by Leslie Chase
“You think they’re still out there?” Carrie blinked at the idea. “Just… drifting, waiting for someone to find them?”
I shrugged. “I do not know what happened to them. They ejected into the middle of a battle, moments before the ship we were on got hit. They may be dead, or they may have been taken from the system. But I think at least one ended up on Nautilus Station — before we left, my implants found something, a stasis pod’s signature. It had logged into the station’s systems, and had a serial number much like the one you found me in.”
“So you need to find it,” Carrie said, understanding. “And the others, if they’re findable. Well, I’d need to put it to a vote, but I’m sure the crew of the Ladies’ Choice will want to help.”
I smiled happily. “And in the meantime, I will work with you and earn my keep. Salvage is dangerous work, and I’ll protect you and your crew. Plus I’m sure my muscles will come in handy.”
“Deal.” Carrie grinned as she spoke, squeezing my bicep. “And yes, I think we’ll find plenty of uses for those muscles of yours.”
We shook on it according to the human custom. Though I don’t think it’s traditionally done naked on the floor.
Carrie got to her feet slowly. With equal reluctance, I let her go, though watching her move almost made up for the loss of physical contact. Her grace and ease as she crossed the floor to the tiny shower cubicle was a delight to me.
She turned at doorway, grinning back at me and posing against the door. It was an artless movement, unpracticed and nervous, and all the sexier for that honesty. With a growl of need I launched myself from the floor, crossing the room in a single stride, only for her hand to my chest to stop me dead.
“Nuh-uh,” she said, shaking her head and stepping back into the cubicle.
“Have a care how you tease, Carrie,” I warned her, my tail lashing and hearts pounding. “Or I will join you in there and give you the scrubbing of your life.”
“Is that meant to be a threat?” She giggled, her chest rising and falling rapidly. “You’d never fit here with me. There isn’t space.”
I scowled, immediately wanting to prove her wrong. Alas, she wasn’t: the cramped shower didn’t give a human alone much space. I remembered how difficult I’d found it to wash myself in these primitive conditions — squeezing in with her would lead to nothing but bruises and acrimony.
Conceding the point, I stalked back to perch beside the bed and watched her through the door. Steam and water droplets on the glass turned it into an interesting show, and of course my beloved enjoyed teasing me. Several times I considered dragging her from the water, pulling her to the bed… but there would be time for such fun later. For now, we could enjoy our time together at a more leisurely pace.
“Your turn,” Carrie said, stepping out and looking at the ruined remains of her clothing. My impatience to bare her skin had destroyed it, but from the little smile that pulled at her lips I knew she was more than happy with that sacrifice. I rumbled a laugh as I crossed the room again, caressing her in passing, and forcing myself into the shower.
A surreptitious glance backward told me that, yes, my mate was watching me just as I’d watched her.
When we finally emerged from Carrie’s cabin, the rest of the crew wore knowing grins. Carrie seemed flustered by that, though I didn’t grasp why. We were mates, we had coupled: why would her friends not wish to celebrate that?
But human customs are strange, and I did not wish to cause offense, so I ignored the looks as best I could. We gathered in the crew lounge, all except Lily who minded the pilot’s seat and could shout through to us from the bridge if needed, as Carrie outlined her plans.
Munchkin leaped up onto my lap and purred, nuzzling me. I smiled at his affection, carefully scratching behind his ears. One vote for me, then. If the ship’s cat liked me, how could the humans refuse?
“So, business as usual, except we’re also on the lookout for more badass Caibar warriors?” Bella asked, grinning, when Carrie finished her explanation. “Sure, why not?”
“We’ll still need another bank,” Michaela said, with her characteristic lack of mirth. She was the only one who hadn’t smiled at the two of us, and she wasn’t smiling now. “We kind of wrecked the last one, remember?”
“I found a haul of Vehn jewels off the Golden Duke,” Alice replied. “That’ll be worth a good bit, and without Syrcen breathing down our necks I don’t think anyone’s going to turn us away. We’ll be fine.”
