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His confidence buoyed her own.

Then she looked at the display. “Calyx, one of the Scozid ships has changed course.”

His fingers flew over the controls. “What is their new trajectory?”

She swallowed. “They’re coming right at us.”

“What is the intersect point?”

She rattled off the coordinates helpfully provided by the ship’s computer as Calyx cursed.

“Strap in. We’re going to be doing evasive maneuvers.”

She pulled the straps over her shoulders and around her waist. The buckle snapped and instantly she felt trapped. Her shoulders tugged against the restraints with every breath she took.

“It’s okay, Razili. We’re not in trouble yet. The Scozid ship is larger and slower than my fighter, and I planned for this.”

Of course he did. “What’s… um… what’s the plan?” If he kept talking, she might calm down.

“Dunia Prime has several moons. We’re changing course and will tuck behind the one closest to the surface where I’ll engage the cloaking system. Then we’ll land without detection.”

“Okay,” she nodded and willed her voice to come out stronger, “okay, that sounds like a good plan.”

The look he gave her was one of pure confusion. “Of course it’s a good plan.”

She laughed. Trelxak were nothing if not cocky about their strategic abilities. At times, it was annoying, but right now it was a very good thing.

She was pushed back into her seat as he fired the thrusters and maneuvered them around the moon.

“You know,” she said with a shaky laugh, “I didn’t think I was afraid of anything until I met you.”

He smirked. “You mean your life was boring.”

She laughed and then admitted, “Yes.”

They fell silent as he swung the fighter into position behind the moon.

“Tell me when they reach the rim of the planetary system.”

She glued her eyes to the display, watching the sleek Scozid vessel inch closer to them. A flash of red made her jump. “They’re at the edge of the system.”

A shiver went up her spine as Calyx engaged the cloaking system.

It hummed to life, enveloping the fighter in a shield of invisibility.

“Are we hidden?” Razili whispered, though she knew the Scozid couldn’t hear them.

“Completely,” Calyx replied, his voice steady and reassuring. “Their scanners can’t detect us now.”

On the display, the Scozid ship continued its sweep of the area, moving in a methodical grid pattern that would eventually bring it close to their position.

“They’re searching for us,” she observed.

Calyx nodded. “Standard search protocol. They know something is here somewhere, but I don’t think they know it’s an Alliance vessel.” His hands moved confidently over the controls, making minor adjustments to their position. “But they won’t find us.”

Razili watched as he guided the fighter into the shadow of the moon, using its mass to further shield them from detection. His movements were precise, economical.

The Scozid ship moved closer to the moon, and Razili felt her heart rate spike.

“They’re going to circle the moon, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” Calyx said, his eyes never leaving the display. “But we won’t be here when they do.”

When the Scozid were on the opposite side of the moon, he fired the thrusters again, just enough to ease them away from the moon’s shadow. The fighter drifted silently, riding the gravitational currents.

“What are you doing?” Razili gripped the edges of her seat.

“Using their search pattern against them,” he explained. “They expect us to hide. So we’ll drift instead, right through the gaps in their search grid.”

She watched in amazement as the Scozid ship completed its scan of the moon and moved on, passing within kilometers of their position but never detecting them.

“That was scary. They got so close.”

He looked at her, his expression dead serious. “I will never allow you to be harmed.”

That made her pants area tingle. Again. If he didn’t stop saying things like that, she’d need to change her underwear when they landed. And this jumpsuit wasn’t easy to get in and out of.

He turned them toward Dunia Prime, keeping the fighter’s speed low to maintain the cloaking field’s integrity.

“How long until we reach the surface?” she asked.

“We’ll go slow to not regain their notice. About an hour.”

Razili nodded and slowly released her death grip on the seat.

She felt safe with Calyx. She couldn’t remember the last time she truly felt safe. Even on Earth, before she’d joined the Shangris crew, she’d had a level of awareness. The feeling she should always be looking behind her. But with him, she could relax. He would watch her back.

She wanted to have sex with him. Not just to ease his rhun , but because she liked him. She wasn’t in love with him, but the idea that she could be was growing in the back of her mind.

She should be thinking about gathering samples, vetting them for viability and then collecting enough to ensure she could finish synthesizing the compound. Instead, her mind swirled with thoughts of Calyx.

