Xathena stood over Flack’s collapsed form, a triumphant Amazonian warrior. Her boot was on his chest like she’d conquered him, and her smile was wide and vicious as I was brought before her. Flack had a dozen red-feathered darts sticking out of his white pelt. Just as many as last time. Blood stained his claws and painted his sharp, fox-like mouth red. His blue eyes fought to stay open, locked onto my face, and were full of horror. For the first time since we’d met, Flack believed we’d been defeated.
“You’re the key. I should have seen that sooner,” Xathena said to me. “He’d do anything for you, that one,” she added, and kicked Flack’s now-unconscious body in the ribs. I raised my chin, trying not to give anything away, but it didn’t matter anyway. She was eager to talk, it seemed, to bask in this moment of glory. With no sign of Dimon anywhere, I had a sinking feeling it was because she’d finally taken over. She was the one in charge now.
“Always been his weakness, rescuing slaves. You’re even more than that, though, aren’t you? You’re his mate,” she mused, her black nail tapping the lush green of her full lower lip. With the shuttle right behind her to provide light, she was posed for maximum effect, and it was working. I was still angry, but I was terrified too. At the same time, there was nothing but adoration on the faces of the pirate crew Xathena now commanded.
“You can deny it all you want,” the woman continued, though I’d said nothing. “I know this is true. With you in my power, he’s going to steal all my heart desires, and it desires alot. Get them onto the shuttle. We’ve got places to be.” They scrambled to do her bidding while she swept into the shuttle with a dramatic flick of the long, golden-tipped hair hanging over her shoulder. Theydragged Flack inside and shackled his wrists as they pushed me into a jump seat without bothering to secure me.
Xathena sat across from me, laser pistol drawn and carefully aimed my way. “I knew I should tag the slippery bastard,” she said smugly, her foot nudging Flack’s side where the stab wound had previously been. “Stuck that sucker deep so he’d never find it.” That got a reaction, a sense of guilt and horror washing over me when I puzzled out what she meant. That stab wound, I’d healed it with the tissue regenerator. If he’d been in control of that himself, I had no doubt he’d have found the tracker, but he’d trusted me to do it. It was my fault Xathena had been able to track him.
“Yeah, didn’t think of that, did you?” She was so smug, I wanted to reach across the shuttle and slap that grin off her stupid face. Instead, I bit my lip and stayed in my seat, my knuckles turning white as I clenched them around the edge of the chair. Still not tied up, I just needed to wait for the right opening. On theVidu, I had a shot at escaping.
“Now, tell me where the Verana diamond is. I know you’ve got it. Flack wouldneverpass up the opportunity to steal it.” She knew him better than I wanted to give her credit for. The truth was, I really didn’t know. He’d slipped it into a pocket, hidden it on his person, and I knew well how hard it was to find a pocket, even with directions.
“Fuck you,” I said. Her expression tightened, but she didn’t respond. She left me simmering in fear and rage while she ordered the shuttle to take off and her men to search Flack for the diamond. They weren’t gentle about it, and I winced each time they shoved him, searching his pants with no success. Howhe managed to hide a diamond the size of his fist on his person, I had no clue, but even unconscious, he was still thwarting Xathena’s plans.
I’d felt insignificant and useless a lot, helpless to defend myself or change my fate. Today, I was grateful they thought so little of me that they had not even bothered to tie me up. When the shuttle landed in theVidu’shangar bay, everyone was focused on getting Flack out without letting him escape. Only one lone man was assigned to bring me to Xathena’s quarters. One guard. Enough to capture me, but was it enough to keep me?
They carried Flack off the shuttle first, and I was dragged along behind him. My odd, jewel-studded boots sank into sticky blood as soon as I stepped off the shuttle’s ramp. I stared, and despite not being new to it, still felt my stomach clench with horror. Dimon’s body lay there, sightless eyes staring up at the hangar bay ceiling. His throat slit from earhole to earhole.
