Chapter 12
Gwen, Hive Ship, The Colony, Cave Entrance North of Base 3
Ileaned over the instrument panel and placed my palm flat on the screen. Odd thing, being part machine. I could talk to the Hive ship without talking. It read my mind, which was just freaky, but came in very, very handy.
The first thing I’d done when I turned the baby on was reprogram the ship’s security protocols to the highest level. No one but me, Mak, or a Nexus unit could change any security setting on the ship. And to do that, the Nexus would have to be physically present. The ship was ours, mine and Mak’s, unless a Nexus unit happened to saunter on board and take control. I felt like I was on the Millennium Falcon and I was Han Solo. But that meant that Mak was Chewbacca, and while he was big enough, that was where the comparisons ended.
Maybe Mak was Han Solo and I’d be Princess Leia. And the Nexus were like Darth Vader.
Yeah, not quite. But no Nexus were getting on this ship. No fucking way.
If that happened, we’d screwed up somewhere along the way and we’d be fucked at that point anyway, so I didn’t worry about it. So long as no lower ranking Hive, pirate, smuggler, or Coalition warrior could steal our ship, that was good enough for me. And with the new settings, the ship wouldn’t even start for anyone else. No power. No navigation. Nothing.
“Okay, Mak, this baby is all ours.” I told him what I’d done as I rubbed my hands together. The Hive ship was small, meant to hold a group of no more than eighteen for extended periods of time. But that meant for just the two of us, she was massive. Three sleeping chambers, a full S-Gen unit with seating for eight in a dining room. Since the Hive probably worked on three rotations, it meant one third of them would eat at any given time. The Hive were nothing if not mechanized. “Our baby needs a name.”
My voice cracked on the word baby and I wanted to slap myself for being so stupid. Mak noticed. Of course, he fucking noticed.
“What is wrong, mate? Why are you upset?”
Okay. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? “I don’t know why I’m thinking about this now, but I don’t know if I can have children, Mak. I don’t know if you want that, but I don’t know if I can. Or even if I want to. I can’t promise you babies. I can’t give you that. I just can’t…”
He put his hand on top of mine. “I want you, female. I will fight for you, die for you, kill for you. Should you choose to have children, I will do the same for them because they are yours and mine. If not, I am perfectly content spanking your ass for your silly thoughts for the rest of our lives. I do not need children to be happy.”
“Okay then.” He spoke as if he were giving a lecture in a history class. Facts. Emotionless. True. And just like that I could breathe again. Why I had to tell him about babies now, I had no idea, but I felt better. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Leaning over, I pressed the locator beacon that would signal Rezzer and the other Atlans to join us. We’d landed easily on the Colony’s surface, cleared by the governor so we weren’t shot to Kingdom Come. We were just waiting for the others and we’d get this show on the road. Get shit done and finally, and forever, get off this planet.
As soon as the beacon pinged, I placed my hand on the ship’s control panel and made contact with Captain Marz’s private comm line. His face filled the small screen before me and I marveled at how similar Hive technology was to that of the Coalition. Degrees of separation.
“Marz, can you hear me?”
“Yes. I have Maxim and Ryston with me as well.”
Marz stepped aside and the governor’s face filled the small screen.
“Governor.”
“No. I am Maxim Rone. First Mate to Rachel and we demand justice for the traitor Krael. I am not the governor right now, Gwen. This conversation never happened.”
I nodded once. “Good. Then the Intelligence Core will never know that you gave me Coalition flight codes in exchange for information on the location of the Prillon traitor Krael Gerton and a Hive shipment of transport mineral scheduled to depart your planet in less than an hour.”
The governor—no, Maxim—growled at me, his eyes almost glowing with his irritation. “You are a very difficult female.”
“And we both know you are going to give me the codes. I need to be able to travel through Coalition space without fear of being attacked. I can get to the other Nexus units, Maxim. You give me the codes, I give you the information you need to save the Colony, the transport system, keep us in the war and give you the vengeance you crave for Krael’s attempt on your life. It’s a win-win.”
Behind him, I heard another male voice, less controlled. More rage.
Ryston.
“Do it. Let her hunt the bastards. Let’s take care of our own. Think of Rachel and our son.” Their baby boy was beautiful, and only a few months old. And both warriors turned to jelly the moment the little one was placed in their hands.
Maxim’s eyes narrowed and he nodded to someone off screen. Moments later, at least a dozen flight codes arrived in our ship’s database, and in my head. They were too precious to leave behind. These codes would get me through Coalition controlled space without incident. The Hive codes buried in the ship would get me deep into Hive territory, if needed. And I had to believe that with Mak’s connections on Rogue 5, we could get anything else we needed to slip in and out of star systems like a ghost ship.
“Thank you, Maxim. And good hunting.” I signed off, simultaneously sending him the exact coordinates and layout of the mines where the Hive transport ship was located. I included guard counts and Hive Soldier locations as well as the countdown until takeoff with the stolen minerals.
He had less than an hour to take care of his tasks, but I had confidence he’d figure things out.
Nodding to Mak, I watched him shut down the ship to stand-by mode and we both grabbed our weapons, left our Millennium Falcon behind and headed for the cave.