal speed, so we’ll keep moving without too much effort. I’m running a location scan. I’ll give you an update as soon as I get our bearings. In the meantime, try not to breathe too much. Monroe’s located the air-leak and plugged it, but we lost a big chunk of our air reserves. Space sucks.”

“It’s one hell of a vacuum,” Calexa said dryly as she jumped down into the armory, bypassing the ladder and landing lightly on her feet. She’d left S in the main passenger bay with her terrified human servants. The Primean had been unexpectedly gentle with the women as she tried to calm them down.

Zahra greeted Calexa with a lazy half-wave. She was standing in front of a neatly arranged row of weapons racks, her grey-green eyes narrowed. “The blast-cartridges are all fully charged, but once they’re depleted, we won’t have any juice left until Monroe gets the powerbanks back online. We’ll be down to naked blades and our fists… that’s if we actually encounter anyone to fight in the first place. Why do I always assume everyone else in the Universe is hostile?”

“Comes with the territory.” Calexa scanned the impressive collection of weapons, her lips quirking into a wry smile as she attempted to lighten the mood. “Remember when we couldn’t even afford a decent armory? You were so desperate for a blast-weapon you stole a Zarakian warlord’s photon multiplier.”

“That thing ended up being a total piece of shit.” Zahra rolled her eyes. “Those Zarakians aren’t really as badass as they look. I don’t get what all the fuss—”

“Hey, Cal?” Raphael’s voice cut through their conversation like a lightblade. “Are you near a monitor?”

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“Turn it on, now.”

“What’s the problem?”

“I don’t know how that thing evaded our surveillance. It just appeared out of nowhere.” Raphael’s subdued tone sent a warning prickle down the back of Calexa’s neck. Her navigator was normally as cool-as-ice, but now he sounded… afraid.

Calexa waved her hand across the surveillance monitor to activate it. No response. She slammed her fist into the wall and the ancient thing flickered to life.

“Oh, bloody hell,” she whispered, going still.

Zahra swore.

“What the hell is that?” Calexa croaked. She stared at the screen in disbelief. Maybe she was seeing things; a side-effect of the dropping oxygen concentration.

A ship floated before them. It was unlike anything she’d seen before.

The monitor seemed to strain under the weight of the immense craft. It glided past silently, ominously, an endless mass of smooth metal and slow-blinking lights.

A chill ran through Calexa, raising goosebumps along her forearms. The cabin’s rapidly plummeting temperature didn’t help. “Zoom out. I want to get an idea of how big this thing is.”

“Hold on…” Zahra played with the controls, entering a swift string of commands. “Let me just…” She frowned, a look of intense concentration crossing her features. She zoomed out once, then twice, then three times.

The alien ship completely filled the screen. It had no beginning and no end. It had swallowed the stars.

“How big is this thing?” Calexa rubbed her arms, trying to ward off the cold. She shifted on her feet, ignoring the dull ache that started at the base of her spine and wormed its way into her shoulder blades. It was a familiar sensation. Cold and fatigue didn’t sit well with her bionic vertebral implants.

Zahra shook her head in disbelief. “It’s bigger than any spacecraft I’ve seen before, and I’ve been around.” Nothing much could faze Zahra Maleki, but now she looked totally spooked. “It’s strange that they haven’t tried to make contact yet. If they’re anything but hostile, I’ll eat my fucking combat suit.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I don’t recognize the design, Cal. I’ve seen everything from giant Bardak freighters to those spooky Vor Dhanu battleships, and this ain’t none of those. What the hell are we supposed to do now, Captain?”

“We’re running on backup power. We’ve taken critical damage. I’ve got a passenger bay full of terrified humans who are indentured to one weird-ass Primean, and we don’t have fixed co-ordinates…” Calexa turned away from the monitor and began to pace. Her bionic joints loosened with the movement, her strides becoming fluid and powerful as kinetic motion kicked in. She massaged her temples, trying to clear her thoughts. “For once, I’ve got nothing. There’s no way we can fight that. We can’t outrun it either. We don’t have enough energy left to power the jump-drive.”

“In other words, we’re screwed.” Zahra wasn’t the type to sugar-coat things.

“I’m sorry, Zahra.” Frustration coursed through Calexa as she locked eyes with her friend. “I’m out of ideas.”

Before them, the massive alien ship continued to drift across the monitor. Calexa didn’t give voice to the obvious.

Space was a dark and empty place indeed, and out on the far reaches of the Universe, ships went missing from time to time. They could die here, or worse. Beyond the stars, there existed fates worse than death.

Especially for humans.

Zahra placed a consoling hand on Calexa’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault, Cal. There was no way we could have predicted those Paxnath would appear out of nowhere, or that they’d be traveling in a bloody fleet. They never travel in fleets. We barely made it out of there in one piece, but at least we’re alive.”

“For now. Fucking Paxnath. We should have waited for a safer job. Anything involving those goddamned Primeans always ends up getting complicated.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it, Cal. The higher the risk, the higher the reward. If not for that Paxnath ambush, we would have pulled it off and found our way out of the Fiveways for good. It was a big-money job for a reason, a once-in-a-century kind of thing.”

“Shit.” Calexa grappled with fear and self-doubt. “I was hoping to get them to Torandor within the fortnight, not deliver our passengers into the jaws of some mysterious alien super-race.”

“Super-race?”

“Look at that thing. What kind of beings do you think are capable of creating something so huge?” She could see the edge of the ship now. It was all straight lines and sharp angles, a giant blade slicing through the obsidian fabric of the Universe. No living creature should be able to create something so monstrous.

A metallic groan echoed through the cabin and the Medusa listed to one side. As the floor went diagonal under Calexa’s feet, she glanced at the navigation screens in alarm. “What the hell’s happening?”

“Something’s overriding our momentum.” Raphael sounded eerily detached. Suddenly, the dim backup lighting died and the charge-lights on the weapons rack went out, shrouding them in shadow. “Don’t mind the blackout. I’m temporarily redirecting all power to the thrusters, but the drag-force is too—” Abruptly, the comm died.

The alien craft on the monitor grew bigger and bigger, swallowing up the screen.

“It’s pulling us in, isn’t it?”

Zahra nodded. In the faint silvery glow of the monitor, her expression was calm, but her hands trembled slightly. “Some sort of electromagnetic drag-field would be my guess.”

The monitor blinked out.

“Shit.”

Squinting in the near-darkness, Calexa pulled her PX-45 from its holster and checked the energy clip. She did it without thinking, the reflexive action giving her a fleeting sense of control. A thin row of blue lights flickered along the clip; it was fully charged. She snapped it back into its receiver and selected another weapon—a frag-grenade—from the weapons rack before turning toward the bridge-side exit. She needed to get to the observation dome so she could see what the hell was going on.

“Maybe they’ll be friendly?” Zahra’s teeth flashed in the darkness as Calexa looked over her shoulder. “A benevolent species with higher intelligence. I’ve always wanted to encounter a race of enlightened beings.”

“When has that ever turned out to be the case? The Universe is populated with assholes and you know it. All we can do is prepare for the worst.”

“And hope for the best?”

“And try to get out of this alive… and free.”

“And if that’s not an option?”

They shared a silent look of understanding. “You know all my hangups, Zar. I don’t deal well with subjugation.”

Neither of them dared say what was really on their minds; that deep down, they were absolutely terrified of what would happen next.