by Stella Cassy
“This is Captain Lehar—”
“Captain Enarsleih.” I cut him off before he could contradict me. “I veered off course. I need assistance.” The Imkoye’s wand dug into the middle of my back.
Lehar’s growl brought on a round of muffled snickers from every side of me. “So you have gotten yourself lost, too?” All the disgust I had lived with since my decision was contained in his words. “Your video is out.”
“Yes,” I said. “The communication system has been compromised.” The codename had no effect. What could I say to signal my true situation? “Tell my –
family, my mate, I am well in case they have noticed my absence.” The captain thumped my knuckles with her stick. In a micron, I could have her neck between my hands.
Another snort was Lehar’s immediate response. It was not feigned. Why would Lehar Hielsrane, second in command of the Hielsrane Empire, know that I lost my family, that I was alone in this verse, without even a sibling?
I glanced back at the Nadegvum by the door. One was missing. Six against one— slightly better odds.
My gods-given weapons were my only defense. I unfurled my caudal as much as I could without drawing the Nadegvum’s sharp eyes to it. I tensed my wings.
“Enemy on board. Status: Hostage. Last known coordinates .0987.” I shouted louder than I had ever remembered. As close to simultaneous as was possible, I brought my arms up and over the tiny captain, lifting her off her feet. I flicked my caudal in the direction of the door and snapped my wings open to full capacity while I head-butted the Imkoye, who was momentarily stunned.
The captain writhed, kicked, and gnawed at my arm. With her hands pinned to her side, she could do little else. If her tiny teeth could not pierce fabric, then there was little danger that her teeth were strong enough to break through Drakon scales.
I spun around and flapped my wings so hard I was airborne. Another round of screams, scuffles, and groans came from all sides.
I dropped to the floor and snatched up a discarded blaster, which I opened on the Imkoye.
The captain banged her head against my chest.
A circle of fire hit my shoulder and jolted down my right side. My arms loosened enough that the captain managed to squirm down to the floor. The Imkoye shot to her side and grabbed her arm. I lunged for her and caught her foot. She cracked her boot into my face, then tore into the corridor. I ran after her.
A wave of her shiny black hair whipped around the corner. I almost had you, Esmerelda Black.
I turned around and pointed my weapon into the bridge. At least I had leverage now. I might resolve this before Captain Lehar sent help.
“Authority of Captain Moddoc Hielsrane, lock down bridge.” That should keep those two out of my way. I knew what to do to slow down the captain and the rest of her cadre still lurking on my ship.
9
Esmerelda
Hielsrane. I gripped my blaster and peeked back around the corner. The spade-shaped tip of Moddoc Hielsrane’s tail snapped into the hall. It bobbed in and out of the hallway. How in the hells of the omniverse, was I going to get past him to help the others? With Oyna down, I couldn’t. My only recourse was to create a diversion long enough for them to subdue the giant. They had better take advantage of it.
I scooted back to Oyna, then dragged her by her tiny ankles further up the hall.
“We have an actual Hielsrane, not just one of their ships, and not just a random Drakon like last time, Oyna.” I brushed her downy hair from her forehead while she blinked and shook her head.
“What...” she asked while gulping for air.
“Can you get up now?” I peered down at the side of her face that was still cinnamon. The other was a marbled beet color.
“Need to... acclimate.” She unclipped her emergency air tube and drew in a deep shuddering breath. “Should have worn a mask.”
“Me too.” I took in a surprisingly unrestricted lungful of air.
“I can help them... hold them off...while you get to ship.” Wheezing, she scrabbled to her feet and wobbled down the hall.
“No,” I said. “I’m in better shape. You were thrown into the wall. I only stumbled. Go, he can’t undock without ripping this ship apart.”
She ran, then took flight, wavering. “Wrigo,” I whispered with my wrist close to my mouth. “Where are you?”
“Captain, I’m back on the ship. Uedox and Dorue should be close to you.” Wrigo’s voice was as clear as if I were standing beside him on the bridge.
“Make sure the docking bay doors remain open in case the others manage to escape.”
“It will be done immediately,” he said as calmly as if we were conducting our monthly drills.
“Oyna, let me know when you’re clear,” I said.
“Stepping through now,” came her breathy reply a minute later.
I unsnapped a tranq gun from my belt and dashed back to the corner, hurling the weapon down the hall.
The hallway plunged into darkness just as I lowered my weapon. Footfall thundered toward me, as a growl rung through the air, rattling my teeth.
