Rogue Warrior

Rogue Star: Book Five

Elin Wyn

Ava York

Contents

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Lynna

Valtic

Epilogue – Lynna

Letter from Elin

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Given: Star Breed Book One

Vrehx: Conquered World Book One

About the Author

Lynna

I missed duct tape.

I suppressed my frustration as the bulb attachment belonging to one of the Rogue Star’s pieces of medical equipment fell onto the floor for the third time that day.

This time, the fragile bulb cracked.

I picked it up and examined it. It should work just fine if I screwed it back in, however, I had nothing to stop it from falling out all over again.

I’d recently learned how to use everything in the Rogue Star’s med bay, sometimes in crisis mode. Despite long hours with the auto-tutor, I didn’t know the technical names for all of the equipment, but even I could tell that everything was in dire need of replacement.

It was a good thing I didn’t have any patients to tend to at the moment.

The Rogue Star was en route back to Katzul. Unless someone was particularly stupid, I wasn’t going to be patching anyone up until we’d made port.

Considering that we were wanted criminals and all, we’d been lucky in terms of injuries.

Kalyn’s leg wound had been bad, but the worst had been Orrin when he was shot close range by a bounty hunter. If it weren’t for Zayn, the Rogue Star’s medic, I wouldn’t have known what to do.

It still made me shudder.

I didn’t think Zayn would like me when Captain Dejar asked me to take on some of the doctorly duties.

Turned out, Zayn had had no issues with letting me have free rein in the med bay. He came in every once in a while to check supply levels but, for the most part, he seemed to enjoy taking a break.

It made me wonder what the Rogue Star crew had gotten up to before I and the other human women ended up here.

“Lynna!” Kalyn burst into the med bay, startling me so I lost my grip on the bulb.

This time it shattered. I pressed my lips together to hide my annoyance.

“Sorry!” she gasped. “I shouldn’t have burst in like that.”

“It’s okay.” I managed a smile. “It was already cracked. It was going to break sooner or later. Is everything all right?”

“I need you to come with me.” she exclaimed, and extended her hand, practically vibrating with excitement.

“Why?” I swept up the shards of broken bulb and tossed them.

“You’ll see!” she squealed, never before so animated. Humoring her, I let her drag me out of the med bay and through the ship’s narrow corridors.

“The dining hall?” I asked when we approached the double doors. “If you wanted to get lunch, you could’ve just said so.” Kalyn grinned, saying nothing, and pushed both doors open with a flourish.

The lights came on to reveal the other human women standing around a table. On the table was a square white cake with Happy Birthday Lynna! written in sloppy red cursive.

“Surprise!” everyone exclaimed. “Happy Birthday!”

My hand flew to my chest and my eyes widened. “It’s not my birthday, is it?” I looked at Kalyn.

“It is,” she confirmed. “I’m your commander. It’s my job to know these things.”

“I must’ve lost track of Terran days.” Now that we weren’t in Terran space, I found it difficult to stick to the old calendar.

Kalyn held up her watch, which still reflected the Terran day and time. She was right, it was my birthday.

“Thank you, everyone,” I said. “You really didn’t need to go to all this trouble.”

“You would’ve done the same for us.” Kalyn nudged me gently.

That was true. Back on Persephone Station, I loved organizing things like this. It brightened up the monotonous day-to-day life on the station.

“Sorry there aren’t any candles on the cake,” Kalyn said. “I couldn’t find anything safe enough to light on fire, and we can’t waste the oxygen, anyway.”

“Understandable,” I laughed.

“Speaking of cake, let’s cut into this one,” Maris said, rubbing her hands together. “I’m starving.”

“It’s still not exactly the kind of cake we’re used to,” Shenna said, sounding apologetic. “Sars and I got it as close as we could, though. We’re getting better.”

“If it’s anything like the stuff we made on Valentine’s Day, I’ll be happy,” Maris declared.

Kalyn glanced at the doors. “We have to wait for the others to get here.”

“Others?” I asked.

“I invited Dejar and the rest of the crew.” Kalyn shrugged. “They’re family now, after all.”

“Yes, they should be here,” I agreed, faint amusement making me smile. If we’d stayed on Persephone Station, it wouldn’t be much of a family. And to think Kalyn, of all people, had been the first to…well, integrate so well with the Shein.

“If they aren’t here soon, I’m calling for a free for all on the cake,” Aryn said, swiping icing off the side of the cake with her finger.

Shenna smacked her hand away, but Aryn grinned, sucking the icing off her finger.

“Are we late for the party?” Dejar asked as he strode into the dining hall with Aavat and Orrin in tow. Other crewmembers filed in behind them.

Including someone I didn’t expect to see.

Valtic, the head of ship security, towered in the doorway, his arms folded over his wide chest.

I looked away quickly, my cheeks warm because so many people were close by.

That was it.

Really.

I liked to say that I considered everyone on the Rogue Star a friend, even the deck hands and cabin workers.

Valtic, on the other hand, was still a mystery to me. I rarely saw him and didn’t know where he spent his time. He had to have an office somewhere.

To my embarrassment, I’d only learned his name a week or so ago. Since then, I’d decided to make an effort to get to know him, but that was proving to be a difficult task.

Especially since every time I saw him, something in me fluttered.

“Of course you’re not late!” Kalyn exclaimed. “There’s still cake.” The crewmembers stepped into the dining hall and helped themselves to pieces of cake Shenna had cut.

Dejar lifted Kalyn, kissing her deeply before turning to me, one arm still wrapped around her waist.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand the occasion,” he confessed. “Kalyn just said cake.”

“Lynna was born thirty-one years ago today by the Terran calendar,” Kalyn explained. “Humans celebrate their birth annually with a gathering of friends, cake, and an exchange of gifts.”

“Please tell me you didn’t get me anything,” I said.

“Okay. I won’t tell you.” Kalyn grinned shamelessly, then turned to Dejar. “Traditionally, the guests wish the birthday girl happy birthday.”

“Happy Birthday?” he said hesitantly.

“Well done,” I grinned. “And thank you. Go help yourself to some cake.”

“I’m supposed to be the hostess,” Kalyn chided. “You just focus on enjoying yourself.”

“Done and done.”

Kalyn and Dejar laced their fingers together and moved off toward the cake table. Taking a moment to survey all of the wonderful friends I’d made, contentment bloomed in my chest.

Someone cleared their throat behind me. I turned.

Valtic’s deep bronze eyes stared down at me, his expression blank. My stomach clenched.

I cleared my throat. “Would you like some cake?” Smooth, Lynna.

“No,” he said. “I came to give you the traditional well-wishes and depart. I have work to do.”

Oh.

“Are you sure you can’t stay for a little while?” I asked. “It’s a party, after all.”

“Unfortunately, no,” he replied, though he didn’t look at all regretful. “Happy Birthday.” He nodded and left the dining hall.

“Don’t take it personally.” Kovor appeared at my side. “Lighthearted fun has never been his forte.”

“Parties aren’t for everyone,” I shrugged, trying to push off my disappointment. “Has Aryn eaten all of my birthday cake?”

Kovor chuckled. “She’s had three slices.”

“I better get in there before it’s all gone,” I laughed. I made my way through the packed room, accepting birthday wishes left and right.

I had plenty of friends here, I reminded myself. Even if someone was determined to be difficult.

The cake was half gone by the time I reached the table. Kalyn presented me with a piece she’d put to the side just for me. It had some of the icing that read my name.

“Can you put a second piece to the side?” I asked. Even as I said the words, I was a little nervous about the plan that had just sprung to mind.

“Of course! You’re the birthday girl. You get to eat as much cake as you want.”

“It’s not for me.” Kalyn gave me a curious look. “It’s for Valtic.”

Kalyn looked more confused. “I don’t think he likes cake.”

“Maybe not.” I shrugged, trying for casual. “But he left to go back to work. I want him to know his absence was noticed.”

Kalyn furrowed her brow but didn’t say anything more. She cut an extra piece of cake as asked. I felt like I was missing a piece of information, but I didn’t know how to ask for it.

I went around the room, making sure to say hello to everyone. Kalyn and the other women presented me with a hand-knit scarf they’d all taken turns working on. It was messy and filled with small holes.

Perfect.

As the party wound down, I gathered my nerve.

“Be right back!” I waved to the room, taking the slice of cake that’d been set aside.

I knew where Orrin’s workspace was. I remembered Maris saying that Valtic’s office was nearby.

I tried three doors near Orrin’s workspace until I found him.

The only light in the room came from four monitors. Valtic sat at his desk, flipping through the same pieces of footage over and over, but nothing looked out of the ordinary.

“Have a minute?” I asked.

“What can I do for you?” Valtic replied without turning around. He wasn’t rude, just focused.

Distant.

“Nothing.” I stepped into the dark room. “I brought you some cake from the party.”

I set the plate down on the desk next to him.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because you didn’t get any. And you should know that your presence was missed.”

Valtic looked at the cake with a blank expression, then to me, then back to his monitors. “I have a lot of footage to look through.”

I pursed my lips. “Right. Well, enjoy the cake.” I backed out of his office and closed the door quietly.

It was dangerous to spend too much time in isolation, I knew that better than anyone.

Valtic was about to have a special friend, whether he liked it or not.

Valtic

I was not pleased with the crew holding this…party…when we had so many other things that needed to be dealt with.

Despite everything that happened the last time we let our guard down, now the crew was doing it again.

Asinine fools.

Granted, it was a celebration of the day Lynna was born. That would be worth celebrating, at any time.

For the Shein, a commencement day was an acknowledgement of our birth, but it was normally the mother that was celebrated while her child, grown or young, gave a gift commemorating their mother’s life.

It was how the Shein honored the one that bore them to life.

I had attended the party only to better understand the confusing sounds of an unscheduled gathering that had come through my monitors.

When Lynna made an attempt to socialize with me, I remained dedicated to my duties instead of falling into conversation with her.

I had to maintain vigilance, especially since I had failed so badly before.

It was the only way to keep us safe.

I should have been aware of that man, the bounty hunter named Hurd…I should have seen him for what he was.

I’d had my concerns about him, about that entire job, but I hadn’t followed through, and it had cost us.

I was not going to let something like that happen again, no matter how tempting it was to spend just a few more minutes in her company.

I left the party to resume my rounds of the ship, beginning with the system Orrin and Maris had installed in the hangar bay, running the required diagnostics.

They both growled when I ran extra checks on their system. But I needed to know, to be sure.

The system was tolerable.

Actually, it was a brilliant piece of engineering by the two of them.

It was, once they’d finished modifying it, something that was capable of doing something that I had failed at.

Keeping us safe.

After running diagnostics on the system in the hangar bay, I moved on to the weapons bay, then the engine room, the med bay, the living area, the bridge, and finally back to the hangar bay.

Everything was optimal, as it should be.

I had found Aryn’s little escape hatch and put a small strip of tape both inside and outside the hatch. It was a simple, yet effective, technique. Neither had been disturbed between her and Kovor’s return and when we left Qasar.

Next on my rounds were the service tubes. I worked my way through service tube two, half listening to the sounds of the party. The women were teaching the others a child’s song, gathering dates for future parties.

More of this madness.

At the top of the service tube, I opened the hatch, stepping onto the bridge. I was delighted to see that the crew on the bridge already had their weapons drawn on me, as they should.

“Good work. Routine check complete,” I complimented them.

Their weapons lowered but not holstered, the crew nodded and waited for me to leave. They performed exactly as instructed, although the night crew were the only ones to do as I wanted.

Captain Dejar’s, as well as Commander Aavat’s, bridge crews rarely acted accordingly. Any time I brought it up, both of them essentially shrugged me off, telling me that they trusted I would never betray them.

It was true, but it was a breach in necessary protocol to ensure the ship’s, and crew’s, safety.

Commander Kovor’s night crew was the only one to take me seriously. Odd, considering I’d never seen Kovor himself take anything seriously.

I made my way to another tube, doing my best to make sure I didn’t put myself into a predictable pattern with the service tubes, or with my rounds.

A routine could be another weakness.

Only constant vigilance could keep us safe.

As I lowered myself into tube six and closed the hatch behind me, the raucous sounds of the party echoed up to me. Perhaps I should join them.

Lynna had been very polite to me, something I didn’t deserve, but appreciated. Her hair cascaded down her head like waves, and her deep green eyes sparkled more than a Halandian emerald.

She possessed a gentle manner and always seemed to be smiling, as if she truly enjoyed making people feel better.

Lynna was everything goodness and light.

When she’d brought the cake to my office, she’d brought her own light with her. I hadn’t dared look at her for too long.

She was a distraction. Even now I was thinking of her, her lovely soft form.

I should stay far away.

Make sure nothing threatened the crew, threatened her.

Three steps from tube ten, the ship’s red alert went off, the blaring alarm a hot blade cutting through my thoughts.

The crisp and clear voice of Sper, the overnight pilot, came on the overhead speaker system. “Proximity alarm has been triggered. I repeat, proximity alarm has been triggered. All personnel to assigned stations.”

I brought up the exterior cameras on my tablet and searched, but it was hard to see on such a small screen. Rushing to the wall-screen in the science lab, I swiped what was on my tablet onto the wall-screen.

I cycled through the different camera angles until I saw it.

Rather, I didn’t see the stars that should have been there.

Something dark, almost impossible to see, was approaching.

I opened up a sub-routine in the defense system, activated exterior spotlights, and maneuvered them in the direction of the darkness. It might be invisible to our sensors, but not our eyes.

There it was.

The dark ship. What Kovor and Aryn had discovered was called The Terror.

It had found us.

I sent out a communication blast to Dejar and Aavat, then rushed for my office.

Pulling open the tube five hatch, I jumped in feet first, swearing as I slid down to engineering. I was closest and knew what needed to be done.

We’d never fully tested it, but I needed to activate the new stealth system and give it time to build up power.

We didn’t know if it would work. But now we were out of time.

I rushed into the room and the ship rocked hard, throwing me to my hands and knees.

My head hit the metal leg of the workstation and for a few brief moments, all I could see were dancing lights in front of my eyes. Blinking rapidly, I lurched to my feet as my vision returned.

Though I could begin the process of activating the system, we needed two people to get it fully started.

Umbba.

It was so new, we hadn’t assigned this as a crew position yet.

Of all the…

The power drain from the stealth system was so great it had made sense to require two points of activation in order to prevent accidental activation or deactivation.

But now that caution might get us killed.

I couldn’t reach the other station, to activate it.

Both stations had to be switched on simultaneously.

Where was anyone?

The haze that was my constant companion focused my vision to a pinpoint. Calm, slow breaths beat it back.

Then I heard footsteps rushing towards me and returned to the stealth controls to prime the system once again.

Whoever it was, they better move fast.

Lynna

Most of the partygoers peeled off and returned to their respective duties.

A few of us lingered in the dining hall, laughing and talking, nearly finishing off the final corner of the cake, not bothering with forks and eating with our hands.

Dots of red icing stained my hands as I finished off the last few letters of Happy.

“Did Valtic like his cake?” Kalyn asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied, biting my lip. “He was really busy when I went in.”

“Sounds about right,” Aavat replied. “He’s gotten a little obsessive since the incident with the bounty hunter and Tiatra.”

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Shenna asked. “It’s not like we can be too secure.” Something in one of her pockets made a squeaking sound.

Two small fuzzy ears peeked out of her shirt pocket—I decided I wasn’t going to ask. By now, her and Aavat’s room must’ve looked like a small menagerie.

“I’d rather him work too hard than not work hard enough,” Dejar nodded in agreement.

“His workspace was dismal,” I recalled. “Maybe working too hard isn’t such a good thing in his case.”

“With The Terror still out there somewhere, I’m glad Valtic is overdoing it,” Kovor chimed in. “He’s not terribly social to begin with.”

I opened my mouth to argue. Was I the only one worried about Valtic?

But then an ear-splitting alarm rang through the ship, a sound I’d heard once before, through drugged sleep brought on by the gas the bounty hunter had smuggled on the ship.

A knot of apprehension formed in my belly as everyone leaped up from the table.

“Everyone to your emergency stations,” Dejar barked.

For most of the Persephone women, that meant the cargo bay.

Shenna and I had different tasks, and we split up to cover more ground. We had to check the ship to make sure no one was stuck under a collapsed wall. Or more likely, sleeping in their quarters with earplugs in.

I looked into every cabin and storage room. Thankfully, I didn’t find anyone. Everyone was where they were supposed to be or on their way there. I peeked into the showers, also empty.

Feeling less panicked, I returned to the bridge to meet up with Shenna, who was already there waiting for me.

“All clear?” she asked.

“All clear.” We’d started off in the direction of the cargo bay when I stopped short. “Did you check the workshops?”

“No,” Shenna replied. “Orrin and Maris were both with us.”

“Valtic was in his office alone,” I said, a faint thread of worry working through my chest.

“I’m sure he’s the one who triggered the alarm.”

“You’re probably right, but I’m going to double check anyway.” I squeezed her shoulder. “Go down into the cargo bay, I’ll be there in a moment.”

Shenna nodded before hurrying down the corridor.

I made my way back through the ship to Valtic’s door. The monitors were still on, though some had lost connection and only showed static.

“Valtic?” I called out, though the sound of the alarm overpowered my voice. I stepped farther into his office.

The room was quite a bit deeper than I’d initially noticed. A door built into the back wall was ajar. I moved across the office and looked through the door. Valtic was inside the back room with his hand on one lever and stretching as far as he could to reach a second lever. For the first time since I’d met him, his spiky dark hair was disheveled, his rigid control drawn too tight.

“You need to get to your position!” I called.

I’d memorized most of the emergency protocols after the incident with the Enclave bounty hunter. However, I didn’t recall exactly where Valtic was supposed to be, but I was sure it was somewhere on the bridge. All essential personnel needed to go to the bridge.

“I’m activating the new stealth system first,” he shouted back. He released the lever he held in order to pull the other one. The moment he let go of the first one, it snapped back into its resting position.

“That’s not part of the protocol,” I stammered. “It’s not finished!”

Valtic fixed me with a hard look. “The Terror found us. I have to activate the stealth systems if we’re going to have any chance of escaping them. You know Maris and Orrin are nearly done with this thing.”

At the sound of that dreaded ship’s name, my stomach tightened. “What can I do to help?”

“You can get yourself somewhere safe,” Valtic growled.

“You clearly can’t activate the stealth system alone. Let me help.”

I crossed the room and stood by one of the levers, waiting.

A muscle jumped in his jaw, but he nodded. Stubborn? Yes. An idiot? No.

“Okay,” he sighed. “Pull this lever at the same time I pull mine. Ready?”

I nodded, then he counted down from three and we snapped our levers into the downward position.

“Is that it?” I asked.

“No. We each have to enter a code. See the keypad to your right?” I did. It was a twelve-digit keypad and I recognized the characters from learning to read Shein.

“You’re going to hit the top middle, bottom left, and center right keys exactly when I do,” Valtic instructed.

Valtic counted each key as he pressed it. Our fingertips hit the keys at the same time. To the left of our levers, a green light flickered on.

“Press that next?” I asked. Valtic nodded. He counted down once more. We pushed the button at the same time.

And nothing happened.

At least, nothing that I could sense.

“Did it work?” I asked.

“I hope so.” He stalked out of the room. “You should get to your position, somewhere safe.”

“Right now I think I’m safest with you.”

He froze, just for a second, then kept walking.

“Besides, I want to make sure the stealth system worked. I’m going to the bridge,” I said. “Why is it so complicated to activate it?”

“It draws a massive amount of power,” Valtic explained, not looking at me. “Dejar and Kovor only want it used in case of an emergency. The activation process requires two individuals in order to prevent accidental activation.”

When we reached the bridge, Dejar, Aavat, Orrin, Kalyn, and Maris were there.

“Why aren’t you in the cargo bay?” Kalyn asked me. “And where have you been?” she asked Valtic.

“I took the liberty of activating the new stealth system,” Valtic explained. “Think of this as a final field test.”

“Is it really The Terror that’s coming after us?” I asked.

Kalyn nodded. “It doesn’t show up on any of our scanners. Luckily for us, Valtic spotted it on a camera.”

I looked at Valtic, my eyebrows raised in surprise. He hadn’t mentioned that he had been the one who found The Terror.

“Qal’s moving the ship out of the area as fast as it can go. From what we can tell, the stealth system worked beautifully,” Dejar said. “It looks like The Terror can’t see us on its sensors anymore.”

“The stealth system only hides us from sensors and scanners. If The Terror has real-time cameras or if a crewmember looks out the right window, they could still see us,” Maris reminded us.

“Speaking of cameras, if I’m not needed, I’d like to return to my office and monitor the situation,” Valtic requested.

“Go ahead,” Dejar said. He tapped a few buttons on the main control console and the emergency alarm fell silent.

“I’ll go make sure everyone in the cargo bay is okay,” I suggested.

Kalyn nodded her approval.

I walked away at the same time as Valtic. For a short moment, before the corridors diverged, we walked side by side.

“Thank you for your assistance,” Valtic said jerkily. He didn’t look at me when he spoke.

“You’re welcome,” I replied. “I still don’t understand why you tried to activate the stealth system alone, especially when you knew it was designed to need two people.”

“There was no time to wait. Besides, I prefer to do things on my own,” Valtic replied. “That way I can be sure they are done right.”

“Commendable. I’m the same way,” I nodded. “However, I know the value of asking for help when I need it.”

Valtic’s cheek twitched at the word help. He must’ve had far more self-pride than I realized. Typical male.

“Asking for help doesn’t make you less competent,” I pressed.

“Of course not,” Valtic scoffed.

“Then why—”

“Thank you, again,” Valtic said curtly before turning sharply down another corridor.

Clearly, I’d hit a nerve.

I frowned at his back as he stalked away, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d always been this way.

Or if something had happened to him.

Valtic

I needed to be more vigilant.

It was because I had been tempted, wasted time at her party, that I had been behind schedule in my rounds.

If I had not been late, I would have seen The Terror on the cameras long before they got within range of us.

I would not allow that to happen again. I kept an eye on the monitors, searching for anything that seemed out of place within the stars, and the space between the stars.

Hours passed, until I was interrupted by a knock at my door. I let out a small growl of irritation.

No one knocked at my door. Ever.

If Captain Dejar or Aavat wanted me, they sent a message. No one else bothered me.

I opened the door to see Lynna standing there, a plate in her hands.

With another slice of cake.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, voice rougher than I intended.

A whip-edge of shame lashed me as she flinched a bit at the tone of my voice. She kept her smile intact, chin up. Brave, bright little thing.

“Well,” she shifted from foot to foot as she spoke. “You left so fast after the stealth system was turned on, you didn’t wait to check in with anyone else.”

“I’m sure they’ll send me a comm if they need anything,” I replied, my voice as monotone as I could make it. Something smelled delicious. And it wasn’t the cake. “What did you need?”

I needed to keep my distance from her. There was nothing wrong with me.

I didn’t need a doctor.

Yet, here she was.

In my doorway.

Edging into my office.

She looked down at the cake, then back up at me. “I was wanting to make sure that you were okay, maybe give you another piece of cake.”

She held it out to me, her head tilted to the side a bit as she kept that ridiculous, lovely smile on her face.

Scro.

I took the cake from her hands and placed it on the table next to the door. “Thank you. Is there anything else?”

She peered over my shoulder, then back up at me as I stepped to the side to block her view. “I see you ate the other slice of cake I gave you.”

“Affirmative. It was. . .” I tried to search for the proper word. Something positive, but not encouraging. “. . .edible,” I finished.

I wasn’t sure how to read her face, but it seemed as though she looked a bit deflated. It didn’t last long, as she took a deep breath and smiled again. “So, how are you doing?”

“How am I doing what?”

She laughed, lightly. “It’s an expression, a way of asking how you are.”

“Ah, I understand. I…am adequately well. I have no medical issues that require your assistance at this time.”

She giggled again, and in her attempt to stifle it, she let out a snort. “I’m not asking as a doctor. I’m asking as a friend.”

“Don’t,” I said, pushing my way out of the doorway into the hall and closing the door behind me.

“Don’t what?” she asked, moving to the side.

“Don’t ask as a ‘friend’. It’s not something you should do.” I tried to make my way past her, but she stepped in my way.

“Why not? Why don’t you want to talk to me?”

I didn’t answer. I stood there, my most intimidating stance and glower directed at her.

She didn’t move, however. She kept staring up at me, adjusting her own stance to show she was going to stay.

I couldn’t understand why she was so interested in talking to me, in getting to know me. I was simply the security on board the ship, there was nothing special about me that should have interested her.

I had given her no reason to pay attention to me, so why was she trying so hard?

“Well?” she asked impatiently.

I shook my head, spun around, and began to head in the other direction, away from her. I wanted nothing to do with her and this conversation she was trying to start. I made only a few paces down the hall when her running footsteps brought her past me.

She stopped in front of me, tiny body barely blocking the hall, her arms spread wide.

“I don’t think so. You’re not avoiding me that easily,” she said breathlessly. “Why won’t you talk to me?”

“I’m not in the mood for this,” I snarled at her. Everyone else stayed away from me. Why wouldn’t she?

“You’re never in the mood. Why is that? Why are you so shut off from everything?” she demanded of me.

I shook my head and hissed at her. “You need to leave me alone. I’m not worth your effort, so walk away from me.”

“What do you mean? How could you say something like that?” Her voice was tight, fraught with emotion.

She shouldn’t have felt that way, not for me.

I wasn’t worth the concern, the care.

I had a function, and I needed to perform it. That was all.

I threw up my hands in frustration. “Because I’m not. It’s as simple as that. You don’t need to spend your effort trying to get to know me because I won’t let you. Concentrate your efforts on someone else, Doctor.”

With that, I turned away from her again, stalked back to my door, and stopped in front of it.

“As much as I appreciate your efforts, Doctor, they’re unwanted. Go about your life and leave mine alone.” I opened the door, walked into my office, and closed it behind me.

I heard her footsteps march away. I sat back down at my desk and began watching the vids again, but something nagged at me in the back of my mind.

It wasn’t guilt.

Of course not.

She was better staying away from me.

Safer.

That flicker of hurt in her eyes at my words was a small price to pay to keep her safe.

I sat at my desk, my eyes on the vids, but paying no attention to them. In frustration, I moved away from my desk in order to think.

I reached for the cake, a growl in my chest, and nearly threw it into the trash, but I stopped. Something prevented me from disposing of this gift from the doctor.

It was sweet, delicate. Filled with tempting scents.

Like her.

I reviewed the vids again, savoring every bite.

Refusing to think of her.

Lynna

“Maris, you promised!” I felt like a small child as I pleaded with Maris over her plate of mush that kind of looked like scrambled eggs, but not quite.

“I didn’t promise I would skip breakfast,” Maris replied. “I promised that Orrin and I would help you with repairs.”

“Breakfast was served hours ago. What you’re eating is four hours old at this point.” I pointed to her plate of food.

“I had a late night in the workshop. I’m trying to figure out how to modify the stealth system so that it doesn’t use as much power. I’d sleep better if I knew we were always cloaked, but right now, it just can’t happen.”

“You and me both,” I muttered as I slumped into the seat across from her. “Where’s Orrin?”

“He was still sleeping when I left him. He’s not a late sleeper, so I expect he’ll be here any minute. Scone?” Maris offered me a hunk of baked dough speckled with pieces of some kind of fruit native to the Shein homeworld.

They tasted kind of like cranberries. The creation tasted kind of like a scone.

Enough like a scone that I grabbed it.

“I’m going to get some coffee. Do you want some?” I asked after I finished the scone. Maris nodded, her mouth filled with eggs. By the time I returned to the table with two cups of coffee and another scone, Orrin had arrived.

“Do I have to wait for him to get through breakfast, too?” I sighed.

“I’ve never seen you so impatient, Lynna,” Orrin said with a grin.

“I’m sorry.” I pushed a hand through my hair. “I’ve been on edge since The Terror found us. I really want the med bay to be in good shape in case it sneaks up on us and we can’t get away.”

“There’s no way The Terror is going to catch us off-guard again,” Orrin assured me. “Every camera is monitored, the slightest anomaly triggering an alarm.”

Valtic was doing the monitoring, I was sure.

I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Valtic since our non-conversation the other day.

I hadn’t seen him since.

For the first time, I’d become aware of how little he left his office. I’d never seen him in the dining hall, aside from the few moments he’d lingered on my birthday.

I never saw him in the halls.

He didn’t want to talk. Fine.

“I’d still feel better knowing I can do my job if need be,” I replied.

I brooded while Orrin and Maris took their time finishing their meal. I wanted to laugh and joke with them but, for some reason, I just couldn’t.

My mind kept wandering back to Valtic. I couldn’t imagine him laughing or even sharing a meal with others. The thought of him sitting alone in his dark office day after day weighed on me. Why was everything left to him? Or had he just taken the burden and refused to share it?

“Ready?” Orrin asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“More than ready.” I managed a smile. The three of us left the dining hall. First, we stopped by Orrin and Maris’s shared workshop so they could grab their tools.

I lingered in the hallway while they grabbed what they needed, my eyes wandering to Valtic’s door. It was shut tight. There was no light shining through the small gap at the bottom of the door. I felt tempted to knock but just as I was weakening, Orrin and Maris emerged, ready at last to help me in the med bay.

“What needs attention?” Orrin asked as we headed out.

“Just about everything,” I sighed.

We entered the med bay. I gave Orrin and Maris the all-clear to do whatever they felt was necessary. While they worked, I sat on one of the patient beds and stared up at the ceiling.

“I didn’t realize how outdated our med bay was,” Orrin muttered as he worked.

“You were the last serious patient,” I reminded him.

“That’s why I’m so concerned. It’s a miracle I lived at all,” he joked.

“Lynna’s just that good of a doctor,” Maris said. I didn’t miss the hint of pride in her voice.

“Since I’m none the wiser, how outdated is everything?” I asked.

“At least a decade behind a standard hospital,” Orrin answered.

“Even so, this med bay is more advanced than anything we have in the Terran System,” I replied.

“Not surprising,” Orrin said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I gestured wildly in mock outrage.

“Maris told me all about the equipment available to her on Persephone Station. Not to mention the horrible way of traveling through space you humans came up with.”

“The Flosh drive,” Maris added. “The scariest moment of my life was getting into that pod.”

“Understandable,” Orrin agreed. “It had a pretty high mortality rate, didn’t it?”

“One in four,” I supplied. I tried to avoid thinking about the Flosh drive, the transport pods, and all the women who hadn’t survived the journey to Persephone Station.

Each time a new pod arrived, the best-case scenario was that I’d pull a groggy woman who really didn’t want to be where she was from the transport pod.

Worse case, I’d find a half-frozen corpse.

In my nightmares, I didn’t see Persephone Station crumbling around us. Instead, I saw tube after tube, waiting for me to open them.

To find bodies inside. Row after row.

“The fact that this is still operational is nothing short of a miracle.” Orrin marveled at a piece of equipment used to disperse various fluids intravenously. I worked with similar machines regularly in the Terran System, but this one analyzed the body in question and generated the needed fluids automatically.

“I could say the same about myself,” I said bleakly.

“My goodness, Lynna. I’ve never seen you so grim. What’s the matter?” Maris asked with a furrowed brow.

“There has been something weighing on my mind,” I admitted reluctantly. If I didn’t take my own advice to talk to people, was I really doing any better than he was?

“Is it about The Terror?” Orrin asked. “We’re all a little shaken after that.”

“Sort of,” I shrugged. “Truthfully, I’m concerned about Valtic.”

Orrin stopped working long enough to give me a surprised look. “I didn’t realize you and Valtic were close.”

“We’re not,” I quickly corrected him. “My birthday was the first time I’d ever spoken to him.”

“I was surprised to see him there at all,” Orrin admitted.

“Does he always spend so much time on his own?” I asked.

“We work across the hall from him and we barely see him,” Maris replied.

“And that doesn’t concern you?” I asked. “Even a little?”

“Why would it?” Maris replied. “If he wanted to hang out, we’d see him around more often.”

“Valtic has made it quite clear that he prefers to be alone,” Orrin added. “He’s never been the nicest Shein, but when he’s not left alone, he can get downright mean.”

“Did he say something mean to you?” Maris demanded, gripping the tool in her hand hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

“No,” I laughed, and motioned for her to relax. “I wouldn’t say he was overly friendly to me, but he hasn’t been mean, either.”

“Good.” Maris nodded. “I have no problem teaching him some manners if need be.”

“I’ll let you know if it comes to that.” I shook my head. A few months ago, Maris wouldn’t have cared if I lived or died. Now she was foaming at the mouth to defend my honor. Good things had come from the destruction of Persephone Station, the best of those being the strong friendships that had emerged.

“If he hasn’t been mean to you, why are you asking about him?” Orrin asked.

“Lynna thinks he’s broken,” Maris said with a knowing smile.

“I do not,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand.

“Then why are you interested in his social habits?” Maris pressed.

“I simply don’t think it’s good for anyone to spend so much time alone.” I held up my hands, palms out. “And as the only doctor on board, it seems like I should pay attention.”

“In other words, you think he’s broken,” Maris smirked. “Either that or you think he’s tragically handsome.”

“Why would you think that?” I snorted, ignoring the warm flush that spread through my chest.

Truth be told, Valtic did have a classic handsomeness to his features. Well, as classic as an alien male could be.

I couldn’t exactly tell what it was about him that reminded me of the leading males from all of those heart-wrenching black-and-white romance movies popular on Earth a few centuries ago.

It wasn’t his looks, not exactly.

He looked nothing like any human male I’d ever seen on screen. It was more like the air he gave off that reminded me of something old and tragic, though he couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me, if that.

“The way you’re blushing,” Maris shrugged.

My hand flew to my cheeks. “I’m not blushing!”

“Yes, you are,” Orrin confirmed, eyebrows raised.

“If I’m blushing, it’s not because I fancy Valtic, it’s because you’re embarrassing me. I’m a doctor. Everyone’s health on this ship is my business. As a medical professional, I’m concerned about Valtic. Can you tell me anything useful or not?”

“All I’ve heard is that he had a promising military career, but something went wrong,” Orrin said. “Dejar would know, but I’ve never asked. Never needed to. Valtic’s never brought it up and I don’t want to provoke him.”

“All hands, Rogue Star is now approaching the port of Katzul,” Qal’s voice echoed through the overhead speaker.

“Orrin, let’s go to the bridge,” Maris said urgently. “I want to see how the new registration chip works.”

“You spent half a day on it,” Orrin sighed. “You know it’s going to work perfectly.”

“I know. I just love the validation.” Maris preened.

“Your humility is inspiring, darling.” Orrin rolled his eyes. “Want to come, Lynna?”

“No,” I shook my head. “I think I’m going to stay down here and tinker with the equipment.”

“It’s a stunning view of Katzul from the observation deck,” Maris said.

“I remember from last time. Besides, knowing that there’s a flourishing business that makes money off selling exotic alien women really takes the shine off things.”

“Fair enough,” Maris agreed. “We’ll come back to work on your equipment once we’ve made port.”

“Sounds great.” I smiled as they left.

Once I was alone, I let out a sigh of frustration.

Valtic was still at the forefront of my thoughts.

I didn’t know what to do about him.

Valtic

I watched through the cameras as we re-docked at Katzul. It was a shame that the only civilization on the entire planet was this one spectacular, corrupt city of the same name.

We had returned to speak with Itair, to get information from him regarding The Terror and the slave trade.

And that group, Enclave.

“Valtic?”

