by Layla Nash
He closed his eyes as the air in the pod grew thinner and time ticked away. He worried about Maisy, alone on the Sraibur and at his brother’s mercy, and hoped she would be able to signal the Galaxos somehow. He’d almost gotten there in the engineering bay before Faros showed up. Frrar’s lungs burned and his hearts beat faster.
Escape pods weren’t meant to be occupied for so long. He didn’t have much time.
Frrar used the clicker and a small transmitter to signal a message into the stars, so at least someone somewhere might pick up his story and his feelings for Maisy.
He regretted not telling her how he felt sooner, not bringing her food when they were on the Galaxos and he saw her clearly for the first time. She’d been so enchanting, so delicate but strong, and he’d taken his time. Plotted out a strategy for wooing her and eventually making her his. He had a checklist for it, a flow chart—the same as he used for an engineering problem.
He shook his head at his own stupidity. She wasn’t an engineering problem. She wasn’t any kind of problem to be solved.
Frrar groaned and leaned back as his head began to ache, the pressure behind his eyes increasing with each beat of his hearts. He should have just listened to his hearts for once when it came to Maisy. Instead of letting work and the next challenge distract him, he should have prioritized and put her at the top of the list. It was his one real regret—that he wouldn’t be able to take Maisy back to Xarav and show her the triple suns setting over the desert.
He wouldn’t have the chance to make her his or to see what their young would look like.
His vision blurred; he didn’t know if it was regular grief or just that he slowly suffocated. Everything grew cold and stiff. Death. So that was what death felt like...
The enormous silver shape that drifted into his view distorted through the blurring and grew impossibly large next to the pod. Frrar blinked and gasped for more air, trying to signal as the ship took form and a familiar hull number drifted in front of him.
The Galaxos.
Somehow, out of all the impossible odds, the best scenario came true to save his life.
The long docking arm captured his escape pod and dragged it into the Galaxos. Frrar’s vision faded to black and cleared slightly, over and over, as the pod bounced and jostled and then dropped to the deck inside the Galaxos cargo bay with a resounding clang. His friends surrounded the pod and pried at it, trying to get him out, and Frrar searched for the door release that would eject him from the contraption. His hands didn’t want to cooperate and then Vrix’s grim face filled his vision, followed by a massive crow bar, and the pod shattered to pieces around him.
Frrar sucked in the deepest breath of fresh air he could and coughed from the stale bitterness of his entrapment. “Maisy.”
“Where is she?” Vaant’s mate demanded. She shoved through the circle of Xaravians who freed him from the twisted metal and half-shattered plastics. The fierce Earther dodged the captain’s attempt to pull her back. “Where is Maisy? What happened? Is she in danger?”
Frrar blinked and tried to focus on her. His thoughts eddied and stagnated like a desert spring in summer. “Danger. Hospital in Centauri. Faros will give her to the Alliance if he doesn’t get his way. We have to…hurry.”
The Earther’s face drained of color and Vaant pulled her out of the way, then Vrix, the second-in-command, leaned over Frrar to grip his arm. “We will, brother. We’re already on the way. Just breathe.”
Someone settled a mask and internal regenerator on him to address the damage of the time in the escape pod, and cool darkness surrounded him. Relief crowded some of the panic out of his chest until he could finally breathe. They would get to Maisy in time.
Chapter 29
Maisy
Maisy spent just a few minutes checking on Faryl after Faros locked her in again. She circled back to the door and heard the low voices of her two guards through the walls; though she couldn’t understand the Xarav they spoke, she heard exasperation in their tone. Like they couldn’t believe an Earther female was causing so much trouble.
She clenched her jaw and got down to business. She had to find a way to get free and signal the Galaxos. All Alliance doctors were trained in how to recover beings who’d spent time in the escape pods that were required on every space-faring vessel, and it wasn’t pretty. Limited air and life support systems gave the occupants the opportunity to survive outside a much larger safe environment, but decreased cognitive function the longer they had to rely on the pods. Which meant Frrar didn’t have much time.
