Free Death Defying (Dark Desires) by Nina Croft

be saved, and he’d seen a lot of action toward the last days. He’d loved the adrenaline rush; facing death every day made him appreciate life.
    In the end, twenty-four ships had left the Earth, named the Trakis One to Twenty-Four , each carrying ten thousand people. Most were kept in cryo, with just a small crew awake to monitor the ship’s systems. There had been other crews, ten in all for each ship, and when the crew became too old to function the next was awakened—enough, they reckoned, to last five hundred years. Callum had been the tenth and last captain on the Trakis Seven , and he’d been ten years into his captaincy when they’d finally come upon what was to be known as the Trakis system.
    In the previous five hundred years, they’d encountered no planets that would maintain human life. They’d lost contact with twelve of the ships early on, after they’d separated. Three others had been destroyed by unexplained explosions. And the Trakis One had been lost in the black hole that guarded the system. The others had all landed safely—except for his—on whatever planets were deemed habitable, the planets taking the name of the ship that landed. He’d been allocated to what was now known as Trakis Seven. Coming in, he’d realized something wasn’t right and tried to abort the landing, but the planet had sucked them in and they’d crashed.
    And the rest was history.
    “They’re within range,” Janey said. “I think they’re communicating, but I can’t pick up the frequency.”
    “Looks like that Corps ship is still focused on us—we try and leave now and they’re going to shoot us down. Come on,” Rico urged. “Shoot each other.”
    As if they were listening to him, a series of volleys blasted from the Church’s lead ship. They hit The Endeavor on the rear end, with no visible effect. For a moment, it looked like they would ignore the offensive, but shots came again in a longer blast and finally, The Endeavor swung around and laser fire flashed from her guns. The smaller ship dodged, then came back straightaway, firing a continuous round of blasts, most of which hit their target but bounced harmlessly off the surface. Still it must have riled Captain Harris, because he returned fire, his attention diverted from The Cazador, at least for the moment.
    “Hey, that Church guy’s good,” Rico said. “Beautiful. Let’s get out of here—nice and slowly—and hope no one notices us.”
    Skylar stood to give him room, and he punched in a new course. They peeled away and headed slowly in the opposite direction. Callum narrowly resisted the urge to tell them to hurry up.
    Finally, as the ships grew smaller in the monitors, Rico punched El Cazador’s main thrusters and she shot forward. After a few minutes, he glanced up. “So we still heading to Trakis Two?”
    “I have no clue.” Tannis turned to Callum. “Well?”
    He nodded. “I have a rendezvous there in a couple of days.”
    “We’re eight hours out from the planet,” Rico said. “We can hole up at Bastian’s old place if Jon and Alex give us the all clear. It will keep us out of sight until your meeting.”
    Callum liked the idea. He didn’t know who Bastian was, but he could visit with the colonel’s old love and do a little sightseeing. In five hundred years, he’d never been to Trakis Two—the planet that never sleeps. He’d heard it was a wild place. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
    …
    Tannis studied their faces. Callum appeared eager. His nose was clearly broken, his shirt stained with blood, and he obviously had trouble sitting. She almost grinned—she bet it was a long time since he’d felt like this.
    She didn’t have happy memories of Trakis Two, but since most of the unhappy ones were because of Bastian, she reckoned she could overcome her misgivings. Bastian was dead, staked by Rico, after he’d nearly raped and drained Alex.
    And Bastian did have a huge hideaway where El Cazador could lay up undetected. Alex