Khar barely restrained the urge to crush something in his hand. The metal railing near the docking bay would live to see another cycle.
“Vitro is not in the dock, and Lily was on shift this chrono-cycle. She would have told me if there was a problem that required departure. Her own ship is still here. Was Horos involved?”
Vegrun’s silence on the other end was long, entirely too long for Khar’s liking.
“Oh. Well. Uh…”
“Say it, Vegrun.”
“Horos no longer works for me, Khar.”
A loud screeching noise broke the silence in the hangar as the metal railings gave way to Khar’s fist.
“What was that noise, Khar?” Vegrun babbled on, but quickly got back to his usual monologuing. “Anyway, I dismissed him two chrono-cycles ago. After I spoke with you, I began looking into things, and this was not the first incident. Have you tried accessing Vitromium remotely?”
Even as Vegrun spoke, Khar was already working his VoidBrace, attempting again and again to reconnect to Vitro. Each attemptfailed, plunging him deeper into the quick-expanding abyss in his chest.
“No. I’m locked out.”
There was a brief pause on the line. When Vegrun spoke again, his tone had hardened.
“I am notifying the authorities. Lily would not take my ship.”
Khar agreed.
“Report everything,” he ordered.
“And why would I do that, Khar?” While Vegrun had sounded repentant a few chrono-seconds ago, now his haughty manner was back in full force.
Now that helped Khar a lot.
While he had to maintain a façade of polite professionalism, Vegrun’s attitude brought back a crucial part he had missed in the shock of losing Lily. His Divani lineage, combined with his calculated upbringing and chrono-years of brutal service in the Legion, morphed him into the perfect being for this task, allowing the real Khar to resurface.
“Because,” he started calmly, eerily so, “if even a single, tiny scar remains on my Lily after this farce, caused by none other than you, Vegrun, there won’t be a surgeon in the IMPERIUM that can salvage a single strand of DNA from your remains to clone you back.”
Khar knew that Vegrun was powerful, feared even. You don’t become as rich as he is without being strong and vicious. That would make Vegrun resilient against petty threats. At the same time, it would allow Vegrun to know when he was really in trouble. Like in this moment.
“Fine.” Vegrun finally relented. “But not for you, youskfsnfsd.” The word did not translate, meaning Vegrun said something truly nasty, probably reverting to his old Algor dialect.
“Why? Don’t we work well together already?” Khar pushed, but it was a small joy to gloat when Vegrun cut the line and he wasback in the dreadful station, standing alone, without Vitromium, without Lily.
He lowered his face and allowed himself just one heartbeat of pain, of guilt, before he jumped to action.
And he swore to himself that when he saw Lily again, he would never let her out of his sight.
Chapter 21
Trust Your Instincts (and Strike)
Lily
“The Corvus species had lived its golden age during the previous IMPERIUM era. Back then, they were respected and held numerous high-ranking positions across the known universes. That age ended with the Herr-3 incident. After that, other species began treating Corvus individuals with open suspicion, fearful of the irreversible effects of their racial abilities. Most star-citizens, when given the choice, preferred to keep their distance from such dangerous and unpredictable beings. Unfortunately for the Corvus, the higher one rises, the farther one can fall.
It is no surprise that, despite their pride, Corvus individuals struggle with the lack of recognition they believe they deserve. The author of this volume therefore advises anyone seeking any form of relationship with them to proceed with the utmost caution.”
Excerpt from Ner’fol Vas Gorg, Universal Dating Guru: Love with Another Species
Lily had been thinking for some time about the small, inexplicable malfunctions that kept occurring on Helios whenever Khar was around. In the end, she decided to change Khar’s status from guest to administrator. She could have granted him user access, but something in her told her it was time to commit.