Captain Dejar’s voice over my intercom snapped me out of my thoughts. I reached over and pressed the button to respond. “Yes, Captain?”

“As soon as we’re officially docked, I want you to meet Aavat and me in the docking bay.”

“Yes, sir!” I responded. Maybe there was a problem in the bay that I hadn’t noticed. I’d add it to the list.

I went back to monitoring the cameras as we completed docking procedures. As the ship settled to a stop, I left my office and made my way through the ship. When I arrived, I found Dejar and Aavat already waiting for me.

“Reporting for duty, sir.”

“At ease, Valtic,” Aavat responded. “How would you feel about getting off the ship for a few?”

I was a bit taken aback. “Is there something wrong with the exterior of the ship, sir?”

“No, no. Nothing wrong with the ship. We’re on our way to speak to Itair. The captain and I figured that since you have yet to deal with him, you would have a fresh perspective on what he would have to say.”

Dejar nodded. “Basically, we want a new set of ears when it comes to dealing with Itair, and you seem like the right match.”

“I’m not sure how much help I would be, sirs. My job is on board the ship where I am most useful. Perhaps one of the other crew, or one of the women would be better suited to accompany you?”

Dejar shook his head. “No. We’re interested in your perspective. We need to know what you think of his answers when we question him.” He narrowed his eyes, pondering. “His information could help us deal with possible threats to the ship.”

Of course. I should have thought of that first.

“In that case, I understand. When do we leave?” I asked.

“Now.” Aavat reached over and entered in his personal code for the security system. A circular door behind him rolled into the wall, opening the ship to the world outside. Aavat and Dejar stepped out first, I was only a few steps behind. The door slid back into place behind me, the hiss of the door seals closing saying their good-byes as we walked away.

It was near midday and the dock was as busy and hectic as ever.

I was uncomfortable with so many people around. Anything could happen and I would be unable to tell from what direction the threat came.

I stayed close, my eyes darting back and forth, taking in as much as I could as we made our way towards Itair’s floating home. Soon enough, we stopped and Aavat began speaking with an unsavory looking male in a suit. I wasn’t sure what he was, other than plainly a goon.

Aavat motioned for us to follow and we followed the goon around a corner to a four-doored transport unit. As the three of us got inside, the suited male got into the front and started it up. In less than two minutes, we were descending to a small landing pad on Itair’s float. His numerous pools filled with sea creatures seemed extravagant and overdone. Anyone that felt such a desperate need to impress their guests must have a lowered sense of pride.

We were led into the home—a massive, sprawling place that was almost the same size as the Rogue Star—through two massive doors that dwarfed all of us. They looked to be made of wood, and extremely heavy. Itair impressed me as much as his wasted pools did. He was a Pronarian, and while they were normally tall, thin, and had long dark hair, Itair was the opposite in almost every way.

He was portly, nearly double the size of the average Pronarian, and stood a few inches shorter than I remember one of his kind normally being. He had also cut his hair to a short military-like cut, although it looked as though he were trying to grow it out on top. He was wearing a bright yellow robe that went all the way down to the floor where his sandaled feet shuffled out with every step.

He greeted us with a large, over-the-top smile and open arms. “My friends,” he called out, his voice exuding joy. “How are you? Please, please, come in, come in.” My skin prickled. Nothing rang as genuine to my ears.

He reached up high to put his arm around Dejar’s shoulders. “Tell me, what brings you to my humble little home?” Then, in a lower voice, “I wasn’t expecting a delivery from you.”

Dejar shook his head as he answered. “We’re not here for that. We need to speak to you, privately.” His voice was low, and a bit menacing.

“Why, of course. Come, come, I have just the place to speak,” Itair responded blithely. He tried to engage the captains in small talk, completely unfazed by the fact that they refused to join in.

I scrutinized his movements, listened to the tone behind the words. Was he really so oblivious to not realize we were here for serious business?

Or did he not care?

One answer made him a fool. The other might mean he was more dangerous than he seemed.

Itair led us upstairs and down a short hall before coming to another set of double doors, which he opened with an extravagant flair. “Welcome,” he called out in a practiced voice. “What shall we talk about, my friends?” He walked over to a small bar and took down a bottle and four glasses, then looked at us, eyebrow raised.

“We’re not here for social reasons,” Aavat said, turning down the offer of a drink. Dejar and I also turned him down. As he poured himself a drink and motioned for us all to sit, I looked around the office, filled with so many books, pieces of art, and statuettes from around the cosmos that it would have been hard to find anything that was useable.

Wasteful.

Aavat was still talking. “We need to speak to you about something, and we need real answers.”

With his hands spread, Itair seemed to be a bit insulted. “Of course. What can I help you with?”

“We want to know about a dark ship called The Terror,” Dejar said.

I watched Itair’s reaction.

His sickly skin paled to a lighter, yellower green, pads of his long fingers distorting slightly as he clutched the heavy glass. He must be close to breaking it.

The cords of his throat tightened as he swallowed, and once again before he found his voice.

“I’m sorry, Captain Dejar, but I know nothing of the ship you’re talking about. I sincerely wish I could aid you,” he finally answered. An obvious lie, but something about his phrasing seemed odd.

“Look," Aavat said, “we know you're involved. And your umbba deliveries got us involved.” His voice lowered to a growl. “Don't make me start spreading the word that you're behind all of this.”

Itair's hand relaxed. He wasn't worried anymore.

“It would do you no good, friend. Too many people know me, they know I would never betray a client."

So what had made him nervous before?

“Are you sure about that?” I spoke up.

His bulging eyes fixed on me. “I'm sorry, I don't think we've had the pleasure of being introduced?”

“I think at the moment we can skip the pleasantries.” He swallowed again as I stood.

Fear of a physical threat made him flinch. That was clear even if I hadn't actually said anything to make him worry.

Yet.

And he'd been afraid at mention of The Terror.

But not about anything Aavat could tell anyone. Not about any damage to his reputation here on Katzul. Not the idea that people might believe he was behind the slaving.

Whatever The Terror was, whoever ruled Enclave, that's who he was afraid of.

“People here might believe that you would never betray a client,” I started slowly, “but does everyone know that?”

He blinked but said nothing.

“What about the crew of The Terror? Do they know you'd never betray them? Really, really know?”

There it was, the rapid fluttering of his eyelashes, the tension in his hand.

“I know nothing about it, have nothing to do with any of that,” Itair sputtered.

Dejar pounced. “Now that can't be true,” he interrupted, his voice a deadly purr. “We came here, and you told us exactly where to go to buy companions. Very pretty ones.”

“Just rumors,” Itair scoffed

“They were very precise rumors,” Dejar snapped.

Aavat stepped in, “And you didn't seem to mind. You knew those designs you were so proud of; all those fabrics were going to those women. And that it had to be done discreetly.”

Itair slammed his glass down on the desk. “Of course, there will be times and places that women from less wealthy worlds seek companionship, patronage from those who can protect them.”

Whatever progress we’d made, we were losing. This was what he told himself, often enough to believe it.

“Who are you to decide what those women are allowed to do with themselves, their bodies?”

I'd seen the women Aavat and Shenna had rescued from the auction. Even ignoring the one traitorous bitch, they'd been frightened. Traumatized.

Men like this would put our human crewmates in an auction just like it.

In a flash I could see Lynna, terrified and shivering, dressed in nothing but wisps of silk.

The red haze that had become my constant companion narrowed my vision just a touch further.

“Those women didn't have a choice.” I stepped past Dejar and Aavat, looming over Itair as he collapsed in his chair.

I knew I needed to pull back, but the red haze had its grip on me.

Cold rage was all I felt now.

“The people you're protecting are targeting us.”

“For hired muscle,” Itair said, struggling for composure, “you're very mouthy.” He shrugged, nothing but bravado. “All for some women.”

My temper snapped.

I knelt down beside him. “It’s very simple. You can either tell us the information we need, or I begin feeding parts of you to the water-life you have outside.”

I kept my voice low and calm as I spoke. I even reached out and lightly patted him on the cheek.

“Then I’ll reach down your throat, pull out your intestines, and make you swallow them back down. And if that doesn’t work, I am interested in seeing how far you would bounce if I threw you off this floating rock.”

As I spoke, I could feel myself saying and speaking the words, but was almost powerless to stop myself.

I could see Aavat and Dejar staring, stone-faced, in my peripheral vision, but I kept my gaze steady on Itair.

I took deep breaths and tried to regain control of my faculties. I didn’t want to let Itair see me struggling.

He looked close to breaking, then with agonizing slowness, he smiled. “You are a refreshing change to this entire discussion. However, I would like to remind all three of you, that although Katzul’s security force is corrupt and untrustworthy, they are more than willing to come to the aid of those of us that, how should I say this, keep their coffers full.”

That’s when I noticed a button on the underside of the arm of his chair, and his finger hovering just under it.

“Fine,” Dejar said. “We’ll be leaving, apparently.” He brought his hand to my shoulder but didn’t touch me.

For the best.

“Yes, yes, you will,” Itair said, never taking his eyes off mine.

I imagined putting my fist through that smug face, but couldn’t.

He smiled as we left.

Lynna

The one thing in the med bay that I didn’t check obsessively was the supply closet. Zayn had told me early on that he preferred to handle the medical supplies, since he was familiar with everything the Rogue Star needed and could more easily read the labels.

But if there was no going home, if this med bay was going to be my office and hospital room and everything wrapped up into one for the foreseeable future, it was time for me to learn it all.

Without any patients to attend to, I opened up the supply closet with the intention of memorizing more medical symbols.

Instead, I found a nearly empty closet.

“What the hell?” I swore under my breath.

From the look of things, Zayn hadn’t gotten any new supplies since I came aboard. I left the med bay in a rush, eager to find him. I didn’t know where his room was, so I checked the bridge first. No one there knew where he was, so I moved on to the dining hall.

I walked in as the cook, Sars, was speaking to someone, but no one was at any of the tables.

It looked like he was talking to someone behind the counter. Maybe Shenna was helping again?

“Sars,” I called.

Sars favored me with a bright smile. “How’s the good doctor?”

“I’m looking for Zayn. Have you seen him?”

“He’s back here,” Sars nodded. As he spoke, I heard someone frantically shushing him.

“What?” I demanded. I stepped over to the counter and pushed myself up so I could see the back of the kitchen. Zayn sat in the back on a stool with a bottle of spirits. “What are you doing?”

“Catching up with my old friend, Sars,” Zayn grinned.

“Can you tell me why the supply closet is almost empty?” I demanded.

“We barely have any injuries,” Zayn shrugged sloppily. “I figured we shouldn’t spend money on things we won’t use.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.” I rarely lost my temper, but I was quickly reaching my boiling point. “What if something happens? The Terror could’ve attacked us the other day. Have you forgotten we’re being hunted by the most powerful organization in this universe? We should be prepared for every eventuality!”

“Well, I didn’t sign up to be a wanted criminal, yet here I am,” he said bitterly. “I’d go home if I could, but I can’t. I might never be able to. So, forgive me if I want to forget about that fact for a little while.” He took another long sip from his bottle.

Before I could continue, Sars stepped between me and Zayn.

“He’s been coming here for a few days now,” Sars said quietly. “He’s got a family depending on him for income. He’s worrying about them at all hours and, honestly, I don’t think he’s fit for work at the moment. You don’t mind taking over the supplies until he’s straightened out, do you?”

I felt a pang of sympathy deep in my chest and immediately felt terrible for going off on Zayn the way I had.

“Of course,” I agreed. “Zayn, is there a supply list somewhere?” I called over Sars’s shoulder.

“Right drawer in the back.” Zayn refused to meet my gaze.

“I’ll look after him, Doctor,” Sars assured me.

“Thanks.” I offered Sars a kind smile, since Zayn wouldn’t look at me, and hurried out of the dining hall.

The supply list was exactly where Zayn had said it was. I grabbed it, tucked it into my back pocket, and left the med bay once again.

With the security upgrades, I needed Dejar’s permission to leave the ship, as well as a code to disarm the system when I left and when I returned. However, Dejar wasn’t in his office. Neither was Aavat. Oddly enough, Kovor was alone in the office, looking over the three-dimensional holomap in the back corner of the room.

“Kovor?” I called gently.

He turned to face me. His eyes were unfocused like he’d been lost in thought. “What can I do for you, Lynna?”

“I need to go purchase more medical supplies. Can you give me a code?”

“Absolutely. Take the ship’s credit chip, as well. Try to only get the essentials. We’re on a tight budget,” Kovor warned me.

I nodded and slipped the credit chip into my pocket next to the list. Kovor went to the console on the desk and programmed a new code for me. He scribbled the code on a piece of paper and passed it to me.

“Thank you.” I was halfway out the door as I spoke.

“Don’t forget to change your appearance!” Kovor called.

I winced. If he hadn’t said anything, I would’ve forgotten.

Other than our ill-fated trip to Outpost Nine, I hadn’t left the Rogue Star.

I hadn’t had reason to don the array of cosmetics necessary to alter my appearance enough so that I wouldn’t be recognized as an unauthorized species.

Once in the closet, I flipped through a tablet showing species the other women thought we’d resemble enough to make the disguises easy, but without constant repetition.

I snorted. Surgery, sure. This? I wasn’t convinced.

I picked up a vial of shimmery pink skin dye and applied it everywhere my skin was exposed. With dark purple ink, I traced swirly lines along my cheeks and up onto my forehead. Feeling adventurous, I used a colored powder to change my hair from its usual dark blonde to a striking aqua.

One glance in the mirror told me I looked nothing like a human anymore.

Satisfied, I left the closet and hurried toward the main loading door. The code Kovor had generated for me temporarily disarmed the security system and allowed the door to open. Cool air hit me as I stepped onto the dock. I’d been breathing recycled air on the Rogue Star for so long, I'd forgotten how sweet fresh air felt.

As I moved through the crowded streets, I tipped my head up to look at the floating slabs that supported gorgeous mansions that housed the city’s wealthiest citizens.

Down on the ground lived all of the beings who worked in the service of those rich citizens. The streets were grimy and damp, even though there was no rain. Everything had an oily sheen to it, even the buildings. No one looked twice at me as I walked. Compared to some of the citizens I passed, I looked rather bland.

Before long, I came to a shop with a variety of symbols scrolling over the door. And one of them was the Shein word for medicine. Perfect. I pulled out the list and grabbed a basket. I grabbed two of whatever I could find, along with ten rolls of bandages and an extra-large bottle of disinfectant, hoping I was totaling the prices in my head correctly as I went.

“That’s a lot of supplies you have there.” The multi-limbed clerk looked at me with a critical eye.

“My employer has recently fallen ill,” I explained quickly. “I wanted to get everything we might need.”

“Who’s your employer?” the clerk asked.

“I’d rather not say. I don’t want to encourage gossip about his illness,” I said. “He’s very protective of his reputation. You may know of him. He lives in the floating palace that looks like it’s made of onyx.” I named a random mansion I’d seen from the viewing deck and hoped a male citizen resided within its dark walls.

“Oh, I completely understand,” the clerk gushed and rang my items up promptly. I noticed he’d given me a hefty discount.

“Thank you so much!” I grinned.

“Wish your master well for me,” he called after me as I left. Clutching my bag with both hands, I hurried back the way I’d come.

When I passed by the dark mouth of an alley, a hand reached out and gripped my forearm.

“Hey!” I squeaked.

“You look lost,” a deep voice purred.

A male stepped out of the alley. Four more flanked him. All of them were different species, but I quickly noticed that they all possessed mouths filled with golden teeth filed into points.

“I’m not lost,” I insisted. “I’m actually in a hurry.” I looked at their exposed arms for the Enclave sigil but didn’t see it. At least that was one thing I didn’t have to worry about.

Probably.

“You should come with us,” the leader grinned and ran his tongue along his teeth. “We can get you home safe.”

I highly doubted that. I held the bag containing all of the medical supplies in my free hand. Before I could talk myself out of it, I swung the bag into the face of the alien male that held me. Surprised, he released his grip on my arm. I bolted into the streets.

He scrambled after me, knocking the bag loose, the contents clattering down the pavement. I heard them behind me, calling after me and whistling. Citizens moved out of my way as I ran, but none of them tried to help me. Perhaps this was a common occurrence on this street.

In a panic, I realized I couldn’t lead the males back to the dock. I couldn’t risk anyone discovering the Rogue Star. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know where to go. My legs began to shake with effort. I couldn’t keep my current pace much longer.

A flash of bronze streaked by me. I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Valtic slam his fist into the leader’s face. The leader cried out in pain and crumbled to the ground. Blood gushed all over his clawed hands.

The other four sized Valtic up, confident they could take him, but Valtic wasn’t cowed in the least.

They came at him. With speed and agility that should’ve been impossible for someone of his size, Valtic evaded their attacks. He grabbed one male by the arm and twisted it around his back. Bone snapped, followed by a shriek of pain. Valtic kicked another one square in the chest, certainly breaking some ribs. With three down, the remaining two looked uncertain.

Before they could make up their minds, Valtic charged at them. He grabbed them both by the collar and slammed their heads together. They crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

It was all over before I’d even caught my breath.

Valtic turned to me, his eyes burning with rage.

“Come.” He strode past me, back in the direction of the ship. I followed a few paces behind him. I could almost feel the hot anger rolling off his shoulders, trailing behind him.

“I just—”

“Not now,” he snarled. He reached behind me and with surprising care clamped his hand around my wrist. I clamped my lips shut.

As I walked, I noticed my empty hands were shaking.

Valtic

I stalked through the streets back to the docks, my hand locked around her wrist.

I couldn't believe Lynna had left the safety of the Rogue Star, gone out where anything could have happened to her.

Almost happened to her.

If I hadn't been there in time. . .

The haze that had wrapped over me during the brief fight with the scum that had hassled her threatened to take over again.

I pushed it back. I was still stronger than it.

For now.

I felt her stumble behind me.

Scro. I couldn't even keep her safe when I was next to her.

I slowed my pace, scanning the crowd for threats.

At least she had disguised herself well, the bright pink with purple swirls a reasonable facsimile for a Blitioon woman.

If you weren't particularly familiar with it, that was. And most people wouldn't be.

But still, to be alone. Vulnerable.

It would not stand.

“What in the cosmos were you thinking?” I growled.

She glared at me, the fire in her eyes unmistakable, no matter what nonsense she did to her lovely skin.

“I was thinking that we needed supplies for the med bay,” she snapped. “And I was thinking that, since the crewmember who was supposed to be keeping an eye on it hadn't been, I had better take care of it.”

I’d have words with Zayn later.

Strong ones.

Her voice grew quiet. “I thought with so many people around,” she trailed off, still shaken. “I didn't think there'd be any trouble.”

For a brief moment, I had the ridiculous urge to take her in my arms, let her lean on me, tell her nothing would happen to her, ever again.

But leaning on me, relying on me, was foolish. It got people killed.

As we re-boarded the Rogue Star, crewmembers scattered out of our way, eyes averted.

Suddenly she whipped her wrist out of my grip. “I am not a child,” she snapped, “and I will not be treated like one.”

I turned, forcing my eyes away from every lush curve of her form. “I am more than aware of that.” I growled “You are an adult, a grown woman. And a beautiful one. And what they would have done to you—”

I couldn't say it, couldn't even think it if I was going to retain even this thin veneer of control. My gorge rose and even under the dye, her face paled.

“I know,” she whispered. Unlike every other member of the Rogue Star’s crew, she didn't back down, didn't step away from me.

Instead she came closer, putting her hand on my chest.

I stared down in shock.

“Thank you for being there. I know it would've been bad. I've seen. . .”

Her voice faded, eyes fixed on something I couldn't see

I knew that look. I'd seen it on myself far too many times, caught it in my peripheral vision when I passed by random reflective surfaces. Not mirrors. I still avoided those.

“Let's get you back to the med bay.” Careful not to startle her, I put an arm around her shoulders.

Just to help support her, guide her while she still seemed to be in shock.

It wasn't because being near her made the rage subside. Not because even the air around her tasted cleaner, brighter.

Not at all.

I led her into the med bay, got her settled on a chair and, grabbing a glass for water, I glanced at the supply closet.

She hadn't been kidding. It was barren. If something happened, it would be a disaster.

The list of items to discuss with Zayn grew longer.

“Here, drink this.” I knelt in front of her, steadying the glass as she drank.

“Sorry,” she said, shaking her head, her eyes refocusing, rejoining me here in the present instead of trapped in whatever ghost of a nightmare that had held her.

“Before I went to Persephone Station, I was a first responder in a pretty dark area of town. I wanted to help, thought I could make a difference. There were things, awful things.”

My mind blanked for a moment.

I knew from my review of the records that most of the women assigned to Persephone Station had been there to get them out of the way, or as a punishment, or alternative to an actual prison sentence.

It seemed something closer to a prison for political misfits than an actual research station.

Lynna was one of the few exceptions. She had volunteered to go, to conduct research.

I'd assumed that before her transfer, she'd worked in a hospital, or maybe a laboratory. Some quiet, peaceful place that suited her.

Emergency response, with all the horrors her voice implied, didn't match my imaginings.

“Then you should know to be more careful,” I barked, then clenched my fist, willing myself back under control.

With infinite grace, she set the half empty glass down on the examination table and rose to confront me, eyes blazing.

“I know exactly what's out there. Oh, maybe not the exact species or the technology, but I'd be amazed if there are any forms of depravity that could surprise me.” Her laugh was bitter, entirely unlike anything I’d expected.

Maybe I should quit assuming things about her, a quiet voice in the very back of my head whispered. I didn’t seem to be getting anything right.

“If you've got any historical records about Terra and her wars, you might want to look them up. Humans have long been very creative in doing terrible things to each other.”

I reached out for her, but whatever closeness we’d shared had burned away in her anger. I let my arm fall.

“If you know, then stay safe,” I commanded.

“Knowing what's out there, having been hurt before, doesn't mean I'm going to give up. The danger can't stop me, just make me more cautious.” She bit her lip. “And I'll be more cautious, I promise. But I won't let the darkness keep me from doing my job. That's letting it win.”

Her words struck like knives.

“Well, then.” I turned away. “It’s past time for me to do another round of checks on the cameras.”

She came behind me, her steps so light I didn't hear her over the howling of my own thoughts and lay her hand on my arm as I reached for the door.

“Still,” she said, her voice quiet once more. “Thank you.”

I nodded, not trusting my voice and strode down the corridor. Where she touched me, my chest and my arm, burned like a brand.

I found myself clenching and unclenching my fists as I walked.

By everything, that woman was the most frustrating person I had ever been around. How someone that intelligent, that beautiful, that talented, could be so lacking in common sense!

Did I say she was beautiful?

Kout.

Lynna

When all was said and done, I was still faced with the same problem of no medical supplies. I congratulated myself on my quick thinking when I’d launched the bag into that alien bastard’s face, but now Kovor was out several hundred credits and my supply closet was still disappointingly empty.

“Kalyn, will you go with me into the city? I have to rebuy all of the med supplies.” I poked my head into the office she shared with Dejar and Aavat. Both Kalyn and Dejar were bent over paperwork. I bet they had something to do with finances. Dejar always spent hours looking at papers when the Rogue Star wasn’t turning a profit.

“Can it wait for a few hours?” Kalyn asked without looking up. “We’re doing some major rearranging here.”

“It’s okay! I’ll ask someone else.” I ducked back out of the office and continued my search. I went to Orrin and Maris’s workshop next. Both of them were hunched over their workspaces working on tiny, complicated pieces of machinery.

“Maris, do you have a minute to spare? I need to go get medical supplies,” I asked.

“I never have minutes to spare,” she replied without looking up. “Ask Shenna. She likes errands like that.”

“Okay. Sorry to bother you!” I shut the workshop door quietly as I left.

I proceeded to ask Shenna, but she was frantically trying to corral her ever-growing collection of strange animals. When I knocked on the door to her and Aavat’s cabin, she screamed not to open it. I definitely heard the cat, Persephone, hissing, along with an array of other sounds I couldn’t begin to describe.

I walked back and forth through the corridors of the ship asking anyone I passed.

“I would,” Manda said nervously, “but after what happened yesterday, I don’t think it’s a good idea for any of us to go out into the city.”

“You’re probably right,” I frowned. That didn’t change the fact that I still needed to replenish the supply closet.

“Maybe the captain or one of the crew will get the supplies for you next time they leave the ship,” Manda said hopefully.

“I’m sure they will,” I smiled reassuringly. Manda went on her way to do whatever it was she did in her spare time. I stood in the middle of the corridor, unsure of what to do with myself. I was about to go back to the med bay to tinker with the outdated equipment when I, quite literally, ran into someone coming up behind me.

Large hands grasped my shoulders to steady me. I looked up to see Valtic. He wasn’t smiling, but he didn’t have his usual scowl, either. I took that as a good sign.

“I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I didn’t hear you walking.”

“Do you need an escort into the city?” he asked, releasing his grip on my shoulders.

“Really?” I blinked in surprise. “Even after what happened yesterday?”

“Especially because of what happened yesterday.”

“You’re not still angry, are you? I don’t think I want to be escorted by someone who’s angry with me.” I lifted my brow in a subtle challenge. A small smile flickered at the corner of Valtic’s mouth.

“I was never angry with you,” Valtic said roughly. “I was angry that you were allowed to walk around the city alone. So, if you still have business in the city, allow me to escort you.”

“All right,” I smiled. “Let me put on a disguise.”

“I’ll wait for you by the door.”

I slipped into the closet. This time, I picked out a shimmery metallic dye in an attempt to make myself look like a female Shein. That was the go-to look for the other human women when they left the ship. Once my exposed skin was perfectly dyed, I darkened my hair with chocolate-colored powder. The final touch was a smattering of tattoos. As I picked up the delicate brush and pot of black ink, I paused. Suddenly, I had a wonderful idea.

I opened the closet door. Valtic leaned against the opposite wall, arms folded over his chest.

“Let me see your face,” I said to him.

“What?” he blinked in surprise.

“I want my fake tattoos to look right,” I explained. Something about that amused him. He smirked as he walked over to me. He leaned down so his face was level with mine. Looking between his face and the mirror, I carefully copied his tattoos across my own cheekbones.

“How do they look?” I asked.

He gently took my chin in his hand to hold me still while he scrutinized my handiwork. I didn’t expect him to touch me. My breath caught in my chest.

“Impressive work.” Valtic nodded in approval. He released my chin. I felt a little breathless but forced myself to snap out of it.

“Let’s go before the shop closes,” I said quickly.

Valtic retrieved a new security code from Captain Dejar and together, we stepped out into the city. It was later in the day than last time. Katzul’s neon lights illuminated the damp streets. Puddles glowed as hundreds of feet sloshed through them.

Luckily, the store I’d purchased from the day before was still open. I acquired another bag filled to the brim with medical goodies.

Since we were in no particular hurry, Valtic and I strode casually through the city. I didn’t feel the need to look over my shoulder for those bastards that attacked me yesterday. I knew that as long as I was with Valtic, I was untouchable.

“What do the tattoos mean?” I asked after we’d been walking a while.

“It depends,” Valtic replied. Truth be told, I hadn’t expected him to give a straight answer, or any answer, for that matter.

“On what?” I asked. “If I’m borrowing their design, I feel like I should know what they mean. It’s not insulting that I copied your tattoos, is it?” I gasped, embarrassed that I only just now considered it.

“No.” Valtic didn’t quite chuckle. The noise he made was a cross between a sigh and a laugh. Subtle, reserved, but it still reflected humor. What was it about him that made me pay such close attention to his body language? It’s like I was eager to pick up every little bit of information about him that I could. He was like a puzzle, but instead of neatly cut pieces, he was made up of mismatched fragments.

“I think it’s flattering that you wanted to copy my tattoos,” Valtic continued. “I was very selective with the designs. It took me almost five years to have them finished to my liking.”

“Wow.” I nodded in appreciation. “They must be important.”

“Very,” he replied. “A Shein’s tattoos can mean a great many things. It depends on what the Shein in question wants to celebrate in their life.”

“What are you celebrating?” I felt so greedy asking such personal questions. Aside from the lecture I received yesterday, I’d never heard Valtic talk this much.

“I’ve dedicated my arms to my family, going back hundreds of years.” He extended his arms. I leaned close to get a good look at the intricate designs. “Each larger symbol represents a clan member.”

“Are they in your native language?”

“Sort of,” he explained. “We have a proper alphabet that you’ll find in our books, but we have an entirely different system of symbols used only for our tattoos. We have to be fluent in order to receive our tattoos. It takes about a Shein year of studying.”

“That’s incredible.” I meant it. “Now I feel silly for wearing symbols on my face without understanding them.”

“On your face, you have my favorite places in Dominion space.”

“How many?” I asked.

“Thirty or so,” he shrugged.

“You’ll have to tell me all about them sometime.” I smiled up at him.

“You can see them all for yourself on that map in Dejar’s office.”

“That’s not as fun as listening to someone’s stories.” Valtic looked like he wasn’t sure what to say. Before he got the chance to say anything at all, we heard someone shouting.

“You!” A high, scratchy voice bellowed. At first, neither of us thought anything of it. It was a crowded city, after all. “Stop! I’m talking to you!”

A green hand wrapped around Valtic’s arm. His expression turned hard as stone as he whirled around, ready to throw a punch.

“Itair?” he sputtered in confusion and stayed his hand.

“You were in my house yesterday!” He pointed at Valtic with a shaking hand. “You know Dejar. You can help me.”

“What’s the matter?” I asked. Now that I was getting a look at the infamous Itair, he was not what I’d expected. I always imagined him to be more imposing.

“We can’t talk here. It’s not safe,” he hissed, spittle flying everywhere. I discreetly wiped at the wet spot on my cheek.

“I can take you back to your residence,” Valtic offered, though he didn’t sound happy to do so. “However, Captain Dejar should be present for all discussions.”

“No!” Itair’s piggy eyes went wide. “My house is being watched, it’s been attacked!”

“By who?” Valtic demanded.

“I don’t know! But I know someone’s keeping tabs on me. Take me to your ship,” he demanded.

“You’re being watched and you want me to take you to my ship?” Valtic repeated with a look of disbelief. He shook his head and reached for my hand to lead me away. Sensing Valtic was about to leave him in the lurch, Itair panicked. He grabbed Valtic by the shirt with both hands.

“I don’t recommend doing that,” I advised Itair, but he ignored me.

“I have information your captain wants,” Itair hissed to Valtic. “I will tell you everything I know about The Terror in exchange for protection.”

“Why should I believe you?” Valtic forcibly removed Itair’s hands from his shirt.

“I was under the impression you wanted to do something about the Enclave,” Itair replied. “If you want to stop them, you’ll bring me to your captain.”

“Fine,” Valtic said gruffly. “But one wrong move and I will make you wish Enclave found you.”

Valtic

Itair’s hysterics were quite bothersome. Just as I had been beginning to grow comfortable around Lynna, our portly benefactor on this planet rushed up begging for assistance. His incessant hiss to make us move faster irritated me to the point of homicidal thoughts. I imagined wrapping my hands around his fat throat and squeezing until it popped, spraying blood and flesh all over my arms and chest. The darkness sung in my veins, coaxing me, urging me on.

“Why are we not walking faster?” he hissed behind me. Desperation emanated from that hiss. “Did you not hear me? I’m being watched!”

Lynna put her hand in mine, causing me to look down at her in confusion. She smiled up at me and winked, then turned her head to look at Itair. “That’s why we’re walking so slow. If your watchers are keeping an eye on you now, then they’ll follow you, and us, right back to the ship. We’re taking our time so we can lose them.”

“Well, can’t we do that faster?” The despair was still in his voice, but the impatience and anger were not.

Lynna looked back up at me and mouthed, “It’s okay. Stay calm.”

I nodded and turned us down a small side street. It wasn’t as crowded as the main streets, which allowed us to pick up our pace slightly. I turned us down another street, then another, and then into a small store.

“Why are we in here?” Itair asked quietly.

“I’m thirsty and you’re buying,” I snapped as I grabbed three bottles of carbonated fruit drink out of a small cooling unit.

I placed them at the register and looked at Itair, my arms crossed. With a roll of the eyes and a shake of the head, he pulled out some coins, paid for the drinks, and grabbed the bag. I smiled at him, keeping it as cool and friendly as possible, then led them out the back entrance which was connected to another side street. This one was packed with various vendors preparing for the nighttime celebration of some random celebrity’s birthday or some such thing.

We made our way through the crowd, Lynna’s hand comfortably in my own as I gently pulled her along behind me. Itair followed closely, almost tripping over himself in his zeal to push us faster. After another few side streets and one short trip on a passing trolley, we were close to the docks.

“Stay close, but try to look casual,” I said quietly. Lynna gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and Itair nodded impatiently. With a slight huff of impatience, I took them back to the ship. As we stepped through the doorway, I turned around to survey the docks, to see if anyone stood out. The only people I saw on the docks were the people we’d passed, but I still wasn’t comfortable.

“Stay here,” I said, putting my finger on Itair’s chest. “I don’t trust you at all. So you stay here until the captain arrives.” Without waiting for a response, I turned to Shar. “Tell Captain Dejar and Commander Aavat that I’ve returned with company. They are needed here immediately.”

With a nod, Shar got onto the communicator. As he was speaking, I turned to Lynna. “Thank you.”

I seemed to have caught her by surprise, because her head tilted a bit as she asked, “For what?”

“For helping me to maintain my composure back there,” I answered. I jerked my head towards Itair. I wasn’t sure how she’d done it, but her presence had once again beaten back the haze, allowed me to regain control. “If he has information, it will be useful for him to be on-board.”

She smiled up at me. “No problem. Care to help me take this bag to the med bay?”

Of course I did. I’d be happy to help her with anything she asked for. But my responsibility was here, with Itair. “Unfortunately, I cannot. I need to stay here in order to safeguard our ‘guest.’ I can have one of the men aid you, if you wish,” I offered.

“It’s okay. And thank you, too,” she said.

Now it was my turn to be surprised. “For what?”

“For escorting me and telling me about yourself. It was nice,” she smiled. There was an old human saying that I had found in my research. Something about a person’s smile lighting up a room or some such thing. I had thought it was nonsense, but just now, when she smiled, it seemed as if the entire cargo bay was brighter. She reached out and gave my arm a light squeeze, then walked away.

Within moments, Dejar, Aavat, and Kovor all stepped through one of the inner doorways. As a unit, they stopped dead in their tracks. “Wh-what is this?” Aavat asked, pointing towards Itair.

I held up a hand to stay Itair’s words. “You don’t talk, not yet,” I growled, making sure my teeth were visible. I turned back towards the men.

“This…person came running up to Lynna and me in the city, claiming that his house had been vandalized and that he was being followed. He demanded that I bring him here to see you, sir.”

Dejar looked between Itair and me, then let out a deep sigh. “Bring him to my office, now.” He spun on his heel and walked away.

“You heard him,” I said as I grabbed Itair’s arm. I wasn’t nice in my grip as I dragged him along. We were all in Dejar’s office within minutes. They were sitting, I was standing by the door.

“Talk,” Aavat said.

Itair was still shaking, even now. “My home, my home, was broken into and vandalized. They destroyed my office. Most of my artwork was destroyed, my statues broken, my desk…” he was starting to hyperventilate. “My desk was—was—was, they wrote on my desk, gouged a giant scratch into it. That desk is ancient, an antique. It’s worth more than your ship!” He was near hysterics.

Aavat, with a smile I hadn’t known he could produce, walked behind Itair and poured a glass of water over his head.

