by Juno Wells
He did the same, keeping an eye on the square and the Tyluk at the same time. "Well?"
"The barbarian speaks," the Tyluk said. He wiped his hands on the front of his robes. "A miracle. There is good news and bad news."
Vrix waited, wondering how long the bastard would try to keep them there.
The Tyluk smiled just a touch and nodded at the square. "The Slasu will be moving their slaves through this area in a few minutes. You might be able to spot your friend if you're vigilant. And a little lucky."
Griggs tensed, gripping the edge of the table, and stared at the square as if she could make Heidi appear just from force of will. Vrix caught the back of her robes, wanting to warn her off bolting into the middle of the unknown threat, but focused on the Tyluk. "How do you know?"
"I have my ways." He raised his hands in an airy gesture, as if waiting for Vrix to acknowledge his skills, but the Xaravian felt nothing of the sort.
Instead, a deep unease ran through him. The Tyluk selected the meeting location yesterday, before he knew Heidi's description or allegedly if she'd been taken by the Slasu. How did the Tyluk know to select that cafe and the exact time that the Slasu would be moving through the area with Heidi in tow? Something wasn't right at all.
A commotion rose on the other side of the square, and at least a dozen Slasu created a dust-up near a shop to distract everyone around them. Behind them moved almost the same number of dazed women, some bruised and bloody, but all of them wearing chains.
Slaves.
And among them, one defiant blonde Earther with a strong jaw and perfect posture, glaring at everything around her.
Griggs said, "Heidi," and bolted.
Before Vrix could grab her, she was halfway across the square, pulling the knife out of her robes as she barreled into the mass of Slasu and the crowds closed around her.
He roared and raced after her, spikes rattling, and as he reached the place where she'd been, vendors and shoppers surrounded him and he couldn't move or see. Vrix lashed out, trying to get room, and stared at where Griggs and the women had been.
All gone.
No trace of where they'd disappeared in the maze of streets, and no signs of the Slasu, either.
Vrix snarled and turned, searching for the fucking Tyluk, but the alien had disappeared.
Double-crossed. Betrayed. And now Griggs... His hearts cracked and the red haze of rage settled around him. He would get her back.
He had to get her back.
Griggs
Griggs saw a flash of blonde hair and recognized Heidi in a second. Despite the tension in Vrix and the Tyluk's sleazy smile, she couldn't help herself. She couldn't leave her friend with the dirty Slasu. Seeing Heidi in shackles broke something in her brain. She couldn't walk away.
So she ran after them, dodging through the crowds and stabbing as many of the Slasu as she could, and shouted, "Heidi!" again, hoping Heidi would take the opportunity to fight free as well.
Heidi turned, looking dazed, and instead of elation on her face, she looked horrified. She stopped in her tracks, causing the other slaves to stumble, and her voice reached Griggs through the bustle of the market street. "It's a trap."
Griggs skidded around a corner and tried to grab one of the stunners on the Slasu's belts, fighting to reach her friend. They could figure it out. They'd fight through. The Slasu might think it was a trap, but no one ambushed Griggs.
Heidi yanked at the chains and kicked at the nearest guard, doing her best to help, but just as Griggs reached her, trying to blast the shackles with the stunner without maiming the other woman, something grabbed her. Griggs had just a moment to look up at a familiar face, then everything went black.
She woke up in a warehouse, eerily similar to the one she remembered searching with Vrix. Her head ached abominably, and she couldn't move her arms or legs with the heavy weights attached to them. Griggs closed her eyes and tried to breathe normally. The last thing she saw was Witz, the captain from the Argo and the bastard who sold her and the rest of the female crew to the Xaravians on the Galaxos. She never wanted to see the bastard again, so maybe her mind played tricks on her.
Until she opened her eyes again and there he was, the gray-haired smug son of a bitch. Witz wore surface clothes, not a Fleet uniform, but there was no mistaking his weaselly face. Griggs scowled, even though it made her head ache in a sudden sharp pain, and worked her jaw as she tried to speak. Everything felt broken or bruised. "You fucking asshole."
