An exotic jewel pulls people through time, space and realities. Not sure how you can plan for something like that, but somehow, the timelines appear to set everything right, and you might come to save…yourself…
Vilma could go no further on her wounded leg. Fatigue and failure overtook her, and she collapsed beneath a canopy of twisted metal. The heavy clouds promised rain that would never come, and the air tasted of sulfur through her mask. It wasn’t true twilight; after the aliens had incinerated Earth’s surface, the sky was perpetually dark and dirty and the acid wind came in gusts.
Ashes drifted past her shelter from volcanos hundreds of miles away, active a decade after the Salarians had cracked Earth’s mantle. She coughed into her mask but resisted reading her oxygen tank levels. If she knew how little remained, she might use her blaster on herself. She pushed strands of her blonde hair back into a tight bun and straightened her injured leg, cursing herself for coming here. Live like a thief, die like a thief.
“Damn you, Jennoc Wush,” she told herself. “Just a little job, you said. Freaking idiot, and I mean me.”
“I’ve always suspected it,” Gideon said from outside her shelter. A mask muffled his voice. He knelt to shine a light in her face.
“Put that light out! You’ll attract creatures able to eat you in one gulp. What are you doing here?”
Gideon, captain of the rebel ship she served on as a weapons officer, pulled his blaster and looked around. “We tracked your teleporter belt here when you didn’t report in. I’ll leave if you’re sure you’ve got it under control. Even though you’re injured, running out of oxygen, and lost.”
“I’m not lost.” She stopped for a coughing fit.
He turned off his light. “Good. I’ll return to the ship and search for Salarian stragglers in the area.”
“Get out of here. Leave me alone to die in peace.”
“We’ve all got history, but if you came down here to kill yourself, you should have told us when you slipped off the ship.”
Vilma sighed. She was glad to see him. Too bad he’d joined her to die.
She moaned and clutched her leg. A jagged girder had sliced her calf open when she was crawling out of the buried Metropolitan Museum. Her field dressing was soggy with blood.
“Why risk your life to return to Earth?” Gideon took her leg gently and grimaced when he saw the wound. “We know you’re the best burglar in the universe, you don’t have to prove anything.”
He replaced her oxygen tank with a new one from his pack. “We checked your personal log. If you’d told us your father had been kidnapped by the Conclave, we’d have helped you. No need for this “fly me to Earth and go on without me” crap. As he spoke, he removed her dressing and wrapped her leg in a clean bandage. “Rachel will enjoy working on this.” She was the ship’s medico.
Vilma’s leg felt better. “Shut up. You’ve done your good deed for the day. Now get out of here before you’re eaten by a fifty foot cockroach.”
“I’m not leaving without you. It takes too long to learn our weapons systems.” Gideon frowned. He’d lost a crewmember at the start of the war. He hadn’t handled the loss well.
Something shrieked in the distance, and Vilma raised her blaster. “Jennoc is not my father. He bought kids off the street and trained them as pickpockets. But he never allowed one of us to be hurt. He beat up a cop who groped me when I was ten.”
“I thought you were from Earth.” Gideon handed her pain pills for her leg and passed her a water bottle.
She swallowed the pills and the water. “My parents came from Plerthia. I don’t remember them. Who sells their kid? I bought my contract from Jennoc when I was twelve and struck out on my own.”
“Thieves lead such glamorous lives in the vids,” Gideon said. “I’m sorry you had a rough childhood, but that doesn’t explain why you’re here. There can’t be anything worth stealing left among these ashes.”
Something heavy fell in the junkyard behind them, and Gideon drew the blaster he’d put away to wrap Vilma’s leg.
Vilma pushed herself up on her good leg. “I hoped I’d lost whatever was following me.”
“What is it?” Gideon put her arm around his shoulder as she stood.
“It looks like a gerbil the size of a railway car.”
He reached for his teleporter belt controls. “Let’s get out of here.”
“No! The Conclave is listening. If we return to the ship, they’ll know I found what they were looking for. They’ll make me trade Jennoc for it.”
“What were they looking for?” he asked.
She opened her shoulder bag. Even in the twilight, the faceted orb sparkled.
Gideon’s brows rose. “That’s the Rainbow Diamond! 1,000 carats. I thought you already stole it.”
“I did, but it was too dangerous to sell. I buried it in a museum vault and was grateful when the Salarians dumped a million tons of rubble on it.”