“Aah!” Itair yelled.

“Pull yourself together,” Aavat said. “We get it, your office and your home were invaded. Someone has freaked you out. You need help. Now, talk to us. Why should we help you?”

“I can tell you about The Terror, and Enclave.”

“I thought you didn’t know anything,” Dejar commented mildly. “You were really quite insistent about that when we visited you.”

“I was lying,” Itair sputtered, looking around, finally fixing on Kovor, who leaned casually against the wall. Most people would probably think he had the most sympathetic ear of our group. “I didn’t have a choice, you can understand that, can’t you?”

Kovor raised one eyebrow, and for a moment, let the Shein behind the mask show. He wasn’t nearly as unaffected by all this as he’d made out.

“I know more about making choices than you might think. What do you want to tell us now, and why should we believe anything you say?”

“The women, the ship brings them to different places, drops them off at different locales for Enclave to sell,” Itair answered.

“We already know all that,” Dejar responded.

“How?”

“Through some work of our own. We already know what Enclave does, and we’ve already figured out that The Terror is the ship they use for transport. What we don’t know is why?” Dejar leaned forward in his chair. “Is there anything you can tell us about why they do what they do?”

“They’re seen as pets.”

That got a reaction from all of us.

We’d all suspected what was going on. The galaxy wasn’t a nice place. It didn’t take much to imagine for what purposes group after group of scared women were being auctioned.

Still, it was different to hear someone mention it so matter of factly.

“They’re seen as what?” Kovor asked, face neutral.

Itair looked back at Kovor. “Pets. Can I have something to drink, please?”

Aavat grunted, poured water into the glass he’d emptied over Itair’s head, and handed it to him. Itair’s hands shook terribly as he tried to drink.

Quickly, Aavat grabbed the glass back. “Calm down. You need to take a deep breath.”

“How can I calm down? They broke into my home. What if I had been there when it happened? What would they have done to me if I had been there?”

“They, who?” I asked.

He turned to look at me. “I don’t want to say, not yet, not until I’m sure of my thoughts. But,” he forced himself to breathe deeply, to calm himself down. “If they were able to get past my security and to do what they did, I can only imagine what they would do to me.” He turned back to Dejar. “I promise you, I have information. I do.”

“Okay. Can you tell me?”

“Exotic women are wanted as status symbols, as trophies, as…” he let out a deep sigh. “They’re looked at as simple possessions. The rarer, the newer the world, the better. Some of the people that purchase them eventually make them part of their entourage, paying them. Some…some use them as labor, entertainment, or…” he stopped talking and looked at the floor.

The mental image of Lynna came all too easily to mind. “As what?” I growled as I stepped closer to him. Aavat held up his hand to stall me while Kovor stepped in front of me.

“Easy,” he whispered. “You can break him later if he’s lying, I promise.”

I nodded. Itair’s eyes were wild looking, wide as I had ever seen. I flashed him my most feral smile and he turned around as quick as he possibly could.

“I suggest you answer him,” Dejar said.

Itair’s head nodded so vigorously, I thought it was going to fall off. “Sometimes the women are used for other forms of entertainment, as well.”

“You mean, they’re…” Aavat started.

“I do,” Itair interrupted.

“Okay,” Dejar said in a voice so low I wondered if I had imagined it. “What can you tell us about their operation? Everything you’ve told us so far, we’ve already figured out. We need viable information that we haven’t had yet.”

“I know where The Terror docks when it’s on Katzul,” he said quickly. “You can get information from it there, right? Where it’s been, where it makes deliveries to. Who owns it.”

That was information we didn’t have.

We didn’t know anything about their operation outside of The Terror acting as a delivery ship. We didn’t even know yet who their clients were, exactly, except that they were of the upper aristocracy, or at least the obscenely rich.

There would be records. Who came in, something.

“Where?” Dejar asked.

“There’s a dock on the other side of the city. Not very many people of the general populace know about it, so it’s easy to dock there when you have more…sensitive…cargo that you want delivered. There’s a certain dockmaster that works with the ship. He’s their inside man.” Itair sniffled, eyes still rolling in fear.

Interesting.

“And this dock? It’s where, exactly?” Aavat asked.

I settled in for a long period of interrogation, sifting lies from truth.

Suffice it to say, I didn’t sleep much that night.

Lynna

I’d always been a naturally curious person. The creature that had accosted Valtic and me when we were shopping had been so afraid.

Such a contrast to what I’d heard about Itair from Kalyn and Shenna. He’d been gregarious, proud, vain. Smug in his castle in the sky.

No longer. There was a mystery there.

The next morning, I couldn’t help but linger near Dejar’s office in hopes of catching a bit more information, clues to the puzzle.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kalyn startled me. I hadn’t heard her come up behind me. My hand flew up to my chest.

“You scared me!” I whispered frantically.

“You mean I interrupted your eavesdropping,” Kalyn smirked.

“They’re all in there with Itair. I want to know what’s going on. He was in such a state when he ran up to us.”

“He could’ve been putting on an act,” Kalyn warned, eyes narrow with suspicion.

“Possibly. But I don’t think so,” I said decisively.

“You always want to believe the best in everyone.” Kalyn smiled and shook her head.

I laughed. “Which is why you’re the commander and not me.”

“If you want to know what’s going on, I can find out for you,”

“You’d do that?”

“I’m the commander,” Kalyn shrugged. “Plus, I’m in bed with the captain.” With a wink, she disappeared into the office.

Shaking my head, I decided to go to the dining hall for a cup of coffee. Having Itair on board made me so uneasy that I’d barely gotten any sleep the night before, and the lack of sleep dragged on me.

The fact that he had any connection at all to the auctions, that he profited from them, didn’t sit well with me. All Itair had to do was say the word and Enclave would be all over this ship, dragging every human woman on board out by her hair.

Every creak and bump I heard in the night had startled me awake. Usually, on nights when sleep evaded me, I’d get out of bed and walk around the ship.

Last night, the invisible villains I kept imagining kept me firmly in my room.

Kalyn must have known I’d go to the dining hall. She walked in right as I finished my cup of coffee.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Is Itair going to sell us out?”

“Dejar and Aavat don’t seem to think so,” Kalyn replied.

“What do you think?”

“I dislike that slimy bastard, but I don’t think he’s smart enough to be a spy for Enclave,” she said decisively. “He’s a coward. His loyalty will always be to himself. Right now, he believes that his best chance of survival lies with us. As long as we make sure he continues to believe that, we’re safe.”

“How does Valtic feel about him?”

“Oh, Valtic wants to kill him,” Kalyn laughed.

“That’s not surprising,” I chuckled.

“He’s also going to investigate a dockmaster Itair told them about.”

I furrowed my brow. “What?”

“Apparently, The Terror works with a specific dockmaster to gain entry to the port unnoticed. It’s a secret port on the other side of the city that most of the residents don’t even know about.”

“And Valtic’s going to check it out?” I prompted.

Kalyn nodded.

“Who’s going with him?” I asked.

“He’s going alone. He convinced Dejar that he’ll draw less attention if he goes alone.”

“Where is he?”

“Probably in his office, why?” Kalyn asked, but I was already up and making my way toward the door.

“Thanks for telling me,” I called over my shoulder.

No one else would argue with him.

No one else seemed to see how close to the edge he was.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to convince him to bring me along, but I couldn’t let Valtic go alone. I’d seen the lengths he’d go to to do his job.

My throat tightened. He didn’t care an ounce for his own well-being.

He needed someone to watch his back, to be there if he got hurt while playing the hero.

Valtic didn’t answer my knock right away. I was just about to leave and look for him elsewhere when he opened his door.

“Lynna?” He looked confused, glanced down the corridor as if looking for something pursuing me. “Is there a problem? Is everything well?”

“I’m fine.” I hesitated. “I was just wondering why you’re going to find that dockmaster alone.”

“How did you find out about that?” he sighed, and I gave him a pointed look. “You sent Kalyn in as your spy, didn’t you?”

“She offered,” I shrugged, without a shred of guilt.

“I’m almost impressed.” The ghost of a smirk appeared on his mouth.

“Only almost?” I lifted a brow. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Do I have to?”

“I’m not going to leave until you do.”

“I can always shut my door.”

“Then I’ll just stand here until you come out,” I said. “Maris will bring me a chair.”

“And if I never come out?”

“You’ll miss your appointment at that dock. Besides, are you really going to starve to death just to avoid answering my question?”

“No, I just wanted to see how long I could keep that exchange going,” he grinned.

“Did you just make a joke?” I gasped, hand to my chest in exaggerated response. Good grief, he was handsome when he smiled. Maybe it was for the best it didn’t happen too often. I wouldn’t get anything done.

“It was an attempt,” he admitted. “Probably not a very good one.”

“I might die of shock,” I laughed. “I didn’t know you could joke.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“Like why you’re thinking of going to meet this mysterious dockmaster alone,” I prompted. “Don’t try to distract me. It won’t work.”

“I think it’s the safest option,” he explained.

“For who? Certainly not for you!”

“For everyone else. It’s better for a single person to endanger themselves than two, three, or four.”

“Perhaps, but I think you need backup. What if something happens? Are you going to just let the rest of the crew worry forever, not knowing? Or keep sending people after you? Are they going to go in blind?”

“Are you a tactical expert now?” he tilted his head to one side.

“I’m a common-sense expert. I used to make good money off people’s lack of common sense.”

“Well, I have plenty of that, so I don’t need a consultation.” He tried to close the door, but I held my hand out.

“Answer me this,” I said. “Why did you go with me to pick up medical supplies?”

“Because Katzul can be dangerous.”

“Exactly. Now tell me why you don’t need an escort,” I prompted.

“Katzul’s not dangerous for me.” This time his grin was feral. And still made my knees weak.

“What’s your plan when you get there?” I asked.

“I have ways of getting others to talk. People usually start talking once they realize I can easily kill them.”

“What if he’s not alone?”

“I’ll handle whoever he’s with.”

“And if they have weapons?”

“I’ll handle that, too.”

“How?”

“This might come as a shock to you,” Valtic sighed. “But I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m quite good at this sort of thing. I don’t think I have to justify or explain myself in order to do the things I’m good at.”

“It’s not that I doubt your abilities,” I said quickly. “I’m just asking you to be open to the fact that there might be a better way to go about this.”

Valtic said nothing. He looked at me with an odd expression, somewhere between amusement and annoyance. At least he was listening. I took the fact that he hadn’t slammed the door in my face as a good sign.

“Aren’t you going to ask?”

“I’m sure you’re going to tell me, no matter what I say.” He rested his forearm against the doorframe. His biceps muscle flexed as it supported his weight. I tried not to stare.

“I’m really good at talking,” I said.

“So I’ve noticed.” His eyes took on a soft quality. I knew he was mocking me, but not in earnest.

“I’m good at getting people to say things they don’t want to say,” I clarified. “Do you have any idea how many patients try to hide the truth from their doctor?”

“Hiding relevant information from a physician seems foolish,” Valtic agreed.

“It is. People tend to do it because they’re trying to preserve their pride,” I said, emphasizing pride.

Valtic’s eyes hardened again. I sighed, pushing my fingers through my hair. “Look, I’m not leaving until you agree to take me with you. Can’t you just agree and save us both some time?”

Now it was Valtic’s turn to heave a big sigh. He looked me up and down for what felt like ages.

“If I take you, can you keep quiet if need be?”

“Yes.”

“Are you okay with what I did to those thugs that chased you?”

“Yes.”

“Will you be alright if I have to do something like that again?” Strange. An odd note of worry threaded through his voice.

“Absolutely,” I nodded.

“Will you do what I tell you, and stay safe?”

“Probably.”

“Fine,” he huffed. “You can come.”

“Glad you’re seeing reason,” I smiled. “I’ll get changed and meet you at the main door.”

“Right,” Valtic sighed.

Within fifteen minutes, I waited by the door with shimmery silver skin. Valtic appeared a few moments later in full tactical gear and armed to the teeth.

“That’s a good look on you,” I grinned. “You look very comfortable.”

He rolled his eyes but I didn’t miss the faint smile.

“Let’s get this over with.”

Qal had pulled the Skimmer around for us. Valtic took the pilot seat and I climbed in beside him. He shut off all the exterior lights and directed us up into the night.

The Skimmer wasn’t a quiet vehicle, so we didn’t talk on the way to this mysterious dock. Not that Valtic would’ve wanted to talk in the first place. I thought I’d exhausted his word supply for the day. As we drove, I wondered why he put up with my incessant questioning, why he’d given in to my request to come along.

We rode in the Skimmer for an hour until Valtic gently brought us down out of the sky. We came to a stop in some kind of abandoned lot. Up ahead, I could just make out the outline of the port entrance against the dark sky.

I let Valtic take the lead as we cautiously approached, blending right into the shadows when we could. He found a decent vantage point to survey the area, silently directing my gaze to a lone figure wandering the dock. Valtic reached for one of his many weapons, but I stilled his hand.

“We don’t need a fight, we need information,” I spoke under my breath. “I’m going to distract him. You find something useful.”

Before Valtic could argue, I stood up and walked into plain sight. My hips swayed and I tossed my hair, making it obvious in the darkness that I was a female.

I had no solid plan, but anything would be better than Valtic pushing himself to an extreme to get what we needed.

Valtic

Of all the…she walked away from me before I could stop her. She was going to get herself killed. I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to stay hidden in the shadows.

If I was seen trailing after her, it would raise the dockmaster’s suspicions and he would more than likely call for security, ending any and all chances for us to get any information.

And Lynna would be in even more danger.

How had I let her talk me into this?

Because apparently, I had a terrible time telling her no about anything.

Moving quickly and quietly, I unstrapped a small, compact rifle from my leg, unfolded it, and lined up the scope.

Before Lynna got to the man, I had his head in my sights.

My teeth ground as she called to him playfully, her hips swaying suggestively. He stopped and turned towards her, like anyone but a blind man would have done.

She was flirting with him, playing with her hair as she talked to him.

I struggled to make out their conversation, but I heard her giggle and in an odd, high voice say “Oh, my. You’re so big,” as she turned him around.

My finger twitched. No one would notice or miss him if he was gone.

Except, someone might.

Too bad that, while Lynna might not mind me thrashing an attacker to pieces in front of her, she’d probably have something to say about a spray of brain matter on her dress.

Quite possibly several things to say.

I could see her. She was safe.

The mantra eased the rage, made it easier to stay my hand and move closer in the shadows. I noticed the ring of keys on his waist, the metallic clipboard in his hand, and the overwhelming stench of sweat, liquor, and lack of bathing emanating from him. He must be the dockmaster we were looking for.

How Lynna was able to stay that close to him without retching impressed me.

She was amazing.

I still wanted to rip off his arm and beat him to death with it when he reached out and touched her cheek.

She was safe. She wanted to play the game this way.

Until she wasn’t safe, I’d back her up.

My heart was pounding, and my finger twitched so badly I had to keep it away from the trigger of my rifle.

She giggled and ran her hand down his chest. My hands itched to rip him into tiny little pieces. I forced my breathing to slow down, forced my mind to clear. I couldn’t afford to let myself be caught up by what she was doing.

What she was doing was smooth talking and flirting with him, keeping him distracted. I crept closer, now only a few feet behind them.

“So, you’re in charge of all this?” I heard her ask, sounding awed at the grandeur of this run-down dock.

“That’s right.” He waved his arm to indicate the entire facility. “I run this whole thing. Lots of folks pay a pretty penny to have my discretion.” He smiled down at her and cupped her face in his hand. She played off a slight shake of revulsion as a fascinated shiver.

“You must know so many interesting people.” Lynna’s eyes widened. “Do you have holos with them or autographs? Why don’t you show me your office?” She put extra play into her voice, and it worked.

He was hooked.

With a smile and a grunt, he led her to the office. Keys jangling, he unlocked the door and walked in.

Lynna followed, leaving the door open an almost unnoticeable crack.

I snuck as close as I dared and waited, listening to their voices inside as he showed her his office, explaining what was done in there.

She did a great job of playing along and sounding impressed, answering all his comments with ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs.’ When he suggested they go into a private room in the back, she giggled again. “Oh, you dirty man.”

His growl of excitement brought me to attention. I was about to bust through the door and twist his head off, but I stopped with my hand on the doorknob.

I had to trust her. I had to let her do what she was doing.

But every single minute that passed made it harder to fight the rage. We needed to be done with this mission, I needed to get her back onto the Rogue Star, and she’d never, ever leave it again.

No matter how prettily she asked.

Their voices faded and I heard a door close from inside. I snuck in quietly. The office was a verifiable disaster area. Three desks, a couple of tables, and half a dozen chairs furnished the room, while several bulletin boards adorned the walls. To my left was a small kitchenette and the door to a relieving room. In front of me was one desk, the cleanest of the three. It was organized, decorated with pictures of family, and the small vase of flowers in the left corner looked fresh and well-maintained.

While I knew many men that were clean and organized, there weren’t many that I knew who would willingly place flowers on their own desk. And the man Lynna had led away was anything but organized. Obviously not the property of our target.

To my right was another desk, surrounded by three tables. The board on the wall behind the desk was filled with what looked like manifests, schedules, and cargo lists. The third desk, the one close to the door that Lynna and the dockmaster must have used, was the messiest of them all, and it also had a small placard on it with the dockmaster’s name and title.

I approached that desk as quietly as I could, refolding and reholstering my rifle as I did. The top of the desk resembled a war-torn recovery site, papers everywhere. Mixed in with the papers were folders, stationery items, and what looked to be various bills and invoices.

I cycled through the contents quickly, discarding anything that didn’t match what I was looking for. Nothing on the desk looked like what I needed, so I turned my attention to the drawers of the desk. They were locked, but I felt a small button under the edge. I slowed down and forced myself to look at the desk itself. It hit me that the desk he was using was identical to my own. That button that I had found was a universal unlock button for all the drawers in the desk.

I also knew that by pressing that button, the drawers would unlock in rapid succession, the noise of which would sound like a short burst of fire from a weapon. I couldn’t push the button, and I couldn’t break it open, so I was forced to pick the lock. Luckily, I had been forced to pick the lock on my own desk so many times that I could do it with my eyes closed.

I unlocked the upper right drawer and searched through it. At the bottom of the drawer was a folder, and upon opening it, my hopes soared and crashed in less than an eyeblink. It was a collection of invoices for ships that weren’t listed on any of the boards, but there was no mention of The Terror on any of the sheets.

I dropped the folder on the desk and moved on to another drawer. The conversation inside infuriated me, but there was something different in the tone. His was becoming a little more insistent, hers a bit more restrained. In the second drawer, I found another file with invoices, manifests, and delivery schedules for more ships not on the boards. Either these were older deliveries, or the dockmaster ran an impressive illegal service here.

It was in the third drawer that I found what I wanted.

But it wasn’t much.

One sheet, with what we’d started calling the sigil of Enclave at the top.

Below it, a long column of dates, each matched with a different mark. Five of them, mixed and repeated in no order I could recognize.

Some sort of code. The marks were familiar. With a flash, I recognized one. The one that had been branded on the bounty hunter’s wrist.

I turned my attention back to the desk, hoping to find some sort of source book for the rest of the marks.

Just as I was closing the final drawer, the tone from inside the back room changed. His voice grew loud and angry. It was apparent that he had expected things from Lynna, and she had refused.

“You dare come here and flirt with me, then don’t deliver?” I heard him growl. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as a small snarl escaped my lips. “I could dump your body in the far corner of the docks, and no one would care. You would just be another used-up whore that died,” I heard him say. “But, instead, I’m going to have you arrested for propositioning a city official. It’ll be more fun to watch you on trial.”

Lynna started to say something, but her voice faded into the background as he thundered through the door.

He saw me standing at his desk, my hand hovering over one of my weapons.

He started to reach under his jacket just as Lynna came out of the room behind him.

She was safe and I had what we wanted.

Finally, I didn’t have to be restrained.

Lynna

I hurried after the dockmaster, tempted to call out something seductive, try to buy Valtic more time, but I knew that battle was already lost.

Somehow, I’d managed to avoid letting that greasy dockmaster touch any more of my painted skin, but I still wanted a shower. Many, many showers.

When I stumbled into the main office, I froze.

Valtic stood, shoulders squared, facing the dockmaster, his hand hovering above one of his guns. His face was a hardened mask of pure aggression.

It was hard to believe I was looking at the same sweet man who told me all about his tattoos yesterday.

This was Valtic when the rage he held within broke free.

The dockmaster stood with his back to me, his hand poised over a weapon hidden beneath the greasy leather flap of his long jacket.

“Do you think you can outshoot me?” the dockmaster snarled.

“I know I can.” Valtic grinned, but no light reached his eyes. “For your sake, you should leave while you have the chance.”

The dockmaster had the audacity to laugh. “Give me one good reason not to splatter your brains all over my schedule board.” He gestured to a film-covered board mounted on the wall.

“Who do you think The Terror crew is going to blame when they realize you were keeping confidential information in such a public place?” Valtic gestured to the room around him. “How much are they paying you? Is it worth your life? Is it worth the lives that are lost to that ship?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the dockmaster sneered dismissively. “There ain’t no ship by that name.”

“Right. The files on the table belong to a different ship called The Terror,” Valtic scoffed.

The dockmaster must have seen something I didn’t, realized something important was out of place. “If you walk out that door, my life is over,” he insisted. It was a hollow, desperate sound. “It’s an easy choice on my part.”

“We can offer you protection.” Valtic’s offer caught me off guard. I felt ashamed that I hadn’t considered it myself.

It made sense. We were already offering Itair protection. Perhaps more people needed to be saved from Enclave or The Terror than just the women they auctioned off.

“You can’t protect me,” the dockmaster growled. “If you think that’s an option, you don’t understand what’s going on. No one is safe from them.” His hand moved for the weapon in his jacket.

He wasn’t going to take Valtic’s offer.

He thought there was only one way to save his own life.

Well, I was going to do whatever I needed to protect Valtic’s.

I pulled a narrow syringe filled with a sedative potent enough to keep a Shein male unconscious for a day from my pocket.

I wasn’t sure what it was going to do to the dockmaster. Hell, I didn’t even know what species the dockmaster was.

But it was him or Valtic. The choice was easy.

I pulled the syringe out of my pocket and removed the protective cap over the needle. In one step, I was directly behind the dockmaster’s exposed neck. I jabbed him quickly with the precision I’d exercise on any regular patient.

On a fully grown Shein, the sedative took about ten minutes to take effect. I’d tripled the dose. The dockmaster slipped into unconsciousness before he could turn around. I leaped back with a yelp as he crumpled to the floor.

“Please tell me I didn’t kill him,” I whispered more to myself than to Valtic. I crouched down beside the dockmaster and felt for a pulse. It occurred to me as I poked my fingers into his flabby neck that his veins probably weren’t located in the same place mine were. I pulled my hand away and watched for breathing instead. His breathing was slow, but steady.

I let out a sigh of relief.

Valtic gave me a strange look. He still looked furious. I saw the muscles in his jaw working. His hand gripped the hilt of his gun.

“You found something?” I asked, looked at the files opened on the desk. “You said confidential information.”

Valtic’s response was a curt nod.

“Are you all right?” I asked him.

Something was clearly going on in his mind. He was looking through me instead of at me, the grim expression on his face not softening, even though the threat was gone.

“This shouldn’t have happened,” he growled.

“You found useful information and no one died.” I drew my brows together in confusion. “Why don’t you consider this a success?”

Valtic opened and closed his fist over and over. I watched his chest rise and deflate as he tried to calm down. I couldn’t understand why he was so worked up in the first place. Everything had gone well, hadn’t it?

“Are you mad that I changed the plan without talking to you first?” I asked. “I know, it was stupid and risky. I was only trying to prevent an open firefight on the docks. If you’d gotten hurt, all of us back on the Rogue Star would be screwed.”

Valtic didn’t say anything to me. Instead, he started organizing the papers on the desk into a file for easy transportation, seething as he worked.

“I’m not intimidated by you,” I said suddenly. “You can be angry and look terrifying all you want but I’m not afraid of you. I will not apologize for doing what I felt I needed to do to make sure you made it back to the ship.”

“I don’t want you to be afraid,” Valtic said sharply.

“Then what do you want? You’re clearly angry.”

Valtic roughly slammed the folder’s cover and tucked it under his arm. Without another word, he stormed out of the office. I scrambled to keep up with him. I leaped over the unconscious dockmaster, accidentally kicking him in the head.

“Sorry!” I whispered to him.

The sedative occasionally affected short-term memory. With any luck, the dockmaster would never remember me, Valtic, or the information from the desk that we’d stolen.

I ran out of the office. Valtic waited for the space of just one breath, then walked briskly to the Skimmer in silence.

I wanted to shout to him to wait for me but there could’ve been more dockworkers lurking in the shadows. The thought alone made me shiver. Fear crept in on the outskirts of my consciousness, but I couldn’t let it get to me now.

I focused on Valtic’s shimmering bronze figure ahead of me. He was only a step ahead, I would be fine. He wouldn’t walk so far ahead that I’d lose him. Even if he was lost in rage, he wouldn’t leave me behind.

When we reached the Skimmer, Valtic swung me into the passenger seat, tucking my skirt around my legs with careful movements.

His hands were shaking, but still he said nothing.

I didn’t expect any conversation on the way back. Valtic glowered, unfazed by the ice-cold air whipping by. I hunched my shoulders and tucked my head down to hide from the cold.

The more I thought about Valtic, the more confused I became.

For a moment there, it seemed like we were becoming friends. He’d trusted me to go with him, to help with this. If he was angry about me going off script with the dockmaster, he would’ve said so when I asked, right?

It had to be something else, but if he refused to talk to me, I couldn’t help.

I jostled in my seat as Valtic landed the Skimmer. Qal was waiting for us.

“Put this away,” he barked at Qal as he jumped out of the Skimmer. Qal shook his head and walked over.

“Mission go wrong?” he asked me as he climbed into the pilot seat as I climbed out.

“No,” I replied. “It went well. I don’t know why he’s acting like this.”

“That’s just how he is.” Qal shrugged. “He’s the finest soldier I’ve ever encountered, but he’s also the biggest prick.”

“There’s more to him than that,” I said, anger driving away the cold. “Why does everyone say that?”

“If you say so.”

By the time I got back inside, Valtic was nowhere to be seen.

I was cold and tired, and wanted a shower. Hopefully somewhere on board was a bathtub.

I slumped against the corridor wall. Maybe Qal was right.

Maybe everyone was right.

I felt stupid for putting so much of my energy into Valtic’s well-being when he clearly didn’t want friendship. Or any kind of positive relationship.

Or any relationship at all.

As I walked back to my room, I decided that I wasn’t going to go out of my way for him anymore.

Not until he showed me that he was worthy of my kindness.

No matter how much the memory of that one dazzling smile still made my heart leap.

Valtic

I stormed off through the ship and made my way to Captain Dejar’s office. Kovor was on the bridge and gave me a questioning look. I nodded and held up the file to show that we had found something.

He turned his attention back to whatever he was working on. I would never entirely understand what his responsibilities were, and I didn’t wanted to. My job was to protect the people of the ship, not lead it, and I was comfortable with that.

I buzzed the captain’s office and the door opened. I entered to find that Dejar was not alone, Aavat was with him.

“You got something?” he asked.

I nodded. I walked over to the captain’s desk and placed the folder down. “Delivery schedules, locations, invoices, and other things that I haven’t had a chance to review. For a wide variety of ships. But not The Terror.”

“Why did you bring these?” Dejar leafed through the portfolio, tapping at a name here, a location there.

“It may not be vital intelligence to our current situation, but leverage is always useful.”

Aavat raised an eyebrow. “True. And until our situation becomes more regularized, it wouldn’t hurt to know who else is on the shady side of the Dominion.”

Dejar made a muffled noise, then handed Aavat a sheet. “Even if the raid was a bust on our primary target, this is good work. Thank you, Valtic.”

I pulled the film with the sigil of the Enclave from my jacket. “There was also this. But that was all that had the mark.”

The two ignored the stack that had moments ago been so interesting to study the single sheet.

“It’s Enclave, alright.” Dejar traced the oval sigil, the warped variation of the one worn proudly by officers of the Dominion.

“But what’s all this?” Aavat tapped one of the smaller marks that marched down the page in a column.

“I believe that is the mark that the bounty hunter Hurd wore, and that Kovor reported was used by the Enclave group on Qasar,” I answered.

Aavat frowned. “No, not that one, nor this.” He tapped another. “This one we found on the list of the women we rescued at Katzul. I’ve stared at them long enough to know either of those anywhere. This one.” He traced over a third mark and scowled. “I’ve seen it before. Maybe somewhere with Shenna?”

“A pet shop?” Dejar prodded. “Does she need a songbird to add to her collection?”

“That’s it!” Aavat snapped his fingers as Dejar groaned.

“No, that’s not it, I’m begging you.” Dejar covered his face. “No birds. It’s hard for me to ignore the rest of the menagerie. Strange birds flying around the ship would be impossible for me to deny knowledge of.”

“Not that,” Aavat grumbled, but refused to meet Dejar’s eye for a moment.

Scro.

There was already a bird somewhere on board, wasn’t there.

“But the songbird. The singer at the first auction that Shenna and I stumbled into. She wore a thing around her neck.” He waved at the area of his collarbone, at a loss for the word.

“A pendant, sir?” I ventured.

“One of those,” he nodded. “And this mark was on it.”

Out of the five marks, we’d seen three somewhere. I still couldn’t decipher an order to them, they seemed to repeat down the column at random.

“Was that the date of the auction?” I wondered to myself.

Aavat quickly checked through all the dates that seemed to match with the symbol he’d seen.

Quick fire ran through me, perhaps we’d solved a piece of the endless puzzle. Lynna would be excited to hear about the results of the night’s work, and—

The sight of the dockmaster reaching for her chin flashed before me again, stirring my temper. I wouldn’t, shouldn’t be speaking to Lynna again. Not anytime soon.

“No, none of them are right,” Aavat dashed my hopes. “This one is close, but a few days too early.”

Forcing the thoughts of Lynna away, I refocused on the paper. “This one.” I returned to the mark of the Qasar group. “What was the date that Kovor and Aryn were taken to pick up the women they rescued?”

Hurriedly Dejar consulted his logs, then we checked the possible dates.

Not the first. Nor the second.

“There. Right there.”

On one row, the mark of the group Skud had led matched the date the Merrmian women had been transferred off The Terror.

“It could be coincidence,” Aavat reminded.

“So many things with this whole disaster could be,” Dejar agreed. “Five marks. Three we’ve seen before. Different groups, maybe factions of Enclave?”

“Then there are two we haven’t run up against,” I realized. “Maybe it’s enough to give us a key to the code.”

Dejar traced the patterns again. “There’s something about these that seem too related to be random designs.” He turned to the wall. “Computer?”

“How can I be of assistance, Captain Dejar?” the computer’s voice asked. Qal must have adjusted the voice again, because it sounded like a child was speaking.

“Oh, for the love of…computer, adjust voice back to setting two-point-seven and, again, lock Qal out of your internal programming,” Dejar ordered. While his voice was filled with frustration, I firmly believed that it was more along the lines of friendly annoyance. Probably.

“Now, computer?”

“Yes, Captain?” the computer’s voice was a female one now, with hints of Kalyn’s inflections.

“Run a scan of this sheet here,” he ordered. “Translate the characters written on them.”

“Affirmative, Captain.” A small light shone down from the ceiling and ran over each sheet of paper three times in a matter of a few seconds. I counted eighteen heartbeats before the computer spoke again. “The symbols are of unknown origin, Captain. I do not have their translation within my database.”

And I’d found nothing that would give us a further clue.

My failure must have shown on my face, because Dejar quickly spoke up. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out. You’ve given us information we didn’t have.” He tapped the folder. “And this bonus bit of leverage, should we need it.”

“Yes, sir,” I said with a nod. He might have meant it, but it did nothing to ease the bone-deep sense of weariness. We’d risked, Lynna had risked, too much.

And for not enough reward.

Aavat looked at me as he opened the file again. “You look a little tired.”

“I am fine, sir. Just not a fan of driving the Skimmer.”

He chuckled. “A man after my own heart. I hate that thing, as well.”

I didn’t hate the Skimmer, it had its uses and was a reliable vehicle. My objection was the lack of windshield so it would be easier to pilot without having the wind in my face.

“You did good,” Dejar was saying. “Job well done.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Why don’t you get some rest? I don’t want you overexerting yourself.”

I bit back any reply. He was captain, and I was sure his job had its own complications and exertions.

My job was to do anything, everything, to maintain the safety of the ship and her crew. There couldn’t be a failure.

All that was left was compliance. “Of course not, sir.”

The both sat back and looked at me curiously. “Is everything all right?” Aavat asked.

I was confused. “Yes, sir. Why do you ask?”

“Because you just growled at him when you answered,” he explained. “What’s going on?”

“I apologize, sirs. If I did indeed growl, I certainly did not mean to.”

Aavat snorted. “You just did it again. You growled at us when you answered. You need to get some rest. I think you really are tired.”

“My apologies, sirs. Perhaps you are right.” I pivoted on my heel and began to walk out of the office, when a thought hit me. “Sirs?” I asked as I doubled back.

“What is it, Valtic?”

“Now that we have this information, is Itair of any further use to us?”

With a short release of breath, Dejar nodded. “As of now, yes. I believe that he still has useful information for us.”

“Then I will ask him.” I turned towards the door. “If he is of no further use, then he is a risk factor.”

“No, you will not. He needs…” Captain Dejar’s words were lost as the door closed behind me. I made my way to the room Itair had been given, ignoring my small communicator as it vibrated on my hip. I walked up to the door and, without bothering to knock or announce myself, I opened it and walked in.

He had been given one of the crew quarters that had been converted into a ‘guest’ room. The light blue paint inside was supposed to be calming. I didn’t find it successful.

Itair was sitting at a table, tablet in hand and a steaming drink at his side.

“What is this?” he asked as he looked up from his tablet.

I walked over and stopped right in front of him. If he wanted to stand, he would be forced to move the chair back in order to give himself enough room.

“I do not believe you have any further use to us. Captain Dejar is willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.” I leaned a bit further. “I am not. If you do not have information, you will be taken back to your tower, to await another visit from whoever redecorated for you.”

His eyes widened and he stammered.

“If you do have information, and do not tell us immediately…” I let my smile finish the sentence for me.

He coughed and stammered as he tried to answer, interrupted by his door opening again. “Valtic!”

I turned to see Dejar and Aavat both standing in the doorway. “What do you think you’re doing?” Dejar asked. He looked confused by my actions, Aavat glared at me.

“Simply asking our ‘guest’ a question, sir.”

“No, you’re disobeying a direct order,” Dejar snapped at me. “Itair is helping us, and he is not to be treated like a common criminal.”

“Sir, if he has no viable information to give us, then he is a liability and a potential problem for us. If he has nothing, then he should leave and deal with whatever troubles he has on his own.”

Aavat put his hand on Dejar’s shoulder as he opened his mouth. “He has a bit of a point. We’re not bodyguards.”

At Dejar’s nod, Aavat stepped further into the room. “Well, Itair? What is it? Do you have more information for us or not?”

I turned around before he could answer. “I want you to understand something before you answer. It is my job to ensure the safety and protection of this ship and her crew. I take that job very seriously. If I find out that you are lying to us or setting us up, I will personally cause you more pain than anyone else in the galaxy. Whoever you are afraid of,” my hand must have twitched, because he flinched away, “you should be more afraid of me.”

