Femme Metal

by Nathalie Gray

  Sweat pearled at Alex’s temples. She rubbed her cheek against her shoulder and blew air through her teeth. “And?”

  “I’m getting at it. They have all kinds of totally—Uh-oh.”

  Sekmeth backtracked from the ladder, where he’d been ready to go down below, and bent over Kim’s shoulder. She didn’t seem to be bothered by it and looked up at him. “The screen’s, like, going ten light-years a second, all in Yithian. I can’t read it that fast. What channel did they say to switch to?”

  As he gave Kim quick instructions, Alex tried not to tap her foot but ended up bouncing her knee rhythmically just so she had something to do.

  “They’re taking their goddamn time—”

  Three loud clangs jolted the ship.

  “The mooring clamps came off, Cap’n, we can totally go,” Kim said, her voice excited and higher pitched than usual.

  She leaned over to look at Kim’s screens. “Anyone trying to crawl up our ass?”

  The girl shook her head. “Drokesh is keeping his word so far.”

  “He is a Hunter,” Sekmeth put in from behind.

  Alex didn’t even want to answer that one. Then a series of tiny beeps made her heart skip a beat. Three dots gleamed red on the dark green background of her radar screen.

  Kim cursed. “That pig! Look there, Cap’n.”

  “What are those? Do you know the configuration?” Alex growled, kicking her foot down.

  Sekmeth crouched beside her seat. “Those are security vessels. They have no reach but a lot of weapons. This ship is no match.”

  “Shit.”

  Kim nodded. “Like, totally.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sekmeth’s heart pounded a painful tempo. He’d paid the blood price, relinquished the hunt’s symbol, yet the old Hunter had betrayed him. He felt such a fool. Honor didn’t visit those like Drokesh, and he should have suspected it. Foolish pride.

  Alex pushed down on the controls, and the Femme Metal glided off the brothel-ship’s docking station. Concrete and steel layers passed up through the view screen. Approach lights flickered by then big black space filled the portholes. More alarms went off inside the ship.

  “The goddamn clamps won’t retract,” Alex snarled. After punching hard on some controls, she leaned back and flicked a switch back and forth. “Someone’s messing with our systems.”

  “Try the auxiliary panel,” Kim replied without looking up from her computer. “It’s bound to work if we reroute the whole thing.”

  Muffled clunks indicated Kim’s plan had worked. Sekmeth saw Alex’s shoulders relax a bit. Sweat pearled her temples and throat, which elicited a sudden response from his belly. Even his tongue began to tingle with excitement.

  Sekmeth shook his head to clear his thoughts. No time for needs of the flesh. This wasn’t going at all according to plan. He felt very useless, but realized the humans knew the ship more than he did and would be able to find a way. If a way could be found. Drokesh would have to be dealt with. But later—when Alexandra Novona and her females were safe. Sekmeth would return to the Gorgosh and deal personally with the traitor.

  “Ah, gross. Company’s coming,” Kim warned.

  Alex turned on another view screen and cursed. From where he stood, Sekmeth spotted the three dots moving rapidly toward their position. Drokesh’s security teams sent to either reclaim them all or salvage what little would be left after they’d blasted them to bits. For all the captain’s skills, he doubted this little ship could withstand three Yithian cruisers. The Femme Metal had no weapon to speak of, aside from the strange contraption on its aft turret.

  Kim emerged from her furious assault on the keyboard and grinned ferociously. “Should I plug in the can opener?”

  Can opener? Sekmeth craned his neck over the woman-child’s shoulder but saw nothing of interest on her screen. What was a can opener? What was a can, for that matter?

  Alex nodded. “Wait ‘til we have no choice. But like you say, totally, like plug it in.”

  Kim growled a ferocious laugh and bent far between her knees to retrieve a bunch of wires and some gray contrivance she connected to her already bristling computer. She hooked the device to her seat and held it up between her legs. Two red buttons gleamed like blood. She put her tiny finger over one and looked back at Alex. “Ready, Cap’n.”

  Alex flicked the onboard comms on. “Brace yourselves, ladies!”