“It’s a pretty rock, but what can it do?” Gideon asked.
“I have a feeling you’re about to find out. It’s past time for it to shift.”
“Shift?”
As if it had heard him, the orbs refractions grew into a whirling ball and engulfed them. Vilma, although familiar with the orb’s effect, felt the queasiness accompanying a shift. The swirling colors brightened and turned the entire world white.
As color returned, a Salarian guard, looking like a crocodile on steroids, peered at them from outside a cell. The floor vibrated beneath Vilma’s feet. They were on a Salarian vessel.
“They didn’t escape! They’re still here,” the reptile said. He stood in the hall, his armor dented and his scales in need of oiling.
“What is this?” A second guard joined the first. “They weren’t here a minute ago.”
“You need your eyes examined.” The first guard turned his orange eyes toward the prisoners. “You two have anything to say for yourselves?”
Vilma removed her mask and slid her bag under a bench. “No, sir.”
The guards marched off, arguing about whose eyesight was worse.
Gideon clutched his stomach. “What happened? Where are we?”
“You’ve experienced a Rainbow Diamond shift in time and space. We’re on a Salarian cruiser, one of the few not destroyed in the war. The Conclave said one was orbiting Earth. You’ll feel better in a few minutes.”
Gideon removed his mask. “It figures organized crime lords like the Conclave would survive an alien invasion. How did we get here?”
“The Rainbow pulls people along their timelines, but you can’t predict when it’s going to happen or what your destination will be. You might as well sit down. We could be here a while.”
“You mean sometime in our future we’re going to be captured by Salarians?”
She stuck out her injured leg. The wound had healed. “Not the near future, but someday.”
Gideon stared. “If we’re jumping through time, how can your leg be healed? And what happened to our future selves who were in this cell?”
Vilma held up her hand. “The Rainbow makes its own rules concerning time travel. I’ve been experiencing this loop, but your arrival altered it. I’ve not been here before.”
Gideon pressed the comm button on his belt. “Aurora, this is Gideon. Come in, please.”
Aurora, the ship’s interface, replied, “If you are receiving this message, I’m surprised but pleased. After a week, we left orbit. The Conclave and the Salarians have increased their patrols. Even in stealth mode, we fear detection. We’ll return weekly to check this record buoy in case you reply.”
“Don’t leave a message!” Vilma ordered. “We don’t want the Conclave to know where we are.”
Gideon took a seat beside her. “How long until we shift again? You say it loops? Can we go back to when this mess started and not come here in the first place?”
“It’s not that simple. The Rainbow is completely arbitrary. It could return us to the penal colony where Aurora found us or take us to your deathbed.”
Gideon nodded. “If the Salarians are here for the Rainbow, how did they find out about it?”
“The same way the Conclave did,” Vilma said with disgust. “Jennoc sold them the information. When he told the Conclave I knew where it was, they took him hostage to force me to retrieve it.”
“Is that why did you jumped ship?”
“I thought you’d be busy saving the galaxy from the few remaining lizards and I’d take care of personal business.” She should have known better. Gideon liked being a hero. He was good at it.
“If the Salarians get their claws on a time-altering diamond,” he said, “they’ll go back before we win the war and destroy us.”
Vilma stood. “The Conclave has the same goal.”
“What can we do if we’re bouncing back and forth in time?”
“We eventually return to the moment we entered the loop and get off this roller coaster,” she said. “I hope I can ditch the Rainbow where it won’t hurt anyone. I thought it was safe buried in a concrete vault under New York City, but I was wrong. Keep your eyes open for a volcano somewhere.”
“Won’t we be stranded if we destroy it?” Gideon asked.
“Would you rather the Rainbow fell into the hands of the Salarians or the Conclave?”
“What about your friend? Won’t the Conclave kill him?”
Vilma sighed. “It’s too dangerous to turn it over for any reason.”
He looked around the cell. “How many times have you shifted?”
“At least a dozen. I always return to Earth after it was destroyed. I’d decided not to contact the Conclave when you showed up.”
The two Salarian guards marched down the corridor, stopping in front of the cell door. “The commander wants to speak to you.”
Something glittered across the deck, and Vilma dived under the seat to grab her bag. “Maybe next time, fellas.”
Gideon joined her as the sparkling globe expanded around them.
One minute, they stood in a blindingly bright cell. The next, they appeared on the bridge of their ship. Katrina Blue, the sole occupant, worked at her console. The black-haired woman didn’t see them.
