Katie ignored the numerous looks being sent her way as her small team of men settled into the back of the shuttlecraft. Orion knew why she was there, of course, and the other two, Bystrom and Mikolos, had been briefed, but they seemed uncomfortable with the idea of her flying them instead of Arkyn or Zakota.

“Sorry, kids,” she muttered to herself, though she wasn’t truly sorry. “Your people are short on pilots.”

“This is it?” Mikolos asked, pointing to a black case sitting innocuously on the deck in the back.

He was younger than Katie had thought at first, especially for a man identified as an expert sniper. Because of his stern visage and arms full of tattoos of thorny vines, spaceships, and angular markings, she had taken him for thirty-something, but as he gazed doubtfully down at the case, she decided he was in his early twenties.

“Yeah, secure it in the back for the ride,” Orion said. “It might be a bumpy one.”

No kidding. As Katie and Orion had walked toward the shuttle bay, the first hits had rocked the warship, striking hard enough to make the deck quake through the shields.

When she’d told Zakota to keep them alive until she got to launch her shuttle, she had been joking, but perhaps there had been more truth to the scenario than she’d imagined.

Katie ran her checks on the shuttle console, though she couldn’t read any of the statistics that floated past in Zi’i. Mostly, she wanted the men to think she was quietly and capably doing important pilot things. In truth, she’d hit the equivalent of the ignition and tapped the spot that brought up the surround-cockpit display, and that was all she had to do until the bay doors opened, and she flew out. She’d already done the same thing in the other shuttle, under the curious eyes of the three men Zakota had selected for his team.

Another hit struck the ship, rocking the deck.

“The warhead is secured,” Mikolos said, patting the casing. He’d found some straps that came out of a wall to hold it.

“Are we secured?” Bystrom asked. He was the green-haired ensign that had guarded the rec room when Katie and the other women had first come on board.

“I don’t know,” Mikolos said. “Maybe we should comm Zakota and check.”

“Zakota is busy right now,” Orion said, pulling the hatch shut.

The lights in the bay went out, leaving it illuminated only by the soft glow of the shuttles’ running lights.

“Playing with the light switches?” Katie asked.

“Getting fired at.”

She drummed her fingers, wondering how they were supposed to know when it was time to take the shuttles out. The sensors didn’t seem to work that well from inside the bay. What was going on out there? She wished she knew.

“Is anyone else concerned that she’s flying us into battle?” Bystrom whispered.

He kept his voice low, clearly not intending for Katie to hear, but she heard it, anyway. Her cheeks warmed, and she kept her back to the men, hoping they would shut up.

“Yeah,” Mikolos murmured back. “I don’t trust… not qualified.”

“…we’re just ensigns, but shouldn’t we… Zakota?”

“Maybe he’s thinking with his…”

“Then his cock could get us killed.”

Katie took a bracing breath, turned toward them, and leveled a frosty stare in their direction. Orion was leaning against the hatch and hadn’t been a part of the conversation, but he was closer to the two ensigns than she was, so he must have heard it.

“If you wouldn’t mind whispering louder,” Katie said, “that would be useful. I can’t hear all of the words.”

The two men hesitated and exchanged looks. She thought they might feel sheepish over having been caught and confronted, but Mikolos lifted his chin.

“With all due respect, ma’am, you’re not qualified to pilot a spaceship, and this isn’t a simple shuttle run to a station bay.”

“I’ve already mastered station bays,” she snapped, squinting at Orion and daring him to say otherwise. He was the only one of them who had been there for that landing. A landing that would have gone smoothly if the freighter hadn’t blocked the way. But surely she’d proven she could maneuver a shuttle through tight spots with that move.

The ensigns exchanged looks again, neither of them appearing convinced.

“This is already damn close to a suicide mission, ma’am,” Mikolos said, glancing toward the secured warhead. “And that’s fine, because that’s what we agreed to when we signed on, but with an inexperienced pilot at the helm, we might not even make it into the Zi’i weapons platform. If we don’t get a shot at placing that explosive, then we will have sacrificed our lives for nothing.”

“I’ll get you there,” Katie said slowly, holding his gaze and hoping her determination counted for something.

If she could step back and detach herself from her emotions, she might acknowledge that they had a logical reason to be scared. They hadn’t seen her fly and had no reason to trust her abilities, but she trusted her abilities, damn it. So far, the only weird thing about flying in space was that a ship kept moving even if she turned the thrusters off. It didn’t stop until she reversed the thrusters and took them in another direction. It had been tricky to get used to, but she’d had experience with it on the simulators, and she’d done fine maneuvering at the station.