  She then jerked those lurid control sticks to the left. Sekmeth gasped when the tiny ship banked right away into a tight downward roll. Outside, the brothel-ship disappeared from view. He held on with one hand to some pipes running along the ceiling and spread his feet apart. While the ship was small, it seemed more than capable of outmaneuvering any other. Still, his every instinct was telling him more was at stake.

  As he watched her give commands and steer the ship, Sekmeth felt the heat in his belly rise up to his chest. This human female had taught him much in the few short days he’d spent with her. Even back at the nightclub where he’d first spotted the tall, wiry human, he knew she’d be special. Just how special, he only couldn’t have guessed. His hands longed for the feel of her, his whole body quivered at the thought of hers. They were a perfect fit in more ways than one. He could see himself sharing more than lustful nights with her—he could picture them together, doing normal things. He just hoped he’d get the chance to make his offer before they were all blasted into tiny particles.

  “Here they are,” Alex snarled. She jerked on the controls and the ship swung up, around half a rotation then back down the other way. Right behind one of the cruisers!

  “Fire!”

  Kim pressed on a red button. A split second later, a deep whomp echoed along the bulkhead above him. In the display unit, the cruiser shook then banked far to the right. Sekmeth followed its course until it disappeared behind the Gorgosh. An orange glow appeared briefly where the cruiser had vanished. The tremor reached them a few seconds later.

  The tiny ship had just destroyed a Yithian cruiser three times its size!

  “Come get your can opened,” Kim quipped as she wiggled in her seat. The venom in her voice didn’t surprise Sekmeth. After all, she’d been Drokesh’s first concubine, if even for a few days. She undoubtedly had some issues to deal with. As long as she didn’t group all Yithian males into one unpleasant classification.

  Alex cursed. “Another one at four o’clock. Kim.”

  Another whomp.

  The cruiser was hit in the stern and spun a few rotations before righting itself and limping back to the brothel-ship, its tail blazing and sending sparks far behind. Sekmeth shook his head. He’d had no idea. He would have had a good price had he decided to sell the little ship.

  “Brace yourself, loves, we’re going down,” Alex warned before wrenching the controls down and leaning far over her legs.

  Sekmeth barely had time to do so when the ship bore down at a tight angle and sent him halfway across the bridge. He banged his injured shoulder against the bulkhead and snarled. He was still paying Drokesh’s price. Jets of light flew past. The last cruiser fired at them. If a single shot touched, they’d be picking up pieces of this ship for years to come.

  Alex leaned to the right, flicked another switch. “Don’t let them come over us.”

  “We’re far enough to open a jump point.” Kim squirmed in her seat as she managed both her computer and the control stick of whatever piece of weaponry was sending Yithian cruisers whimpering back home.

  “We can’t open one with them on our tail. Fire at will.”

  Kim did, pressing the red button several times. Whomp-whomp-whomp. Sekmeth felt the ship shudder under his feet.

  “Finally!” Alex said, slapping one of the plastic male genitals with her palm. Turning back to him, she grinned. “You should head for one of the niches. We’re jumping.”

  Sekmeth planted a kiss on her before striding off the bridge. Her voice crackled out over the comms, warning everyone to prepare for hyperjump. He squeez
ed into one of the niches and strapped himself in—they had never been intended for Yithians. He waited for the lurch of hyperspace. Nothing.

  The sound of running feet. Kim came rushing by, an expression of near panic on her pointy face. He reached out and grabbed her by an arm before she’d gone completely by. “What is going on?”

  “The engines are powering down!” She tried to tug her arm away. “My computer won’t work… It’s like the connection’s broken. I have to go there and start the brain manually.”

  The brain? Sekmeth shook his head. “Return to your station. I will go.” He extirpated his shoulders and legs from the anchoring niche. She nodded, patted his hand then charged back up to the bridge. Her blue spikes had begun to fall limply on her head and it gave her a sad kind of look.

  Sekmeth rushed along the passageway then slid down the ladder to the lower deck where he noticed the lights had been dimmed considerably. A pair of boot soles sticking up poked out of the gloom. When he drew near, the large female’s body came into view. Four stun marks burned in a straight line marred her wide back. His neck tingled. An image flashed in his mind.

