by Kate Rudolph
“Then you need to go to station security,” Bitna insisted.
“That’s a waste of time!” Lis smacked her hand against the table and curled her fingers against the sting. Sung Mi jerked, but Bitna remained completely still. Lis’s heart was pounding too fast and for a moment, it felt like all off the air had been sucked out of her lungs. She tried to breathe, but she couldn’t open her windpipe. Her vision went hazy around the edges, stars dancing.
And, as suddenly as it came on, the fit stopped. “They knocked him out,” she said with a certainty she couldn’t possess.
“How can you know that?” asked Sung Mi. She sounded skeptical, but there was a hint of belief in her dark eyes.
“He’s my denya. We’re connected.” She could feel the bond as real as if a string was tied between them.
For a moment, Sung Mi and Bitna held themselves still. Then they shifted their eyes toward one another in a silent conversation that Lis couldn’t hope to parse.
After a moment, Bitna nodded. She set her eyes on Lis and said, “We’re in.”
* * *
The Korean women told Lis to meet them in an exit bay in thirty minutes to give them enough time to gather a few supplies and cancel a standing appointment.
Lis almost ran directly to the meeting place, but at the last minute, she remembered the man she and Ru had planned to meet later in the day. Lome. If anyone on this station would want to rescue Ru nearly as much as she did, it would be his almost uncle.
She found his shop exactly where Ru had said it would be. The man was reviewing something on a tablet. The light from the screen only made his teal skin even brighter. He didn’t look like Ru, not really. But there was something in the marks she could see on the exposed skin of his arms that reminded her of Ru, and when he looked up at her, Lis saw the same red gaze she’d come to associate with her lover.
“Ru’s in trouble,” she said before Lome could even begin to greet her.
He set down his tablet and stood. And even from a distance, she could tell he was near six and a half feet tall.
“So, you’re his human.” There was ice in his voice, and she didn’t know if it was for her or for Ru. From Ru’s description, she’d expected a kindly man ready to welcome her with open arms.
Lome was… not that.
“I’m his denya,” she said. “And I’m trying to save his life. I need your help.”
“What’s he done now?” She wanted to scream to disrupt his calm, but Lome didn’t look easily ruffled.
“Polans took him. They left me. He’s on the ship or near it. I’ve got two humans to help, but you’re his family. You know this station. Please.” She could feel tears threaten to fall at the corners of her eyes, but Lis held them back. She couldn’t break down, not until Ru was safe. Panic didn’t solve problems.
“Where do you need me?” Still cold as ever, but not hesitant.
She gave him the location of the ship and left him to make his decision. Ru didn’t have time for her to wait.
Bitna and Sung Mi were waiting for her near the exit bay. A few moments later, Lome joined them. He’d covered himself in combat gear, completely obscuring the markings on his arms with a bodysuit made of tough-looking synthetic leather.
“I’ve alerted a friend in Security. A Polan ship is scheduled to leave the exit queue in ten minutes. It suddenly rescheduled its departure this morning.” He nodded to the two other women but didn’t introduce himself.
“Did he give you their identifier?” Sung Mi asked, having determined that Lome was friend, not foe.
Lome held up an iridescent silver disc. “I have many friends on the station.”
“What is that?” Lis asked, feeling ever more out of her depth.
“It’s a teleport key,” Bitna explained, an assessing look in her eye as she studied Lome. “And those are highly guarded.”
Lome shrugged, not explaining further. “It holds the signatures of all of this morning’s teleports. Which means,” he said before Lis could interrupt him, “that we can get onto their ship and retrieve Ru. But we need cover.”
“I’ve got a blaster.” And Lis was suddenly very glad that she’d thought to go to him. It seemed he had the answers to questions she hadn’t known to ask.
“We can cover you in our cruiser,” Sung Mi offered. “It doesn’t have much range and only one gun, but Bitna’s a crack shot.” Bitna just shrugged off the praise.
