by Eve Langlais
The crowd oohed. She couldn’t blame them for admiring. They were about to witness great agility and skill. Hopefully someone would tape it and broadcast it.
As Azteriya ran, she watched the tentacles. One of them shot toward her. A push of her legs and she leapt high and grabbed hold of the tentacle, avoiding the suckers. The appendage waved, flinging her back and forth. Once again, she timed her jump, springing away from the tentacle, flipping mid-air. She used the momentum of the fling to reach out and grab the long pole draped with a flag.
It snapped off as she gripped it and dropped with all her weight. She hit the ground, bending her knees to absorb impact. When she stood, she held aloft her new makeshift spear.
The crowd, silent for a moment, burst into loud applause.
She almost took a bow. But Jedrek needed her.
Once again, she ran, fingers tight around the pole, picking up speed, remembering all the times she’d gone hunting with her father. She could almost hear his gruff voice, “Don’t miss or you’ll be eating grubs tonight.” Nasty things when eaten raw without any melted sauce.
Her arm drew back, and as she continued to run, she launched her makeshift spear. It soared, high and true, and the one unblinking eye looked right at it before it exploded at the impact.
The monster bellowed. Their host bellowed. The crowd went wild, and Jedrek turned on her and grimaced, covered from head to toe in goo.
“I was supposed to be saving you.”
“The proper words here are, thank you, Azteriya. Once again, you’ve saved my life.”
“I was doing perfectly fine on my own.”
“You’re just jealous my stick was bigger than yours.”
“Not all of us are attention whores.”
“What did you call me?” She got close, but not too close because he was covered in monster goo.
“I said you were stupid. You could have been killed.”
“But I wasn’t.” She stepped closer, now recognizing his emotion for something else. Concern.
“You can’t always act without thinking.”
“Are you sure you want me to think? Because, right now, I want to kiss you, but if I were to think about it, I’d know it was wrong.” The admission spilled from her lips.
“I want to kiss you too.”
She stared at him. And he stared right back. The moment intense.
Fraught with expectation.
His eyes widened, and he shouted, “Look out behind you!”
Whack.
Ten
The master of this place showed his cowardly colors when he struck Azteriya from behind. Jedrek caught her in his arms before she could hit the ground.
She breathed, so the blow wasn’t fatal, but that didn’t quell the rage inside him. He gently lowered her and then rose, his eyes blazing with fury.
The so-called master of this place smirked. “The human is upset. Fear not, you’ll join your companion, in my stomach.” The crowd laughed.
This was all but a game to them. A game Jedrek was about to play, with his own rules. “You shouldn’t have done that.” Shouldn’t have hurt the woman he’d grudgingly begun to like.
Adrenaline still pulsed through his veins. The broken spear in his hand reminded him he wasn’t unarmed. He ran toward his host, who drew a pistol from his robes. A huge one with a muzzle big enough to put a window through him.
“Halt or you die.” The master aimed.
Jedrek was beyond caring. “You better not miss.” Surrendering now wouldn’t keep him alive. It wouldn’t save his princess.
The only option was to fight, and he knew how to do that. He might be only human, as everyone liked to remind him, but there was one thing everyone forgot.
Humans had been fighting since the dawn of time. They might not fly to the stars yet. They might not have food replicators. Or cloaking devices. But they could kill.
Especially when left no other choice but live or die.
The other thing this idiot and others forgot was humans also had access to the same biological upgrades as everyone else. That’s right. Despite not being born on a so-called civilized world, Jedrek had gotten modifications such as more speed—he dodged the weapon fire, seeing the fat bullets coming at him almost in slow motion—more stamina—he wasn’t tired at all—and more strength, enough to slap away the thick arms that moved to block his thrust of the spear. A pathetic attempt.
Jedrek plunged the shard of the weapon deep into the master’s chest.
As the gray fellow, his pallor turning a pink, sank to his knees, his breath gasping from the deadly blow, Jedrek leaned close to whisper, “I told you not to miss.”
Now, the problem with killing the ruler of an illegal fighting planet was…no one knew what to do next.
The crowd went silent. The various guards in the stands all stared at him. Even the monster had quieted and slunk back to its cave to die.
So Jedrek did what any self-respecting male who’d upset the daily routine did. He hefted the dropped gun, smiled at the crowd, and asked, “Who’s next?” Then he fired overhead, a big booming shot right into the ceiling.
Clunk. A chunk of rock fell. Then another piece.
He’d like to take credit for the screaming that suddenly occurred and the sudden wailing sirens. However, after the shower of stone, the ominous cracking sound followed. The eerie whistling of a breach meant Lac’una had just lost its seal to the elements.
Which was their cue to leave.
Jedrek hoisted Azteriya on one shoulder, anchoring her with his left arm, and kept the gun in his right. A beast of a thing with too much recoil, but only a moron would try and escape unarmed.
The good news was no one tried to get in his way. People were desperate to escape, the shouting echoing through the rocky passages. The distant rumble and tremors indicated ships taking off even as the planet continued to shudder, a chain reaction having begun.
And this is why they should ban projectile weapons in space!
