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“Okay, when we’re on our ship and gone. This is what actual rescue looks like. Take notes.”
Irene had reached the hatch. Unable to retreat and lose sight of Sherv and Rusp, she paused, terror coursing through her as they eased closer. “Come on, guys.”
“You are going to be sorry you did this,” Nil promised them. “Matara, when the Earthers come after you, these fools won’t be able to protect you.”
“It isn’t Earth threatening me at the moment,” she shot in return. “The only bad guys in this scenario are you two.”
Jemi was suddenly there, at her elbow. He whispered, “The ship powered, ready to go. Get on, Irene, so Sherv and Rusp leave the blasters and follow you.”
“Leave the blasters?” The weapons were the only means of holding Nil and Amig at bay.
“Big crime to steal fleet blasters. Much prison. Come on. They move fast, we escape.” He pulled her.
She quaked to think of them at the fuming Amig’s mercy, but she ran up the short corridor with Jemi. They boarded the ship. A wide-eyed member of their stage crew, Nobek Lorj, hovered near the hatch control, ready to slap it closed at a moment’s notice.
Jemi shouted toward the corridor in Kalquorian. Irene watched for Sherv and Rusp, unable to breathe.
A pair of dark blurs raced down the short hallway. A second later, another set of blurs appeared behind them. Irene’s hands clapped to her mouth, but Sherv and Rusp had already materialized, bouncing bodily off the far wall of the cabin. Lorj roared and smacked the hatch panel.
It was half shut when something thudded against it. A furious roar answered Lorj’s, then the hatch was closed.
“Belin!” Rusp shouted at the cockpit, where Irene assumed Taru and Anez were.
The craft shuddered under her feet. A low rumble filled the air. Then it settled, and the shaking eased. The ship emitted a hum louder than Irene was used to hearing from a space-going vessel, but it was smooth. Lorj muttered something in Kalquorian and headed for the cockpit.
“Irene. You are okay?” Sherv cupped her face and didn’t wait for an answer. He kissed her. She felt how he shook and pulled her lips from his.
“Forget me. Were you hurt? Rusp?”
“We fine. Throw blasters long way. Men from destroyer confused if to follow and catch us or get weapons back.” Rusp chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief at their escape. “Delay give us able to beat them to the ship.”
Sherv’s shaking was worsening. He lurched to the dinette and collapsed on its bench. “We face and beat fleet officers. Can’t believe.”
“You shouldn’t have. I’m grateful, but you could have been hurt.” Irene was trembling too. She grasped Rusp’s hand. “I was so frightened. I’d hoped you’d come back to the ship, not confront them.”
“I lose sight when you come from theater with Valentina and other woman,” Rusp said. His expression was dumbfounded as he began to come down from the adrenaline of their adventure. “I was thought I go to ship because you seem safe to be with them…why those women dress like men?”
“It’s a long story. You did head home? But you were coming from the other end of the bay when you attacked. That was you, right? And Sherv came from the ship?”
“I was going to ship when Matara Valentina and her chaperone run to me. ‘You the man Irene have with affair,’ she said. ‘Save her from the captain who force her to go Kalquor.’”
Irene stared at him. “Valentina told you to help me?Valentina?”
“She crying, upset. ‘Save her, you have to save her.’ I go back, see Nobek carry you off…” Rusp growled. “I com Sherv, tell ready ship to fly, we save you.”
Irene gaped, still coming to terms with Valentina running to find rescue for her. Of all people…
But Valentina had also opted to blackmail Irene for the lead role inBook of Ruthrather than turn her in when she discovered her rival was seeing Kalquorians.
Irene had known the other woman for eight years. She’d had no clue she was married to Fausto…or that she regarded Irene well enough to care what happened to her.
Thank you, Valentina.She hoped she’d be able to express her gratitude in person someday soon.
“Why they take you? Claim rescue make no sense.” Sherv’s frown was deep.
“Fausto said they grabbed all the women from the company…young women.” Irene remembered the elder Rosalie had been given a choice. “Unmarried women, which is why they let Valentina go. They said they’d take us to your empire because of how Earth treated us.”
“Just women who can give children?” The Dramok’s scowl grew heavier. “That make no sense if we don’t know Kalquorians and Earthers able to.”
