“But what do you prefer?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I’m going to go clean my revolver.” I chuckled and then stepped into the elevator. I watched her walk away for a second before the door closed, and then I rubbed my palm over my face.
Fucking shit. What the hell was I going to do?
I found Hegeia, Uma, and Waiola in the hallways on the bottom floor, and I paused my journey to chat with them. They were on cleaning duty, which made them happier than I would have expected, but I suppose it was better than their old life. We only talked for a few minutes, but then they told me they needed to get back to work, and asked if they could see me when we docked at the station. I agreed and then continued to the armory.
“Hey, Lux,” I said to the woman as I entered. She had a datapad in her hand and was checking some of the ammunition boxes.
“Adam,” she replied without looking at me.
“Lux, I was hoping we could develop some sort of mutual respect.” I set my revolver onto the workbench in the corner and began to disassemble it.
“If that is your wish, then I will comply,” she said, but she still didn’t bother to look at me.
“You don’t seem to like me,” I said as I finished pulling the cylinder out of the revolver.
“You are reading too much into the situation,” she said. “I do not really like anyone other than the Prime Valkyrie.”
“So you act like this to the rest of the crew?” I asked.
“Act like how?” She still didn’t look up from her datapad.
“Just cold and distant. I like to be on friendly terms with my crew.”
“We do not need to be friends for us to be on a crew. It is probably better if we are not. It would cloud our judgment.” She set down her datapad and turned to me. “Not that I let anything cloud my judgment, Adam.”
“Good to know,” I said with a sigh. “Are you done in here then? You are dismissed.”
“Yes, and thank you.” She turned without another word and walked out of the armory.
“Fucking bitch,” I hissed a few moments after she’d left the room. At least she could fight and shoot. I guess I didn’t need to be friends with everyone on board as long as they could perform when I needed them.
It only took me a few minutes to clean my revolver, but then I spent some time walking through the armory, inspecting the new weapons, and familiarizing myself with the way Lux had organized it. I remembered to put more revolver ammo in my speed loaders, and then I turned to leave a moment before Madalena walked in.
“Another hour until we are out of hyperdrive, then we will transition to warpdrives. Can you eat again?” She was wearing her tight uniform, but I still had to force my eyes to focus on her face.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “Feels like I could eat another ten plates of food. Changing my form takes a lot out of me.” We had just left each other less than an hour ago, but I was happy to see her again, and I could feel her pleasure as well.
“I’ll ensure you are satisfied,” she said as she gestured for me to follow her out of the armory.
“Your crew doesn’t seem to like me,” I said as we took the elevator up to the second floor.
“They are angry at me,” she said. “I will deal with them.”
“You don’t need to ‘deal’ with them,” I said. “I shouldn’t have said anything. Loyalty and friendship aren’t built from a superior’s orders. It is built with time together in the trenches. You can help me by telling me more about them.”
“I like that approach,” she said. “I will speak of them.”
We returned to the galley, and the beautiful brunette woman told me of her crew while she cooked a pair of steaks to go with the chilled salad and steamed greens. I told her more about Eve, Zea, Paula, and Kasta as well, and the time passed quickly.
As soon as we began our meal, Nikki reported that we were exiting hyperdrive and resuming in warpdrive.
We were almost there.
“I am looking forward to meeting them,” Madalena said after we had begun to eat.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m a bit worried.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. As I said, Eve has powers. She will read your thoughts and know what you think.”
“Similar to the bond that you and I share?” the Prime Valkyrie asked me. We were drinking water now, and she took a sip after she asked.
“No. It is different,” I said. “She can read everyone.”
“Everyone?” Madalena actually looked concerned. “Without an agreement?”
“Yeah,” I said. “How does the submission process work? There was the ceremony, our bloody hands touched, and now I am able to feel your emotions.”
“Bondi,” she answered. “A bond.”
“Huh?”
“It is magic from the gods. The same that allows our armor to work.”
“Hmmm,” I said, and I guessed she must have sensed my skepticism.
“Your Eve has magic, and you accept that.”
“Good point,” I said with a laugh.
“What of Zea?” Madalena asked.
“She’s not going to be happy,” I said, and then I explained the dynamics between the three of us, and how our love blossomed. At first, I hadn’t intended to tell Madalena everything, but as I spoke about Zea and Eve, it all came out in a torrent of emotions.
“I see,” Madalena said afterward, and I could feel her sadness. “I understand more why you are upset about our marriage.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call it that,” I said with a sigh.
“I will speak with Zea. I’m sure once she knows my feelings, she’ll accept me as she has Eve.”
“I think you need to give it some time,” I said quickly. “First, we need to find them, but I will need to tell her about you.”
“What will you tell her?” Madalena asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m more worried about saving them. I’ll worry about that conversation once she is back in my arms.”
“I see,” Madalena said, and her emotions spun between jealousy and sadness.
“Prime Valkyrie, We will exit warpdrive in ten minutes,” Nikki’s voice came across our transponders.
“Adam and I are heading to the bridge. Assemble the crew.” Madalena said as she pressed the button to talk. Then she took her finger off the device, and our eyes met. “Let us go save your friends.”
