Metal Pirate (Warriors of Galatea Book 3)

by Lauren Esker

  And as for me ... well ...

  Oh, hell with it. There was no point in lying to herself, even if she still had trouble admitting it to Skara. She had no intention of getting the symbiont taken out. In fact, just being here was starting to make her nervous, because if they had the technology to stabilize Skara without giving him a new one, they might take hers as well.

  She huffed out a breath. It wouldn't help to dwell on all the things that could go wrong. Also, she was starting to sweat under her winter jacket. She fumbled with the sticky strip and finally managed to get it unzipped.

  "If you're done communing with the trees ..." Skara murmured, moving up beside her.

  "Coming, coming."

  The park was even larger than Claudia had realized at first; it seemed to go on and on. At last they drew near the far end of the row of resurrection trees. Claudia had only a brief moment to see what was there—wide glass doors and purple-uniformed guards who, this time, actually did appear to be checking IDs—because Skara sucked in a breath, grabbed her elbow, and turned her briskly to walk away, as if he'd suddenly spotted a tree that he absolutely had to look at up close.

  "Portal us out," he whispered fiercely, leaning toward her. "Right now."

  "What? Why? Where?"

  "It doesn't matter! Anywhere. Now."

  The guards were looking their way. Claudia tried to focus on the plaza outside: the cold wind, the vendors, the smell of hot soup and cinnamon ...

  "Ow!"

  It felt like she'd unexpectedly banged her head into a doorframe, except the pain didn't seem to be physical, and it was already fading as she rubbed her forehead. Skara gripped her arm.

  "What happened?"

  "I ... I don't know. I tried to open a portal, but ... ow."

  "Portal block," Skara said, rubbing her back. "Okay, fair enough. The sanctuary must have a block on it. Hurry, before they lock the outer doors."

  They made their hasty way back to the front doors, Skara surreptitiously supporting her with a grip on her arm. No one stopped them, but it was clear that the guards were on some kind of alert, and as they hurried down the stairs, more guards began to converge.

  "We gotta get out of here," Skara muttered. "Can you portal back to the ship from here?"

  "I—I don't know." Claudia rubbed her aching temples. The headache had receded to a low throbbing, but she quailed at the idea of another surge of that sharp electric pain. "I think so. Skara, what's going on?"

  Skara glanced around as if he expected to be followed. "There was another shapeshifter in there. One of my people. I think one of the guards."

  "What? How do you—"

  "We can sense each other, remember?" He started to say something else, but broke off as a pair of violet portals opened at the far edge of the plaza. "Quick. We need to get farther away, out of sensing range."

  Claudia focused on the bridge of the ship. This time, nothing blocked her. They stepped through, and Skara caught her as she swayed.

  "Here. Sit." He guided her to a seat and pressed an energy bar into her hand.

  "I'm going to get really tired of these things if I keep doing all this portaling around," she said, laughing shakily. "I don't suppose they come in chocolate flavor?"

  Skara's only answer was a grunt. He went to the ship's controls and touched them, bringing up some readouts on the screen.

  "What are you doing?" She still had a slight headache, but not too bad. Skara was right, it had been a good idea to top up her portal tank beforehand, so to speak.

  "Trying to see if I can get access to any station records and find out more about what ships have come in lately. Which I can't. Damn." He plunked down in the pilot's chair and swiveled it idly with his foot. Sweat beaded along his hairline; he wiped it idly away, but his Rhuadhi guise began to collapse, purple flowing across his skin as his features rearranged into the familiar ones she knew. "Not that it matters. They have shapeshifter guards. Damn it. That's the one thing we can't get past, at least not easily. I knew they were going to step up their security."

  "Could it have been Ilyx?"

  They traded a glance. Then he turned and headed for the cargo bay at a jog, with Claudia on his heels.

  But the lights still glowed reassuringly on the stasis pod, and when they approached, Claudia saw Ilyx's face beneath the glass. Skara let out a sigh and rested his hand against the side of the pod.