The steady rat-tat-tat of boots down one hall had him heading into another, unsure of where he was going. Stupid maze. The asteroid had obviously been mined once upon a time, which meant there were halls upon halls crisscrossing, and not a freaking map to be found.
Jedrek ended up back where he started, at the cellblock. He would have turned around to head in another direction, but the red devil yelled, “Set us free!”
He and the pointy-eared green fellow clung to the bars. Not his friends, and yet, in this instance, allies by circumstance. Jedrek hadn’t come across the jailor, which meant no keys.
He lifted the gun. “Stand back.” The boom as he fired echoed, but metal screamed as the lock shattered. Another deafening shot and both the cells were open.
The green-skinned fellow took off with long strides, not even waiting to see if they followed.
The red devil snorted. “He’s going the long way.”
“You know how to get us out of here?” Jedrek asked.
The thing nodded. “We need to find a ship. Obviously, or we’ll die ignobly, either by asphyxiation or freezing. Let’s go, hairball.”
“Name is Jedrek,” he said as he followed the short figure, trying to ignore the flossing between dimpled cheeks.
“And I am Terrible Eviscerating Destroyer, but my friends call me Ted.”
“You’re an imp, aren’t you?” He’d read about their kind.
“That’s Ymp. I’m surprised you’ve never met one of us before.” Ted flashed him a toothy smile. “We are legion.”
And possibly the basis for many legends on Earth.
“How did you end up here?” Jedrek probably should have saved his breath considering the cool breeze through the tunnels sucked at the air, yet he couldn’t help himself. It was better than wondering how they’d escape alive.
“Stowed aboard the wrong ship.” Such disgruntlement. “Then I’d hoped to achieve greatness like the renown Fred.”
“Fred?”
“Ferocious Ragin
g Eliminator of the Dense. However, unlike Fred, you”—not said with delight—“came along instead. I don’t suppose you’re a prince in disguise?”
“No.”
“Of course not. What a waste of a rescue.”
The words made no sense, and Jedrek had no time to question because something impacted the asteroid, sending a great shuddering through it.
“What the hell is that? Are we under attack?” he said, bracing a hand on the wall to combat the shuddering.
“More like the breach has knocked the asteroid off its stable axis into the nearby meteorite stream.”
Boom. Something impacted the oversized rock again. Jedrek stumbled and hit the wall with his shoulder. He waited for the bulk of the tremors to subside, except they didn’t stop, and the whistling became louder, the rumbling more intense.
“This place is about to blow,” remarked Ted. “Good thing we’re here.”
By here, Ted meant a departure bay, filled with cylinders that acted as elevators to the surface where they parked the ships. If there were any ships left.
People crowded the cylinders trying to get in. Any semblance of civility had evaporated with the mounting danger.
With no lines to speak of, the Ymp chose to shove himself between legs and tentacles, forging his own path. Ted even slipped through a gelatinous blob, emerging on the other side with an exclaimed, “Damn, was that as good for you as it was for me?”
Jedrek didn’t have the same advantage as the short fellow, but he did have a gun. He fired it, and eyes, some of them on stalks that just rotated, turned to face him.
“Move!” Jedrek barked.
When they didn’t do so fast enough, he took aim and fired on the guard lounging in the crowd. He dropped.
The sea of bodies around the nearest elevator parted and Jedrek, princess still on his shoulder, shoved his way into the tube that already held a few cowering specimens.
He elbowed the panel, shutting the door, and a moment later, they were shooting for the surface. The elevator spat them out onto a concourse with bullet-looking trams. Surface vehicles to shuttle people to and from their ships.
Another blast shook the asteroid, and there were screams. Because screaming always helped. He shifted Azteriya’s weight. She’d yet to regain consciousness. Probably a good thing. She’d want to stand and fight. She was stupidly, adorably brave like that.
But you couldn’t fight a planet about to implode.
The gun trick boomed, and the silver bullet nearest them cleared. Jedrek commandeered it. The door sealed shut, and a computer asked, “Spacecraft designation.”
Um. Good question. He had only one answer, and he prayed it would work. “The Attlus.” Had those who’d captured them taken his ship too?
The bullet lurched into motion, and he swayed with it as it rocketed out of the concourse.
Once past the building, an opaque window appeared, and he could see outside. See the pockmarked surface of Lac’una. The many ships still gathered on the surface, a giant parking lot—under attack.
Not by other people, though, but meteorites. Hundreds, thousands of chunks, big and small, skirting past in a stream; the edges of them were hitting the asteroid, and more would impact given the asteroid was moving deeper into the storm.
Not good for the planet, not good for the ships either. He winced as he saw a small cruiser get crushed.
“What a stupid spot to build a base.” And probably why the original miners had abandoned this post.
But Jedrek didn’t care about the poor planning of criminals. Up ahead, he spotted the Attlus—with its door closed.
“Shit! Attlus, open up.” Shouting inside the bullet did no good. He scanned the panel. He needed to open a channel to his ship.
The bullet rocketed closer. “Attlus, it’s your commander, open up.”
Nothing.
And they got closer, not slowing at all.