With a gulp, Itair nodded. “The Terror is supposed to dock here, in three days.”

Lynna

I know I told myself that I wouldn’t speak to Valtic unless he came around first, but two days had come and gone, and I’d only seen him once.

He passed me in the hall, not even looking at me. I might as well have been a support beam for all the attention he paid to me.

My rational attitude faded to annoyance and then was quickly replaced by anger. I couldn’t believe Valtic thought that kind of behavior was okay.

I’d done nothing except help him, ensuring he didn’t get shot, and he got the information he needed.

Yet, somehow, I was the asshole in this situation? I was the one pushed aside and ignored as if I’d slapped his mother or something. Unacceptable!

I lost my grip on the bottle of pain tablets I held. The lid popped off when the bottle hit the floor. Little white pills flew everywhere.

“Damn it!” I yelled, then quickly clamped my mouth shut. I rarely raised my voice in anger, it felt strange. Looking back, I couldn’t remember the last time it had happened. I’d screamed plenty of times since joining up with the Rogue Star, but those were involuntary.

With an intense frown that hurt my cheeks, I scooped up the scattered pills. Thankfully, the med bay was equipped with a station that dispersed a concentrated form of airborne disinfectant. Zayn always urged me to use it more often. He believed it was far more effective than liquid disinfectant, though we had plenty of that on board, as well.

I still preferred liquid disinfectant. It was easier to apply to a patient in their bed. I didn’t want to make them get up to stick whatever part of them was injured under the air jet. In this case, it was perfect for the spilled pills.

I cupped all of them in my hands and held them under the spritz of air. I didn’t know how long to leave them there, so after half a minute, I carefully tipped them all back into the bottle and returned them to where they belonged.

With a deep sigh, I congratulated myself. I’d gone a full two minutes without thinking about Valtic. A personal best. As thoughts of him and how pissed I was flooded me once again, I started on my next busywork task.

Today, I was going to sit down and write labels and descriptions for everything in my native language. At this point, it wasn’t necessary. I knew the function of every machine and medical substance in the med bay. However, writing out labels was better than sitting in my room or the dining hall, fuming.

I sat at my desk and began to prepare narrow strips of paper, forcing a grin on my face as I cut the paper in perfect, straight lines. This was good. I was doing something necessary and helpful—spending my time wisely. I was not thinking about Valtic. I was absolutely, on no uncertain terms, adamantly not thinking about Valtic. . .

. . .crap, I was thinking about Valtic.

The scissors and the stupid slips of paper clattered loudly on the steel table as I threw them down. Who cared if the labels were perfectly straight and even? I sure as hell didn’t. Not really. What I did care about was understanding what I’d done wrong to make Valtic shut me out so abruptly.

Valtic wasn’t going to come around and apologize for acting like a petulant child on his own. I decided that I would go talk to him. Maybe he needed me to approach him first. For all I knew, he was too ashamed of his behavior to talk to me. Or maybe I was just making excuses for him because every time he did that little smirk, my heart fluttered. Either way, something had to give. Looked like it was going to be me.

I stood up from the table, sending strips of paper fluttering to the floor. I stormed out of the med bay and made a beeline for Valtic’s office. On the way, I crossed paths with Kalyn.

“Are you okay, Lynna?” she called. “You look like you’re on the warpath.”

“I am,” I replied without breaking stride.

When I reached Valtic’s office, I slammed on the door with my fist so hard that Maris thought I’d knocked on the door to her workshop. She poked her head out.

“Lynna, do you need something?” she asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.

“Yes. Is Valtic in there?”

“I think so,” she shrugged. “I can’t imagine anywhere else he’d be this time of day. Or ever. Is everything okay?”

“It will be.” I squared my shoulders, ready to fight an opponent that had yet to show up, and banged on the door again. This time, it opened. Valtic stood in the doorway looking less than surprised. He must’ve known it was me. Who else regularly banged on his door?

“Do you have anything to say?” I blurted.

He stared at me with a blank expression, no emotion.

“Well, I do have something to say! Or rather ask. What is your problem?” I threw my hands up, letting my frustration get the better of my composure. Valtic continued to give me that blank stare.

“I’ll tell you what your problem is.” I jabbed a finger at his chest but didn’t touch him. “Your problem is that you have no idea how to treat another person! I went out in the dead of night to that shady, awful dock and talked to that shady, awful dockmaster so you wouldn’t have to risk your life to get the job done!” My voice rose with each word. Before I knew it, I was full-on yelling. At the moment, I was too angry to care.

“I did a nice thing for you! Do you understand that? I didn’t expect a ceremony in my honor, I didn’t expect my name on a plaque, or even a thank you! But I certainly didn’t expect for you to treat me like this after I tried to help you. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

I didn’t give Valtic enough time to answer, but in my defense, he didn’t look like he was going to say anything.

“No, you don’t! Because all you do is stand there in silence like a giant shiny tree or something!” All right, so that wasn’t the smoothest analogy, but I was flustered. What bothered me more than anything was his stubborn silence.

I wanted him kneeling at my feet, begging for forgiveness. Okay, well, maybe nothing that dramatic, but I wanted to know that my feelings mattered to Valtic. But why? Why did I give a damn? And why didn’t he care?

“Does anything I’m saying mean anything to you?” I exclaimed. “Do you even care that you’ve hurt me?”

I hated that he was able to hurt me. He was practically a stranger, he shouldn’t have that power. I was blown away by how wound up he got me.

I never acted like this.

I was the rational one, the reasonable one, the look-on-the-bright-side beacon of positivity and I’d worked damn hard to become that person.

And here I was, throwing it away because I cared so much about what this stubborn Shein male thought.

Then I realized, it wasn’t just his thoughts I cared about. It was him. I could handle people being angry with me, but I couldn’t handle him being angry at me because I cared about him.

Damn it.

“Right. You don’t care. Stupid of me to assume you would.” I reached for his door knob to close the door for him, but he stopped me.

“Of course I care,” he muttered, looking almost disgusted by the fact.

“What?” I lost my momentum.

“I care,” he repeated through clenched teeth. “And I don’t want you hurt. You shouldn’t be hurt.”

“Then why are you treating me like I’ve committed a mortal offense?”

“Because I don’t know how to handle the fact that I care,” he snapped. “When I saw you flirt and use all your charms on the dockmaster, it made my blood boil. I wanted to break his neck just for being allowed to be so close to you.”

“You know I was just pretending so you could get into the office, right?” I asked, my voice softer. It sounded weird to me after all the yelling.

“That doesn’t matter. I hated every moment of it. Now you know. Excuse me.” He placed his hand on my shoulder with more gentleness than I was expecting, then shifted me to one side and moved past me. He stalked down the hall, taking up almost its entire width. He didn’t look back once. I didn’t have the energy to go after him. He’d given me a lot to think about.

I could’ve called after him, but I didn’t. If I had, I would’ve shouted to him that I had feelings for him. Perhaps it was better this way. I’d only just realized I had these feelings and needed a moment to process them. Valtic didn’t look like he wanted to hear them, anyway.

A shuffling noise behind me drew my attention. I looked over my shoulder.

Maris and Orrin were practically hanging out of their workshop door.

“Did you enjoy the show?” I murmured.

“It was hard to ignore,” Maris winced.

“I must say,” Orrin laughed. “I’m impressed! No one’s spoken to Valtic like that since he joined the crew. I doubt he’s been spoken to that way in his entire life.” Maris gave Orrin a quick nudge in the ribs and gave me an apologetic smile.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded, though I didn’t feel it. “It’s a shame he walked off like that. If he’d stuck around, I would’ve told him I like him, too.”

Valtic

Despite my training, despite my oaths and willpower, despite my own drive to concentrate only on my work, I had come to care for someone more than as a coworker, more than as a member of the crew.

And I had just told her.

Scro.

What was I doing? Of all the insanely stupid things for me to do on this ship, how could I have developed feelings for her and then tell her?

She wouldn’t feel the same way. Why would she? She was incredibly beautiful, far too beautiful to be stuck out in the dirt and filth of space.

She deserved to be revered, honored, look upon with love and…she deserved to be in a better place than this, to be around better people than me.

The darkness that stained me, that turned and twisted my thoughts, shouldn’t be near her. Shouldn’t be allowed to touch her.

Her kindness was out of place here in the dregs of the cosmos. She cared for everyone, tried to be there for everyone…kopa, she tried to be there for me. I didn’t deserve her care, I didn’t deserve her feelings.

Well, except for her anger, I deserved that.

I stopped pacing the ship long enough to see that I had just gone through my twice-daily routine of verifying the ship’s safety.

I laughed at myself as I shook my head. Of course, I would walk my routine, what else was I to do? I had no friends aboard the ship. I had no one to talk to, or to drink with.

Umbba, I didn’t even drink.

What was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to return to Lynna and tell her my feelings, beg her for a smile? Why would she smile at me? I was a worthless, hideous, stupid monster. The only thing I was good for was looking after the ship, and they probably didn’t even need me for that.

Perhaps I should resign, leave, go back home to face. . .

“Kout!” I spat as I punched the wall. No one was around, but I heard some footsteps rapidly recede. It didn’t matter. Who cared if I was a fool? Who cared if I was an absolute idiot? Who cared…you know what? I didn’t care anymore. I had made a mistake. I could work through this, and I would.

I headed to the firing range we had on board. It wasn’t a real firing range, but it was enough.

I had programmed the ‘laser’ guns to be within point-zero-zero-zero-two percent of actual guns. The range was half the size of the cargo bay, set down in the bowels of the ship where Orrin hadn’t already monopolized space. It was a good way to practice, and to blow off my incredible amount of Lynna-liking stupidity.

Honestly, to think that she, the beautiful goddess she was, could ever develop feelings other than hatred, disgust, and annoyance towards me.

I stepped into the range and headed over to where the gear was. I grabbed a set of ear plugs, two handguns, a short rifle, a long rifle, and an automatic rifle before heading over to the computer and bringing up the program. The holographic cubes placed all over the walls and the ceiling came to life, giving me a long-range arena in which to shoot. I set the targets into motion, made sure they were placed on random, and then proceeded to double check the weapons.

I started with the handguns. I had made them, and programmed them, to work like real weapons, so I took them apart, put them back together, and set them aside. I kept part of my attention on the holographic field to my right, familiarizing myself with the layout, where my targets could hide, where they could move for an advantage, where they could move in order to try to trick me. I took each of the rifles apart, taking my time, making sure I did it right.

Once each of the weapons had been field checked, I walked to the back wall and took down a vest that was meant to simulate getting shot. The program I had opened up would simulate a battle. I set the vest to full, set the weapons in different places around the room, and grabbed the handguns.

I started with level one.

As I made my movements through the simulated arena, I kept my eyes and my senses as active as possible. A target to my left, then another just above the first. I dove, fired, and moved on. I had hit each target center mass. I moved on, knowing it was only a simulation, but letting my senses think it wasn’t.

I had done this simulation dozens of times, and even on random, I could anticipate the locations the computer would choose. I spent the next hour cycling through the first three levels. I had worked up a good sweat and hadn’t been hit once. I was still only using the handguns, a new best for me.

As level four started, the program switched to a cityscape filled with innocent people.

One almost looked like Lynna.

As I followed her with my eyes, I missed the target right in front of me. The hologram shot me. The vest simulated the gun shot with extreme realism. I hit the floor, gasping for breath, my chest on fire as the vest pressed against me where the gunshot would have hit.

A shot to the lower left lung, a shot that would have killed me. I would have bled out within minutes if it had been real.

“Simulation, level four, failed,” the computer announced.

“Restart simulation,” I ordered. Kouting thing had used a likeness of Lynna and it had cost me. I hadn’t lost on level four since I first installed the program. As soon as it restarted, putting me in a different place within the city, I got to work. I methodically maneuvered through the level, shooting most of my targets in the head.

My handguns ran out of programmed ammunition, so I was forced to switch to my short rifle. I switched it to short-burst mode, finished level four, and blitzed my way through level five.

My chest still hurt, my shoulders were sore from the recoil of the weapons, and I had been ‘shot’ in the leg. The vest sent a pulse through my original ‘chest wound’ that made me feel pain in my leg. The simulation got harder, giving me a level six that I had never faced before. My first run-through ended with me getting shot in the back four times, one in direct contact with my spine.

I’d let out a shout of pain as the ‘bullet’ struck, and another escaped as the other three hit me right after. I hadn’t thought to look behind me as the program was starting. It had never done that before.

As I restarted the level, I immediately dove to the side, brought my weapon to bear, and looked around. It was empty. There was nothing around me. As a matter of fact, the simulation ended.

“Computer?”

“How can I assist you, Major Valtic?” the computer asked.

“Why has the simulation ended?”

“Vital signs show elevated adrenaline levels, elevated pulse, and a bruised lung. Health restrictions have been enacted.”

Umbba. “Reset the system, adjust health restrictions, and restart simulation,” I ordered.

“Unable to comply. Health protocols dictate that you seek medical attention immediately. Would you like me to contact Doctor Lynna Forgrave?”

“No,” I shouted. Then, more calmly, “No. I’m fine. Cancel simulation, post results to my personal tablet.”

“Affirmative, Major.” With that, my time on the range was over. Scro! Why did the simulation have to stop? Why did the computer have to use Lynna as a likeness? Why was I still affected by that woman?

I wanted to scream. I wanted to break things. In order to control my breathing and to try to calm my adrenaline, I decided to field check the weapons once again. I did it through muscle memory, barely paying attention to what was going on.

As I got to the short rifle, I was so distracted by my feelings that I slipped. My hand missed as I shoved the barrel back into place, cutting it deeply.

I stuck the heel of my hand in my mouth, sucked down the blood, and cursed myself.

I was acting like a child. I did this every time I cut a finger, or my hand. I was an adult, a grown male, yet I still did this.

How could Lynna like that?

Really? I was still thinking about her and what she would like? My hand was still bleeding, and the only thing at the range was a mediocre med kit that would merely bandage my hand. I grabbed the kit, threw it onto a nearby shelf, opened it, and dropped my head.

It figured that it would be empty. Later, when I wasn’t dripping blood everywhere, I’d go through the logs and see who had last used it, and tear into them.

But that would have to wait.

For now, I ripped a small piece off my sleeve, wrapped my hand, and replaced the weapons. I would not leave a messy shooting range, even if I was the only one using it, at least correctly.

As I placed the last rifle in its place, blood trickled up my hand and down my wrist. I was going to need medical attention, the cut was too deep. I didn’t want to go to the med bay.

That would mean a confrontation with Lynna.

It would upset her.

Perhaps I would be lucky and she wouldn’t be in there, and Zayn could stitch me up.

Or, better yet, I could stitch my own hand without anyone being any the wiser.

Knowing I was wrong, knowing I was going to see her no matter how much I hesitated, I made my way to the med bay.

Lynna

I decided to avoid Valtic for a while. I wasn’t sure for how long or even if it was possible. The Rogue Star had a finite amount of space. Realistically, I couldn’t avoid Valtic for long. Sooner or later, I’d see him on my way to the showers or in the dining hall. Though, now that I thought about it, I couldn’t remember ever seeing him in the dining hall before.

He must go to the dining hall, mustn’t he? Unless he had a secret stash of food in his office. Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past him. He was a large individual. I didn’t know much about the digestive system and nutritional needs of the Shein, but I understood how lifeforms worked in general. It wasn’t unreasonable to assume that he required a lot of food to keep his physique in its current condition.

I shut my eyes tight. I didn’t want to think about his physique right now. I brought my mind back to a safer topic. Food. Valtic must eat in the dining hall. I could potentially run into him there. I tried to picture him eating something, anything. Yet my mind couldn’t produce an image. I had no idea what kind of food he liked. Was it something Sars served often? Did he even have a favorite food?

Stop it, I scolded myself. I didn’t need to know those intimate details about him. I didn’t want to know them. Knowing them would serve me no purpose. Little, intimate facts about Valtic only took up space in my brain. I needed that space.

I forced myself to focus on the perfectly straight little slips of paper in three neat stacks on my desk. With every ounce of my concentration, I picked up the best pen I could find and slowly, carefully, wrote the names of everything in letters that I recognized.

“This is fun,” I said to myself. My voice sounded squeaky and unnatural to my ears. This wasn’t fun, it was ridiculous. I’d gone to medical school for eight years in the Terran System. My mother was a doctor. My father could’ve been one, too. He had the smarts. That’s why he was in such high demand in the breeding facilities.

With two such smart parents and the memories of a successful career, I couldn’t believe I was sitting here cutting up paper strips and thinking too hard about a male.

I had half a mind to steal every bottle of skin dye and disappear into Katzul. I bet the wealthy citizens loved altering their appearances for increasingly arbitrary reasons. I could make a fortune doing that and no one would ever know I was human.

Of course, that meant I’d have to leave Kalyn and all the other women. I could never do that, no matter how much I missed having steady work. I remembered the days when my hospital was filled to the brim at all hours. There was always someone to fix.

“Oh, no,” I muttered. Maris was right. I did like to fix broken people.

A knock at the door brought me out of my inner ramblings.

“The doctor is in!” I called cheerfully.

“Good.”

My stomach dropped. I knew that voice. Valtic pushed through the door, holding his blood-covered hand against his chest.

“What happened?” I gasped. Paper strips were forgotten once again as I stood up and rushed to him.

“Weapon mishap,” he grunted.

“Have a seat on the bed there.” I pointed to the first medical cot.

Valtic gave me a look. “I just need a bandage,” he said dismissively.

“You need more than a bandage. Sit down before I make you.” I winced. I didn’t mean for that last part to slip out.

Valtic didn’t look angry. In fact, he looked amused.

“You’re the doctor.” He stalked over to the medical cot and took a seat. I prepped disinfectant and got some medical sealant spray. I grabbed a painkiller, too, though I was sure he’d reject it if I offered. On the other hand, I’d already been surprised once today.

“Take this.” I held out my hand, the white pill cupped in my palm.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Painkiller.”

He scoffed and shook his head. “I don’t need it.”

“The sealant spray is going to sting. Take the pill,” I ordered.

“I’ve used sealant spray on many occasions,” Valtic replied coolly. “I can handle it.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” I rolled my supply tray over and sat on the stool next to his cot. I soaked a cloth in disinfectant and gently cleaned the wound on his hand.

I wasn’t enjoying the excuse to touch him. That wouldn’t be professional.

Not at all.

“Most people wince at this part,” I said.

“Most people have a lower pain tolerance than I do,” Valtic replied.

I threw the cloth away and picked up the needle. Valtic watched me in silence as I stitched the wound bit by bit.

“You know, you shouldn’t have stormed off the way you did.” I didn’t plan on saying anything about what had happened earlier, but I wasn’t sure when I’d get another chance to talk to him alone. He couldn’t run while I was attached to him via a needle.

True to form, he didn’t say anything, so I kept going.

“I would’ve told you that I hated fake-flirting with that dockmaster. He was disgusting and smelled of rotting fish. I don’t even know how he managed that. There’s no fish here! Every moment within five feet of him was torture,” I explained. “Pretending I was flirting with you made it much easier to do without gagging.”

Valtic’s head jerked up. The quick, violent movement reverberated through his body, causing a minuscule movement in the hand I was working on.

The needle wiggled. Valtic winced.

“So much for that pain tolerance,” I smirked.

“You shouldn’t say things like that,” Valtic warned me.

I frowned. “Things like what? I was only teasing you about your pain tolerance.”

“Not that,” he said curtly. “You said you were imagining me when you distracted the dockmaster.”

“I was,” I repeated.

“I don’t find that joke humorous,” Valtic said.

“It’s not a joke, Valtic. Don’t you get it? I like you.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Impossible,” he scoffed.

I resisted the urge to prick him with the needle.

I was well past staying professional, but surely I could avoid crossing the line to assault, right?

“Why is that impossible? You said you cared about me. Did I misunderstand you?”

A cold flash of fear hit me like a bolt.

If I did misunderstand him, I’d die of embarrassment on the spot.

“You didn’t,” Valtic replied.

I let out a short sigh of relief.

“Then why is it impossible for me to care about you?” I didn’t look at him. I didn’t want him to see the hurt in my eyes. I’d finished closing his wound, so I stood up to throw away the suture clippings and clean up my supplies.

“You don’t know me,” Valtic said darkly.

“You’re right. I don’t know you. But I’m trying to. Why won’t you let me?” I turned back to him.

“You won’t like me when you know me.” The look on his face was so certain, so bleak, I wanted to shake him. Or at least try to.

“How can you be so sure?” I placed my hand on my hip.

“I’m not a good person. I don’t do good things.”

“That’s not true. You saved my life. You risked your life to get that folder of papers from the office. You found The Terror the first time it attacked the Rogue Star. Those are three very good things you’ve done.” I crossed the room to stand near him.

“A few good deeds don’t cross out a lifetime of bad ones,” Valtic muttered bitterly. “You shouldn’t waste your time.”

“I’m not wasting my time!” I exclaimed. “I’m trying to show you that I care about you!”

“You shouldn’t.”

I wanted to scream.

What could’ve happened to him to make him believe he didn’t deserve kindness or compassion?

And, if I was being honest with myself, maybe even something more?

“If I had any control over it, maybe I wouldn’t,” I said. “It’s not fun thinking about you no matter what I’m doing. It’s not fun lying awake at night wondering if you’re still hunched in front of your monitors in the dark. No matter how much fun I’m not having, I can’t change the fact that I care about you.”

Valtic didn’t say anything. He just shook his head and looked away. He still didn’t believe me. I pursed my lips, wracking my brain for anything else to say that could convince him.

Then it occurred to me.

Talking wouldn’t cut it.

I leaned closer to him and reached up to take his chin in my hand. I forced him to face me. Before he could speak, I pressed my lips to his. At first, he just sat there. Embarrassment rose up inside me once again. This was a terrible idea. I’d made a fool of myself yet again.

I started to pull away, but he put his hand to my cheek and held me in place. His mouth moved against mine, instantly igniting heat in my belly. I let the hand that grasped his chin slip down to his shoulder, then around to his back.

His other hand pressed into my lower back, pulling me closer to him. I wrapped my other arm around him. We were chest to chest, but I wanted to be closer. I smiled against his mouth. When I felt him smile back, I quickly pulled away.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, his worried eyes scanning my face.

“I felt you smile,” I grinned. “I wanted to see it for myself.” Slowly, his smile returned to his face. I didn’t think it was possible for him to look handsomer, yet I was wrong.

“I like you. Do you believe me now?” I asked.

“Yes,” Valtic nodded. “But I might need you to convince me again later.”

Valtic

It was the day The Terror was supposed to arrive. Captain Dejar had called a meeting of all relevant personnel to the conference room.

To my confusion, Lynna was there, as well.

“Alright,” Dejar said as he gestured all of us to sit while he remained standing. “We have an opportunity to do something that we have never been able to do since this entire…adventure… started.”

He indicated Itair with an open hand. “Our guest—and pseudo-benefactor—has provided us with information in regard to the dark ship that we have come to know as The Terror.

“It is scheduled to dock on the other side of the city tonight, shortly after dark. This provides us the opportunity to find out whether or not the ship, and Enclave, are under Dominion control or not. If they are, then this becomes a situation much larger than we’d hoped. However, if they are not under Dominion control, then we may be able to get the Dominion involved to help shut this down, so we need to take the chance.”

He nodded to Aavat, who stood up from his seat next to Dejar. “So, if Itair’s information is correct, we need to figure out a way to get on board the ship, potentially map it out, but most importantly, find evidence of their involvement or non-involvement with the Dominion. Normally, this would be a mission where we’d call for volunteers and then we’d rush in like a bunch of bandits, relying on dumb luck to pull us through.”

Aavat stopped talking for a moment to look at me, his eyes flicking to Lynna, then back to me.

I didn’t like this.

“However, in light of recent events, we feel that a little more stealth is needed.”

“Now,” Kovor said, taking over the conversation smoothly. “Although Aryn and I,” he nodded to her, “have experience in doing this, there is a large possibility that our experience with Skud and Enclave back at Qasar has gotten back to the crew of The Terror. So, after some discussion, we’ve decided that another team with a successful record, but a bit less, shall we say, exposure, handle this mission.”

No.

I knew what he would say before his lips formed the words.

“We’d like to ask Lynna and Valtic to handle this mission.”

“No.”

Everyone turned to look at me. Some of their looks were confused, but most were just curious as to what I would say next.

Except Lynna. For once, I couldn’t read her expression. But it didn’t matter. She wasn’t going.

I wouldn’t allow it.

“What do you mean, ‘no’?” Kovor asked.

I cleared my throat as I sat forward in my chair, placing my elbows on the table as my hands covered my mouth for a moment. I took a deep breath before looking over at the three ship commanders, four, if you counted Kalyn.

Never had I refused a mission. Never had I disregarded orders. Well, other than that one slip with Itair, but anything regarding that buffoon couldn’t be counted.

But this, this was new territory.

“I will go. I work best by myself. Lynna cannot be allowed as a part of this mission. She is far too valuable to the ship and crew as the doctor. She cannot be risked. I refuse to allow it.”

“I understand your concern,” Dejar said slowly. “But your actions at the dock were impressive. Both of you did well and brought back useful information. As Kovor said, he and Aryn are too well known to conduct such a mission themselves.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Lynna’s voice interrupted me. “Can I say something?”

“Please,” Dejar nodded.

I looked at her and she gave me a faint smile before speaking. Surely, she understood this was madness. She’d see that she couldn’t take part in this. I’d go, I’d do whatever needed to be done, and I’d come home to her.

No.

I caught myself. I’d come back to the Rogue Star, where she would safely stay.

“Would you mind telling us what the general plan is first, before anyone decides if I can or cannot go?”

The floor fell out from under me.

“Good point,” Aavat responded. “The idea is for you to disguise yourself from head to toe as one of the escaped women from the auction we raided here on Katzul and allow yourself to be taken on board by The Terror’s crew.”

Never.

“What?” I barked. “You want her captured by the same monsters that steal and sell women all over the cosmos? How is she supposed to get away?”

Aavat held up open hands to calm me. “Easy. We thought about that.” He turned his attention back to Lynna. “If you agree, we’ll fit you with a tracker, multiple trackers in case they search you, and we trace your movements through the ship.”

He turned his focus to me next. “While she is inside, you will be outside waiting for her.” His lips twisted. “We’ll take a trick from their own book. She’ll use an airborne sedative to knock everyone out, search for the information we need, and leave quietly. Other than a headache and a vague memory of another woman, they may not realize anything has gone wrong at all.”

“And if anything goes wrong?” I asked.

“That’s when we go with the less quiet plan. Lynna will have an emergency comm. If she gives you the signal, you go get her. Hopefully, in the process, one or both of you will have found the evidence we need.”

“And,” Dejar continued, “this might give us a chance to get an inside look at that ship and figure out what we’re up against. If we can map it, we can know what its capabilities are. If we can get information about their navigation logs, their regular ports, who their contacts are… anything. We need all the information we can get, Valtic. That’s why we’re asking the two of you to do this.”

“Maris and Orrin have built a program that, if placed on any part of the ship, can track it if it comes within a certain range of us, as well,” Aavat added. “It could be instrumental in keeping us alive in the future. And Qal has programmed a device to clone their navigational computer. We’ll see everything, where they’ve gone, and when.”

This was a terrible plan. Far too risky.

The need was great, but surely, I could manage by myself, storm the ship, plant their devices.

Map things, do whatever was needed.

Just Lynna needed to stay—

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

I shot a hard look at Lynna. How could she be in agreement with this assignment?

“I like the idea of multiple trackers, we can put one in a piece of jewelry, then maybe another subdermally, where they can’t take it away.” She nodded as she spoke, almost as if she were trying to convince herself as she agreed.

“No,” I said, still looking at her. “You can’t do this. The dock was easy because the man was an idiot, this is going to involve a crew of cut-throat individuals. They won’t hesitate to kill you if they sense something wrong.”

I turned back to Dejar, ignoring Lynna’s words. “Captain, you cannot be serious about this.”

“I’m sorry, Valtic,” Dejar apologized. “This is what needs to be done. We won’t get another chance at this. We’ve tried to think of anything else.”

I turned to Itair. “This is the only information you have? You have nothing else that can help us? No paperwork, no secret recorded conversation, that can give us what we’re looking for?”

Itair shook his head. “My sincerest apologies, young man, but I don’t. I only know of The Terror as an Enclave ship. Any connection to the Dominion, if there is one, is hidden, even from me. I truly wish that I could tell you more.”

His voice and words sounded sincere, and his expression seemed real enough. Scro. How could anyone in here be willing to do something like this? Didn’t they see the potential disaster behind all of this?

I turned back to Lynna. “This is too dangerous. I won’t let you do this.”

The sharp intake of breath from Kalyn and Aryn told me they thought I had overstepped, but I didn’t care.

Lynna’s reaction was the only one that mattered.

I cared too much for her and had just found out that she cared for me in return. I wasn’t prepared to risk her life.

She shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, Valtic. If this is the idea that they think has the best chance, then we have to try it. I trust you. You won’t let anything happen to me.”

Her words struck at me. No matter how I felt, she shouldn’t trust me.

I rose from the table, barely containing my rage at the situation.

“Very well.”

I left the conference room, made my way through the halls and down to my office. And I started planning.

It would take time for Lynna to be properly disguised, so I would use that time trying to come up with a different way onto that ship.

If I could find a way onto the ship, find a way to get the information we needed, and do it all without getting Lynna involved, then all the better.

I had to come up with something.

She couldn’t be risked.

There was a chance that I could sneak in through an exhaust port, a ship that size would need either hundreds of small exhaust ports or, if it was anything like the Rogue Star, it would have a few big ones that could be opened and closed when needed.

Or I could wait for a crewmember to disembark. Surely any number of them would be ready to partake of the delights of Katzul.

I’d wait, stun one, and use him to gain entry to the ship.

It was a better plan than Dejar’s. My plan only endangered me and left Lynna safe on board our vessel. I would be better able to get aboard the ship, better able to fend off any attackers, and better equipped to deal with whatever was on board.

There were bound to be dozens of other plans that would work, none of them putting Lynna in harm’s way.

If I happened to be captured, I was more capable of withstanding any interrogation techniques they utilized than Lynna, and my probable death would be less harmful to the crew than hers.

I was the expendable one, not her. Couldn’t they see that? Couldn’t she see that? No matter her feelings for me, she was more important and would be able to move on more easily. If I died on this mission, her friends, the crew would help her through it.

If she died…

I entered my office and immediately went to the back corner where my tactical gear was stored. I began a quick inventory, even though I knew it was all there. I quickly took apart one of my handguns, then put it back together.

No surprises. No faulty mechanisms to misfire.

I went through my other two handguns and my short rifle before the inevitable knock at my door interrupted me.

I knew it was Lynna.

She was certainly here to talk me into letting her go, to tell me that she was going to be fine. I couldn’t let her go. I had to stop her.

If I ignored her knocking, I could sneak off the ship when she left to get disguised.

So, if I knew all that, why was I at the door, pulling it open?

Lynna

Fury rolled off Valtic in waves as he stalked out of the room.

In an odd way, I admired that when he was angry about something, he removed himself from everyone so no one else had to deal with his mood.

It was strangely considerate and oddly noble.

Or he was being an ass and making sure he had the last word.

I wasn’t sure yet.

“I don’t think he likes that you’re sending me,” I said to Captain Dejar.

“I gathered,” Captain Dejar sighed. “You know why I’m sending you, don’t you?”

“Not really,” I confessed. “I have some operations training, but nothing like this.”

“I want you to do what you did when you and Valtic went after the dockmaster.”

“You want me to pretend to flirt with The Terror crew?” I gasped. “I can’t do that. I hated doing it the first time.”

“No,” Captain Dejar laughed. “Forgive me. I should’ve been more specific. I want you to go so I can be sure Valtic won’t do something reckless and get himself killed. If you’re there, his top priority will be returning you to the Rogue Star alive.”

“And to do that, he has to be alive, too,” I concluded.

“Exactly,” he captain grinned.

“I’m going to go talk to him. I know he’ll follow orders, but I’d feel better if he didn’t hate the assignment.”

“By all means.” Captain Dejar opened the door for me. I didn’t need to think twice about going to Valtic’s office. That’s where he always went.

When I knocked, he answered right away. “That was quick,” I grinned.

“You’re the only one who knocks on the door,” he replied.

“Is that your way of saying you’re excited to see me?”

“Yes,” he grinned. His smile could be so subtle. Just the smallest inflection at the corners of his mouth. Yet, somehow it was able to light up his whole face. He stood to the side and gestured for me to come in.

“Can I turn on a light?” I asked. “The harsh light of the monitor hurts my eyes.”

Valtic hesitated before he nodded. I pressed the button on the wall. The lights overhead didn’t turn on right away. Before I could ask if they worked or not, they slowly flickered before settling on a dull yellow color.

“I should change those,” Valtic frowned.

“I doubt they’ve been getting much use,” I teased.

“It’s easier to see the subtle details on the monitor in the dark.”

“Makes sense.”

Valtic offered me the single chair in the room. I’d never seen his space in the light before. His office wasn’t dirty, but it was in dire need of decluttering. I couldn’t work in the med bay if everything wasn’t neatly put in its place.

“Let’s talk about our assignment,” I said.

Valtic’s face darkened. “What about it?”

“I know you’re not happy with it.” I reached out and offered him my hand. He looked at it like he didn’t know what to do with it. I smiled and rolled my eyes before standing up and leaning forward to grab his hand, pulling him along as I sat back down.

With his hand firmly holding mine, I resumed the conversation. “Why don’t you like the plan?”

“I don’t like how easy it is for the captain to send you into danger,” he answered.

I lifted my eyebrows, surprised, and laughed. “I didn’t expect you to give me a direct answer.”

Another surprise, he smiled. “That’s why I gave one,” he said smoothly.

“Never a dull moment,” I grinned. “I don’t think any of this is easy for the captain. I think I’m the only one who’s not worried about my safety.”

“How can you not be? You’ve seen what The Terror can do.”

“I know.” I gave his hand a squeeze. “Look, either we can do this together, or you can sneak off to storm the ship by yourself. Except, I’ll keep to the original plan. But this time, you won’t know where I am, because you won’t be the one watching my tracker.”

His eyes blazed. Gotcha.

“I know I’m going to be fine because I trust you to keep me safe.” I smiled up at him.

His eyes weren’t warm like I wanted them to be. They had gone cold and distant.

“What?” I asked gently.

“You shouldn’t trust me with your life.”

“Why not? You saved me before.” I rubbed my thumb over the top of his hand.

“Others have trusted me and they weren’t so lucky.” He didn’t look at me when he spoke.

“What do you mean?” I stood up and stepped closer to him.

“My squad put their trust in me. They’re all dead now because of it.” His voice was hard and closed off.

I thought about asking for more details. I was certainly curious enough. But I forced myself to hold my tongue. If Valtic wanted to tell me more, I would let him tell me in his own time. If I’d learned anything about him, it was that he didn’t like to be cornered.

However, I couldn’t just stand there in silence. He already had a difficult time believing I really cared about him. I didn’t want to do anything that would cause him to doubt me.

What would I want if our situations were reversed?

I let go of his hand so that I could wrap my arms around his waist. I hugged myself close to him, pressing my cheek against his solid chest.

The steady thrum of his beating heart comforted me. No matter how he acted, there was a warm, feeling man in there. He just had to let me see past the teasing glimpses he gave.

