Quantum (30 page)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Mae tucked her drained Reidar stunner away and surveyed the growing crowd in the storage area. They’d cleared just under thirty personnel, as Rian had instructed, and now those people were helping with crowd control, keeping an eye on the milling crew.

Only one person had reacted to the Reidar stunner, and he was now tied up in a far corner, looking pissed and glaring at the two men keeping guard on him. The stunner had knocked him out for a moment, but he hadn’t changed into a Reidar’s true form. So either he was an alien who was somehow resisting the energy pulse when others hadn’t been able to, or he was human and for some unfortunate reason, the stunner had actually worked on him. Either way, she’d erred on the side of caution and kept him trussed up until she could talk with Rian and Zander about what to do with him.

Lucie and Lianna had reported that their Reidar stunners were empty and had taken up a post near the doors. Mae paced the line of soldiers standing at attention along the bulkhead, her gaze roving over the crowd. Icy apprehension prickled along the back of her neck. There could be any number of Reidar hiding among the gathered crew, and they had no way of knowing until they got back to the
Ebony Winter
so Chase could charge the power packs of the stunners again.

The comm linked to the
Ebony Winter
’s systems Rian had given her—the only comms working since Tannin had started his hack on the
Swift Brion
—pinged, and she touched it to connect. Was it all over? She’d been keeping busy and not letting herself think about what Zander was facing deeper in the ship without her.

“What’s the sit rep?” She paused in her pacing.

“Mae.” Rian’s voice held a grim tone, and her heart skipped a beat. “Do any of you still have shots left on your stunners?”

“No.” The chill increased until it felt like there were icicles slicing through her veins. “We used them all to clear as many military personnel as we could, just like you ordered. What’s going on?”

“We have a situation.”

Mae started toward the secured door of the storage. Whatever was happening, she wasn’t waiting around here any longer, pacing a hole in the deck.

“What’s going on?” she repeated as she sent the soldier standing by the lock a hard look. He turned to let her through without a word.

“Nothing I can’t handle. Stay where you are. It’ll all be over soon.” Rian cut the transmission before she could reply to his cryptic statement. Heart pounding, she broke into a run, sprinting through the deserted ship.

As she got deeper, she came to the blast doors, finding the remnants of multiple battles, including dead bodies littering the passageways, both human and Reidar. Her breath got shorter as the evidence of the fight Zander had faced got messier and bloodier.

By the time she reached the passage leading to the bridge, she was half convinced she’d find Zander’s body among those left in the wake of the incursion. But what she encountered on the bridge was almost worse.

There were two Zanders. One was laid out on the floor, hands bound behind his back, unconscious or dead, she couldn’t tell. The other was on his knees in front of Rian, who had a nucleon gun aimed at his head.

“Rian, wait!” She skidded to a stop next to Rian, clamping her hand on his forearm.

“I thought I told you to stay where you were.” He didn’t take his eyes off the Zander kneeling in front of him.

“Mae, thank god,” Zander muttered. “Please tell Rian he’s being a frecking idiot and if he doesn’t stop aiming that thing at my head, we’re going to have a serious problem.”

Mae focused on Rian’s features, his expression set like stone and his eyes glittering with malice.

“Rian, let’s tie them both up for a few hours until Chase can get the stunners recharged. We can easily work out with a couple of energy pulses which is the real Zander.” She tried for a calm tone, but tension had tightened her voice.

“And give the bastard a chance to escape? No, thanks.”

Mae tightened her hold on Rian’s arm, frustration washing through her like mercury. “How do you know that’s not really Zander?”

Rian flicked a glance at the other Zander laying a few steps behind the kneeling Zander. “When have you ever seen a Reidar get knocked unconscious unless it had a dozen bullets in its chest?”

Incredulous anger bloomed from the frustration. “That’s how you decided?”

Zander’s expression hardened. “Rian, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever—”

“Fine,” Rian cut in. “Want to prove you’re the right Zander? Tell me how we got here.”

Confusion crossed Zander’s face, and Mae’s heart skipped a beat. “How we got here? What sort of question is—”

“Wrong answer.”

