by R. E. Vega
He shifted slightly in the water, looking around him. His head still throbbed, and the pain in his foot was starting to get more intense. He wouldn’t last long out here—he needed to get to dry land soon or he’d drown for real this time.
He could see the shoreline not far from here, and beyond that, the buildings of Castalia. He was only just outside of town, then. With some luck he could get back, get the information he needed, and still return to Defiance at the appointed hour without any of the crew having to know about this embarrassing little escapade. He just needed to swim to shore and—
Wait, what was that?
A strange ripple moved across the water near him, sending little waves in his direction.
There was something out here with him. Something big.
He treaded water, kicking as he twisted himself around and followed the strange shape. Whatever it was, it was circling him.
Just what I needed right now.
He had two choices—stay here and try to shoot the damn thing, or swim as fast as he could toward the shore. He opted for a combination of the two.
As the giant thing, whatever it was, circled him again, he waited until it was on the opposite side of him as the closest bit of shore, raised his blaster gun, and shot.
A white pulse of light moved through the water. A great growling scream echoed through the water as the blast found its mark.
Shit. There was only one creature that made a sound like that—one Brax didn’t feel particularly like meeting today.
He shot off one more blast before turning and swimming toward the shore. But with his wrists still bound and his right foot a throbbing mess, he wasn’t moving as fast as he’d have liked.
He twisted around, shot at the creature again, then kept moving. But he knew that even three direct hits with a blaster gun wouldn’t stop a stegodrake, not unless he’d managed to hit the thing right in the eye or something.
He moved with a wild desperation, half swimming and half hurling himself toward shore. Whenever he shot with his blaster, he managed to propel himself through the water a little faster, so he took several more poorly aimed shots at the beast. The thing still screamed, so it was definitely alive. And probably pissed.
But he’d obviously injured it. If he’d been up against a fully healthy stegodrake, it would have been on him by now—stegodrake could easily outswim humans, especially humans who are injured, exhausted, and partially bound.
Brax fought his way toward shore, not even noticing his pain anymore. His brain was only focused on one thing—survival.
He swam and shot, swam and shot, swam and shot. Every time he twisted around, he was prepared to see the stegodrake just behind him, opening its jaws to devour him. But somehow, he managed to keep it at bay. And then, just when he was beginning to think he might die of exhaustion, he felt sand beneath his feet. He’d reached the shallows.
His feet gripped the ground. He stopped trying to swim and started to run, half sprinting and half stumbling out of the water. His injured foot protested, but it was still a lot faster than swimming. There was no way the stegodrake could swim in water this shallow, but he wasn’t going to stop until he was he was certain he was clear.
The moment he was completely on dry land, he collapsed. His foot stopped bearing his weight, and he fell onto his hands and knees on the rocky shore. He started coughing again, expelling the water he’d collected in his lungs. When there was nothing left to come up, he fell fully on his stomach, his bound hands trapped beneath him. He pressed his cheek against the cool sand and tried not to fall dead asleep. How the hell he’d survived any of that, he had no idea. He was one lucky bastard, that was for sure.
A footstep near him sent his eyes flying open again. A pair of very shapely legs had stopped just in front of him, and his gaze followed them all the way up. He recognized that body. And in spite of himself, he felt his body respond to the sight. A pair of purple eyes looked down at him.
“Sarai,” he choked out. “A pleasure seeing you here.”
Her full lips spread into a darkly amused smile. “I wasn’t expecting you to survive that. I’m impressed—and my boss will be, too.”
“Who’s your boss?” he asked, rolling over onto his side so he could look up at her. Even that exhausted him. He raised his bound hands. “While you’re at it, do you mind undoing this? It’s chafing my delicate skin.”
Her amusement deepened. “I—” Her voice cut off as her eyes flicked toward something behind him.
“What is it?” he asked. He tried to twist around, to see what was behind him, but he couldn’t really manage it in his awkward position with his wrists bound.
“We’ll finish this conversation later,” Sarai said. “Right now, we have some company I need to take care of.”
DAYNA
The hairs on Dayna’s neck prickled as she, Thad, and Gregson approached the shore of the Castalian Sea, only a few kilometers from where the Defiance was waiting in port.
She supposed there were a few reasons she might be uneasy—of course, there was the element of danger, but Dayna would be the first to admit that she loved a good battle. There was also the need to prove something to Thad—he’d become somewhat of a father figure to her over the past few years, and she would have loved nothing more than his stamp of approval on her newly developed technology. If they actually were able to find Brax with it, this technology could change all their fortunes forever.
But the third reason was the one she least wanted to admit to herself. The one she knew was going to come back to bite her in the ass at some point—and probably soon. And it made her stomach turn on itself at even the notion that her feeling of unease might be because she…cared.