Just like when we first kissed, he went very still. His arms were slightly lifted, so that he wasn’t touching me at all. I waited, content to hug him while he processed this.

Slowly but surely, he lowered his arms and held me to him. He rested his cheek on the top of my head, and slowly, almost imperceptibly, began to gently sway us back and forth.

“The last time someone hugged me like this, I was saying goodbye to my family before I boarded my first military posting.”

Oh. My heart broke, just a bit for him. What would he have been like as a young man? Unsure? Cocky? Or had something already happened to close him off?

“Is it too much?” was all I asked.

“No,” he sighed, squeezing gently.

“Good. I’m in no hurry to let go,” I giggled. “Thank you for telling me about saying goodbye to your parents.”

“You’re the only person on this ship that knows I have parents.”

“You must be in a good mood if you’re making jokes,” I teased.

“You have a positive effect on my mood,” he admitted. “Though I really haven’t told anyone about my family.”

“That’s not a surprise.”

“Talking about personal things is not something that comes easily to me.”

“Again, not a surprise.” I tipped my chin up so I could look at him. “But there’s nothing wrong with that. You get to decide what you tell people and when you tell them.”

“I would prefer not to tell anyone anything.” Valtic sighed. “I already have to live with the memories. It’s not right for me to push them on to someone else.”

“No one told me you were so honorable. Oh wait, that’s because no one else knew, either,” I teased.

Valtic chuckled. “Very funny.”

“I kept coming after you because I want to know you. But it’s even more important to me that you want me to know you.”

“I do want you to know things about me. I want to know things about you, too.”

“It’s okay if you don’t know where to start. Honestly, I don’t know where to start, either.”

“You don’t?” Valtic sounded surprised.

“On my planet, women don’t meet their males naturally,” I began. “It’s all arranged. There’s a lot of tests and a long application process. I’d be at a loss with a human male. So you can imagine how lost I am floating through space, outside of my home universe, with a kind, noble, caring Shein male like yourself.”

“Would you consider me less noble if I told you that made me feel better?”

“Only a little,” I joked.

“I can live with that.”

Valtic dipped his head to kiss me. I stretched up to meet him.

His lips were gentle, almost tentative, against mine.

Feeling bold, I darted my tongue out, curious to taste him.

He froze again, then wrapped his arms more tightly around me as he met my tongue with his own, teasing and twining.

The kiss was brief, but it still made my heart pound and heat run through my body.

When we broke apart, I was already wanting for more.

He ran one gentle finger down the curve of my cheek. “I envy you.”

“What?” I sputtered a laugh.

“It’s so easy for you to give smiles and kindness away, like it costs nothing.”

“It does cost nothing,” I told him. “There’s not a limited supply.”

“It’s clear you come from a happy home and have led a fulfilling life.”

“How astute,” I laughed. “You’re right about the home. My mother is the kindest person in the whole world. I even met with my father once a month. Most girls in the Terran System don’t get that luxury, but my father insisted on knowing every single one of his children. Believe me, there were a lot of them.”

“You have a lot of siblings?” Valtic asked.

“Biologically, yes. However, in the Terran System, you’re only considered siblings if you also have the same mother. I have two real sisters.”

“Was I right about your fulfilling life?”

“Partially,” I nodded. “There was a time when things weren’t so good for me. I almost gave everything up just to make it stop. I worked through it, though. I had to.”

Valtic smiled gently. “Perhaps you’d like to tell me about it someday.”

“Perhaps one day you can tell me about your squad.”

“That’s something we can work toward together. That’s how we’re supposed to do it, yes? Together?”

“Yes,” I smiled. “Life’s always easier when you have someone to lean on.”

“I’m too tall to lean on you,” he joked.

“Then hold my hand.”

I laced my fingers through his as we shared another kiss.

Valtic

I waited outside the room. Inside, Kalyn and Aryn were helping Lynna with her disguise, trying to make sure that it would withstand a bit of rough handling without anything coming off.

It was almost certain that the crew of The Terror would not be gentle with her when she ‘invaded’ their area.

Rage wouldn’t help me here. Wouldn’t help Lynna.

So I waited, pacing back and forth for the three hours that they spent working on her. Orrin, who passed by on his way back down to his workstation, quipped that I would wear a trench into the floor I was pacing so hard.

I tried to chuckle at his attempt at humor, but it must have come off as awkward because he walked away from me with a quizzical look on his face. I hated waiting. All it did was give me time to think and imagine all the possibilities of what could go wrong. Just as I was at the point of imagining her being sold away before I could save her, the door opened.

There she stood, resplendent in her cobalt blue skin framed by waves of black hair, all while wearing an outfit that accentuated her curves in such a way that I felt my blood rush to my face, and other parts.

“You like?” she asked shyly.

I had no words. I was so caught up in how she looked, I could barely nod.

“Yeah, I think he likes,” Aryn laughed as she peeked her head from behind the door-jamb. I cleared my throat as I turned away. It was embarrassing to be seen that way.

“Ahem,” I coughed. I couldn’t look at her. “Are you uh, rea…ready t-t-to, to go?”

“Oh, yeah. He likes,” I heard Aryn say again.

“Hey!” Lynna admonished. “Don’t tease.”

Aryn snorted. “Sorry. Come on, Kalyn. Let’s leave these two, uh, friends alone.” As their footsteps began to recede, Aryn shot back one more comment. “She might need a little more field testing on that dye, you know. Hint, hint.”

“Aryn!” Lynna called out in embarrassment.

“Bye-eee!” Aryn called back with a wave.

After the girls left, I forced myself to look at Lynna. “You…you look so beautiful.”

Her skin pinkened through the makeup. “Thank you.” Then, with a slight look of concern. “Is it because of all this?” she asked with a wave that indicated her entire form.

“What? No, no,” I said hurriedly. “No. You’re always beautiful. I truthfully prefer you the way you naturally are.” She smiled sheepishly. “You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen.”

I reached for her and she reached for me. I leaned down and kissed her. “Don’t do this,” I said when we broke our kiss.

“Don’t do what?”

“Don’t get yourself captured. Say you’re not feeling well.” I looked deep into her eyes. “Say anything to not do this, please.”

She pulled away from me as she shook her head. “I can’t. We need to do this. You know that.”

I did. I did know that. I just didn’t want to accept it. I nodded and held my hand out to her. She took it and we headed to the hangar bay. Qal already had the Skimmer powered up for us. He gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder as I boarded.

Strange.

But… not unwelcome.

I pulled the Skimmer out and drove it slowly down the docks until I was able to get it into the streets. Even with the ability to increase speed, I didn’t.

“Why aren’t we going faster?” Lynna asked.

“I…” I shook my head. “You know why.”

She reached over and patted my arm. “I’ll be okay. You’re here to pull my ass out if anything goes wrong.”

“It is a nice—um—ass,” I tried to joke.

“Why, you impertinent man, I knew you were looking,” she smiled. Her smile made me feel better. I increased our speed, got us onto the main thoroughfare, and we made our way towards the dock.

As we got within two miles of the dock, I took the Skimmer off the main roads and down into an industrial park. I put the Skimmer into hover mode, which was much quieter, but slower, than normal mode, and we made our way towards the dock. I pulled it behind an old building about two blocks away and set it down.

“Why are we stopping here?” Lynna asked as I helped her down.

“Don’t want to risk being seen.” We made our way towards the dock and stopped in the final bit of shadow, maybe a hundred yards from the entrance. “Are you sure about this?”

She swallowed hard and nodded. I reached for a knife and she stopped me. “I don’t need it.”

With a tilt of my head, I let out a questioning grunt.

The left corner of her mouth twitched in a slight grin before she became serious. “I have some syringes hidden on me, along with the gas and filters. One is deadly, the others are meant to knock someone unconscious.”

I rolled my head and let out an exasperated breath. “Are you sure they won’t break?” I asked, trying to keep my composure. She answered with a nod. “Okay,” I began. I didn’t like the idea of her using syringes filled with toxic liquids as her defense, but I knew I couldn’t do anything about it, not now.

If she trusted in her materials, I would have to trust her. “Let’s make sure your trackers are working.”

I slid my tablet out. It showed a blue dot, right next to where I was.

“How accurate is it?” she whispered.

“Take three steps that way,” I pointed into the deeper shadows. With each step, the dot moved.

She came back, eyebrows raised. “I’d be able to follow you anywhere with this.” I tapped the screen.

And I’d do it, even without the tracker.

“Don’t do this,” I asked, one more time. I knew the answer. But I had to ask.

Lynna wrapped her arms around me and I held her tight, wishing we were anywhere other than here.

“I’ll be back, and we’ll be home before you know it,” she whispered.

“And then you’re not leaving the ship. Possibly ever.”

“We’ll talk about that later, alright?” But despite her brave words, she looked nervous. She kept looking to the side towards the dock where the ship sat.

It looked massive in the night time, it’s dark-colored hull seeming to soak up the light around it.

Even I felt a bit intimidated by it.

“I should go, or I’ll get cold feet,” she said. “I believe in you. I know you’ll keep me safe.” She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and made her way out of the shadows across the street, then began walking towards the dock, sticking to the shadows.

I tried to keep my breathing level and slow, despite the fact that I was already anxious. I hated this plan, hated it to the ends of the universe and back.

When her scream rang through the night, I braced myself.

This was part of the plan.

She tore away, looking over her shoulder at nothing, carefully being ‘careless’ as she approached the dock.

Staggering to the fence, she paused as if to catch her breath, and looked around.

A hatch opened and two shadowy forms rushed through, towards her. She backed away, pleading.

She could do this.

I could do this.

And then I’d kill every one of them.

Lynna screamed, as planned, and put up a small fight. They grabbed her and restrained her forcibly.

I found myself already on my feet.

My breaths came quickly, my hands clenched and unclenched rapidly, my heart pounded loudly in my head. I needed to save her. I had to save her. My only thoughts were to save her, to rescue her and return her to safety. I needed to get to her.

But I couldn’t. I had to let this happen. I had to let her be captured and taken inside the ship. The best I could do was get closer, so I did. I worked my way closer to the dock, closer to the ship. I needed to be close by so when she set off her beacon, I could rush in and get her as quickly as possible.

I snuck up to the fence surrounding the dock, staying in the shadows as best I could to find a way in. Locating a weak point in the fencing a few hundred feet from the entrance, I pulled it up and crawled under, creeping stealthily toward the ship.

All I could do now, hidden away between two shipping containers, was keep an eye on my tablet and wait for her signal.

I hated waiting.

Lynna

I let my fear work in my favor.

If I appeared too calm, that could alert my captors that something was amiss.

My hands trembled, my breaths were irregular, shuddering spurts. Genuine tears welled in my eyes.

I believed in Valtic. Trusted him.

And was still terrified.

It wasn’t a huge surprise that they hadn’t really looked at the women they’d abducted and sold.

Made up like this, I was close enough to resemble their missing cargo.

That was all they cared about.

With a speed that would've taken my breath away if I’d had any left, one of the guards snagged a pair of manacles from behind him and slapped them over my wrists.

Seriously, was he wandering around looking for women to abduct?

That was about all I had time to think before the two of them dragged me back onto the ship.

This was the plan, this was the plan, I repeated to myself.

“You know, everyone else is on shore leave,” the creep on my left growled. Deep black hoods shrouded their faces.

But the one on the left had a smooth, pale hand, almost human, except for the extra thumb on the side. On the right, three green scaly fingers ending with claws gripped my arm.

“Captain assigns rotation,” Greenie answered. “Stick to the rules. It’s the safest thing.”

“Man, I don't understand you,” the first one grumbled as the two of them dragged me down another corridor.

My struggles gave me a great reason to be looking around, trying to make out any sort of useful information.

While Kalyn had painted me up, Maris and Orrin had gone over some basic rudiments of spaceship design.

I wasn't exactly going to be taking a job in engineering anytime soon, but I should be able to decipher conduit types.

And if I could find one, I should be able to run it back down to—

Fuck.

The grumbling asshole had just run his hand down my ass.

I shrieked, then caught myself.

It wouldn't take much for Valtic to come charging in and save the day, and it was too soon. I could handle this. I'd volunteered.

But still.

Fucker.

“She's off the books. Nobody will know she came back,” Thumbs argued.

The slightly more reasonable jerk heaved a deep sigh and pushed open a heavy metal door, leading down a short flight of stairs.

“You're an idiot. They know everything.”

They know everything? Who was they?

“Please, I'll be good, just don't send me back. This is all a mistake,” I pleaded.

Maybe it was the time to go off script, but if they were talking, maybe they would drop something useful.

“There are lots of mistakes, but I won't be making one.” The reasonable one with green scaly hands shook my arm. “You'll be quiet. You'll be all alone since we've already dropped off the cargo. Try not to damage yourself.”

Well. That wasn’t helpful.

Another turn and another short set of stairs.

“Listen up. I know you're new to this assignment.” Greenie muttered, like he’d given this talk before. “I don’t know how things run in your chapter, but you’re here now. Don't make trouble or you'll end up in a pod.”

A pod. That was something, maybe a clue. Something to remember.

“They always need fresh meat in those things, you know.”

I wish I could see their faces, but nothing showed past the dark hoods. Because the one on the left hissed. Maybe some sort of cat creature. Or a snake. Or maybe just scared.

“I ain’t done nothing. Just talking. Nobody can get me in one of those things just for talking.”

“You never know, do you?”

None of it made sense. Maybe it would to Valtic when I got out. When he came.

But for now, I had to keep paying attention. The further down we went, more and more pipes and stretches of conduits joined each other near the base of the walls.

Orrin had explained that in the belly of the ship would be life-support. Engineering. And everything would run through there.

I swallowed again, telling my racing heart how kind these gentlemen were to bring me halfway to my goal.

Everything would be fine.

It had to be fine.

“End of the line, missy.”

This time when the door opened, nothing but darkness waited inside.

“Why do you think she came back?”

“I don't know.” Greenie sounded weary of dealing with the idiot.

If I wasn't terrified, I would be, too.

“They’ve never been to someplace like this, maybe she got turned around. Maybe she had nowhere else to go. Maybe she didn’t know how to get any further away and has been here the entire time.” He wrenched my arm. “Not our problem.”

They threw me in and I stumbled, the stupid high heels we'd all decided should be part of this outfit as annoying to walk in as such contraptions had ever been.

“Stay put this time,” the green jerk said. “Come on, idiot. Back to our shift.”

“Man,” the other one groaned, the sliding of the door cutting off his incessant whining.

I waited. Counted to one hundred, and then counted again.

They were gone.

My eyes slowly adjusted in the dim lighting, just enough to see shapes, corners of crates.

I patted my hands against the hard floor, froze as I felt the metal hasp welded into it.

The other abducted women, they must've been chained down here between whatever other cargo the ship carried.

I swallowed hard.

Whatever the fate of those women had been, I couldn't be caught up in my worries for them, or my own rising panic.

My lips twisted into a smile.

The loop of metal may have been placed there as a restraint, but it was going to be helpful to me now.

Slowly, carefully I rotated the broad bracelet that spanned my left wrist, feeling for the notches etched in the top of the settings.

It was a gaudy thing, brightly colored panels joined by links, each panel almost the size of two of my fingers together.

It looked cheap, but if it got me out of this, I'd happily wear one like it for the rest of my life.

I shifted the bracelet, one panel, a second.

With a swift motion, I brought my wrist down against the top of the hasp, cracking open the thin shell, allowing the two chemicals to mix and form an acid.

Aryn had been right, the manacles she had seen on the women she and Kovor had rescued were of identical design to the ones they had used on me.

There was just enough space between my wrists to lower the connecting link into the pool of acid.

Three one-thousand. Four one-thousand. Five.

I pulled my wrists apart with a sharp snap.

Perfect.

I kicked my shoes off, grabbed them with one hand and rose to my feet.

I'd seen the direction the piping was heading.

If my training had been accurate, I knew which way I needed to go.

But first, to get out of here.

Running my hand around the edge of the door, I stopped.

At about shoulder high was an indentation.

The emergency manual override.

I shoved one of the thin heel spikes in and then hammered it into place.

“Come on come on come on,” I whispered, waiting for it to click.

“Basic safety procedure,” Orrin had said. “Not a ship in the Dominion would not have a manual override.”

Good to know.

Clutching my shoes to my chest I tiptoed deeper into the bowels of the ship, watching as one pipe, then another joined the ever-thickening grouping, leading me on.

There, this had to be it.

The room was crowded with machinery.

I didn't know what any of it did, didn't particularly care. The only one I needed to know about was. . .that one

“Unless they've built everything custom,” Orrin had explained, “the recirculator opens here.”

And it did.

“Outgoing air from the recirculator would be filtered through here.”

And it was, just like he said. I slid another panel off my bracelet, carefully exposing the two thick plugs, each the size of the last joint of my pinky finger.

With a grimace, I shoved them into my nose and locked my jaw tight.

The other shoe’s heel peeled apart to reveal the vial of sleeping gas.

I shoved it into the recirculator and hunkered down behind the machinery to wait.

This was the most dangerous part of the job.

Because we were uncertain what species made up the crew of The Terror, it made it almost impossible to estimate exactly what the dosage would be to incapacitate them all.

I’d put quite a bit into their air.

Just to be certain.

But while I was waiting, there was always the chance that one of them would get bored. Decide to pay the cargo bay a visit.

See that I was gone.

But somehow, that wasn't what concerned me the most. Waiting wouldn't be Valtic’s strong point. And the longer he had to wait, the more I worried whether or not he’d do something rash.

Finally, enough time had passed that even by my most cautious estimates, surely it would be safe to proceed.

Slowly I retraced the path the two goons had taken me down.

One set of stairs, the second.

Eventually, I came to where I’d been brought on board.

This wasn't the Rogue Star, not the same sort of lines at all.

But if I thought of a ship as a living creature, I could almost mentally overlay the anatomy of one on top of the other.

Closing my eyes, I dragged the outlines together in my mind. Engineering on the Rogue Star was there, and on The Terror, about here…

So, maybe...

I turned to the left. Chances were good that my professors in comparative anatomy wouldn't have known what to make of this new use for the skill, but it had worked well enough patching up Orrin when he was shot.

Hopefully, the same general principles would apply.

I turned another corner and stopped.

A black-clad body sprawled on the deck, one green hand sticking out.

Well, that was one of them down.

Hopefully, the other asshole would be close by.

Carefully, I picked my way over the unconscious form and continued on.

One more turn, and there the other one was.

My shoulders dropped just a bit in relief.

They were both down and if I was right, the bridge with the navigation computer we needed would be right...

Oh shit.

Standing, well more like staggering, in front of the door was a giant bull-like guard.

Not just big and broad, but two sets of arms and it seemed quite possible a pair of horns were distorting the shape of this one's hood.

Much more importantly, the gas didn't seem to be affecting whatever the hell this was.

Well. I stopped, thought. I could hit the panic button, call Valtic now, or I could see if I could handle this myself.

I pulled out the two syringes I'd preloaded from the folds of my skirt.

Slipping them free, I tucked them carefully in one fist.

Well, this had worked before. No reason it wouldn’t work again.

“Oh help me!” I gasped, running into the corridor straight into the thick chest.

“Huh? What?” Apparently, the gas had worked, just not completely. He reached for me, but seemed dazed, slower than I would expect a guard to be.

“Oh, you've got to help me!” I squealed and then darted past him, twisting to stab both needles into his shoulder.

With a grunt of pain, he stiffened, then swiped at me again as he went down.

Thank goodness two had been enough. I patted my one last syringe. Hopefully, I wouldn't need it to get out.

Examining the door, I didn't find another helpful manual override.

Definitely something to talk to Orrin about.

But that slot looked a bit like a card reader, didn’t it?

Carefully, I patted the guard down, lightly running my fingers over his pockets until I found the outline.

With a quick swipe of the card, I was in.

It was the bridge, the layout a little different than on the Rogue Star, but still the functions appeared to be the same.

I searched over the control panels for anything that looked familiar.

That on there. That looked like the panel Qal worked on.

I stepped further into the room and then froze, my attention held by what lay on the other side of the navigation controls.

Oh no. It was like my nightmares come to life, all the way here and in Dominion space.

Transport pods from the Flosh drive.

Lined up against the wall.

Five of them in a row.

Why? Why were they here?

Valtic

I crouched behind the shipping containers, eyes fixed on the muted glow of my tablet. The dot that marked Lynna’s location moved steadily through the ship.

Was it worse that she was still moving or would it be worse when she was still?

When I wouldn't know what was happening to her?

I tore myself away from the tablet.

I had my own job to do.

Slipping from one shadow to the next, I slid open the bag of tricks Orrin and Marris had supplied me with.

One more adjustment to the plan.

The tiny devices contained within the case would send a weak signal. Certainly not enough for us to track the location of The Terror, but certainly enough for us to have an earlier notification if the ship came anywhere near us.

The original plan had been to put one inside the ship. Which was fine. But the problem would be if The Terror had a reasonably competent security officer.

We had to assume they would.

A competent security officer would notice any unauthorized transmission coming from inside the ship—and then hunt it down and destroy it.

But if we had several devices, all sending on the same channel, it might take them too long to discover.

And if the devices were on the exterior of the hull?

Even better.

As I approached the underbelly of The Terror, another guard passed, his outline subtly different than the two that had taken Lynna inside.

So, they had a separate detail for exterior guard duty.

Fine.

I slipped one of the tiny transponders into my hand and ducked and rolled until I was on the other side of the landing gear from the passing guard.

Having to avoid them would help keep my mind off Lynna.

I half-snorted. That was ridiculous. My mind would probably never be entirely off her again, certainly not now.

I stuck the transponder inside the landing gear, then moved on, looking for more places to attach my little goodies.

One on the underside of an exhaust port.

One by the refuse chute.

Another where two panels had twisted slightly, leaving a tiny gap just wide enough for the disc to fit.

Almost halfway through the bag now, I took a moment to glance at the tablet.

Lynna’s movements slowed. If I had to guess, she'd have already dispatched the guards and was now sneaking through the ship.

She was smart. Brave. I had to believe she'd be alright.

And if she signaled for help, I’d just kill them all.

Easy.

“Dead night.” A voice broke the silence and I froze.

“Yeah,” the second guard who I hadn't seen spoke up. “Looking forward to my time in town.”

The first man laughed, low and guttural, then muttered a response.

So, these weren’t guards hired by the dock, but crewmembers of The Terror.

Potentially useful to know.

I stayed still as the two men talked, their attention barely on their work detail, eyes casually scanning the dock.

I wasn't going to argue.

Eventually they moved off, still chatting.

As I continued placing the transponders, I kept an eye out for various exit points.

Would Lynna be able to make her way back to the hatch they'd taken her in?

It was a stupid idea. I knew it even as I pulled the tablet out to check her position again.

Scro.

She was in one area. Assessing the history, it looked like she'd stayed still and then walked back and forth across a short area.

Walked, or was pulled?

No.

This must mean she was on the bridge.

She was fine. She was—

“Hey! What do you think you're doing here?”

Double scro.

Sliding the tablet back into the satchel, I spun to face the guard.

The third guard.

That I hadn't noticed.

Dejar would never let me hear the end of this.

I tried to force my expression into something friendly. Harmless.

It felt weird.

“You see, I was out taking a walk and thought I'd look at the ship, never quite seen one of its design before, and—”

“Seriously?”

Huh.

Unlike the other two idiots, this one actually seemed like he had a brain in his skull.

Which made it easier for me.

I hated coming up with that sort of cover story on the fly. Something else I should've thought about rather than worrying about Lynna.

I grinned and shrugged. “Well, can't blame a guy for trying.”

“Actually,” the guard brought up his blaster, “I can.”

I dove to the side, swinging behind a dangling strut while snapping out my own short-barreled piece.

He dodged, my first bolt missing, but my second knocked him down. The third tag finished the job.

While my own weapon had been silenced, the shots from the guard’s blaster had rung through the dark dock, bringing the other two running.

A position behind the containers at the edge of the yard would give me better coverage but take me too far away from Lynna.

It looked as though she was trying to return to the hatch, her dot moving closer to her original pathways. What was she doing? Then, in answer, the dot on my screen started pulsating.

She had activated her emergency beacon.

Time to stop playing around and get my mate to safety.

Lynna

I took one step towards the Flosh pods, my heart pounding so hard it drowned out any other sound.

Another.

Realization crept around the corners of my shocked mind. These weren't exactly like the pods I'd worked with.

Mine had been blank metal cylinders, slightly tapered at the end.

I'd only known the fate of the passenger when I unlocked the top and swung it open.

These each had a transparent opening, a clear oval, that covered the upper third. Wires ran down the side of each of the five pods, leading to some sort of control panel.

I couldn't read the characters. Not Shein, then.

I touched one of the pods, still half convinced it wasn't real, that somehow my fear was just bringing my nightmare to life in front of me.

It was quite solid.

And very cold.

I took a deep breath. Come on, Lynna. Whatever the hell this is, that's not what you're here for.

Straightening my shoulders, I turned my back to the pods and examined what looked remarkably like Qal’s navigation console.

The keys were set up a little differently, but eventually I figured out where the memory console was.

Probably.

Carefully, I slid the second to last gem out of my bracelet.

It jumped out of my hand as I got close to the metal surface, its magnetic fastening setting it firmly into place.

I held my breath.

Slowly, the gem glowed, pulsing a deep purple.

It was working. Cloning their navigation logs, every place this damn ship had been, every world from which it had stolen women, every place it had delivered them to.

As soon as we had their records, we’d have some answers.

I chewed my lip, glancing at the door. Nothing I could do would make the drive cloning device work any faster. Reluctantly, I turned back to those pods.

Now that I’d calmed down a bit, I saw the clear ovals weren't entirely transparent, but slightly opaque around the edges of the opening, thinning at the middles.

Like frost.

I touched one again.

The cold. Was this some sort of cryogenic chamber?

Terran science had played with the concept for decades, but the results had been even more disastrous than the Flosh drive.

But that didn't mean it couldn't have been done here.

I studied the faces of the five men inside. I laughed at myself. I had no way of telling if they were men or women or other genders I hadn't encountered yet.

But all five were of different species. Two had scars down their faces. Could be something ceremonial or cultural, but the marks were jagged.

Looked random, like from a fight.

All five looked tough. Hard, even unconscious in their pods.

Pods.

Wasn’t that what the one guard had been afraid of?

Could it have something to do with this?

A soft beep let me know that the cloning unit had finished its job. Thank goodness.

I twisted away from the navigation panel and slid the gem back into its slot in my bracelet. Definitely would need to get one of these things. Useful, even if I’d rather not spend too much time in a future where I needed to be carrying such devices all the time.

My jaw ached from holding it so tightly against the sleeping gas.

I couldn't wait to get off the ship, back to Valtic. Back to safety.

I slid open the bridge door and began to retrace my steps, but was suddenly jerked back.

“Don't know what you are,” the bull-creature slurred, “but you ain't supposed to be here.”

His fingers caught the back of my dress in a massive fist, and nothing I could do was going to get loose.

Dammit. This was my own fault. I've been so worried that my clothes would be torn, ripped away, leaving me defenseless, that we'd gone through every outfit in the costuming room, until we found this particular dress.

Loose and flowing, it didn't look like much, but unlike the rest of the gauzy fabrics, it wouldn't tear.

At the time, it’d seemed like a good idea.

At the moment, I would've suffered a little insult to my modesty if it would allow me to escape.

“Let me go,” I turned and begged, but all I got was a clear look at the unmarked black uniform the guard wore. Nothing indicated Enclave or Dominion.

Nothing at all. Just a wall of muscle with no interest in letting me go.

“Don’t make me do this,” I sobbed, my hand already reaching into the hidden pocket.

His eyes narrowed. “Chances are good you'll be made to do lots of things, girly. You shouldn't be here. And you shouldn't have tried your tricks on me.”

His disgusting words made me feel a tiny bit better about what I was about to do. But I still hated it.

I jabbed my last syringe into the muscle of his forearm and shoved the plunger down.

“What the—” his eyes widened as he stared at his arm.

“I’m so sorry,” I murmured, then tore free.

But I couldn't outrun his screams as the toxin began to burn through his veins.

I mashed the emergency button over and over again, the last gem of the bracelet blinking a frantic red.

I needed Valtic.

I needed him now.

I couldn't do this. I didn’t know what I’d been thinking.

I made it to the outer door that the guards had used when they dragged me into the ship. It seemed like hours and hours ago, but surely had been far less than that.

“Open, you stupid thing,” I begged, swiping the card that had worked for the bridge over and over through the slot.

But it wouldn’t budge.

Why would they a have different code to get out?

I don't know, Lynna, I chided myself. You've got security codes on the external doors of the Rogue Star, don't you?

“Please work.” I swiped it again.

Still nothing.

“Lynna,” Valtic’s voice rang out. “Stand back from the door, well back.”

Shocked, I froze, then hurried to obey.

Immediately, so perfectly timed he must've been watching my position on his tablet, a deafening clang filled the air as the door blew off its seal and smashed into the opposite wall.

Valtic strode through the smoking door like a warrior god and I ran for his arms.

“Where are they?”

“It's done,” I whispered. “We should go now. I want to go.”

“Something scared you.”

His eyes roved over the corridor as if waiting for someone to emerge and fight him, challenge him.

I ran my fingers down his face until his attention snapped back to me.

“Please take me away from here.”

In a flash, his expression changed. “Of course.” He glanced at my bare feet. “You can't run like that. Hold on.”

He swung me into his arms, cradled me against his chest, and then dove out the hatch onto the dark dock and sprinted into the night.

I strained my ears for the sound of weapons, of pounding feet.

There was nothing.

“I don’t think anyone is chasing us,” I murmured into his chest.

“Doesn’t matter.” His low voice rumbled in my ear where I’d pressed against him. “We’re sticking to the plan.”

We entered the Skimmer and it roared to life. Within minutes, we were in a more populated area of the station, and he parked it on a corner. He rummaged through his satchel and handed me a pair of flat slippers. “Time for more later.”

I nodded, happy to be in slightly more sensible shoes, and stepped out of the Skimmer. He handed me the next item. A long, loose, hooded gown, bright crimson with golden trim.

Sliding the thin fabric over my dress, I hoped we’d planned right. Anyone seeing me would remember the dress, not the person inside.

We hoped.

Valtic grabbed my hand, pulling me into a narrow alley that let out onto a busy city street. He shoved his way through the crowd, ignoring the outraged cries.

“I think you pushed that person over,” I said.

“They’ll be fine.”

We ran several blocks before stopping, listening against the din of the city for signs of pursuit.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“Not sure. I haven’t spent much time in Katzul.”

“This will be a good excuse to explore the city, then.” My smile was too big and too forced as I struggled to incorporate some normalcy into our situation. Valtic must’ve realized what I was trying to do. He smiled and extended his hand, which I took.

“You’re going to have to teach me how to look like a tourist enjoying the scenic route,” he said.

“It’s not hard,” I replied, squeezing his hand. “Just look around a lot and smile.”

“I’m not very good at either of those things.”

I realized he was trying to make me laugh. “You’ll get the hang of it,” I assured him. We walked in silence for a few minutes. Valtic tried to steer us in the direction of the dock, or at least where we thought the docks should be.

“You did an excellent job,” he said suddenly. “The scans you took were very detailed.”

“I found something else while I was copying the drive, too. But I’m not sure what it is.”

“Anything at all will be helpful. We have to connect the Dominion and The Terror with tangible evidence. But first, let’s get off the street.”

This part of the plan had been loose. We didn’t know what sort of resistance we’d come up against. How many might follow us.

“That building over there is an inn.” He gestured to a run-down place covered in neon signs I couldn’t read. “Let’s stay there. If we get a room with a window facing the port, we can monitor for threats. We’ll get back the Skimmer when we leave.”

“Or we can take a few hours to rest,” I nudged him.

“Right,” he laughed dryly. “Somehow, I never think of that.”

Valtic

I circled us around the block once before we slowed down and walked into the inn like a regular couple out in the night.

“Ahh, hello. Hello,” the innkeeper said cheerfully as we entered. She was a middle-aged Tacseub woman of gray skin, white hair, and laugh lines all over her face. “How can I help you two young people this evening?”

Lynna placed her head against my arm as I looked down at her and smiled. I turned my attention back to the innkeeper. “We were wondering if you happened to have a room available. We’re a little tired from walking all over the city.”

“Why, of course, sweetie. Come this way and we’ll get you both settled right in.” A hint of a twang to her voice I hadn’t noticed at first brought back memories…good memories. She worked her way behind a counter, pulled out a small book, and opened it. “Now, my name is Besen and if you two lovely young ones need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. Now, can I get your names?”

“Well, see, that’s sort of the problem,” I said in a low tone as I leaned against the counter. “You see, I work for her family and we’re not really supposed to be together, if you understand my meaning.”

She nodded knowingly as she picked up her pen. “So, how can I help Mr. and Mrs. Flen?” She smiled at us as she wrote the names down, glancing at Lynna. “By the way, you two are a very cute couple. Your parents are fools for not letting you be with him in public.”

“Thank you,” Lynna smiled. “I agree with you.”

With a smile and a small chuckle, I interrupted the two ladies. “We’d appreciate some—privacy—if you don’t mind.” I reached into a pocket and pulled out a few extra credits to help emphasize my point.

“Oh, of course, of course,” Besen said with a grin, and a quick grab of the money. She pocketed the credits and reached behind her to a board filled with card keys. “Room Seventeen,” she whispered.

“Thank you. Um, your kitchen wouldn’t happen to be open, would it?” I asked.

She winked. “Just tell me what you want, and I’ll have it ready for you. I’ll add it to your room.”

Ah, as nice as she was, she wasn’t going to just give us things. I had wondered how far my luck would go. “Thank you,” I said as Lynna and I made our way to the stairs leading up to the rooms.

“Aren’t you going to get us some food?” Lynna asked when we reached the top of the stairs.

“In a few. I wanted to make sure the room was okay first.”

“Well, aren’t we paranoid?” she joked. I didn’t answer her. I put the key card into the door, opened it, and checked the room. It was surprisingly nice. There was a relieving room, a small kitchenette with a cooling unit, and a bed…one bed…with an entertainment screen against the wall. It was safe.

“Okay, I’ll go get the food,” I said as I turned around.

“And while you do, I’ll get cleaned up.” She hopped up on her tiptoes and kissed me on the cheek before heading into the relieving room. I closed the door behind me and headed back downstairs.

“Besen?”

“Mr. Flen.” She joked as she looked away from her computer screen. “Were you looking for that food now?”

“You read my mind,” I smiled. “I’m thinking a nice, big meal, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course. We actually still have some food left over from our dinner rush, if you’re interested.”

“As long as it’s edible and not too spicy, that should be fine.”

“Then come on,” she waved for me to follow her. “You can help me load it up.” She led me back to the kitchen and handed me a large plate and a wooden tray to put it on as she opened her industrial cool-box and pulled out platters, pots, and boxes of dinner leftovers.

“Impressive.” That was all I could say as we loaded up the plates and she chatted idly. I didn’t pay attention enough to know what she was talking about, but I did follow along enough to know when to laugh or say something.

With an armful of food that weighed far more than I would have thought, I returned to the room. Unable to get in on my own, I lightly kicked the door as a way of knocking. When the door opened, I rushed in and set the food down on the small table next to the bed before turning around.

There she was, standing in the doorway in nothing but her towel, cleaned and back to her normal human self. Stunned speechless, my breath caught. After a few moments, I inhaled sharply.

“Ha. It looks as though you’ve forgotten the basics of life there, tiger,” Lynna chuckled.