Good, this was all good.
“Then let’s go. What are we waiting for?” asked Lis.
Only then did Lome hesitate. “We’ll be vulnerable in the few seconds after the port. So whoever goes first will be at the most risk.” The station teleporter only could handle one biological specimen at a time. Anything more caused splice risks.
“I will shoot anything that tries to keep me from rescuing my mate. If you’re too chicken, then I’ll happily go first.” Lis let all of the resolve sink into her voice until her words were pure steel.
Lome nodded once, his expression finally softening into something besides ice. “I think that you’ll be good for Ru.”
The approval warmed some unknown corner of her gut that hadn’t ever known a parent’s love. But Lis didn’t have time for that right now. She could try to unravel the mystery of Lome later when Ru was safe in her arms.
“Let’s do this.”
Chapter Nineteen
Ru woke up to the sound of sirens blaring. At first he thought the klaxons and blinking lights were coming from inside his head, souvenirs of the blaster shot that had knocked him out. He didn’t know where he was, but there were bars and he was shackled to a wall, ropes threaded through a bar a half a meter above his head.
He felt like he’d been pulled behind a freight truck through the high desert of Bynko III and his mind was filled with tufted cotton. If the blaster the damn Polans had used on him had been set any higher, he might not have woken up with a mind of any use to anyone. He rotated his neck, trying to shake his thoughts into some sort of order.
The siren and the lights really weren’t helping. Why wouldn’t they shut up?
No, he thought, trying to think through the fuzz. Why were they ringing in the first place? Those were emergency alarms, and they weren’t from Honora Station. He only knew that due to a near fatal leak in the life support system that he’d run afoul of three years prior. Sometimes he still heard those klaxons in his nightmares.
What blared in his ears now sounded completely different. It was too high pitched, with a rapid beat tempo that kept his heart racing. The siren made him want to run, but straining against his bonds wasn’t going to do him any good.
The fog began to clear as his heart raced and Ru sucked in deep breaths to keep himself under control. If he wasn’t on Honora Station, it meant that the Polans had placed him on one of their own vessels. Even now, they could be speeding back across dark space toward that cursed planet.
But he didn’t think—at least, he hoped—that he had not been out long.
He wasn’t strong enough to brute force his way out of the ropes binding him, but Detyens had never been built to rely on pure strength alone. He flexed his hands until his claws shot out from his knuckles. They weren’t very long, extending only a few inches out, wickedly curved and sharp enough to disembowel a Leru Ox if given the chance.
Ru strained, trying to find a way to swipe at the fibers rubbing his skin raw. After several uncomfortable moments and one cramp that left him cursing silently, he was able to reach up and saw at the rope. It wasn’t quick work. The fibers were thick and coarse and he had very little leverage to get the job done.
But after several painful minutes, his shoulders sagged as the final strands gave way, loosening the bindings on his wrists and freeing him from his place on the wall.
His freedom was limited by the bars in front of him. The cell was fairly large, and judging by the faint scent of flour in the air, he would wager that under normal circumstances it was used to hold excess supplies rat
her than prisoners. All the better for him. They might have missed something in trying to make it ready to hold him. So many every day supplies could be used offensively. He only needed one.
Beyond the cell there was a small room with a desk and chair jutted off to one side. A heavy gray door stood closed less than two meters away. Tantalizingly close but completely out of reach. Ru tested the bars, happy to find they weren’t electrified. He could deal with the pain, but every small obstacle made getting back to Lis that much harder.
And there was no way they were going to keep him away from his denya, not now that he’d found her, now that he’d claimed her.
Footsteps pounded beyond the door and slowed as they approached. Ru heard the creaking groan of heavy metal moving and jumped back to where he’d been tied, holding his hands in place so it looked like the rope still bound him. There was no use in giving up what little freedom he had if he could avoid it.
