Tiny and Fierce by Margo Collins (big screen ebook reader .TXT) 📕

I commanded, clapping him on his approximation of a shoulder. And then I turned to Lise. “Blue thinks we hit an uncharted wormhole. We’ve already arrived at Nimbus Prime. We are, unfortunately, on the outskirts of the planet. The southern pole, nearest to the UG. I have asked Blue to keep us stationary outside of sensor ranges, but it is only a matter of time before scouts pick up our presence.”

“Gods of the galaxies,” Lise muttered. “You three are bad luck.” She tugged down her top to cover her stomach and then swiped a palm across her glistening forehead. She looked… flushed, and even more lovely than I’d seen her before. “You’ve brought me nothing but trouble.”

“Hey, don’t blame us,” a weak voice sounded from behind me, and I turned to find Alder leaning against the passage wall, his skin glowing a very pale silver-blue. “We’re overflowing with good luck. Regular trio of Midas hands that make everything turn to gold. And besides, even we couldn’t create a troublesome wormhole right in Blue’s flight path.” He smiled, a half-born expression that died quickly.

Are you okay, my egg sac and chitin sharing warrior as one mate? I swear that I did not mean to pursue our new captain. I hope that this has not made you ill. The concern dripped from Evik’s words, pulsing through his scent.

“I’m sorry,” Alder said quickly, walking forward and slinging his arms around Evik. “I’m sorry I was such an asshole. You’re my family, Evik.”

Something had happened to Alder. I could feel his magick flowing, waning and waxing like the four moons of my planet.

“Alder, what is wrong with you?” I began, worry coloring my voice, but he turned to me quickly and held up his humanoid hands to wave me off, dismissing my concern.

“I’m fine. My magick isn’t what it used to be, no big deal.” He gave me a wry grin, boyish and cocky.

I wanted to probe further, focus on my compadre and ensure he was not lying, but there was precious little time and space between our vessel and Nimbus Prime.

“Blue, your stealth shielding is still broken, right?” Lise pushed past me and walked briskly towards the bridge. I followed, retracing my steps, with Evik and Alder behind me.

“Yes, Lise. However, I have utilized the reflection panels to mimic our current environment. It is not without its flaws, but we have, so far, remained undetected.”

“Good thinking, Blue,” Lise barked appreciatively, her small frame bouncing as she picked up the pace towards the bridge. Her golden hair flew behind her, long enough to tickle my skin where it touched.

This is not the time or the place for such thoughts, Morpheus, I told myself harshly. But the heady scent of copulation clung to both Lise and Evik and it made it hard to keep my mind on the trouble at hand.

We arrived at the bridge, and the moment we did, the very second in fact, a ship materialized out of hyperspace right in front of our poorly disguised ship.

It wasn’t a UG-branded craft.

It was a Bufo Alvarius design.

The empress had followed us.

21

Tommelise

“Fuck.” I took in the oddly bulbous and bumpy form of the battleship that had appeared in front of us. “That’s one of the empress’s ships, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Alder replied, leaning unsteadily on one of the bridge control panels. “A battle cruiser.”

“They’re still too far out to get a weapons lock on us, but they’re gaining,” Morpheus warned, slipping into the navigator’s chair and checking the system.

“How long?” I asked.

“One-point-five minutes,” Blue and Morpheus said together.

“Give me a countdown every fifteen seconds, Blue. Bridge audio only.” I glanced around my small crew, these three men I was beginning to consider my own, to care about in more ways than I had ever cared for any other crew.

Alder was pale and weak, shaking, and I hoped I hadn’t caused that with my diatribe against him earlier.

Although he sat up tall and strong beside me, Morpheus was damaged, too, changed by his time with the empress’s scientists.

And Evik was so very kind, a gentle soul who would do anything for us.

No way in all the seven hells was I going to let the Bufo Alvarius Bitch Empress get her sticky sucker-pads on them.

Not to mention Blue, who would almost certainly be taken apart to be studied if the empress and her people discovered all the enhancements I’d given her.

Here in space, we were vulnerable—the empress’s battle cruiser almost certainly had more firepower than we did.

But Blue had tricks in gravity that no battleship could match, no matter how much bigger and more armed it might be.

“Okay, Blue,” I commanded, “take us down screaming. And then…” I paused to consider my next words. We truly didn’t have any other options. “Stone them.”

“A Screaming Phoenix into a Basilisk?” I doubted anyone else could hear the surprise in Blue’s voice, but she and I had developed quite a rapport over the years.

“Exactly.”

“Of course, Captain Klein,” she said, reverting to her formal mode as she often did when she disagreed with my decisions. “However, that will deplete our fuel reserves entirely—assuming we’re able to muster the energy for a Basilisk at all.”

“One problem at a time, please, Blue,” I muttered.

“I might be able to help with the energy issue,” Alder volunteered. I glanced over to see that he had dropped into a jump seat, still looking pale and wan—and also weirdly shiny. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I was fairly certain he couldn’t help with anything at all right now.

Shit. He needs medical care…

No time.

“What’s our target?” Blue asked.

“Monitor coms traffic and see if you can find the safest official place to offload our passengers.”

“Roger,” Blue replied.

“Send out a distress signal—let them know we’re bringing refugees.” With any luck, that would keep them from shooting us out of their sky.

“They’ll arrest us all,” Morpheus said darkly.

“One minute, fifteen seconds,” Blue said.

“Strap in, everyone,” I warned.

Flipping open a channel to the cargo hold that currently