by Terra Wolf
The fighter whose name her she guessed was Nash said, “What’s that?”
“That you’re here on your own. If I find out there’s more of the commander’s little spies in my bar we’re going to have a problem. And by problem I mean that I’ll be serving your brains for dinner tomorrow these fine blue folk here.”
The security team nodded, rubbing their hands together looking devilish.
Nash nodded. “It’s just me, I was set on a recon mission. Nothing more than that.”
Lazio slithered down from his platform above them and slid past toward the door. The security guard pulled Ellora off to the side even as she tried to push him off of her. She didn’t need some idiot to manhandle her and tell her when to move. She’d been around Lazio for a year, she knew what the gel that he left in his wake was like, major stains on your shoes for weeks.
“Good luck to you, Nash.” Lazio winked at Ellora as he left the room. The security team followed him and suddenly she was alone in the room with the fighter.
“So you’re going to bet on some human fighting? Isn’t that like against your morals or something? I thought you were and Alliance fighter.”
Nash was nodding but then she realized it was to himself. “Copy that.”
Uh swuya! He was on a com. So he definitely wasn’t alone. Great way to start a negotiation with Lazio, lie to him.
He looked at her as though he was seeing her for the first time. “I am an Alliance fighter, and we don’t tolerate human fighting. We also don’t allow trafficking slaves. But here we are. I’ve got to play along with Lazio’s plan, otherwise he’ll notice.”
“Notice what?”
“That I’m breaking you out of here. The commander really is going to be pissed, there is a very strict rule about no women on the Titan. You’ll make all the guys totally crazy.”
“I’m sorry? I don’t think I ever agreed to go on to the Titan with you. I’ve heard about that ship, you all are pigs!”
“Pigs?” He asked in disgust. “You’re calling us pigs? You’re a slave.”
“You think I wanted to be a slave?” This is exactly what she expected from some ridiculous military fighter. “You’re such space trash, all of you! You always treat us like dirt when you come into the bar, I don’t know why I should’ve expected anything different from you.”
“Maybe because I’m here to rescue you,” he said dejectedly.
“You’re not here to rescue me, you’re here to get some sort of microchip which is apparently inside of my body. Which might I add I just found out about, so you can understand I’m a little stressed.” She paced back and forth making fists at her side. She had to go with him, no matter what. Lazio had ordered her to. “Now what’s this big plan of yours?”
His eyes ran up and down her body almost like he was studying her, trying to figure her out. She wondered if this was the longest conversation he had had with a woman since he entered the military, she’d seen how those guys treated the bartenders and the other waitresses. Like they were property. Not much better than the slave owners. But for some reason Nash seemed like a challenge to her. Instead of speaking to her in a condescending way, he wanted to fire her up. She wasn’t sure what to make of him.
After a moment he spoke, “My guys are going to break up the fighting ring. Release some of the slaves, pretty much cause bedlam. We’re known for that.”
“Wait, you’re not…”
“The Trekker Wreckers? Yes, that’s my team.”
Ellora had heard all about the Trekker Wreckers. They were the bad asses of the Alliance. Pirates and other miscreants that the Alliance had picked up and trained to become military operatives. They didn’t play by the rules. And something about them just seemed so utterly deliciously sexy that she suddenly couldn’t think about anything else except for what was beneath Nash’s pants. She was suddenly interested in more than being rescued. And a big part of her wanted to throw up just thinking about that. The only men she’d ever had interaction with thought that she was less than them, but suddenly she was extremely important in this operation. Without her they didn’t have this microchip, without her they had nothing. Maybe Nash would treat her differently.
“So you and I are going to break out of here, follow me.”
And maybe not.
“I’m not going to take orders from you. I know these tunnels better than anyone. I’ve been living here for a year, and you have been here what, five seconds? Besides, everyone knows that Lazio changes these tunnels constantly. So why don’t you actually follow me, fighter? I can get us out of here while everyone else is at the ring.”
“We have to go to a human fighting ring first. Act like we’re involved until the chaos starts. Otherwise Lazio will know something’s up and some of my guys could get caught in the crosshairs. Not that you are not important at all, because you are, but these guys have my six. That’s what we do.”
“Fine, but you can still follow me. Because I’m sure that you have no idea where the rings are.”
He shrugged but put his hand out in front of them, she walked forward to the doors and took a hard right down toward where they kept human cages. Nash followed quickly on her heels. When she looked over her shoulder though she noticed that his eyes weren’t focused in front of them but instead down on her hips.
“Something interesting down there?”
He adjusted his gaze but had a smirk on his face. He was cocky this one and that just made things more interesting.
“No. So you said you’ve been here a year? So when was the microchip put in?”
Ellora shook her head as she turned down another tunnel. “I’ve no idea. Until I heard Lazio say that I didn’t even know it existed.” She tried to search her brain for some type of memory, being under surgical lights or finding a new scar. There was nothing. She had absolutely no recollection of being embedded with the microchip. Apparently a very important one. “So what’s on this thing? Why does the Alliance want it so bad?”
“It has something to do with the plague. But we’re not sure what.”
