Terri lifted her head and stared at her hand. The bio-tech had formed an armored glove clear up to her elbow, the green center of the symbiont pulsing with energy. She had activated it. Twice now, she had managed to activate it when overcome by a powerful desire. There was a key somewhere in that. A way to connect to the bio-tech and utilize it.
“Anastha… Terri!” Veral shouted up, relief unmistakable in his voice, as was the bite of anger.
“Yeah, I’m coming down!” she shouted back.
Intently ignoring the sound of Azan’s breathless laughter, Terri lightly swung herself until her other hand curled around another cluster of vines. That particular cluster had some terrible smelling plant twined within it, but she wasn’t in any position to complain. Instead, she tried to view it as a sort of penance as she made her way down until she reached a point where she could transfer to another vine.
Twice more, she repeated the process until she dropped down beside Azan, the black metal beneath her feet surprisingly silent with the exception of a light, muffled thump. The female wrapped an arm around her and squeezed briefly in a tight hug before letting her loose.
“You may be a little, soft thing, but you are certainly crazy,” the Blaithari female chortled. “It scared a half-dozen revolutions off my life. I cannot believe you made it,” she pronounced with a grin, her eyes gleaming as they settled on the clawed glove.
Terri flexed her hand self-consciously as she grinned back at Azan. The smile, however, turned sheepish as she met Veral’s regard. Immediately, her skin cooled as the bio-tech disengaged and uncoiled from her arm, leaving her bare and exposed beneath her mate’s glower.
“I know what you’re going to say,” she said quickly.
A heavy brow lifted speculatively. “I was not aware that telepathy was part of human physiology. But perhaps you are speaking of the numerous times I have instructed you during training to take the predictable and logical route. To not overextend for no other reason than that you can.”
“You are angry, aren’t you?”
“Furious,” he growled. “We will address this matter with considerably more training… repeatedly, once we are finished here. The simulation on scaling down foreign walls and vertical surfaces until I am satisfied will suffice.”
Terri frowned at the thought of hours and hours scaling the cliffs of Abzorra Thranal, Veral’s favorite training programing. One he had drilled her in for weeks until he felt satisfied, despite his displeasure with her antics. Just that quickly, his anger dissipated, and he drew her against him, nestling her within his embrace.
“I am very pleased, however, that you have come back to me safe, anastha,” he whispered against her hair.
A low purr rumbled around her from his vibrating mandibles, and she instinctively melted against him. Her endorphin rush finally bottomed out as she sagged against him, a tremble working through her muscles as he held her close. She was distantly aware of the sounds of feet hitting metal as the rest of the pirates joined them, but she pushed it away, relishing her moment with him.
Unfortunately, the captain wasn’t the patient sort who took well to being ignored.
“Enough with the loving reunion. Your mate is safe, and the crew is all here with the Evandra herself beneath our feet. No more delays,” Egbor snapped impatiently.
As Terri pulled back from Veral’s arms, she noted that the captain had a feverish light to his eyes as he stared down at the dark hull of the starship. His pupils were blown wide as his gaze twitched with a sort of frantic restlessness that could only be obsession.
She lusted over whatever the ship held as well, but that half-mad look on his face made her draw deeper into Veral’s embrace, reluctant now to set foot inside. She didn’t even want to touch the thing, and would have crawled up onto her mate if there wasn’t a risk of making herself appear even more foolish than she had already managed.
Whatever dwelled within there couldn’t be worth that.
Her opinion didn’t change when Veral led them to where his scans indicated the entrance hatch was located. It opened with little effort from him, seeming to respond to him in a similar manner to how the medical unit had. This time, however, the ship didn’t power down when he disconnected from the door. Instead, the interior lit up.
A voice echoed from the ship’s interior. It took her translator a moment to catch up since she hadn’t studied the Elshavan texts as much as Veral. She sucked in a breath when the words finally sorted themselves out in her mind.
“Welcome, Captain.”
21
“Captain? This salvager is not captain. I am the only captain here,” Egbor bellowed, his head craning around as he addressed the Evandra’s AI.
“Negative,” the cool voice responded. “Scans indicate that you do not have starship interface implants required of those with captain-level clearance. There is only one being present with such implants who has initiated uplink with the Evandra.”
Egbor turned on Veral with a savage expression. “Keeping secrets from me, were you Argurma?”
“Not secrets for those who know anything about the Argurma species. That you are ignorant of our implants for tech interface is no fault of mine,” Veral replied.
The pirate’s face darkened with anger and embarrassment. Veral kept his amusement to himself, but took pleasure in seeing Egbor rattled. The captain had been upstaged by a salvager, and he did not like it. Veral watched the male, calculating the odds of an attack. Despite his anger, the odds were low. Egbor didn’t get where he was by merely reacting. He was too smart for it.
Just as Veral predicted, an easy smile replaced the captain’s scowl, though the tension lingered around his eyes, despite his forced joviality. He cut a quick glance toward his crew, weighing their reaction. The pirates were watching the interaction far too closely.