“Katrina!” Gideon shouted.
Vilma thrust her arm in front of him. “Don’t move. The Rainbow is contracting already. I don’t know what happens when half your body is caught outside.”
“Can we jump out? I could stay here with Katrina.” She had been his lover before dying on their first mission.
“She’s going to save two children in minutes. Both versions of you will suffer her death if you remain.”
Gideon’s face sagged, and he stretched a hand in Katrina’s direction. Vilma gently pulled it back. In less than an hour, his beloved would be crushed to death in a Salarian space station they’d destroyed.
He looked away. “Are we changing history by popping around like this?”
“Don’t ask me. Brace yourself.” The sphere expanded around them and contracted until the bridge disappeared.
They stood on a dirt road leading to a busy village. Although the afternoon sun was hot, people in scarlet and yellow clothing rushed past them. The road smelled of manure, and hawkers shouted from booths at passersby to buy their baskets, fruit, and fabrics. A small river wandered beyond the mud buildings.
“I don’t recognize this place,” Gideon said.
“Me either. We must visit it in the future.”
“Off the road!” a driver in a metal skullcap shouted. “The Vendek is coming through.”
Vilma and Gideon joined the locals standing at the side of the road. A green scaled beast pulled a covered cart into the square.
“What’s a Vendek?” Gideon asked.
Before Vilma could reply that she had no idea, the cart stopped. A thin man peered out of the burgundy curtains. “What are you selling?”
She was tempted to hand him the bag with the Rainbow, but Gideon might dislike spending the remainder of his life on a backwater planet. She’d return him to Earth so their ship could pick them up.
“I buy. What do you sell?” the man asked.
Gideon pulled a small cylinder from his pocket. “I have a light.”
“I have candles.”
“This one doesn’t burn down.” He flicked the light on and off. Even in the sunlight, the beam was visible.
The Vendek’s eyes opened wide. “How much?”
“How much for two meals in the market?”
“Two dragoons?”
“We’ll take it.” Gideon turned to Vilma. “We don’t know when we’ll eat again.”
He handed over the light, and the man gave him two iron dragoons.
The Vendek continued on his way, flicking the light off and on.
“I should have told him to place it in the sun to recharge,” Gideon said.
“He’ll figure it out,” Vilma said. “Let’s find ourselves some food. I’m hungry.” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten, and her stomach growled.
Later, they sat on the riverbank and finished bowls of vegetable soup and freshly baked bread.
Vilma took a deep breath of fresh air. “I should throw the Rainbow in the river. This world doesn’t seem a bad place to retire.”
Gideon nodded. “But if we don’t go back and finish the Salarians, who will?”
When she didn’t answer, he placed his hands behind his head and lay back. “We’ll sleep under the stars until the Diamond Express drags us to the next station.”
“I can’t remember the last time I had a solid eight hours…” Beside her, Gideon was already snoring.
#
Damn Jennoc Wush. The last time Vilma had seen him was in a crowded ballroom glittering with bangles and jewels. Vilma wore a stunning Vellonia gown, silver with genuine black sapphires. Guests wore a few famous trinkets, and she considered adding a few pieces to her collection. As Contessa Van Standish, she knew many of the affluent guests and most recognized her. She smiled and sipped her drink. At least no one else was wearing Vellonia.
Drink a little, nibble a little, maybe let a handsome man take her home. These soirees were boring. Still, she appreciated seeing fine jewelry almost as much as she enjoyed stealing it.
Someone was watching her. She could feel it. Not a comfortable sensation for a thief.
Vilma considered lifting a pair of Egyptian lapis earrings from a dowager when a familiar voice caught her attention.
A man said, “I told the king of Outer Ipswich that their fire opals were not the quality they were when I was younger.” He laughed as if sharing a secret. “Of course, I bought a shipload of them anyway.”
Vilma stepped forward to join the conversation. “Good evening, gentlemen. Considering Ipswich fire opals are still the best in the galaxy, you must have been very young at the time.”
The plump man in impeccable eveningwear laughed. “I’m afraid that’s true, Miss…”
She offered him her hand. “Contessa Van Standish. We’ve met before, but I’m afraid I’ve forgotten your name.”
“Professor Flitterwick. I’m the gemologist consultant to the Ipswich royal family. They’re purchasing gems for investment.”
“Pleased to meet you, Contessa,” the thin man with the professor said. “My glass is empty, so I’ll leave you two to catch up.”