“Uh, um, well, I…” I stumbled through my words a bit before pointing at the food. “I got food.” That was pathetic.

“That you did,” Lynna smiled. “Give me a minute.” She went back into the relieving room. I looked through the kitchenette cabinets, found some forks and smaller plates, and set them on the table. As Lynna joined me, redressed in the bright red gown, I smiled at her and we started eating.

“I’m impressed with you,” I said over a mouthful of a fantastic bread roll filled with a sumptuous paste.

“Why?”

After I swallowed, I explained myself. “You did very well for yourself back there. You handled things like a professional.”

“Thank you,” she said with a slight blush. “It was scary as hell.”

“I bet. What did you find? What does the ship look like? Were there any other women inside?”

“I didn’t see anything like that,” she answered, a faraway look on her face.

“What's bothering you?”

She shook her head. “On the bridge, there were five tubes.” She stopped, and it was all I could do to keep from brushing her damp hair off her cheek. “Is there cryotechnology here?”

I blinked, surprised at the change of topic. “Of a sort.” I put my fork down. “It works, the body survives, but the person inside the body…” I shook my head. “I don’t know the science, that’s more your field that mine. But I don't know of any world that has managed to find a way to repeatedly freeze and thaw someone without slowly turning their brain to mush.”

She frowned. “Then why would there have been what I think are five cryo-tubes on the bridge of The Terror?”

“Couldn't be.” I barked without thinking about it.

Her eyes widened.

“No, I believe what you saw, but there's no reason. No reason at all I could imagine to keep people in cryo.” I mentally ran through options, discarding every possibility as nonsense. “Especially not to your bridge crew. After two or three rounds of freezing, there wouldn't be enough of their brain to do more than mash at the buttons.”

“Yeah,” she said slowly. “Which means there must be a reason. We’re just not seeing it.”

She stood, the thin fabric gliding over her lush curves, the teasing shapes driving me wild. I stifled a groan. It was worse than if she’d been wearing nothing at all.

I thought about that for a moment.

Lynna. Wearing nothing at all.

Bare skin.

I might have to change my mind.

She brought back the bracelet from my bag and slid out the purple gem that had contained the cloning drive.

“I wonder if this will tell us.”

Lynna

It wasn’t until my eyes settled on the bed in our rented room that the adrenaline finally left my body. My limbs went limp, my shoulders sagged, and it felt like my eyelids were made of concrete.

At that moment, I couldn’t think of anything else other than the way my head was going to feel when it landed on the pillow. I was too exhausted to think of the files we found and too numb to think about the guard I’d killed.

Right now, I just needed to sleep.

Shouting jolted me awake. Fearing the worst, that The Terror crew had found us and attacked the inn, I shot up in bed. I quickly realized the horrible yelling was coming from inside the room.

Valtic tossed and thrashed beside me hard enough to make the bedframe slam into the wall. His thrashing was punctuated by strangled shouts. Veins bunched on his forehead and neck.

“Valtic?” I said, still groggy and a little disoriented. I reached out and touched his arm. His skin felt hot. As I realized that something was wrong, I cast a glance around the room. No one else was in the room. I didn’t know what was wrong with Valtic. With a jolt of panic, I wondered if he’d somehow gotten pierced by the needle that’d held the toxin. But then I remembered I left that particular needle in the arm of that guard.

My victim.

“Valtic!” I said louder this time. He wasn’t hearing me. As I watched him, I finally woke up to what was wrong. He was caught in the throes of a night terror. I’d seen this a few times on Persephone Station.

Some of the women, particularly women who’d served in the Space Force, suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Night terrors were a common symptom. I realized Valtic’s brain chemistry was different than that of a human, but something similar must’ve been happening to him.

I sat up and managed to grasp his broad shoulders, squeezing and shaking, though it was like trying to shake a mountain. Determined to wake him, I straddled his torso, careful not to put all of my weight on him. I grabbed his wrists to keep him from accidentally striking me in his sleep.

“Valtic!” I shouted over his strangled yells. I said his name over and over, not knowing what else to do. Eventually, it worked. He shot upright, his head almost knocking into mine. He looked at me, his eyes blurry and unfocused.

“I’m going to kill them,” he snarled.

“Kill who?” I asked. It took considerable effort to keep my voice calm.

“Where are they?” he bellowed. He ripped his wrists effortlessly from my grasp. I scrambled off him to give him space to breathe and sort out his surroundings. Disorientation was a common side-effect of night terrors. Assuming what Valtic was experiencing was the same as what a human experienced, he’d realize where he was within the next minute or so. However, I wasn’t anticipating that he’d get out of the bed. As soon as his feet touched the wooden floor, I was out of bed. I rushed around to his side, reaching him just as he stood up. He took a step in the direction of the door, but I pushed against his chest.

“Valtic, where are you going?”

“I have to find them,” he grumbled.

“Find who?” He didn’t answer. “Open your eyes and look at me.” I reached up and cupped his face, tilting his head down so he could look me in the eye. Though his eyes were open, I could tell he wasn’t truly seeing the room in front of him. I gave his face a gentle tap, just enough to force him to focus. Between one blink and the next, his eyes grew clear.

He looked at me and blinked in confusion. “Lynna?”

“That’s right,” I smiled. Relief flooded me. Valtic brought a hand up to stroke my hair. His hand trembled.

“I had a dream.” He seemed to struggle over his words.

“I know.” I took his hand and led him back to the bed. I sat down on the mattress and patted the space beside me. Valtic joined me, still looking a little disoriented.

“Did I say anything?” he asked.

“You were looking for someone. You didn’t sound happy.”

“I haven’t had a dream like that in weeks. I thought I was getting better,” Valtic said quietly.

“If these dreams are fewer and further between, that definitely means you’re getting better,” I assured him. I reached out and gently laid my hand on his bare shoulder. His muscles relaxed under my touch, so I started to gently rub his back.

“I should be better than that,” he muttered to himself.

“Says who?”

“Says me.”

“I think you need to cut yourself some slack,” I said softly. “Do you want to talk about what you saw?”

“Usually, when I have those kinds of dreams, I see my dead unit-mates. Usually, they’re bloody and missing arms, legs, eyes, or teeth.”

I shuddered involuntarily. I’d seen my fair share of death, but never something as gory as that. I counted myself lucky.

“Did you see them again?” I asked.

“No,” Valtic replied. He placed his hand over mine and looked me in the eyes. “I saw you die. You died over and over again. Whenever you died, time went backward and the dream began again. I saw you die in so many different ways as I couldn’t save you.”

“Oh.” I felt my heart break for him. Without thinking, I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him. “You’ve already saved me, though. I’m alive right now because you’ve always been there to save me.”

“I almost wasn’t last time. You were on board The Terror alone. If anything even went slightly wrong, I might not have been able to get to you.”

“You were able to get to me,” I told him. “And we got out of there together.”

“I hate that you put yourself in danger. I hate that I didn’t try harder to stop it.”

“Can I tell you something?” I asked in a whisper.

“Anything.”

“I hated being on board The Terror alone. I never want to do anything like that again. I don’t think I’m cut out for it,” I admitted. “I hate it even more now that I know I’ve caused you so much distress.” I brought my hand up to touch his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into my palm.

“Can we agree that we won’t be doing that again?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “But I don’t know how I’m going to cope with you diving head first into danger. That’s the only reason I volunteered to sneak on to The Terror.”

“What?” Valtic furrowed his brow.

“I didn’t want anything to happen to you,” I whispered. “I don’t know how I’d live with myself if you were killed.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Valtic assured me. “I’ll always find a way to come back to you.”

I lifted my chin to look into Valtic’s eyes. Before I could say anything else, he lowered his head, his firm lips fell on mine, his hands wrapped around my back, pulling me tighter into him.

As he pulled me closer to him, my hip rocked against something hard, massive.

With a gasp, my mouth fell open against his and his tongue took full advantage, thrusting against mine.

The fingers of one hand wrapped into my hair, holding me tight, while the other kneaded my hip through the thin fabric of the dress.

I rocked against him again, deliberately this time. It was his turn to groan against me. “Be careful, Lynna,” he whispered, his eyes almost glowing in the half-light.

“I was.” I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his neck, then nipped him lightly. “This is my reward for being careful.”

With a low growl he pushed me back on the bed, covered me with his body, his weight on his elbows on either side of me.

“Are you certain,” he managed through gritted teeth.

I sat up slightly in the tiny space available and pressed my lips against his.

“Very,” I breathed against his mouth.

One hand ran down my side, and then he slowly, carefully, worked the hem of the dress up, over my hip.

The trail of his fingers on my skin felt electric as he stroked up and down, reaching the crease of my thigh and then following it, closer to where I felt as if I were burning for his touch.

His mouth left mine to drop a trail of kisses down my neck and curved back up to my ear.

The first whisper-light touch of his fingers against my slick folds came in time with the feel of his teeth at my earlobe.

“Valtic,” I shuddered, my arms wrapped helplessly around his neck.

He wasn't just making love to me, this was a systematic assault against my senses.

Another gentle stroke, then another, and one fingertip pierced me as I arched against the bed.

“Lovely,” he breathed against my neck.

He balanced back on his knees and lifted my hips from the bed with one hand, tossing the dress to the side. I lay completely bare before him.

His eyes roved over me, taking in every curve, but before I could feel embarrassed, he lifted my hips again and fell upon my pussy as if he were starving.

His finger returned to my wetness, plunging inside me, joined by another while his tongue circled my clit until white stars flashed in my vision.

I drummed my fists on the sheet, the spiraling tension within threatening to knock me down until, with one final thrust of his tongue, I shattered, limbs helplessly shaking as the orgasm tore through me.

He crawled up, kissing along my side, then paused at my sensitive nipples, still drawn into tight buds.

“I love the way your skin tastes,” he murmured, then licked and nipped, alternating breasts until I thought I would come again simply from his attentions there.

“Valtic,” I breathed, sure I couldn't take much more of this, surely he had to let me stop, think, catch my breath,

But he had different plans.

He shifted his weight until he straddled my legs, one hand resuming its place between my thighs. His kisses were no less demanding, his tongue now timed with the thrusts of his fingers. A second, then a third, now penetrated me, stretching me, driving into me, his thumb flicking back-and-forth against my clit, alternating with the heel of his massive hand grinding into my mound.

He broke away from plundering my mouth to breathe in my ear. “Come now, darling, I want to hold you, feel everything that flows through your body.”

And with that demand, I could refuse him nothing, bucking and screaming until I lay limp in his arms, his kisses gentle now, soothing me.

“You're going to have to let me get my breath before we take care of you,” I gasped, curling into his warmth.

His arms tightened around me as his body went rigid. “If you think I didn't enjoy that, you’re very mistaken.”

I laughed. “I'm pretty sure you did.” I reached down to feel the hard length between his legs.

If anything, it felt more colossal now. Harder. I stroked it through the fabric of his trousers. “But I know that's not all you’d enjoy.”

“Lynna,” he growled through clenched teeth, “I can't. I might hurt you.”

I leaned back so that I could stare into his beautiful eyes.

“Don't be ridiculous. There's no one I trust more to never, ever hurt me.”

He still held me like a fragile thing.

Dammit.

I wiggled back, out of the safety of his arms, and lay on the bed, sprawled and wanton before him.

“Well, if you're not going to put anything else here…”

I raised my knees and then dragged one finger down my wet folds.

Back and forth, his eyes watched every moment.

I let one finger slip between my lips, idling driving back and forth. It didn't feel anything like he had.

Nothing would feel like he had.

His breathing grew hard, shaky.

Good.

I slowly raised my hand, let it stroke my belly, leaving a shiny wet trail, and then returned to my show.

“Are you sure you can't help me with this?” I put every ounce of need and desire I possessed into my voice, then slid my finger inside me again.

He snapped.

As he tore his pants off, I caught just a brief glimpse of his member before he grabbed me by the hips and flipped me over, one giant arm reaching around my waist to knead at my breast, the other taking the place of my hand.

As he pinched my clit, I bucked against him, arching my back as he settled between my knees.

With a sudden thrust, the broad tip of his cock breached me and I gasped.

“Lynna.” His voice sounded desperate. “I can still stop.”

I pushed my hips back against him. “Don't you dare.”

I wasn't that surprised. I'd operated on Orrin for god’s sake, knew exactly what the anatomy of a male Shein would be like.

But no one, nothing, had prepared me for the friction of every ridge as he slowly drove his massive cock into me, his fingers rubbing my mound, coaxing tiny waves of electric jolts that mounted and mixed with the pressure from his hand at my breast.

And the secondary appendage. It really did move on its own, and as he seated himself fully inside of me, I was hit with an entirely new sensation as it prodded, filling my ass.

I squeezed down on him in surprised response and he drove against me, his hand never moving from my clit, holding me in place as he thrust into me, his massive arms a cage around me that I never wanted to escape from again.

“Lynna, my Lynna,” he chanted.

I wanted to answer him, but the onslaught of sensations from every direction shattered against me, left me limp in his arms as wave after wave ran through me, spiraling until I was overwhelmed and undone.

And still he drove on until, with a shuddering thrust, he held still, filling me, deep inside, for a long, long moment.

My vision went starry and at that moment, nothing else existed but him and me.

Forever.

He spasmed deep inside me, his sturdy arms shuddering as he held me closer.

Finally, we collapsed in a tangle of sweaty limbs.

“Think you'll sleep now?” I finally managed.

He pulled me on top of him, pillowing my head on his chest. “We’ll see. If not? I kind of like what happens.”

Giggling, I patted his shoulder, and within moments was asleep.

Valtic

I woke up the next morning, groggy, confused, and excited. My nightmares had changed to now include Lynna, and that had scared me more. Lynna was next to me, her arm still wrapped around me as she lay on her stomach, her naked back exposed. I wanted to run my hand up and down that back, but I didn’t want to wake her. I carefully, oh so carefully, extricated myself from the bed and her arm, did my business, and made my way downstairs to the kitchen.

I was happy to have put on my shirt as I noticed I wasn’t the only one awake early. The main room, while sparsely populated by patrons, had enough people in it to have made me uncomfortable if I’d been shirtless. I nodded at the couple at the base of the stairs, gave the woman in the corner a light wave, and tried to smile politely to the family sitting next to the kitchen. They all returned my gestures with smiles or nods of their own.

I wondered if this was what a ‘normal’ life would be like, saying hello to your neighbors and being amiable with them. I shrugged off my thoughts as I smelled breakfast.

“Good morning, Mr. Flen.” I turned my thoughts away from the food and looked to the far side of the room. Besen was sitting there, a tablet in her hand a steaming mug in front of her. She waved at me with a genuine smile.

I walked over. “Good morning to you as well, Ms. Besen.”

“Did you sleep well?” she asked, expression knowing.

I shrugged a bit with my left shoulder. “Not as well as I had hoped, but much better than usual.”

She took a moment to process what I had said, then smiled, almost sadly. “I…am glad that you had a ‘better than usual’ night. Tell me, will you and the missus be joining us for breakfast,” she began as she looked around the room, her gaze settling a bit longer on the lone woman than the others, “or will you be dining in bed?” She put a little extra inflection on the last part of her sentence as she motioned for me to sit.

So I sat, and hopefully made the right decision. “I believe I will be surprising my dear with breakfast in bed, if that’s alright with you, of course.” I kept my voice light and innocent but inclined in when Besen leaned forward.

She whispered. “Good. That lady right there is one of my usual patrons, and she’s not a fan of people she doesn’t know, especially ones that look like they’re not from here, if you catch my meaning.”

I nodded in understanding and whispered back. “I thank you for the information. When would be a good time to leave?”

“Just before lunch. She likes to have a nap between breakfast and lunch before she heads about her day. I’ll knock on your door when she’s gone.”

I stood up, nodded my thanks to her, and asked, “So, is breakfast self-serve or do we order?”

“Why, my boy, did you not see the fabulous buffet line over on the far wall?” she laughed as she sat back and began reading from her tablet again. I looked over, and as advertised, there was breakfast laid out on a long counter against the wall. I flashed Besen a thankful smile and made my way over.

I first made Lynna a plate, then one for myself. I knew she liked what the women called ‘bacon and eggs,’ and having seen what they called bacon, I felt that I had made a good choice getting her several slices of Ventarian boar to go with the scrambled eggs. I took our plates, as well as two cups of coffee, up to our room, hoping to surprise Lynna.

Instead, she surprised me. She was already awake and dressed and was just finishing making up the bed. “I was hoping you were getting food. I’m starving,” she said as she gave the pillows a final fluff.

“You do know they have people to do that when we leave, right?” I remarked as I set the plates and cups down.

“I know, I just always hated leaving a messed-up room if I stayed anywhere. Oh, is that…bacon?”

I laughed at her enthusiasm, drawing a look of shock and amusement from Lynna. “What?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing. I’m just not used to hearing you laugh.”

I stopped and apologized.

“What? No, no, don’t apologize,” she said as she rushed over and put her hand on my arm. “I thought it was nice.”

“You did?” I asked, still a bit embarrassed by my actions. I hadn’t laughed in a long time, it had always seemed wrong for me to do so.

“Mm-hmm. It really was.” She looked up at me and I could see in her eyes that she was being genuine. I nodded and directed her to our breakfast, holding a chair out for her. “Ah, thank you, my kind sir.”

“My pleasure,” I said as I took my seat. As we ate, she smiled at me, then her expression turned a little darker. “What is it?” I asked as I sipped from my coffee.

“Would…would you tell me about your dreams, and your unit?” she asked slowly. I had told her last night that I usually dreamt of my dead comrades, of course she would be curious about them. I…didn’t want to tell her, not because I didn’t want her to know, but because I didn’t want to burden her with my guilt. However, seeing the concern in her eyes eased my mind enough to share.

I cleared my throat, pushed my plate away, and sat back in my chair. “Uh, it was several years ago, when I was in the military. Before all of this. I…I was in charge of a small unit, twenty-seven members, and we were sometimes given the jobs that no one else wanted.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We had been ordered to clear out a small rebel attachment that, according to our intel, had decided to hole up in a small mountain village. According to the information we had, they were lightly armed and poorly situated.

“We headed up. It was my decision to not take our heavy equipment. We were properly armored, but we didn’t take our big vehicles with the heavy armor. It…it was a mistake that cost us.”

Lynna moved her chair next to mine and put her hands on my legs. “What happened?”

“Our informant had either lied or been wrong when he said that the way up was clear. We were driving up one of the side roads to get to the village and…” I stopped. My voice had begun to shake, and my eyes welled up. I punched my leg several times, my emotions getting the better of me.

“Hey, hey. Stop. I’m here,” Lynna said as she hugged me. “I’m here. It’s okay. You don’t have to finish.”

I leaned my head onto hers and closed my eyes. A shuddering breath later, I picked my head up and gently pushed her away. “Yes, I do.” I kissed her on the forehead before starting again. “Our intel said the road was clear. Our first transport hit a mine, flipping it into the air before it came back down on its roof. A rebel came out from behind a small boulder and launched a rocket at the rear of the line, hitting two of our vehicles. I ordered us to fire back, but we never stood a chance. By the time our backup arrived, I was the only one left alive, and I should have died with them.”

“No.”

“Yes,” I said, holding her hands. “I had a gun pointed at my head. He pulled the trigger, but his weapon jammed, then our backup was there. All of my men were dead, and it was my fault.” I looked at her, oblivious to everything but the vision of the past.

She reached up and wiped my tears away. “It wasn’t your fault. You went with the information you had. It wasn’t your fault.”

“It was. I should have…”

“There was nothing you could have done,” she said gently. “You weren’t the only one with that information. All of you had it. Your superiors had it, as well. You all trusted it. It wasn’t your fault.”

I nodded, even though I didn’t believe her. In my mind, I should have done better. I should have tried harder to verify the information we had.

“I…I might not understand what you went through, but I’ve seen my own hell, so I get how you feel,” she told me as she ducked down to look me in the eyes.

At my arched eyebrow, she took her own shuddering breath.

“You know about the Flosh drives, right?”

I nodded. “Barbaric.” I had heard from the other men that the Terran women talked about this. I couldn’t understand how any government could put its soldiers, scientists, even their convicts, into such an unstable form of transportation.

“As the doctor, it was my job to open the pods. On a good day, I’d get them out, get them oriented, make sure they drank a lot of water.”

She shivered, and I ground my teeth.

“On a bad day, I was the first to see what was left of them if they didn’t make it.” Unshed tears shone in her eyes.

“The cryo-tubes, or whatever they were, on the bridge of The Terror, it just made me realize that there’s no escaping the past.” She raised her chin. “But we can get through it, right?”

I pulled her to me, nestling her on my lap as I kissed her salt-stained cheeks. “Of course we can.” The scent of her, the warmth of her in my arms, cleared the darkness, until it was nothing more than a faint memory. “You make me want to get through anything.” And I would, for her.

And then words weren’t enough, would never be enough.

I kissed her again, sweetly, gently now.

Her trust in me, her openness through my wildness of last night had broken open something in me.

The wound was still there, might always be.

But it was cleaned now. Maybe, someday, might even heal.

And it was all due to the wonderful, generous woman in my arms.

The tension flowed out of her as I rubbed her back in small circles, kissing and tasting down her neck to the delicate curve of her shoulder.

“I think I'm still a little hungry,” I murmured.

The flush of her skin did as much to tell me of her readiness as the change in her scent.

I lifted her from my lap, carried her from the small table with three easy steps to the bed and when she lay before me, I wondered at my fortune.

How could someone as broken as I deserve someone like her?

Her lazy smile caught my attention. “See anything you want?” she teased.

I snagged her ankle with my hand and lifted high, then gently kissed every bit of her skin, teasing her, holding her open, until I reached her sweet honey.

I released hot breath upon her delicate folds and she shivered.

Last night had been madness, but today I would take my time, worship her like the goddess she was.

Wrapping my arms under her thighs, I pulled her towards me until her knees draped over my shoulders and I knelt at the side of the bed.

I glanced up and she gazed down on me with a look of openness, of trust, and maybe even something else.

I kept my eyes fixed on hers as I carefully swirled my tongue around the quivering nub at the top of her slit.

Her head rolled back and I stopped.

“Keep watching me,” I ordered.

She reached down and laced her fingers with mine and slowly, deliberately, I lapped and sucked at her until her control crumbled and she flew apart.

In one swift move, I stood, shucked my trousers, and buried myself to the hilt in her silken heat.

Her eyes rolled back as the first orgasm rolled into the next, as I slowly, relentlessly, drove into her.

Her soft moans filled the room every time I pulled out, joined by sharper cries each time I drove back in.

Over and over.

My own need built like a fire at the base of my spine, willing me to give over to it, to break and claim her again.

This was for her. I wanted to watch her give in.

Her frantic eyes found mine as her face grew slack.

“Let go, Lynna,” I whispered as I drove into her again, my secondary cock writhing against her clit.

I steadily pulled out, making sure she felt every ridge, and then pounded back into her.

“I’ll always catch you.”

With that, she shattered.

“Valtic!” she screamed as she thrashed upon the bed, her tightness increasing, magnifying into a pleasure I’d never imagined.

And with the sound of my name on her lips, my own control broke and I bucked into her, roaring my release.

Lynna

I reapplied my disguise, the silvery hue of a Shein woman now, and twisted my hair back into the bun.

“Here, let me.”

Valtic’s fingers were gentle through my hair, deftly forming the bun and tucking the pins into place.

“Where did you learn to do that?” I met his eyes in the mirror, and he grinned.

“Sisters. Lots of younger sisters.”

So many secrets to learn about him. And I couldn’t wait.

As we said our goodbyes to the innkeeper, I found myself marveling at the astounding changes in Valtic. He’d been through so much in his life. When I met him, he was prickly, bordering on rude. Now, he shook hands with the innkeeper and thanked her for a wonderful night. I kept my head down, the hood pulled down low to cover my changed skin.

“Come in and say hello whenever you’re next in town,” the Besen said with genuine enthusiasm.

“We certainly will.” Valtic smiled. He actually smiled at a stranger. He reached for my hand as we left the inn.

Once we stepped into the city, his demeanor shifted back to the hardened soldier I’d grown familiar with.

But he still held my hand.

“I don’t think The Terror crew followed us to the inn,” Valtic said as he scanned the crowds. “But I don’t think we should walk directly back to the Rogue Star.”

“What do you suggest?”

“We could pretend to do some sightseeing,” Valtic suggested. “The more we walk around, the easier it will be for me to ascertain whether or not we’re being followed.”

“Or we could actually do some sightseeing. As horrible as this place is, it’s an architectural masterpiece.”

“You look at the sights. I’ll look for enemies. Deal?”

“Deal. Though if I see something amazing, I’m going to make you look at it,” I warned him.

“I can’t imagine anything amazing in this cesspool of a city,” Valtic grumbled.

“Those floating estates are breathtaking. Can you imagine living in a place like that?”

“If I lived in a place like that, it would mean I’d done something reprehensible to get there,” Valtic said dismissively.

“Or you can pretend you purchased the estate by completely legitimate means,” I prompted.

“What would the purpose of that be?”

“Fun, you big grump,” I playfully nudged his shoulder.

“What’s a grump?”

“It’s what you are.” I gave his hand a squeeze.

He returned the squeeze. “I sense you are jesting in some way.”

“I’m teasing you because you’re incredibly fun to tease,” I grinned.

“As long as you’re enjoying yourself, you can tease me to your heart’s content,” Valtic smiled down at me.

I laughed. “It’s no fun teasing you if you’re going to be so sweet about it.”

“Oh. Well, in that case,” Valtic pulled his expression down into a dramatic frown, “I dislike your jesting.”

“Much better,” I giggled.

Valtic and I strolled hand in hand through the city. I took great pleasure in craning my neck up to look at the floating estates above, though from my angle there wasn’t much to see. After about an hour of aimless strolling, Valtic felt satisfied that we weren’t being followed.

“It’s safe to return to the Rogue Star,” he announced. “Or did you want to purchase a ticket for an aerial tour of the floating estates?”

“You can do that?” I gasped.

“No,” Valtic chuckled. “I just wanted to see how excited you’d get.”

“Very funny,” I rolled my eyes.

We made our way back to the entryway of the port. As the Rogue Star came into view, I realized how much I’d missed the comfort and familiarity of the ship.

Other than our brief time on Dominion Outpost Nine, this had been the most time I’d spent off the Rogue Star since Captain Dejar and his crew rescued us. It felt like a home to me now in a way Persephone Station never had.

I couldn’t wait to see the other women. I missed them.

Even Shenna’s menagerie.

“I’ll take that drive to Captain Dejar right away,” Valtic said. “And you can go wash that dye off.”

I shrugged. “It hasn’t been on long enough to bother me. Not enough to delay finding out what we’ve brought home.”

Valtic entered an access code into the panel by the door and the door slid open. The cool, recycled air of the ship brushed against my cheeks like a greeting.

“I’m so glad to be home,” I sighed.

“And you still have no desire to fling yourself into danger?” Valtic asked.

“None.” I shook my head. “I’m happy to stay in the med bay for the rest of my life.”

“Good,” he grinned. “I won’t have to worry about you in there.”

We were greeted by Shein and human crewmembers as we walked through the ship. Everyone had questions for us. I hugged every Persephone woman I saw.

“You were gone for so long!” Shenna gasped when I embraced her. “We were up all night worried sick.”

“There were some complications,” I told her. “But, as you can see, we’re back safe and sound.”

“Did you find anything to nail the Dominion?” Maris asked.

“Possibly. We have to go to Captain Dejar first, but I’ll tell everyone everything at the next ladies’ dinner.”

“We should have one tonight,” Shenna suggested.

“I’d like that,” I smiled. Valtic took my hand once more and led me in the direction of Captain Dejar’s office.

His office door was open in preparation for our arrival. The captain, Aavat, Kovor, and Kalyn were all present. Kalyn crossed the room to embrace me.

“I was so worried something had happened to you,” she said to me before looking up at Valtic. “Both of you,” she added.

“I know,” I hugged her back. “But we all agreed it was safer this way. No direct route back to the Star, no comms. Just to be sure.”

“I still don’t have to like it,” she grumbled.

“Were you followed on your way back here?” Aavat asked.

“No,” Valtic replied. “I made sure of it. You'll need to send someone for the Skimmer.”

“We’re glad to see you back unharmed,” Captain Dejar said. “What did you find?”

Valtic pulled out his tablet, synched it to the Rogue Star’s computers, and then threw the route I had taken as tracked by my subdermal tracer up on the screen.

“That, plus the camera shots I took of the exterior while I was planting the micro-transponders, should give us a better idea of what that ship's true capabilities are,” Valtic said. “Not everything, but it's more.”

“What about the drive?”

I handed over the bracelet to Valtic, who easily pried open the gem-like casing to reveal the copied drive within. “Let’s find out.”

Dejar slid the chip into a tiny port on his console.

At first, all that appeared was a mess of unusual symbols, but after a moment it faded into characters I recognized. Shein. The AI must have started translating.

“That's....” Both Dejar and Aavat looked confused. “That's not right.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“There should be more. Lots more,” Dejar said, eyes fixed on the display.

I shook my head. “I waited until it beeped that it was done, I'm sure I did.”

Valtic’s broad hand rubbed soothing circles on my back. “Of course you did.”

Dejar looked up, frowning. “No, not that. It's just that—look at this here.” He displayed the files so I could see them almost projected over his desk.

“Here we have one folder with a single file in it.” He tapped at one section. “And here is the entire section of the drive formatted and reserved for navigational logs. But it's like…” he stopped, frowning.

Aavat grabbed the section and flipped through it, the whirring screen like static made tangible.

“It's like somebody copied over the navigation files, erasing them, over and over and over.”

“Why would you do that?” Valtic wondered. “You wouldn't have a record of where you had been, where you were going. That seems useful, for a navigator.”

“Qal doesn't seem to always need reference points,” Kalyn said slowly. “He's got any number of coordinates memorized.”

“But not all of them,” Dejar answered. “No pilot could.”

“Let's at least look at the file we can open,” I decided. “What's in there?”

It was one list.

The first thing I noticed was a column of symbols just like we'd found at the dock-master’s.

As usual, no repeating pattern that I could tell, just random.

“Hello, old friends,” Dejar poked one in the air. “One day we’ll know what you mean, but you just being here means we’re on the right track.”

Five of them, I thought about it, then put it in the back of my brain to percolate.

“What's the next line?” I asked. I could read the Shein lettering, but still, the words didn't make sense to me.

“Names of worlds,” Aavat said grimly.

“Want to bet they're all recent additions to the Dominion?” Kalyn asked.

“We’ll check it, but no.” Aavat pointed out one line, then another. “Some of these I recognize. A few I’ve even been to.”

“Then,” Kalyn drew her finger down the final column. “What does this mean?”

After every world, no matter which of the five symbols preceded it, the same word bleakly marched down the screen.

Failed.

“This doesn't really help, does it?” I sagged against Valtic’s side. “It’s just one more mystery.”

“Of course, it does,” Kalyn insisted. “We have more information. We know some of these worlds have had women abducted from them. Maybe the other worlds, even the older, established ones, still had women taken.”

Dejar nodded. “I'll have the computer check against some of my previous research, but it wouldn't be unlikely.”

“And we know from the women we rescued at Katzul that they were held somewhere else first, before they were auctioned, right?” Kalyn pressed on.

“So where did they go?” I wondered. “And what sort of test did they fail?”

“I’ll have Qal go over the navigation log, see if he can pry anything out of that mess.” Aavat shook his head. “Anything else you found?”

“One strange thing.” I hesitated. “I'd never seen them before, but I think they had cryogenic pods on the bridge.”

The shock on Dejar and Aavat’s face echoed Valtic’s reaction when I had told him earlier.

“Five of them, opposite the navigator’s station,” I clarified.

“Nobody would do that to their navigator,” Aavat snapped. “It would be madness.”

“But they were there. And every one of those pods was occupied.”

Kalyn pushed away from the table and rose. “We have more pieces on the board, and that's what we wanted, right?” We all nodded.

“Then the mission was a success.” She narrowed her eyes. “You look exhausted, girl.”

It was funny, I was tired down to my bones. Especially with our interrupted sleep.

But I wouldn't have had it any other way.

“Is there anything else you need from us?” Valtic asked.

“No,” Captain Dejar replied. “You’ve both earned some rest. I’ll admit, I had my doubts, but you two have made a very unlikely team. I’m impressed with your work. Well done.”

“Thank you, Captain,” I murmured. Valtic nodded. As we left the captain’s office, I smiled to myself. Valtic and I were an unlikely pair, but I couldn’t imagine pairing up with anyone else.

Valtic

The next day I sat in Dejar’s office, discussing the possibilities of trying to get extra gear for the crew and extra weapons for the Rogue Star. If the crew of The Terror somehow managed to find us again, it would do us well to be better prepared.

“I agree with you, Valtic, I do. We just don’t have the finances for it,” Dejar responded.

“He’s right. I mean, where did you think we were going to get any new money from?” Aavat asked as he sat in the corner of the office.

I knew they were right. Without actual work coming in, our finances had to be dwindling quickly. With Lynna having to purchase medical supplies twice, and the girls’ need to be disguised whenever they went outside the ship, or when we had ‘guests’ aboard, that alone had to be a serious bite to our accounts. Add in food, fuel, and spare parts for the ship or the Skimmer, and it wouldn’t surprise me if things were getting dire.

“It’s getting to the point we might have to start rationing,” Aavat said, echoing my thoughts.

“I understand that, sirs. I was simply attempting to suggest that we could use the extra fire power. What if we went back to Zolla?”

Dejar shook his head quickly. “No. I looked into it already. The Dominion showed up for an ‘inspection’ after we were there. Zolla doesn’t want to see us again until either her funeral or the death of the Dominion, whichever comes first.”

Aavat let out a bark of laughter. “You know umbba well that woman used different language when she said it, too. Even I was surprised at the language she used.” If Aavat was shocked by language, especially as someone that was very colorful in his own usage, then Zolla had certainly said some things. Essentially, it meant that if we were spotted there, we would be shot, then turned in to the Dominion.

“Very well. My apologies for wasting your time, sir,” I said as I stood.

Dejar got to his feet, as well. “Not a waste, Valtic. Tell you what, try to research what we need, and we’ll see if we can find a way to get it.” I nodded and headed towards the door. As I reached to push the button, the door opened and Itair jumped back, startled.

“Oh. I didn’t know you were here,” he said, looking up at me. “Actually, it’s a good thing you’re here, though. I want you to be part of this conversation.” He pushed his way past me and into the office. “Captain, Commander. I would like to offer you a proposal.”

I stood at the door, a little confused as to if I should leave or stay. I looked at Aavat, who shrugged, then motioned for me to join them. Itair still stood in front of Dejar’s desk. “Well, come on. I said you should be part of this, as well. What’s the hesitation?”

With a small turn of my head, I stepped back into the office, the door sliding closed behind me. Itair turned back to a still standing Dejar, who looked a bit perplexed. “What kind of proposal?” he asked.

“Well,” Itair said as he sat down. Dejar motioned for Aavat and me to sit down, as well, as he took his seat behind his desk. Itair continued. “As you know, I am a very influential and extremely rich man.”

“Uh-huh,” Aavat cut in.

Itair went on as if uninterrupted. “And I have many connections that have served me very well over the years. I was the first to bring those beautiful wading pools to the floating community. I was the first to begin citywide broadcasts of my celebrations. I have significant influence and assets here in Katzul.”

