Tessa's POV:

Soranto checked his wrist comm one last time. "Are you ready?"

"No, but I want to get out of here more than I want to stay."

"Fair enough."

He opened up the door cautiously; the air was overly warm, but not hot enough to harm either of us. The metal tube still radiated more heat than my heat lamp as we eased past it and approached the door to the narrow corridor.

After checking that the coast was clear, Soranto began quickly jogging down the corridor. We were both hoping that most of the Votaks would be asleep or resting in their rooms.

Soranto found the door to a maintenance shaft and opened it up. There was no way he was going to easily move through this small space. I jumped off Soranto's shoulder and glided into the tiny passageway.

"I'm flying ahead. Are you going to fit in here?" I asked, wondering if we had to find another route.

"I'll manage." Ducking down, he managed a fairly impressive speed even though the ceiling was lower than his elbow would have normally been.

It was easier and safer for me to check around corners. An escaped animal was one thing, but if a Votak spotted a Kymari in their hidden base, all hell would break loose.

It took us a long time to reach the area Soranto wanted. The door was locked, though.

"Stand back."

I glided in a small loop to fly further behind him as he awkwardly kicked the door in the cramped space. It bent and buckled, but didn't open. It took a second kick to break the lock. The air inside practically hummed from the massive machine. From this angle, I could only see a corner of it.

Soranto stretched now that he had more room and went over to sit against the wall. He removed his wrist comm while bringing tools out of his belt pouch. He pulled off one shoulder pad, turned it over, and detached various electronics and cords that were meticulously arranged inside.

Once he put the shoulder pad back on, he asked, "Can I get you to go onto my other shoulder for a moment?"

Slipping behind his head, I asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm linking the heat capacitors and my wrist comm together." He gestured to a small keypad on the ground beside him. "I'll be able to use this controller to make them detonate once we are at a safe distance. My wrist comm is almost at full power; by itself, it could probably destroy a part of this place. If it explodes in here, it will set off both reactors."

"Will it destroy this place?"

"Depending on how deep the geothermal lines run and how big this moon is, we have a good chance of blowing up a quarter of the moon. Those last two Votak shuttles have returned, so the entire group is in this place. Nothing should be left of the lab other than our memories."

"That would be a huge relief."

"One last thing..." He used a tool to pry a small piece of his armor off. "This camera is going to remain here as well."

"I had completely forgotten about that..."

"I can tell them that it must have been knocked off in the explosion on the trade ship." He got to his feet and wedged his wrist comm and the attached devices into a gap in the machine's pipes. "I'm done here. Now all that is left is to get out of this place. Just don't get lost – I have no way to find you without my wrist comm locating your tracker bead."

"I'll try to keep within sight."

Once again, we used the deserted maintenance passageways to travel. The trip was much easier on me than on Soranto, who barely had enough room to squeeze through the narrow space.

The corridors seemed to stretch on forever.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?"

"Yes. We have three more doors before we turn right. Can you please check how close the Kymari fighters are? And how many are coming?"

"Soranto is asking how far away the Kymari fighters are."

"Less than half an hour."

"How many?"

"Half of the armadas in this star system. Soranto and Adeline have much better family connections than I had assumed. Your friends among the Ply-Ball players have also created a huge stir. The Votaks would have been much safer if they had remained outside of the Kymari's territory."

"Half of the armada is about half an hour away," I told Soranto.

"Half of the armada?"

"In this star system," I clarified.

He was silent for quite some time before muttering, "What did Adeline do this time..."

"Huh?"

"One armada is one fighting group. Like a flock. There are a lot of these armadas in this section of space. It wouldn't be easy to get so many to come. It also means that they pulled a large number of those fighters from our border defenses. We really have to get to safety as soon as we can."

"I like that idea."

He chuckled as he turned the corner and kept hurrying. "I bet you do. Well, so do I."

At the door Soranto had specified, he opened it and looked around warily before entering the hallway, finally getting to stand up straight again. He started jogging over to a nearby door and peeked through the window. I moved my head to look as well, eyeing up the six shuttles in this bay.

