The Transporter's Favor

by C. M. Simpson

  “Any personnel found outside your cockpit will be neutralized.”

  So they hadn’t bought it.

  “Understood.”

  Hopefully, when they discovered there were no other crew, they’d just think me a little space-crazed from being on my own too long. It had been known to happen.

  And hopefully, they wouldn’t make too much of a mess of Abby checking I had no one else on board.

  More clunks echoed through the hull.

  “If you restored power, I could open the door for you,” I said.

  There was a hiss and a grinding sound behind me.

  “Thank you, Pilot, but there is no need. We can access your ship ourselves.”

  “So, I see,” I muttered, even though I couldn’t see a thing.

  I could hear it, though. The door ground slowly open, and I worried about damage to the servos and the locking mechanism, wondered what Abby would have to say about it, and if I had enough stashed away to cover the damage. How much did a goddamn servo cost, anyway?

  The heavy tread of combat boots sounded in the airlock, and I tensed, bowing my head. There was silence, a hesitation, and then a rush of boots, the sound of partitions being slammed open, the sudden and familiar nudge of a blaster being shoved against my ribs.

  I gasped, and made myself keep steady. I’d survived this far. The weight of my blaster disappeared from its holster, and gloved hands grabbed my wrists and pulled them behind my back, the sharp, metal snap of cuffs following shortly thereafter. I didn’t move, not even when the blaster was removed from my ribs, and I heard it slide back into its holster.

  The firm grip on the back of my neck was unexpected, but, before I could register what it meant, I felt someone fumbling with my hair, and then heard the snick of the jack sliding home. I tried to slide-step away and jerk my head enough to dislodge the jack, but couldn’t move.

  The growl that rumbled out behind me slid over my skin and left cold, hard fear in its wake. I stamped back and down, drove my foot onto the top of a boot, and was pushed forward against the console for my trouble. Another growl rolled through me, more so because the wolf holding me was now pressed hard up against my back.

  “Keep still,” was a command I heard both in my implant and in my ears.

  “Get the fuck out of my head.”

  “Not yet.”

  It was like watching a kid opening gifts on Family Day… and then going on to open everyone else’s, without bothering to hide the fact. It was a whirlwind of sheer info-pulling delight.

  “Hey!”

  My forehead met the console in a quick, sharp jolt. Hard to make myself think of being alone in space, with just the ship for company. Not hard to make myself wish I’d had company for the journey. Difficult, though, to lock down my skull before the rampaging tantrum beast could get into the memories I didn’t want it to have.

  That time my head hit the console a lot harder, and my knees gave way. Too late, though; I’d activated the security suite Rohan had given me for emergencies, after one of our riskier ventures. The wolf stopped.

  “Rampaging tantrum beast?”

  Oh.

  Well.

  Whatever.

  “Ifthe. Bootuh. Fits.”

  And he laughed.

  “You are fortunate this part of our duty is on contract,” he said, and unjacked. “We get to turn you over to the planetary authorities so they can see why you spent so much time just sitting out here.”

  He didn’t add that the wolves had probably picked us up, while they were hijacking the Shady Marie, but that was my guess. System security had nothing to do with it. I’d be interested to see if I even made it to the orbital… and as for the ship…

  I stayed exactly where I was. There was no point in giving him an excuse to beat me up; Tens wasn’t on stand-by to haul me out, and Mack didn’t have a regen tank handy. I figured Doc would also be pissed if I got myself hurt when he wasn’t around to patch me up, and, as for Abby…

  Man, I hoped she was all right. What had these guys hit her with, anyway?

  The grip on my neck didn’t ease, and I was pulled off the console, and dragged out of the cockpit. I baulked as we hit the door.

  “I want to stay with my ship.”

  His grip tightened.

  “Not gonna happen.”

  I drove my foot back, going for a knee.

  Well, Hell! Since when did security jocks wear hardened battle armor?

