Hunted by the Alien Pirate: Mates of the Kilgari

by Kyle, Celia

  “Fuck,” I hiss, unable to contain my frustration. “I’m going to have to actually physically link into a port inside the building. Good thing I never leave home without at least three feet of dolnpipe wire.”

  “I have no idea what you just said, but it sounds fancy,” Varia jokes.

  “Ha-ha,” I spat sarcastically.

  “Are you okay, Fi? It’s not really like you to be so tense,” she says. “Even when we were running out of air in the hold of the Frontier, you seemed calmer than this. Does it have anything to do with your newly formed mating bond, perhaps?”

  “No—yes. I don’t know!” I answer, dumping my datapad unceremoniously into my pack.

  Varia leans back in the copilot’s seat and stares at me, waiting for me to finish. When I don’t speak, she says, “Okay, girl, spill it.”

  I’ve never had an older sister, but Varia is exactly how I’d imagined one would be if I had. She’s so easy to talk to and she truly cares about all of us, no matter how harsh she sometimes comes across.

  “I just…I wish Montier and I had had more time together before this mission. We just confirmed our mating bond before leaving and now we’re out here in the middle of nowhere. Who knows if we’ll even make it back in one piece? I know I’m young, but I know what I want and he’s it. And we just lost Lokyer…I don’t want Montier to suffer the same fate. I know he won’t hesitate to sacrifice himself for me, and I can’t let that happen,” I tell her, feeling the weight rise off my chest with every word that leaves my mouth.

  “It’s not going to happen. Don’t even think about that,” Varia assures me.

  “How do you know?” I ask.

  “I just know. This whole jalshagar thing…it’s got something to do with fate. Right? Well, I highly doubt whoever’s in charge would bring you to your fated mate only to take him away in the same day. That’s ridiculous,” she says.

  “You think so?” I ask.

  “Listen, do you remember me before Solair?” she asks me. “I used to be a bitch basically. But that was because I didn’t have my other half. Finding Solair has helped me chill out and realize that I’m a part of this universe.”

  I suddenly realize she’s exactly right. The jalshagar principle is bigger than all of us, and I don’t think it’s malevolent or cruel. Maybe that’s why Lokyer hadn’t yet found his mate. Because maybe somehow, whatever’s controlling all this between us knew he was going to die. And Montier and I were matched because we’re going to survive this.

  At least that’s the idea I decide to hold onto for the time being.

  “Thanks, Varia,” I say, knowing I don’t need to explain myself any further.

  “You’re welcome,” she says. “I’m just over the moon excited for you both, Fiona. Just wait until we’re back on the Queen and you get to experience every part of that Kilgari male. You know what they say is true. Right? That they have—”

  I interrupt her before she can finish. “Yes, I know. Believe me, I’ve felt both of them pressed up against me more than once. I can barely wait to see for myself.”

  “Fiona, I had no idea there was anything in that head of yours other than a million ways to hack a computer server!” Varia laughs.

  “Oh, believe me, this head of mine is full of thoughts, and not all of them involve data breaches and backdoor codes.”

  “Well maybe they do involve breaching and backdoor, but just the fun kind,” she says with her eyes waggling.

  I can’t help but blush at the thought of Montier putting both his cocks inside my backdoor. It’s definitely…distracting.

  Montier and Solair return to the shuttle as we howl with unbridled laughter, both sets of eyebrows nearly reaching the sky with curiosity.

  “Shall I ask what you two were discussing during our absence?” Solair asks his mate.

  “Best not,” Varia says, shooting a cheeky wink in my direction.

  “We were met with no resistance. It’s pretty quiet around here,” Montier says to me.

  “Great. That’s what I like to hear. I tried to access the servers remotely, thinking I might be close enough, but it didn’t work. I definitely have to be inside the building,” I tell them.

  “Well then, let’s get this done,” Solair says.

