Chapter 1 : Theodora Walker

Theodora's POV

With an entire galaxy to police, I wondered if the Galactic Military ever got tired of chasing me from planet to planet.

"WALKER!" a booming voice shouted as I crossed narrow scaffolding along the massive skyscrapers on Juniper, one of Juno's moons. This particular moon had a thriving black market, but I guess the guy who sold me my goods also called the cops on me.

Bastard.

I teetered along the edge, along the clear glass. Inside the building, I watched several civilians point and stare at me, the crazy woman danging above a black abyss, on the precipice of the unknown plummeting down into the black hole beneath me.

"Get back here, Walker! Pay for your war crimes!" the booming voice shouted again as shots ricocheted off the glass and into the sky. I could hear the heavy boots of authorities clomping against the structure, shaking the weak supports under me.

I threw my head over my shoulder, looking directly at the familiar face of my ex-commanding officer, Lieutenant Gomez. The man made it his life mission to bring me into custody. "Shooting you in the face wasn't a war crime!" I retorted, wrapping an arm around a pole to swing across to another flimsy walkway.

The thin material shuddered under my feet. If I wasn't careful, I'd slip off the side. I stared down at the vast blackness of the moon, only illuminated by the neon of the buildings. With so much light pollution in this settlement, I couldn't see the stars.

Where the fuck was my pilot?

I grabbed the lapel of my leather jacket, speaking directly into my comm. "Benji, where the fuck are you?"

"Sorry, Cap, just ran into a hold-up," Benji answered. "I'm locking onto your location now."

"Where do you need me?" I asked, ducking under another shot whistling past my head. Pain erupted up my arm as one of the bolts grazed me. I groaned, shaking off the droplets of blood running down my arm.

Fuckers can't even shoot straight.

Lieutenant Gomez was shouting orders to his subordinates, but I couldn't be bothered to listen. The officer lost all reason and sense when he had me in his sights. To him, I was his Moby Dick—the whale who stole his leg.

Only, I stole his eye.

Honestly, it was an improvement to his face.

"You need to get higher. Only a few more stories," Benji replied. I could hear the whirl of the engine over the speaker.

"Oh, only a few more stories, Benji? Only?" I muttered sarcastically, thanking the stars that I wasn't afraid of heights.

"You're a big girl, you can handle it," he laughed.

"Fuck you," I grunted, putting my bag of merchandise between my teeth to scale the ladder.

"You're not my type."

I rolled my eyes, climbing the ladder, maintaining my endurance.

Underneath me, I heard Gomez shout for his officers to follow me. Unfortunately, the ladder began to shake as they continued to pursue me. I grunted, feeling my palms rub raw against the crude metal, grinding my teeth further to hold my bag. My hair whipped around my face, briefly obscuring my vision.

I didn't go through all this shit to lose my purchase.

Finally, I made it to the top, walking all the way to the edge of the building. I fisted the bag in my hands, drawing my Colt with the other from my holster.

Call me old-fashioned, but I preferred bullets over lasers.

Gomez emerged from the ladder, his phaser white-knuckled in his hand. His officers parted to allow him to see me. "Finally," he muttered. "There's nowhere to run, Walker. It's the end of the road."

The side of his face was deeply scarred, feathering out from his eyepatch. I'd feel bad about mangling him if it wasn't justifiable.

"You can turn yourself in and come willingly, but I'd prefer to shoot you. No one would find your body in the Nothing," Gomez decided, a grin splitting his face right in the middle. The gleam in his eyes became frenzied.

Dirty. Dirty as a military man and dirty as a cop.

The familiar whirl of my ship's engine sounded off the side of the building, too quiet for Gomez to hear over the roaring wind.

I shrugged, holstering my gun. Gomez's eyebrows came together as I grinned right back.

"Better luck next time," I chuckled, giving him a mock salute and stepping off the edge of the building.

I landed directly on the walkway of my ship.

Benji was always on time when it mattered.

If only I had a camera to capture the dumbfounded look on Gomez's face as he bellowed for his officers to open fire.

The hatchway to the cargo bay cracked open and I slid under the door, hitting the big red button to slam it closed.

"Hold on tight!" Benji's voice rang through the intercom.

I grabbed onto the wall seats, buckling myself in before I could fly across the cargo bay. I'd have a lot more to nurse than a graze. I held onto my bag to protect its contents. The ship rattled violently as Benji operated a jump out of the line of fire and into the vast openness of space.

An instant reprieve hit me as we stopped rattling.

Hallelujah.

"You alive in there, Cap?" Benji asked over the intercom.

I laughed, leaning over to press the button on the speaker. "You're going to have to try a lot harder to kill me, Benji."

His laugh cackled across the intercom. "Glad to hear it, Theo."

I unbuckled my seatbelt and ascended the steps into the main living area of the ship, protected by a bulkhead door in case there was a breach in the air seal. It wasn't a large ship by any means, but big enough for a crew of five to call home. Homey but not cramped.

The only windows on the ship were in the bridge and the guest room that we used for stargazing when it was empty. We didn't have many guests, but sometimes a job required it. Anything from heists to bounty hunting.

We all had our own private rooms. Necessary for long journeys. No one wants to have someone breathing down their neck after a tense day. The ship had four bedrooms, but our mechanic, Mads, stayed above the engine room and Benji made his quarters in the bridge.

Never know when you need evasive maneuvers or sudden repairs.

Over the years we made the Peacemaker feel like home. A commuter spaceship that moved almost invisibly on most radars due to its lack of guns. Even with my criminal record, we picked up jobs around the galaxy and had a reputation for getting the job done.

