She scowled at his amusement. "I really don't want to talk about my sex life right now. And stop changing the subject. I'm about to be split into molecules and shot across to ..." She stopped. "Where?"

Zain replied soberly, "I don't know."

"Will it hurt?"

"No. It'll be over fast, I promise."

The container lurched forward and nosed up sharply. Panic seized her as they went vertical. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She didn't care if he knew. She didn't care if she made a fool of herself, or if he laughed at her. They were going to die. How much worse could it get?

It occurred to her that every time she used that particular phrase, something worse always happened.

"I'm scared."

When Zain didn't reply, she figured he hadn't heard her. Then she felt his warm palm against her cheek as he guided her lips to his, and kissed her. She felt a sudden rush and then fireworks filled her head, blocking everything out except for the ghost of his lips on hers. She held on to it in terrified desperation. If he lost contact with her, she'd never make it.

Seconds stretched into forever, and then the shipper leveled out.

Zain broke off the kiss. "We landed."

"We're alive?" she asked, patting herself down. All her parts were there in what felt like proper order.

"For the time being," he said, just as she was starting to feel pretty good again.

They slowed to a full stop. The shipper whined, and the top half split open lengthwise, revealing a bright starry night. The small spaceship in the center of the shipper abruptly started, and just as the ceiling opened wide, the ship's wing unfolded. Lacey covered her face as air jetted around them and the ship rose and flew off so fast she couldn't even track it.

Zain released his harness and stood up. Lacey did the same, wobbling a little as she looked around. They were in the middle of a vast meadow, surrounded by a dark, foreboding forest of twisted trees. A thick, swirling mist danced around several hundred shippers just like theirs. Her eyes widened at the small army of capsules laid out across the field. They were all opening. Ships filled the night sky in every direction. The obvious question was why?

"What kind of ships are these, Zain?"

"Short-range, unmanned InterGlax fighter drones."

She turned her head to look at him, stunned. "Your InterGlax?"

Zain scanned their vicinity, and then his gaze zeroed in on something in the distance. "There's only one InterGlax?"

She raised her hands in utter relief. "This is wonderful. You know them. After we get sent back in this shipper, you can just call them and tell them we're stranded. We'll be home for dinner."

He took his sweet time replying. "I can't do that."

She was getting tired of him saying what they could and couldn't do without good reason. "Why the hell not?"

He turned to her with a look of dread and resignation, almost longing. She had a bad feeling that she wasn't going to like his answer.

"Because InterGlax has a warrant out for my arrest." His gaze was steady. "For the murder of my partner."

She knew he'd said the words but somehow they weren't getting past the churning mist of the alien planet, the fighter spaceships zooming overhead, and the general chaos of life on the edge of sanity. She must have heard him wrong. The eye of her storm, the man she trusted with her life, and the object of a serious amount of lust- he couldn't have just said he'd murdered his partner. He'd held Lacey, fought for her, and helped her. He might be controlling and hardheaded, but he was no cold-blooded murderer.

"You didn't kill your partner. What happened, Zain?"

Before he could reply, a loud rumble erupted in the distance. Lacey dragged her gaze from Zain to where a series of bright lights illuminated the valley below them. Flames flickered through the trees, and the night was filled with gunfire and destruction.

"Oh my God," she whispered. "Are these ships doing all that?"

"Probably."

She shook her head in confusion. "But I thought InterGlax were the good guys."

The distant battle lit up Zain's face and the bitterness there. "Not always. Stay here. I want to investigate," he told her. He jumped out, and she followed. "Contact me as soon as the ships begin to come back for the return to the Well."

A brand new fear took over-more frightening than all the others, if that was possible. "What happens if you don't get back in time?"

He checked his rifle. "Then return to the planet and tell Reene to call Rayce or Cohl to pick you up. Make sure Reene explains the automatic weapons systems. They will have to deal with them somehow or help you install a new power cell so you can use the VirtuWav. But either way, you need to be off that planet before InterGlax comes for their monthly check in three days, even if it means leaving Reene behind."

She shook her head at the calm way he was telling her all this. If he didn't return, it would mean he was dead. Or as good as.

"I don't want you to go. It's too risky. If we just stay here, the ships will eventually go back through the portal."

His shadowed face turned to her. His words were almost desperate. "I need to know who InterGlax is attacking and why. Please stay here."

The smell of smoke and lasers in the distance did nothing to assail her fears. Yet Zain's plea was more than she could refuse. Whatever the history between him and InterGlax, this was important to him.

"Just get back in time," she relented.

He reached out and pulled her to him for a sizzling kiss. She wrapped her arms around him for what might very well be the last time.

"For luck," he whispered against her lips. A second later, he disappeared into the night.

