Page 22 of Hijack! (Cosmic Connections Cruise #1)

The distortion screamed. Or maybe it was the ship screaming.

Felicity was ninety percent sure it wasn’t her. But only because she didn’t have the breath.

The plasma seething through the capacitorus was blindingly bright, but more than that, it seemed to charge the air, as if she were standing in thick pudding—and gulping futilely.

Ellix’s voice was in her head, and it took her a frantic moment to realize it was the comm fitted to the bone behind her ear. “It’s too late. Felicity, you have to get out.”

As if the plasmic pudding meant nothing to him, he strode to her, clamping his hands on her hips. Was he going to kiss her again? Seemed like an odd time, but that hadn’t stopped them yet…

Instead, he slung her around toward the scaffolding where they’d climbed into the center of the torus. “The capacitorus is pulling more power to counteract the distortion, but we’re still accelerating. If the engines blow from the strain, we’ll lose the ship.”

Clinging to the makeshift ladder, she glanced over her shoulder. In the white light, the feelings button she’d stuck to the inner wall was a tiny black hole crackling with acid yellow—like the fear and panic she’d struggled with all her life had been given shape and color.

But it was the anomaly suffering. She knew what that felt like.

“This was a mistake. We’re making things worse.

” Standing on the raised frame, she was at eyelevel with Ellix.

Maybe that gave her more confidence that she deserved.

“We have to do something else. But we know the wavelengths now, so maybe we can talk to it, make it understand it’s hijacked us.

” She stretched out her hand to him. “I know you shot your way out of a pirate trap—”

“Technically, they shot themselves,” he muttered.

“But this is different.”

She wanted to argue more, but the shriek of the engines—or the distortion or the ship itself—drowned out any further chance of discussion. Ellix’s eye was brilliant gold, like his feelings button had been. What that meant…

He plucked her off the scaffold, swinging her around once, kissing her all the while, before settling her back on her boots. He touched the datpad on his wrist, mouthing the word nay to whoever was on the other end; it seemed the device Suvan had given him for remote control had failed.

Of course it had. Such detached efforts would always fail. She’d left Earth because she’d realized she couldn’t be captain of her own destiny from a distance.

Ellix gestured toward either end of the torus where the conduits connected, with cables wired to both the interior and exterior walls, and he mimed yanking the cords simultaneously.

Then he imitated taking a deep breath and letting it go slowly before he smiled at her, or at least as much as a Kufzasin could smile.

So he was freaking out too.

At least they were getting pretty good at this extraterrestrial communications stuff.

She launched herself at him to kiss him once—hard, no time for tongue—then raced to the other side of the torus.

The hollow where they stood was too wide to reach both sets of cables at once. They couldn’t even reach each other.

She pivoted to face him, and he stood to one side of his conduit, showing his hand on the largest cable then pointing to her. Her side had the same setup, and she grabbed the thick cord. It vibrated in her hand, not in a fun way, rattling her tendons with a warning of the force inside.

She met his gaze again, across the distance between them, wishing she’d had the courage to tell him…

Wait, she’d just tell him later.

Together, they pulled the plugs.

+ + +

It was dark except for brief glimpses of colors she didn’t have words for. Felicity was floating, untethered and peaceful. Had they accidentally blown the engine module into space? Was she dead?

Had she missed the chance to ask Ellix about the bright gold of the button he’d handed to her?

Where the belonging?

It came again, that whisper in the dark. She’d first heard it in the corridor outside the Starlit Salon when the anomaly appeared, although there’d been no words.

There were still no words, she realized abruptly, just a feeling, like a hand reaching out in the dark, hoping to touch something, anything…

Before she could reach back, gold bloomed around the edges of her vision.

“Felicity? Azeeli!”

She blinked a dozen times, trying to bring the world back into focus. “Ellix?”

“Ah, bless the infinite stars. Are you hurt?”

One more blink and his lion-man visage shimmered above her. “Where are we?”

His eye narrowed. “In the torus. On the Love Boat I. Did you hit your head? Do you know who you are?” His big paw cradled her skull, his other arm wrapped behind her shoulders.

She nodded into his hand. “And I know who you are.”

He shuddered out a breath. “Stay still until I can get a med scan to clear you.”

“I’m not hurt. I just…” She struggled to sit upright, and with a low grumble, he supported her. But sure enough, they were exactly where they’d been except she was sprawled in his arms. “What happened?”