"Good to see you again, Griggs." Witz leaned against one of the walls, arms folded over his chest, and watched her struggle to sit. "I'm surprised you gave up so easily."
"Fuck off." Griggs peered into the dim light around him, searching for any other threats or possible exits. Vrix would come for her, but it would be a hell of a lot easier for them both to escape if she could kill some of the guards before he arrived. Her eyes wouldn't adjust to the light, and her vision swam from the pain in her head. They'd clocked her pretty hard when they ambushed her, so maybe something ended up permanently damaged. Something else to blame on Witz. "You signed your death warrant with this one, dick."
"Such a foul mouth on such a... well, a moderately pretty girl." Witz's upper lip curled and he flipped a key in his hand. "You were always more trouble than you were worth, even for a security officer. It was such a relief when I finally got you off my ship."
"By selling us to the Xaravians," Griggs said, gritting her teeth. Her stomach lurched and the room swam around her. "You broke the Fleet's laws and your oath as captain, and don't think any of us forgot."
"Right," he said. "Some ill-advised adventures with a stolen Fleet ship. We haven't forgotten about that, either. It will all be taken care of. The rest of those bitches will pay the price, but you... Cecily Griggs will disappear on the wild planet Caihiri, apparently the victim of drinking too much and falling prey to Slasu slavers."
"You tried that once," Griggs said. She clenched her fists and managed to sit up, though her eyes watered with pain. She wished she knew where Heidi was. "It didn't take. So fuck off and walk away before I'm forced to kill you."
"It'll take this time." Witz glanced back as a grim Slasu appeared, slapping a whip against his palm, and the Fleet officer smiled. "The Slasu will not let you escape so easily, unlike those stupid Xaravians."
Griggs glared at the Slasu, already planning how she'd kill the son of a bitch. "You've underestimated me before, fuck-face. Go ahead."
"And just in case you're thinking there will be some sort of miraculous rescue from above, the Fleet is moving in to destroy the Galaxos and whatever you're calling the Hawking. Your friend will either be captured and sold to the Slasu, or they'll die a horrible death in the vacuum of space." Witz crouched next to her, blue eyes cold as he studied her. "Think on that as you spend the rest of your very short life fucking a bunch of aliens to make the Slasu rich."
Griggs couldn't breathe as rage and a little bit of panic rose through her. Her arm moved, ready to strangle him, and Witz moved back. But Griggs saw the delicate silver bracelet, still on her wrist under the shackle, and her breath caught. The space chickens. Griggs didn't know how long it would take Vrix to find her, but the chickens would be able to help.
Witz patted her head as he straightened and pulled away once she snapped and kicked in his direction, and her former captain straightened his shirt as he looked down at her. "Stupid, arrogant bitch. I can't believe you came here alone."
Alone? Griggs's heart slowed as she stared at him, the sound of her breathing loud in her ears. He thought she was alone. How could he not know about Vrix?
Something scuffled in the gloom, and the Tyluk came into view just long enough to take a payment from Witz and one from the Slasu. But the Tyluk held her gaze for too long, then touched the side of his nose, as if it was some kind of signal. If the Tyluk sold her out, surely he must have told them about Vrix. And yet...
Maybe he sold out Griggs, then sold out Witz and the Slasu. She hardly bli
nked as the Tyluk nodded to her, then waddled his bulky frame through the damaged warehouse. Which left her facing Witz and the Slasu with the whip. Witz smiled with enough cruelty to chill her blood, and glanced at the Slasu. "I'd like to watch."
Griggs fought as the Slasu started beating her, trying to break her spirit, and focused all her energy on Vrix and the space chickens. She just had to hold on until they came. She screamed her fury at them, and far away, she heard Heidi answer.
Vrix
A single goal drove him through the city: Griggs. He had to find Griggs.
No trace of her remained in the market, and he knew he didn't have much time to find another lead. He stopped caring about the Caihiri finding him and fired up his communicator to the Galaxos. Static and noise filled the line but he spoke anyway. "They got Griggs."
Frrar's voice reached him, broken and distorted. "Fuck, man. We're kind of…kind of in the middle of a battle."