Zain stepped silently through the light underbrush in a twisted forest. The battle flashed ahead of him, close enough that he could see individual lasers slicing the night. The one-sided siege had been going on for more than an hour as the IG fleet attacked with deadly execution. He didn't recognize the planet they were on, but it was most likely a juvenile. The lack of return fire told him that this was a complete surprise to the inhabitants. They didn't have the manpower or firepower to defend themselves.

He used his goggles to zoom in on a target. Small homes were burning, and he could make out their inhabitants running for cover.

He watched the ships slaughter the defenseless souls in the valley, and fresh anger rolled over him. What the hell was IG doing, attacking civilians? Even if the people of this planet launched a defense, they would only be destroying unmanned drones. Their efforts would put nothing more than an insignificant dent in IG's armor.

Abruptly, one of the ships peeled off and headed over Zain's head, drawing him back to the present. Lacey was alone at the insertion point. He turned and sprinted through the forest as more ships tracked overhead.

"Zain, get back now," Lacey's voice sounded over his comm, urgent and clear. More ships zipped overhead, and he knew he didn't have much time. They would return to the capsules and head back through the portal. This was like no InterGlax op he'd ever seen. They came, they destroyed, and they left. For what purpose? There was no victory, no surrender, nothing.

He ran harder, crashing through the underbrush, giving up stealth for speed. As he broke into the misty clearing, the attack ships were already reseating into their capsules. Zain scanned the rows looking for Lacey. His goggles picked up her heat signature as she stood on deck, and he headed for her. With fifty meters to go, he watched a ship descend into their shipper and it began to seal up.

"Zain!" Lacey's cry came over the comm at the same time something ripped into his back, just above the shoulder blade with enough force to slam him into one of the capsules. He rolled under the container and went down on a knee, stars flooding his vision from the impact. His night vision picked up several people running toward him with hand weapons. The locals were finally fighting back.

He resisted his trained instincts to return fire. This was their home. They had every right to defend it, and as far as they knew, he was the invader.

"Zain, where are you?" Lacey's plea drove him forward. Using the shipper for cover, he loped toward her location.

Pain seared his back but he blocked it from his mind. He had to get back to her. He wouldn't fail another partner. He wouldn't fail Lacey. He stumbled over the terrain, surprised by his own clumsiness. The ground around him seemed to heave and roll, and he realized that he was moving more slowly, his body betraying him. Poison. The word surfaced through a suffocating fog. Whatever had hit him was doing this.

A smattering of ammunition pelted the metal capsules around him, and he could hear people shouting. He pushed ahead blindly, barely able to stand up. They were right behind him when he reached what he hoped was Lacey's shipper.

The hatch was wide open, and he threw himself in as a salvo of gunfire rattled around him. He laid on the floor, his back burning. Even as his mind spiraled out of control, he knew she was there. She was safe. He hadn't let her down. He was with her.

Lacey hit the panel to close the hatch, overwhelmingly relieved that Zain had made it.

"Are you all right?" she asked frantically, crawling over to him in the dark where he lay on the floor. He wasn't moving and she knew he was hurt. She ran her hands over his face and his chest.

"Zain? Talk to me."

He groaned. "I'm fine."

"Right," she said, trying not to panic but not doing a very good job. Her hands reached beneath him and her fingers sunk into something wet and warm and sticky. She didn't need light to see he was bleeding.

"Harness yourself, Lacey," he rasped. "We're going back through the portal.

"You first, cowboy," she grunted as she tried to push him to the wall. He wouldn't budge. The man was solid muscle.

He moaned. "Don't."

"Don't, my ass. You are moving, mister, so get yourself against that wall or we're going to be banging around inside this death trap together."

He hissed in pain and rolled onto his side. His voice was laden with agony and confusion. "Anyone tell you ... stubborn?" His words slurred.

"My parents, three sisters, all my friends, and every other person who even remotely knows me. Stand in line."

She dragged him with little help to the side. Missiles had stopped rattling the shipper, and it was moving faster now. She and Zain didn't have much time before the return trip.

He leaned back against the wall, and Lacey felt the energy drain out of him. It had taken all he had to get this far. She fumbled with the harness in the darkness. It had just clicked tight when she felt the ship sharply drop.

He grabbed her and pulled her to him. "Hold on."

She wrapped her arms around him as her world came apart, tossing her into the terrifying vortex of teleportation. A soundless scream tore from her lips. Zain's arms tightened like a vise, keeping her grounded.

Seconds turned to minutes, and then the weight of gravity settled over her like a blanket. The ship went vertical, and she knew they were on the other side. It seemed like an eternity passed before they leveled out, and Lacey almost felt as if she were on solid ground again. They were still moving but at least she could kneel and check on Zain. His arms clamped around her, dead weight.

She reached into his pack that was still strapped to the wall and fumbled around until she found the light-ball. It activated the second she tossed it into the air, illuminating the interior.

