“That was the fucking coolest thing—”
“Jackin…”
“—I have ever seen in—”
“… Jack.”
“—my goddamn life.” He set her down, but kept his arms wrapped around her. His grip loosened into a soft hug, and his tone became serious. “That was unbelievably dangerous. Thank you. Never do it again.”
“You’re welcome.”
He stepped back to look at her, eyes widening. Her face flushed in confusion, and a sting of pain along her cheekbone reminded her of being punched into unconsciousness by Puck.
Jackin’s eyebrows lifted. “What happened to your face?”
She scowled. “Rampant insubordination.”
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter. What the fuck is going on? Where’s the Legion?”
His brow furrowed into concern. “Boss, no one’s at Kharon Gate.”
“Well, they don’t always station additional troops at some of the less frequented gates—”
“No,” he said, shaking his head, his voice growing quiet. “No one is at Kharon Gate. It’s deserted.”
She stared at him, half expecting him to break into a grin and say “gotcha!” but he just stared back, unblinking.
“Were they attacked?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. There’s no signs of struggle, no bodies or blood—and nothing in the logs. Systems were in reserves, gate’s off. It’s been abandoned.”
“It’s off?”
He nodded.
“Did the comms work?”
“No.”
She let out a hissing sigh. “Of course not.” Why would they?
“And it gets better.” He pulled on the torn collar of his shirt, revealing a shoulder covered in bloody scrapes. “It was bugged by Drudgers.”
“Shit, Jack…”
“They pounced on us once we were already inside, and we had to retreat. We barely got out of there.”
“Are the others okay?”
“Fine. Warner took a couple hits, but we patched him up.”
“Well, shit.” She cleared her throat. “So, to clarify…”
He put his hands on his hips and nodded. “Go ahead.”
“… the only place we can reach via our single warp core, in our overpacked exploratory vessel devoid of armaments, is a defunct Apollo Gate currently occupied by Drudgers?”
“Replace ‘occupied’ with ‘overrun,’ and that about sums it up.”
“How overrun?”
“There were over fifty on the bio scan I did. We didn’t stick around to confirm.”
She chewed her lip for a few moments. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Jackin blinked in surprise. “Let’s go?”
“What other option do we have?”
“Well, none, but…” He shook his head. “What’s the plan, exactly?”
“We’re going back, and we’re going to fix those comms. And since we can’t take a Hermes through the gate, we’ll take the Drudgers’ ship.”