An Unforgiving Desert – Chapter 7

Another day, another hijacking. How did I get so lucky?

I lean my head back against the life pod’s wall, a bitter laugh escaping my lips. Kalvin glances at me, his eyebrows raised in question, but I wave him off. How could I even begin to explain?

There’s far too much history here to get into it now.

We are so screwed.

My mind drifts back to the last time I found myself in this position. Well, not exactly this position. Last time, I at least had my clothes on.

I was on the Amagi, my kick-ass ship. My home. My freedom.

My skin prickled with the aftereffects of the plant I ate to give me telekinetic powers. Let me tell you. There’s nothing as powerful as throwing things through the air with the power of your mind. I may have loved it even more than flying itself. I held on to the pitchfork that Tomu waved around as hard as I could, but when he shook it from my mental grasp, I fell sideways and clipped my cheek on the stair decking.

The cargo bay plunged into darkness, and an alert from Ai, my ship’s AI, sounded. “This cargo bay will be flooded with pure nitrogen in twenty seconds.”

The military crew was right at the door, pounding on it, shouting. I couldn’t do anything with Tomu, Vivian’s brother, holding Vivian hostage.

“Shit,” Tomu muttered and pulled Vivian backwards. “They will not take me. Hear me?” He wrenched Vivian and started dragging her away with a knife at her throat. “You’re so fucking stupid. I was ahead of you by three steps every time. I told Gabriel Almas where I was. I tipped off the military. I had a team of people hack your system and steal everything, and I faked all your video files, and sent them to OEN so they’ll know how you imprisoned me… and how you killed me.”

No one wanted to kill Tomu more than me at that point. He had done more damage to our family than any bad rumors or a terrible harvest could. More damage than my own family had done to me. I crept down the stairs, keeping out of his peripheral vision.

Vivian played dead. She relaxed her body in his grip, and his face turned murderous.

“I’ll fucking kill you. Get up!” He jerked her to her feet.

Vivian just barely held back a smile. “Do it. You took everything from me, you selfish prick. Might as well take my life too.”

“If you thought I would make it that easy for you, you’re mistaken.”

My eyes darted around the cargo hold, trying to catalog every one at their places. Ken and Jinzo with their hands up. Lia lying on the floor, sweating and panting, Vivian’s larger clothes swamping her tiny frame.

I never carried weapons on my ship. It wasn’t me. I used my wits and my sharp tongue to deal with assholes who thought they could take what was mine.

Years of dealing with Dom honed my skills to a polished shine.

I couldn’t save Vivian. Tomu had put her between him and us. He dragged her backwards out of the cargo bay, towards the forward airlocks. My blood turned to ice as I was sure he was going to kill her.

I ran down the stairs to help Lia, sprawled out on the floor. Her skin was slick with sweat, and she panted through the pain. Tomu had kicked her hard enough to knock the wind out of her. She clutched at her chest as the airlock cycled and soldiers streamed in.

The next few seconds were a blur of shouted orders, the cold press of gun barrels against skin, and the sickening realization that we were well and truly fucked.

I remember the rough hands pushing me to my knees, the metallic taste of fear in my mouth. But more than that, I remember the rage. The white-hot anger that burned through my veins as I watched these strangers invade my ship.

“Don’t move,” the man in the lead said, pointing his gun at me. I kept my eyes on him as other soldiers grabbed Lia and rounded on Ken, Jinzo, and Carlos.

And then she walked in. Lady Nina Correa, all military precision and cold calculation. I’d heard stories about her from Vivian and Gus, but nothing prepared me for the reality. She strode into the cargo bay like she owned it, her eyes sweeping over us with a mixture of disdain and triumph.

She made eye contact with me and nodded once, satisfied.

“Find Vivian, the fugitive, and my son,” she said to the lead soldier.

They ran off, and she approached me.

“So,” she said, her voice cutting through the tense silence, “want to tell me what’s going on here?”

I couldn’t help myself. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was anger, but the words tumbled out before I could stop them. “I could ask the same of you. Why don’t you tell me why you cornered us and boarded our ship?”

Her lips twitched, almost a smile but not quite. “I think it’s pretty simple. You were harboring a fugitive, wanted on several counts of felony fraud and embezzlement charges. We came to secure him.”

Tomu. That bastard. This is all his fault.

Nina’s radio clicked. “Commander Correa, we have an opened forward airlock, and a body stuck in the outer doors.”

My stomach plummeted. Vivian? Was she the body stuck in the airlock doors?

No. No.

Nina sighed and closed her eyes. “Of course,” she muttered under her breath.

I panicked as everything swirled around me. Carlos begged for the bathroom. Someone dragged Gus into the cargo bay, and he cradled his broken arm to his chest. Someone handed me an ice pack and I pressed it to my face, dimly aware of the throbbing ache there.

My eyes stayed glued to the corridor Vivian disappeared down.

Please, please be alive, I repeated over and over, a prayer to gods who had never really listened to me.