  His breath ran hot across my shoulder and throat.

  “Since we get to deal with assholes like you.”

  I tried to duck my head, pull my neck out of his grip, but his hand tightened, and he shook me.

  “You’ll be reunited.”

  We would?

  “You will.”

  I almost relaxed, and then I registered the last two questions he’d answered had been unspoken, and tensed. He ignored the reaction.

  “Come,” and the grip on my neck was gone, as was the weight of his presence at my back.

  Come? He had to be freaking kidding me! I took two steps back into the cockpit, and spun a kick at the control panel for the door. The kick landed, and nothing happened. I backed up.

  “Come,” he said, and I shook my head, moving back to sit on the control console and tuck my feet up on the pilot’s seat.

  “I want to stay with the ship.”

  The wolf returned, resting a forearm on the doorframe as he looked in.

  “That is no longer an option,” he said, as if it ever had been.

  “It’s my home.”

  “Not anymore.”

  Well, that sounded ominous. I tucked my feet up onto the console and pushed myself against the glassteel of the cockpit. He sighed, came off the door frame, and crossed the cockpit in a single stride.

  “Have it your way.”

  6—In Werewolf Hands

  I ducked the fist that came at my face, but not the hand it switched to. Being thrown over the wolf’s shoulder gave me an interesting view of his ass—and the surprising fact that the armor had no tail. I was disappointed. I’d wanted to see a tail.

  He was laughing as he ducked out of the cockpit and crossed over to the airlock. The airlock… well, since he was going through it with me, I guessed that was okay. I was relieved to see we were the last, that no other wolves remained in the cabin, but not happy with the mess they’d left—and they called themselves professional.

  “Professional rampaging tantrum beasts,” the wolf muttered, as we crossed the short extension connecting the two ships.

  It was no surprise that the wolf ship looked like I’d expect one of their drop-ships to have looked on the inside. Security patrol, my ass!

  “We wondered.”

  Mild nausea crept through me.

  Wondered what?

  “If you were the missing crewman from the Marie, the one they call Cutter. Our contract is for all the crew.”

  Well, fuck.

  That got me two firm pats on the rump.

  “I don’t think so.”

  I rolled my eyes, and gave a groan of disgust, and then let myself hang, my forehead pressed against his back. What-thefuck-ever.

  “The contract calls for delivery unharmed. After that, your fate will be negotiated.”

  “The ship?”

  “It is an unexpected bonus, but as you were flying it, we need to ascertain its connection to the contract.”

  I sighed.

  “I can walk, you know.”

  “You forfeited the option.”

  I sighed again.

  “Why are you in my head?”

  “Were you going to tell us who you were?”

  Not in a lifetime of nopes.

  “See?”

  “Who are you, anyway?”

  That earned me another pat on the ass and I wished he’d stop.

  “I like you, Cutter,” he said, “but you’re still going into storage
.”

  I was? Well, f… damn.

  And he sniggered, before turning, and dumping me into a seat. It was the first time I’d realized we weren’t alone. That made sense. I guess if I hadn’t had my face pressed against the back of his armor, I’d have realized that sooner.

  The airlock cycled closed behind us, but I didn’t hear the sound of the docking tube letting go or withdrawing, although I heard several more clunks, and then the shuttle began to move. From the way it felt sluggish and heavy, even though I was riding as a passenger and not at the controls, I guessed we had Abby strapped to the side, and wondered how that worked.

  When no answer was forthcoming, I stared at the wolfish faces sitting opposite me, and found them staring intently back. If my hands hadn’t been cuffed behind my back, I’d have been tempted to try and give them the finger.

  “And then you’d have had a hard time next time you tried to pull the trigger.”

  “So, I will get to hold a blaster, again!”

  And he patted my thigh.

  Dammit!

  I shot him the filthiest look I could manage, wishing my hands were free so I could try kicking his ass. The look caused more than one wolfish face to crack a grin. Pricked ears and interested looks followed, all turned to the wolf that had brought me in. He left his hand on my thigh.