The look on Michaela’s face said that she’d believe it when the money was in the ship’s account, and not before. Carrie rapped on the table, drawing everyone’s attention.
“That’s a problem we’ll face no matter what happens,” she pointed out. “If we don’t find someone, we’re out of business, I know, but one thing at a time. The matter in front of us is, first, do you all accept Delkor as a full member of the crew? And, second, are we willing to help him in his search for his crewmates?”
A moment’s quiet, long enough to make me worry, before Lily broke the silence with a shout through the open door from the bridge. “Hell yes!”
The rest of the crew joined in, some quick and enthusiastic, a couple doubtful. Jen looked at me nervously, though she added her voice to the cheer. Michaela was the last holdout, before she shrugged and sighed. “Fine, we’ll take him.”
I hadn’t expected to be so moved by their acceptance, but I felt my chest tighten and a grin spread across my face. These were my mate’s pack, and they claimed me as their own. Even if I never found the rest of my people, I had a place outside the Empire, a family, a home.
25
Carrie
Approaching Nautilus Station brought an end to the almost vacation-like journey. The strange, curled cathedral hung in front of Inferno like a vast and hungry monster, waiting to consume us.
I tried not to show my tension, but my hands gripped the armrests tight. The station stayed silent as Lily brought us closer. No one sent us a signal demanding our surrender, no ships took off to meet us, it was as though nothing had changed. Still, we waited for bad news to drop.
“If there was going to be trouble, they’d have told us by now,” Alice said, trying to sound confident. Even she couldn’t make that work, though, and Michaela snorted.
“Come on, you’re smarter than that. If Syrcen had friends, they don’t want to alert us. We might be flying into an ambush, one they’ll only spring when we’re on the deck. Won’t know till we land.”
Complaining might be Michaela’s favorite way to deal with stress, but it didn’t help anyone else’s morale. The already tense atmosphere on the bridge thickened as everyone watched the great cathedral-shell shape of the station grow to fill the screen.
“Don’t worry, he didn’t have friends,” I said into the silence, loosening my death grip on the chair to stroke Munchkin. A big part of a captain’s job is looking unconcerned by whatever danger her ship is headed into. See, we’re coming in to land like normal. We’ve done this hundreds of times, we’ll do it hundreds more.
I hoped the crew believed it more than I did. Munchkin played his part, purring vigorously, and the crew relaxed a bit. I smiled to myself, looking down at the little fur ball. Between attacking Syrcen and raising morale, you just might be the most cost-effective member of the crew, I thought.
It helped that I only ‘paid’ him in meals and the occasional treat from the galley.
“How do you know he didn’t have friends?” Michaela challenged. Because of course she couldn’t just accept reassurance; she nursed her worries like they were the last glass of her favorite whisky.
“I met plenty of people like him back on Earth,” I told her, scratching Munchkin behind the ears. He purred louder, wriggled happily, tail lazily swinging from side to side as I talked. “Not one of them had friends. Business partners maybe, underlings, sure, and sometimes bosses — but no friends. Trust me, no one will miss him. They’ll be too busy fighting to divide up his business once
they know he’s gone.”
“It was the same with the Imperial nobility,” Delkor spoke up from the bridge doorway, his deep voice startling me. No matter how often he snuck up on me, it always caught me by surprise. The man made no sound unless he wanted to.
“They’ll all swear to the Five Principles that they are friends and nothing will get between them. And then the moment one of them shows weakness, the rest swarm him and divide up his possessions without pity. We need have no fear of Syrcen’s heirs: they will be too busy with their true enemies, each other.”
I turned back to look at him, grateful for his support and wondering if he believed what he was saying. A quick wink told me he knew my game, which made his support even more valuable.
The mood on the bridge lightened a little and there were even smiles as the Ladies’ Choice flew through the atmosphere shield into the hangar. Lily settled it into our accustomed spot, cutting the engines, and we all peered out of the windows.
