Ar'Tok: Book Ten in the Galaxy Gladiators Alien Abduction Romance Series

by Alana Khan

  In my experience, the fewer words in a comm, the more off-the-books the task. And the more money.

  I’ll comm in two hoaras~~O, I respond. No one knows dad died. I’ve been operating as him for the last four years. If they knew I was a young human female, they would have cut my fees by 95%.

  “Something important?” he asks.

  “Job offer. I need to comm him back in two hours. Should we have breakfast?”

  We agree to meet outside his door after we take showers and dress. Fifteen minutes later, we’re walking to the dining room together. With each step I take, my anxiety rises. When I hear the rambunctious noise of a room full of happy people, my panic goes through the ceiling.

  As my steps slow, Ar’Tok stops and turns to me. “Too many people?” he asks. “It was hard for me when I first came aboard, too. Want me to get us food? We’ll eat in my cabin?”

  His question nudges me toward sanity. “No. I’m going to learn how to handle this.” I square my shoulders. “Have any tricks for me?”

  “I always sit at the farthest table, my back to the wall. No one joins me. That works for me.”

  I can’t control my frown in response to his answer. My shoulders slump just thinking about him sitting alone in a room full of people.

  After taking a deep breath, I square my shoulders and march into the room. Maddie, bless her, calls to us in that singsong way she speaks. “Some kind of fowl eggs from Aeon II, meat patties of unknown origin grilled to perfection, and home-baked bread,” she announces as she piles our plates high with steaming food.

  I pick the table in the middle of the hubbub that has only two empty seats and plop my ass down. This is probably as hard on Ar’Tok as it is on me, but I’m not going to let my fear control me.

  After quick introductions, Brianna asks, “What do you think of our ship?”

  I think she’s the mate of the two pilots. They’re the silver and gold twins.

  “Da bomb,” I say with a wide smile. Yes! I’m doing this. I’m going to fit in.

  She smiles in return, but it’s kind of an odd expression, like it’s pasted on.

  “We were so worried about you,” Anya, Captain Zar’s mate, says, concern softening her expression. “It must have been a nightmare watching your oxygen meter numbers falling.”

  “So true,” I say, “it was wicked bad.”

  Even though we’re discussing my near-death experience, both women seem to be stifling laughter.

  I can’t control my scowl. Are they downplaying my serious brush with death?

  “Sorry,” Anya says. “I just haven’t heard that expression for years.”

  “Which expression?” I ask.

  Anya replies, “Wicked bad,” as Brianna says, “Da bomb.”

  “You’re from Earth, right?” I ask. “I grew up trilingual. Mom taught me those expressions,” I say, trying not to sound defensive.

  They both laugh. Anya reaches across the table and affectionately grabs my hand. “Your mom was abducted what, twenty years ago?” she asks.

  “Twenty-two.”

  “Those are slang expressions. Some words stand the test of time, others come and go. Slang has a habit of popping up overnight and disappearing just as quickly. You’re using twenty-year-old slang. I love it,” she says, a wide smile stretching her cheeks.

  She stands and loudly announces to the whole room. “I officially declare this Earth-slang month. The older the better. Totally acceptable words are: sweet, mega . . .”

  “Peace out,” one of the other women says.

  “Off the chain.”

  “Far out.”

  I double-check, these women are not laughing at me, they’re bringing me into their fold. I feel wayy accepted.

  “Wayy,” one of them says. Perfect timing.

  “You go, girl.”

  “As if!”

  Every woman in the room has to add a few words to our new lexicon. Everyone is smiling. I feel welcomed.

  I stand and say, “This is totally off the chain. Being with so many happy people makes me feel like I’ve taken a chill pill. You all are officially my homies.”

  “I’ll send out a comm to everyone,” Anya announces, “it will be a copious list of all the best Earth slang of the last five decades.”

  Wow. I never thought I could feel so chillaxed my first full day on the Fool’s Errand.

  I look over at Ar’Tok, who doesn’t look chillaxed. In fact, his face is tight. I make a vow right here and now that I’m going to find a way to give this to him. Before I return to the Misfit, I’m going to help him feel accepted here among these nice folks.

  Chapter Four

  Star

  On our way back to our rooms after breakfast, I practically skip in happiness down the metal-lined hallways.

  “I think I’m going to have friends! For the first time! This is so exciting!” I never even dreamed of having friends before. All the females were joking with me. Cool beans!

  And then there’s Ar’Tok—he feels like more than a friend. Last night felt comforting, and emotional, and sexy. I wish I had more of an understanding of how he feels about me. At least I know his cirr like me.

  He’s about to enter his cabin when I say, “It sounded like most of the males were going to the ludus, er . . . gymnasium, to work out. You don’t exercise with them?”

  “I work out alone.”

