“Maggie,” I say, still checking my surroundings. “Although perhaps you know that already. And also what’s with all the water?”
“I didn’t know,” Kes says. “I wanted to get you and the Sarkarnii out of the cantina before the Ulep arrived. I guess one out of two will do. And the water keeps them away. Ulep can’t use any of their senses around running water.”
I contemplate Kes for a while.
“One, that’s weird, and two, if the Ulep have Driok, you do know I’ll be doing everything I can to get him back, don’t you?”
DRIOK
“Are we in orbit?”
“We’re behind another moon, shields on to avoid detection,” Dalox says. “Probably why you didn’t notice us.”
“Probably why my scanners were struggling in picking up Sarkarnii life forces on the surface,” I growl at him. “And where the nev did you get a portal from?”
“You’re not the only one picking up the best tech the galaxy has to offer,” Dalox says. “Or is slippery enough to pass off their older items on another warlord.” He gives me a long, searching look.
“Dante wanted a ship and he got it,” I growl. “I had no use for it.”
Dalox chokes out a laugh, and a wildness appears in his eyes, the sort of wildness I’ve seen all too often in Dante’s.
It has always made me wonder about the two of them. Especially as Dalox has always protected Dante. I’ve done my best to provoke an answer, but as yet, I haven’t had one.
But as I might have been incorrectly name a butcher, Dalox has a past which is far darker than anyone else knows.
“Why are you here? And why are my crew still captive?” I snarl at the senior warlord.
“Because it suits my purposes,” Dalox responds. “They are in stasis, and the Ulep have made no effort to move them to another location.”
I growl deep in the back of my throat.
“The Ulep are mine. If they have taken my mate, then they will pay for their disrespect.”
“I doubt they’ll have taken her,” Dalox rasps. “She is of no consequence to them. We, on the other hand, are.”
“Because I have a means to defeat them,” I growl. “Providing I get the final component for the starnet.”
Dalox cocks his head on one side and contemplates me. “Starnet?”
Looks like there’s something the great Dalox doesn’t know.
“I’ve already installed one around Vorostor. All the ships we use to come and go have transponders aboard which will allow access through without any contact needed.”
“So, that’s the reason you’ve been swapping ships.” Dalox grins at me, a smile too full of teeth.
“It might have been.” I glare at him. “Or it might not. Perhaps I’ve simply been adjusting your ships when you were elsewhere.”
“Given how badly you did at infiltrating just now, I doubt it very much,” Dalox replies. “But regardless, tell me about the starnet.”
“It’ll keep the Ulep out of this galaxy and give us a chance to see if we can find a working wormhole.” I respond.
“How are they related?” Dalox rumbles, throwing himself down in the main pilot seat as his warriors melt into the background.
“The Ulep, as far as I can tell, have been harnessing the power generated by a junior wormhole, in order to power their ships and tech. This instantly shuts the nevving things down andthe reason we’ve never been able to find one big enough to use to get back to our galaxy.”
Dalox rubs at his chin and contemplates me.
“And you think, once the Ulep are out of the galaxy, we’ll get a working wormhole?”