Ellora stopped in her tracks and turned and looked at him. He really hadn’t been paying attention and walked right into her.
“I’m sorry. Why did you stop?”
He backed away from her for just a moment.
“You said that it had something to the plague. What about it?”
“We’re really not sure. I guess we’ll have to get it out of you and take a look.”
“My family all died from the plague. I’m a slave because of it. Whatever is on this chip, I want in.”
He put his hands up in protest. “That’s not how this works.”
“I know about the Trekker Wreckers. I know that you didn’t all grow up in some military tradition. Whatever you find, I want in. Otherwise I’ll get on your communicator right now and tell Lazio that you have other guys in here. You’ll be dead before rescue mission can be sent out.”
“You’re serious?”
“As the plague.”
“Lady we have a lot more to handle than we were planning on.” He sighed. “Fine. My commander has final say though, I’m not in charge.”
“Fine. We’ll talk to the commander. But until then, you follow me.”
“If it keeps you alive, I’ll do whatever you say.”
For the first time there was softness in his voice. Maybe she was making it up, but something about Nash made her feel like he wanted to protect her. Like she was more than just a mission.
Chapter 6
Nash
Nash strode into the human fighting ring like he owned the place. He knew that he would have to appear as though he belonged, otherwise the other species wouldn’t bet against him. He had to play the game, he didn’t need Lazio to suspect any other plan. But the entire time he was following Ellora through the maze of tunnels that was beneath the bar, he had been formulating a plan and staring at the beautiful creature in front of him. But he couldn’t think about her right now, he had to focus and take care
of the mission first.
There was no way that he was going to be able to bet a significant amount of money against any of these other men. Otherwise he wouldn’t have anything to give to Fred, that was if he won. But Nash didn’t know anything about human fighting, the little that he knew from growing up around them certainly didn’t tell him anything about their strength. Both of his parents were pacifists, he never saw his father throw a punch. So he had no idea what humans were capable of. Nash himself was an expert fighter, he had the speed of a Droqo plus the foresight. When it came to fighting he practically knew what move his opponent was going to make prior to him doing it. Is that how humans were as well?
A Reft crossed in front of Nash and Ellora and he protectively pushed her behind him. The Reft scowled as he slithered passed on four legs, only half of his body stood above them. He had a tail that was as long as Nash was tall and his bright yellow skin practically glowed in the dark room. There were hundreds of beings in here. Both humans and aliens alike. It made Nash sick to think about humans betting on their own kind, because they felt that the slaves were below them. But as Ellora jabbed her elbow into Nash and brushed past him he realized that she certainly wasn’t beneath his class. Her feisty and sassy personality had turned him on, even though he hardly understood it. What was about this girl? Lazio obviously thought she was worth something, putting a potentially priceless microchip inside of her body. Was there something else to her? She turned and looked over her shoulder, her dark hair flowing around her body as she whipped her head around searching the room. She beckoned Nash with a single finger and raised an eyebrow at him. He followed her just like human’s dogs did. Suddenly he understood that phrase of puppy love that he had heard as a child when they visited space stations. He was in it, and deep.
“Nash, I would like you to meet Maeve.” She lowered her voice, “Maeve this is my friend Nash, he’s from the Alliance.”
Maeve was about half of Nash’s height, an older woman with long fingers wrapped around the cane that she was leaning on. A bushy tail stuck out from beneath her dress and Nash realized that she was one of those blended species. Either an experiment gone wrong, or two different breeds had gotten together and made her. It made her unique, it also made her unpredictable.
“It is my honor,” Nash said looking down at her.
She nodded back to him, her gray hair in a tight bun on top of her head. Just a few wisps pulled down and covered her eyes as she bent down. “And that is mine. Ellora here tells me that you want to place bets. Ones that you don’t intend on paying.”
Nash raised an eyebrow at Ellora, why had she sold him out? Was this part of her plan to escape?
“I don’t think I understand.”
“I know a Trekker when I see one. You’re not here to bet on a match son, you’re here to ruin my evening. So here’s my proposition, I want ten galactic coin. For that, I will walk around this room and tell everyone about how you are placing huge bets on Zeus, the large human fighter with the bald head.” She raised her frail hand and pointed it to the left side of the ring. There stood a gigantic man, nearly Nash’s size. Nash truly did believe that if there was a fight tonight, that man could win. “But I won’t tell them who you are, and I won’t encourage them to approach you. You can then slide around the group as you like, making chaos rain down upon this fighting ring.”
“So essentially you’re willing to create a diversion?”
She nodded slowly. “A long time ago I was one of you. And I’ve taken the fondness to Ellora over the past few months. She tells me that you’re going to help her get out of here. I would do anything to help her.” Ellora bent down and hugged the old woman as Nash had seen humans do in his past. It was still an odd interaction to him, not a gesture that Droqo did.
“Ten galactic coin? You have a deal.” Nash took out his satchel and she opened her hands. He placed the coins inside and then watched the woman close her fist around them and hobble away.
“Can we trust her?” Nash asked Ellora as they watched the woman make her way through the crowd.
