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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Dani

A soft chime rang out, waking her from a deep, dreamless sleep. She groaned, rubbing her arm against her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open, seeing her dark ceiling above. She looked over at her digital clock on the wall and saw it read 0800 am ship standard time. She’d nearly slept ten hours, a record for the last few months.

She rolled over, reaching out for Kryxis, and found his side of the bed empty. Confused, she looked across to the bathroom and saw it was dark. Rising to a sitting position, she blinked away the sleep.

“Kryxis?” she called. Her heart flipped as she reached for her robe. Wrapping it around her, she padded into the kitchen. “Hey.”

He was sitting, clothed, by the window, a giant blue gas planet behind him out in the distance with several moons close by. On his lap was her cat, Chowder, purring as he dug his claws into Kryxis’ pantleg while Kryxis scratched along his back.

Dani leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms. “I’m glad you two are getting along so quickly.”

“ Xa ,” Kryxis said, petting Chowder’s head.

She wanted to ask him how long he had been sitting there but figured it didn’t matter much. He had spent enough time in her bed. She couldn’t blame him if he wasn’t as tired as her. They had stayed up for a little while before, finishing the meal she made, teaching each other more words as she was desperate to understand everything he said, and she suspected he felt the same. When they did lie down, she fell asleep quicker than usual, curled up against him. It was the best sleep she’d had in a long time.

She went over to her coffee machine and started making a cup for them both. Feeling his eyes on her made her feel warm and giddy as she tapped on the screen. She was going to make a call to Tom after, see if he’d heard anything back yet. Another thing she’d done before they went to sleep was tell Kryxis about her plans.

“If we can get a hold of the alliance, they might be able to help,” she’d said as they sat at the table, finishing the dinner she’d made. “You can’t be stuck in here forever.”

“Don’t mind,” he said. “As long as—”

“Don’t say as long as it’s with me. That’s cheesy, for one.”

“Chees…ey?”

“Yes, and another, you’ll go insane. No matter how much you want to be near, you need to be able to be free to go where you like. You don’t deserve to be caged or forced to hide away. If everything works out…maybe you’ll be able to roam wherever you like.”

“Wherever…”

“Maybe even go to the vrisha home world.”

He grunted, then looked at her gravely. “As long as I’m with you. Don’t care how cheessssy that sounds.”

She laughed. “We will figure it out.” She leaned over and kissed his brow. “You and me.”

There was a soft chime coming from her computer, and she realized she had a new message. She went over to her computer, bringing up the log screen.

It was another message from Nadine. She and the heads wanted to see her straight away.

Damn, they wouldn’t give her a break.

“I have to go out,” she said, closing out the log. “The ship-heads want to see me again. Probably to try and convince me to give up the datachip again.” She grabbed it off the desk and showed it to him. “But this is our ticket to your freedom. We can’t lose it. So, don’t let Chowder accidentally bat it under one of the cabinets. Got it?” It was a silly request, but Kryxis bowed his head and promised to guard it anyway.

She went to the bedroom and slipped on a shirt and pair of pants. “I shouldn’t be long again. It’ll actually be good to talk to them after the dust has settle from that last meeting.” Unless they were calling her out to fire her, which was very possible. She tried to stay positive as she slipped on her belt. She went over to Kryxis and pressed her forehead to his. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Soon,” he said.

She kissed him then turned for the door, opening it wide enough to make sure no one was outside before she slipped out.

She made her way to the upper levels, accepting she might be facing termination. It had to be the only reason they were calling for her with such urgency. It was painful knowing how many years she put in for the company, her whole life really. She wasn’t getting her blue suit and that hurt too. But they weren’t getting the datachip. No matter how much they threatened her.

She hopped off the elevator and bee-lined for the meeting room. A security officer at the door gave her a stern look. “They’re waiting for you.”

“I know.”

They stepped aside and let the door slide open. Dani marched inside ready for a fight—then froze at the door.

“Dani, you made it just in time,” Nadine said near the head of the table. The other heads were there too, along with her crew. They looked over at her with pale, grim faces. She glanced between them before slowly approaching the table.

“Why don’t you have a seat.”

Cautiously, she took a seat. “What is—”

“We are going to get right to the point, Ms. Alveraz,” another head by the name of Leland started. “It’s come to our attention, that you and your crew have brought onboard our vessel a dangerous individual. Something from X110. Crewmen have seen it. And it has been tampering with our power.”

Her heart sank to her stomach. She clutched her seat, unable to speak.

“Do you deny it, Ms. Alveraz?”

She looked over at the others, feeling cold. “I…I don’t…know what you mean.”

The heads stared at her, disappointed.

“Dani…it’s no use,” Nadine said. “We know about the vrisha.”

Dani shook her head. No. No, this couldn’t be happening now. Why now? “How…how could you.” Her gaze drifted back to her crew. How could they give him up now? Now that they were so close?

Lex gave her a guilty look, shaking their head. “We’re sorry, Dani.”

“Lex…you told them?”

“No,” Nadine spoke first. “Your crew was loyal to the end, no matter how much we questioned them. So, we had to get our sources elsewhere.” Her gaze fell on Tom.

Tom’s head was bowed, unable to look at her. “I should have secured my network better. Should have known. I’m sorry, Dani. My messages were—” He looked up at Nadine, guilty. “Leaked.”

Leaked…no. More like Nexacor hacked into his computer and found his messages. They must have broken into all their computers just to see what they could find and found Tom’s message sent out to the alliance.

“So, we called your team back and they confessed once we showed them the message,” Leland continued. “But they say it was your idea, and that only you know where the vrisha is. Because of your decision to endanger this ship and its crew, you will be terminated immediately. You will be held at the next port for questioning. Your rights to privacy onboard this ship have been stripped, and a team has been sent to your unit to search and seize—”

Dani leaped from her seat. “No!”

“You can’t!” Myrell shouted.

“We can and we will,” said Leland. “And we will have no choice but to put the ship in code-red lockdown. You will return to your units, and we will have every security team available searching the ship top to bottom for the vrisha. Once captured it will be contained and given up to governing officials of the Earthen systems.”

The Earthen systems. No fucking way. “You can’t just give him away to those militant bastards!” Dani snapped. They would lock him away, study him like some experiment. No. No way would she let them. “Who made this call?”

“Your father.”

The blood drained from her face. She sank back in her seat.

“This is monstrous,” Sheek said.

“We only wanted to help,” Phen blurted. “The vrisha might have attacked on my home world once, and hurt some of my people, but this one is different!”

“Phen, I don’t think that’s helping,” Lex said.

“Maybe you meant well,” said Leland. “But you have no idea what you’ve brought here. The vrisha is attacking our people now.”

“That’s not true. He hasn’t harmed anyone!” Dani cried.

The others grew quiet. Nadine placed her hands on the table, leaning toward her. “That’s not true, Dani.”

“It is!” She wanted to scream, her composure slipping. “He got out once and a few crewmen might have seen him, but he didn’t touch them. He didn’t go near anyone.”

Leland made a noise of impatience. “Just tell her, Nadine.”

Nadine straightened. “A small crew went down to the lower decks some hours ago to investigate further. They have yet to return. They’ve been missing for some time. And all we’ve found so far is this.” Nadine reached under the table and pulled out a helmet with a smiley face on the side, blood splattered across it. Dani would recognize it anywhere. Garret’s helmet.