  That was cryptic. I don’t have time to think about his mood, though, I have to respond to Ergonn, aka E. We’ve done a lot of business over the years. None of the people who employ me ever saw dad or heard his voice, nor have they seen or heard me. We do it all via text-comms.

  I’ve got a job for you, he says when we’re connected.

  What does it entail?

  A vast workaround to keep the Feds away from our operation on a certain planet.

  That’s my specialty. Send the specs via our usual channel. I’ll need to know the deadline if there is one.

  One problem. You’ll need to be on-planet for the install.

  I don’t perform work off-site. You know that.

  Everyone has a price. You must come to the planet. I’ve been told you’ll have to be here for Zero-day.

  Until this moment, no price could lure this little human female from the safety of her satellite. But I’m not on that satellite. And now I’m friends with over a dozen trained gladiators. I can go to his planet if I have an armed contingent with me.

  What planet? I ask.

  Paragon.

  Paragon. Aka the Pleasure Planet. It’s not exactly a den of iniquity. There are dozens of skeezier planets in the galaxy. But anything a person could want—anything—is for sale there. Ergonn wants me to go there to install a firewall that can’t be detected by the Feds? That will be near impossible. Sounds like my kind of job.

  How much? I ask.

  One million.

  Sweet. That’s a lot of credits! What’s doubly exciting is if he offered a million, he’ll probably be willing to pay two. I take a deep breath and plan my strategy. How do I jack up the price?

  No way. I reply, and terminate the comm.

  A moment later, I hurry next door without my wrist-comm. If I have it on me, I’ll be tempted to answer when E calls back. He already pinged me twice. I need to let him cool his jets.

  I’m so excited I keep knocking until Ar’Tok answers his door—sweating and naked.

  “You’ve been working out this whole time?” Crap. His body is like an eye magnet. I try to focus on the ceiling, but I can’t control my urge to steal peeks at all those muscles.

  “Yeah. Is something wrong?”

  Why would he think that? Maybe because I knocked like my hair was on fire or because my cheeks are flaming in embarrassment.

  “Exciting news. I want to run it by you. Could you, uh, put on some clothes?”

  “Sure. I forgot. They warned me that Earth women are offended by nudity. Let me take a shower first.”

  Luckily, he’s quick in the shower.
Ten minutes later, we’re sitting across from each other on his bed, and I’m telling him my exciting news.

  “So, how much do you think I can wangle out of him?” I ask.

  “I have no idea, but whatever you can do, Aerie can get you more. I watched her in action a while back. She’s an amazing negotiator.”

  “I guess we also need to see if Captain Zar will agree to the plan. It would mean going to Paragon, and I’d probably need an armed guard.”

  “Let’s go ask.”

  As we stand to leave and I’m inches away from Ar’Tok, I can’t keep the image of his naked body out of my thoughts. I’m going to finagle a way to sleep with him again tonight. Maybe we can try some of the things we were talking about right before my oxygen ran out.

  When we get to the bridge, I tell the captain about Ergonn’s offer. Zar’s an amazing male. When he looks at me, I can tell he’s thinking of nothing other than what I’m saying. He’s thoughtful and respectful as he weighs my words.

  “So you want to do this?” he asks.

  I nod.

  “You have no doubt you can produce what this male is asking of you?”

  “None.”

  “Did Dr. Drayke relay my offer to you? That you can stay with us? Fly the galaxy with us if you’d like?”

  “Yes.”

  “Have you made that decision yet?”

  “No. It’s only been two days.” I’m surprised he would imagine I could make that big of a decision in such a short amount of time.

  “I only ask because I’m concerned for your safety. Once Ergonn knows you’re a female, your identity will not remain a secret in the underworld. As a single female, alone on a satellite, you might be a target for evildoers. I believe this job will put you at risk.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. He’s right. But all that money could buy me an in-house team of bodyguards for a decade.

  “I’ll take that chance,” I tell him.

  He nods for a while, still thinking. “You’re sure? I don’t want you to make this decision lightly.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Then let’s negotiate this dracking job to the highest amount we can squeeze out of him,” Zar says with a piratical smile.

  I’m told he was born a slave. Somehow in the months since he fought for his freedom, he left that persona in the dust. He’s a born leader.

  “You’re doing all the negotiation by comms?” he asks. “Mind if we invite Aerie to help? She has the skills to get us the highest amount possible.”

  “If she can get us more money, I’m all for it.”

  Aerie and her male, Beast, live on the Devil’s Playground, which has followed us to these coordinates. She joins us, dressed for battle in a gray pinstripe suit that she must have been abducted in. She looks like she’d be more at home in a Wall Street boardroom than an alien spaceship—except for her flip-flops. They’re an awful eggplant color with chartreuse alien eyes all over them. They look like thrift store rejects.

  “You’re eyeing my shoes?” she asks, a smile slashed across her pretty face. “I’m sure you covet them. Who wouldn’t? But don’t even think about it. These are my lucky shoes. When I wear them, I can get your price doubled.”