Her heart told her he would survive, that she would find him and that they would still have the opportunity to explore all the crazy things that happened between them on their short adventure. But her head knew he was probably already gone if he hadn’t somehow found a ship to save him out in the vastness of space.
Maisy swallowed down tears and focused on stabilizing Faryl once more. The little boy remained unconscious, completely reliant on the life support systems she’d calibrated before Faros ejected his brother into space. Faryl didn’t have much time. She could buy him half a day, maybe a full day or two, once they got to the more advanced facilities at the Alliance hospital in Centauri, but unless she found a cure...
She pushed away that thought, too. She could do it. She could figure it out and everything would be fine. Everyone would be fine and she and Frrar would get back to the Galaxos and everything would be calm. No more adventure for her. Maisy didn’t want anything to do with pirates or rebels or anything out of the ordinary.
The Sraibur sick bay stocks were well supplied at least, even if none of it would save Faryl. Maisy gathered up anything she could use to incapacitate the Xaravians. She didn’t know as much about their anatomy or circulatory systems as necessary to calculate an appropriate dose; instead she risked giving them too much rather than not enough. They were pirates. She told herself it over and over, trying to dissipate the wiggle of guilt that squirmed in her stomach at the possibility of violating her oath to “do no harm,” but it didn’t make her feel any better.
They’d contributed to killing Frrar. That thought steeled her nerves. Maisy loaded injectors and a stunner with knockout doses, hoping to disable the guards from a distance. She didn’t want to try her luck with an escape pod, but if she could make it to one of the better-equipped attack pods near the engineering bay, then perhaps she could navigate close enough to rebel ships to get help.
It had been a few years since the mandatory piloting and navigation courses at the Alliance Fleet Academy, but Maisy figured the advanced ships could practically fly themselves. She took a deep breath and shook her head. She must have lost her damn mind.
The only warning that someone approached was the click of the locks disengaging and the soft sliding of the doors. Maisy didn’t turn from where she worked even though her heart pounded against her ribs and her hands trembled. She couldn’t really explain what she was doing, not to anyone with half a brain and some experience with medical equipment, but at least she didn’t have to look incredibly suspicious by jumping in alarm and trying to hide it.
She hoped it was anyone but Faros.
But the captain spoke very quietly and calmly as he walked into sick bay and placed a tray of food on the counter next to her. “Have you calmed down?”
Maisy clenched her jaw. Clearly Faros didn’t know much about women, since telling her to calm down was the very last damn way to get her to calm down. She didn’t speak and instead kept piling up doses of a serum that would temporarily paralyze the target.
Faros leaned against the counter and tried to see her face. His arms crossed over his chest and the scales in his arms adjusted as he tensed his muscles. “You would understand what I’m doing if you had children, Maisy. You would know. It appears coldhearted and cruel, I know, but if it means saving my son...” He shrugged. “I will do what I have to.”
She refused to respond, even if her heart thawed just a touch. She once thought she’d be able
to maintain clinical aloofness regardless of the situation. Then she went out into space and had to start treating people she knew and cared about and victims of all kinds of cruelty. Faryl deserved to live and the Alliance doctors should have done the right thing to save his life the first time Faros asked for their help. But they hadn’t and so the rest of them were left to pick up the pieces and search for solutions.
Saving a child in front of her still felt like a priority over the less concrete risks to the rest of the rebellion, even if she knew what the consequences would be of handing those weapons over to the Alliance. Maisy shook her head, more for her own thoughts than anything Faros said, but the captain interpreted it his own way.
Faros didn’t move or look away. “It will work out, you’ll see. Faryl will be fine once we get the treatment and we will be able to start over far away from the Alliance and the rebellion. Whatever happens between the factions will be no concern of ours.”
Maisy’s hands stilled from filling another stunner with knockout serum. He kept saying “we.” What in Keppler’s universe did he think was going on? Did he imagine some future with her? She shook her head more. “There’s no ‘we.’ No ‘ours.’”
