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She sighed. There was no hiding this from him. “The shuttle is an old model, but the software is very fancy-pancy.” She looked up into his eyes before she finished. “Everything is fully automated. From takeoff to landing.”
“Meaning?”
“This shuttle pilots itself. The course is pre-set from here to Alfatar Station in System 6. There’s no jumping through hyperspace with this model, so the autopilot can be trusted.”
“No pilot necessary,” he paraphrased, eyes locked with hers.
“Mhm.” That’s right, Miya, make it sound like it was no biggie. Like Therak couldn’t just leave her on Xera now if he so wished.
Sure, he had called her his sapphire, but that could be because she used to be very valuable to him. Now that it was clear he didn’t need her piloting services, he could leave her here to fend for herself. What better way to ensure no one knew where he was headed, at least until he was long gone from Alfatar Station?
Actually, killing her would be a better way, but that would go against his assassin’s code. Ditching her would fit his plans perfectly. Would help him achieve his mission of survival. And there was no doubt the mission mattered the most to him.
Miya believed Therak cared about her, but did he care enough to risk bringing her along? He had said twice already when he hadn’t known she was listening, that she was very dangerous to him. That he had to choose what to do with her once off Xera. Well, he had the opportunity to make that choice now.
Miya stared in Therak’s dark-green eyes.
He stared right back.
Should she say something? Ask him if–
“Why aren’t you preparing the shuttle for takeoff, Miya?”
She grinned. He was taking her with him! He cared!
Or was he bringing her along just in case the autopilot couldn’t handle the mid-storm takeoff? That was a possibility, so he still might need her piloting skills…
“Miya?”
“Sorry, I got a little distracted here.” She laughed nervously. “Closing the hatch now. I’ll do a pre-flight check next, then we’re off.”
And then she would ask him if he wanted her aboard because of her being a pilot or herself. A fatalistic female that made him chuckle. A creative Earthling that was scared of a shower head but risked her life to save his. A voluptuous woman with the softest hair in all the systems who he wanted in her undergarments only. If not without.
But asking questions was for later. First to get away from Xera. To put an end to this endless day where she had been nearly murdered by mercenaries, blown to pieces in an escape pod, drowned by a spicy ocean, eaten by a megagull, choked to death by a flirtatious-slash-vengeful Cordalian, and nearly eaten again by the local fauna.
Miya sat more comfortably in the pilot seat and initiated the pre-flight check. “Take the co-pilot seat, Therak, and strap in – things will get bumpy.”
He didn’t sit down. He turned to face the interior of the shuttle instead.
She looked up and saw his eyes searching the small space and his nostrils flaring. She turned in her seat to follow the direction of his gaze.
There was nothing in the back of the shuttle. The lights left no shadowy corners in the rectangular space. Seats were attached to the left and the right walls. Small containers were lined up by the back wall containing what Miya hoped was food rations and medical supplies. That was everything.
Miya exhaled slowly to slow her heartbeat that had skyrocketed at Therak’s behavior. There was no minigull in here. Neither was there an evil alien waiting for them to take off so that it could attach itself to their faces in their sleep and have its offspring burst out of their chests later.
Definitely no retro horror movies for her from now on.
Miya was about to turn to the console when something suddenly caught the corner of her eye. Something that hadn’t been there a second ago. Something bronze and shimmering.
She did a double take.
Therak was right beside her, body tense, fangs bared. Several steps away, standing in the middle of the ship with wicked-looking claws at the ready, was another of his kind. One whose face Miya had seen from inside a vent while running for her life.
Sakhin.
Miya froze in her seat. What was it with everyone supposedly dead showing up out of the blue? And where did this one come from? Had he been hiding unmoving in the dark in wait for them to board? Had he sneaked on the shuttle after them before Miya had closed the hatch?
“Did you expect me?” the newly arrived assassin asked, his pale-green eyes trained on Therak and Therak alone. Being in his birthday suit didn’t make Sakhin any less dangerous-looking, his tall and lean body positioned for a fight just like Therak’s. “Or did you think that pathetic explosion could stop me?”