"So she lives!" my younger brother, Daxton, shouted over from the couch; a cup of coffee in his hands. "You get the goods, Theo?"

I tossed Daxton the bag. "I didn't go through all that shit with Gomez to not get the goods."

Daxton caught it, shooting me a big shit-eating grin as he opened it. "It's been so long since I've eaten fresh fruit."

I'm sure my Earth-born ancestors would be shitting themselves if they knew tomatoes and berries had become hot commodities; sold exclusively as black-market goods.

Luckily, the plethora of planets boasted all sorts of new food, but the seedlings from Earth couldn't grow well on other planets.

The farms on Earth had become salted as humankind depleted all the resources. Taking to the galaxy to terraform and survive. In fact, the only beings left on Earth are vampires. They could never overcome sun sickness, so instead, they stay on a rapidly dying planet, unable to escape.

Unfortunate.

But anyone that could help them, turned their backs on them centuries ago.

Daxton looked up, big brown eyes that matched mine locking on the graze through my jacket. He closed the bag, setting it on the counter beside the galley kitchen. "You should get Ellie to take a look at that."

My gash was still bleeding steadily, but it didn't hurt anymore. But having our doctor take a look at it wouldn't hurt either. Daxton stood, big broad shoulders dwarfing me. I wasn't a small woman, I'd say about average height, but next to him, I felt like the little sibling.

***

I slipped my jacket off my shoulders as Ellie grabbed a few things to sterilize my graze. Daxton leaned against the doorframe, making some hushed small talk with Ellie. I didn't miss how Ellie's sapphire blue skin darkened ever so lightly, her cheeks softening to light violet.

She was the youngest on my crew at twenty-two, but her age didn't matter. She was a breath of fresh air. Bubbly and forever curious. But that was in a water nymph's nature.

I jumped onto the metal table, my dark hair cascading down my shoulders to mid-waist, eyeing how my little brother flirted with Ellie and she flirted right back. Ellie chewed on her lower lip, brushing black hair behind her ears.

Daxton was too much of an idiot to notice the subtle reciprocation. Can't say I'm surprised. He also didn't notice me sleeping with our mechanic, Mads, for the better part of two years. At least I didn't have to sneak around with him anymore since we called it quits.

My idea, not his.

And nothing pissed me off more than how fucking well he took it. He was so nonchalant about it, more respectful than I wanted him to be. He could have pinned me against the wall and fucked me again. Or wave a red flag in my face, reaffirming that breaking up was the best idea.

But he did the worst possible thing he could have done, in my opinion, and said that he understood and respected my decision to split.

I couldn't even be angry.

Instead, it just left me with regret and all this unresolved sexual tension.

It wasn't like I wanted to break up, but I didn't like how fast I started to care. Really care. Talk about a nail in the coffin of our friendship. Safer to just stop fucking. Unfortunately, I was reminded how sex-starved I was every time he came up from the engine room for dinner.

I couldn't ever go see him alone. If I had the chance, I'd fuck him again.

I knew it.

Mads knew it.

So I avoided him like I was an alcoholic and he was the sexist bottle of starshine sitting on the top shelf of a liquor cabinet. I just had to remind myself that I was keeping my distance to protect our friendship and my crew from the possible fallout of a messy breakup.

But a messy breakup would feel a whole lot easier than pining after a man I ended things on good terms with.

I should be fucking thankful.

But whenever I thought about Mads, my insides would twist and I'd think about how good he was in bed. But unfortunately, with his elevated werewolf senses, he knew exactly when I was thinking about him.

I needed a bigger ship.

A cute little giggle slipped out of Ellie's lips, pulling me directly out of my thoughts. Daxton flushed pink as a stupid smile plastered itself on his face before he left the room.

They made the idea of romance seem easy. The casual flirting. The adorable blushing. The will-they-won't-they. As much as I envied it, I wanted them to know I loved and supported it.

Even if my brother was an idiot.

Ellie gathered her tools and came to my side, not wasting any time cleaning the bloodied burn from Gomez's phaser. Luckily, his phaser cut through my untattooed arm. I'd rather it scar than leave a big splotch of naked skin amongst the artwork.

"Done flirting with my brother yet?" I asked cheekily.

Ellie didn't answer right away. A moment passed and she said, "Ask me that again and I'll forgo the anesthetic."

I snorted. "Fine. Fine. I'll leave it alone."

Ellie raised a black eyebrow and numbed the area around my wound to make the next part suck a lot less. "You're lucky they just grazed you."

"Ha. They're a shit shot," I replied as she used a sterile pair of scissors to snip the burnt flesh to give the sealant some fresh skin to stick to, releasing more blood. I let her do it, grumbling under my breath in the discomfort. Numbed, but still uncomfortable. "Are you excited about dinner?"

"So excited!" Ellie said, spraying the sealant over my skin. It burned, heating up as it knit the skin back together. "It's been so long! What're you going to do with it? Make magic, I'm sure."

I only winked at her, sliding my jacket off and jumping off the table. My favorite part of the day was dinnertime. Huddled around the table with my friends, laughing about the last adventure before sailing right into the next.

We took turns making dinner, but I would argue and say that everyone liked my dinners the best.

A crackling noise emitted from the speakers beside the sliding door into the medbay. "Hey, Theo, are you still in Medbay?" Daxton asked.

I pressed the call button and replied, "Yeah. What's up?"

"We have an incoming call in the bridge."

"Be right there," I answered.