"A battle? What the fuck kind of battle?" Vrix scowled as he ran along the dirty, broken streets towards the Slasu club. He'd warned them. And he triggered the locator that Pyix gave him, knowing the Xaravians would be up in arms already.
"Well, it appears the Fleet is here to kill us all." An explosion nearly deafened Vrix, and he paused for a second, staring at the communicator. "Frrar?"
"Yep," the engineer said. "Still here, but I'm going to be kinda busy for a bit."
"Does the transporter work?"
"I think so." Frrar shouted at someone else, then Rowan's bright voice replaced the laconic Xaravian.
"Vrix, we're pretty sure it works. We tested it and it worked most of the time, so you should be okay."
"I don't like the sound of 'pretty sure,'" Vrix growled. "What happened when it didn't work?"
More shouting in the background almost hid her words. "You don't want to know. Just let us know when you're going to trigger it and we'll make sure the ship is stationary. We haven't tested it in motion."
"Wait…what?" Vrix stared at his communicator as the transmission cut off, and he put it away as the red haze took over once more. He could figure that out when the time came. He had other business to address first.
The solitary guard outside the door took one look at him and aimed his weapon, shouting at Vrix in whatever fucking language the Slasu spoke, but Vrix knocked him out and stole the weapon without breaking stride. He kicked in the door and surprised half a dozen more Slasu, though they disappeared in the first blast of his borrowed weapon. Vrix snarled and grabbed one of the survivors, holding him a few feet off the ground. "Where's the Tyboli?"
The creature babbled but nothing made sense, and Vrix tossed him away as he stormed into the club. Vrix had just found the back office where the Tyboli cowered when a huge commotion kicked up behind him in the club. He turned to see Pyix and a horde of Xaravians, all carrying battle staffs and other weapons, clearing through the club and freeing the women who huddled under cover.
Vrix grabbed the front of the Tyboli's robes and slammed him up against the wall, beating him against the solid metal until the alien's head lolled and stinking black blood dripped to the floor. "Where is she? Where they did take her?"
The Tyboli tried to shake his head. "I don't know, I just—"
"Try again," Vrix said. He bared his teeth as he threw the asshole into another wall, not looking up as Pyix strode into the office and started searching for keys. "Tell me where they took her."
"There's a warehouse," the alien started, sagging in his grip. "Blocks from here. They had some meeting, I don't know if—"
Vrix threw him into another wall and the Tyboli silenced. Vrix faced the other Xaravian. "Thank you for coming."
"We need to find your girl quickly." Pyix wiped some blood off his knuckles, and tossed a few rings of keys through the door to one of his warriors. "We'll free these girls and make sure they're safe, but there are more waiting wherever she is."
"Call the space chickens," Vrix said. "The ones who own that costume shop you sent me to. They help women like these."
Pyix headed for the club's exit, not glancing at where the Xaravians finished defeating and chaining up the Slasu. Vrix didn't mind the idea of the Slasu becoming slaves, so they had to endure some of what the women had survived. It wasn't enough of a punishment, but it was a start. Pyix led the way outside into the clear midday sky, glancing up as strange disturbances in the atmosphere revealed some of the battle going on in space just above them. "We don't have much time. I think I know where he was talking about, and the ladies—the space chickens, as you called them—weren't at their store. We'll get the girls back to the inn so they can rest and recuperate until we can get the ladies to help them out."
"Call us if you need help getting them off Caihiri, once all this shit settles down. We've got an extra ship." Vrix ground his teeth as they strode toward the warehouse. Battle. Finally. It had been too many years since he'd been in a fist-to-fist fight. And his mate was in trouble. Blood would spill.
The rest of the horde caught up after three or four brought the freed slaves to a safe location, and a few dozen warriors approached the warehouses. They didn't have to speak to understand the plan, and dispersed to surround the warehouses and work their way in. Sentries and guards disappeared without a sound as the horde overtook them, and Vrix drew his dagger as he and Pyix reached the window of a building where someone screamed.
Not just someone. Griggs.