  I shoulder my pack as Varia and I jump out of the shuttle. She falls into step behind Solair and I do the same behind her, letting Montier watch our six. Although they’ve reported it’s a ghost town, we keep silent as we approach the building and make our way inside.

  The building is like the planet itself—empty and cold. It appears to be made of thick granite brick, clearly to stand as a fortress against assault, but I’m unsure why we are able to just walk in. Is there truly no one here?

  The lights above us are almost clinical, too bright as they sear into my eyes. I do a quick sweep of the ceiling but detect nothing. Not a single monitor is to be found.

  Either this place is truly abandoned and was swept clean before whomever was responsible for it had cleared out, or they just don’t want us to know they’re watching us. I’ll find out soon enough. Little do they know they’ve only invited another spider into their web.

  It doesn’t take us long to stumble across an unlocked, empty room. We stealthily make our way inside and I waste no time in pulling out my datapad and the dolnpipe wire. There’s an open port in the wall just waiting for me to link into it, and it takes no time at all for me to create a backdoor into their server, easily finding a username and password belonging to a Commander Tarsk, whomever that is.

  Once I’m in, I get to work downloading every single file I can find. Better to grab it all now and sort through it once we’re back on the Queen. I don’t want to spend anymore time in this place than is absolutely necessary.

  Since the datapad is reporting seven minutes remaining until the download is complete, I pull up the site’s security systems. Even though Solair and Montier are guarding the door, I want to find out if this place is truly as barebones as it seems. All at once, ten video feeds pop up onto my screen, every one of them filled with people. My jaw drops as I take in the sight of them.

  “What is it?” Varia asks, immediately coming to hover over my shoulder. When she realizes what I’m looking at, she swears like a sailor on leave.

  “Is there a problem?” Solair asks from where he stands by the door.

  “Yeah, a lot of them, all walking around with IHC transponders,” Varia confirms.

  “Shit,” Solair curses.

  “I’m not sure how, but they haven’t yet noticed I’ve breached their security. I mean, none of them seem to be heading this way,” I say as I pull up a schematic of the building.

  I take a quick glance at the blueprint and confirm my findings. All of them are much more involved in whatever tasks their doing and none of them are heading in our direction. I can’t help but feel a little proud of myself for covering my virtual tracks so well, but I guess I’m not surprised. I’ve been at this a long time and haven’t been caught yet. Why should it happen now?

  What’s weird, though, is that none of these people seem to have the same discipline or military precision as the IHC Space Corps. Either they’re much less strict this far out in the galaxy, or I’m not actually looking at members of the Corps. Curious, indeed.

  “I’m nearly done, team. We’re looking at a minute and change and then we can hustle,” I say.

  Montier looks over at me with a proud grin on his face. I’m just about to return it when the door we’d entered through opens from the other side. He immediately falls back in an offensive stance, his size nearly blocking my view but not enough to prevent me from seeing two humans walk into the room as if they own the place.

  Perhaps they do.

  If they’re intimidated by my jalshagar’s size, you’d never know it. They look like IHC marines, but I’ve been wading through downloaded IHC files for weeks. I’ve seen enough to know without a doubt that these humans are mercenaries, not Space Corps. They may be wearing
the uniforms, but there is no way these are true IHC soldiers. Their lack of fear when being stared down by an angry Kilgari also tells me we’re not dealing with run-of-the-mill soldiers.

  As I look at them, I realize I hadn’t seen their approach on any of the video feeds. Something’s not right, but I don’t have time to figure it out. The download finishes with a barely audible chime and I immediately unhook the wire from the port, stuffing everything back in my pack.

  “Care to explain what the hell you’re doing here?” one of the mercenaries asks in a nonchalant tone, as if our answer doesn’t really matter.

  “Nope,” Montier says, offering them nothing.

  Their armor is more advanced than ours—at least class three—and the weapons now held in their hands are much higher caliber than we have at our disposal. I know without them saying so that we’ve no choice but to do whatever they say.