  The dark human, coming up behind him with something in her hand. He whipped around on his heels. Too late.

  The shock rattled his teeth as something hard struck him across the forehead. He slumped against the bulkhead, dazed but conscious. Something hissed against his arm. An injection pellet?

  “You’ve one hard head, honey.”

  The dark human bent over him, her fleshy lips pulled back in a glacial smile. She reached out and pushed a strand of hair from his face. He meant to grab her wrist but realized he could not move a single muscle.

  “Don’t try, it’ll only make the drug work faster.”

  Lights fizzed around the edge of his vision. He tried to stand, meant to but couldn’t move. Shock floated into his numb brain. He was lying on the floor! He couldn’t remember falling. The woman straddled him. He wanted to push her away but only managed to grunt with the effort.

  She kissed him hard. “I offered it nice the other day, but you wouldn’t have it. I have to settle a few things. Then I’ll come back for you, and we’ll play for a bit. The drugs won’t keep long, so I have to hurry, you see. If you’re nice, I’m going to keep you. If you’re not…”

  She kissed him again, brushed her breasts over his face then stood. He recognized his stunner in her hand.

  “How?” he managed to croak.

  She laughed a velvety, throaty laugh. “For all your charms, baby, you’re not too bright. Drokesh didn’t enjoy what you were doing, buying back your slaves and all. Spoiled the spirit of the hunt, or some shit like that. Anyway, I can see a good deal a hyperjump away. He made me one, and I took it.”

  So Drokesh had indeed betrayed him—another Hunter—even though the blood price had been paid. Drokesh had stained the spirit of the hunt, what’s more, he’d abandoned the Yithian ways, betrayed a brother for a human. And the human whose perfidy matched Drokesh’s? What did she intend to do with Alexandra Novona and the little one? Sekmeth wanted to wring the human’s neck but couldn’t even move a finger.

  “Don’t look so miffed, honey. His deal was too sweet to pass. If I returned his prized possessions, he’d let me have the ship. But he got it all wrong ’cause I don’t want just all of this,” she said, her hand encompassing the whole passageway. “I want this, too,” she added, running a hand over his crotch. “So to hell with him, right. Now that his thugs are blown up, I can have everything I want and not owe him a damn thing.”

  She climbed up the ladder. The last sight he had of her was the curvy behind cinched in the glittery white garment.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “You said he’d go check,” Alex told Kim who shrugged helplessly.

  “Hey, Cap’n, the outbound comms are totally on. There’s one transmission logged in.”

  Someone had called from the ship out to the station? Alex shrugged. “Don’t care. Where’s that Yithian?”

  She swiveled in her seat for the tenth time in the last few minutes. He’d been gone what, four, five minutes? An eternity when one has Yithian cruisers lining up to take a shot. Cursing, she unbuckled her five-point harness and stood.

  A sound alerted Alex someone approached the bridge. “What took so long?”

  Ebinay strolled into view. She grinned. “Had some things to take care of first, Cap’n.” A stunner gleamed in her hand. And it pointed directly at Kim.

  “No!”

  The polymer projectile hit the girl right between the shoulder blades, splattering its conductive gel laced with nanodarts. Kim went down without a sound. She convulsed for a few seconds then lay still.

  Alex leaped over the armrest to check on the girl. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  A look of sublime triumph lit Ebinay’s face. She popped her hip sideways and leaned a fist on it. “Nothing’s wrong, Cap’n. Everything is all right now.”

  A shiver tightened her belly, made Alex’s hands curl in as claws. She rolled Kim onto her back and checked for a pulse. Someone so small could be seriously hurt by a stun. Not this time. She sighed. Standing, she pointed an accusing index finger at her second-in-command. “Spill it. Now.”

  Ebinay scowled. “You’re in no position to boss me around, Novona. I have the stunner, you have the inhibitor. So take it easy. Wouldn’t want you to get hurt and spoil the fun for Drokesh. He’s expecting you, see.”

  Cold seeped into Alex’s gut, froze her body, numbed her mind. Intellectually, she understood what Ebinay was saying, but emotionally, she couldn’t force the words into a nice little row. “You sold us out? Just like that?”

