Why do we have to go?”

Nalini groaned. “I thought you hated Fruja.”

“Sure, I hate Fruja. But running in the middle of the night without even packing my stuff isn’t what I had in mind.”

“Then pack! You have two minutes.”

Nothing she owned held any sentimental value to her. Before getting to Itri, she’d managed to sell her healing skills to some people willing to pay a fair amount for a decent healer who didn’t ask questions. She’d used most of what she’d made to buy her ship, but she still had a little money hidden here and there. She picked it up from under their chest of drawers, behind their sofas, and under their mattresses as Kronos kept on fussing over his meager possessions.

“Okay, ready?” she asked.

“Yep.”

For all his fussing, the kid was quick at least.

“Let’s go.”

He trotted along, following her as she jogged down to the swamp where she’d hidden her ship.

The Whistle hadn’t been a modern model when she’d bought it seven years ago; now, it was dreadfully outdated, but it ran. She’d kept her fueled up just in case. It seemed she was fated to have the most powerful male in their sector looking for her.

“Come on. In.”

“Where are we even going?” the boy moaned as the trapdoor closed behind them.

She ruffled his wavy hair. He could moan as much as he wanted today. He was alive. That was all that mattered.

“I’ll let you know when we get there.”

“Who was that officer? He wore a white uniform. I’ve never seen one like that. Looked so cool!”

“I doubt it was a uniform.”

“Well, it wasn’t an exosuit, but it was cut like the—”

“Get your stuff in your cabin and meet me in command. I need a copilot.”

He was too busy yelling in delight to keep talking of Kai. Good thing, too. Nalini couldn’t bear to think of him right now. If she could help it, she’d never think of him again.

She fired up the Whistle before opening up a holographic map of the galaxy. The known universe lit up in blue, calculating routes from her location to any of the inhabitable planets. There were so many. Millions of planets, hundreds of thousands of systems. She could go anywhere. She wanted to run to the end of the galaxy.

Hands shaking, Nalini opened up the Ratna Belt. Nine systems. Thirty planets.

Kai had found her on Itri. He’d guess that she’d pick another hideout like her small village next. That was her first instinct, but she repressed it. Instead, she pulled up the very last system where anyone would think to look for her.

“Vratis?”

Kronos was quick.

“We’re going to Vratis?” half incredulous, half ecstatic, the boy yelled, “Wicked!”

She quickly ran through the job calls recently sent through the most boring parts of the system.

“Don’t get excited. We’re headed to Maul, in the farisles, east of the torrent. They’re calling for cargo transporters. At least this old bucket of rust is big enough for that. But that’s pretty quiet.”

“And still a hundred million times better than Fruja,” he argued.

The boy wasn’t wrong. She pulled up the job, and commed in to the station noted as the job coordinator. No one really applied as a transporter; they didn’t need qualifications, just a decent ship with enough room for the load. Thieves knew better than to attempt to take official cargos; they generally had trackers hidden inside the load.

As long as no one had called before her, the job would be hers. As it had only been posted a few minutes ago, she had a fair chance of getting it.

Surprisingly, the communication, went through.

“Nali Black of The Whistle, a Cn-1771,” she introduced herself, “answering call 471 in the Ratna database. You need pilots, I hear?”

She didn’t expect an immediate answer; who knew what time it was over there? She hadn’t checked.

“Warris Bair of Maul, Vratis. Damn, a Cn? Are they even making those anymore?”

“Not these last two decades, I don’t think. If she’s suitable for what you need, I’ll head over to your post right now.”

“She’ll do. We’re just trying to move belongings, and people, from this sector to the Empire. With what’s happening, bunch of folks have started to migrate. Great time to get into real estate, if you ask me.”

Nalini hesitated. Did she want to go anywhere near the Imperials at all?

But at least, Imperials weren’t actively looking for her.

“I’ll be there at 0612 according to my flight plan. Clearance codes would help.”

“You got it, Whistle. Bair, out.”

She stopped the communication, removed the comm device at her jaw, and passed over a series of numbers to Kronos.

“There, enter the coordinates.”

She purposefully left him to it without hovering; checking after his work in a few minutes wouldn’t hurt. The kid did good, entering each number accurately. Good thing, too, or they might have found themselves at the other end of the galaxy.

“What’s next?” she asked.

Kronos’s little face crunched up in concentration, then he activated all their shields, their artificial gravity, and air dispensers before saying, “Time for warp.”

Nali smiled, grateful for the distraction. She undid her belt and got up from the captain’s chair. “Come on, you do it. You’ve earned it.”

The boy seamlessly got their ship to light speed.

Now that they were safely on their way, reality hit like a thousand punches. Suddenly, she was very, very tired. And just as afraid to sleep.

“Well done. You wanna go get some rest? We’ll have to pass through customs in five hours.”

“Okay, but wake me up for landing!”

“I promise.”

They weren’t an affectionate pair, but she still pulled him to her as he passed her by. He didn’t even complain.

Too soon, though, he was gone, and she was alone.

Truly alone.

She’d shut the connection, that bond, that link that had been so much of a constant it was almost a part of her. Now there was a wall firmly in place between Kai and her. For good reasons.

She was afraid. Petrified. Not because of what Kai’s enforcer had done to Kronos, although that would have been enough to make just about anyone panic. Not because she’d seen Kai bring the child back to life, an impossibility which made it clear just how powerful the male really was.

She was afraid because the moment when their hands touched, she’d finally seen it. The future, and the past that had eluded her for over a decade. The reasons why she had been inherently terrified of him from the start.

She’d seen it as clearly as she saw the console flashing before her eyes to indicate that their sensor didn’t discern any threat ahead.

The goldish, misty matter created out of nowhere by Kai’s hand. She’d seen it destroy ships. Thousands of ships, gone after one single deadly blow.

It was Starfire. She’d touched it. Felt it. Tonight it had been soft and warm, unthreatening, and used for good. Used to ignite a spark in the broken, lifeless body of a boy.

But her vision showed a cloaked creature—a woman, she thought—using it in the past, lighting up the skies and crushing all those ships into nothing. And then, clearly, she saw it again, used by Kai, this time. Against a star.

He would destroy a star.

That wouldn’t have petrified her as much, had she not seen herself standing right next to him.

No. That wasn’t who she was. She couldn’t be.

Nalini wasn’t one to turn her nose up at those who killed to live. That simple equation, she understood. In this world, sometimes one had to pull the trigger to survive. She could live with the guilt of ending a life for self-preservation. Most people did it every day when they ate another living organism to survive. But destroying a star? Condemning an entire system—various planets, everyone and everything on them?

She closed her eyes.

It wasn’t going to happen. It just wasn’t.

But how often had her clear, specific visions been wrong?