Dayna and Brax hadn’t seen eye to eye on most things in the past few years she’d been on the ship. She didn’t appreciate that he outranked her—barely—and that the captain seemed to take his side on issues because of it, even when Dayna was clearly right about whatever it was they disagreed on. Dayna had come to tolerate their constant bickering—almost enjoyed it. And she wasn’t sure she was ready to face the very real possibility that something about the side mission Brax had been sent on had gone horribly wrong.
The coast of the Castalian Sea wasn’t like the beaches of other planets she’d visited. There was no tourism here—most people seemed to avoid the green, murky waters at all costs. Of course, there was the very real threat of the stegodrake that lived just past the shallows, which she was sure kept most people as far away from the water as possible. The stegodrake had the reputation of killing their prey in particularly nasty ways—tearing off their limbs and leaving them to flail about in the water as they died an agonizing death seemed to be their particular favorite.
She wasn’t sure she could stomach it if that had happened to Brax.
When they heard a stegodrake scream not a moment later, she was sure it could only have something to do with Brax. She must have flinched or something, because Thad grabbed the top of her arm, almost as though he was trying to console her without words.
Her chest tightened as they neared the shoreline—she could see two figures in the distance. They were still too far to see if it was Brax, but something about the person lying on the ground told her it was. And he was bound at the wrists.
Gregson strode around Thad and Dayna, his weapon drawn. Dayna put her hand on her sidearm as well, and though she didn’t check to be sure, she knew Thad had done the same. They had been trained well—usually only security drew their weapons first. If there was imminent danger, the rest of the crew would be ready, but waiting to pull out their weapons usually meant fewer accidental shootings. And it was Captain Arleth’s policy that when things could be settled without violence, they should be.
It was just one more thing Dayna would change when she became captain of her own ship.
Not that she disliked her captain at all—Kaylin had become a mentor to her over the past few years. Dayna still wasn’t sure what the captain had seen in
her the day she had picked her up.
Dayna’s life had changed completely since that day she begged for passage in exchange for doing anything. She’d offered to scrub the floors, clean the latrines—anything to get away. And the captain hadn’t ever asked her what she was running from. It had been almost exactly the same as when they had taken Yuki aboard a little while ago—she’d had the same look in her eyes Dayna must have the day she ran away.
But there was no time to contemplate any of this now. As they neared the two people, the person standing over Brax pulled out her own weapon, stepping over the man lying on the ground. She pointed it at the three of them, even though she was still at least twenty meters away.
“What the fuck—?” Gregson barely got the words from his lips before her weapon discharged and he fell to the ground.
Thad pulled Dayna to the ground, and a moment later, the woman was close enough for Dayna to see—to recognize. And it was that moment she realized where she’d remembered that prickly feeling on the back of her neck a few minutes ago. It was the same feeling she had every time one of them was near her. It was the exact same—
“Hello, Dayna.” The woman with the purple eyes stood over her, smiling as she pointed her weapon at the two of them. “We heard you were here on Castalia.” She made a motion over her shoulder. “It’s unfortunate that your captain sent your friend to the tavern instead of you. It would have made things far less bloody. I do remember how little you liked the actual blood.”
Dayna began to tremble, the memories of what had happened starting to flood back into her mind. It wasn’t like her—at least not like her now—but she felt the same overwhelming fear, the same desperation begin to overtake her, and she was almost paralyzed. Just like she had been for so long, before she finally woke up that day. Before she was finally able to escape.
“What the hell is she talking about?” Thad tried to speak under his breath so that only Dayna could hear.
The woman motioned with her weapon for Thad and Dayna to stand. Thad threaded his arm through Dayna’s helping her to her feet.
The woman’s purple eyes bored into Dayna’s. “You know the rules, Dayna. There is no escape. You can run—you can try to run—but we’ll always find you. Remember that next time.”
Dayna flinched out of the way as the woman reached for her, and she heard the discharge of a nearly-dead blaster fire before seeing the woman drop to the ground, stunned.
Brax was behind her, his blaster in his hand. “I seem to need a recharge.” He smiled at Dayna and Thad. “I’m not sure what the hell I did to her. Though before you three interrupted, I was pretty sure I was going to be able to at least talk her into a quickie before she took me to whoever her boss is.”
Dayna ignored him, walking over to Gregson to check for a pulse. “He’s just stunned.” Dayna had to admit she was a little stunned herself, knowing how the woman’s group normally operated. Usually, it didn’t matter at all to them if a few people died as long as they were able to get what they wanted. “But we need to get out of here. They’ll be coming to find her.” And me.
Thad went over to Gregson and helped the man to his feet, though he was still barely able to walk. Thad jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “You tend to Brax and I’ll get the big guy back to the rover.”
Dayna turned her attention to Brax, who was now standing next to her as he looked back at the woman with the purple eyes. “Do you know her?” He turned back to look at Dayna. “She seems to know you—”
“Let’s get that rope off your wrists.” She looked down at his foot—blood was leaking around the hole in his shoe. “The captain will have to take a look at that when we get back to the ship.” She unknotted the restraints and his hands broke free.
