Page 31 of Beast Unburdened

Was she being serious? This woman? Hadn’t she been right here when I’d discussed Sunder’s intel on that shipyard for the new transponder with him? Did she really need a direct order? Maybe she did, maybe I didn’t understand the intricacies of space travel.

“The shipyard, Strewn,” I told her, I eyed Kitan and then Ziame still on the coms and was gratified to see both of them nod. I really didn’t like being in charge, why had Sunder put me in this spot? Didn’t it make more sense if he was Ziame’s second?

“Alright,” Diamed said, “Strewn it is.” And then she started moving graceful hands through the star charts, seeing things I couldn’t even begin to understand. It wasn’t long though before Kitan grunted and said, “Locking in the course, thanks.”

Then a shudder ran through the entire ship, rattling my teeth and I yelped, “What the hell was that?” I eyed the only two people on the bridge with me but realized that Kitan was really busy and likely couldn’t answer. His snout was pulled into a snarl and his golden eyes were practically glowing, I wasn’t certain if he was fiercely happy or furiously angry. Maybe he was both.

Diamed gave me a look, much calmer than I was, and then with a sigh eyed the empty consoles around the room. “That was a ship firing at our engines, your pilot managed to dodge but it was close.” I was grateful for the explanation and at the same time terrified by it. A ship was shooting at us?

“Fuck,” I said and eyed the other consoles the way Diamed was. “What can we do? Fire back? Raise shields?” I dared ask, I wasn’t sure if any of those things were possible with this ship but it sounded right.

Kitan spared a moment from his concentrated piloting of our ship, “No weapons, shields are up but barely. Holding at thirty percent. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” Then he sent Ziame a fierce grin on the com screen, “You’re almost there, I’m opening the hangar bay door. Can you land that shuttle in there at this speed?”

Ziame had been quiet though it appeared his flying had taken on a less erratic path. They weren’t being jostled about any longer in the background at least. Maybe because they were close enough now that our ship had become the main target.

My big green guy pulled his face into a fierce grin that seemed to match the one on Kitan’s snout. “You bet I can. I’ve done it before.” But then something flickered in his eyes, the reflection of red blinking lights followed by a muted bang. “Shit, one thruster’s out, we’re losing speed.”

I felt my heart thump in my throat, no! What did that mean? Was he not going to be able to make it? We weren’t leaving him behind! But I shouldn’t have worried, there was a jolt and a shudder and then Kitan declared, “Matching speed brother. Hurry up, we can’t maintain this long.”

The next few moments I sat clutching the edge of my seat, still pressed tightly into my chair by the g-forces of our fast acceleration. It only eased up slightly because Kitan had slowed us a little, a glance at his console told me he had what looked like some kind of radar display; which showed at least seven different blips. The one in the center had to be us and the nearest, the small one, I hoped to god that was Ziame and the others.

There was no sound indicating we were hit but Kitan cursed and flipped some switches to his left. “Shields are down, direct hit to the generator.” That was bad, really really bad… But I had no time to contemplate our possible demise, the next moment there was a shudder running through the ship. Then Ziame was declaring victoriously, “Docked, close doors!” And then our ship seemed to buck once as Kitan let out a kind of ululating yowling sound and pulled hard on the yoke. “Right on time brother!”

Ziame’s com winked out and the viewscreen was suddenly filled with what our front sensors picked up, essentially making it look like I was watching out of the front window. Glittering space filled my eyes, black studded with stars and a blue and black striped moon that we were fast approaching. The force on my body was also drastically easing and suddenly seemed to go from holding me down in my seat to me actually starting to float away, held in place by the straps.

“Breaking atmosphere. Ready to engage gravity generator in three, two, one,” Kitan counted down. With a flick of his hand, the gravity generator was turned on and I thudded down into my seat. I didn’t wait, figuring it safe enough; I was already fighting to undo my safety harness so I could sprint down to the hangar bay and see Ziame.