  “As entertaining as that would be, I cannot. There is only one regen tank on board the Shady Marie, and it is currently occupied.”

  Sadness washed through me.

  Rohan.

  “He acquitted himself well… but a human, even one as well-trained as that, cannot take on a shadow stalker and hope to win.”

  I wondered what the fuck a shadow stalker was, and then decided I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. People said humans couldn’t take on an arach warrior, either, but I’d beaten more than a few.

  “Barehanded?”

  Now that he mentioned it….

  “I didn’t think so.”

  I decided not to argue with that. The one time I’d been close to barehanded hadn’t ended too well. If it hadn’t been for the chair and some well-placed Blazer solids, I wouldn’t have made it off K’Kavor. That regen tank had seemed like a second home by the time I’d come out of it again.

  “A chair?” The damn wolf sounded amused. “Show me more.”

  I glanced up at him.

  “Don’t make me come in there and find it for myself.”

  Like you could, I thought.

  “I could get Lomis to take down what was put up…”

  That suggestion came with such utter confidence that Lomis could take down anything I had up, that I decided not to chance it. Maybe, maybe they’d leave the rest of my head alone, if…

  It was a fool’s dream, and I knew it. I wondered what they’d done to Mack and Tens, given the way he’d said ‘the missing crewman’. That made me sound like the last, the missing piece. Well, at least Abs would fit inside the Shady’s hangar bay.

  “Abs?” and that sounded far too interested.

  I hit him with the replay of the time I’d goaded an arach assassin into a fight, while holding nothing more than a chair, managed to cut it as the spider fell. I was not happy to feel his hand shift from my leg to around my shoulders.

  “I don’t think we’re letting you out of those cuffs, ever.”

  There was a low chorus of growls from the wolves opposite, and I looked across at them. They were all staring at me, and not as an object of amusement.

  “You shared that?”

  “It is best for my lupar not to underestimate their prey.”

  Oh. I swept my gaze along the row of wolf soldiers, and really wished I could give them the finger.

  “No, you really don’t—and if you do not watch your manners, I will gag you, as well.”

  I settled for hunching in my seat and glaring at the wolf opposite. His lips rippled in a snarl, and I growled back, and that was all it took. If my escort hadn’t grabbed me and hurled me into the floor, I’m not sure I’d have had a throat left. As it was, I ended up with what felt like three hundred kilos of wolf kneeling on my back snapping at its pack mates.

  My head was ringing, and I’m pretty sure I’d discovered what ‘flat on my face’ meant in reality. I lay there while the wolves argued above me, and focused on breathing past a bloody nose. I wasn’t going to win any beauty contests for a while.

  Above me, my escort made his point, and the wolves resumed their seats.

  “You need an education in lupar culture,” he said, hauling me off the floor, and putting me back in my seat. “How you have managed to survive this far is beyond me.”

  And then he caught sight of my face.

  “Hold still,” and he straightened my nose, keeping my head tilted forward. “Medic.”

  My head was still ringing, and the crack as he’d realigned my nose hadn’t helped.

  First aid for a bloody nose hadn’t changed in millennia, except for the spray-dose of nanites—that was new. I wondered if they knew the difference between lupar and human, or if I’d end up with a snout.

  “No.”

  I coughed and spat blood, relieved that I still had my teeth, wishing the light armor Abby had provided, had more padding. It was more of a relief when I could breathe without risking a throatful of blood.

  “Thank you,” I said, with a nod at the medic.

  He flicked his ears to the side, and lifted his lip in a brief grin. I took that as a ‘you’re welcome’, and wished I could put my elbows on my knees and rest my head in my hands. Once he’d left, I pushed back against the seat easing the cramped feeling in my chest, and trying to avoid looking into the faces of the wolf squad opposite. They didn’t look very happy, and I didn’t want hit the deck, again.