Griggs screamed. Anger and pain and a hundred other emotions filled her voice, and Vrix broke. He slammed his fist through the glass of the window and launched himself through, ignoring the scratch of glass shards against his scales. Pyix muttered under his breath but roared orders to the rest of the Xaravians, and the horde answered in a blood-curdling chorus as they swarmed the building.
Chaos erupted through the building—Slasu shouting and women crying out for help—and then Griggs started laughing and cursing.
A Slasu stood over her with a whip. The sight of Griggs, covered in bloody wounds, turned his vision black with murderous rage, and he broke the Slasu in half before throwing him across the building. A gray-haired Earther that Vrix vaguely remembered from the Argo scrambled to get away, sliding in the blood, and hurled pieces of metal at him—as if that would slow him down.
Griggs dragged at the shackles on her wrists and the heavy chains. "I want to kill him. Dammit, Vrix—"
Vrix couldn't have stopped himself for anything in the universe, and hurled his dagger into the Earther's back. The man fell, baring his teeth as he tried to crawl away and lash out at Vrix, but there wasn't much fight left. Vrix straightened from making sure the Earther was dead, and immediately went to free Griggs.
She flinched and cried out as he bumped some of her wounds, and Vrix crouched next to her as his heart broke anew. "I'm so sorry. I tried to get here faster, but—"
"We don't have time," Griggs said. Her eyes dilated with pain as she tried to stand. "The Fleet is going to attack the Galaxos, and we have to get Heidi out of here before that asshole's ship manages to kill everyone I care about."
"We'll figure it out," Vrix said. He started to say more, then stopped short as he looked over and saw the three space chickens hop through the broken window. They carried remarkably large and high-tech weapons, and as he watched, two of the ladies zapped half a dozen Slasu as they tried to rush Vrix and Griggs.
One of the space chickens, with a bluish tinge to her feathers, fluttered over to where Griggs wobbled and dropped a large pack on the ground. "Oh dear, oh dear. Such damage they've done to you, my dear heart. Let me fix you up before this barbarian takes you away."
"You made it," Griggs said, and sat heavily. She laughed, though it mixed with tears, and hugged the round, fluffy alien. "Thank you. I didn't know if anyone would come."
"Yes, yes. We heard your call." The chicken fluttered and nodded to Vrix, her beady black eyes colder than he remembered. "Go and find the friend, warrior. Bring her back. We will guard our dear little chick here."<
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"Thank you." Vrix squeezed Griggs's shoulder and kissed the top of her head. "I'll be right back."
He ran through the warehouse, dodging a few stunner blasts and lasers from the Slasu who managed to find cover. Something stung his side but he didn't have time to slow down, and slid into one of the dank rooms where a Xaravian stood guard. A dozen females waited inside, most looking stunned and uncertain, and all of them took a step back when Vrix loomed through the doorway.
With all of his spikes rattling and a red battle haze coloring his scales, he wasn't surprised. "Heidi? Where's Heidi?"
One of the women raised a shaking hand and pointed behind him. "She's fighting. They took off the chains and she ran out there. Are you—who are you?"
"We're freeing you," Vrix said. "You're free. We will help you start over somewhere safe."
More than one teared up, and the women hugged each other as they started talking. Vrix nodded to the warrior at the door, and before he could ask, the younger Xaravian pointed toward a scrum of Slasu and Xaravians and—a blonde Earther female with rage nearly levitating her off the ground.
Vrix ran into the melee, ripping a Slasu off Heidi as it tried to stab her, and threw the little bastard through a window. He used his dagger liberally, then handed Heidi one of the stunners he took off the Slasu he'd killed. "I have Griggs. We need to get out of here."
"No shit," she said, teeth bared as she killed another Slasu. "How?"
"I have a transporter."
"A transporter?" Heidi looked at him in disbelief, her blue eyes startling against the mottled bruises across her face. "What the fuck are you talking about? You might as well say we're riding out of here on a unicorn."
Vrix got rid of the last Slasu, nodded to the other warriors, and reached for Heidi's arm. "I don't know what a unicorn is, but—"
She turned the stunner on him in a heartbeat. "Don't touch me."
"Got it." Vrix held his hands up, the bloody dagger dripping down his arm. "Griggs is that way. We need to—"