Khar watched with approval as Ikar secured the boarding grapples with practiced ease, never once triggering an alarm. The process took time. Starships bristled with sensitive sensors that had to be tricked one by one with a quiet stream of falsified nothing-to-see-here data. Still, this waiting was a mercy compared to the desperate chase through blind space earlier.
Soon, Khar would set foot on the cruiser’s surface and see Lily with his own eyes.
Once the connection between the two ships locked into place, Ikar waved Khar and Aros ahead and followed close behind them.
For a being his size, Khar moved with a startling lack of sound as they ghosted onto the other vessel. Their instruments confirmed the deck was empty and that everyone was aboard the Vitro, but Khar refused to rely on readings alone. He trusted his instincts more than any scanner.
The ship they passed through was packed with cargo illegal across the IMPERIUM. Khar did not comment, but he knew his brothers noticed everything he did. The buyers were smugglers, beyond doubt.
Better smugglers than mercenaries, perhaps, but likely armed and experienced. It did not matter. If Khar had his way, they would all be corpses by the artificial nightfall, Horos foremost among them.
They advanced in Divani military formation to the hangar threshold. Ikar tracked movement inside the Vitro and flagged two figures breaking off to deal with the vukri. One of them peeled away, darting toward the service tunnel in a quick, erratic pattern.
Khar could hardly believe his eyes. That could only be Lily.
His chest tightened with relief so sharp it bordered on pain. Aros was assigned to retrieve her and bring her back while Khar and Ikar locked down the smugglers and Horos.
“Divani Constabulary. You are under arrest on probable suspicion of smuggling and theft.”
Ikar raised the standardized IMPERIUM badge in one hand and a Divani stunner in the other. Khar kept a heavy plasma-grenade launcher leveled at the group, silently wishing none of the smugglers would question why a supposed patrol officer carried such firepower.
At first the smugglers stared in shock, then their leader stepped forward.
“Gentlemen, there is no need for alarm. We are simple traders offering aid to a cruiser damaged by vukri.”
The smugglers began to fan out in a slow arc, one staying planted at Horos’s side. Horos opened his beak to speak, but the leader silenced him with a look.
“In any case, discharging your weapons would be unwise. None of us desire casualties, and the ship’s shields are down. From what I understand, even constables are not immune to the cold kiss of vacuum.”
Khar and Ikar stepped back together, refusing to allow the smugglers to circle behind them.
“Even if you are counterfeit constables. Correct, males?”
At that final word, every smuggler lunged.
Khar and Ikar met them head-on. Ikar smashed his fist into one male’s face and snarled, “The badge is real, you blind cradle-whelp.”
Khar held four attackers at bay alone when Aros’s voice crackled through comms.
“I have Lily with me. No visible injuries. We are coming to you.”
“Aros, we are engaged with the smugglers. Bring Lily here and keep her safe.”
The surge of relief nearly cost him. He took a brutal hit from one smuggler, shook it off, and then the hangar hatch slid open and he finally saw her.
Lily.
Beautiful. Otherworldly. A vision.
Pinkish fluid, probably blood, slicked her boot. Her hair was a tangled mess, her face pale, and she looked thinner than before. But she seemed healthy, mostly unharmed, and she was here.
Khar wanted nothing more than to run to her, to sweep her into his arms and never let her out of his sight again, but he allowedhimself only a single aching glance. Then he forced his attention back to the smugglers.
Everything had been going so well. The smugglers stood no chance against the combined strength of three Divani warriors. Then that filthy, treacherous leader unleashed the Colossus, and in that instant Khar understood there was no benevolent god, no miraculous chain of fortune that could save them all now. The universe had never been so kind.
He did the only thing he could.
“Aros, take Lily and go. I will hold it.”