“The blowback of disconnecting knocked you to the ground. I feared you were…” Tenderly, he tightened his grip on her, holding her close to his chest. Through the disheveled fur of his mane, his heart pounded against her. “You feel no pain?”

“I did. But it wasn’t mine, I don’t think.” She touched the back of her head. No lump, just tender. Had she even really heard that whisper? “Are you all right?”

“Aye, except for the scare you gave me.” He brushed a lock of hair back from her forehead. “Again. But it worked this time. We isolated the distortion.”

He leaned sideways, letting her peer around his broad shoulder. The glowing electrons that had been circling wildly through the torus were frozen now and dim.

Caught within were streamers of shadow. A hand stuck in mid reach.

She bit her lip. “Is that the anomaly?”

“It’s only caught, like a stasis, not nullified. And I’m not sure how long the situation will remain stable. It moved through our systems before, so it could hijack this containment too.”

Fisting his fur, she levered herself to her knees. “At least we have a chance now.”

“A chance for wha—?”

Threading her fingers through his whiskers, she crashed her mouth down over his.

With him sitting and her on her knees, they were mouth to mouth. And this moment deserved a victory kiss. They’d stopped their runaway ship, and they would figure out the rest too. She’d overcome her fears, both real and imagined, and she deserved this kiss.

As he wrapped his powerful arms around her and raised them to their feet, Felicity swore to herself she’d always find a way to stand up not to him—he was still her captain, after all—but with him. They’d get through the rest of this haunted cruise together.

When he settled her lightly on her boots, arms still entwined, she gazed up at him. Her heart beat a little faster. And it felt good to be alive in his embrace. “After we get back, would you like to go on a date?”

He blinked down at her as if surprised, but the way his cats-eye pupil dilated, she knew he was getting ready to tease her. “A date?” he drawled. “Why wait?”

Oh. So not teasing.

As he helped her clamber over the scaffolding, his datpad chimed. “Captain?” Suvan’s gravely voice was tentative. “Are you, eh…?”

“Alive? Aye. And the anomaly is contained.” Over the sound of cheers, he added, “For the moment.” Ellix lifted her down from the last step, and they both contemplated the suspended shadow within the torus.

“While our systems are clear, we need to pin down our location and initiate a rescue request, without attracting the attention of the zone’s denizens. ”

“Already underway,” Suvan said. “We knew this would succeed.”

Felicity grinned at Ellix. “Good work, everyone.”

While he peppered the crew with more tasks, she updated poor Ikaryo, stuck with their guests, and ended with “On my way.” Because it was her job and she was good at it.

When she wasn’t kissing the captain anyway.

Outside the engine module, he dropped her hand and they both paused, looking at each other.

His whiskers swept forward. “See you later?”

“Aye.”

And they parted, him toward the command module, her to the lifepods. But when she glanced back, he was already watching for her. She smiled, her heart soaring.

Holding onto that feeling kept her going through a marathon session of reassuring the passengers, reviewing supplies with Chef Styr, and working with Griiek to hastily prep the staterooms for emergency occupancy.

There was worry of course and some complaining from everyone, but she got them settled into rooms—with snacks.

To her surprise, Remy was the most accepting of their hijacked journey. “I mean, the brochure did say to stay open to unexpected possibilities, so…”

Felicity shook her head, bemused. “I wrote that. Although this wasn’t what I meant.”

“Of course it wasn’t. Or it would’ve been expected.”

Much later—since this was only supposed to be a three-hour tour, she hadn’t been keeping track of the time—she finally dragged herself to the room she’d assigned herself.

But when she palmed the door and caught a hint of lion-man musk, her energy came surging back. “Oh no. Is this bunk already taken?”

“ I am taken. By you, no mistake.”

The growl rumbled delightfully through her bones.

When she launched herself at him, he caught her easily and held her against his chest. He petted her for a moment, his big paw circling from lower back up to her shoulders and down again, soothing away the tension she hadn’t realized was lingering there.

“That date you mentioned,” he murmured. “Would you go with me to my great-grandparents’ devotion celebration?”

She leaned back a little, without leaving the circle of his arms. “Sounds fun, but… Meet your family? Is that moving a little fast?”

“Moving fast is what happens when you get hijacked.”

She didn’t need a steadying breath. “I’d love to go with you.”