Page 5 of Rebels Rising

‘Captain Artemis,’ she elaborated to our even greater befuddlement. ‘This is her spacecraft, yes?’

‘No one’s ever referred to me with that title before,’ Artemis mused from her seated position. Her hands still gripped Bromm’s, but she’d twisted her body to look at the hologram.

‘Now they have,’ GC Stanson said with a gentle smile that quickly dropped. ‘But this isn’t a personal call. The enemy are breaking down the quarantine shield. We must make haste if we are to leave Nova Station in one piece. I need coordinates to plot our course.’

‘Just get us out of here and we can determine our course when we’re clear of the danger. There are coordinates already in place, but we can’t head there just yet so ignore them for now, but make sure to keep the current coordinates on hand as they’ll be our final destination eventually.’

GC Stanson gave Artemis a curt nod. ‘Understood, Captain.’ Then the hologram dispersed and we found ourselves staring at the blank space where her face once was.

We stood around awkwardly as we each attempted to process everything that had happened. Referring to Artemis as the Captain had clearly thrown Xander for a loop, and it was amusing to watch as he studied her with a barely veiled concoction of emotions ranging from confusion and curiosity to flat out envy.

It should be fun to sit back and kick my feet up for the show as he attempted to wrangle some control of the situation back, and I had no doubt he would. Yet, after everything we had just been through, I didn’t think it would be so easy for him. This was Artemis’s ship, she was more knowledgeable of The Program than all of us combined, and she was abundantly more capable than us as well thanks to her enhancements.

I was eager to learn more about them and what she could do, and I wondered if she even knew the extent of her abilities.

A startled gasp drew me from my thoughts and back into the present moment. I was immediately on guard, especially when I noticed the way Foryk had jumped up and was leaning over Bromm, Artemis mirroring his pose.

It was easy to see what had caused their distress, however, because a blue glow was radiating out from beneath them. The same blue glow that I’d seen emanating from Artemis on the station when she’d used her abilities, only this time it wasn’t coming from her.

It was coming from Bromm.

CHAPTER 2

Artemis

Ichecked myself over just to be sure, but the evidence was right in front of me. I wasn’t glowing.Bromm was.

‘I thought you said The Program didn’t test on any of you,’ I accused, snapping a squinty-eyed, suspicious glare towards the others in the room.

Cadmus raised his hands with his palms out in the universal sign of surrender but stepped towards me rather than away. ‘As far as I know, none of us besides Adara and Reece were experimented on.’

‘He’s right,’ Foryk said from my side, his voice quavering with unrestrained fear. ‘They didn’t take us. To our knowledge, they never even touched us.’

I frowned, my eyes returning to where Bromm was shining like a bright blue star on the cot. Unless they were drugged, it didn’t make any sense. They had clearly never had the nanites grafted into their bodies, otherwise they would have suffered the same way Reece and Addy had. They could have been injected with them, but they hadn’t suffered the side effects. At least as far as I was aware…

‘Have any of you experienced anything unusual the past solar?’ I asked.

Silence permeated the room as everyone shared curious looks, but it was Foryk who answered. ‘Bromm’s been having dreams,’ he said, his voice cracking on the last word, and I had a feeling I knew what thosedreamsreally were. ‘He’s also been inexplicably passing out, but that’s a more recent development.’

I tutted, unhappy with those answers. They weren’t anything I didn’t already know.

‘There’s nothing else? Nothing at all?’

He shook his head no while everyone remained silent.

‘But… that doesn’t make any sense,’ I mumbled, more to myself than anyone else. ‘He’s not exhibiting any signs of The Program tampering withhim. If anything his symptoms are delayed. They could be testing a new serum that takes a while to set in…’

I stopped my musings to level the room with a frown. ‘You’resurethey never touched him or any of you? You weren’t taken during the night?’

‘Artemis,’ Captain Hironimus spoke up, his voice gentle but firm. ‘I’ve been keeping a close eye on everyone. There have been no late-night kidnappings nor any form of experimentation on the cadets or the officers on Nova Station. Whatever is going on with Bromm, it wasn’t anything to do with those bastard scientists.’

I scowled at his attempt at reassurance, his words not connecting with the truth quite literally glowing right in front of me. Bromm was clearly riddled with nanites, there was no arguing that fact. The problem was how The Program managed to infect him with them so discretely that no one even noticed.

I wasn’t able to let my concern over the matter settle over me fully, however, because the ship chose that moment to fire up ready to launch. The entire ship juddered beneath us, rattling whatever medicines were loose inside the stacked boxes. Those standing stumbled with the next ship-wide shudder before scrambling to hold onto whatever was available before the next one hit, and I had to hold Bromm in place as he almost vibrated off the cot. Making a split decision that knacked at my nerves despite the necessity for his safety, I strapped him down and raised the guards to properly secure him in place. Eloria Stanson may have been an experienced pilot, but she was unfamiliar with this particular ship and it showed.

‘Wait!’ the captain shouted, features taut with distress. ‘What about Markus? He’s still on the station!’

I froze while the men in the room exchanged nervous glances, but the only other person in the room who didn’t seem to care was Addy. Our eyes met, a silent understanding passing between us. Neither one of us would miss the large, blonde mutt. That nasty business with Jorna was what cinched it for me. There was simply no way Markus had gone missing while his girlfriend was guarding The Program’s scientists. He was up to something, and I had no doubt he was working with her.

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