“Not that it matters,” Egbor said quickly. “Communication with the ship’s AI is a boon to our cause regardless of who accomplishes it. The starship doesn’t know any better when it comes to who really holds the power, and as long as we can gather information from it, it will serve our purpose.” He relaxed further and gestured with a wide sweep of his hand. “Go ahead, Captain, find out where our treasure is.”
A sneer of distaste pulled at Veral’s lips. Predictable. Although his mate had a lust for wealth, it was merely to satisfy her needs. The fact that credits ensured that she ate and had comforts was the only use she had for it. For the captain, it was a different matter. The pirate’s greed lit up his eyes with a fever, making them overly bright, willing to risk all for his treasure.
“Are you certain? It is not too late to turn back. This ship should not have been disturbed. No treasure is worth that.”
“The treasure is worth everything and more,” the male hissed, and Veral nodded.
It was exactly as he had calculated.
His arm tightened around Terri as he addressed the Evandra.
“Locate any wealth stored on the Evandra.”
“There is a storage room that belonged to the younger prince, Nahsalva. His valuable possessions were kept under lock there off his main chambers. My systems indicate that you do not have clearance to open the royal compartments, and the accessway is flooded.”
Egbor’s eyes lit up. “We will find a way into them. Acquire the directions to the royal compartments, Argurma. Do not forget the reason we are here, and our particular arrangement.”
Veral did not need a reminder. Clutching his mate protectively to him, he glared at the male as he spoke to the AI. “Evandra, are there any lifeforms residing around the compartments?”
A length paused followed as a diagnostic ran, the pattern of the corridors and rooms scanned flowed as script behind his eyes.
“Negative, captain. There are no detected local life forms within the Evandra.”
“Rephrase, are there any bio-tech classified experiments operating around the compartments or anywhere within the ship?”
“Affirmative. Two classifi
ed bio-tech lifeforms have been detected. One has established hunting territory in the vicinity of the lower deck laboratory units. The other is in the flooded upper deck compartments. These are the only ones with established territory on the Evandra. The other thirteen lifeforms escaped onto the planet. Wide range scans indicate that they have migrated a considerable distance from their point of origin.”
“We will need directions,” Egbor pressed, and Veral barely contained his desire to rip the demanding male’s head off, if for no other reason than to shut him up.
“Kaylar, your expedient arrival would be appreciated.”
“Understood. I am descending now, preparing to enter the planet’s stratosphere. I have homed in on your location. Unlike your unwieldy salvager, I am in a war-class drop ship. I will arrive at your position in just a few hours. Be sure to leave some carnage for me.”
“It will be my pleasure, cousin,” Veral returned.
“Evandra,” he said aloud, “upload pertinent schematics and bio-tech signatures into the uplink.”
“Affirmative, captain,” the AI replied.
It was the only warning he got before the information surged into his systems. With it, he was able to feel the ship as a part of himself as he became intimately aware of every inch of the vessel. He could even feel the movement of the bio-tech creatures as they prowled through the bowels of the starship. There was so much that he could feel the strain on his systems, his muscles tightening and his throat raw as a roar ripped from him with the unyielding pressure. Through the pain, he focused on the soft touch of his mate’s hand and the warmth that flowed from her, anchoring him until the transfer completed.
“Well?” Egbor demanded.
A clicking growl rattled from Veral’s chest as he glared at the pirate. “I have it. We may proceed.”
Keeping Terri close at his side, Veral made his way into the ship, the lights flickering on in each section of the corridor at their approach. Although he was aware of the crew following them, it was only by listening intently that he was able to distinguish their individual steps on the metal walkway of the ship.
This part of the vessel, at least, was not tipped to the side or upside down, which made it convenient to travel upon, but unlike the previous wreckage, broken metal and supplies littered every surface. Among them, fragments of cloth that had yet to decay completely away could be seen. There was no doubt as to what that was, since his scans picked up trace biological material splattered everywhere.
There was only one word for what had happened there: carnage. Absolute, bloody carnage.
The amount of genetic material was so great that Veral stopped, his systems shocked by it. The Argurma had a reputation for the aggression of their warriors, but the bloodbath that had occurred here was so far beyond what was considered acceptable among his people that it was not something he was prepared to see. A skull rolled across the floor, kicked aside by a pirate. Terri stiffened beside him.
“That looks like a skull,” she hissed.
“It is.”
“That’s all you have to say? Is that the only one, or is this entire place just full of shit like that?”
“It may be the only intact skull. This particular corridor, however, has seen the death of dozens, from what I can tell from trace genetic signatures in residue blood spatter and bone fragments scattered over the floor.”
“Great…” she muttered. “This is probably going to give me nightmares for years. At least it’ll be an incredible story to tell our son or daughter.” Her hand smoothed over her stomach as she spoke, filling Veral’s heart with warmth with the simple gesture. “That is, if we survive,” she muttered, “and don’t join the dead here as ghosts ourselves.”
“You have an unhealthy obsession with the concept of the spirits of the departed lingering,” he observed.
“Says the male who still thinks skulls are romantic gifts,” she retorted with an amused smile.
“It is not the skull which is valuable, or the dead who provided it, but the gesture of honoring one’s mate by vanquishing all threats to her welfare that has meaning. It means holding one’s mate and her honor above all else.”