  She asks me lots of questions so she understands what the job might entail. I throw some jargon at her so she can throw it at Ergonn.

  “Tell him this is a hundred times more complicated than the firewall he requested. What he needs is a virus, a virus that replicates itself and morphs to avoid detection. It involves polymorphic malware. This is high-level stuff. When I’m done with his system, it will evade the most sophisticated pattern-matching algorithms.”

  She gives me an open-eyed look and a shake of her head. “I have to write this down, it’s above my paygrade.” She begins comm’ing back and forth with E, her keystrokes getting faster the longer the negotiations continue.

  “How many people are on board these two vessels?” she demands without looking up from her comm.

  “Exact?” Zar asks. “We just took on those new gladiators from planet Trent, and I—”

  “Never mind. Doesn’t matter,” she says as her fingers fly over the keyboard. “All right.” She breathes a deep sigh and turns to all of us on the bridge: her mate Beast, Captain Zar, Ar’Tok, me, and the silver pilot, Braxxus.

  “I’ve got him up to two and a half million and . . .” she pauses as if she’s waiting for a drumroll, “he’s agreed to an all-expense-paid week of accommodations and entertainment on the planet—excluding alcohol and drugs—for every member of our crew. Or three million without the R & R.”

  When she’s met with a raised eyebrow by everyone on the bridge, she amends, “Rest and Recreation. Zar? It’s your call.”

  I’ve only been here two days, and from what I’ve observed, Zar’s the most serious male on either ship. He’ll never vote for recreation over cold, hard credits.

  “R & R,” he almost roars, looking quite pleased with himself. “Two and a half million will carry us a while, and everyone deserves some fun.”

  At first, his happy face scared the piss out of me, but now that I’m getting used to his sharp canines exposed in a cheerful grin, I can enjoy his good humor.

  Aerie concludes her comm and looks at me. “I’m assuming you can deliver, Star, because I get the feeling Ergonn is no one to play with.”

  “I can deliver. I know I need to because rumor has it he’s huge in a cartel.”

  Zar’s happy face disappears, his muscles pulling tight, eyes widening. Braxxus’s head snaps back.

  “Which cartel?” they both ask at the same time.

  “Reclan.”

  Their relief is palpable. When I raise a questioning eyebrow Zar says, “We have some . . . history with the MarZan cartel. Working for them while running from them would not be a good strategy.”

  “Why does he call you ‘O’?” Aerie asks.

  “My mom gave my dad the name. It stands for Omniscient. All my customers think I’m him.”

  “Wicked,” she says as she winks at me. Even though she wasn’t at the little breakfast slang meeting, word has traveled.

  “Wayy,” I respond.

  “Attention all females and males,” Zar announces over the ship-wide comm. “Both ships will be traveling to planet Paragon. We’ll arrive in two days. Every member of the crew will be awarded an all-expense-paid week partaking of any activities you desire.

  “I recommend you avail yourselves of your computers and decide on your itinerary. My sources tell me the choices are mind-boggling.”

  It looks like his mate, Anya, followed through with her promise to provide everyone with a list of American slang. Go him.

  After he clicks off his comm, he turns it back on. “I forgot to mention this rest and recreation has been provided courtesy of the newest member of our group, Star.”

  Now, when he blasts me with a warm smile, it doesn’t scare me at all.

  “What do we need to do to help you?”

  “I’ll need several computers from the Misfit, then I’ll work around the clock in my cabin building the hack. When we arrive on Paragon, I’m leaving nothing to chance. I’d appreciate a contingent of your finest gladiators for the install. As we’ve already discussed, Ergonn is in the cartel. There’s no telling how he might decide to repay me for all the work I’m doing.”

  Ar’Tok

  When we visited the Misfit yesterday, I sensed Star’s anxiety. I don’t want her to have to return until it’s in perfect running order.

  She tells me what she needs, and I make trips until she tells me I ‘rock’ and can quit shuttling things over.

  I’m lying on my back under one of the tables I carried in from the cargo bay, inserting wires into computers at Star’s direction. This thing is rigged in a tangled web that makes no sense to me, but is putting a wide smile on Star’s pretty face.

  My cock gets hard as I think about the way we shared a bed last night. I’d secretly hoped she’d join me again, but it lo
oks like she’s going to spend the night working.

  “Thanks, Ar’Tok. Why don’t you get some sleep? I’m going to be awhile.”

  It’s been a pleasure watching this little human take charge of this project. She knows exactly what she’s doing, and she’s going to generously provide a present to everyone on board. I’m proud of her.

  “You’re going to need to sleep at some point. Do you want me to clean one of the empty cabins?” I ask. Computer equipment is scattered not only throughout her room, but all over her bed. There’s no way she could find a place to sleep in here.