Chapter 18

Trance had a feeling that something was wrong. Just a few seconds ago, a feeling of dread filled her. She tried to contact her crewmates to make sure they were alright. Even though she knew that they weren't. No one answered except Dylan.

"Have you found her?" he asked through the commlink.

"Dylan, have you heard from anyone else?"

"No, why?"

Trance said nothing.

"Trance?!"

She had obviously turned off her commlink. Dylan made an aggravated noise. His crew always seemed to have their own agendas. He walked through the halls in search of Hannah. Suddenly a noise from the distance reached him. It was unmistakably the sound of gunfire. He rushed off in the direction of the sound.

By the time he reached where he thought the sound had come from the gunshots had stopped, but he could hear someone talking who was definitely not one of his crewmembers. He stopped and listened. It was unmistakably the voice of the same Nightsider who had sent the message to Hannah. So she had betrayed them. It sounded as though he had brought a whole troop of helpers with him, too. Dylan stole away as quietly as he could to get a gun, and maybe find some of his crewmembers to help him.

Wait a minute, what am I doing? He thought. I'll just activate the automated defense systems. He quietly gave the order to the Andromeda.

"Automated defense systems are offline," she replied, a little too loudly. Luckily by this time there was enough distance between himself and the Nightsider's troop that they didn't hear it. On the other hand, automated defense systems were offline. Great. He tried to contact Harper and tell him to fix the defenses. Funny, he couldn't seem to contact him. He tried Beka, then Tyr, then Trance. Trance's was the only one still working.

"Trance, can you hear me?" he spoke into his commlink. "I can hear you just fine from here, Dylan," she said, coming up from behind him. He jumped, but recovered quickly.

"Trance, have you seen Harper anywhere? Or anyone else, for that matter?"

She shook her head "No, but I know they're around here," she started off before Dylan could ask her about that last remark. She had said it like she knew their exact location. He followed her.

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