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“He’s going around to…”
She winced when a deafening rumble struck through the sound system. One side of Wingless rippled, an opening splintering along the outer wall.
Then it fell quiet. She abruptly lost connection, forced to watch the ship silently rumble and twist.
It was up to Caligher to fight for his ship. Minutes passed as she kept pace like a worried parent. The silence had her heart pounding and sinking as bad scenarios played out in her mind.
The ship finally slowed and then stopped. She brought the Selkie around to see inside the cockpit, ready for a fight if she discovered Astyanax standing victorious.
In the darkness of the cockpit ahead, she made out two forms—one subduing the other and handcuffing him.
She tested the comms and heard a lot of grunting and cursing. “Hey guys. Who… uh, won?”
The two of them exchanged a nastily-worded argument. With the way that the room lit up, it seemed to her that Caligher was happily showing off, which meant he had won.
She could make out their faces now. Caligher held Astyanax’s face into the back of the chair as the pirate struggled, which caused both men to flex against each other. She caught herself staring.
“This is sort of turning me on,” she said.
Both aliens flashed with light.
“Bit of a problem,” said Caligher. He was breathless from the fight and Astyanax was snarling every acidic comment that came to mind.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Pirate broke open all my holding cells. The doors won’t shut.”
Astyanax cackled at him, trying to hit him with his tail spike.
“Shut it, pirate,” Caligher said, gripping the tail in a hard fist. “If I have to shoot you out and leave you, that’s on you.”
She frowned.
Leaving the pirate stranded would be a death sentence. She didn’t necessarily agree with it, even knowing the pirate was a violent bastard. She’d leave that up to Caligher to decide. Astyanax did, after all, attempt to melt him to death. Hewasdangerous.
But leaving him to his death over a ship?
It seemed extreme.
The other problem was that she’d been enjoying her time alone with Caligher. The addition of the pirate complicated things. She didn’twantto go back to separate ships. The thought made her spirit sink.
She sighed. “Can you keep him contained long enough to make repairs?”
“I think so. Could use some help though.”
She watched him chain Astyanax to a rail in his cockpit and disappear down the hallway, humming. When the pirate was alone, he started talking to her.
“Human.”
So, she gathered, Astyanax had known all along.
“Pirate,” she said back.
“I see you and the bounty hunter worked it out. I’m surprised to see you alive.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. Her brows tented. “What wereyoudoing?”
“Wanted to see if I could find this jump point,” said Astyanax. “Catch me a few humans of my own. Maybe I’d get lucky and find one I could keep before we’re cut off forever.”