The beast in my stomach growled in agreement, and we left the kitchen. The trip to the bridge was quick, and we found the crew already positioned in their battle stations. They turned to face us as we walked in, stood, and then saluted. Madalena and I returned their salute, and then Madalena gestured for them to come to the front of the bridge.
“Do you wish to brief them?” Madalena asked me as everyone came to stand between the three pilot’s seats and the five officer chairs.
“Yeah,” I said as I cleared my throat and sat in the captain’s chair. My military instincts took over, and I passed my eyes over the crew. “We are looking for my friends. They were captured on a planet named GUAAY - 23 - c by the Magate Order. We learned on Red Eye - 13 that the slave ships are heading to this station to sell the captured women. We might get here before them, or they might already be there.”
“How many ships will the Magate Order have?” Nikki asked.
“On GUAAY - 23 - c they had over twenty. I don’t know if they will all come to this station. We can’t engage them though, we could risk destroying the vessel that my friends are on.”
“How many of your friends?” Mikhael asked. He genuinely seemed interested, and I hoped it meant I had read him wrong a few hours ago.
“Four,” I answered. “All women. Eve stands a little over my shoulder. She has long black hair, pale skin, and red eyes.”
“Red eyes?” Lux asked.
“Yes,” I answered. “Zea is a hacker. She has short blond hair and half of her scalp was shaved.” I tapped my head. “There are t
attoos there and a connection port. She’s almost as tall as me and skinny.”
The group nodded, and I continued. “Paula and Kasta are twins with long blonde hair and dark blue eyes. They are about the same height as Eve, maybe a bit taller. Any questions about their descriptions?”
They didn’t say anything, so I continued. “We’ll do a trip around the station to scan for Magate Order ships. If we see them docked already, we will need to hurry up and find them in the station. If there are no Magate Order ships docked, we will need to ask around the station to see if they have already left, or if they are expected to arrive soon.”
“What if they have not arrived yet?” Josefinna asked.
“We will wait. When they show, we’ll find my friends.”
“How long will we wait?” Lux asked.
“As long as it takes,” Madalena said, and Lux nodded. “Any more questions for Adam?”
“No, Prime Valkyrie,” they all answered at once.
“Return to your stations,” she said, and the group flowed back to their respective officer’s chairs. Nikki sat back down in the center pilot seat, Mikhael sat to the left of her, where Paula had, and then Madalena moved to sit where Eve normally did.
They all strapped themselves into their chairs, and I did the same.
“Exiting warpdrive in ten seconds,” Nikki said, and I forced myself to inhale a long breath.
“Five seconds.”
“Exiting now.”
The display screen turned into stars, and I saw a massive space station beneath us. It was in the shape of the letter ‘H,’ with docking stations along the exterior and interior lines.
Metropolis Class Station: H-4009876
Manufactured by: Tin Yarta LLC
Branding: Fayfaix Station - 1
Hyperdrive: H-drive. 3,120 hours to one light year.
Warpdrive: No
Foldingdrive: No
Length: 12.5 kilometers
Minimum Crew: 1,800
Estimated population: 300,000
Estimated fighter craft: 650
Estimated drone payload: 2,000
Heavy plasma cannons: 200
Light plasma guns: 300
Laser arrays: 160
“Shit. It’s huge,” I said. Fayfaix was about half the size of Queen’s Hat, and about four times the size of Red Eye - 13. I could see that it had hundreds of ships docked on its perimeter. It looked just like one big harbor, and I felt my stomach drop. A station this size would have a ton of security to keep order.
“Scanning for Magate Order vessels,” Mikhael said as his fingers tapped across the controls.
“Adam, there is a request to communicate from the station,” Madalena said. “They are asking for visual feed.”
“I need a few minutes to complete the scan,” Mikhael said. “There are a lot of ships, and we might need to get the other angle of the station so we can see them all.”
“Nikki, fly around so Mikhael can get a full reading,” I ordered. “Madalena, push the video up. I’ll talk to them.”
Persephone began to fly toward the station, and the bottom portion of our screen displayed a pair of men in cream colored uniforms.
“Greetings, Fayfaix,” I said as I forced a smile to my face.
“Greetings, Persephone,” One of the men said as he typed on his terminal. “What is your business here?” The man had an accent similar to mine, and I wondered if the station was full of ark descendants from the western part of North America or the Pacific Islands.
“Trade. We have a few hundred grams of rhodium.” It was the magic word for stations, and he nodded as his fingers danced across his control terminal.
“Your ship looks of military design, Persephone, but it has no branding.”
“It’s dangerous out there. We have no wish to cause offense.”
“Is rhodium all you are offering to trade?” he asked, but there was no suspicion in his voice.
I thought about my reply for half a moment. I only guessed this was a station that sold slaves because of what the two Magate Order fucks told me. If the station did deal in slaves, they often had a special place for them to dock. Being able to harbor in that area would make it easier to find my friends. However, if the station didn’t actually approve of slavery, I’d risk them telling us we couldn’t dock.