His voice startled her when he spoke again. “We’re approaching the planet.”

Dunia Prime filled the viewscreen, swirled with white clouds and dotted with small landmasses.

“It’s beautiful,” she murmured.

“And more dangerous than we thought,” Calyx replied. “The Scozid outposts in the northern hemisphere appear active, though no less in disrepair.”

“But we’d already planned to land in the south, right?”

He nodded. “We’ll land approximately twelve kilometers from our potential sample site, in a dense area that should conceal the ship.”

The descent was smooth until they hit the atmosphere. Then turbulence rattled the small fighter, and Razili white-knuckled the edges of her seat again.

“Normal atmospheric interference,” Calyx reassured her, his hands steady on the controls. “The cloaking system is still functioning, but it’ll run out soon. We need to land before that happens.”

She tried to nod, but another jolt made her teeth clack together. “Does it always shake this much?”

“No,” he admitted. “This planet has unusually strong ionic disturbances in its upper atmosphere that weren’t mentioned in any of the available knowledge. But that benefits us—the natural interference provides additional security against detection.”

Calyx guided them through the worst of it like he was on a Sunday drive. Through gaps in the purple clouds, she could see vast stretches of dense, dark green forest.

“Initiating landing sequence,” he announced, toggling several switches. “Prepare for touchdown.”

The fighter descended through the cloud layer. Below them stretched a sea of emerald treetops, unbroken except for occasional clearings and a winding bright purple river that cut through the wilderness.

“It’s gorgeous,” she breathed.

“And isolated,” Calyx added. “Perfect for our purposes.”

He brought the ship down in a small clearing barely large enough to fit the fighter. Tree branches scraped against the hull as they settled, and then the engines powered down, leaving them in near silence broken only by the soft pings of cooling metal.

“We’ve arrived,” he said, unbuckling his harness.

Excitement and nervousness poured through Razili. Now that they were here, the enormity of what they were doing hit her. Unauthorized landing on a restricted planet. Potential confrontation with the Scozid. The pressure of finding the one thing she needed to complete the compound.

“Second thoughts?” Calyx asked, reading her hesitation.

She squared her shoulders. “No. I came here to find the thing I need, and I’m going to get it.”

He offered her the ghost of a smile. “Good. Because I didn’t fly through a Scozid patrol and atmospheric turbulence just to turn around.”

She laughed. “No, I suppose you didn’t.” She unclipped her harness and stood. “What’s our plan now?”

“We gather our equipment, secure the ship, and begin our trek to the sample area.” He turned to a storage compartment and began removing items. She let the sight of his tight ass distract her for a moment before she mentally slapped her cheeks and grabbed her collection bag, stuffing her tablet inside.

“Are we there yet?”

She asked the same question every few minutes. After the fourth time, Calyx figured out she wasn’t asking for their exact position, just assurances that she was doing good and they’d get there soon.

“Almost. Would you like to rest?”

“No,” she grumbled, “I just want to get there.”

Strands of hair had escaped her tight bun and waved around her face. At least the atmosphere was breathable and the surface cool. She couldn’t imagine how miserable she’d be if they’d had to wear air suppliers or if it was oppressively warm.

“Only another few minutes and we’ll reach the clearing.”

“Thank stars.”

When he looked back to check on her, she hiked her bag on her shoulder and gave him a thumbs up and a crooked grin. “Doing great boss!”

His head tilted and she knew he was trying to figure out if she was being genuine or sarcastic. She’d laugh at him, but it would take too much energy.

So far, they hadn’t encountered any fauna, just endless stretches of flora.

She’d taken samples of the different types they’d seen, but since the original compound came from the gruthji , she suspected her solution would be found in the fauna.

There had to be animals on the planet. She couldn’t imagine the Scozid eliminating them.

Experimenting on them, yes. But you can’t experiment without subjects.

Calyx swiped at a branch with his zikal. The long, thin blade cleared their path with ease. His gra?j was strapped to his back, and she hoped they wouldn’t need to use the gun.

He lifted the blade to strike at another obstacle when a shadow separated from a nearby tree and flowed over them. She spun, tracking the movement, but she couldn’t see anything. There was a shadow, which meant something cast it.

Calyx had also stilled, tracking its movement.