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Thankfully, she was about to leave all of those terrible memories far behind.
Still, Serenity could not help feeling nervous about the situation. The landed spacecraft was dark and very quiet, with not a single human smuggler in sight. And besides that, there were no ksh fields nearby as far as Serenity could tell. What the hell would the smugglers be doing way out here?
Suddenly, a half dozen flood lamps snapped on, bathing the area around the ship in cold artificial light.
Serenity’s skrik startled at the unexpected illumination. The creature reared back, and before she had a chance to react, Serenity found herself tumbling out of the saddle.
She landed in the grass with a thud, uninjured but disoriented.
Her skrik, meanwhile, had bolted away into the shadows beyond the ring of the spotlights.
Serenity raised one hand to shield her eyes against the blinding lights. She could barely make out a few dozen silhouetted figures moving toward them.
Hooded figures.
The smugglers?
Patrick’s skrik mount had reared too, but the young man had managed to stay in the saddle. Maybe he had been expecting the surprise burst of light?
He swung his leg over and dismounted. His skrik immediately fled, but Patrick seemed unconcerned about this.
He opened his satchel and fumbled inside for a moment. He retrieved some kind of device, a small earpiece, which he looped over his right ear. Then he spoke to the approaching figures.
“I’ve done as you told me.”
“Szzkkkt. Tllk kzzzt,“ one of the hooded figures answered.
The sound of that buzzing, clicking alien language made Serenity’s skin crawl. It was the same language that the ukkur spoke, but ukkur voices sounded different. More masculine and guttural. The voice that had just spoken was more nasal and sibilant. Plus, while these robed figures were quite tall—taller than the average human—they were thin and lanky. Not nearly as bulky as an ukkur.
These werenith.
Serenity’s eyes were finally starting to adjust to the brightness, and she could now see the aliens more clearly. Their long, dark snouts protruded from their hoods, reptilian scales glinting in the light.
Serenity’s heart thudded at the base of her throat like it was trying to escape. She could smell her own fear oozing from her pores.
Serenity’s eyes shifted from the nith to Patrick, and her shock and repulsion transitioned into rage.
“You lied!” she shrieked.
In a flash, Serenity was up on her feet. She threw herself at Patrick, and she would have clawed his eyes out had it not been for the rattle of weapons being drawn and a sharp shout from the lead nith.
“Kkkksszzt!
Serenity froze. The nith were all carrying energy rifles, and they were all aimed right at her.
Beside her, Patrick spoke in a trembling voice.
“Serenity…I’m sorry.”
Sorry? Sorry wasn’t going to cut it. From the way Patrick was acting and communicating with these nith, it was clear he had intentionally betrayed her. She could feel her pulse drumming in her temples. Her fingers twitched with the desire to grab hold of his scrawny neck and wring the life out of him.
But she wasn’t going to do that with a bunch of rifles pointed in her direction.
The nith leader made some incomprehensible clicks and gestured toward Serenity with a clawed hand. Patrick responded by retrieving from the satchel another earpiece identical to the one he was wearing. He offered it to Serenity.
“Put this on.”
“Fuck you.”