Flack stirred ahead of us, far sooner than he should have. His body twisted in the grip of those carrying him, and a snarl ripped from his massive, fur-covered chest. The sound made several people jerk, and some dropped him before they rushed to sedate him again. My lone guard jerked too, and his grip on my arm loosened. I slipped out of the thick fur coat, and that was enough to throw him off. While he was still figuring out he only held an empty piece of clothing, I darted across the hangar bay and vanished behind some crates.
Shouts went up, but Flack’s stirring had caused a better distraction than I could have ever asked for. By the time my guard chased after me, I’d already slipped into a maintenance shaft and disappeared. This time, I knew they could not traceme; they were all out of aliens with sharp noses, and the life-sign detector hadn’t been miraculously fixed in the meantime.
I knew I couldn’t go to any place they knew I’d hidden in before. My little hidey-hole with all the food was out, but that didn’t mean I was without supplies. Flack, more paranoid than I’d given him credit for, had made me hide what I’d stolen beforehand. I might now be without a weapon, but that didn’t mean I was helpless. No. Never again.
I circled around the ship, this time to carry out some sabotage I’d never dared to attempt before. Fueled by anger at what they had done, and were doing, to Flack, I reached the engine room before anyone thought to look for me there. A pirate was asleep behind the humming engine, the engineer who was supposed to keep the ship running. He didn’t even notice my presence when I tiptoed past him, my fancy boots in one hand so I wouldn’t make noise on the metal floor.
Reaching some very vital-looking panels I was pretty sure controlled more of the internal sensors, perhaps even the camera system, I tore open one. I dug around inside and pulled out a few very key-looking components, which I dumped in the trash compactor’s receptacle. Then I slipped away again. I couldn’t be sure it took care of all the cameras on the ship, but it would definitely make it even harder to find me.
My next stop was a remote comm station. I had the symbols for Flack’s ship memorized, but I’d also tucked the paper with the call sequence into the bag of supplies Flack had me hide. I’d call them again, terrifying as the guy I’d spoken with last time had been. That was going to be well worth it if I could inform them that Flack was still captive. Ihadto know how long we had towait for rescue from that end, if it was even coming. Flack hadn’t acted like he was counting on it, even if he’d been quite urgent about the need for me to place that first call.
I briefly hesitated when I reached a hallway that could take me toward the brig. I had to assume that’s where they’d put him, and I really wanted to know he was okay. Xathena might be expecting that, and I couldn’t risk it, not yet. Not until I’d given them a hell of a lot more chaos to deal with as a distraction. So I retrieved my supplies, just to make sure I wouldn’t mess up calling theVarakartoom.
The comm station I’d picked was as abandoned as the one I’d used last time, located in empty crew quarters that had been turned into storage instead. I wriggled my way to the back, a ration bar between my teeth, to stave off the hunger that missing dinnertime had caused. Flack definitely wouldn’t object to me taking a moment to eat.
My hands trembled as I punched in the symbols, but I was calmer than I expected. Perhaps I’d reached my stress threshold, and now I was just doing what needed to be done without truly thinking about how bad things really were. As I listened to the call connect—which took uncomfortably long—I assured myself that Xathena wanted Flack alive. At least until she had the diamond, but she’d indicated she wanted to keep him on a leash forever, stealing for her whatever her heart desired. Pff, she was crazy if she thought that would ever work. Nothing could ever contain him for long, so it was just a matter of time before he found a way to escape and make her pay. I just planned to hurry up that process.
“Vidu, this is the Varakartoom. State your business.” The voice that suddenly issued from the comm unit at the back of the room was very different from the one I’d spoken with last time. Still male, but this was a pleasant low voice with carefully modulated tones and a cultured accent. He sounded businesslike, focused, and quite frankly, like I’d just hailed an actual spaceship—not called the local bar and gotten the rowdy drunk.