  "I guess it didn't make that much sense that she could have escaped. Still ... it might have been simpler if it was her." He clenched his hand into a fist and bumped his forehead against it. "We can't get in past the guards if they can sense me. We could try a different sanctuary, but there's no telling if they'd have shapeshifters there as well, and there are only four sanctuaries on the entire planet, so they could pretty easily cover them with just a few Iustran guards." He shook his head. "What the hell? How did they even get in touch with my people, anyway?"

  "She might know," Claudia said, glancing at Ilyx.

  "Huh." Skara's eyebrows went up. "That's ... a really good point."

  "Is it possible to take her out of there without having her escape?"

  "My people are notoriously hard to keep in restraints, as you might imagine." He opened his mouth and sucked in a breath as if to say something else, then stopped and shook his head. "No. Not that."

  "What?"

  "Never mind. Let's just say you can restrain a shapeshifter if you work hard enough on it." There was old pain in his face that made her reach out for him. His arm was tense when she touched it, unnaturally warm and trembling slightly.

  "How are you holding up?" she asked quietly.

  "As well as I can be." He grimaced. "Okay, the best way I can think of to do this is to use one of them as a hostage for the other's good behavior. I don't want you becoming a hostage yourself, so you can—"

  "—be right there," Claudia interrupted. She waved her hand in the air. "If things go bad, I can just go poof, right?"

  She saw that he was hovering on the edge of arguing. Then he shook his head. "Fine. But you'll stay back, do exactly as I say, and if anything goes wrong, portal up to the bridge and lock down the ship. I'll set up a code for that. Sound good?"

  If it kept her from being sidelined like a damsel in distress, she was willing to agree to anything. She nodded.

  Twenty

  Skara didn't like having Claudia in the same room with the same two people who'd tried to kidnap her on multiple occasions, but she had a point. With the symbiont, she was probably better equipped to protect herself right now than he was.

  He'd pushed his body, and pushed it, and he was starting to get the feeling that he'd pushed it right up to the edge of its ability to withstand the stress he was putting it under. The drugs weren't really doing much anymore; each fresh dose seemed to burn its way through his system almost as fast as he could inject it. Just keeping his shapeshifting under control for the amount of time they'd been on Rhuad had taxed his self-control to his limits. He was shaky and hurting, alternately too hot and too cold, struggling to keep the tremors out of his hands and the pain out of his voice.

  Just a little longer.

  And now he was putting himself in a position where he definitely couldn't let his guard down for a second.

  He had Claudia wait out in the corridor, cuffs armed and ready to fire, while he opened the door and went in to secure Kriff. Being bounty hunters, Kriff and Ilyx had plenty of different kinds of restraints to choose from in their cargo hold, and he'd selected a good strong pair of wrist cuffs.

  "What are you doing?" Kriff demanded, backing against the wall.

  The dull ache that had been gnawing at Skara's temples for days was escalating to migraine intensity, fraying his temper to the snapping point. "Do you want me to stun you and drag you where we're going? Because I will."

  "It's okay," Claudia said from the hallway. "We're not going to double-cross you. We're just taking you to see your friend."

  Skara wasn't sure why Kriff believed
her and not him, but the Galatean's catlike eyes widened, and after another glare at Skara, he turned to allow his wrists to be cuffed behind him. "I thought you'd killed her or sold her to somebody."

  "I'm not a slaver," Skara snapped. He pushed Kriff out into the corridor ahead of him, while Claudia backed away, keeping her cuffs trained on them. "Say what you want about me and it's probably true, but that I'll never do."

  "You're not actually that bad, you know," Claudia said, smiling.

  "Maybe you could try not talking about what a nice guy I am in front of the prisoners, thanks!"

  They took Kriff down to the cargo hold. He resisted somewhat on the stairs, but all resistance collapsed when he saw the stasis pod and its prisoner. "She really is alive. You didn't lie."

  "She's fine," Skara said. "And now we're going to take her out, and she's going to stay fine and so are you, as long as both of you cooperate. Claudia, the other cuffs."

  Claudia tossed him a second pair of restraints.

  "You, back away," Skara told Kriff, and started the pod's opening cycle.