Rian’s shoulders tensed, but with a sharp yell, Mae shoved his arm, sending the shot wild, hitting a nearby console. Before Rian recovered his balance, the unconscious twin came up with a knife in his fist. And she knew, without a doubt, that the Reidar were finally about to succeed in killing Zander.

She let go of Rian as the armed Reidar lunged and sank the knife into Zander’s back.

“
No!
” She scrambled forward, catching Zander against her as he slumped forward.

The Reidar pushed to his feet, bloody knife in hand. A nucleon shot rang out and Mae ducked, covering Zander as fire from Rian’s gun streaked over her head, hitting the Reidar in the chest and propelling it backward. The damn thing stayed on its feet, though, until the nucleon gun clicked empty.

The Reidar finally tipped backward, the knife clattering out of its hand as it hit the deck.

Mae straightened from her protective crouch as Rian came down next to her.

“Somebody get the goddamn medics!” Rian yelled over his shoulder.

“Zander?” Warm, sticky wetness had soaked her thigh and her arm where she’d braced against Zander’s back. Her heart was beating too fast, almost making her dizzy.

“Mae.” His voice was raspy, but as he reached out to grab her hand, his grip was firm. “I’m sorry about everything, about how we left things. You changed my world, you know that, right? Everything I thought I knew changed when I met you.”

She shook her head, throat closing tight over her airway. “No, don’t say it, Zander, please. You’re going to be fine—”

He let go of her fingers to wrap his hand around the back of her neck, his gaze fervent as he stared at her.

“I love you.”

The short words impacted her like a hit to the chest. She wanted to reply, but she could hardly breathe, let alone talk.

“No matter what happened between us, I need you to know that I love you.” His grasp on her loosened, and he coughed, the sound wet and bubbling. Blood stained his lips and trickled from the side of his mouth as his eyes slid closed.

“Zander.
Zander!
” She tightened her grip on him as he slumped in her hold, and the whole universe came crashing down on top of her. Tears came hard and fast, stinging her eyes then spilling down her cheeks. She clutched him closer because she couldn’t let him go.

She couldn’t lose him, not after everything they’d survived together.

“Mae, move back and let the medics do their thing.” Rian clamped a hand on her shoulder, gently pulling her away.

The instinct to fight reared up, fed by the fear that if she let Zander go, it would be the end. He’d be dead and she’d never get to see him, get to touch him or love him ever again. But Zander had once accused her of being too practical, and now didn’t prove to be the exception, even when everything was going to hell. She shoved her emotions away into a deep, dark compartment as she gently lowered Zander to lie flat on the deck, letting the ship’s doctors swarm, checking and pulling and working on him as Rian helped her to her feet.

She leaned against him, not quite able to hold herself up, as if when she’d shoved down the emotions, she’d locked away her energy as well.

“Get the stretcher over here,” one of the doctors ordered. “If we don’t move him now, he’ll be dead before we can reach the MED.”

The hover stretcher appeared, and the doctors wasted no time getting Zander on. As they ferried him out of the bridge, Rian grabbed one of them before they could all disappear.

“What’s his condition?”

Thank god for Rian, or she simply would have followed them all up to the medical emergency deck without a clue of what was happening and spent who knew how long in an agonizing wait for news.

“The knife nicked one of his arteries and punctured his lung, causing it to collapse. The arterial bleed would have been bad enough, but the collapsed lung is putting extra pressure on his heart. We haven’t got much time to work with.”

“When you say not much time—” She found her voice but couldn’t manage to finish the question.

“We’re talking minutes to get him into the ship’s automated R and R unit. I’m sorry, but I need to get up there.”

Rian nodded, his expression grim as he let the doctor go.

A deep freeze settled into her soul, and she crossed her arms against the chill radiating from the depths of her body. They might not even get him to the MED before—

She gulped a breath, her chest spasming with the need to sob. But she wouldn’t break down, not now, not here.

“He’ll be fine, Mae. Zander’s a fighter. I’ve seen him come back from the line before.” From Rian’s tone, it sounded as though he was trying to convince himself as much as her.

