Excerpt

Kali focused on the console and initiated the jump sequence as she'd done a hundred times in the simulator. The floor vibrated and a low hum traveled through the ship as the jump drive powered up.

Outside the front viewport, the scene changed to a stunning blue-green as the ship slipped into subspace.

Kali gripped the controls, her knuckles white. She forced herself to let go and swallowed down the bile at the back of her throat. The simulator was supposed to be as accurate as real life. Now that she had something to compare it with, she noticed the differences.

Seconds later, the blue-green of subspace began to fade as they re-entered normal space after the short hop. Kali let out a relieved breath. She'd done it and they were still in one piece—easy really.

A shadow darkened the flight deck. Kali's head snapped up to look out the front viewport, horrified to see an enormous ship almost filling the window.

A proximity alarm blared out a late warning and Kali froze. It shouldn't be that close. The anti-collision safeguards for the jump exit must have failed. Blind panic stopped her cold.

We're going to die.

Andy was speaking, but she couldn't hear him.

Kali's skin was clammy as she filled her lungs and desperately tried to focus. The emptiness of space stretched out in all directions. She was falling into endless black.

The smell of stale sweat filled her nostrils and her left foot scuffed against the concrete floor. The sound was absorbed by a press of bodies, both reassuring and claustrophobic. The dim artificial light never changed, hiding her greasy hair and dirty nails. Her right arm hurt from where she'd banged it over and over against the composite glass wall caging her, wanting to see which would give first. The flesh was tender and sore, and she could make out the darker patch where the bruise was forming.

A baby's high-pitched cry echoed through the cells, jarring and real. If she was free, Kali didn't know whether she would run toward or away from the sound.

Andy's voice was sharp. "Kali!"

Sweat beaded her scalp and ran down the back of her neck, but he was real and solid. Andy was sitting within touching distance. Stars, she'd forgotten about the ship about to knock them into another solar system.

"Y-yes," she stammered, hardly able to get out the word.

She had to get her emotions under control or else they were going to die. She needed to live and make sure her life mattered.

She grabbed the yoke of the manual controls and pulled to port. The ship responded, but it was too slow. They wouldn't make it.

Helpless to change course, she watched as the hull of the other ship rushed toward them. She thought about grabbing Andy and running from the imminent collision, but there was no time to move. She braced against the front console, gripping it so hard it hurt.

A shudder ran through the shuttle as the two ships grazed each other, their shields and specialized hulls absorbing the impact.

It took her brain a few seconds to accept that they were going to be okay. "How did it drop us out next to another ship? That shouldn't happen!" Kali exclaimed, her hands still shaking.

"Things don't always go right in the real world." Andy was unperturbed, way too calm. "It isn't a case of switching the engine on and off. That's why we're all trained to fly."

He knows that I've spent the last six-and-a-half years hiding. The dream last night was a warning that it wasn't going to be a good day. Her suspicion turned to certainty. "You set that up."

When he didn't answer, she stared out the front viewport at the space that had been filled by the other ship. There was nothing now, only distant planets and far away stars. Kali couldn't see the beauty as she struggled to draw even breaths and keep from hyperventilating.

We're safe. The emergency is over.

Adrenaline continued to flood her system as if they were in imminent danger. This was bad. Andy had set it up to see how she would react.

She couldn't look at him. She daren't look at him. It couldn't have gone any worse.

Kali clenched her jaw and took a slow deep breath. "We could have been killed."

"No, the shuttle would have redirected to avoid a fatal impact regardless of what you'd done."

A familiar heat coursed through her body, and she glared at him. "There was no need to do that." Her hands curled into fists. "You lied to me! This was supposed to be about checking that I knew the basics, not seeing if I could handle emergency situations. If you had told me, I could have been prepared." She paused, realizing how ridiculous that was. "Not that I expect to be prepared for emergency situations out there, but this is different—"

This was the worst thing that could happen. Denied the chance to graduate after all the years she'd dedicated to the TSS. What else could she do? There was nothing that she wanted to do with her life.

Get it together. He's done this to provoke you into an outburst. Don't let him win.

She forced her hands to uncurl. There was no way that she was going to make it easy for them to get rid of her.

"You can put those daggers away." His expression was hard. "Are you aware that you've been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder?"

PTSD! After all this time?

Perhaps it was what she'd done for Rabin that had brought it on, but she knew that wasn't right. The lack of sleep wouldn't have helped, but it hadn't caused this to happen.

"If you want any chance of graduating, I need you to talk to me."