At first he could barely make out the green skin of the short Polan who walked in and closed the door behind himself. But then his captor flung off the dark cloak he wore and hung it on a hook on the door. He wore dark combat gear and carried a stunner stick in a sheath on his belt.
Those beauties could incapacitate a 500 kilo Yorgluf with one blow, but they were close contact weapons. More powerful than some blasters, but few liked to give up the range offered by projectile weapons.
That meant that this Polan knew how to fight and he wasn’t afraid to get close.
And that was just what Ru needed.
The Polan looked him over, first examining the ropes wrapped around his hands and then taking stock of the rest of him. Ru tried to look as pathetic and dazed as he could. Anger simmered but he kept it contained.
Not right now, not yet, he told himself. He needed to wait until the moment was right.
The guard pulled out his stunner stick, but he didn’t engage the power. Instead, he walked up close to the cell and started to run the staff against the metal bars, taunting Ru.
But he wasn’t close enough. Ru doubted he’d be able to reach him before the stick powered up and took him down. So he watched with heavy lidded eyes, a sneer glued to his lips.
The Polan trilled something at him in indecipherable Polan.
“I don’t speak green asshole,” Ru replied in IC.
The Polan hissed and surged forward as if he understood the insult.
Ru took his chance. He sprang up from where he sat and with one hand grabbed for the stunner. The other swiped for the Polan’s throat, claws still extended and beyond deadly.
Sulfurous orange blood pulsed out as Ru’s claws hit home. He stepped back as the Polan fell, one hand clasped to his throat and a desperate, clinging look in his huge eyes. Maybe Ru should have felt some level of remorse for taking a life. It was an action that should never be taken lightly. But all he felt was the beating sense of determination to get out and get home.
The Polan fell close enough for Ru to reach out and grab the keycard to unlock the cell door. One swipe later and the door swung open to allow him freedom.
Ru stepped around where the Polan fell to get to the door. His hand was on the knob when he saw the cloak hanging right in front of him. He pulled it on and pulled up the hood to cover his distinctly non-Polan features. He pocketed the keycard that had let him out of his cell, hoping it would offer access to anywhere else he needed to go. If the dead Polan had high enough clearance to open a prisoner’s cell, it stood to reason that he’d be able to get into other restricted areas of the ship.
Areas that would let Ru escape.
He just needed to get to an emergency life pod. All ships had them in some form or another. They were small vessels that could carry between one and ten people depending on the size of the ship. The big cruisers carried actual escape pods that could hold dozens or hundreds. And once he found the life pod, he’d be on his way to freedom.
They couldn’t have made it far from Honora Station. He refused to believe it.
He also grabbed the stunner stick from where it had fallen out of the dead Polan’s grasp. There was no use going into hostile territory unarmed.
He opened the door and faced the white-bright hallway. The lights lined across the ceiling might has well have been suns. Compared to the cell, it made Ru’s eyes ache. But after a few moments, they adjusted, and he was on his way, shoulders slumped down to try and affect a more Polan height. It wouldn’t fool anyone up close, so he couldn’t get close.
The hallway was deserted. Ru went right on instinct and followed several bright corridors in what felt like an outward direction. Truth was, he had no way of knowing if he was headed in the right direction. All the signs along the white walls were written in Polan script and he couldn’t hope to decipher it.
He was about to turn down another hall when the zing of a blaster shot cut him off, almost hitting him in the shoulder. He threw himself back and crouched down, trying to stay out of the eye line of his attacker.
But the shots flew past him and down the hallway where he’d planned to turn. A firefight on the ship—that would explain the sirens.
Ru powered up the stunner, ready for anyone to run his way. He looked back down the hallway that he’d come from, but something rode him hard, telling him to stay in place. If he went back now, there was no telling what trouble he’d run into.
And so he waited, biding his time.
After several minutes, the blaster shots stopped. With a final blast, the shots down one end of the hall ended, finishing off the last of whoever they were shooting at. Ru hoped they were the ship’s attackers. Anyone attacking the Polans right now was a friend of his.
