The wolf let out a rippling bark that shook Ace’s sternum, then the creature lunged, jumped, and flew through the air. Ace ducked. The wolf whirled past his head.
Reaching back, Ace ripped the spindle free of its place beneath the railing like a rotten tooth. It wasn’t easy, but adrenaline, he knew, was a hell of a thing.
The wolf was already gearing up for its next charge. This time, Ace was ready. As soon as the creature sprang, Ace stabbed out with the jagged wood. It pierced the wolf’s sternum with a squelch, plunging deep into its heart. The force of the wolf’s charge took Ace down with it. He landed hard on the bottom porch step. A crack, from either the wood or his spine, echoed in the air.
Grunting, he tightened the muscles of his arm and pushed the makeshift weapon deeper, until it jutted out of the wolf’s back. The snarling maw, snapping inches away from Ace’s face, slackened, and its one red eye lost its luster.
The beast was dead.
Covered in purple blood, Ace rolled the body off of him, surprised at how heavy it was. This wolf had certainly been eating well.
In the distance, more of them howled. Ace looked out over the dark horizon, and there, at least a dozen red eyes floated in the black, watching him. He hobbled up, blood dripping down his chest and arms, and yelled, “That’s right, assholes! I’m still alive. You wanna try me? C’mon, I’m right here!”
The wolves kept their distance.
Soon, the delirium of the battle that had settled over him waned. Pain wracked his body, but more prominent than the pain was the hunger.
With a deep breath, he sat down on the porch step, took a nearby rock, and began sharpening a different spindle. When it was sharp enough, he sliced the dead wolf open, stripped it of its fur, and hung it over the railing.
A few minutes later, he got a fire going in the front yard. With more wood, he fastened a hasty spit and roasted the creature over the flames.
After the wolf was cooked, he ate almost all of it in one sitting while its pack watched from the distance. The meat was gamey and stringy, like chewing on a leather belt, but in that moment he had never tasted anything better in his life.
He was full, healing, and mildly content…until his father spoke again.
Ace raised his head, juice and grease dripping down his stubble and off his chin. I would say I’m proud of you, son, the voice said, but that would be a lie. Any old bag can slay a wyrmwolf. They’re as stupid as they are ugly. The voice laughed. Kind of like you.
Ace brought another chunk of meat to his mouth and ripped into it with his teeth. “Piss off, Dad,” he said.
There was no response.
Sixteen
“You’re going to have to kill me,” Wylow said. She was cornered by two prison guards, a weird hybrid mix of Gray and Nepgip—two alien races she would have never expected to procreate—on the prison planet called Sker. The guards’ skin was a squeamish green color, their noses smashed into their faces like pigs, and their bodies round and stout but their legs long and gangly.
She had been in the cell for an unknown amount of time. It was pitch-black inside, no windows, no clocks. It could’ve been days that had passed, or weeks. With the lack of light, her sense of time was completely off. No one came to feed her or give her water. The tubes hooked into her veins provided water and sustenance at intermediate intervals. Not much, either. They hurt like hell, too.
“Oh, don’t worry ‘bout that, little bug. We’re definitely gonna kill ya. Ain’t a bad thing, either. It’ll be a relief, I promise. And you’ll get that relief just as soon as you tell us what we wanna hear,” said the guard. He was creepy-looking, dressed in sleek, sleeveless metal armor. He had small biceps, but if he had inherited any Gray strength, he could crush Wylow’s head with a snap of his fingers.
“I told you I know nothing. How many more times must I repeat myself?”
“Liar,” this creepy guard whispered. “We should stick her, and then she’ll tell the truth.”
Stick me with what?
“Calm down, Nis,” the lead guard said. He wasn’t as creepy, but still creepy enough. He leaned close to his comrade and whispered. Wylow only made out a few of the words: “Can’t,” “hurt,” and “trouble.” Maybe the hybrids couldn’t actually hurt her without repercussions. That would be good.
“So we don’t have to kill her,” the guard known as Nis said. “Just slap her around a little bit. Draw some of that sweet human blood.”
The lead guard waggled his eyebrows, weighing the idea in his mind.
Wylow wasn’t worried. She could take anything, and being slapped around by a couple of aliens was nothing compared to what she’d gone through in the past. Torture, pain, forced mental breakdowns—you name it. It was all a part of growing up on Ypso.