“What’s your point?” Aavat asked. His facial cues showed that he was just as impatient with this rhetoric as I was.

“Well, my point,” Itair said slowly, “is that the invasion upon my home has shattered my comfortable life here. Someone, or ones, managed to get by my security and destroy my lovely toys and collections.”

“What if they didn’t get past your security?” I asked. “What if it was your security? Or, perhaps, they were paid to let it happen?”

Itair’s eyes were so bugged out when he snapped his head around to look at me, it was hard to feel bad for him. I had apparently said something that he hadn’t thought of. I struggled to keep my focus on him, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aavat doing his best to hold in his laughter at how scared Itair looked.

He shot back around to look at Dejar. “See what I mean? What if it was my own people? I don’t feel safe here anymore, Captain.”

“What are you proposing then, Itair?” the captain asked.

“Take me on.”

“What?” Dejar looked confused. I was, too. What did he mean? Take him on as a member of the crew? He was useless. Take him on as a passenger? He would be in the way.

Itair nodded. “Take me on. I’ll pay for your services.” That caught their attention. Aavat looked to Dejar, then back to Itair, then back to Dejar.

“How much?” I asked, surprising even myself that I had been the one to ask.

Itair looked over at me. “Whatever is needed to keep the ship operational.”

It was my turn to be bug-eyed, as well as the captain’s and commander’s. “You mean,” Aavat started.

Itair finished for him. “I’ll pay you to get me off Katzul and to take me someplace safe. Until we arrive there, I’ll cover the ship’s expenses. I highly doubt that you’ll be able to do much work right now, not with your concentration on this crusade of yours, and while I don’t share your zeal to stop it, I also don’t condone it.”

He rose from his chair, put his hands on the desk, and leaned forward. “What I am saying is that I will take my considerable fortune and I will hire you, your crew, and your ship, to not only take me away from here, but to protect me,” he flashed a look at me as he said that, “until we find a place that I find comfortable and suitable to my needs. Do we have a deal, Captain?”

“What if we say no?” Aavat asked.

Itair stood up straight. “Considering your current options, as criminals of the Dominion, enemies of Enclave, and a potential target to pirates thanks to the price on your heads…” he stopped and looked at each of us. Then, settling on Aavat, he smiled. “I don’t think you have much of a reason to say no. Do you?”

Dejar held up his hand to forestall Aavat’s inevitable outburst. “He has a point. Are you sure about this?” he asked Itair.

“Really, Captain?” Itair put his hands on his hips. “I’m offering you the best deal you’re going to get for a long time, and you’re questioning it? Should I talk to a different ship? I still have friends I know I can trust, you know.”

“I’m sure you do. Just one question before we decide,” Dejar said.

“Very well.”

“Why?” That was a valid question. It raised a good point as to why he wanted us to protect him and transport him away from here.

With a sideways nod, Itair smiled as he sat back down. He leaned back in the chair, placing his hands on his pudgy stomach. “You’ve proven yourselves very resourceful, and you seem to have a knack for getting into and out of places you shouldn’t be able to. Don’t think I don’t know it was you and one of your women that stole my little pet,” he smiled at Aavat.

Aavat’s face showed nothing, and that was apparently enough for Itair. “Don’t be angry my friend, I’m not. I wasn’t sure what to do with the little beast anyway, you simply made my life easier. Now,” he turned back to the captain, “will you take me on as a passenger?”

“We need new medical equipment,” I blurted out without thinking. The three of them turned to look at me as though there was something wrong with me. I looked at Itair, my face serious. With a shrug, I repeated myself. “We need new medical equipment. If you want us to protect you, we need to be properly cared for in case we’re injured while protecting you. Our equipment is outdated, we need it replaced. What say you?”

“Will this convince you to let me hire you?” Itair asked, still staring at me. From behind him, Dejar and Aavat both nodded.

“I don’t see why not,” I answered. I returned his stare and held mine long after he blinked. It seemed as though forever passed before he let out a laugh that sounded absolutely genuine, if not completely out of place.

“Very well,” he finally said. “You need new medical equipment, I will arrange that. It will take me a couple of days to finalize my affairs here anyway, so that should be enough time to purchase and install the new equipment, no?”

I nodded and he turned to Dejar and Aavat. “Do we have an agreement?”

“We do,” they said in unison.

“Very well. I will begin concluding my affairs. If you would please order whatever medical equipment you need as soon as possible, the sooner it arrives, the sooner we leave.” With that, he stood and left the office.

“Well, that was interesting,” Aavat said.

“No kidding. He did say one thing I agree with, though,” Dejar added. “The sooner we get away from here, the better, at least for now.” He looked at me. “Have Lynna put together a shopping list and make sure we get supplies, as well.”

“Yes, sir.” I stood to leave.

Things had changed, and I was uncertain if it was for the better.

Lynna

When I entered the med bay the following day, I felt like Christmas had come to Dominion space. The Rogue Star’s crewmembers were in the middle of hauling a brand-new suite of machinery into my run-down little med bay.

“Where did all this come from?” I gasped, not fully believing the scene unfolding in front of me.

“It was dropped off this morning,” one of the crew said. “We were given instructions to install it in the med bay. We didn’t ask questions.”

“Maybe Kovor’s realized medical supplies are not something to be frugal with,” I smirked. The crewmember shrugged and returned to work. Moments later, Orrin strolled in.

“Orrin!” I squealed. “Would you look at this? It’s a dream come true.”

“This stuff is top of the line, too,” he grinned. “Won’t find anything better in all of Katzul.”

“That must’ve cost a fortune,” I gasped.

“Oh yes,” Orrin chuckled. “Itair is still sore from it.”

I furrowed my brow. “Itair? Why would he do this?”

“Haven’t you heard?” Orrin asked. “Itair is part of the crew now.”

My face fell. “You’re kidding.” It wasn’t a question.

“Not at all,” Orrin confirmed. “He thinks Enclave or the Dominion is going to come after him in the night.”

“I thought Enclave was nothing more than a handful of bumbling idiots. Is Itair saying he can’t outsmart them?”

“The Enclave faction on the Qasar station were a bunch of bumbling idiots,” Orrin corrected. “According to Itair, other Enclave factions are much more capable and dangerous. Especially the one lurking on Katzul. I didn’t hear him talking about it myself, but Valtic did. Valtic believes Itair is afraid for his life. And you know how Valtic is.”

“That’s true,” I admitted. “Still, why would Itair buy all new equipment? Does he plan on needing it?”

“I take it you don’t know about that, either,” Orrin said with a knowing smile.

“Know about what?”

“Valtic only agreed to let Itair stay on board if Itair replaced all of the faulty equipment in the med bay.”

My heart fluttered behind my ribs. An uncontainable smile bloomed across my face.

“He did that?” I asked. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Who can say?” Orrin replied. “But this was certainly Valtic’s doing.”

“I’ll be sure to thank him right away.” I couldn’t stop smiling. My cheeks were starting to ache.

“I’m here to make sure everything is hooked up correctly, but I need you to test it out,” Orrin explained. “I don’t know what these machines are supposed to be doing.”

“Sure thing,” I agreed. As Orrin installed each new machine, I went behind him and tested it. It was somewhat of a learning process. Many of the machines were much more advanced than the old ones. I needed Orrin’s help reading some of the controls. It looked like I’d have to spend a day meticulously relabeling everything. I should ask Valtic to help me. Knowing him, he’d be back in his office for fourteen hours a day if I didn’t take steps to lure him out.

Orrin and I had installed and tested half of the equipment when Kalyn walked in.

“I came to see how the new equipment was working out,” she said as she entered.

“Did you know about Valtic’s little deal?” I asked her.

“I did,” she nodded. “I assumed he was going to tell you himself at some point, but it must have slipped his mind.”

“Right,” I nodded, though I didn’t fully accept that explanation. “Everything is amazing. There won’t be any injury or illness I can’t handle.”

“You already could handle any injury or illness thrown your way.”

“You never even saw me in action on Persephone Station,” I reminded her.

“True, but I heard stories,” Kalyn shrugged.

“Also, in the Terran System, I only had to worry about human bodies. Now, I have to worry about humans, Shein, and whatever the hell Itair is.” I laughed.

“You’ll be fine,” Kalyn assured me.

“Yes, you already brought me back from the dead,” Orrin jumped in. He pulled his comm unit out of his pocket. “I’ve got to go check on something for the captain. I’ll be back to install the rest of this equipment shortly.”

“Thank you, Orrin,” I called after him as he left.

“Good, now we’ll have a moment to catch up.” Kalyn winked.

“It feels like years since we’ve last talked,” I sighed.

“How are you really doing?”

“I was fine in the moment,” I replied, feeling a tiny wave of panic again. “But I had to kill one of the guards on The Terror. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“That must’ve been horrible,” Kalyn frowned.

“It was necessary. But that doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“It wouldn’t make me feel any better, either. Even though that guard likely would’ve killed you if you hadn’t killed him, it’s a good thing that you still feel bad about taking his life. It shows that you have a soul.”

“You believe in souls?” I asked with a slight smile.

“Absolutely,” Kalyn grinned.

“Does that help you cope with everything that’s happened?”

“Sometimes. But it’s harder when there’s still so much we don’t know.”

“At least we know about that testing facility, if that’s even what it is.”

“I can’t imagine what else it would be. Remember on Dominion Outpost Nine? I heard two lower-ranked officials talking about experiments. This just confirms it for me.”

“It makes me sick to think about why the Dominion needs to test alien women,” I shuddered. “What’s the purpose?”

“All of the alien women from the auctions were from planets recently absorbed into Dominion space. Perhaps they’re collecting general data?” Kalyn offered, though I could tell she didn’t believe her own words.

“It has to be more than that,” I sighed. “The women at the auctions failed something.”

“I don’t understand why the auctions are necessary. If the women failed some kind of genetic test, why not just send them back to their families?”

“What if the women didn’t go to the testing facility willingly?”

“None of the women we rescued looked like they were willing. But even then, one of them was a princess. Wouldn’t we have heard about a missing person inquiry? If Enclave and the auctions are as widespread as we’re being led to believe, wouldn’t there be a huge population of missing women?”

“Maybe the Dominion controls media outlets? I’m not sure if Dominion space has news networks like we do in the Terran System, but if they did, it’s plausible that the Dominion controls them.”

“And why erase their own navigation logs? And what’s up with the cryogenic pods? Ugh,” Kalyn trailed off. “I hate talking about this.”

“So do I,” I agreed. “I just want to forget about everything we’ve learned for a day. Just one. I think if I had that little break, I’d be more focused moving forward.”

“Let’s pretend we’re grabbing coffee back in the Terran System. It’s not much, but it might provide us with a little relief.”

With a grin, I walked over to the supply closet and pulled out two clear cups. “Here’s your coffee.”

Kalyn wrinkled her nose. “Aren’t those cups for urine tests?”

“They’re unused!” I exclaimed. I pulled up two stools and placed them on either side of one of the medical cots. “The sanitary sheet looks kind of like a tablecloth.”

“That’s a stretch,” Kalyn laughed. “But I’ll play along.”

“Good. This was your idea in the first place. I’m just trying to bring it to fruition.” I perched on one cot, Kalyn on the other. “Now that we have our coffee and our table, what do you want to talk about?”

“Valtic,” Kalyn said without hesitation.

If my coffee were real, I would have choked on it. “What?”

“You two looked awful cozy when you came back from your mission,” she said with a knowing smile.

“Yeah,” I murmured, suddenly feeling bashful. “He’s really something special.”

“Is he? I can’t say I know him well. I don’t think we’ve had anything that constitutes a full conversation.”

“He’s a little rough around the edges,” I admitted. “But now that I’ve gotten to know him, I can honestly say he’s the most incredible person I’ve ever met. He’s kinder than most people give him credit for. This new medical suite is proof of that.”

“I think he has a soft spot for you and you get all of his kindness.”

“I have a soft spot for him. In fact,” my checks heated, “I think I might be in love with him.”

Kalyn’s expression looked as surprised as I felt. I hadn’t planned on saying anything. I planned on taking a day or two to seriously think things over, but I knew now that I didn’t need extra time.

I knew how I felt.

“Have you told him?” Kalyn asked.

“No. I don’t know how. I’ve never been in love before. What if I say it wrong? What if I freak him out?”

“I don’t think Valtic is capable of being freaked out,” Kalyn chuckled. “You just have to be honest. March up to him and tell him exactly how you feel.”

“How about I write it on a cake and throw it at him? That’s less scary.”

“He’ll have to read the writing before it hits his face,” Kalyn pointed out. “Terrible plan.”

“Right. That’s the only reason why it’s a terrible plan,” I snorted.

“Cake or no cake, you’ll tell him, right?”

“I will.”

Valtic

I waited in the kitchen for the oven to finish.

According to the directions I had found, this sounded similar to the cake that had been at Lynna’s party.

Sars had offered to help me, had tried to insist on it since it was his kitchen, but I refused.

I wanted to do this on my own. Not that I was actually on my own…Orrin and Qal sat on the kitchen counters, while Sars leaned against a wall, each of them calling out suggestions as I worked on the cake for Lynna.

“Are you sure that’s how it’s supposed to be?” Qal asked. “Doesn’t look like the one the girls had a little bit ago. It actually looks a little like a Torg vomited on a rock.”

“Ohh!” Orrin groaned. “Really, Qal? You had to make that reference?”

“What?” Qal asked with his arms out wide. The look of innocence on his face had Orrin and Sars laughing. It even made me grin.

“Oh! OH! He’s smiling,” Qal pointed at me, his face brightening up as he spoke. “He’s smiling!”

“Shut up, Qal!” I growled, my grin still in place. I couldn’t seem to get rid of it.

The three of them broke out laughing as I shook my head. They were foolish, immature children. Even Sars, who was the oldest member of the crew. He was just as much a child as those two.

“By everything I hold holy, it is good to see you smile…well, sort of,” Orrin said between breaths. “But, seriously,” he continued as he hopped off the counter and walked up to me. “That monstrosity you have in there looks nothing at all like the cake the girls made for Lynna’s birthday.” He put his arm around my shoulder. “I thought you liked her.”

The smile on his face stopped me from breaking him. I knew he was teasing, and it felt good to have some form of camaraderie again. “Ha. Ha,” I said slowly.

With a chuckle, he wished me luck and headed out of the kitchen.

“He’s right, you know,” Sars grunted. His gruff voice sounded like a man with a deep bass trying to grind rocks. “That thing is going to kill her. Are you sure you want Zayn in charge of the infirmary again?”

“Will you go do something food related?” I snapped back at him. He looked at me for a moment, then smiled and nodded.

“Okay, okay,” he said with his hands in the air. “Just don’t come crying to me when you end up making that poor girl sick. You know,” he said as he started to turn away from me, “I’ve half a mind to tell the captain you’re trying to kill our medic.” He ducked the leftover roll I threw at him, walking away with a deep belly laugh, his head and shoulders shaking.

I looked at Qal. “Well?”

“Well, what?” he asked. The innocence plastered on his face was too perfect.

“Any last comments from you?” I demanded. I was still trying to be amiable, but it was getting a bit frustrating to hear them dismiss my efforts.

“Look, I like Lynna. I want her to live,” he said, and held up his hand to forestall my comment. “Hold on. Hold on. I think what you’re doing is admirable, it really is. And, you know what, I’m happy for you.” He hopped off the counter and put his hand on my shoulder. “I mean it. I’m happy. Are you sure you want to give her Torg scro, though?”

He ducked as I swung at him, his laughter trailing behind him as he ran from the kitchen. Leave it to Qal to take an otherwise normal, or even special, moment and turn it into a joke. One of these days, he would most likely make a joke that would get him into trouble…more than usual.

The timer went off. I opened the oven, carefully took out the cake, and looked at it. Something wasn’t right. Was it supposed to be that color?

Oh, of course. I had forgotten that the women had put some form of sugary covering on it. I found some that was left over from Lynna’s party and did my best to spread it on the cake.

I had to assume that I should have let it cool off before I put the icing on. A good portion of it melted and pooled on the platter that I’d placed the cake on. With heavy trepidation and more than a slight twinge of embarrassment, I picked up the cake and took it to the med bay, where she was working and labeling everything in both English and Shein.

I stood quietly for a minute or two, just enjoying watching her move, before she finally turned and noticed me.

“Oh,” she said, her hand on her chest. “You startled me.”

“I apologize. I didn't mean to make you jump,” I said as I walked into the med bay. “I made this for you,” I mumbled. I was nervous that she would laugh at my efforts.

“You made…this?” she asked. While I was sure she hadn’t meant to, she did stutter slightly as she indicated the cake.

I nodded. I could tell she hated it.

“Thank you,” she said. “I can’t believe you would do this for me.” Her voice sounded genuine, and when I looked at her, her smile was real.

“I wanted to try to thank you for everything, and to repay you for the cake you gave me earlier.”

She smiled at me. “You are amazing, you know that?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll explain later. Let’s try this cake,” she said enthusiastically. She grabbed the knife I had brought, while I got the plates and forks separated. She cut into it, putting the first slice on the plate in front of me, then cut herself a slice. She smiled at me and we both dipped our forks into the cake.

She was the first to put it in her mouth, and she almost instantly stopped, fork still between her lips. “Mmm. Err-mmm,” she mumbled as her face contorted.

I looked at her and put the cake in my mouth. It tasted nothing at all like the cake she had given me. As a matter of fact, it tasted as bad as the relieving room smelled after Sars cooked his nine-spice chili.

We looked at one another, I could see her futile attempt at keeping the cake in her mouth, but she eventually was driven to spit it out.

“O…” she started, then gagged a bit as she finished spitting it out. “Uh, did you follow the recipe we left in the kitchen with Sars?”

I looked at her blankly.

She burst out laughing and lightly smacked my shoulder. “Oh my god, you tried to do this on your own?”

I nodded, embarrassed. I had failed to please her with a human treat. She looked up at me and then tiptoed herself up and kissed me on the cheek. “It’s okay. Not everyone knows how to cook or bake. Come on, I’ll show you.”

I nodded dejectedly.

“Hey,” she said, putting her face below mine so she could look me in the eye. She was smiling. “It’s not that big a deal. I love the gesture, I really do.” I followed her back to the kitchen, dumping my attempt into the trash compactor on the way.

When we got back to the kitchen, she found the recipe that I had used. “Ah, now I see why that was so…tasteful,” she teased. “This is nothing at all like how a cake is supposed to be.”

“But, that’s what I found during my search. It looked just like what you had at the party,” I protested.

“Pictures lie,” she said with a grin. “That was nowhere near cake…well, the consistency was like cake, but the flavors they used are horrid.” She moved around the kitchen, gathering ingredients. “Here, let me show you.”

As she showed me what ingredients she used, and what measurements were used, I watched her. She moved so fluidly, her smile so infectious, I had to wonder why she had come to want me.

“Lynna?” I said apprehensively, interrupting her instruction.

“Huh?” She didn’t look up, she was busy mixing the ingredients together. I looked at the bowl. I noticed that her mixture was a nice smooth consistency and had a light-yellow coloration to it. She had used the milk that we drink. I had used the milk that Sars was trying to curdle.

I turned my attention back to Lynna. “I…I made you that disaster as an attempt to tell you something.” I wasn’t sure why I was so nervous, why I was talking like such a child. I had faced down armies, had guns pointed at me, defied death…yet what I was about to say had me shaking like a naked animal in the cold.

She looked up from her bowl. “What is it?”

I licked my lips and shuffled my feet as I worked up the courage to answer. “I overheard you and Kalyn talking earlier.”

“Oh?”

“I…” I hesitated. I don’t think I’ve ever hesitated this much in my entire life. You could take every second of my life before the women arrived and compare it to the last few weeks, and I could promise you I hadn’t hesitated even a third as much as I have with her. “I wanted to tell you that…I love you.”

“You do?”

I nodded. I took inventory of how she looked at that exact moment. She was covered in flour, had batter on her fingers and a bit on her shirt, and her face…her face was never more beautiful than at that moment. She set down the bowl, walked up to me, and threw her arms around my neck and pulled me down.

“I love you, too,” she said as she pressed her lips against mine.

I was never sure how long we kissed, but I never planned to stop kissing her.

Epilogue – Lynna

Qal had yet to make any progress with the overwritten navigation logs and had taken the puzzle of the five characters as a personal challenge.

Obviously, we couldn’t stay in Katzul. It wasn’t safe with Enclave and the Dominion potentially sniffing around. I didn’t know if the Dominion had connected the security breach on their ship to the Rogue Star. Technically, the Rogue Star was registered under a false chip, but after everything I’d seen, I believed the Dominion could see past the false chip if they tried.

The Rogue Star had been drifting through infrequently used space lanes. So far, I hadn’t seen another ship pass by from the window of the observation deck. If The Terror was pursuing us, it hadn’t shown up on any of our scanners. Not that that stopped Valtic from obsessively checking. We couldn’t sit through a meal together without him excusing himself to go check the monitors in his office, just in case the extra sensors he’d placed on the hull of The Terror were close enough for us to pick up.

I admired his dedication. Though I wished, for his sake, that he would just relax a little bit.

He hadn’t had another night terror since I started sleeping in his bed. When he did sleep, which was still not nearly enough, he slept soundly and deeply.

I tried to regulate the number of hours he could work a day, but I’d been largely unsuccessful. I couldn’t fault him for that. I adored how much he cared about the crew and our safety. I just wished it wasn’t at his own expense.

Knowing Valtic would be working for the next few hours, and with an empty med bay, I decided to spend a few quiet hours in the observation deck. I’d done this the day before as well. I’d never felt so relaxed in my life.

Truth be told, I was glad Qal hadn’t figured out the coordinates yet. Jumping from planet to planet, always in fear of Enclave or the Dominion, was exhausting. All of us on board were starting to show the telltale signs of too much stress.

In my professional, medical opinion, a short break from it all was what we collectively needed. For the first time in a long time, the door to Captain Dejar’s office was closed. He wasn’t at his desk. He was chatting with his crewmembers in one of the common areas. He looked content for the first time in a while.

Maris had more time to tinker with her personal projects. I could tell they alleviated some of the stress she’d been feeling.

Shenna spent most of her time with her inexplicably growing collection of alien animals.

I wasn’t sure what Aryn and Kovor did in their downtime. Frankly, I didn’t want to know. But they always looked pleased when they were walking about the ship.

This little break appeared to be doing everyone good, except Valtic. He hadn’t let himself take a break.

As I settled into my preferred spot on the observation deck, I planned to take a few hours to watch the stars drift by. I was in a brand-new galaxy, after all. It would be a shame if I didn’t take any time to appreciate it.

I focused on my breathing as I watched the glittering sea of stars. I allowed my mind to wander away from everything.

“You look peaceful,” a voice startled me out of my trance.

“Valtic?” I smiled. “I didn’t expect you to come out of your cave so soon,” I smirked.

“Very funny,” he rolled his eyes. “I decided to take a break. There’s something I want to show you.” He extended his hand to me and I took it eagerly. He helped me to my feet and we left the observation deck.

“What is it?” I asked, unable to contain my excitement. Usually, I had to go knock on Valtic’s door to get him to leave the office. Him coming to find me on his own was one hell of a breakthrough.

“You’ll see. It’s a surprise,” he grinned.

“This galaxy is full of surprises and almost none of them are good.”

“I think you’ll like this one.” Valtic led me down into an area of the ship I’d never been before. He took me into a room lined with all sorts of weapons.

“Is this the armory?” I asked. Valtic nodded. We walked through the armory and through another door on the opposite side of the room. We entered a long, narrow space set up with targets.

“A shooting range?” I blurted, confused.

“I’m going to teach you how to shoot,” Valtic explained.

“But, why?”

“I want to know that you can defend yourself in case something happens and I’m not with you. Your little syringes were handy in a pinch, but they are not a viable option. I want you to be able to stop your attacker before they can lay a finger on you.”

“You don’t have to do this,” I smiled. “We can do something relaxing. You never take breaks. I want you to do something you enjoy.”

“This is something I enjoy. And I’ll be able to relax knowing that you’ll be okay if we’re ever separated.”

“Fair enough,” I grinned. “Where do we start?”

“We’re going to start with something small, just so you can get the feel of it.” He pulled out a small gun, less than the length of my hand. “You won’t be able to kill anything with this unless it’s very small or you’re very lucky, but it’ll make most opponents think twice about coming after you.”

“It’s heavier than it looks,” I said as I took the weapon from his hands.

“You’ll get used to it,” Valtic assured me. He stood behind me and guided my arms and hands into the correct position. When I was part of the Space Force, I was given a standard issue firearm, but I’d never used it. I was rarely in a firefight, and when I was, someone was assigned to protect me. This weapon was nothing like what I’d had in the Space Force.

“How do I fire it?” I asked when my finger couldn’t find a traditional trigger.

“Place your thumb right here.” Valtic moved my thumb to a square patch of material darker than the rest of the weapon. “When you’re ready, apply pressure.”

I pushed my thumb into the patch and a tiny bullet whizzed out of the gun. It didn’t strike any of the targets. I wasn’t sure where it went.

“Not bad,” Valtic laughed.

“Tell the truth.”

“Okay, that was bad,” he admitted.

“You were the one holding my arms,” I pointed out. “I was relying on you to teach me to aim.”

“I can only do so much,” Valtic chuckled. I was happy to see him smiling so much. He truly did seem more at ease.

“Let me try again.”

“Are you sure? If you don’t like doing this, I won’t force you.”

“I want to learn,” I insisted. “You’re right, I should know how to defend myself. And it’s kind of fun to shoot. I don’t want to kill anyone else, though.”

“We can stick to weapons that will halt an attacker,” Valtic agreed.

Valtic and I spent the next hour rotating through a variety of different weapons from the armory. Despite his gentle coaching and clear instruction, I’d yet to hit one of the targets, but I didn’t mind my poor performance. Valtic was enjoying himself.

He handed me a sleek-looking weapon, lighter than any of the others we’d tried thus far.

“Hold your arms steady,” Valtic instructed. “Breathe in.”

I did as I was told.

“Fire on the exhale.”

I released my breath and pushed the trigger. This time, I watched the bullet puncture one of the targets. It wasn’t a perfect bullseye, but it was something.

“Did you see that?” I turned to Valtic with a huge grin on my face.

“Very impressive,” he nodded with approval. “How did that feel?”

“Good, actually,” I laughed. “I can see why you like doing this. It’s fun.”

“I was hoping you’d enjoy it. I truly do want you to learn how to defend yourself, but I was thinking this could be something fun to do together every once in a while.”

“That’s so thoughtful,” I smiled. “I never thought you’d want to do anything just for the fun of it.”

“I’m not that much of a, what did you call me? A grump.”

“You used to be a grump. But now, I’d almost call you sociable.”

“That’s slander,” Valtic joked.

“Some would even go so far as to call you charming.”

“Utter lies,” he exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes. “You’re a goofball when you want to be.”

“I’m not even going to ask what that means.” Valtic took the weapon out of my hands and laid it a safe distance away from us. He took me in his arms and kissed the top of my head.

“It’s a good thing,” I assured him.

“If you say so.”

I let my head rest against his chest. We stood like that for a while, not saying anything.

“We’re going to make it out of this, right?” I asked him. “The Dominion won’t win.”

“I won’t let them,” Valtic promised. “I don’t care if I have to take down each member of the Dominion myself. If it means keeping you safe, I’ll do it.”

“Just remember, you don’t have to fight alone. You aren’t alone as long as you have me.”

“If that’s the case, I guess I’ll have to keep you forever.”

Letter from Elin

On May 9, the pieces come together, and an unimaginable betrayal will rock the crew of the Rogue Star.

Don't miss Rogue Haven!

http://getbook.at/RogueStar6

XOXO,

Elin

P.S. After the sample of the next book, I’ve added the first chapter from Given, the first book of my Star Breed series, and Vrehx, the first of Conquered World.

Give them a try and let me know what you think! You can always reach me at elin@elinwynbooks.com

Rogue Haven Preview

Qal

Things had been good…boring, maybe a little frustrating, but good.

It had been a few days since we left Katzul, as we aimlessly travelled through a part of space that wasn’t generally patrolled by anyone. I’d poured over every text I had, pulled every random bit of navigational knowledge out of the corners of my mind trying to solve the puzzle of those five odd symbols.

Glyphs. They had a meaning, but it stayed hidden.

Still, working on the puzzle was a nice distraction while we waited for Captain Dejar and Aavat to decide on our next move.

Then anything remotely related to boring changed three minutes ago.

Three minutes ago, the forwards sensors went crazy and proximity alarms began blaring.

“What’s going on?” Captain Dejar blurted out.

I held up my left hand, a single finger extended as I waited for the sensor readings to clarify. “Meteor storm. Brace yourselves!” I yelled back.

Lightning quick reflexes, superior flying ability, and an analytical mind that could predict where each meteor was going to be…I had at least two of those.

“What in the nine rings of Thron is going on?!” Itair yelled as he ran onto the bridge.

“Not now!” Aavat yelled.

“It’s like you want me to throw up my lunch!” he yelled.

“If you don’t stop making a fuss, we’ll all be dead and you can throw up your lunch as much as you want!” Dejar yelled back.

I allowed myself a brief smile before going back to my controls.

Now, if the Rogue Star had been a much smaller ship with a much smaller crew, I would have been able to fly her through the meteor storm with ease. While she wasn’t a large ship, she wasn’t a personal shuttle either.

We weren’t going to make it out unscathed.

Ignoring Dejar and Aavat as they yelled out instructions to everyone else, I used instinct and the ship’s sensors to twist, pull, turn, dive, and dodge my way through. The first meteor to hit us was small, bounced us around a little…the next one sent the ship careening sideways into the path of another.

I hit the orbiting thrusters to push us straight up, then the port side thrusters to shove us to the right. I finished off my brilliant maneuver by plowing straight through a smaller meteor in order to avoid the two ship-killers next to it.

When all was said and done…we had been hit a few dozen times, mostly by small ones that hadn’t done much damage. The three larger ones, however, those had hurt us, badly. Nearly catastrophically.

Dejar and Aavat were yelling out for damage reports, calling out orders, and demanding to know how we could have been caught in that without warning.

“You can’t predict or monitor meteor showers, sirs, not when a vast majority of the sensors are searching for that umbba dark ship.”  I shrugged and grinned. “At least the Terror didn’t find us, right?”

Dejar didn’t like the grin. I knew he thought I counted most of this as a joke, but I didn’t. It was just how I coped with things.

We had survived, that was something worth smiling about.

As reports started flying in, I turned back to my console and tried to figure out what I could do. My instrument panels were strangely sluggish, they weren’t responding to my touch the way they should.

Kout.

That meant that we had been damaged much more than I had hoped. I half-turned an ear towards the reports coming in.

Orrin’s voice, with Maris yelling in the background, was currently the one of focus. “Engines are struggling, Captain. One of the meteors made direct contact in bay two, crumpled the side and broke apart several of the drive shafts. Fuel reserves are fine, but we’re limping until we can get some repair work done. We’re lucky we don’t have a leak, yet.”

“Kout,” Dejar swore. “Alright, do the best you can, Orrin. Lynna, report.”

Lynna’s voice came back over the comm, shaken, but powerful. “I don’t have a complete report, but there are nearly a dozen people in here right now. I’m positive we’ll have more soon.”

“Understood,” Dejar flicked off the comm and looked at me. “Tell me something.”

I knew I shouldn’t have turned around. I took a deep breath. “My own control panel is compromised as well. I don’t believe Orrin has had an opportunity to see the full extent of the engine damage, sir. We’ve lost over forty-percent maneuverability, nearly thirty-percent of our thrust capabilities, and if our sensors are right, about half of our outer sensors are destroyed.”

Before he could respond, Orrin came back on the comm. “Sir?”

“What is it, Orrin?” Dejar answered.

“Damage to the engines are much worse than I originally anticipated. My team is telling me that we’re going to lose everything in a matter of hours if we don’t get these lines fixed.”

“What do you mean ‘everything’?” Aavat asked.

Orrin’s voice sounded hollow, almost resigned. “Everything, sir. Engines, life support, all of it. We might be able to get enough of a repair done to keep life support and marginal propulsion, but we wouldn’t be able to outrun a Katzulian slug, sir.”

“Do what you can,” Dejar ordered, then looked at me, again. “Is there anything we can do?”

I thought about it for a brief second, then turned back to my console. I brought up my pride and joy, a highly intricate, expansive star map that was more complete than any other I’d seen. Even Captain Dejar’s personal map.

Also, I could project my map holographically in deeper detail than he could his own. Not that I ever mentioned it or anything.

It was one of the little things I’d learned he didn’t appreciate.

As I projected the map in the middle of the bridge, I stood and studied it. “Well?” Aavat’s voice entered my brain like an ice pick. I motioned for him to have a moment of patience as I interacted with the view, considering possibilities.

“Okay,” I started. I had come to like that Terran word, ‘okay.’ It was a simple way of beginning a sentence, ending one, or however you wanted to use it. You could ask about someone’s well-being. You could answer a question. You could even use it to describe something that was neither good, nor bad. I loved the word.

“We’re roughly in this area here,” I pointed to a portion of the map that glowed. The glow showed our position. I knew exactly where we were but didn’t want to sound presumptuous or anything. “Orrin?”

“He’s busy,” Maris snapped at me over the comm. She was a delight to have on the ship, she really was. Funny, assertive, and more than willing to tell you exactly what she thought, even if you hadn’t asked her to. “What do you want?”

“How much power do we have? Exactly?”

With a loud huff, followed by several agonizing seconds of silence, Maris finally came back. “Why?”

“I think I may have found a place for us to go, but I’m not sure if we have enough juice to get there. Do you think we have enough left in the engines for a few short bursts of power to push us where we need to go?”

“How many bursts?” she asked me.

I did a quick calculation in my head, simply to verify the calculations I had already done before this conversation had started. “At least five…and I’ll need enough left for the retro-rockets in order to land us in one piece.”

“You want to land in atmo?”

“Affirmative,” I answered.

“They you got enough for three small bursts. I can’t promise any more than that.”

“I’ll make it work. Thank you, Maris.” I turned to Dejar and Aavat. I pointed to a bright blue spot on my holo-map. “There’s a small planet here…more of a moon, really, but it’s inhabited.”

“By who?” Aavat asked.

“It’s a, um…” I stumbled for the right words, then simply just answered the question. “It’s a small haven for pirates and outlaws. They might not be terribly happy to see us, but it’s the only chance we have of getting somewhere that might be able to help us, and not drop us into the lap of the Dominion.”

“How do you know about this place?” Aavat asked.

I shrugged. “I haven’t always been your pilot, sir.” I didn’t bother to hide my semi-sheepish grin.

“Do it. If you think you can get us there, safely, then do it. We don’t have much choice,” Dejar said.

I nodded and turned back to my console. I tapped in the coordinates of the moon, dropped the map, and ever so slowly directed us towards it. The first burst of energy from the engines turned us, the second got us heading there. I would have to save the final burst to slow us down as we entered the atmosphere.

Reports kept coming in. Luckily, the worst of the injuries was a broken ankle from one of the men, the rest were bumps, bruises, a few concussions, and a swollen eye.

Valtic’s voice came on, but I wasn’t paying much attention anymore. I was doing my best to keep an eye on the sensors to make sure nothing else was headed our way, not that we could have done much about it.

So, it wasn’t a surprise to me that I jumped in surprise when Dejar put his hand on my shoulder. “Good flying back there.”