  My escort growled out a string of wolfish syllables, and one of the troopers opposite got up. I was tempted to watch where he went, but didn’t. Instead I closed my eyes; if I didn’t stare at any of them, then maybe I’d stay out of trouble.

  “It would be a start.”

  Yeah. Thanks for that. Just when I got a break from Mack being in my head…

  “Where do you think we got the idea?”

  Which begged the question…

  “How did you know it was me?”

  “Hold still.”

  I opened my eyes, as he wrapped his arm back around my shoulders and held me still. The wolf that had walked away, turned back to his seat, and my escort lifted a cloth to my face. I drew back, and his grip tightened, the cloth halting.

  “Your face is covered in blood. I’m going to clean you up.”

  Why he should care was beyond me.

  “I either wipe it off, or one of us is going to lick it clean.”

  Well, since he put it that way. I froze.

  “Fine.”

  It was embarrassing to have my face wiped like a child, and my nose still hurt, nanites or no. I hissed in one pained breath, glad when the intercom broke the quiet.

  “Stand-by for docking.”

  The grip across my shoulders tightened, and the cloth came in for another swipe. I closed my eyes and waited for it to be done.

  “You still haven’t answered my question.”

  “How did we know?”

  I nodded.

  “Mack was tracing your implant, but he knew whoever had snatched you had to have come through Lichcomb’s. He was heading for Dasojin’s Lichcomb’s HQ when we took him.”

  Dasojin’s… Lichcomb’s H.Q.

  I leant back against the bulkhead.

  Oh, shoot me now.

  “If you wish.”

  I started to move away, but his hold was too strong, and I froze as he put the muzzle of his blaster against my temple.

  I hadn’t meant it.

  “I know, but you are going to answer me this, or Mack is going to be short one crewman. You are not an essential part of the manifest.”

  “I thoug
ht you needed all the Shady’s crew.”

  “I have some leeway.”

  He did? Well that wasn’t what I needed to hear.

  He bent his elbow, took a grip in my hair and bent his forehead against mine.

  “So, your ship. Is she Dasojin’s?”

  I thought about lying. I really did, but I knew Abby would have understood, also knew I’d be no help to her dead, and that she wouldn’t appreciate me ducking out of the favor I owed her. And Mack…

  Well, fuck.

  “Yes.”

  The blaster muzzle left my temple, and I remembered how to breathe. His forehead stayed pressed against mine, though, and I opened my eyes, catching the yellow gleam that was all lupine as I met his gaze. His grip tightened, and he growled. I closed my eyes.

  What was it with these guys and meeting their gaze, anyway?

  “It is a challenge.”

  Well, fuck yeah, it was. I opened my eyes, just as he pulled my head back and settled his jaws over my throat. The next growl vibrated through skin and flesh and blood, and I whimpered.

  “Do you yield?” echoed through my head, and I felt those jaws tighten.

  “Yes?”

  The pressure did not ease, and I realized it was an all or nothing question.

  “All right! For now, yes!”

  And he let go, letting his arm settle back over my shoulders as he sat beside me.

  What the fuck had that been all about? I thought, turning my head to look up at him.

  He slid me a sideways glance, his lips lifting in an almost smile.

  “All my lupar swear their allegiance that way.”

  I’d just gotten suckered by a wolf tradition? Well, great. But what had I just agreed to? I looked up at him, letting my gaze skitter across his eyes, before choosing a point a little past him.

  “What did I just swear to?”

  “You?” and his lips lifted into a full grin. “You just agreed to not try to escape while in my custody, to do what I tell you, and that your life is forfeit to me, if you break your word.”

  I. I just what?

  He brought his muzzle close to my ear.

  “Why? Do you wish you hadn’t?”

  I didn’t know what to wish. I felt like my life had just taken a very unexpected turn, and I didn’t want to make the same mistake I’d made on an arach ship, when I’d refused the offer of protection by refusing a meal.