“We are looking to purchase more crew for our ship,” I said as my stomach dropped. It was a risk, but both of the Magate Order men had mentioned this station, and it was more than big enough.
“Purchase?” the man asked, but he didn’t pause his typing. He wasn’t even looking at me. It was like he did this conversation twenty times already today, and he just wanted to get it over with.
“Yeah. I heard of this group named the Magate Order. They apparently make a drop at this station every six months or so. I might be mistaken, and we need other supplies, so if that’s not the case, we’d still like to do business.”
“They are a few days out, but--” the man paused when his partner leaned over and whispered in his ear.
Mikhael turned to me and nodded with a hungry smile as Persephone’s scanner highlighted twenty-two ships in the distance.
Magate Order ships.
“Ahh. Nevermind,” the man said as he finally looked at me. “They just came out of hyperspace. You have good timing. I’ll dock you next to them. You can pick up goods in the harbor, but all bidding is to be made in Fay-cred. You’ll have to exchange your rhodium for it before you buy and register all purchases. I will send you an information packet with our bylaws.”
“Got it, thank you,” I said as I fought against the screaming beast in my stomach.
“Proceed to Harbor 2, dock C. Take heading 245.8 and -45.35,” he instructed.
“Got it,” I said after Nikki nodded and changed Persephone’s course a bit.
“Stay out of trouble, Persephone,” the man said, and then he turned off his communication.
“They are here early,” I gasped as I stared at the cluster of white ships.
“There is an incoming message from one of the Magate Order ships,” Madalena said, and I could feel the excitement radiate from her.
“On screen,” I choked out.
“It is only audio,” she said, “I’ll push it through.”
“Adam?” a voice asked tentatively, and my heart somersaulted.
“Zea?”
“Ahh!” she gasped. “I thought… shit. Adam. I thought I’d never see you again. We all thought we were--”
“I’m here,” I said as I blinked back tears. “Can you turn on the display?”
“Shit, can’t. We made a bit of a mess inside of this ship.”
“A mess?”
“Well, not me really. Eve did. The whole fucking bridge is painted the color of Magate Order guts. You know how she gets when she is angry. One of their bodies broke the camera when she tossed him around like a bouncy ball. Damn, Kitty Boy. I’m so happy to hear your voice. I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too,” I said. “Eve is okay? Can I talk to her? How about Kasta and Paula?”
“I’m here Adam!” A voice shouted, and I recognized the timber as Paula’s. “Eve and Kasta are in the hold trying to calm the other women.”
“You four have control of the ship?” I asked as relief threatened to make me faint.
“Hell Yeah!” Zea laughed, and I could almost picture her face. “We had control of the ship some five minutes after Kasta woke us up. Paula popped open the padlocks on our cages, I broke open the security lock on the hold, and Eve murdered every single fucker on this junker. How did you find us? We’ve been worried about you.”
“You’ve been worried about me?” I asked with surprise.
“Uhh. Yeah. How in the hell were you going to get anything done without us? You can’t even use Persephone’s navigation system. We were going to turn this piece of shit around and go back to GUAAY - 23 - c so we could save your sweet ass.” She laughed again, and I could almost b
elieve that Odin was actually favoring me.
“Hey gang,” Paula said. “The other Magate Order ships are starting to move toward the station. How are we going to get back on Persephone?”
“We can hyperdrive over one system,” I answered quickly. “Then we can use the docking tube to--”
“Nope,” Zea interrupted me. “I’ve told you this thing is a piece of shit, but that’s doing a disservice to shit. The navigation system has exactly three destinations set, and we can’t pick anything else.”
“Can you hack it?” I asked.
“I could with my computer,” she replied sarcastically.
“Ahh fuck,” I said.
“Do you have it? I missed it almost as much as you.”
“Yeah, I’ve got it.”
“Fuck yeah,” Zea sang, and her voice sounded giddy. “I was joking of course. I missed you more than I thought I could miss anyone.”
“We can dock with you right now and I can use the boarding tube to--”
“The Magate Order ships are moving to dock,” Madalena interrupted me. “They might attack if we try to board one of their ships.”
“Uhh. Who was that?” Zea asked.
“I’ve made a few new friends. They helped me get here.” I tried to figure out a plan to get to Zea, Eve, Paula, and Kasta. We were so fucking close to each other, but there was still a fleet of slavers between us.
“Hmmm. That new friend has a sexy voice,” Zea stated jealously.
“We aren’t going to be able to board you,” I told her as I looked toward the docks where Nikki aimed Persephone. “You will need to dock, and then we’ll come get you.”
“There are going to be a bunch of Magate Order ships docking also,” Paula pointed out.
“Yeah. I know,” I replied.
“And we have a bunch of women on board,” Zea stated. “We have to save them also.”
“How many is ‘a bunch’?”
“Forty.”
“Shit,” I muttered as I looked at our destination. “They are putting us at docking station…” I paused and looked at Nikki.
“Dock C in harbor 2,” the pilot called out.
“Can you try to get the dock next to ours?” I asked Zea.
“Uhh. Yeah. I’ll see if I can get there first. Who was that? Sounded like a different woman than the other one.”
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