  The lid hissed open, and Ilyx collapsed forward. Skara caught her limp form, lowered her to the floor, and knelt on top of her to snap the cuffs onto her wrists while she was still groaning. Stun hangover combined with stasis hangover—he knew what that felt like.

  He glanced up to make sure Kriff was keeping his distance, and then got back, allowing the bounty hunter to kneel next to his partner. With his hands cuffed, kneeling was all Kriff could do, but he nudged Ilyx repeatedly with his knee until she groaned again, tried to sit up, and keeled over onto her side.

  "My head," she moaned.

  "Yeah, fun, isn't it," Skara said shortly, his own headache making him less than sympathetic. "Water and food ought to help. I'd offer you a drink, but we can't untie your hands because frankly you keep trying to kill us, so here's something that'll do the job." He slipped a loaded injector off a loop on his belt.

  Kriff bristled protectively. Ilyx tried to sit up but, woozy and without her hands to help her, fell over again. "I'm not letting you inject me with anything," she groaned from the floor.

  "It's just painkillers and glucose. If you want to feel like shit, fine by me, but I'd rather have you upright and coherent for this conversation."

  Ilyx glared at him but allowed him close enough to inject her. Neither she nor Kriff tried anything. Out of the corner of his eye, Skara noticed Claudia hovering, her hands raised and clenched into loose fists, green light dancing around the edges of the cuffs.

  "You can power down," he told her. He moved back and let Kriff come up to check on his partner. Carefully, trying not to betray how lousy he felt, he seated himself crosslegged on the floor and let his shoulders relax as much as he was able, trying to look as if he hadn't a care in the world. "They know we're their ticket out of here. Don't you?"

  Kriff nudged Ilyx with his shoulder and knee, and she managed to sit up, leaning on him. "Yeah," he said after a moment. "You could've killed us or sold us, but you didn't. I guess that means you want us for something."

  "It means he's not a killer or the kind of person who buys and sells people, unlike you two," Claudia snapped.

  "Hey now," Kriff said. "No need to get personal."

  "You guys kidnapped me and tied me to a chair! And you wrecked my apartment. I'd say it's personal."

  "You stole our ship."

  "Only after you stole ours first!"

  "Guys," Skara said. How in the hell was he the mediator here? He rubbed his forehead, where the dry ache continued to build. "Can we get down to business? We hauled you out of cold storage because we need answers, starting with, who exactly are you working for?"

  "It's a bounty, you nitwit," Kriff said. "We're freelancers. We'll hand you over to whoever pays us."

  "So who's paying?" Skara felt like there were screws tightening into his brain. He snapped his fingers. "Come on, you knew a lot more about me than you can get off the public information feeds. Why you two? Why now? Why Earth?"

  "Where?" Kriff asked.

  "He means Birthworld," Ilyx said. She pushed herself away from Kriff, sitting on her own now, if a bit unsteadily.

  Kriff grinned. "Ah, yeah, that. It seems you've sold black-market Birthworld DNA to at least three different buyers in the last few months. You had to be getting it from somewhere. We tracked you down through your buyers, and then we followed you."

  Skara laughed wryly, despite the pain in his head feeling like it was rearranging his skull. "And here I thought I was so careful."

  "Well, you didn't know you were up against an Iustran," Ilyx said. "I just needed to get close enough to get a good imprint on you, and then I'd be able to find you anywhere."

  "Except you imprinted on the symbiont instead of me, so then you started targeting Claudia. And you knew about the symbiont." He looked between the two of them. "How'd you find out?"

  Claudia moved quietly beside him and sat down, resting her shoulder against his, a gesture of support that he appreciated more than he knew how to tell her.

  "If it makes a difference," Skara added, "we're in orbit around Rhuad right now." He saw both of them jerk in surprise. "Yeah, didn't know that, did you?"

  "As far as I'm concerned, a microtick ago I was stunned and shoved into that box," Ilyx ground out.

  "Yeah, all I've seen is the inside of the cabin I've been locked up in," Kriff said. "So we're at Rhuad. Hooray."

  "Where you've been before," Skara said, and they were both suspiciously quiet.