“You’re not a Star Guardian, and you don’t even have a civilian pilot’s license,” Bystrom said, his eyes tight.

She sensed that they didn’t want to be rude to her—no doubt, they’d had military courtesies and manners drilled into them over the years—but they were afraid for their lives and that made their tongues frank.

“I flew fighter jets in my military back home,” she said, but then switched tracks—arguing her abilities wasn’t doing anything. “And who else is going to fly? Your captain doesn’t have enough pilots for all the ships you now possess. Zakota is flying the other shuttle, and your Lieutenant Arkyn is flying the warship.”

“Orion,” Mikolos and Bystrom said at the same time.

Katie scowled at them, certain they’d discussed it earlier.

Orion’s eyebrows arched, but he didn’t jump into the conversation. Katie wished he would. If Juanita had been the one here with a pilot’s license back home, he would have defended her. Katie had no doubt.

“He hasn’t flown a Zi’i shuttle,” Katie said. “I have.”

“For twenty minutes,” Bystrom grumbled, looking toward the deck.

“It was at least forty.” She smiled, though she felt no humor. Maybe they would see the smile as confidence, though, and have more faith. “And I spent time on the simulator before the shuttle left the dock for the first time.”

“I’ll wager the simulator didn’t involve flying into tiny shafts on giant Zi’i weapons platforms.”

“It involved being chased by enemies through an asteroid field. Close enough.” She decided not to mention the part where she’d hit the self-destruct button at the end and blown up her own ship.

The comm beeped, and Katie was glad for the interruption. The ensigns were growing more open, with fewer ma’ams in their words.

“You ready, Katie?” Zakota asked over the comm as a slash of light fell into the dark shuttle bay outside. A door opening.

Zakota jogged through it, waved toward her shuttle, and headed for the other one.

Something struck the warship, and the deck jolted again. Katie gripped the console for support. Outside, Zakota flailed and caught his balance.

“I’m ready,” Katie said. “Are the bay doors going to have the power to open to let us out of here?”

Unlike the space station with its forcefield, the Zi’i shuttle bay had giant doors that slid open and closed.

“Let’s hope so.” Zakota disappeared around the nose of his shuttle.

“That didn’t sound reassuring,” she said.

At least the corridor outside had power, meaning the whole ship wasn’t offline.

Something else struck the vessel, and this time, the jolt threw her away from the console and off her box. She would have hit the deck, but Orion caught her by the shoulders. He pushed her back toward the console, then came to stand beside her, as if he would help with the flying.

“Thanks,” she said, but she also scowled at him. “I can handle getting us out of here.”

“I’m just here for backup,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at the two ensigns.

Katie refused to look back at them, though she could imagine them sighing in relief. To think that Zakota had given her the half of the combat team that was less likely to cause trouble.

“You might fall off your box again,” Orion added, smiling at her.

She wasn’t in the mood to be smiled at. She tapped the controls and lifted the shuttle to hover above the deck, their nose pointing toward the still-closed doors. The walls in the dark bay shuddered again—the warship taking another hit—and she realized she should have lifted them off the deck earlier.

To the side, Zakota’s shuttle also lifted into the air.

“Haven’t received the transmission from the Falcon yet,” Zakota said over the comm. “I saw that they’re insanely busy out there, so I’m not surprised, but we’re going to have to get out of here before something happens to the warship and we can’t leave.”

“Is that likely?” Katie asked—did the harshness of all those hits mean the shields had dropped?

“It’s gotten ugly as we’ve flown closer to the weapons platform. Some of the Zi’i warships fell back from the front lines and are coming in to protect it. I think Captain Sagitta’s appearance has got them extra twitchy.”

“He’s just one man,” Orion said, and Katie thought she heard a hint of bitterness in his voice. The younger brother feeling jealous of the more accomplished older brother?

Right now, it sounded like Sagitta’s reputation was more of a hindrance than a help.

“They’re expecting him to have a trick dagger in his sheath,” Zakota said. “I was listening to some of the unencrypted comm chatter, and it sounds like the Zi’i know he took out the original leader of this expedition when we got this warship. Get ready, Katie. I’m de-pressurizing the bay and opening the doors. It’s going to be a risky flight, but we have to go now. Poor Arkyn is flying through a minefield up there.”