She shot him a hard look, then tramped off the bridge.

Rian and his damn impulsiveness.
Things wouldn’t have come to this if he’d listened to reason. But when it came to the Reidar, it was like his sensible side switched off, leaving him reckless and bloodthirsty. If Zander didn’t make it, she didn’t know how she’d ever be able to look at Rian again without hating him.

Out in the passageway, she nearly stumbled over the body of a dead soldier, almost forgetting about the short, bloody battle that had raged only minutes earlier. Someone caught her elbow and steadied her, and she looked up to see Rian had followed her out. She wrenched out of his hold and continued toward the elevators, the doctors with Zander already having disappeared into the upper decks.

As she reached out to touch the crystal screen for the elevator, the blood—Zander’s blood—on her hand zeroed her attention, making her stomach pitch. She clenched her fist and swallowed against the churn rising in her throat. Rian stopped beside her and tapped the screen himself several times, like that would make the elevator arrive faster.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Her voice came out scratchy, and she swallowed again, trying to clear the roughness at the back of her tongue.

He didn’t answer.

“Where are you going?” This time the words came out stronger—not quite a yell, but a heated demand nonetheless.

Finally he looked at her, his expression devoid of any emotion whatsoever, as if he hadn’t just tried to kill the man he claimed was his closest friend.

“Zander is like family—”

The pressure of the worry and tearing grief smashed into each other and exploded outward. She shoved Rian in the chest, and since he didn’t resist, he stumbled back into the wall next to the elevator.

“Don’t you dare say another word. If he dies, this one won’t be on the Reidar.”

The elevator arrived with a soft chime. When she turned away and stepped in, he didn’t try to follow. The doors closed on him stalking back along the corridor, head down, shoulders tense and palms resting on his weapons as though they were his only salvation. In that second, before the closing panels completely shut him off from sight, she wanted to call him back, tell him she hadn’t meant it. But he was gone, and the elevator swiftly took her up.

Alienating him wasn’t the best way of handling things. If she lost Zander, Rian would literally be the only one she had left in this goddamned universe. But she couldn’t escape the smoldering anger for his actions. The next breath caught painfully in her chest, and she had to squeeze her eyes shut, waging a battle over her emotions for control of her body. She refused to turn up on the MED a sobbing, incoherent mess. That wouldn’t help Zander.

By the time the doors opened on the MED level, she’d regained enough composure, though it had left her feeling numb. With purposefully even steps, she walked the short length of the passageway through the airlock doors and into the chaos of the medics trying to save Zander’s life.

No one paid her any attention as she neared the end of the bed. Blood dripped off the side of the gurney, crimson red against the stark white floor.

The doctors had cut away Zander’s shirt and gotten him hooked up to the ship’s monitors, shooting medical terms back and forth. An alarm cut off the chatter and made everyone freeze for a split second.

“We’re losing him. Get the R and R unit,
now
.” One of the doctors who appeared to be in charge recovered before anyone else. The words almost didn’t make sense, her mind grappling to comprehend the reality of
this
.

A few of the nurses and doctors backed off while the doctor who’d spoken and another standing on the opposite side of Zander reached up to grab the resus and regen unit above the bed. They yanked it down and secured it to the sides of the gurney, the pod-like assemblage completely cocooning Zander.

“The R and R isn’t going to cut it. We need to get him into surgery to repair that artery.” Even as the doctor spoke, the rest of the medical team were getting ready to move again. As they started ferrying Zander with the R and R unit secured around him, she stepped into the path of the doctor who’d been giving orders.

“Doctor—?”

“Prescott. I’m Dr. Prescott.” He managed to dodge her and continue after the gurney, but she fell into step beside him.

“What’s happening with Zander?”

“The R and R unit is the only thing keeping him alive. And because of the seriousness of the injury, it won’t sustain him for long. I need to get in and repair the artery, if he’s got any hope of surviving.”

“But once you fix the artery, he’ll be fine?”

The other doctors with the gurney disappeared through a set of double doors marked
medical personnel only
. Prescott paused to face her.