“No. We’re all ready,” Seth spoke up and I nodded. Good.
“They were going to begin the transformation once we reached the IC. None of us have been touched.”
I was relieved they had avoided true Hive horrors.
As Seth hugged Sarah, I ordered the other men to collect the Hive’s weapons, to arm themselves for our extraction.
“What the hell are you doing with him?” Seth asked, glaring at me. It was fortunate he was not yet armed.
Sarah looked at the floor, then at me. “I’m mated to him.”
Seth did then grab an ion pistol from one of the other soldiers and stormed over to me. “You mated her? Are you fucking kidding me? You landed in the middle of a battle and had me taken by the Hive! And now—” he ran his hand through his hair, hair the same shade as his sister’s, “—now you drag Sarah back into dangerous territory, onto a fucking Hive prison ship? Are you an ass, or just stupid?”
I felt the tip of the weapon against my chest and I did not blame the man. He’d transported out of the battle before I’d said more than Mine. He hadn’t heard that she was my mate, that I had claimed her. He knew nothing but the fact that I’d inadvertently fucked up their last mission.
“Seth, leave him alone. It was my decision to rescue you, not his. He tagged along to protect me.”
Seth whipped his head around and looked down at his sister. “Are you kidding me?”
“If you are so worried about Sarah’s safety, let’s argue about this once we get back to the Karter,” I said. “But your anger is to be directed at me, not Sarah. You will not raise your voice to my mate again.”
He took a deep breath and let it out, but replied through clenched teeth. “Agreed.”
Nodding once, knowing the one thing we had in common was Sarah’s safety, I hit the comm unit on my shirt. “Battleship Karter. Respond.”
There was silence. I repeated the call. The men glanced at each other, all at once nervous. If I’d been taken by the Hive and rescued, I would be nervous, terrified even, until I was safely back onboard a coalition ship.
“Transport room responding. Go ahead.”
The men relaxed then, tentative smiles forming on their faces knowing they would soon be away.
“You have our coordinates, can track the fourteen coalition members. Transport.”
“The magnetic storm that impacted your transport before has shifted. No transport. Repeat, no transport.”
“How long?” I asked.
The men glanced about, clearly afraid of the Hive who would soon appear. The ship wasn’t overridden with them; it was a prison ship and the enemy combatants were—until now—all behind bars. A large group of Hive was not needed.
“Unknown. Remain in place until we communicate. Out.”
“Alternatives,” Sarah called once the connection was broken.
The men considered and stated various options, but none removed us from this ship.
“We could fly out,” Seth offered.
“Fly? This ship is too big. Besides,” I added, “if we got it anywhere near a coalition vessel they’d shoot us out of space.”
One of the soldiers offered a reasonable challenge.
“Every Hive ship has a flight deck with operational Hive squadron fighters. We can use one of those,” another added.
“We’d still be blown to bits in a hostile aircraft,” I added.
“Not if we flew past the magnetic interference, communicated with the Karter and transported from there,” Seth offered.
I glanced at Sarah, who’d been listening intently. “I can’t pilot a Hive fighter. Can anyone?”