No Drall thugs ran to meet us, no Chrichri mercenaries descended. The market kept on as normal, a few friendly faces looking up at us, everyone else ignoring our arrival.
What do you know? I was right.
Careful not to let my relief show, I got up and let Munchkin leap into the vacated captain’s chair. He stared up at me and purred.
“Okay, you can have command until I get back,” I said with a grin. “Don’t let the power go to your head.”
With that, we set out to see the lay of the land. Michaela insisted we all go armed and this time none of us objected. With Delkor at my side the pistol was ornamental — anything getting past him would be far beyond my ability to fight. It was also unnecessary: no one paid us the least bit of attention. But there was no doubt that word had beaten us back here — where Syrcen’s bank had once set up shop now stood a group of Chrichri in a newly redecorated shopfront.
It had a Drall arm nailed up above the door. A brutal but effective way of advertising a change of management. I shuddered at the sight but kept heading for them, pushing through the market crowd. Using mutilated bodies to make a point hardly made me feel good about dealing with them, but it made it very clear they weren’t on Syrcen’s side. That had to be a good sign.
“First Bank of Beowulf?” Alice asked. I looked round with a frown and she rolled her eyes. “Classical reference. Never mind.”
The black-chitined Chrichri watched us advance without moving. I doubted I’d ever get used to the strange insectoid aliens, but I wasn’t here to make friends. Hopefully I was here to do business.
“Crew of the Ladies’ Choice,” the nearest said as we approached the counter, his voice a hard to follow series of hisses and clicks that just about made words. “You had account with our predecessor. It will be honored, business as usual.”
I smiled politely and stepped forward, then frowned as I noticed the markings on its chitin. They were identical to those Syrcen had hired as mercenaries.
“Glad to hear it. Uh, are you related to the crew of the Doha Zadzad? There’s no hard feelings between us?”
All the Chrichri clicked in unison, and I braced for trouble. On my right, Delkor flexed his hands, claws extending. On my left, Michaela tensed, one hand on her stun baton and another near her pistol.
Alice whispered in my ear. “They’re laughing, Boss. Don’t panic.”
I didn’t know what they found funny, but I didn’t care. As long as they weren’t angry, I’d take it.
Eventually they stopped their eerie ‘laughter’ and answered. “No hard feeling, Ladies’ Choice. You did not attack us, you defended yourselves. We were hired to fight by Syrcen; we fought; he lost. No blame.”
That was coldblooded and practical, I supposed, though it was difficult to trust someone who was so cavalier about their… kinfolk? Shipmates? Alice would know what to call them.
I don’t need to trust them, just do business with them, I reminded myself. At their worst they couldn’t be worse than Syrcen.
“Good, then we can do business,” I told him. “We’ve brought back salvage to sell.”
Click-clack went the Chrichri’s mandibles. “This is what we are here for. If you agree accounts are correct, you can begin right away. Credit is good.”
I took an offered tablet, looked at it to check that it accessed our account and that the balance was as expected. Yep, there it was, still heavy with red. Syrcen never got round to wiping our debt as promised.
I sighed. That, plus the repairs, would wipe out a lot of our profit. But no one else out here would be any kinder, and with Alice’s bag of jewelry we had enough to cover our debts with profit left over. It could have been much worse.
“Deal.” I offered the Chrichri my hand. It looked at me, perplexed, then tapped my palm with one of its.
It would have to do as a handshake. And now we had a bank, backing, security again. Another criminal syndicate, yes, but there weren’t any better options on Nautilus.
Now we’d be able to turn the local marketplace cash into real money, spendable anywhere. Profit that actually made a difference. The last of my worries lifted from my shoulders and I turned back to the crew.
“Come on ladies,” I said with a grin. “Let’s go shopping.”
Silk sheets, sweet scents, and the warmth of my mate holding me to him. The sound of twin heartbeats deep in his chest. The pleasant ache left by the night before.
This is the way to wake up.