Okay, that was different. He never complimented me quietly, with a hand on my shoulder, or a look of honest-to-my-ancestors pride on his face.

I questioned it. “Sir?”

“The meteor shower…good flying,” he repeated with a pat on my shoulder. “You got us through the worst of it with ease. You somehow managed to minimize the damage that could have happened to the ship. It was good work.”

Well, I hadn’t expected that, or the swell of pride in my chest either. “Thank you, sir. Just wish I had done better.”

“Well, hopefully we won’t have the need to try it again.”

“Good point,” I nodded as he returned to his chair. I jutted out my lips a bit as I tried to figure out what had just happened.

Within an hour, we were approaching the moon. I sent out a short-wave broadcast towards the moon, letting them know we were approaching, heavily damaged, and unable to turn away. Just in case they decided to be hostile.

Not that we could do much about it in our state.

Just before we hit atmo, I used the last burst to slow us down, then fired up the retro-rockets. We were still coming in a lot faster than I wanted. “BRACE!” I yelled out as the ground flew up to meet us. We touched down on the surface of the planet, on what looked to be a beach close to the water, as gentle as a boulder crashing through a house.

My head hurt.

Manda

My head ached like it never had before. When I opened my eyes, I briefly saw things in triplicate.

After a few blinks, it faded to double, then finally single, but still blurred around the edges of my field of vision.

That couldn’t be good.

The automated voice of the Rogue Star’s AI called for an immediate evacuation. All around me, figures dashed and stumbled in the direction of the exit doors.

Pressing my hand against my temple, as if that would stop the unbearable pounding in my head, I staggered to my feet. I fell toward the exit door, banging my shoulder hard on a metal doorway. I tripped over my own feet more times than I took actual steps.

When I spilled out of the Rogue Star, I wasn’t prepared for the ground beneath my feet to be anything other than flat and solid. Instead, it was uneven and shifted with each step. The light was so bright, I couldn’t see anything at first. My knees gave out under me. I landed on a soft, grainy material I recognized as sand.

In no hurry to move or see, I let my body go lax against the sandy ground. My eyes would adjust eventually. My head would stop pounding eventually. For now, I was content to just have stable ground beneath me.

“Are you okay?” A breathy female voice asked near me.

I cracked one eye open onto the find the question wasn’t directed at me. Commander Kalyn stumbled across the sand to touch Lynna on the arm. Lynna coughed up a mouthful of sand.

“I’m fine,” she rasped. “Did you see Shenna? I thought I saw her run back in.”

“Shit,” Kalyn gasped. “She must’ve gone back in for her animals.”

“Of course, she did.” Lynna laughed, or it might’ve been a cough.

“Wait, I see her over there,” Kalyn lifted her head to look somewhere passed me. “She’s got her pets too.”

“What about Maris?” Lynna asked.

“I’m here!” Maris’s voice came from somewhere I couldn’t see. “Has anyone seen Aryn?”

“She’s over there!” Lynna replied. The roll call continued on. Through everyone else’s shouts, I heard that all of the Persephone women and the Rogue Star crew members were accounted for. With a sigh of relief, I closed my eyes again and focused on the warm sensation of the sand against my cheek.

“Where’s Manda?” Kalyn asked suddenly. I cracked one eye open. I’d been laying ten feet from her, in her field of vision, this entire time.

“I’m here.” My voice sounded rough and scratchy.

“Oh,” Kalyn gasped. “I didn’t even see you there. Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

At least her concern sounded genuine.

“I’m fine,” I replied. The pounding behind my eyes had finally subsided. With a groan, I pushed myself up onto my knees. My eyes adjusted to the light. I turned my head away from the bright white glare of the sun to find a wall of thick, vibrantly green jungle rising up from the sand about thirty yards away.

Flocks of bright colored birds with tail feathers long enough to touch the tops of the trees filled the sky. The jungle was so thick, I couldn’t see past the first couple rows of trees but I could still see thousands of vibrant flowers and fruits bursting from between thick, waxy leaves.

The gentle sound of lapping water caught my attention. I looked over my shoulder and gasped when I found a sparkling lavender sea gently kissing the shoreline.

After weeks of recycled air, I was grateful for the fresh air. The gentle breeze was sweet, almost fruity. I wandered closer to the water and took in deep, greedy breaths. I’d never seen a place so beautiful in all my life. I never even dreamed a place like this existed. For a brief moment, I thought about never leaving.

The crew would move on eventually.

I imagined what I would say when I told them to leave me here. When I tried to imagine how everyone would react, I couldn’t think of anything. I doubted that they would stop me.

“Captain, someone’s coming,” Aavat called from farther up the beach. I turned to look and for the first time, I saw the state of the Rogue Star.

I’d never actually gotten a good look at the space ship I’d been living on for weeks.

Space ship. Still boggled my mind, but this was life now. Normal, somehow.

I’d seen it from afar on Dominion Outpost Nine but taking in the sights wasn’t my priority as we all ran from Dominion Officials. All I’d focused on then was that boarding ramp, and the sound of shots behind us.

Now I could see… and winced.

The first half of the ship was sleek and untouched. The second half bore the signs of impact. A plume of thick black smoke rose from what I assumed was the engine.

I wasn’t an expert mechanic or engineer, not like Maris and Orrin, but from the look of the Rogue Star, I’d guess it would take a few days to make repairs. Assuming we could find the necessary materials to even work on it.

Looking at the lush landscape, didn’t seem likely.  Unless those trees were of some magical kind of plant, I was pretty sure you couldn’t use wood to patch a hull.

“We mean no harm,” Captain Dejar called to the group of individuals coming out of the forest. The being at the front of the group was over seven feet tall, with a beard of wriggling tentacles. I counted six eyes in total. He had a peg leg. My mind went to the old Terran tales of pirates with peg legs, eyepatches, and colorful parrots, and I found myself smiling.

“What brings you to our fortress?” The leader said, his voice like a wet hiss. As he drew nearer, my hand went to my face.

Shit.

I wasn’t wearing a disguise.

None of the human women were. If the residents of this island knew we were an illegal species, we could be in trouble. However, the tentacle bearded leader didn’t react to our appearance. I took that as a good sign.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Aavat asked. Captain Dejar have him a swift tap on the arm. Qal, the navigator, dashed forward.

“We seek shelter. We’re wanted by the Dominion,” he said quickly.

“Have they tracked your location?” The leader said Qal with a dark look.

“No,” Valtic spoke up. “Our sensors are sophisticated. We would’ve known.”

I thought about how the possible Dominion ship, The Terror, had a tendency to sneak up on us but I certainly wasn’t going to bring it up.

“We don’t wish to make this our permanent home,” Captain Dejar interjected. “We simply ask for a place where we can make our repairs and leave.”

“We aren’t known for our hospitality,” the leader replied.

“Can you make an exception for us? We’re enemies of the law, just as you are,” Aavat said.

“Prove it,” the leader snarled.

Captain Dejar reached into his pocket for his portable console. He pulled up the warrant for the arrest of the entire Rogue Star crew. But not the warrant for the human women. Hopefully these people weren’t on the regular comm channels. If they hiding out, maybe they hadn’t seen all the news. Maybe.

“Please, allow us the use of your land until our ship is fit to fly,” Kalyn pleaded softly. Her voice must’ve struck a chord with the leader, for all six of his eyes softened.

“This is not our land,” he corrected. “We merely reside here. I give you my word that my clan will give you no trouble. However, I cannot ask them to share their hard-earned resources to strangers.”

“Of course,” Kalyn smiled. “We’ll make do on our own. Thank you.”

“I am not the only one in a position of authority,” the leader continued. “Any promises I make are not made on behalf of the others. You will need to come and present your case.”

“Understood,” Captain Dejar nodded.

“I will give you some time to gather yourselves,” the leader said.

“Thank you,” Captain Dejar replied. The leader and his equally rugged followers disappeared back into the trees.

“What the kopa is this place?” Aavat muttered as soon as the welcoming committee was out of earshot.

“Like I said, it’s a safe haven for outlaws and fugitives,” Qal replied. “What were you expecting, a welcome home party?”

“We should consider ourselves lucky they didn’t kill us on sight and loot our ship,” Kovor said.

“They were strangely diplomatic for outlaws, weren’t they?” Kalyn wondered out loud. From my understanding of outlaw colonies, they were usually enemies of the law but strictly held themselves to an agreed set of rules. I thought about saying as much but decided against it.

“Lucky for us,” Captain Dejar laughed dryly.

“We should clear the Rogue Star for re-boarding as soon as possible,” Valtic said. “If they aren’t going to allow us the use of their resources, we’re going to have to rely on our own food stores and shelter.”

“And I need to check our inventory. I think we have enough staribite to make repairs. Now that the engines are shut down, I may as well do an overhaul.”

“Get working on that,” Captain Dejar nodded. Valtic gestured to Orrin and together they walked toward the Rogue Star.

“Maris, Aryn,” Kalyn called. “Search the shoreline for any bits of wreckage we could use for repairs. If it’s metal, we’re going to need it.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Aryn nodded.

“Lynna, check everyone for injuries. Even if they say they aren’t hurt, I still want them checked out,” Kalyn continued. Lynna nodded and headed toward the crew members who were more obviously injured.

Kalyn continued to delegate tasks until everyone had a job.

Everyone but me.

“What should I do?” I asked.

“Oh!” Her eyes lit up like they did whenever she saw me, as if she needed a moment to re-recognize me. “Can you be an extra set of hands to anyone who needs it?”

“Of course,” I replied.

Kalyn gave me a grateful smile before joining Captain Dejar.

I looked around the beach. No one appeared to be struggling with their tasks. I realized Kalyn didn’t send anyone to get the lay of the area.

I could do that.

On the off chance that the Rogue Star was deemed unsafe for re-boarding, I figured we should know our options.

Plus, I really wanted to see more of this stunning place.

Whistling softly to myself, I headed into the tree line.

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Given: Star Breed Book One

Kara

It was all Juda’s fault.

I kicked him out of my bed three weeks ago for cheating on me, but apparently, he wasn’t done screwing me over.

I crouched low on the roof of the abandoned gambling den across the street from Sary’s “general store” and cursed the limp-dicked bastard all over again.

There wasn’t a lot of traffic at this time of day. Not that that meant much in Ghelfi; the thieves’ city never truly slept. There was no point in waiting for night, like in the old vids Mom used to watch over and over. Like all sealed cities on the surface of Neurea, lighting in Ghelfi varied throughout the day’s cycle, but never to a true night.

I saw real night, once. I stowed away on the back of a surface crawler that was heading to Lashell. I don’t know why, somehow I’d thought it would be better if I got out of Ghelfi, started over somewhere else.

The velvet sky, studded with stars, shone clean and cold. Perfect. Not like the barely organized chaos of the cities.

But halfway there, the crawler broke down, had to be towed back. I realized then that there was no way out. Not for me.

In the old vids, everything always turned out alright, something swooped in at the last minute to save the day.

That’s how you knew they were only lies.

So here I was, half-hidden among old wires and debris that had been kicked up to the top of the store years ago, long forgotten. Watching time slip away on the chrono, crossing my fingers to old gods I didn’t believe in.

“What’cha doing?”

I jumped, furious with myself.

Bani crouched next to me. His dark brown hair hung down in his face, but I could still see the twinkle in his eye. Snuck up on me and was proud of it, little bastard.

I socked him gently in the arm, just enough to let him know I cared.

“Everybody’s looking for you, Kara,” he said under his breath. He didn’t look at me but instead kept his eyes scanning across the street, trying to see what I was interested in. Smart kid.

I ran my hand through my own tangle of hair. It was past time to cut it, but things had been a little busy lately.

“How mad is Xavis?” I really didn’t want to know the answer.

Bani shrugged one bony shoulder. “He’s playing it down a little bit, but I think he’s pretty steamed. If you, of all people, don’t show up by the end of the tithe, he’s gonna lose a lot of face.”

A light crackled, the burnt smell of frying wires wafted by. But I wasn’t paying attention to the noise or to the stink of ozone that permeated the air of Ghelfi. If Xavis really was mad, I was in trouble.

I shoved the thought far to the back of my head. Nothing to do about it but keep moving.

A shuffling sound below surprised me, and I risked another glance over the ledge. A miner, wrapped in rags so filthy there was no telling the gender, half-staggered down the street. He, she, whatever, paused in front of Sary’s storefront, then stumbled inside.

Ice gripped my spine. Rings willing, he’d be quick. Claim whatever he came to trade, and get out. Not stay there, spinning stories of life in the Waste, screwing my timetable.

“Is that the job?” Bani’s wide eyes fixed me. “A snatch and grab on the miners after they bring in the dust?”

I rolled my eyes. “They’re just trying to get by, same as us.” Besides, credits were no good to me, not with so little time to clean them. But the antonium dust the miners brought in was untraceable. ‘Dust knows no provenance’ was the saying. I just needed to get enough of it.

Agonizing minutes passed until he left. I glanced at my chrono again. If she didn’t show up today, I didn’t have a backup plan. This was my backup plan. No more nets to catch my fall.

I closed my eyes to try to find the calm, cold center within that had kept me alive so far on the streets of Ghelfi, and waited. I didn’t need to see, didn’t need to check the time. I could only wait and listen.

Finally, the sound came. The sharp click of stiletto heels across the permasteel walkway. I opened my eyes and leaned forward ever so slightly to peer down the street.

There she was. Charro’s secret indulgence. Silver hair teased into a high fall down her back, her face paint marked her as one of Sary’s working girls. When I first found out about Charro’s extracurricular activities, I’d half thought of sending a note to Sary, stir up the nest a bit. Then I started thinking long term. That’d been almost two years ago.

Two years of planning and waiting brought to a crash by that bastard Juda. I should have gutted him like a fish instead of just kicking him out.

Bani glanced at her and then looked up at me, frowning.

“That’s your mark?” He risked another look but I pulled him back sharply by the collar of his jacket.

He glared at me, with all the scorn a preteen could manage. “I know her. She works the landing pad. Even if she did have the sort of money you’re going to need to get out of trouble with Xavis, she isn’t gonna be carrying it with her on a job.” His eyes narrowed. “So what are you really up to?”

I grinned. I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t pleased to have to use this job to get out of the hole Juda left me in, but it was pretty brilliant.

“Just keep your eye on the alley, kid, okay?”

I checked my chrono again, but I didn’t need to. I’d timed this pattern so often. Like clockwork, the shadows of Charro’s two goons came into focus on the tinted plex of the storefront. Just like every other time I’d watched, they paced back and forth, no doubt joking about their boss and his hobby.

“They’re supposed to be guarding the back room, but he always kicks them out when she visits.” I checked the time again, stupid habit. Couldn’t help it. “He might be there, but he’s more than a little distracted right now.”

I worked my way across the roof, down to the collection of rubble in the back alley that had let me gain my vantage point.

Bani followed me and I glared at him.

“Stay up here,” I snarled. “I don’t know how this is going to turn out.”

“Then you’ll need a second pair of hands.”

The kid had a point, but I’d be damned if I was going to let him have it.

“No, I need a second pair of eyes.” His shoulders sagged a little. But I couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t follow me anyway.

“Besides, I don't know if I can trust you on this job.” His white face told me my words hit their mark. Hated to do it, but I didn’t want to be worried about him. I was in enough trouble as it was.

His face slid out of sight as I worked my way down the trash heap.

Even before I crossed the street, the bitter stench of the acid bombs I’d planted clawed at my throat. The air recirculators only worked intermittently in this neighborhood, and in the alley, the smell almost forced me to my knees.

That the miner walked by without flinching, I could understand. I’d heard too much time in an environmental suit would have you smelling nothing but rubber. But the silver-haired doxy must have been high on something to not notice something was wrong.

No time to linger in the alley. Microcams swept every ninety seconds, watching, waiting for anything out of the ordinary.

I dashed to the hiding space I’d carved out of the fallen wall that backed up to Sary’s, and held my breath, trying to hear over the drumming of my heartbeat. The rushing in my ears slowed, and I poked my head out. Still all clear.

Nobody in their right mind would take on Sary, he ran half the games in town, and word in the pits said he wanted to take control of the city over from Xavis. Unlikely, but still, not someone I really wanted after me. But if the choice was Sary or Xavis himself….well, it was a sucky choice.

I counted, waiting for the next clear moment to check on the results of the clustered acid bombs, then ran back around the corner.

Ninety seconds is a long time.

Ninety seconds is long enough to make one chip in the wall a day until a section can be lifted away and replaced seamlessly.

Ninety seconds is long enough to plant one small acid bomb at a time, then wait for a few days for the smell to dissipate, for the interior wall that led to the vault to weaken, bit by bit, day by day.

Ninety seconds is long enough to die in the Waste, outside of the protection of the domes.

And if I didn’t get my tithe to Xavis by tonight, that’s where I’d end up.

Davien

Really, everything would be so much easier if I just snapped the fat fool’s neck. Only the endless lessons in control back on the ship kept my hands still at my sides, fingers barely flexing. The tips of my claws ran across my palms, bringing me back to focus.

“Davien, are you even listening to me?” Xavis rumbled.

And he wasn’t a fool, even if I despised him. Xavis had clawed his way to the top of the dirtiest pile to run Ghelfi. The trip to the top had been over the broken bodies of plenty of enemies. He’d stayed on his perch for over twenty Imperial years. I didn’t have to do much research to know his methods hadn’t changed.

Prime example: he’d hired me.

I focused on Xavis, only too aware I’d started to slip away into the hunt. Every moment here, stuck on this rock, was a delay I couldn’t afford. Xavis, bastard though he might be, was my fastest way out of here. Well, the fastest way without an unacceptably high casualty count.

Xavis lounged in his hover chair, fingers tapping in annoyance well away from the control pad. The chair was as much affectation as convenience - he could walk just fine. Just liked to be able to loom over people.

“She’s late,” he growled. “She’s never late.”

I didn’t need to ask who he meant. He’d been on a tear about his precious Kara for hours, first calling her his brightest find, then cursing her ingratitude.

The large room I’d come to think of as the receiving hall was mostly empty now, just the regular workers at their terminals around the edges, cleaning credits, shifting funds until they could be transferred into the most secure banks in the Empire. Repetitive, mind-numbing, but crucial to any modern criminal enterprise. The low drone as they worked filled the otherwise quiet room.

The last traces of the dark festivities of the last day had almost been erased. All day and night long, denizens of Ghelfi’s underworld had streamed in, bringing their tribute to the acknowledged boss of the city, doing their best, or worst, to please a capricious overlord. The whole affair had been boring, and stupidly inefficient.

But the archaic ritual soothed his ego and had been an opening to a job. At the last tithing, some idiot with more guts than brains had tried to take Xavis out. He’d failed to account for the force shield over the hover chair, but his explosives did thin out Xavis’ bodyguards considerably.

Bad luck for them, perfect timing for me. When Doc had commanded we all enter the escape pods, she’d made it clear we were to jump as randomly as possible. It should have worked, should have drawn the attackers away from the Daedalus, but it had been six standard weeks since I’d crashed here, and I hadn’t had a signal from her or any of my brothers.

If I was on my own, I needed credits. And I needed a lot of them.

Six weeks had been enough to battle my way up the ranks of Xavis’ enforcers. Not that they were slouches, but they didn’t have my, shall we say, advantages.

A commotion at the entrance to the room drew my attention, and I angled for a better position at the front of Xavis’s chair. The dais we stood on served as an excellent vantage point for the room, allowing me to take in any suspicious movements at a glance. I’d argued to get rid of the scarlet drapery behind us, observing it provided too obvious of a hiding place. He’d refused. Like the dais, it was all about show.

The scuffle at the doorway turned out to be two enforcers dragging a third man between them. Beneath the new scrapes and swelling around his eye, I recognized him. Marcus, Martin, something like that. A low-level hustler who worked the dive bars near the station. Rigged games of chance, targeting travelers who wouldn’t be around long enough to make a fuss.

Xavis waved me back into place, and I relaxed, just a tad. This wasn’t a threat to his authority, just another loser trapped here.

The enforcers tossed the poor sap onto the lowest level of the dais and stepped back, waiting for orders.

“Malik,” Xavis coaxed the hover chair to the edge of the dais, watching the human wreck below take shuddering breaths. “You didn’t appear for the tithing last night.” He floated down, a pale mass of malevolence, eyes narrowed.

I stepped behind him. I didn’t expect trouble from Malik, but there’d be hell to pay if I wasn’t where Xavis expected me, especially when he was in this mood.

“Well?” Xavis’s low voice was almost pleasant, but a thread of malice wound through it, unmistakable. “We’ve known each other for so long, I’m surprised that you’ve disappointed me.”

“I’m sorry, Lord Xavis,” the man mumbled. Probably had lost a few teeth. “My youngest has been down with the Batdu pox, the medicine was so much…” He gulped. “I thought I could make it up before the tithing.”

“Oh?” Xavis’s eyes glittered. “How is the poor thing doing now?”

“Better now, Lord Xavis. Thank you.”

“You should have told me, I would have lent you the money.”

Sure he would have. At rates that would mean he’d own the service of the entire family.

“But, as it is, we have a problem that needs to be sorted out.” Xavis made a show of tapping his fingers, as if considering, but that sharp brain had already decided on the punishment, I was sure. This was just to terrorize the hustler, and send a message to everyone else in the room.

“I’d forgotten about your lovely family,” he purred. “The oldest is twelve now, as I recall?”

The man shifted uneasily. “Yes, my lord. But she’s not very strong…”

“I’m sure a more active life will be good for her. She’ll have her own tithe to pay, starting next cycle.”

“What?” The man pushed himself to his feet, protesting.

Idiot.

Xavis flicked a finger, and I sprang to the front of the chair to grab the beaten hustler by the front of his jacket. I lifted him off the floor and shook him until his head snapped back.

He pushed feebly against my grip.

“I wouldn’t try it,” I growled, and he froze.

I’m not sure what it is about my voice. On the ship, with my brothers, no one had a problem with it. In all the training vids we watched, I never thought I sounded that different. But here, on this worthless rock at the fringe of the Empire, all I had to do was speak, and the humans cowered.

Weak.

Prey.

I snarled, and the acrid scent of urine assaulted me. The fucker had wet himself. Apparently, he hadn’t liked the points of my teeth, either.

“I suggest you comply, little man. What choice do you have?”

He stared at me, face pale beneath the marks of the beating, but finally nodded. It wasn’t much of a motivational speech, but it was the truth. No one on Neurea had a lot of choices.

“I think you can release him now, Davien.” The smug tone of Xavis’s voice told me he’d gotten what he wanted. He hadn’t had to send a usually reliable worker to the Wastes, and he’d picked up extra leverage at the same time.

I lowered the man back to his feet. His legs buckled, but he scrambled away from me on hands and knees. Idiot. I wasn’t the worst monster in the room.

The rest of the negotiations were predictably short and one-sided. The hustler left, and the business in the room resumed its quiet drone.

“I’ve decided.” Xavis’s voice cracked like a whip as he floated back to the top of the dais. “An example must be made.”

I waited below for orders.

“Find Kara Shimshi. Bring her to me.”

Despite my better instincts, I grinned.

The hunt was on.

Click here to keep reading Given!

Vrehx: Conquered World Book One

Vrehx

Streaks of plasma lit the blackness as a squadron of Valorni fighters swooped in dizzying spirals, blasting at the massive Xathi ship that filled the screens of the Vengeance.

We were so close it was the size of a planet. Like two steel ziggurats smashed and welded together. Not practical for space flight, but efficient enough to tear through several worlds.

Designed to intimidate.

Designed to destroy.

And we were going to stop it.

We crept closer, waiting. I sucked in my breath, geared for the inevitable.

I gritted my teeth as the bridge shook, and Karzin let out an undignified whoop from his station on the far curve of the bridge. The purple stripes on his shoulders rippled, and his excited eyes darted back and forth as if cheering on his favorite sport.

Barbarian. His crude Valorni traits got on my last nerve—not that he gave a rat’s ass. Like the lot of them, he had no empathy for others. He barely listened to commands and forget anyone who didn’t at least match his rank.

“You green motherfuckers aren’t supposed to be hitting us, just laying cover for our approach,” I snarled. “They can remember that much, can’t they?”

They had only begun venturing into space when we took them into the alliance, but surely they weren’t that stupid.

I hoped not.

“Fuck you,” the Valorni drawled. The stretched-out sounds of his abominable accent were like bristles to my red Skotan scales. “Not their fault we’re cloaked all to hell.”

What an asshole. Valorni couldn’t even be bothered to speak accurately. Their drawl made it nearly impossible to understand them, and they had idiotic slang for everything.

“They were informed of our flight path before the battle.” The lights of Sk’lar’s implants flickered in the dim light of the bridge. “It should have been simple for them to avoid it.”

I smiled just a little, glad I wasn’t the only one with some common sense. Sk’lar wasn’t much better than Karzin, but he was more tolerable. My biggest problem was his implants.

His artificial augmentation was just creepy and wrong. You could see them light up in biohazard green against his shiny black skin. He looked like a fucking motherboard.

The strike team leaders were chosen for their specific talents and leadership, but Sk’lar’s was not stealth outside the ship.

Karzin made it a point to butt heads with all of us. That usually distracted the rest of us from being at each other’s throats.

Maybe that was his intention. Whatever. He was an asshole.

Karzin shrugged off the K’ver’s barely concealed criticism. “Not gonna matter in a few minutes, is it?”

The sarcasm warranted him a disapproving side-eye from Sk’lar, which he ignored. I hated to admit it, but the jackass was right. In a few minutes, we would probably all be dead.

“Gentlemen,” Rouhr’s quiet word from the command station silenced the chatter, “are you prepared?”

The scar that ran down the left side of his face rippled as he clenched his jaw. He was annoyed.

Of course, we were prepared.

We shut up anyway. Rouhr was very diplomatic. That’s why he was in charge.

We straightened ourselves and regained our concentration.

Tension and anger clogged the air, but there was no fear. Fear had died when our families did, when our worlds had burned under the Xathi attacks.

Around the half circle, each of us activated the new weapons panels, the long seconds drawing out as they lit up and hummed. Every battle had this moment—the waiting before the storm.

But this would be different.

We owned the storm.

“Let’s blow a hole in those bastards,” I growled, eyes fixed on the sickly green hull, thinking of the swarms inside.

They waited for the go ahead to surge through over the squadrons like locusts.

Nothing had been able to penetrate a Xathi hiveship before. They just plowed through and destroyed whatever they wanted, the swarms mopping up whatever the hiveship missed.

The Valorni, as annoying as they were, were inducted into the alliance for one reason. The Sugavians had worked with K’ver scientists using codialite, a mineral from the Valorni homeworld, to make one last attempt.

Just enough had been mined for this last-ditch effort—an experimental weapon that had a shot at penetrating that hull. It was rare, and we were on the losing end of this fight. We only had one shot.

We’d better make it count.

Every Skotan, K’ver, and Valorni warrior on the Vengeance had volunteered in the knowledge that it was a one-way trip. If this worked, the three strike teams below would board the Xathi and battle until there was nothing left.

If it didn’t, we’d all die—just sooner.

Either way, the recorder satellites would beam the results of the experiment back to the scientists and engineers. We’d succeed, or they’d build a better weapon next time. That was the most important part of the mission, and we all understood how expendable we were.

The three of us locked focus on our stations as we crept closer.

“We are now in firing range, Captain,” Sk’lar reported.

“Fire at will,” was the only response.

Karzin sent the signal to the Valorni ships, and I started a slow count.

One.

His comrades had fought stupidly but bravely. There was no discernable pattern to the attack.

I was worried more would take friendly fire than would hit the Xathi, but they somehow made sense of the chaos, dodging fire from their comrades. If any survived the battle, they deserved to escape.

Two.

More likely the crazy bastards would follow us into the breach, but they’d earned the choice.

Three.

I activated the launch panel and braced, eyes fixed on the monitors. The adrenaline rushed through me in anticipation of the blow.

Nothing.

Not a bang or a pop or a whine. Just the hum of the engines, and the wall of the Xathi ship growing larger on the screens.

The anticipation deflated as I looked at the panel in confusion. The damn thing was experimental, but it should at least fire. The engineers weren’t brain-dead.

With a snarl, I slapped it again.

And then the universe turned inside out.

Jeneva

I was in my element.

I was where I belonged.

Completely alone in the silence, except for the gigantic bipedal tree creature with an affinity for spewing poison.

Home sweet home.

A glob of the foul stuff hissed as it ate away the earth beneath me. It was only inches from my boot, but I didn’t flinch or try to move out of the way.

A rapid movement around a sorvuc was far more dangerous than its projectile poison. Its damn branches were covered in tiny neural fibers, capable of detecting incredibly small movements. The fibers were illuminated purple.

The sorvuc searched for me.

Under different circumstances, I would have found it beautiful, but at that moment, it was just a pain in my ass.

The humidity made my short hair damp and scratchy. It clung to the curve of my neck. I longed to brush it away, but a movement like that would be a death sentence.

The luminescent purple faded away to a tranquil pink. I realized I was holding my breath.

Slowly, so slowly, I crept closer to the wide trunk of the sorvuc. I had already made an incision in its trunk. That’s what pissed it off in the first place.

A necessary risk, but I only needed a few more drops of the thick scarlet fluid that seeped from the incision. The right person would pay a small fortune for its sap—or is it blood? Hell if I know.

As I slid my vial into place, ready to collect the liquid the sale of which would keep me comfortable for months, shouts erupted from somewhere nearby.

Damn it.

The sorvuc shrieked, its neural fibers flaring purple once again. It pivoted, razor-sharp leaves dangerously close to me. I rolled away, camouflaging my own movements in its rustling.

The hulking creature lumbered off in the direction the shouts came from—sort of. Its neural fibers must have picked up the sound vibrations, but with so many trees, it would have been difficult for the creature to determine the exact direction.

It’s a good thing sorvuc had those fibers. They were as deaf as, well, a tree—at least, the sort of trees our ancestors brought over on their generation ship. But those trees sure as hell didn’t fling poison or walk.

Walking plants were something the dense forest of Ankau had in excess. Even so, I’d take a hostile tree giant over people any day. At least they left me in peace.

Another round of shouts echoed through the trees. I clenched my teeth.

Speaking of peace.

I moved quickly and quietly through the dense forest, mindful not to disturb any of the thick vines that crisscrossed the forest floor. It was difficult to tell which ones were looking for a snack.

I spied a small herd of luurizi grazing between the roots of the docile Lenaus trees.

Their coats of lilac, sage, and pearl shimmered when they caught the mottled light bleeding through the canopy. Their silvery horns shone like jewels. It was easy to forget how deadly they were.

I was sure they could smell me.

Ordinarily, they would attack the moment they sensed an intruder. But this particular herd had become accustomed to my scent after so many years. It was an uneasy truce, but I still knew better than to take my eye off them.

Another bout of shouting brought me back to the present. It was louder this time. And stupider.

Clearly, whoever it was had a death wish, which was fine. I’d just prefer to be farther away when it happened.

The trees gave way to a small clearing. Two women, who I can only assume are the shouting morons, stood inches away from each other, their faces red with anger. They didn’t notice my intrusion.

“You’re not even trying anymore!” One woman, blonde and petite, hissed at the other. Her voice was tight, like she was trying to stay in control.

Sharp would have been the only way to describe her—sharp cheekbones, sharp chin, and sharp shoulders. Even her mouth was a sharp slash across her face.

I winced at her words, a headache throbbing at my temples. I almost wished something would come along and kill them.

“What more do you want me to do?” The other woman, dark-haired and softer than the other, answered wearily. “If I had known you were going to bring this up, I never would have agreed to meet you!”

Though they were different in coloring, they had the same nose and face shape. I guessed they were sisters—not that I cared.

“What other reason would there be to meet up?” the blonde snapped, her gray-green eyes narrowing. “What else do we have anymore?”

There was more poison in those words than there was in a fully grown sorvuc.

“I hate to interrupt,” I said, startling both women.

I wanted to sound as annoyed as I felt, but my voice was brittle and raspy with disuse. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had spoken aloud.

“But you really should shut up,” I continued.

The blonde pivoted to face me. I was at least a head taller than her, but she somehow seemed bigger than she actually was. And the glare on her face would have made a narrisiri hesitate.

“This is none of your business,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Nope, it isn’t. I don’t want to know about it. I don’t care about it. But you really should find somewhere else to finish your screaming match,” I replied.

“Do you think we’re idiots? We have a howler with us,” the blonde smugly fished a small black device from her pocket.

I hated those damn things. They emitted a high-pitched sound above the threshold of human hearing. It was meant to repel the creatures that stalked the forest, but I always thought it was a scam.

First of all, the people living in the cities and towns hardly knew anything about the creatures that lived out here in the forest. Second, how would anyone know for a fact that a howler was working? No one could hear it.

“Yes, I do think you’re idiots if you think that carrying a howler into the middle of aramirion territory during nesting season is a good idea,” I snapped, fighting the urge to give the blonde a smug smile. “If they can hear that thing, you’re screwed.”

The dark-haired woman paled as she put her hand on the blonde’s shoulder. The blonde stiffened at her touch.

“Leena, is that true?” the dark-haired woman whispered. Her eyes, the same color as the blonde’s, nervously scanned the surrounding forest.

“How the hell would I know, Mariella? You’re the one who moved all the way out to the middle of freaking nowhere!” the blonde, Leena, grumbled.

I turned to leave. Obviously, they had no intention of listening to me. Perhaps the dark-haired one, Mariella, might have seen reason, but Leena had some sort of chip on her shoulder—a chip the size of a damn ravine.

Fine. Whatever. They were adults.

I’d tried my best to warn them. It’s not my fault if they chose not to listen to me.

What would I know, right? I’ve only been living out here for fifteen years. They would come to their senses and leave, or they would keep at it until one beast or another silenced them.

Either way, I got my forest and my silence back.

I could still feel their flurries of emotion as I marched through the undergrowth. If I was going to find another sorvuc to fill my vial, I needed to concentrate, but I couldn’t do that with the feelings of two idiots in my head. I should turn back, try even harder to get them to leave.

A horrible screech unlike anything I had ever heard tore through the air. The sheer force of it drove me to my knees.

I tried to protect my ears with my hands, but it was useless. My vision blurred, stars danced behind my eyelids. I could practically feel my brain thrashing, desperate to escape that terrible sound.

Those idiots either did something to their howler, or the damn thing was malfunctioning. That had to be it.

As soon as I could get back on my feet, I staggered back to the clearing where I’d left the arguing pair. I would tear their stupid howler apart with my bare hands if I had to—anything to stop the noise.

“What the hell did you do?” I yelled.

Again, they didn’t notice me when I entered the clearing, but, this time, they weren’t distracted by an argument.

They stood side by side, looking up at the sky. Their faces were pale and their mouths were open in terror and confusion. I followed their gaze.

A jagged scar of pitch marred the once pristine stretch of endless blue.

The sky, my sky, had been torn open.

There was a beat of silence as if the whole planet had drawn in a collective breath of shock.

Then the forest erupted into chaos.

Click here to keep reading Vrehx!

About the Author

I love old movies – To Catch a Thief, Notorious, All About Eve — and anything with Katherine Hepburn in it. Clever, elegant people doing clever, elegant things.

I’m a hopeless romantic.

And I love science fiction and the promise of space.

So it makes perfect sense to me to try to merge all of those loves into a new science fiction world, where dashing heroes and lovely ladies have adventures, get into trouble, and find their true love in the stars!

Copyright © 2019 by Elin Wyn

All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.