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rumbled.
    The pilot cursed.
    Dex pressed a hand to the bridge of his nose. “ You ,” he said, glaring at the youngling between his fingers, “will do yourself a favor, and get out of my sight, and go to the passenger bay so you can crap your pants in private. I can smell your fear from here.”
    The boy tripped over his own feet as he raced from Dex’s view.
    “The rest of you,” Dex said, standing up from his seat, voice rising to a roar, “will catch me that fiking ship! ”
    The glory of his rage was lost in another explosion.
    This time it was so bright, so loud that it lit up the skies. A lurch resonated all around him, and the ship went sideways.
    “Engine one has been hit!” the pilot yelped.
    Dex tumbled into the metal siding, his anger tumbling with him.
    This job was the answer. It was everything. It could make or break his career.
    And if Dex lost this opportunity now, when it was so fiking close, Cyprian would pulverize him when they docked back at the Bay. He’d shatter his loose jaw just like he’d promised, and then Dex would be sipping from a straw for the rest of his life.
    Enough was enough.
    Dex raced forward, boots clacking on the grated floor.
    The pilot looked up as Dex hovered over him, leather gloves squealing with each clench of his fists.
    “Move,” he commanded.
    “Sir, I am under direct orders from Cyprian to…”
    Dex squeezed his fists. The pilot flinched back as a triangular blade sprung out of each of Dex’s gloves, just over his knuckles. “Move the fike over.”
    The pilot stumbled as he leapt from his chair.
    Dex took the wheel, his bladed knuckles shining as another streak of gunfire shot past. He could hear commotion in the background, the sound of the pilot’s whining voice as he phoned Cyprian, a glorious tattle-tale. Dex drowned it all out as he squeezed the wheel.
    This was where he belonged, in the pilot’s chair.
    The co-pilot, a green-skinned man from Adhira, stared at Dex open-mouthed. “You were right,” he said. “They’re heading for the Asteroid Belt.”
    Of course I’m right, Dex wanted to say. Androma always runs until she finds a place to hide.
    Through the viewport, Dex caught a perfect, shining glimpse of the Marauder , its jagged, dagger-like shape heading right into the mouth of hell.
    The Gollanta Asteroid Belt was just ahead.
    “Alert the fleet on Solera,” Dex said, as he angled the tracker towards Gollanta.
    “Alert them of what, sir?” the copilot asked.
    Dex sighed. “They need to meet us in the center of the Belt. Cloaked.” If he was wrong, well, he was already under Cyprian’s control. He might as well use it to his advantage. “Tell them the Marauder is heading their way.”
    Dex closed his eyes and allowed himself to hope. Then he begged the Godstars that his last-minute plan would fall into place.
    Androma was good at what she did. But so was Dex.
    And besides, a prodigy could only outrun her master for so long.

Chapter Four
    Gollanta.
    A world of space rocks spiraling around them, death knocking at every porthole.
    Andi stared out the viewport, her glowing eyes wide. Blackness surrounded them, with the exception of light that penetrated the belt from a neighboring star. And, of course, the telltale flashes of three ships, still trailing them.
    She’d make them regret it. It was time to end this.
    Andi turned on her com. “Breck. Gilly.” She clenched her teeth as an asteroid resembling a skull came hurtling towards them. “We’re low on fuel, low on ammo. Shoot the small stuff, and wait for my command. We’ll use the Big Bang and turn their bones to dust.”
    Gilly answered with a giggle sharp as a knife. “Done.”
    Tick, tick, tick.
    Boom.
    An old spacesuit floated past the window to her right, and Andi hoped a corpse wasn’t still inside. She couldn’t imagine the thoughts going through the unlucky victim’s head in those last moments before they died.
    Death was Andi’s closest friend, a little demon that