"Are you sure you're willing to do this?"

"It increases our chances of getting out of here safely, and it isn't as if I will be in any danger."

Still somewhat reluctantly, he held up the four feathers he had bound together like part of a bird's tail. When they had originally been put into his belt pouch, they had been meant to tickle me. Now they were going to get an entirely new purpose in life.

He opened the door for me. Taking the feathers, I flew straight up towards the ceiling and glided above the lone camera before swooping down. I landed on the camera and carefully arranged the 'bird tail' to cover only a quarter of the camera lenses.

That quarter would conveniently hide just the one shuttle. A bit of sticky medical tape secured the feathers in place. A bird would be rather out of place here, but it shouldn't count as an emergency when most people were hopefully asleep and they could still see most of the room.

With my task done, I flew back to where Soranto was already climbing into the shuttle. The seats were meant for a race two thirds his size, but the safety straps stretched far enough to lock together. I landed on his shoulder pad, allowing him to close the door.

"We'll only have a minute or so before I have to set off the explosion to avoid having some of the Votaks get out. The blast will be fairly powerful and will likely send chunks of rock and debris flying toward us at high speeds. When I say jump down, jump into my arms. The seat restraints will hold me, but there isn't anything in here that could protect you."

I bobbed my head quickly. "Okay. I understand."

"Then let's get out of here."

He stared at the controls for a few moments as if memorizing them, before he began pressing buttons and twisting dials. Lights on the controls began turning on, and a small hologram with strange lines also appeared.

The shuttle began to slowly lift into the air as the bay door opened. Red lights around the room began flashing and the bay door began closing.

"The alarms have just gone off," Soranto muttered, pressing a few more buttons.

We began flying forwards as huge energy blasts shot from the shuttle's weapons, striking the electrical panels on either side of the door. In a shower of sparks, the door stopped closing, allowing us to escape.

"Hang on tight."

I dug my claws into his shoulder pad as the shuttle accelerated up a tunnel into the black expanse of space. We jolted momentarily, and Soranto's hands flew over the controls, making us fly in a weird pattern. Our flight was very similar to many aerial evasions I had done before.

"What happened?"

"They have some sort of turret on the surface. It was a blind strike, but it did damage part of the wing, thruster, and cloaking shield. I have the ship's shields up, but we are going to feel each of those hits."

Another jolt forward emphasized his point as he continued tapping on the controls and spinning one dial.

"Where is the Kymari patrol frequency... Ah, found it. This is bond animal handler Soranto Dhaen requesting immediate assistance. I'm in a Votak shuttle escaping one of their hide-outs. Transmitting coordinates."

A smaller jolt made Soranto quickly check a few things and curse under his breath.

"What is it?" I asked nervously.

The communication device spoke before he could. "This is the Graer patrol. We have your coordinates and are en route. Additional forces are also on their way."

"One of the shuttles has already gotten out and is in pursuit," Soranto told me. "I have to detonate my wrist comm, but we might not be far enough away for the shields to completely protect the hull in this pitiful excuse of a ship."

Another thud made him pull the controller out and press a button.

"Jump down!"

My claws dug into the small gaps in his armor in my haste to get into his arms. He wrapped his arms around me, lightly pressing me into the gap above his chest armor, just below his neck.

I had barely curled up before the entire shuttle was flung forward. The shuttle shuddered and rolled with the force, shaking violently. The ship began to slow slightly, only to immediately jerk forward violently as something slammed into us from behind.

Out the front window, thousands of massive pieces of rock shot past us. Another big impact sent us rolling to the side as the autopilot feature fought to correct our flight and evade the biggest projectiles. Various icons and screens flashed red and orange, and I hoped they weren't something really important.

I squeezed my eyes tight and waited for the spinning, shaking, and jolting to stop.

---------------------

Author's Note:

I believe I shall dedicate this cliffhanger to @GlenMaddock since that friendly old guy took far too much delight in the fact that this book was resisting my attempts to keep it shorter than the first book while I was writing it.  :)