“I’ve never hit a woman, Nis,” the lead guard said.
“First time for everything, Tis. Go on, give her a good slap.”
“Put your fingers near my face and I’ll bite them off,” Wylow growled.
The lead guard took a step back, unsure. Then he snarled. “Nis, get outta here. I need to teach this piece of human waste a lesson.”
Nis leaned forward, brought his fingers together, and chuckled. “But I want to watch, sir.”
“No, we both can’t be back here. If Hunner catches us off our posts, she’ll do a lot worse than what I’m gonna do to this wench.” He pointed at Wylow with a large knuckled finger. “So go out there and keep watch. If Hunner gets close, gimme a signal.”
“Yes, sir. Yes, I will.” Nis went toward the door, opened it, and looked back over his shoulder with a smirk that made Wylow’s heart pump ice. “Make her hurt for me, Tis. Make her scream.”
“Oh, I will, Nis. I will.”
Nis left, the door slamming shut behind him. Wylow gritted her teeth; she knew pain, yes, but it wasn’t exactly something she looked forward to. Already weak and exhausted, she would do her best to keep breathing, and to keep her mouth shut—for the sake of Jade’s quest.
The guard stepped forward. “All right,” he said. “Let’s get this over with.” He cracked his knuckles, the sound like thunder, and raised a hand.
Wylow kept her eyes open. She wouldn’t flinch, wouldn’t give the guard the satisfaction of doing that. There was nothing honorable about hitting a woman, especially one currently restrained and incapable of fighting back. It was beyond cowardly.
But he didn’t hit her; instead, the guard stepped toward the wall and put his hands on his hips. “Listen, lady, I’m gonna be real with you here.” He let out a sigh, his broad shoulders slumping. In that moment, everything intimidating about him went out the window. He no longer looked like a Dominion guard or some monstrous mix of two different monstrous species.
“What?” Wylow heard herself saying.
“I said, I’m gonna be real with you, lady.”
Wylow arched an eyebrow. Cautiously, she said, “Go ahead.”
“I need a raise, okay? My wife just had a second litter this year. Do you know how many kids that is I have to take care of? Hybrids have about eight babies at once. Get this…my wife, she had twelve both times. That’s two dozen kids I have to take care of. Don’t get me wrong, I love every last one of them, but I can’t support twenty-four little ones on a Dominion salary.”
Wylow was at a loss for words. Of all the things she thought could’ve happened when Nis left them alone, this was not one of them.
“So give me something…please. Just a tidbit of information. It doesn’t even have to be real. Just tell it to me convincingly enough that I’ll believe it. Maybe throw in a nugget of truth or something so I can send some Dominion agents out on a wild goose chase. C’mon, please?”
“And you won’t hurt me?” she asked.
“I’m not going to hurt you at all, lady. Do I look like a guy who would wallop on someone in shackles, especially a woman?”
Wylow looked him up and down. “Yes…kind of,” she answered.
“Well, I’m not…eve
n if I do look like it. No offense taken, by the way.”
“How about this?” Wylow said. “You get me out of here, and I’ll give you enough frags to raise a hundred more kids.”
“A hundred? No, I’m getting my tubes tied. No more kids for me, honey.” He shook his head. “And damn, that procedure’ll run me a few hundred more frags I don’t got. Another expense to worry about.”
“Do you know who I am?” Wylow asked.
“Prisoner 3114,” Tis answered. “But you’ve got Tier III status, meaning you’re important to someone high up in the Dominion.”
“Yeah, the God-King.”
“No…”
“Yep. I come from Xovia. There, I was a queensguard—”
“No shit…I thought you looked familiar. Saw you on the Holo Net. You, a young girl, and a bounty hunter, right? Hunner—she’s my boss—was talking about that. Guess I didn’t put two and two together.” He laughed, a terrible phlegmy croaking sound. “I’m not exactly employee of the month material, as you can see.”
“I can.”
Tis laughed again. Where were the earplugs when you needed them?
“If I get out of here and back to my queen,” Wylow said, cutting the guard’s laugh short, “I can assure you that you’ll be paid handsomely for your help.”
Tis was silent for a long moment. Wylow watched him, praying to the Gods that he’d accept her offer. If she had an ally on the inside, it could go a long way toward her escape. “What if I get caught?” the guard asked. “You know what the God-King would do to not only me, but my family?”