  A nod confirmed it. “In return for you three, I get the ship and the business, which will get me disgusting sums of credits transferred to my ID. That’s one good deal. This is what Drokesh thinks anyway. I have an even better one. I keep your guy and the ship, toss your and the kid’s asses out the airlock.”

  Alex couldn’t understand. “Why? How? When?”

  Ebinay laughed. “Oh, for god’s sake. Don’t you get it by now?” She stepped onto the bridge and leaned against the bulkhead. “I wanted to get rid of you long ago, when we boarded the cargo ship. I meant to get the Yithian and bring him back to our customer. But he muddled things for me, your blue-skinned friend. Had to wait for another chance.”

  Realization hit her full force. The struggle on the cargo ship, the person who’d attacked Eva, it wasn’t some guard. Alex slumped against the backrest of Kim’s seat. “You killed Eva.”

  “Had no choice, she would’ve blabbed about it, you knew how she was. She’ll be quiet now. Plus, she’ll be with Annabelle. They’ll keep each other company.” The dark woman joined her hands in mock prayer.

  Annabelle, too? The acute pain of betrayal stung Alex’s heart. Anger quickly replaced the ache, though. “You killed Annabelle, too?”

  Ebinay shrugged. “Stupid cow wouldn’t join me, you believe that?”

  Alex shook her head in disgust. “You bitch.”

  Ebinay fired. Alex collapsed to the deck and tried to ride the wave of electrical jolts. Stay conscious. For god’s sake, stay conscious.

  A boot appeared out of nowhere and struck her in the middle. Gag reflex churned Alex’s stomach. She tried to roll away but was kicked again. As she floundered onto her side so she could stand, Ebinay grabbed her in a headlock and forced her back.

  “So,” she said in Alex’s ear. “Did you fuck him? I bet he’s good. Is he?”

  Alex tried to hit the woman but didn’t get far enough. Stars popped around her field of vision. Air stopped coming in.

  “Fine, don’t tell me, I’ll find out soon enough.”

  Alex froze.

  Ebinay chuckled in her ear. “Yeah, I intend to play with him. He’s waiting for me down below, got plenty of meds to keep him docile as a kitten. I’ll have my very own brothel-ship of one.” She laughed.

  A rush of adrenaline fizzled through Alex at the mention
of Sekmeth and what awaited him. Down below. What did she mean, the traitorous bitch? Alex managed to crane her neck and breathe some. “If you hurt him—”

  “I did, so what are you going do about it?” Ebinay stood, taking Alex with her. “That thing’s going to keep you nice and quiet,” she added, tapping a finger against the inhibitor around Alex’s neck.

  Alex had completely forgotten about it. Ebinay had no idea the thing was deactivated. How could she? It looked plenty real from the outside. Alex let her arms fall to her sides in mock surrender. Let the lying bitch believe what she wanted.

  “So now, what we’ll do is send another message to Drokesh’s goons to tell them the Hunter died but he can have the humans. That should keep him off my back for a few minutes, long enough to open a jump point.”

  Ebinay pushed Alex forward until she’d reached the control panel. “Switch to the peripheral frequencies, then enter zero three eight. That’s Drokesh’s personal channel.” She sounded mighty proud of such knowledge.

  Sekmeth, probably hurt, was somewhere down below. Anger threatened to make Alex lose her cool. Good god, what if Ebinay had given him something that caused irreparable damage to him, what if she’d turned him into a walking zombie? Fear mixed with anger made Alex force her lungs to function with at least some rhythm. She bent over the controls, keeping her feet wide apart. There’d be hell to pay.

  And the time was now.

  She kicked out and wide, caught Ebinay right under the elbow. The stunner went flying. Alex whipped around and faced her second-in-command. The dark woman’s gaze flicked to the inhibitor. Fear tightened her face.

  “That thing’s going to kill you, Novona.”

  “This?” Alex said, giving the silvery band a good yank. It broke and fell to the floor where it disappeared through the metal grill. “It wasn’t on. But this is.” She rammed her fist into Ebinay’s face. Her head snapped back and she backpedaled out of the bridge.