Terri paused, her head tilting to the side as she considered his words. Slowly, her eyes slid over to the captain. “In that case, I look forward to receiving that asshole’s skull,” she whispered as she nodded her head in the captain’s direction.
A smile curled his lips as his eyes narrowed on Egbor where he trailed near Veral’s side. It would be a great pleasure to do just that.
22
Once she knew what to look for, Terri couldn’t unsee the destruction and needless death everywhere. The experiments had ravaged the crew, killing everyone trapped in the starship with them. She shivered as she tried not to imagine the screams, and yet they seemed to surround her, all the same. Veral didn’t believe in ghosts or hauntings, but in her mind, there was little difference between a ghost and the terrible things that her imagination conjured to torment her with.
Her eyes slid over to Egbor, her lips tightening. Ever since entering the ship, he no longer lingered behind them, staying on Veral’s left with his guard tagging close beside him. There was an eagerness about him, as if he were waiting to be the first to set upon whatever he could find.
Part of her wondered if he was posturing for the crew, and that was possibly some small part of it, but on the whole he was motivated by his desire to possess the wealth of the Evandra at any cost. She almost felt sorry for the Blaithari male standing guard at the captain’s side as they made their way deep into the starship.
There seemed to be a certain weight that surrounded them—a stench of death—and a tangible presence of the unknown that she felt the farther they went into the ship. It made her skin prickle and a shiver crawl up her spine.
Azan’s muttered chants under her breath did little to calm Terri’s anxiety as they made every step feel like venturing into a forbidden place. She wanted to shout and beg the other female to be silent—anything to reduce the ominous feeling that accompanied them into the depths of the starship.
Every now and then, she swore she felt a tremor echo through the ship. Although no one said anything, she knew that Veral noticed it from the way he tensed, and the wary shift of his gaze as he attempted to pinpoint the origin, his vibrissae vibrating as he searched for any hint of the creature moving through the ship. Even the pirates appeared to still, their eyes roving nervously.
Despite the rumbling echoes that trembled throughout the ship, they moved without any sign that they were nearing the abode of any of the bio-tech creatures. Terri could almost pretend that the monsters weren’t lurking within the starship.
That illusion disintegrated the moment the door to the upper deck slid open at Veral’s approach, releasing the stale air and stench of rot captured within out into the corridor. Terri gagged at the horrible smell, her stomach churning as they stepped inside. They hadn’t taken more than a few steps when the AI’s voice echoed around them.
“Warning. You have entered the upper deck habitation zone. There is a water breach on the forward quarters. Immediate evacuation is recommended. Repeat, immediate evacuation is recommended.”
“Immediate evacuation for a bit of water, never mind the murderous bio-tech swimming around somewhere down there,” Terri mumbled as she peered around nervously.
For a habitation zone, the corridor was just as dark and featureless as any other part of the ship she had seen. The only thing that broke the seemingly endless depths were the doors that lined each side of the hall, their angle emphasizing the fact that the floor sloped at a hard tilt. Some opened at their passing, revealing empty rooms, but most remained shut, likely occupied by the remains of their inhabitants who had attempted to hide from the creatures, only to die horrible deaths in the crash.
One door that opened confirmed that possibility as her eyes fell on the remains of an Elshavan against a wall. Whoever the poor bastard had been, they had clearly died in th
eir attempt to take refuge in the empty room. They escaped the monster, but it hadn’t made their fate any better.
A heaviness curled deep within her at the clear evidence of the sad fate of the Elshavan as they silently walked down the hall. As terrible as it was to see the signs of massacre throughout the halls of the ship, the sight of the Elshavan dying without any way of escape made the dread sink deeper into her.
No one had escaped the Evandra alive.
Hopelessness filled the vile air, and alarm raced through her when a little splash rose with her every step. They had finally descended far enough into the zone that they were entering the flooded part of the starship. Her lips pressed together, thinning anxiously as the water began to climb until it covered her foot, and then rose above her ankle.
Just how deep was the water in the flooded part of the ship? Despite how disconcerting it was, she took some comfort from the fact that Veral wasn’t concerned. A soft growl was the only indication of his displeasure as the water climbed. Even those who survived among the crew had fallen silent as they endured the biting cold of the water as it came waist-deep on Terri. It was considerably shallower for most of them since only the amphibious Turogo were the height of humans.
“How much farther is it?” Egbor asked, his nose wrinkling in distaste as the murky water soaked the finely embroidered cloth of his long overcoat.
“At the end of the corridor,” Veral replied. “The Evandra’s scans show that the area is not completely flooded, but the water will get deeper still.” He glanced meaningfully to Azan. “The youngling may need to be carried…”
She gave him a sharp nod and turned, gripping the boy as she swung him effortlessly onto her back once more. She grinned. “He’ll be my personal parasite passenger until we get out of this accursed death pit, on my honor.”
“I am not a parasite,” Garswal grumbled but smiled as he tucked his chin beside the female’s neck.
Pirate's Gold (Argurma Salvager Book 2) Page 16