“Don’t get caught. It’s that simple, Tis.”
Tis slapped his round belly. “You know we hybrids like to eat. A lot. You offering enough money to feed me and my brood for the rest of our lives, or…?”
“You will be well taken care of, Tis, I promise you.” She was expecting him to laugh in her face and tell her it was all a joke. Her perception of Dominion guards and the order’s followers was tainted by what was shown on the Holo Net. She never stopped and thought about how maybe this guy just needed a job or that he didn’t lean one way or the other. Perhaps he possessed the 'if you can’t beat them, join them' type of attitude, and could she blame him for that? Especially when he was taking care of his family?
Kind of. There were other jobs out there, but she didn’t know this guy’s exact circumstances.
“Okay, you got a deal,” Tis said. “I can get you out of here, but it’ll take a little while. The perfect plan just came to my head. Poof, you know? When my shifts over I’ll—”
The door exploded open, causing both of them to jump. Tis turned around. Standing in the doorway were three armed guards flanked by Nis, who shouted: “There he is! The traitor! We heard it all, Tis! We heard it all!”
“No, wait—” Wylow started, but her voice was quickly cut off by the explosions of blaster fire.
A barrage of shots riddle Tis’s stomach, the armor no match. He was forced backwards into the wall. The entire cell filled with the smell of burned meat and smoke.
“Tis?” she called. “Tis?”
There was no answer. She turned her head as far as her binds would allow. Tis was slumped over, a frozen mask of surprise on his face, and Tis was dead.
“Get him out of here!” Nis yelled.
The guards grabbed the hybrid by the ankles and dragged him across the cell floor. His corpse left a trail of ash and blood behind.
Smirking, Nis looked at Wylow with a gleam in his eyes. “At least the turncoat won’t have to take care of his family anymore now, will he? They can thank you for that. Hee-hee!”
The hybrid left, shut the door, and Wylow was alone in the darkness once again.
Seventeen
“Should we…should we clean up?” Eradice asked. She was looking at the mess in the briefing room. The drying blood, the shrapnel, the bodies.
“I ain’t doing it,” Alfis answered. He waddled toward the table and hopped up onto the seat.
“But you’re the ones who made it,” Eradice argued.
“Defending us?” Alfis replied.
“There’s easier ways to kill pirates besides ripping them in half,” Ryze added. “Just saying.”
Alfis smiled, looked down at his hands—Or are they called paws? Ryze wondered. “I improvised, okay? Besides, I wasn’t the one who blew the place to smithereens. That was you, bounty hunter.” He pointed a finger in Ryze’s direction, one claw slightly protruding out from it.
“Important thing is that we’re all right.” Then in a whisper, Ryze added: “We’ll make Blue clean it up. He’s got more limbs than all of us combined. Quicker that way.”
OH REALLY? YOU’RE GONNA MAKE ME, STARLO? I MAY NOT BE IN THE ROOM, BUT I CAN HEAR YOU ALL.
“Huh?” Ryze said, playing dumb.
LET’S NOT WORRY ABOUT THE MESS FOR NOW. WE HAVE MORE PRESSING MATTERS ON OUR MINDS. Blue slimed his way through the threshold. The blank flesh where his mouth should’ve been twisted up into something of a grin.
“You’re right,” Ryze said. “We’ve already wasted enough time beating up space pirates while Wylow and your fellow rebels are out there wasting away in a prison.” He stood up. “Let’s get going.”
HOLD ON, Blue said, WE NEED ERADICE TO WORK HER MAGIC. EASIER TO INFILTRATE THE PRISON IF WE KNOW EXACTLY WHERE WE’RE GOING. NOT TO MENTION…THINGS CAN CHANGE VERY FAST ON SKER. I KNOW YOUR FRIEND WAS ALIVE WHEN WE MET ON THE MOON, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN SHE’S STILL ALIVE. THE SAME GOES FOR OUR OWN FRIENDS.
“That’s…reassuring,” Ryze said, but inside his chest, his heart turned ice-cold.
Eradice smiled somberly. “I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.” With a flourish of her cape, she went toward the nearest terminal that wasn’t currently covered in Gray blood or melted by the explosions and blaster fire. “Right, right,” she said. “The name again?”