He scurried off to the bar, and the professor frowned. “I was about the close the deal with the royal heir, Delta.”
“I haven’t been called that in a long time, Jennoc. What are you doing here? I thought the bureaucrats on Fabmus buried you in their dungeons. Something about causing a famine?”
“I swear the fertilizer was good when I sold it to them. You know I hate prison food.”
“Better than the drek you gave us growing up.”
He looked her up and down. “Contessa Van Standish is a good look for you. Are you here for business or pleasure?”
“A little of both, If I see something I like, I’ll take it home.” She surveyed the crowd, and the feeling of being watched made the fine hairs stand up on the back of her neck.
“Breathing or crystalline?”
She sipped her drink. “I’m open to either. Good luck with your investment scam, Jennoc, but the king of Ipswich has no heirs.”
As she turned, she saw the waiter staring at her. His appearance hadn’t drawn her attention, but he’d been close at hand most of the evening. She stared openly, and the man’s eyes widened. He spun, tossed a tray of drinks, and ran through the crowd.
“Did you see that?” She turned to Jennoc. His white shirt held a blossom of red that hadn’t been there a moment before. His eyebrows raised, and he stared at the green dart protruding from his chest.
“Jennoc!”
He sank to the floor. The crowd drew back, and someone shouted for a doctor. Vilma yanked out the dart and sniffed the tip. Saxotoxin. Fatal unless the victim received the antidote immediately. She patted Jennoc’s waistline, finding his packet of thieves’ tools. Hers was strapped to her thigh. She flipped open the packet, selected a small, prefilled syringe, and injected it into Jennoc’s neck.
His eyes fluttered, but he didn’t lose consciousness. “Live like a thief…”
She’d gotten the antidote into his bloodstream in time. “Die like one. That may be true for you someday but not today.”
“I saw the guy,” he whispered, “but all I could do was jump in front of you.”
“Old fool. You could have gotten yourself killed.” She lifted him into a sitting position and closed his kit. “An ex-partner appears to have hired an amateur to kill me. You were right when you said partners cause more trouble than they’re worth.”
A stretcher carried by two men appeared, and Vilma helped lift Jennoc onto it.
As they carried him away to the hospital, she said, “I’ll check on you after I find that waiter.”
“You owe me one,” he said with a moan as he disappeared through the crowd.
Damn. Jennoc always demanded payment.
#
Vilma woke on a wooden floor. “That’s never happened before.”
“What is it?” Gideon wiped the sleep from his eyes and sat up.
She patted the floor. “We went to sleep on a grassy riverbank and woke up on a hardwood floor. We must have shifted during the night.”
“Where are we?”
The large room was filled with boxes and tailor dummies. Dirty windows let in early morning light. From an open stairway came the sound of marching feet.
“Oh god,” Vilma said. “Hide!”
She pulled Gideon behind a rack of dusty clothing. The room held dress dummies, each clothed in a different costume. The hems of the clothing pieces held small bells.
A dozen children, dressed in tatters, filed into the room and waited while a fat man puffed his way up the stairs.
“Who is he?” Gideon whispered.
“That’s Jennoc Wush. The skinny kid in the green hat is me.”
“No way. You look like a boy.”
“Shhhh!”
The fat man smiled and looked over the heads of the children. Vilma remembered this scene painfully well. The wooden baton the man carried had caused most of the pain.
“Like yesterday and the day before,” he said. “Each of you will remove the target’s valuables. If I hear one bell ring, it’ll be the Stinger for you.” Jennoc’s wooden stick stung like hell when rapped across a kid’s knuckles or backside.
It didn’t take long before a little boy who didn’t look old enough to walk caused a bell to ring.
Jennoc raised the Stinger. “Remember, Echo, there’s an extra rap for crying.” He brought the stick down hard on the child’s bony hand, and Vilma and Gideon flinched.
“This is the man you’re risking your life for?” Gideon asked. “He’s a monster.”
“Of all these children, he kept me. The others he turned out on the street to fend for themselves.”
Vilma, as the little Delta, moved from one dummy to another, each wearing more layers of clothing then the last. When the bright glittering of the Rainbow arrived, Vilma was grateful.
“We’re back on Earth!” Gideon exclaimed when the sparkles died. “I don’t have a mask.”
“Breathe in through your nose and out your mouth. If you took your oxygenation pills before you left the ship, you should be okay.”