“Maisy,” he said quietly, and reached for her hand. Maisy jerked away, arms close to her chest, but Faros didn’t let her retreat far. He managed to capture her wrist and hold her, though he didn’t drag her closer to the immense wall of his body. “There is an easy solution to this. You care for my son; I can see it in the way you treat him. And he cares for you. He smiles when he sees you, he laughs with you.”
Her vision blurred. She did care for Faryl, even after just a handful of days being around him. The little boy was sweet-spirited and kind and funny, even with such a rough start in life and not sharing the same language. He was easy to fall in love with. Even though his father was a jerk and out of his mind.
When she remained silent, Faros drew her a little closer. “Give him a family, Maisy. I will take you as my mate and he will be your son. We can start a new life far from here, in a quiet place and a peaceful planet. There are many new colonies that need doctors and ship captains. We would never deal with the Alliance ever again. They could not find you or attempt to arrest you. I would protect you with my life. I could give you a good life, Maisy.”
A good life. Security. A peaceful, quiet existence far from everything and everyone she knew. But not love. Not passion or excitement or that tremble of agonizing anticipation in her stomach like she felt with Frrar.
Frrar.
Faros killed him in the name of saving his son. The pirate had already said he would do anything to save his child—and she had no reason to believe that he would keep his word about safeguarding her or whatever life they built if some other challenge arose. She didn’t actually consider going anywhere with Faros, not after what he’d done. She pulled out of his grip; he let her retreat, but he didn’t step back. Maisy turned her attention back to the supplies on the counter. “You killed my mate. I’ve no interest in being yours.”
The pirate tensed. “He wasn’t your mate. Earthers don’t have mates.”
“How would you know?” She shook her head and swallowed the burn of grief in her throat. “You killed him. I will uphold my end of the bargain and do my best to save your son if you get us to the hospital. But after that—I never want to see you again.”
“You would give up an easy life—a safe life—with me to take your chances with a bunch of rebels and criminals? With the Alliance searching for you and bounty hunters chasing after you? That’s what you want?”
“I don’t want easy,” she snapped. Her hands trembled even though she spoke the absolute, unvarnished truth. Maisy hadn’t realized it until that moment, but she meant every word. “I want real. I want to be someone’s first choice, someone’s first priority. And I would never be that with you, even if I wanted to be with you—which I don’t. You killed Frrar. You sent him off to a slow, lonely death. Your own brother. Your own brother.”
She was shouting by the end of it, and nearly stabbed him with a needle full of paralysis serum.
Faros didn’t budge. “You don’t understand.”
“No, I don’t. I’ll never understand how you could…could do that.” Her voice broke and her vision blurred. She stared down at the instruments in front of her, even though she couldn’t see them, and refused to even acknowledge Faros as he lingered next to her.
“Someday you will,” he said quietly. “But do as you like. The offer stands. You’ll change your mind.”
“Get us to the hospital,” she said. “I’ll save your son, then you’ll take the weapons back to the rebels. And I never want to see you again.”
Faros shrugged and stepped back. “We’ll see.” He was almost to the door when he added, “We’ll be in Centauri soon. Prepare Faryl for transport to the hospital. Do not try anything stupid, Maisy. There are consequences for the choices we make, and I do not want you to end up in more trouble.”
Then he was gone. Maisy clenched her hands into fists and resolutely packed a small bag with all the devices she’d prepared. The moment they were at the hospital and she could treat Faryl, she’d make her move.
Chapter 30
Frrar
Frrar woke in a sick bay and for a brief, shining moment thought he was back under Maisy’s care somewhere safe. Then Mrax leaned over him and breathed a stinky sigh of relief right in his face. “You woke up. Thank the suns.”
Frrar turned his face away and tried to shove Mrax back. “You smell worse than a haugmawt. What’s going on? Where are we?”
