Alexei nodded, and I gave him a grateful look as he shifted his attention to Cage. “What happened with your contact?”

Cage stared at me a moment longer, worry and fear creasing his brow, but then he allowed his calm, carefree mask to surface. “Short version, Géxià was willing to help. She gave me the baton and told me where to find you.”

“She didn’t want anything in return?”

Cage shook his head, clearly frustrated. “She wasn’t willing to help us off the station, and she was short on details. It sounds like Omnistellar is putting Obsidian in danger. This is her home. She doesn’t want it destroyed. She also implied that if we save Obsidian, she’d be willing to talk again. I guess our goals happened to align, which is very fortunate for us.”

“Well, only kind of,” I replied, and quickly explained Liam’s theory: Omnistellar was working on summoning the damn aliens to steal their tech.

He took it about as well as could be expected, shaking his head, his eyes wide in disbelief. “No offense, but your company is short a few brain cells.”

I scowled. “It’s not my company, not anymore. And we’d better get out of here. This is someone’s home, and from the looks of it, someone important.”

“Can we stop for just one minute?” Imani sounded on the verge of hysterics. I blinked. I’d never heard her speak with anything but perfect calm. Even when she’d been on the edge of tears, her control remained in place. Now she trembled, her hands clenched into fists. The encounter with the bounty hunters had shaken her. “We haven’t rested in hours. We’re exhausted. We’re going to start making stupid decisions very soon. In fact, we already are.”

Jasper laid a gentle hand on her arm, and she peered at him through a veil of unshed tears. He said, “We do need to rest. But this is not the place to do it. We might still have hunters on our tails, and Kenzie’s right: whoever lives here isn’t going to be happy to see us. Okay? Let’s keep moving. We’ll find someplace safe soon.”

“Will we? Where on this station is safe?” Imani shook him off and stomped her foot. “Where in this solar system is safe for us now? I wish I’d stayed on Mars with the others.”

Mia scowled. “If that’s what you want, we’ll find a way to get you back there. And if you want to stay here while the rest of us move on, that’s fine too.”

“Take it easy, Mia,” said Jasper quietly. Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t tear into him. “Imani. We’re all scared. It’s going to be okay. Keep moving a bit longer, all right?” I wasn’t sure anyone but me caught his next words, spoken so softly I barely heard him. “I know you’re thinking about Aliya. About who’s going to tell your parents what happened. I’m thinking about my family too. It’ll be okay. I promise.”