Zain's head lay back against the wall, his eyes shut. Agony filled his face.

"Stay with me," Lacey whispered, fear making her hands shake as she wiped his sweaty brow. He was hot and flushed and out of his mind with pain.

She felt the shipper slow to a stop. Now what? She hit the panel to open the contraption's side panel. Bright fight flooded in. She leaned out and looked around. They were in a tunnel again, probably the same as before.

The shipper's ceiling yawned open, and a roar of flutters filled the air. Above her, the robot runners zipped by hauling hover sleds. Three of them dropped into their capsule and began inspecting the ship. She held her breath, but they didn't seem to notice her as they pulled panels off the fighter drone and peered inside. One of the hover sleds was close, and she reached out and tentatively pulled it toward her. Keeping one eye on the robots, she released Zain's harness and shoved the sled in front of him.

He groaned loudly as she muscled his body across the sled, face down. That's when she saw the damage. His shirt was soaked in gore where three metal spikes were wedged in his back. Her first instinct was to pull them out, but what if it worsened the bleeding and she couldn't stop it? She needed to get him back to the ship where Reene could help.

She hopped out and drew the sled carefully behind her. As she made her way down the tunnel with Zain, she noted all the shippers were open and the craft inside being repaired or maintained. For some blessed reason, the runners didn't acknowledge her presence.

At the end of the tunnel, the bridge stretched out before her where they'd left it. Her gaze drifted down through the mesh walkway and into the great void below. She choked back panic. Her body wouldn't move. She couldn't do it.

Zain moaned behind her, reminding her that her fears could kill him. She stared at the control podium that seemed a mile away.

"Come on, Lacey. Don't be such a wimp." She gritted her teeth and stepped onto the mesh. "You've come this far." She took another step. "Gone where no Earthwoman has gone before." Another step, then she checked Zain who wasn't moving. "Survived multiple teleportations to God only knows were, attacking Bobzillas ..." She kept moving forward. "Talked to aliens, been kissed senseless..." The podium was nearly in reach. "What's a little walk on a skeletal bridge over a bottomless abyss?"

She reached the other side and latched on to the podium for dear life.

"There now, that wasn't so bad," she said, barely hearing her voice over her pounding heart. She tapped the panel and the bridge rose slowly. As they rode to the top, she knelt down next to Zain. His eyes were closed and his breathing weak.

"Don't leave me now," she whispered. His eyes opened with great effort, dark and unfocused. He tried to move his mouth, but nothing came out.

"Oh, Zain," she said, tears stinging her eyes. He was bad; she knew that. The bridge was moving too slow, and she didn't know how she was going to activate the lift alone. How was she going to do this?

Then he groaned in pain and renewed resolve settled over her. He needed her and she wasn't going to let him down, no matter what it took. The top of the platform was in sight and she pulled out her pistol. No one was going to stop her from getting him to the ship. She held her weapon ready as the bridge clicked into the edge of the platform. It was empty except for Pio and two of his krudo friends.

"You back," Pio chirped.

She grabbed the handle of the sled and pulled Zain off the bridge toward the lift. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you and your many legs. How'd you get down here?"

"We play," he responded. "You play, too?"

"Maybe later," she said with a shake of her head. "Right now, I need you to take us up." She positioned the sled so that it and Zain were within the circle, and knelt to hold him in place. Pio sprang to the controls while the other krudo stayed below, and the lift rose into the darkness. Lacey laid her head on Zain's hot body. He was burning up. Just a little longer, Zain. We're almost there.

Chapter Seventeen.

The krudo helped her get Zain into the ship and onto his bunk on his stomach. Reene had been grilling her with questions since she set foot in the door, but she was too exhausted to give him any more than the basics. The last thing she felt like doing was reliving the past few hours in graphic detail. Besides, she had other priorities.

Oliver was perched next to Zain, looking as worried as a cat could get. Pio bobbed on the front console. "Zain broken?"

Lacey swallowed the painful lump in her throat. "Yes."

"You fix?"

She stared at Zain's bleeding body. She'd never performed first aid on anyone who was in serious trouble, let alone half-dead. "I'm going to try. Tell me what to do, Reene."

"You will require the medkit," the computer said in his monotone voice. Forcing herself to remain calm, Lacey pawed through Zain's pack until she found the box, then dumped the contents on the bunk next to him. His face was gray and his breathing shallow.

"He's not going to make it," she said.

"Unroll the black film and position it above Zain's back," Reene told her.

Her hands shook as she stretched the film. Almost immediately, it displayed statistics, layers of skin, muscle, bones, organs, and three darts embedded about an inch deep.

"He has sustained injury to epidermis and muscle. However, the biggest danger is the toxin," Reene said with maddening composure.