  “That’s just fine. You’ll tell us soon enough,” the merc drawls, pointing his blaster directly at Varia’s head. “Now get moving.”

  One by one, we fall in line as they force us out into the hall.

  Chapter Ten

  Montier

  My belly bottoms out at the sight of the IHC marines standing in the doorway. At least, they’re dressed like IHC marines, but there’s something off about them.

  Perhaps it’s the rough edges, like stubble that the Marines would never tolerate, or the manner in which they eagerly grip their assault rifles. Certainly their armor is top-of-the line military grade, but I can’t shake the feeling that we’re not looking at true marines but mercenaries masquerading as such.

  Not that I’m about to confront them on it. Solair and I exchange a silent glance, and I can tell his assessment is the same as my own. Facing off against the half-dozen well-armed thugs would be tantamount to suicide.

  For one thing, obviously, they have us outnumbered two to one, and that’s if we count Fiona as one of our combatants, which I am loath to do. For another, they’re wearing class-three hard armor, which is just one step removed from powered suits. While they lack the servo motors enabling superhuman strength, the armor itself is ablative much like the new plating I put on the Queen on Udrillon. The blaster weapons Solair and I are equipped with wouldn’t be very effective unless we were lucky enough to get a shot through the seams or the connection points of the jointed segments.

  Not to mention, their weaponry is top of the line, designed to project solid light photon blasts that would make mincemeat out of us in short order. We might as well be wearing toilet paper as the class-two hard armor that offers such feeble protection against mighty blasters like those.

  Also, they have the drop on us. Even reaching for my weapon is a bad idea at the moment. If it were just me and Solair, I might be willing to risk it, but with Fiona present I decide that prudent caution is the apropos course of action, no matter how it rankles.

  “Hands up—slowly.” The leader, a mustachioed human with several missing teeth, sneers as he takes us in. “Kilgari? And humans?”

  He turns to his lieutenant, a slightly shorter but far more robust man whose heavy jowls protrude from the face mask.

  “Aren’t those the two dick guys?”

  Solair and I exchange a rueful glance. Whenever another sapient species—particularly humans—meets one of our kind, they never mention our aesthetically designed, work-of-art starships, our rich tradition of music, or our many contributions to galactic culture.

  They all get hung up on the two cocks thing. To us, it’s perfectly normal, of course, but it’s a source of endless fascination for other species. Quite frankly, it’s insulting.

  Not that I’m about to complain to these hard-looking men, of course.

  We keep our arms raised in the air while the leader gestures toward us.

  “Joe, Rob, take their weapons.”

  The apparent Joe and Rob move to do as ordered, roughly yanking our firearms and taking the survival knife in my boot for good measure. Then they frisk us with just as much carelessness to our comfort. One of them grabs my crotch and feels around, and I have to chuckle.

  “I assure you, that’s not a weapon in the conventional sense.”

  “Just being thorough.”

  Fiona yelps as one of the armored mercs frisks her, paying more attention than is required to her chest. I take a half step toward them when the barrel of a rifle presses painfully into my nose.

  “Go ahead, you two-dicked son of a bitch. I’d like nothing better than to splatter your brains all over the wall.”

  “Settle the fuck down, Rob. Or do you really want to scrub gore off the bulkheads again?”

  “This is all a mistake.” Solair grins as Rob lowers his gun. “We thought this facility was deserted.”

  “Oh, really?” The commander shrugs. “Then I guess we can let you go.”

  “Really?” Solair’s face is a mask of incredulity.

  “No, not really. You must be out of your mind. I’ve heard some lame excuses from infiltrators before, but you, buddy, take the cake, pie, the whole fucking dessert stand at that.”

  Rob turns to the mustachioed commander.

  “What should we do with them, Flint?”

  “Hmm.” Flint strokes his mustache with a gloved hand. “I don’t know, rightly. I’d hate to vaporize them without the clien—that is, without command’s tacit approval.”