He nodded. “Because you have a thing about blood. Which you do.” He looked back at the woman on the ground before looking back into Dayna’s eyes. “Which she knows.” His gaze narrowed a bit. “Is that why the captain really sent me on this mission? Not to get intel? But because of you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” And she didn’t—not really. She hadn’t known anything about the mission the captain had sent him on, only that there had been a mission. It wasn’t as though she was privy to every detail of what he and the captain talked about. Or did.
She tried to ignore the burning in her chest at the thought.
The woman on the ground began to move a bit, and she pulled out her blaster, giving the woman a heavy stun, which Dayna knew would render her unconscious for several hours.
Brax watched everything, finally turning back to look into Dayna’s eyes. “You can’t lie to me. You and I—we might not get along, but I know you.” He glanced over at the woman on the ground. “And I know you know her.”
“I don’t. You say you know me—then you should believe me when I tell you that I don’t.” And she wasn’t lying—not exactly. She didn’t know this woman. She was sure she had never seen her before in her life. But she knew that woman’s eyes. She knew who she belonged to, even if she didn’t know her name.
He shook his head, hobbling over to her side. She put her arm around him, trying to help him as best as she could.
He slid his arm around her waist, using her almost as a human crutch as they tried to get back to the rover. It was only a few minutes before Brax’s hand had slid down to a point that was wholly inappropriate.
“Get your hand off my ass, Brax.” Unlike most times, there wasn’t even a hint of amusement in Dayna’s voice. She usually enjoyed this…this whatever it was they did. She knew he was little more than a man-whore, but she had never cared. There was still something about him that she found all too appealing, as much as it disgusted her at the same time.
But this time, she felt nothing when he grabbed her, and he seemed to sense it, sliding his hand back up to a more appropriate level at her waist.
“It is a fine ass, though, Dayna.” He smiled, and she could hear something different in his voice.
She didn’t respond to him this time. This time there wasn’t going to be any playful banter. She wasn’t even sure if she was going to make it back to the ship without another of the purple-eyed monsters coming out of some dark corner and trying to grab her again. And she couldn’t believe she had let her guard down, even if it had been almost four years since she’d run away. It wasn’t as though she could ever really be safe. It wasn’t as though there was anywhere left for her to run.
BRAX
After everything, he hated the fact that he’d had to be rescued—by Dayna, of all people. He’d had the situation more or less under control before she and the others had arrived.
Still, he’d take any excuse he could to get up close to her without getting slugged. Dayna was a firecracker—and he never knew when she was going to go off. He grinned, enjoying the realization that, on some level, some part of her must care if she was helping him now.
“You should’ve seen me,” he said. “I fought off a stegodrake with my hands bound. You don’t see that every day. I put on a stunning show.”
“I’m sure you did,” she muttered.
“How exactly did you find me?” he asked. “I didn’t exactly leave directions behind.”
She looked away, almost embarrassed. “You can blame me for that.”
“Blame you?”
She gave a single nod. “For the tracer I put on you. I used that new STAMP technology I’ve been working on—”
“Without telling me?” He looked down, patting his body with his free hand. “Where is it? How did you get it on me?”
“That’s not important. The important thing is that it worked, and that we were able to find you.”
His grin widened. “Dayna, sweetheart, if you’d wanted to know where I was at all times you only needed to say so.” He moved his mouth a little closer to her ear. “And if you’d wanted to hide something on my body, you only needed to—”
“Incoming!” yelled Thad from ahead. He’d reached the smal
l rover the team had sent, but his eyes were on the sky behind Dayna and Brax.
Brax twisted his head around. A small ship was landing on the beach right where he’d come ashore, and judging by the way Dayna’s arm tightened on his waist, she recognized it the same way she’d recognized Sarai—or whatever that woman’s real name was.
“We have to go,” she says. “Now.”
He did his best to jog with her toward the rover. His foot burned with the fire of a thousand suns, but he held back his groans.
“Who…who are they?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“I don’t know,” Dayna said.
“Stop…shitting with me.” He threw another glance over his shoulder. “You know exactly what’s going on. And it would help if you…let the rest of us know, too.”
They’d reached the rover. Thad was busy strapping the nearly-unconscious Gregson down, and Dayna practically pushed Brax into the back.
“I’m driving,” she said, jumping over into the driver’s seat. “We need to get out of here fast.”
She didn’t wait for the response of Thad or anyone else. She started the rover and slammed her foot down on the pedal. The tires threw up a wall of sand as she maneuvered the vehicle around.
Brax clung to the sides of the rover, bracing himself against Dayna’s wild driving. His eyes were locked on the small ship. There was a symbol painted on the side, but he couldn’t make it out from here. Movement at the base of the ship suggested that one or more of its occupants had disembarked. He wondered if they’d found Sarai’s unconscious form yet.
Who the hell are these people and what do they want? Why did they take me and then throw me into the Castalian Sea? And how does Dayna come into it?
Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time to ponder those questions. Within moments, the ship was taking off again. Coming right toward them.