“Wylow Forna,” Ryze said, holding back the fear in his voice. Wylow, please, don’t be dead. He followed her over to the terminal. A complex code rolled across the screen. Eradice’s eyes squinted, her mouth shrunken to a grim line. Ryze watched in awe as her fingers danced across the holoboard at lightning speeds. “What—what are you doing?”
“Shush. I’m working. Don’t disturb me while I’m working!” Eradice said.
A tentacle wrapped around Ryze’s shoulders and pulled him backward. “Blegh! What’d I tell you about touching me with those things, Blue?”
TO BUY YOU A DRINK FIRST. HAR-HAR, HILARIOUS, he answered. LET US PREPARE FOR DEPARTURE. ERADICE WORKS BETTER ALONE. AND WHAT SHE IS DOING ON THE TERMINAL IS NOTHING SIMPLE. YOU WILL KNOW YOUR FRIEND’S FATE SOON ENOUGH.
With the same tentacle, he guided Ryze out of the room. Alfis followed. They walked through the corridor. Metal walls and gleaming metal floors surrounded them.
“How? How does Eradice know what’s she’s doing?” Ryze asked. He’d heard of tech geniuses, but only in the fake shows on the Holo Net.
Alfis shrugged—or rather did his best. His small, fuzzy body was mostly without shoulders. “She’s good, that’s all. Best hacker in the galaxy. You got an AI, don’t ya?”
“I do,” Ryze answered.
“I’d bet my life that she could run algorithms faster than your cybertronic buddy could.” Alfis tapped his temple. “She’s got a processor up here that’d make your AI look like tech from a millennium ago. And you know how quick they update that shit.”
Ryze wasn’t sure how he felt hearing this cuddly alien speak like a pirate himself, especially in the gruff voice Alfis possessed, which made him sound like a lifelong smoker. Then again, he had seen the alien slice someone in half…
“I don’t appreciate this conversation, sir,” Spex said from the helmet comm. “I’ll be signing off now.”
“Look at that,” Ryze said, “you’ve gone and hurt my AI’s feelings.” And got him to stop eavesdropping, he added in thought. I’ve been trying to do that since I installed him in the Starblazer.
“Sorry. Only speaking the truth,” Alfis said.
THAT HE IS, Blue added. ERADICE IS…SPECIAL IN MANY WAYS. WE DON’T EXACTLY HAVE AN EXPLANATION AS TO WHY SHE IS THE WAY SHE IS, BUT WE COUNT OUR BLESSINGS THAT SHE’S ON OUR SIDE.
“The tech we got in this sardine can certainly helps, too,” Alfis added. “Helped steal it from Gorni myself. Still don’t think those Dominion guards know their terminal’s gone.” He laughed, a grating sound, like two rusty saws rubbing their teeth together.
“I have so many questions,” Ryze said, “about all of this. And I’ll get to them eventually, but right now—”
“You’re anxious about your friend,” Alfis said. He took a packet of smokes from his pants pocket, stuck one in his mouth, and lit it up. The juxtaposition of cute and seemingly badass was like being in a slarjuice-induced nightmare. “Don’t take telepathy to see that.”
“It’s been a while since they captured her. And what have I done? Wandered aimlessly around the galaxy while she was probably tortured and maybe killed.”
BUT YOU DON’T REALLY BELIEVE THAT, Blue said. They were on the landing pad now, the Starblazer parked and looking beautiful in front of them. IT DOES TAKE A TELEPATH TO SEE THAT.
“Yeah, yeah, brag all you want, Blue,” Alfis said.
Laughter filled Ryze’s head—most likely Alfis’s, too.
“But I’d still kick your ass, buddy.” Alfis let his claws out.
Ryze took an unconscious step back. He didn’t think those claws could cut through his armor, but after seeing what they could do firsthand, it wasn’t worth the risk.
VIOLENCE ISN’T ALWAYS THE ANSWER.
“When you’re rebelling against an evil empire,” Alfis replied, “it is.”
Ryze nodded. “He’s got a point. How long have you two been doing this sort of thing anyway?”
STARLO, I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING.
Ryze put on a who-me? face.
I READ MINDS. I FEEL EMOTIONS. RIGHT NOW, YOU’RE SCARED FOR YOUR FRIEND. DON’T RUN FROM THAT FEELING. IT HELPS TO TALK ABOUT IT, TO HASH THESE THINGS OUT.
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