She touched the comm button on her teleportation belt. “Aurora, this is Vilma. Are you there?”
“Yes, ma’am. Are you and the captain ready to come up?”
Something screamed in the twilight. “First, do we have something to block temporal waves aboard?”
“The engine room shielding might be adequate.”
“Have someone meet us at the teleportation platform when we arrive. Bring us up now.” Something was tearing through the ruins and coming their way.
Aurora paused. “One minute, Vilma. We’re avoiding some Conclave ships. Okay, we’re good. Porting now.”
Vilma had never heard a more welcome sound than the familiar teleporter hum. Dead Earth faded from sight. The air on the platform was clean, and her lungs sucked in the extra oxygen.
Kern, the assistant engineer, and Rachel stood waiting with her med kit.
“Does anyone need help?” she asked.
Vilma shook her head. “Kern, take this bag to the engine room and make sure it’s shielded. If you don’t, it may carry you to the other side of the galaxy.”
Kern took the bag. “The other side? That must be quite a story.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Gideon said. “But we’re leaving orbit now. The Conclave knows we’re aboard. They’ll be on us in seconds.”
The ship rocked as he and Vilma entered the bridge. “Make that milliseconds.”
Gideon took the command chair. “Status?”
“Six Conclave vessels are approaching,” Hoop, the senior engineer, said. “That was a warning shot. We’re in stealth, but they must have detected your teleporter signal.”
“Message from Jennoc Wush,” Aurora said, “and the Salarian cruiser is approaching.”
Vilma moved to her weapons console. “Since the Conclave knows we’re aboard, we’ll have no choice but to hand it over.”
“Where were you going to meet them?” Gideon asked.
“On the Moon, but we can’t now with Salarians breathing down our necks.”
“Did you have a Plan B?”
Vilma shook her head. “No. I’ve got so many targets out there that I can’t cover them all. Aurora, patch Jennoc through.”
“Delta!” Jennoc appeared on the screen. “I knew you’d save me.”
Vilma frowned. “Are you sure such a dangerous object should be in the Conclave’s hands?”
His eyes darted off screen. “I’m out of options, girl.”
“Rendezvous on the Moon is impossible. A Salarian cruiser is chasing us. We can outrun it, but you can’t. We’ll have to meet somewhere else.”
Jennoc frowned. “My associates insist on taking possession immediately. Can’t your amazing ship take care of the Salarians?”
“Possibly,” she said, “but I’m not guaranteeing anything.” Plus, the Rainbow might yank them away at any time.
“Pol,” Gideon told the pilot, “put us between Jennoc’s ship and the Salarians.”
“Yes, sir,” he said.
“Vilma, fire on the Salarians,” Gideon said. “If our shield levels drop below twenty-five percent, we must leave, with or without Jennoc. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.” Vilma owed Jennoc a life debt, but the others owed him nothing.
“Firing on the Salarian ship.” She blasted both cannons at the cruiser.
Aurora’s voice cut across the bridge. “The Conclave ships are withdrawing. They don’t want to be Salarian targets.”
“Cowards.” Pol sent the ship into a tight spiral. “Vilma, if one of your blasts strikes a Conclave ship by accident, I won’t cry about it.”
“Shut up,” she said. “I’m trying to keep Jennoc’s ship from being hit. I could use a little help.”
Pol’s hands flew over his controls. “I’m doing a one-eighty spin. Be prepared.”
“Just do it.” She fired at the Salarian ship as Pol brought the ship around.
It shook as the Salarians retaliated.
“What was in the bag?” Kern jogged onto the bridge. “It started shooting off sparks as soon as I put it down.”
Vilma’s heart skipped a beat, but nothing outside the viewscreen appeared to have changed. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
Vilma fired until her hands ached. Pol should be happy; she’d hit a few Conclave ships by accident.
Gideon studied the screen. “Can we tractor Jennoc’s ship and drag it with us?”
“Into the hold?” Vilma asked.
“No. Behind us. We don’t have time to pull it aboard.”
“It’s worth a try,” Pol said. “Engaging tractor beam. They’ll have a bumpy ride.”
“Serves them right.” Vilma continued firing as Pol left the Salarians behind, dragging Jennoc’s ship with them.
At a safe distance, Gideon ordered full top and extended the umbilical to Jennoc’s ship. He stared into space for a few moments.
“What is it, Gideon?” Vilma asked.
