My whole body tenses, and I sit there, frozen, unable to bring myself to speak. I feel like I’m going to be sick.

Omen.

It doesn’t seem possible. How can the person I dread most in the galaxy be the same person who’s helped me, who’s fought for me, who’s walked around my ship laughing and eating pizza? How can I not have known?

“What are you doing out here anyway?” Kash asks, his voice light and casual. “I thought you’d be headed in the other direction.”

My chest is tight, like someone’s squeezing my heart in their fist, and my mind races as I try to form a coherent thought.

“I, uh—well, we—there was—there was a signal, and—” I stutter, trying to get the words out. My voice sounds strange, deafened by the sound of my heartbeat in my ears, as I try to make sense of it all.

If I didn’t realize who Kash really was, that he’s been Omen all along, does that mean that he doesn’t know who I am either? Or has everything leading up to this all been part of some elaborate ruse, an act designed to put me off my guard?

“Hey, you alright?” Kash asks, sounding a bit concerned.

No, I want to say. No, I am very much not alright. I just realized that my nemesis has me cornered in an abandoned, cordoned off section of space.

“Look, J, you really shouldn’t be out here,” he says seriously. “The radiation levels are crazy, and the grav pull on this thing is no joke. I bet your engine’s having a hell of a time.”

“Yeah, you could say that.” I manage to choke out a nervous chuckle, hoping I don’t sound as panicked as I feel.

I shake my head, trying to pull my thoughts together.

If Kash had known it was me all along, wouldn’t he have acted sooner? Why wait until now? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Based on the way he’s acting, I have to assume that he hasn’t caught on. And even if he has, my best chance for now is to try and remain calm. If he’s not suspicious already, I don’t want to give him a reason to be.

“Lucky for you, you’ve got a personal escort out of here,” he says.

Yeah, lucky me.

“Hey, what are you doing out here anyway?” I venture. My breathing is still a bit shaky, but I try my best to sound composed.

“I guess you could call it work,” he replies.

Work, huh? What kind of work would bring someone out into restricted space? I try to remember what it is he said he does when we first met. Something bullshit about stopping “bad guys,” I think. I roll my eyes. What a joke. It’s not lost on me that he probably has himself convinced that he’s the one there helping people.

“What, you run into a lot of bad guys out here?” I ask, hoping it sounds more sarcastic than accusatory.

He laughs.

“Hey, you never know who you’re gonna run into,” he says lightly. “I mean, just look—I ran into you.”

Calm down, Jahdra, I tell myself. He’s just being…Kash.

I’m still having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that the person I’m talking to right now is somehow the same person I’ve been running from all this time.

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“Not that I’m complaining,” Kash says. I can hear the smile in his voice, even over the line. “Actually it’s almost kind of a miracle,” he continues. “Or maybe just fate.”

I feel my heart begin to pound faster.

Fate? What’s that supposed to mean? Was he hoping to run into me out here? Does he know it’s me after all? Is this the part where he turns on me and starts shooting?

Suddenly I jump as a hand touches my shoulder. It’s Byer. I find myself instinctively reaching up to grab his hand and squeeze it for reassurance, surprising even myself with the action. I look up into his eyes, trying to absorb some of his calm, his steadiness.

“Look, there’s a station just outside the perimeter,” Kash says. “I’ll send you some coordinates, and we can get the hell out of here. Whaddya say?”

I don’t know what to say. I know what I want to say, but I don’t that’ll go over too well. So instead I settle for a murmur of affirmation, hoping that’s enough to make him think I’ll go along with his plan. But really, I need a plan of my own, a plan to get away.

I look back up at Byer and get the feeling he’s reading my mind.

“Send me your ship ID and I’ll set up a radar tag,” Kash’s voice comes over the speaker. “I have to keep a log of everyone I run into out here anyway.”

Shit.

Well, he was going to figure it out sooner or later. I was just hoping it would be later. Much, much later.

“Give him Remus’s ID,” Byer says suddenly. “Stall him long enough for me to get out of the docking bay.”

“What?” I ask, looking at him with bewilderment.

“I’ll distract him. You go,” he says.

Is he kidding? It might sound like a good idea to him, but to me it sounds like a suicide mission.

“Like hell!” I retort. “I appreciate the thought, but Remus is no match for Omen. Whatever your distraction plan is, it’s not gonna work.”

“I’ll say I’m lost, ask for help,” Byer says, starting toward the door. “I’ll keep him busy enough for you to get a head start, and if he comes after me, I’ll drop some chaff, confuse his sensors.”

I scoff.

“Look, you may think you know Kash, but you don’t know Omen. He’s little more than a glorified bounty hunter, and he’ll have zero moral qualms about destroying your ship if you piss him off.”

“I’ll be fine,” Byer says as we head down the hallway. “Remus is tough.”

I shake my head. I can’t tell if it’s arrogance or if he’s trying to be noble. Or maybe he’s just spent so much time watching me make stupid decisions that he can’t tell a good idea from a bad one.

“You know he has a Blackout on that ship, right?” I say, as we near the lift.

“He fires that thing, and—”

“I know,” Byer says before I can finish. “But he’s not gonna risk it, not with all the radiation out there. It could refract the pulse, and if that thing backfires, he could fry his own electrical systems. He’d lose everything—comms, navigation, all of it.”

He has a point. Not even Omen wouldn’t do something that reckless.

Right?

I watch Byer step into the lift. Maybe it is time I start listening to someone else’s ideas. After all, look where mine have gotten us.

“Hey,” I say before the doors can close. “You’re coming back, right?”

Byer’s eyes soften as he looks back at me.

“I’ll always come back,” he says.

The door to the lift slides closed, and he’s gone.

I run back to the front of the ship as fast as I can, making my way onto the bridge and throwing myself down into the nav chair.

“J, you there?” I hear Kash’s voice over the speaker.

“Yeah, sorry, I had to reboot my comms,” I lie.

I check our current course. We’ve been inching closer to the signal origin hour by hour, still operating on a relative navigation path rather than a set of coordinates. We’re moving significantly slower than normal due to the particle density and anomalous grav system, but I’m going to have to do something drastic if I think I’m going to get out here without Kash—Omen—catching me.

My only idea is to increase speed and try to move at an angle instead of heading straight toward the signal. That might get me close enough without getting locked into a grav pull I can’t escape. It’s a pretty terrible plan, I have to admit, but I don’t have a better one. And I’m not willing to throw away my one shot to find the other Chrysanthemum—not yet.

“Hey!” I shout, interrupting whatever Kash was about to say. “You got something on your radar? I’m picking up a ship that wasn’t there a minute ago.” I’m a bit quick on the draw, but if I can buy myself another second or two, that could make all the difference.

“Huh. I don’t see anything,” Kash answers.

Hurry up, Byer.

“Are you sure?” I ask. “I’m definitely picking something up,” I say, hoping that soon enough it’ll be true.

I lock in my new course as what feels like a long moment of silence passes.

“Oh shit,” I hear Kash say. “You’re right.”

That’s my cue.

“Hey, sit tight, J,” he says. “I’m gonna check this out.”

Well, nice knowing you, Kash. I hope this is the last time we meet.

I decide to give to 3 before gunning it. No looking back now.

1…

2…

3.