“Ready,” she said, and flexed her fingers over the controls.

For the first time, nerves stole over her, and she grew aware of her heart beating in her ears. None of the men were speaking now, leaving it oddly quiet in the shuttle. She could hear heavy breathing and wasn’t sure if it belonged to them, or if it was her own.

Alerts informed her when the gravity and atmosphere disappeared from the bay. Soon after, the doors slid slowly open.

She could see the cube in the distance, smaller than it had been on the view screen on the bridge—someone must have been magnifying it then. Now she looked at it through open space. Mostly open. Ships flew about ahead of them, and streaks of white, blue, orange, and red en-bolts flashed against the black backdrop of space.

Even though she wasn’t that familiar with Confederation ship design, she could pick out the enemy and the ally craft without trouble. The Zi’i favored the black hull and the fang shape, for their giant warships as well as their shuttles and smaller craft. Unfortunately, far more of those leering Zi’i vessels were in view than the Confederation ones.

“How can your people be outnumbered in your own system?” Katie whispered.

“They were caught by surprise,” Orion said grimly.

“At any given time, two-thirds of the space fleet is out in the galaxy, exploring and patrolling our borders,” Zakota added as he flew his shuttle out between the doors.

“If they’re guarding their borders, how come they didn’t see this coming?” Katie asked.

“You know why,” Zakota said. “You were there. The Zi’i came in through a back door that has heretofore been inaccessible to them and to us.”

As soon as Zakota cleared the doors, Katie nudged her shuttle after his.

“It’s got to be killing Sage that he didn’t get back in time to warn our people,” Orion said. The earlier jealously had faded from his voice, and he sounded genuinely sympathetic.

Now concentrating on flying, Katie let the conversation drop.

White light flashed from nearby, an energy beam shooting toward the warship. Lasers? Phasers? She had no idea what the Zi’i weapons were called, but her heart lurched as this one slammed into the hull above the shuttle bay. The hull, not a shield.

“You might as well get out of here, Arkyn,” Zakota said over the comm. “You’re not going to be any good without shields, and there’s a limit to how many hits even that burly tank of a ship can take.”

Did Arkyn answer? If he did, Katie didn’t hear it, but maybe her comm wasn’t plugged in to the bridge. The warship did not veer off.

“Arkyn?” Zakota prompted. “You hear me? Back off. They shouldn’t keep attacking if you’re clearly out of the fight.”

“What do you think your odds are of making it through that minefield in two unshielded shuttles without something to distract the enemy?” Arkyn asked.

“We’re small. They might not notice us.”

“Doubtful. I’m going to keep going. I’ll cover you. Kiss my belly, both of you. It’s unlikely anyone will notice you down there.”

“Arkyn, did you forget that I have seniority over you?”

“I’m sure the captain would want me to protect you. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m busy up here. Arkyn, out.”

Zakota cursed, but he did as the other officer had suggested. Instead of trying to race ahead of the warship, he fell behind, flying under its hulking shadow.

Though the idea of hiding under someone else’s skirts grated at Katie, she did the same thing. As the ensigns had pointed out, if the combat team didn’t make it to the cube so they could deploy their weapons, then this was all for naught.

She nestled them right under the hull of the warship, flying beside Zakota’s shuttle.

A fire falcon ship flew into view, spinning and diving as two Zi’i warships chased it. The Falcon 8? Or were there other Star Guardian ships here?

The fire falcon returned fire, but it looked harried, maybe even damaged as it tried to keep out of the warships’ sights. All of the Confederation ships looked harried.

Some of them took potshots at the cube as they sailed past, but nothing seemed to bother it.

“This is not looking good,” Mikolos whispered.

“I hate situations like this,” Bystrom whispered back. “I’m a fighter, but there’s nothing I can do from the butt end of a shuttle. We’re supposed to be out hunting down criminals, Mikos. This isn’t what I signed on for.”

Flashes of white came from somewhere above the warship. From underneath it, Katie couldn’t see what caused them, and it took her a second to find it on the sensors. There. Two Zi’i warships were heading toward the Star Striker.

Arkyn returned fire, normal energy beams, not Hierax’s super weapon. He seemed determined to save that for a good use. Katie couldn’t blame him, but what if the warship was destroyed before it could get to that good use? Wouldn’t it be better to at least take one extra enemy vessel out?

“Arkyn,” Zakota said over the comm, his voice tense. “You’re taking damage.”

“Thanks for the update, LT,” came the equally tense response. “Just worry about your mission.”