“We found her, sir.” A solider ushered Vivian into the cargo bay, still naked. “She sent the fugitive out the airlock, and now it’s stuck.”

Relief flooded every cell in my body. Vivian was alive.

Nina’s eyebrows raised.

Even dead, he was still causing us trouble. I felt a flicker of satisfaction knowing he’d chosen to space himself rather than face capture, quickly followed by a wave of guilt. He might have been a grade-A asshole, but he was still family. Sort of.

As Lady Nina laid out her plans, I felt the Amagi slipping away from me. My ship. My responsibility. And I was powerless to stop it. Each word she spoke was another nail in the coffin of my dreams, my independence.

“We’re going to take the seeds and the plants, and we’re going to take your whole ship,” she announced, her voice as casual as if she were discussing the weather.

I lost it then. “The fuck you are,” I snarled, jumping to my feet. The guard next to me shoved me back down.

“Don’t touch me, you pig,” I growled, but inside, I was screaming. This couldn’t be happening. Not to me. Not to my ship. I’d worked too hard, sacrificed too much to let it all slip away like this.

I looked around at my crew, my family. Vivian, her face a mask of calm determination. Jinzo and Ken, their bodies tense, ready to fight if given half a chance. And Gus, poor Gus, caught between his mother and the life he’d chosen with us.

As they herded us onto Marcelo’s shuttle, I couldn’t take my eyes off the Amagi. My ship, being taken away by these… these thieves in uniform. I felt the tears coming, hot and angry, but I refused to let them fall.

Not here. Not now.

“Mom’s going to kill me,” I whispered, the words barely audible over Lia’s quiet sobs. And she probably would have. The Amagi wasn’t just my ship; it was a symbol of everything my family had worked for. Everything I was supposed to protect and carry forward.

I could already hear her voice in my head, sharp with disappointment. “Skylar, how could you let this happen? Do you have any idea what this means for our family? For our business?”

As we pulled away, watching the Amagi shrink into the distance, I made a promise to myself. Never again. I would never be this vulnerable, this helpless, ever again.

The two-day journey to Palo Alto was a special kind of hell. Cramped in Marcelo’s shuttle, with nothing but our anger and our fear to keep us company. I spent most of it planning, scheming, trying to figure out how to get my ship back. But deep down, I knew. The Amagi was gone, swallowed up by the vast bureaucracy of the military.

When we finally made it to Palo Alto, the reality of our situation hit home. No ship, no cargo, no money. We were stranded, with nothing but the clothes on our backs and a whole lot of explaining to do.

The next few weeks were a blur of missions and legal battles, desperate attempts to scrape together enough credits to keep going, and long, sleepless nights wondering where it all went wrong. But once we got the Amagi back, it was time to slowly, painfully rebuild.

While the Amagi was at the Lee Shipyards, I threw myself into my studies, determined to become the best damn pilot in the system. Once the Amagi was fixed, I’d make sure I was ready when the next business opportunity came along. And it would come. I’d make sure of it.

The memory fades, and I’m back in the present, trapped in a life pod with Kalvin, facing yet another hijacking. But this time is different. This time, I’m not that same scared, angry girl watching her ship being stolen away.

I’ve learned. I’ve grown. And I’ll be damned if I let history repeat itself.

I look at Kalvin, really look at him. A few days ago, I couldn’t stand the sight of him. Now? Now he might be the only thing standing between me and another colossal fuck-up.

“Hey,” I say, my voice low. “You with me?”

He nods, a hint of confusion lingering in his expression, but there’s trust there too. Good. We’re going to need that.

“We’re getting out of this,” I continue, my voice fierce. “No matter what it takes. I’ve been through this before, and I’m not about to let it happen again.”

“Before?” Kalvin asks, his eyebrows shooting up. “You’ve been hijacked before?”

I let out a humorless laugh. “Long story. Let’s just say I’ve got a score to settle with the universe.”

I start formulating a plan with what little knowledge I have about the situation. Lady Nina Correa, Cressida, all of them… they have no idea who they’re dealing with. I’m not the same Skylar Kawabata they think they know.

This time, I’m ready. This time, I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to prove. And this time, I’m going to win.

The plan starts to take shape in my mind, a patchwork of everything I’ve learned since that day on the Amagi. Every trick, every loophole, every dirty little secret I’ve picked up along the way. It’s risky, sure. But what in this life isn’t?

When we get picked up, we’ll return to the school, and we can send them after Cressida.

Right. It’ll be a cinch. A piece of cake. They thought they were getting rid of us, but I now know it was Cressida, and she won’t be able to hide.

This time, I’m not just fighting for a ship. I’m fighting for my future, for everything I’ve worked so hard to achieve, for the license I was supposed to get after this exam. And I’ll be damned if I let anyone take that away from me again.

Cressida and her crew have no idea what they’ve just stepped into. They think they’ve got us cornered, trapped like rats in a cage. But they’re about to learn a hard lesson.

Never underestimate Skylar Kawabata. Because this time, I’m not going down without one hell of a fight.