I smiled and opened my eyes to find Delkor watching me. “Good morning, beloved,” he said in a voice that made my body quiver.
“Good morning,” I replied, looking around the rented room. It was ours for a few hours more, a treat for the pair of us once we’d sold the goods we’d brought home from the Golden Duke. The whole crew had chipped in to pay for it, much to my embarrassment and Delkor’s obvious amusement.
There weren’t many comfortable places to stay on Nautilus Station — no one came to Inferno for a vacation. In an ironic twist, we’d ended up paying for a suite in the Silver Flower.
“It’s good for the crew to have something to laugh about,” I muttered, running a hand over the firm, solid muscles of Delkor’s chest.
He chuckled, the sound vibrating through his chest, and ran his fingers through my hair. “I do not think they will dare mock you,” he said. “If any of them does not show you the proper respect, you have only to say so and I will throw her out of the airlock.”
My turn to laugh, though I wasn’t sure how much of it was a joke. Life as a Caibar’s mate came with strange responsibilities, like making sure I didn’t accidentally have him execute any of my friends.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to how easy killing is for you, love,” I told him. He shrugged.
“I was raised to kill, trained to kill, and that has been my whole life until now.” Gentle strength brought my head up to look him in the eyes, and I saw the pure flames of his sincerity burning in his soul. “You are showing me a different way, beloved, and I will learn.”
I swallowed. More responsibility: now I was the role-model for the deadliest fighter in the sector.
And the sexiest. A more sensible part of my mind shelved all thoughts of responsibility. I could be captain, worry about my crew, any time. But for now, in this room, I didn’t need to be anything apart from his.
I glanced at my comm. Message alert icons hovered above it along with the time. “We’ve got the room for three more hours. What can we do in that time, do you think?”
He raised an eyebrow, an appraising look in his eyes. A wicked smile followed. Oh god, what have I gotten myself into now? I wondered, my heart racing like a triphammer. Nervous excitement built as I tried to brace myself for whatever came next.
Without warning, something grabbed my ankle and pulled. My squeals turned to giggles as Delkor flung the covers aside, his tail gripping my leg tight.
I scrabbled at his chest, trying to push myself away. Futile: he caught my wrists easily and held them tight. I squirmed
, pulse racing and body tingling with need.
But instead of pinning me to the bed, he stood up, lifting me with him and throwing me over his shoulder.
“What are you—OH.” His hand landed on my ass with a smack that echoed, and I squirmed harder, warmth spreading over my cheeks.
“I’m showing you that I will not be denied,” Delkor said, voice low and ominous. I bit my lip, trying to control my breathing as his dexterous tail curled up my leg and he carried me through a bead curtain to the suite’s private bath.
‘Bath’ undersold the room. It was more like a beautifully appointed pool, three walls painted with murals of aliens frolicking under waterfalls, the fourth a huge mirror. I barely had eyes for it, distracted by my mate. My heart raced as Delkor smacked my ass again, and my whimper was of arousal rather than pain.
Delkor walked straight into the pool, the warm water rising to his waist when he reached the center.
A word from him and the heavens opened. Water poured from the roof in pounding streams, beating on my naked body. This was more like a waterfall than a shower, though the water was hot rather than cold. Still, I gasped in shock at the sudden downpour, and then squealed when Delkor threw me into the pool with a splash.
Surfacing, I spluttered and splashed a wave at my laughing lover. He retaliated, sweeping a tsunami at me that carried me back into deeper water.
He followed, fast as lightning, scooping me up before I recovered, pulling me to him. Water ran down our skins, plastering our hair to our backs, hitting almost painfully.
And Delkor’s wonderful, dexterous tail wound around me, teasing as his hands gripped me tight. I gasped, moaned, wriggled against him, and he groaned too.
“Delkor…” My voice trailed off into a low moan as he bit my neck.
“Yes, my love?” He straightened, a wicked smile on his lips. The tip of his tail teased at my pussy and I shivered, legs wrapping around his waist and squeezing. “What do you want?”