Free Enemy Games by Marcella Burnard Page B

you survived, by how swiftly a benign disease with low morbidity can change its stripes and become a killer. How many species live and work on the Queen’s Rhapsody ? Or on Silver City for that matter?” she asked.
    “If you’re treated, and the ship sterilized upon docking, what’s our exposure?” Damen asked, frustration darkening his expression.
    “With this disease, minimal,” Jay replied, “but greater than zero.”
    He blew out an audible breath, shot a glance at V’kyrri, and said, “Given the admiral’s message, my decision stands.”
    V’kyrri nodded.
    “Stand by to teleport,” Damen ordered.
    “Medical personnel standing by,” Commander Parqe said over the open com line. “Biofilters confirmed online.”
    “Initiating teleporter diagnostic,” Damen replied. “System online. Biofilter compatibility confirmed.”
    “Acknowledged.”
    “System is warmed and ready, Captain,” Damen said to his friend. “Let’s get you to your ship.”
    V’kyrri strode out of the cockpit, down the companionway, and into the bay with the door where Jayleia had entered.
    She turned her chair to watch.
    V’kyrri glanced at Damen’s back, then grinned at her and mouthed, “Good luck.”
    That he seemed to feel she needed it troubled her. She bit back the urge to plead with him to stay. She didn’t know how long she could withstand the full-on assault of Damen’s persuasion.
    Considering the determination she’d seen in Damen to complete his missions, he wouldn’t find out until too late that breaking her wouldn’t help him locate her father.
    “On your mark, Commander,” Damen said.
    “On my mark, aye,” Commander Parqe said. “Three, two, one, mark.”
    “Mark, aye,” Damen replied. “Teleport in progress.”
    She felt the Kawl Fergus slow and could only guess at the immense power required to blink a person from one point in space/time to another. One moment V’kyrri stood in the entry bay, the next he vanished as if winked out of existence. The engines surged.
    Good. V’kyrri was safe.
    “Teleport complete,” Damen said behind her. “Confirm you have Captain V’kyrri aboard.”
    “Confirmed,” V’kyrri replied over the com. “Nice job. Jay? Your turn.”
    She levered herself to her feet, ignoring the pounding in her head and the trickle of sweat tracking a chilly path down her spine. Great. Fever. Another symptom. She stumbled to the point where she’d watched V’kyrri disappear then turned to face the cockpit door.
    Damen’s gaze tracked her, his features set in tense lines.
    “Ready,” he said, misgiving in his face and in his voice.
    “Three, two, one, mark.”
    “Mark, aye. Teleporting.”
    Alarms erupted.
    The noise touched off a wave of dizziness. Jay folded her knees and sat where she’d been standing.
    The alarms went silent.
    “Jayleia’s down,” Damen said.
    “Standing by,” V’kyrri replied.
    The fever heightened her senses. She caught a whiff of rain and green, growing things before Damen crouched beside her and drew her against his side. Rather than exacerbating the pain in her head, the odor seemed to mitigate the symptoms.
    His scent?
    “I don’t want to put you in stasis,” Damen said in a voice pitched only for her ears and rough in a way she’d never heard before.
    “I have reason not to open the ship to vacuum, but if it’s the only way to keep you safe, I will.”
    A moment of clarity burst through her. Of course. It wasn’t concern for her nameless fear. He was running more than one mission at a time.

CHAPTER 9

    E VEN with a fever addling her brain, Jayleia realized that if she was merely a distraction from Damen’s true mission in this part of space, her options for escape broke wide open. Once she was well.
    Damen was a spy with a job to do. Possibly several. At least one of which precluded using vacuum to sterilize the ship. That meant cargo that could be damaged or killed without atmosphere and heat.
    By confiding that detail to her, he’d