I heard Diamed say calmly, “Well that was interesting, great flying. Was it me or did your captain have an IV bag dangling from one of his horns?” I shivered, yeah I’d seen that too. I didn’t listen to Kitan’s response though but instead sprung from my seat the moment I was free. I was about to run out when I realized that I needed to be responsible here too, as long as they thought I was First Mate for some reason.

“Kitan,” I said, “As soon as you can engage autopilot please do. Then get your ass to medbay so Luka can check your injuries. That was hard work and you’re not healed by a long shot.” I waited until the male had focused his golden eyes on my face and given me a sharp nod before I started to turn away but he halted me by calling out my name.

“Our pursuers didn’t follow us out of atmo, we’re in the clear.” He shot a sharp golden look at our new nav and then added, “I’ll just call up Sunder so he can give our new addition the tour.” He was still sitting up straight but I had a feeling that was purely for Diamed’s benefit and not because he wasn’t in pain. He’d flown this ship with his arm in a cast and his upper body almost entirely covered by bandages after all.

I left the bridge, hoping Kitan was true to his word and rushed for the direction of the hangar bay.

*

Ziame

I allowed myself to slump back in the pilot seat when I’d managed to set the small shuttle down with only a minor scrape along the floor. That had been a close call, I’d made myself sound confident to Kitan and the others but internally I hadn’t been nearly as certain I could land the shuttle. At least, not after one of the thrusters had gone out, we hadn’t just lost speed because if it, we’d lost maneuverability too.

Eyeing the nearly empty, swaying IV bag dangling from my horn I huffed out a tired breath. My shoulder ached, one arm was entirely numb and my ribs were creaking in protest with every move I made. Not to mention the fact that my muscles never did get the chance to properly cool down and I’d worked them hard, every part of me was sore.

None of that really mattered though, we’d pulled it off! I’d survived my two bouts of combat and each of us had returned victorious. We’d made a lot of money today, enough for a good amount of supplies and some repairs. It was all starting to look up.

Luka was at my side then, having managed to extract himself from his seat. Honestly, with how my arm was, I didn’t think I could undo my own straps though I flicked my tail around to jab at the release button. “Let me,” the doctor said calmly and he undid the harness, helping me shrug out of it. “Fierce, help him up please?” he then asked and I wanted to growl that I didn’t need help. Except I really did.

Letting the gladiator pull me out of the damn pilot chair felt embarrassing but the male grinned at me, “Holy crap that was impressive brother! I had no idea you could fly like that.” Well, that certainly eased my ruffled scales.

He propped himself under my good arm and helped turn me so we could make our way out of the small craft. Passing Jakar I saw how the male was now carefully pressing his broken upper arm against his chest with one of his lower arms while he helped the Kertinal male to his feet. The newcomer was swaying, eyes unfocused as he was clearly in a lot of pain after the rough flight.

Thorin eyed the precious box with our winnings and the sack with Abigail’s betting money but in the end, simply left them where they’d landed and went to support the Kertinal on his other side. Then we started our slow and careful way out of the hangar bay and toward medical.

Luka carefully monitored both the Kertinal and myself with every plodding step we took. I was tired enough that I was letting my tail drag along the floor behind me, something I never did; it was simply too much effort to keep it in the air.

Then I caught Abigail’s scent on the air with my tongue and my ears perked forward; I heard someone running. She came around the corner in a sprint, her long slender legs eating up the space between us. She didn’t pause, didn’t hesitate despite my blood-soaked appearance. Simply flung her arms around my middle and held on tight, her momentum causing me to stagger though thankfully Fierce braced us in time and helped to keep me on my feet.

“Hmmph,” came out as my breath was knocked from my lungs. “Ziame!” was all she said as she pressed her face into my scales. As Fierce was holding me up by my good arm, all I had was my tired tail to curl around her and I did that gladly. “I’m alright,” I said into her cloud of curls, briefly pressing my nose into them and inhaling her scent.