“Searching for your brother’s ship,” Mrax said. He retreated and picked up a scanner to wave over Frrar’s head. “And waiting for you to wake up to explain what the hell happened.”
“We have to get to an Alliance hospital,” Frrar said. He tried to sit up as the room spun around him, but Mrax threw an arm across his chest and shoved him back to the bed. Frrar bared his teeth. “Faros is taking Maisy and his son there. If she can’t help his son, he’s going to bring the Alliance over and give them weapons so they will. We can’t waste any time looking for the Sraibur. They’ll be at the closest Alliance hospital. They might be there already.”
Mrax grunted and kept him pinned despite how Frrar thrashed. “Vaant and Vrix are on their way to get the details. Just calm down. You’re not recovered from being in that damn pod, and you’ll cause yourself further damage if you don’t lie back and let me do my job.”
Frrar would have argued and flailed more, his only thought being on finding Maisy, but Vaant walked in with the security chief behind him, and turned a grim expression on the engineer. “Explain what happened. Talk fast.”
“Yeah, before his mate chews her way out of their quarters and gets here to beat it out of you,” Vrix muttered, though he coughed to disguise it when Vaant gave him a dirty look.
Frrar concentrated on relaying the details of the past few days as quickly as possible to them both, knowing they wasted time talking while Maisy was in danger.
“And your brother intends to give these—undefeatable?—weapons to the Alliance in exchange for a cure for his son.” Vaant’s scales rattled in irritation. “Betraying the rebellion, and you, and our race.”
Frrar nodded, then slowly sat as Mrax finally waved that he could get up.
Vrix folded his arms over his broad chest. “Some rebels found the transporter and escorts adrift; none of the crew would reveal what happened, nor what their cargo was. So this tracks with illegal arms trading and purchasing by the Alliance. Now that we know the culprit, there will be criminal charges against them.”
“Doesn’t bother me,” Frrar growled. “The bastard set me adrift instead of killing me with his hands like a true warrior. I hope he rots on a prison planet.”
Vaant nodded, then took a deep breath and clapped him on the shoulder. “I am glad we found you, brother. If the Earther had not managed to signal Trazzak’s mate, we would not have known where to star
t looking.”
Frrar gripped the edge of the mattress as he stared at the captain. “She…what?”
“Trazzak’s mate gave her a communicator. She managed to contact Trazzak’s mate and tell her what happened to you before she was interrupted. It sounded like Faros found her, then destroyed the communicator. We were able to identify the coordinates from which she transmitted, and started scanning from there.” Vrix didn’t blink. “Your mate is bold, Frrar.”
His mate. Frrar didn’t want to play games, but he didn’t want to claim rights that were not his. He and Maisy had not had time to discuss what, if anything, they shared. Even though the need to protect and cherish her burned hot and furious in his chest, the Earther had her own mind and might feel differently. “We have not…discussed that yet. She may not—”
“Look at yourself, brother,” Vrix said. His dark eyebrow arched as he gestured at Frrar’s chest, and Frrar checked his scales and bit back a groan. He’d turned completely blue and purple at just the thought of Maisy’s bravery. Pride and love and lust all mixed up and gave away his thoughts to the world. The security chief’s mouth twitched at the corner, betraying his amusement. “No judgment. These Earther women...” He shook his head. “It seems they are their own sort of interstellar force of nature.”
“So let’s go get yours,” Vaant said. He pointed at Frrar. “We will summon the rest of the rebel fleet in case the Alliance shows up early to make the trade or lays an ambush for the Sraibur, and we will get your mate back. But you stay here and build your strength, so you can retrieve her when we arrive.”
Frrar started to object but the captain gave him a dark look and he silenced. The captain and security chief both left sick bay without another word, and left Mrax to start shoving food at Frrar. As Frrar tore into the meat and fermented red paste, ravenous after what felt like days without sustenance, Mrax shook his head and fiddled with the ancient equipment around the bed. “I never thought I’d see all of you turn into love-struck fools.”