Even pirates.
Footsteps started toward him and he could hear the quiet murmur of voices speaking something that wasn’t Polan. But he was too far away to make out the words. As they got closer, he gripped his stunner tighter, ready to lash out if potential friend turned to foe.
Then the steps were right next to the junction in the hallway. He raised up his stunner, ready to strike.
And then Lis appeared, stunner drawn. They stood frozen for a moment before a smile broke out on her face and she lowered the weapon. She surged forward, heedless of his weapon, and wrapped her arms around him tightly. “I knew you were here, I could feel it.”
He switched off the power of the stunner and grasped her with his free arm. “How did you find me?” He wanted to push her up against the wall and kiss her senseless and then yell at her for putting herself in danger.
“Save the celebration for when you’ve earned it,” another familiar voice spoke. Ru looked up to see Lome come into view.
Ru opened his mouth to say something, but Lome slapped a teleport-tracker against his chest before the words came out. He pressed the giant blue button and Ru’s ears popped for a moment before everything went black.
It lasted only a second, and then he was back on Honora Station, standing in a transporter pod and looking at a woman with purple skin and bright blue eyes. Oscavian, if he had to guess.
“Step out of the pod, please,” she told him.
Ru moved, knowing that they could only transport Lome and Lis back once he was safe. His heart beat raggedly as the seconds ticked by. Every moment that they were left in danger because of him was a moment that he couldn’t breathe.
The transporter engaged again and this time it was Lis that appeared in the pod. She clutched her hand to her side and he could see the red stain of blood beginning to spread. But she stepped out of the pod without being told, barely limping.
It was only when she made it to him that she sagged, the strength leaving her. Ru tugged her close, pressing his hand over her own, trying to staunch the flow of blood. “No,” he commanded, “you don’t get to leave me. Not now, not after we’ve just found each other.”
She sucked in a ragged breath. “Just… a flesh…” She licked her lips before finishing. “Wound.”
“You need a medic,” he said, watching the color drain from
her. Distantly, he heard the transporter engage again.
Lome stepped out and took one look at Lis and Ru before letting out an expert strain of expletives.
“You stupid human. Why didn’t you say you were wounded?” Lome demanded as he knelt beside them. He gestured something to the Oscavian woman, but Ru couldn’t look away from Lis to see what he wanted.
“Hey,” Lis said, this time her voice growing stronger. She tilted her head toward Lome. “You don’t get to yell at me. Only he gets…” Her voice trailed off before she finished the sentence. Then her head lolled back as the fight went out of her and she gave herself over to unconsciousness.
“Lis!” Ru shook her, trying to wake her up. But it did no good.
She was completely out.
Chapter Twenty
Her mouth tasted like cardboard and thorns had started to grow out of her side as Lis began to feel again. Everything was dark around her, but after a moment, she realized that it was only because her eyes were closed. Opening them up took too much effort, so she let her head settle back against her pillow as she tried to remember why it felt like she’d been dragged behind a racing speeder.
It came in flashes: Ru, the Polan ship, an unlucky blaster shot just before she teleported, the transporter, then black.
She felt something pulling on her arm and tried to jerk away, but it was like she was moving through syrup. Lis forced her eyes open and turned her head to spy an IV stuck in her arm, brightly colored fluids being delivered directly into her bloodstream.
“Ru?” She tried to call out for him, but it came out like a sad sound between a gasp and a whisper. She licked her lips and tried again, voice gaining strength. “Ru?”
A look around the small room told her he wasn’t there. It didn’t look like any hospital room that she’d ever seen on Earth, though she couldn’t actually remember the last time she’d been to a functioning hospital. The room was small and she lay on a cot-like bed pushed against one wall with a little space on either side for doctors to stand. Her vitals pulsed on one wall, undecipherable to her uneducated eye.