“I was thinking how remarkable the Rainbow Diamond is. Who knows what could be done with it?”
She stood and moved to the bridge airlock as it cycled. “You’ve seen how powerful it can be. If I could keep it from the Conclave, I would.”
Gideon moved to join her. “Kern, bring Vilma’s bag to the bridge.”
Kern left the bridge at a run, and Jennoc, followed by two mercenaries with rifles, entered the bridge.
“Delta!” Jennoc exclaimed. “Well done.”
The two men with him pointed their weapons at Gideon and Vilma.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “We have the Rainbow. It’s being brought to the bridge.”
Jennoc hesitated too long, and Gideon crossed his arms. “Let me guess. Jennoc wasn’t being threatened by the Conclave. He is the Conclave.”
Jennoc shrugged and pulled his blaster. “We tried to extract the Rainbow ourselves, but we were unsuccessful. I cashed in an old debt.”
“The waiter was a setup?” She was angry at her own stupidity. Not only had she given the Conclave what they needed to rule the galaxy, she’d placed her friends and ship in danger.
Kern appeared, the bag at his side. “What’s going on?”
One of the men turned his weapon on Kern.
“Hand over the bag and no one will get hurt,” Jennoc said.
“Don’t do it, Kern.” Vilma moved toward Jennoc. “If you do, everyone dies. Throw Gideon the bag.” Jennoc wouldn’t shoot her.
Kern tossed the bag to Gideon. The orb inside sparkled.
Jennoc fired at the sudden movement. Vilma’s vision blurred. She watched in slow motion as the crimson beam of light leapt from Jennoc’s gun and inched toward her. Live like a thief…
Gideon, although he held an empty bag beside Jennoc, appeared in front of her with the Rainbow. Two Gideons? He held the diamond between Jennoc and Vilma, and it absorbed the blaster beam and sent it away, potentially causing the extinction of dinosaurs somewhere.
Vilma tried to scream, to warn everyone to flee the expanding universe of the Rainbow. No words came out.
“It’s going to be okay,” the Gideon beside her said.
“What are you doing?” Around her, everyone remained frozen.
“I’m using the Rainbow to find Katrina before her death. When I do, I’m going to take her far away. Perhaps that world with the good bread.”
“You can’t pick where it will take you. You’ll wander your timeline forever searching for Katrina in the exact moment before she died.”
Gideon smiled at the glittering orb sitting in his palm. “I have forever now.”
“What about the Salarians? You were the reason we started the rebellion.”
“It’s finished. We’ve defeated them. Admit it, you’ve always wanted the captain’s chair. I may stop in occasionally to say hello. I’ll bring the children.”
The spinning planes of light became painfully bright. The Rainbow was shifting.
Her eyes stung. “Don’t go.”
Gideon kissed her cheek and stepped back. “Don’t forget this.” He took Jennoc’s blaster from the man’s rigid grasp and passed it to her. He removed the mercenaries’ rifles and threw them on the floor.
He looked around the bridge at the frozen crew. “Protect them, Captain. Godspeed.” The lights grew painfully bright.
Both Gideons and the Rainbow Diamond disappeared in a flash.
Jennoc stood with his mouth open. “What happened?”
Vilma smiled and waved her blaster at Jennoc’s men to send them into the airlock. “You tried to kill me. My debt is paid.”
“Where’s the Rainbow?”
“Captain Gideon took it someplace safe. Somewhere you or I will never find it.”
“If you send me back without it, they’ll kill me for real,” Jennoc said.
“You’ll think of something.” Vilma turned him around and shoved the blaster in his back. “But if you ever hurt me or my crew again, you will be fertilizer on Fabmus.”
She pushed him into the airlock and held her weapon on them until Aurora closed the hatch.
“Pol, get us out of here at maximum,” Vilma said. “I don’t want them following us.”
“What happened to Gideon?” Kern asked.
Vilma took the captain’s chair. “He’s looking for Katrina. If the Rainbow finds her, he’ll take her somewhere to live out their lives.”
“Is that possible?” Kern asked.
“In this strange and screwed up universe, anything is possible.”
“Hey, who made you the captain?” Pol asked, but the ship was moving.
She twirled Jennoc’s blaster. “Me and my little pal. If you don’t have a problem with that, let’s go kick some Salarian butt for Gideon.”
The crew returned to their consoles.
The command chair felt uncomfortable, but Vilma would grow into it.
THE END