  He steps back into the hallway, keeping his rifle pointed at the floor—for now.

  “We’ll take them down below and secure them for now. This is a headache I don’t need at the moment.”

  Joe pokes me in the belly with his rifle.

  “Get moving, horny. And don’t try anything funny.”

  We have no choice but to let them herd us along like livestock. I make sure to remain protectively close to Fiona’s side as we head down the passage. I’m glad she’s holding herself together so well. A lot of women—hell, a lot of hardened warriors—would be freaking out in a situation like this.

  I once heard Grantian say that so many good men die trying to avoid an inevitable capture because it represents failure, even if that failure is temporary. Good thing Solair and I have more level heads.

  The mercs herd us along, down a sloping passage to another level. The many twists and turns in the labyrinth-like complex soon have me thoroughly confused, despite my best efforts to orient myself. The mercs seem to have no problem figuring out where they’re going, and I notice one of them has a schematic on his display on the armor visor.

  Getting my hands on that visor would be a real boon, but I don’t see how that’s going to happen.

  Eventually, after myriad different paths and junctions, we’re shoved into a small storage depot, largely empty but for spools of wire and what looks like an unpowered console. The doors slam shut behind us, and Solair sighs heavily.

  “That could have gone better.”

  “We’re alive.” Varia kisses him on the cheek. “So long as that remains the case, there’s hope. Yes?”

  He grins at her and then heads over to the door. Fitting his fingers into the seams between the two sliding panels, he attempts to shove them open by brute force to no avail.

  “Montier, you want to try?”

  “I’ve got a better idea.” Fiona has turned on the console and is rapidly tapping keys on it. “I can hack the door and get it open in a jiffy.”

  “That’s great, my darling, but we’re hopelessly lost. Or at least, I am.”

  “I can help with that, too. There’s a schematic on this console. Just give me a second to download it and…done.”

  She pushes the button, and the doors slide open with a soft hiss. I peer out into the corridor and check to see if the coast is clear before motioning for the others to follow.

  Fiona takes charge of navigation, which seems somehow apropos given her duties on the bridge. When she tells us to take a turn, we take a turn. For a time, I start to worry she’s leading us the wrong way, but then we find the ramp we came down
close to where we were captured.

  “This looks familiar.”

  “It should. We’re nearly back to the main level.”

  Around every corner, behind every door, I expect to see mercs or worse rushing out at us, but our luck holds out. For a time, the only sound is our own muted bootsteps, heavy breathing, and the occasional directive from Fiona.

  At last, we reach the same corridor we entered right before our capture. Just two more junctions to go, and we’ll be safely out of this maze.

  Fiona gestures at a pair of double doors and grins excitedly.

  “This is it. There’s outdoor access through this chamber.”

  She hacks the door panel in record time, and my heart beats more rapidly as they slide open—

  Only to catch in my throat when no less than a dozen mercs turn their angry gazes our way. We’ve caught the bastards during a shift change.

  Fuck.

  Chapter Eleven

  Fiona

  No one says a thing.

  For a moment, the mercs just stare at us, slack-jawed. They don’t even raise their weapons. Inevitably, one of them finally levels his blaster at us, and I recognize the man from before. The other mercs shift their weight as they hold up their blasters, and I find myself on the wrong side of a dozen scopes.

  Not good.

  Before I have the time to think things through, I tap a button on the console and there’s a hissing sound as the hydraulics kick in, sliding the door back into its locked position. From the other side comes the sound of a dozen photon blasts crashing against the metal, all the mercs firing at once. Even though I’ve hacked the door to ignore all commands once it is locked, it doesn’t look like these guys are going to be fiddling with the control panel any time soon.

  “Run,” I hear Solair say behind me, and our little group spins on its heels as one. We run down the corridor as fast as we can, the soles of our boots slapping the hard concrete underneath us. We turn the corner at the end of the corridor right when the mercs finally manage to open the door.