“Hi,” I said, wincing at how timid and shy I sounded. Then I faltered. What if the guy I’d spoken to last time had just dismissed my call and said nothing to the rest of the ship? What if they weren’t on their way to us at all? “Are you Flack’s crewmates? We need help… did the last guy I spoke to say anything?” My heart clenched painfully in my chest as I began to dread the future again. How long were we going to be stuck if they weren’t coming?
“Ah, are you Irena?” the voice asked, much more kindly this time. I nodded, then realized he couldn’t see that, at least, I didn’t think he could. He continued on as though he had. “We are on our way. How urgent is your need for help? We’re still three days out, but we can push the engines.” That sounded hopeful, but not good enough.
I pictured Flack in that cell, possibly wounded, and how angry Xathena could be. The way she liked to play with the men on this ship—hurt them—just because she could. My own position was precarious too, though not as bad as before. With the rat-like alien dead and the internal sensors broken, I was pretty hard to track. Xathena might wait for me to slip up, while pretending to Flack that she still had me under her control. Which meant… I had to let Flack know I was out, and I had to free him somehow.
“Flack is trapped in the brig. I’m hiding on the ship, but I don’t know how long I can keep that up before they find me…” I admitted. The stranger had not given me his name, and he hadn’t asked if Flack was all right, either. When he hummed to indicate he’d heard me but said nothing else, I held my breath and waited. This was goingverydifferently from last time. I was nervous, shaking with it even, but I was not nearly as scared. How this guy could help, I had no clue, but that hum… it felt like he was tryingsomething.
“I am in,” he announced, though he did not explain what he’d gotten into. There was a noise on the line that hadn’t been there before, very similar to the clacking of a keyboard. I realized a moment later that this guy had gotten into theVidu’ssystems. A light on the comms console flared, and suddenly the text displayed there was readable to my eyes—actual English that I could understand. “That should help. Didn’t Flack explain to you how to set the consoles to your human language?”
I wasn’t going to question how he knew I was human. I just shrugged helplessly. “There hasn’t exactly been time, we’ve been fighting for our lives, mostly. Flack is in the brig right now. He’s possibly injured, and they pumped him full of something that keeps him from shifting. I also think some kind of crimelord might be on his way to us to receive a payment…” That seemed like key information to share, and Flack trusted those on his ship, and I trusted Flack.
Abruptly, a second voice came across the line that I did not recognize. Sharp, sibilant; it was a voice that sent a shiver of fear down my spine. The other guy had been terrifying because he was loud, brash, rude. This guy? He called forth this primal instinct, this fear that I was hearing the sound of a predator.Something primordial and ancient, like an alligator or a snake… “What crimelord? Do you know?” that ancient, scary voice demanded.
“Ah… I think they called him Jalima? The pirates needed Flack to steal a diamond for them so they could pay their debt to him.” I was pretty sure I’d remembered the name right, but it hadn’t seemed like vital information to me before. Everyone out here was bad, and at first, that had included Flack too. I was still pretty sure the guys I was talking to now were bad as well, but I’d learned that some bad guys didn’t mean they were bad to me. Flack wasn’t, and he was definitely a little morally gray.
“Aramon, Solear, figure out how to get there, now!” the vicious, snake-like voice snarled. It made my heart leap into my throat, and the voice was so commandeering that I found myself looking around the crowded, crate-filled quarters as if I could personally assist with this. Where was the nicer guy, with the direct but kind voice? Was he still doing stuff to theVidu’ssystems?
“You must forgive our captain,” the guy said, as if he’d seen how scared I was. “He’s got a grudge against Jalima that stretches back twenty years. I’m Mitnick, by the way. You look a little banged up yourself. Shall I guide you to some med supplies? There appear to be some stored two decks below you.” I didn’t question how he knew that, but I shook my head. Bruises didn’t count, and I had food and water, so I was good for now. What I needed was a way to get Flack out of his cell so Xathena couldn’t harm him any further.
