Chapter 21 · The First One Up

The med ship we stole smelled like disinfectant and blood.

I didn't know whose blood. Senna said she found it docked at a repair station two sectors over, engine warm, crew gone. We didn't ask questions. We just ran.

Now I was strapped into the co-pilot seat, watching the nav screen flicker through jump coordinates while my hands wouldn't stop shaking. Senna was up front, flying manual because the autopilot kept glitching. Echo-7 was everywhere and nowhere, its voice crackling through the console speakers, the med bay intercom, even the stupid coffee machine in the back.

"You need to hear this," Echo said.

I didn't want to hear anything. I wanted to close my eyes and wake up as someone else. Someone who wasn't a clone. Someone who didn't have a ten-year-old murder video with her face in it.

"Kira." Senna's voice, sharp. She didn't look back. "If Echo says listen, we listen."

I swallowed. My throat was dry. "Fine. Play it."

Static first. Then a voice I knew.

Victor Lane.

"—confirmation of Starfire Unit One revival at oh-four-hundred. Vital signs stable. Cognitive function nominal. She's asking for target parameters."

Another voice, older, flatter. I didn't recognize it.