  Claudia bumped Skara's shoulder with hers, warm and reassuring, an us against the world kind of gesture. "Come on, why not tell us? We let you out because we need your help. There's a shapeshifter guard down there. Are the Rhuadhi in touch with your people?"

  Ilyx still didn't answer.

  This was the point at which Skara, if he was really the heartless pirate he liked to pretend to be, should've tried to use one of them against the other in order to get them to talk. That had been the vague plan when he brought Kriff down here. But he simply didn't have the stomach for it. Especially not in front of Claudia. I don't know if she's changed me, or if I never was that person.

  But there was more than one way to get cooperation out of people like this.

  Instead, he said, "You guys work for whoever pays you, right? We can compensate you better than they ever could."

  This finally got a short, "How?" out of Kriff.

  "Because we want to steal a symbiont. If you help us, you can get as many as you want, and basically name your own price out there. They can't offer you that, can they?"

  Ilyx and Kriff shared a look that reminded Skara briefly of himself and Claudia, the way that two people could communicate without using words. Kriff raised his eyebrows; Ilyx shrugged.

  "Okay, fine, here's the deal," Ilyx said shortly. "Word's out on the pirate net that the Rhuadhi are hiring Iustrans. I'm surprised you didn't hear." She gave him a narrow-eyed look. "I guess you've been busy."

  In fact, he had been—with Lyr's little group of refugees, with Selinn and Kite's efforts to help escaped slaves, and then the search for Selinn. But he wasn't going to tell them that. "Go on."

  "That's it, really. We aren't working for them in any organized kind of way. But we met them on their station and got all the information that they had on you." Ilyx smiled slightly. "They're paying very well for you."

  "I'm flattered. I always knew I was a high-ticket item."

  Claudia bapped him lightly with the back of her hand. "They're talking about selling you to the highest bidder, you nitwit."

  "Look, it's not that I want them to, it's just good to know that I can fetch a good price."

  "Makes total sense," Kriff said. "I'd be flattered too."

  Ilyx nodded. "There's a bounty on me in Hnee space. I keep checking to see if it's gone up."

  "I'm surrounded by crazy people," Claudia declared.

  "So anyway," Skara said. "You never really dealt with them as more than a busin
ess transaction, then, right? Do you know how many other Iustrans are working for them?"

  Ilyx shook her head. "I don't know. We only dealt with them as bounty hunters. I knew they wanted Iustran guards, but they were also screening us based on our background. They never would've hired me for that."

  "Fox guarding the henhouse," Claudia muttered.

  "So what if I could get you in there?" Skara said. "You could steal all the symbionts you could carry."

  Claudia shifted uncomfortably, but didn't object.

  "I'm listening," Ilyx said.

  "We tried to break into a sanctuary, but they had an Iustran guard so we couldn't get far." Skara grinned. "However, let's say we had two shapeshifters. One to break in, and one to distract the guards."

  Ilyx scoffed. "You want me to be bait?"

  "You'd rather be frozen in a stasis pod and handed over to the Hnee?" Skara asked brightly. "Since you just cheerfully told us there's a bounty on you, too."

  "Nice one," Claudia said.

  "I hate you," Ilyx muttered.

  "But that's the point, though, isn't it?" Skara asked. He felt wildly restless as he always did when a plan started to come together, and he yearned to get up and pace, but wasn't sure if he could do that without betraying his weakness. Falling on his face while dramatically gesturing wasn't the impression he wanted to convey. "We're all criminals here—well, except for Claudia, sweet Claudia, I didn't mean to malign you along with the rest of us reprobates ..." He patted her arm.

  "I think I'm getting there in a hurry, hanging around you."

  "—anyway, none of us has a squeaky-clean past, and any of us could screw over the others. I'm not asking you to trust us. I certainly don't trust you. I just think we can help each other."

  There was a silence, then Ilyx said, "What's a girl got to do to get untied around here?"

  They had a brief, tense strategy session in the ship's small lounge. Ilyx and Kriff were on one side, Skara and Claudia on the other, and nobody took their eyes off the other pair.

  "You could give us our cuffs back," Kriff suggested, rubbing his wrists.