The warship surged ahead, and Katie had to jam her fingers into the gel to accelerate to keep up. Vibrations thrummed through the shuttle as it reached its maximum thruster output.

The good news was that the cube was growing larger on the holographic display. The bad news was that the Star Striker was still getting hammered. Arkyn returned fire, but he wasn’t performing any evasive maneuvers. Did he worry that he would expose the shuttles if he did?

“Zakota,” she said, “tell him we can keep kissing his belly if he’s flying evasively. I’m good at belly-kissing.”

“Later on, I’ll let that fact get me excited,” Zakota said.

He must have relayed the message—or maybe Arkyn was monitoring and had heard it—because the big warship started swooping about more. A visible hitch marked its movements, and Katie realized one of its four thrusters was out. Not just out—blown off. Hell, the warship had taken all manner of damage. Pieces of the hull tumbled off behind it as it flew.

She and Zakota had to stick close, or they might be struck by that debris.

As they zigzagged, staying below the warship, they passed more wreckage, an entire lifeless Confederation ship, its starboard side charred and mangled. It was a sobering reminder that things weren’t going well for humanity. When Katie had volunteered to help, it hadn’t occurred to her that she was going into battle on the losing side.

A spectacular flash of white and yellow brightened the display, and Katie squinted and looked away. Only for a second, but when she looked back, the warship had shifted routes. She was in danger of flying the shuttle out from under its cover.

No, she realized numbly. It hadn’t changed its route. It had been knocked out of it. All of the thrusters had stopped working, and the entire ship had gone dark. Its momentum carried it away from its earlier path.

Katie kept her shuttle under it even though they were flying away from the cube now. She figured they should stay with it in the hope that the two warships would think they had defeated all their enemies in the area and go away.

But Zakota spoke over the comm as she noticed he was flying out from underneath the damaged warship. “Move, Katie. Get out of there!”

The urgency in his voice kept her from questioning him. She hit full acceleration again, aiming the shuttle back toward the cube.

“Get out of there, Arkyn,” Zakota yelled. “There are escape pods in the back, Deck 3.”

As Katie flew away from the warship, it fired something. Not an en-bolt but a glowing torpedo. The second of Hierax’s two weapons.

The projectile sailed toward the closest warship, the hulking Zi’i craft blocking out the sun. It fired one thruster to move to the side, but it was so close to the Star Striker that it didn’t have time to move out of the way. The torpedo slammed into its bottom shield, and Katie’s sensors told her that the protective field around the warship dropped immediately. And the torpedo continued through. As before, it struck the hull of the Zi’i warship and embedded there.

A flare of power showed up on her sensors, like a blazing ball of white fire. The warship disintegrated before her eyes.

The second Zi’i warship, floating right above it, fired its thrusters and reared back like a stallion. But it also shot its weapons. Two beams of energy slammed into the unshielded, damaged Star Striker. Had Arkyn run to some escape pod as soon as he fired that torpedo? Would he get out in time?

Pinpoint energy beams struck the back of the Star Striker, not quick bursts but steady streams that poured into the engine section.

“Do we fire at that ship, Zakota?” Katie whispered.

They were flying away from the warships, heading toward the cube while Arkyn bought them time, but maybe they were still in weapons range.

Before Zakota could reply, the Star Striker blew. The hull exploded, sending shrapnel in a million directions.

The remains of the ship hung limply in space, lifeless.

“Arkyn,” Zakota barked over the comm. “Arkyn, did you make it out?”

Katie watched his shuttle on her sensors, thinking he might turn back. If there was some escape pod to pick up, would he go for it now? Or wait until they’d accomplished their mission?

“Arkyn!”

As far as Katie could tell, the lieutenant did not respond, and dread settled in her gut. It had been her idea for Arkyn to stay behind.

“There wasn’t time,” Orion said quietly from her side. “He couldn’t have fired that torpedo and made it back to the escape pods. And the sensors didn’t show one being launched.” He sighed, pointing to the display. “He bought us time with his life.”

Katie barely knew the man, but tears formed in her eyes.

“But did he buy us enough time?” Zakota asked.

One of the warships harrying them had been destroyed, but the second turned, its fang-like nose pointing toward them. Its multiple thrusters fired, and it gave chase.

Katie looked bleakly at the controls in front of her, as if she might suddenly figure out some way to increase their speed, but she already had them at maximum power. And it wasn’t enough.

The warship was gaining on them.