“For fuck’s sake, computer, unless you want to sit there and get crushed like a fucking can, open your goddamned door.”
A speaker crackled. “Yes, sir.”
At the last possible moment, the ramp opened, the bullet shot inside, and he closed his eyes waiting to crash, only the damned thing abruptly halted, throwing him forward.
He caught himself on his hands, only barely managing to not land on Azteriya.
The door to the bullet opened, and a machine voice said, “Thank you for visiting. Come again soon.”
Like fuck.
Jedrek no sooner had exited the bullet than it sealed itself shut. It didn’t move until he’d exited the surface hatch with Azteriya and slammed the button, opening the door to the outside again.
It rocketed off, and he watched it on screen as the ramp began to seal again. Watched long enough to see the silver bullet get crushed by a rock.
Fuck.
“Let’s get out of here,” he muttered.
It took some fancy flying to get out of the stream of debris and ships. He ignored a hail for help, “We’ve been boarded!” and the soon following message, “The legion thanks you for donating your ship to the cause.”
Jedrek exited that section of the galaxy and set a course for somewhere he could relax, get his ship fixed, and concentrate on more important things.
Like punishing Azteriya. Because this was all her fault. And it was time she paid.
Eleven
Azteriya woke, the heaviness of slumber slipping slowly from her body as her eyes fluttered open to note the ceiling of her room on the Attlus overhead.
My room?
How had she gotten here? Last she recalled, the cowardly master of Lac’una struck her from behind, felling her. An embarrassing fault because she paid more attention to Jedrek than the enemy at her back.
The shame of it.
But at least the human proved himself not completely useless. He’d rescued her. Even managed to get them back aboard their ship somehow.
Perhaps she’d give him some kind of reward for his loyalty. A reward that would pleasure them both. Kind of like the dream she’d just woken from. A dream where naked bodies pressed and mouths explored with wild abandon.
Even the mere thought was enough to make her throb. And she knew just the male to fix it.
She went to rise, only to find herself unable to move.
What’s this?
A tug of her wrists showed them bound. A yank of her legs showed her ankles tethered as well.
All the warm thoughts she had toward him fled. A mighty roar left her lips. “Human!”
He didn’t reply in person. He chose to use the communication system.
“You bellowed, princess?”
“Release me at once.” She glared at the ceiling.
“Here’s something that should sound familiar. No. See, I still remember a certain pampered princess refusing to let me go when our situations were reversed.”
She remembered too. The hot kiss they’d shared. The rubbing. The pleasure.
“You cannot keep me a prisoner,” she snapped.
“Then be nice.”
“What?” she sputtered.
“You heard me. Instead of calling me human, why not try using my real name? Jedrek.” He then said it more slowly. “J-e-d-r-e-k. Very easy.”
“I will tear your entrails from your body and wear them as a belt.”
“It’s that kind of attitude that’s the problem, princess. Why can’t you treat me with respect?”
Because he was human. The words didn’t emerge, mostly because his query struck a chord inside. Hadn’t she herself asked for the same thing with her mother?
Respect me for what I can do, not what I am.
He mistook her silence and continued to speak. “When are you going to admit we’re not that different?”
They were plenty different, but…in, some ways, alike. For one, they were both very stubborn.
“I am a Kulin warrior.”
“Don’t care.”
“Humans aren’t allowed to o
wn ships or people.”
“The thing about laws is they only pertain to the folks that recognize them. As an Earthling, I’m not part of your galactic bullshit. So I don’t have to obey them. As a matter of fact, I can do whatever I like, including not talking to you until you decide to be nicer.”
“You will release me at once!” She yanked on her tethers, straining and pulling. He didn’t reply, and a strange feeling assailed her.
Panic.
She was not used to feeling helpless. Not even in the cage had she felt confined. With her limbs free, she knew she could fight.
But now…now she was a prisoner to his whims.
Like he once had been a prisoner to hers. And what had she done?
Given in to her desires.
Would he do the same?
I mustn’t give in. Mustn’t allow herself to be weak. She had to resist his flesh. His alien allure.
Yet, his very alien nature was what drew her. His tanned skin fascinated. The hair on his chest and face wanted to be stroked. As for his body? She knew it could bring her great pleasure.
However, a lifetime of teachings made her hold her tongue. She would not apologize for being herself. She would not beg for mercy.
She stared at the ceiling.
The boring ceiling.
Long moments went by. An eternity.
A—
“Let me go!” she yelled.
This time, he replied in person. “That wasn’t long. You lasted a whole fifteen minutes.”
She had no idea what his time reference meant. Probably several galactic cycles.
“You can starve me and hold me prisoner. I will never give in.”
“Is it really that hard for you to say, Jedrek, you’re a decent sort?”
“Why do you care what I think?”
The question made him frown. “I don’t know. I mean, I shouldn’t give a shit, and yet, I lugged your ungrateful purple butt off that asteroid. I could have left you there.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He neared the bed and shrugged. “Because I’m nicer than you, obviously.”
“That wouldn’t be hard. I’m not nice.”
“You are sometimes.” He ran a finger down the sheet covering her body, and it was then she noticed she was nude under it.