“Of course we can. I wouldn’t have set you up with that little arrangement if we couldn’t. Now where are your other guys? It’s not going to take long before the fight starts. And that’s when we have to get out of here.”
Nash saw Lazio come in with a harem of women surrounding him. The crowd parted as he made his way to the front of the ring. Nash began searching the crowd for Aevar. He had to find him before they could make their escape. Just as he locked eyes with Aevar from across the ring and nodded to him towards the door he heard Ellora yell from behind him.
“Get off of me! I’m not for sale!”
Nash spun around to see a group of men closing in on Ellora. One had her by the upper arm and another was pulling on her waist. Nash didn’t recognize what type of species they were but they weren’t speaking in any human language, mostly they were clicking their tongues to each other without paying any attention to the victim. Nash could feel his blood boil beneath his skin and he pulled out his blaster directing it at the alien who had Ellora by her upper arm.
“Hey! The lady said to leave her alone! Let me help you understand that.”
The alien had just looked at Nash with his one eye in the middle of his head when Nash pulled the trigger on the blaster. Pieces of the man’s blue skin landed around them and Ellora screamed pulling herself away from the crowd.
“That was one way to create a distraction!” She said that she began fleeing towards the exit.
“This wasn’t the plan!” Nash yelled back.
“I get that, but thanks for saving me anyway.”
The security team immediately knew that Nash and Ellora had been involved. They dispersed and made their way toward the exit that Ellora was hurtling herself toward. Nash was right behind her shooting his blaster with his right hand at every security personnel he could. Two of them were closing in on Ellora, and as Nash looked behind him he saw the rest of the blue creatures closing in on him. Soon they would be trapped.
He heard Lazio bellow from behind them in multiple tongues, finally last one he understood. “Don’t let them leave!”
Aevar pulled out two blasters, one in each hand, and he mowed down three more of the security team. Nash took out another and finally saw an opening in the crowd. Ellora had merely gotten herself to the exit when only one security personnel stood between her and the open doorway. Nash couldn’t take the shot, if he did it might deflect and hit Ellora. Aevar was starting to take care of the group behind Nash and couldn’t help either. Nash panicked, he always remained calm during a mission but for the first time he felt like they might not get out of here. And he was worried about Ellora.
But he shouldn’t have been.
He watched as Ellora made a sharp right into the crowd and then ducked back out with a blaster between both of her hands. It was right in front of her, shielding her from the security guard.
“I swear on all the stars that I will kill you if you don’t move.” He heard her scream at the man.
But the security guard didn’t take her seriously and he just stood in her way. Nash watched as she pulled the trigger and the blue blast came out of the gun and directly into the man’s heart. Ellora looked back at Nash with tears in her eyes but he nodded at her as he as he finally caught up with her. “Go!”
Ellora held the blaster in her hand as Aevar cut in front of her and went up the stairs. Nash continued to reassure her as they ran away from the crowd. “I didn’t know you could shoot!”
“Why because I’m a girl? Because I’m a human?”
“Neither! I just didn’t know you knew how.”
They continued to sprint up the dark tunnel. Nash realized he didn’t know where they were going.
“Aevar, where’s the pod?”
“Just up here boss.” He headed out of the back exit as he continued to talk. “I scoped out the area before the two of you got to the ring.”
Nash heard yelling and
blasters shooting from behind him. “Move faster! They’re gaining on us.”
As they continued to flee Nash turned around and used his blaster to shoot down into the darkness. He heard a muffled shouts and a thump reverberate up through the tunnel. Another one down, he thought.
Finally, they emerged onto the planet’s surface and into the dark. The pod was hovering just a few inches from the surface. Ellora jumped in first, and then Aevar and Nash took one look at each other before nodding and rolling up into the pod themselves.
“Get us out of here!”
Nash watched the surface as security filtered out through the tunnel and began shooting at their pod. But they were out of reach, they were safe. Aevar and Nash sat across the from each other and crossed their forearms, the common sign of the Alliance that a mission was complete. Ellora just looked at them wide-eyed, her dark brown eyes filling with tears. “I just killed somebody,” she said as she pulled her knees up to her chest on the floor of the ship.
“You did what you had to do,” Nash said to her.
“I’ve never had to do that before.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” Nash said echoing a common human phrase he had heard as a child.
Chapter 7
Nash
“You brought a female back to the ship?” The commander was towering over Nash, his black gloved hands resting on his hips. Nash knew he was pissed, but there was nothing he could do about it. The mission was to get the microchip, the girl just happened to be part of the prize.
“What would you have had me do Sir? Leave her there?”
He turned around crossing his arms, Nash hated when he put his back towards him. It also meant he was in some serious trouble.
“Follow me into my office.”
Nash took a deep breath and tried to avoid the eyes of every member on the bridge. Raelor was the only one who didn’t look up from his station. He knew what danger that girl had been in, he knew that they couldn’t leave her there. He was only completing the mission. The fact that she made him want to take her back to his quarters and get into her pants hardly played into his decision-making. He had never turned on a mission before, why would he do that now?