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  As if in answer to his words, a scent came floating through the ship. The worker lifted his antennae, tasting the new flavor in the air and looked at X'izith excitedly.

  “My Sovereign, your Breeding Queen’s ship has been sighted. They are preparing to enter the Blind!”

  X'izith clicked his mandibles together in anticipation.

  “After them,” he buzzed. “They must not escape! If they enter the Blind it will be difficult to find them.”

  “There is a squadron of flight drones ahead of us already in pursuit,” the worker relayed after tasting the messages being sent from the control sector of the ship again. “Shall we pursue as well?”

  “Yes! We must get to them—I must have my Breeding Queen. My barb aches to thrust between her thighs,” X'izith proclaimed. “Inform the flight drones to surround the ship but not to damage it—grappling hooks only. We must capture her alive.”

  “It shall be done.” The worker scurried off to relay his orders while X'izith admired his breeding barb once more. “Soon, my Queen,” he murmured in his high, buzzing voice. “Soon you will be mine. I cannot wait to implant you with my grubs…”

  Chapter Thirty

  “We’ve got company.” Varin’s deep voice was grim as he surveyed the viewscreen in front of him, which showed a 360 degree view around the spaceship.

  “What? What do you mean?” Brynn put down the strange First Meal patty she’d been chewing—it was as tough as leather and almost as tasteless—and ran over to where he was sitting in the control area.

  “Look.” Varin pointed to the screen. Coming up fast from behind and both sides were a phalanx of strange looking ships. They looked more like they had been grown organically rather than built but there was no doubt they could move. “What do you want to bet those are Hive ships?” he growled.

  “Goddess above—how did they find us? Do…do you think it was my dreams?” Brynn put a hand to her throat guiltily. “Do you think Sovereign X'izith was able to zero in on me and track us that way?”

  “Doesn’t matter how they found us, only that they found us,” Varin said shortly.

  “But what can we do? Where can we go?” Brynn asked frantically.

  “We’re going to go where we were heading in the first place—the Blind.” He pointed to the viewscreen again. Directly ahead of their little ship was a vast towering wall of nothingness. There were no stars, no moons or planets or anything else that Brynn could see. Just blank blackness.

  Brynn’s heart seemed to catch in her throat at the sight of so much nothing.

  “Will…will we be all right in there?” she whispered.

  “If the coordinates the Tempath gave me are correct—” He stopped abruptly and made a choking noise.

  “Varin?” Brynn looked away from the viewscreen and saw that his entire big body had suddenly gone rigid. “Varin!” she gasped, grabbing him by the shoulder. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  “I…my…chip…” He was barely able to get the words out. It reminded Brynn horribly of the way he had spoken when her mother had frozen him with the pain collar.

  “Varin, no! No, you have to be all right!” Pushing him forward, Brynn looked down at his bare lower back where she knew the slave chip was implanted. There was something there she had never seen before.

  Raised letters had appeared in Standard on the olive skin of his back. They looked a little like the ones on his chest that spelled her name but these were glowing red.

  “Chip Failure Imminent,” Brynn whispered to herself, reading in a choked voice. “Immediate Chip Replacement Recommended.” And below the words were a set of numbers. After a moment, Brynn realized they were running backwards.

  It was a countdown and Varin had less than one solar hour to live.

  “Goddess above,” she whispered. “No…oh, no.”

  A sudden metallic thumping sound intruded on her panic.

  “What…what was that?” she looked around wildly and saw the viewscreen was showing a different picture now. One of the lumpy, organic-looking ships had shot out some kind of line with a metal hook attached to it. A hook with claws that opened and shut, as though grasping for a hold. The hook had bounced off the side of their little ship—this time—but there were so many ships and if all of them had similar equipment, how long could it be before they were taken?

  “Grappling…hooks.” Varin’s voice was choked. “Trying…to drag…us back.”

  “They can’t!” Brynn slid between his legs and took the controls. “We’ll take evasive maneuvers!”

  “No…time,” Varin choked out. “Turbo…boost. Fly straight…into…the Blind.”

  “Turbo boost? But won’t that use up all the rest of our fuel?” Brynn looked for the control he was talking about—a small red button at the top of the control panel. Varin had told her never to touch it—it would give the little ship an immense burst of speed but at the cost of their entire reserve fuel tank. They wouldn’t even have enough power left over to use their stealth mode—which meant they would be very fast but also very visible.

  “Can’t…help that. Push it,” Varin ordered. As he spoke, there was another clanging sound as a second Hive ship tried to catch them with its grappling hook.

  They aren’t quite in range yet, Brynn realized, staring with wide, terrified eyes at the viewscreen. But they will be soon. And when they catch us…

  The viewscreen flickered and showed something new again—the bulbous insectile head with its wide, black, soulless eyes was horribly familiar.

  “Come back to me, Brynn,” hissed the high, evil voice of Sovereign X'izith. “Come back—you are a princess no more. I will make you my Queen. Come back to me and feel the sweet sting of my breeding barb between your thighs. You know you want to—nothing but a deep breeding will satisfy your need…”

  Brynn felt like she was going crazy. In the space of a few seconds, everything had gone wrong! Varin was dying and the Hive had suddenly appeared out of nowhere like the culmination of some dark magic trick. She couldn’t even be sure if what she was seeing on the viewscreen was real or not. Was the alien leader really patching into their signal and projecting himself onto their little ship’s screen…or had he somehow invaded her mind and was making her think she saw him on the screen?

  Deep in her body she felt an awful urge to answer the Sovereign’s hissing voice, to turn the ship and go back to him. Her body wanted her to—the empty ache inside her which Varin’s seed had only been able to partially sooth was growing again—crying out that she needed that sharp, horrible barb between her thighs…breeding her…filling her completely at last…

  No! No, I have to fight these thoughts—these feelings!

  Brynn shook her head fiercely, pushing away the alien urges that tried to rise within her. But she still didn’t know what to do. Behind them was the Hive. Before them, the Blind rose up, vast and blank and terrifying. They might be lost forever inside it. They might die.

  I’d rather die with Varin than live to let myself be filled with those hideous grubs! she told herself grimly.

  On the screen, X'izith hissed again.

  “My Queen…come to me, my Queen…only a deep breeding can satisfy your burning need…”

  Reaching forward, Brynn slapped the Boost button as hard as she could. The little ship shot forward into the Blind and the image on the viewscreen flickered to be replaced with black nothingness.

  The Hive ships disappeared and she breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe now…weren’t they?

  And then the viewscreen showed them again—the lumpy organic ships, now far distant, just specks on the horizon but still on their tail.

  The Hive was still following them, even into the Blind. And how long would it be before they caught up?

  “Goddess above,” Brynn whispered through numb lips. “What are we going to do?”

  Chapter Thirty-one

  “Hold on—something’s coming through.”

  Commander Baird, the Master of Sh