Without waiting for my eyes to adjust, I flailed my hands in front of me like a bat without moonlight. The ship’s layout scattered in my mind as I scurried up the hall in the direction Oyna flew.
The rest of the team would have to hold out until we subdued the Drakon again. We had been too complacent after procuring him so easily.
I squinted in the pitch-black tunnel, a darkness I had only encountered spelunking for gems on Quaefoi. I waved my hands and moved left until my shoulder met the wall. I felt for the emergency button on my belt but didn’t press it. Not yet. I might as well stop and wave a white flag and hope for the best.
A blast of warm air slapped my back. I stepped my pace up to a jog I hoped I wasn’t too loud.
Was he breathing fire back there? Hells, my imagination was getting carried away. If he could cremate me on the spot, he would have done that a long time ago.
The silver ogre was close. If he hurt my crew, I was going to remove every one of those pretty scales one by one with a nail file. I tapped the button on the side of my comms device. The tiny light beamed a hair’s line of vision. If I could just make it to the door.
Sweat dripped into my eyes, stinging them. The shadowy hallways blurred. I switched off the light. I kept moving forward, leading the way with my hands flailing in front of me.
“Esmerelda Black!”
My blaster clattered to the floor. I dropped to my knees and patted around. It was my only weapon.
At last, my fingers grazed the handle. I hopped to my feet and ran flat out. I couldn’t be far from the door. I reached a corner. Did we turn left or right? I moved left. This ship wasn’t big enough to get lost in for long. Except in the dark.
I flashed my light on briefly, before deciding to keep it on, he already knew I was up here, after all. I made another left, followed by a right that seemed familiar. A thin line of orange appeared in front of me. I raced toward the door. The lighted panel was red, but I banged a fist on the manual release. Before it was even a quarter of the way open, I squeezed my body through the opening and burst into the cargo bay.
I couldn’t help it. I whipped around.
An eight-foot Drakon with his wings extended partway stood in the doorway like a white fallen angel, waiting to take me back to hell with him. In one hand he held a taser rod—mine, I was sure—in the other, a blaster.
He bowed his head, arched his lithe, muscular body, and lunged forward, mouth wide open. I backed away, aimed my weapon with a shaky hand, and shielded my face with my empty hand. A stream of hot air dried the sweat right off my face and mussed up hair. Not the fire I expected. I fired my blaster again, then spun around and sprinted toward the elevator.
Wrigo was a quarter of the way down the elevator. Too slow. “Go back!” I spoke into my comms device and veered right.
From the corner of my eye, someone streaked from one side of the cargo bay to the othe
r. A blur of brown about three feet tall. Puff. I sprayed a round in the Drakon’s direction.
A quick look over my shoulder confirmed my fears. The little fur ball froze, his head ping-ponging from Moddoc to me.
“Hide, go, find Enziji!” He didn’t respond. “Puff! Over here.” I took out my last packet of moolai floss from my emergency pouch at the back of my belt. I waved the neon pink foil furiously.
“Get over here, now. Run!”
It toddled toward me as if we were playing a game. Moddoc Hielsrane took that moment to start shooting. I met the soot black puff halfway and bear hugged it off the floor. I was about fifteen pounds over the weight limit if I flew. I’d done it before but not with my wings needing a maintenance check from Lognx. Now I had to take the elevator.
“Why do you smell like my starberry bath foam, you sneaky little runt?”
The Hielsrane yelled what I sounded like, “Almorday.” A battle cry? The tranq gun must have addled him. Good. He shot another haphazard round at me that I easily dodged. I returned fire and he took to his wings and flew straight up, barreling down the middle of the cargo bay.
“Send the elevator back down,” I yelled into my comms device and then squatted and took hold of the small, fluffy creature by its shoulders. “Get on the elevator and ride it up like you did before, then go to Oyna, you hear me?” Its head swung from my face to the elevator, before it sprinted toward safety.
What felt like an auger of zarkenite slammed into my shoulder. Pain drilled through muscle straight to bone. Clutching my numb arm, I buckled to my knees.
I grit my teeth, stood and squeezed a round off in the Drakon’s direction not caring if I hit him or not.
“Follow the leader, fucker,” I screamed. Goliath wasn’t unbeatable and neither was Moddoc Hielsrane.
I yanked on my wing release and my wings ballooned. I pushed off with my right foot and flew straight up with my eyes glued to the landing platform above the cargo bay.
No matter what I hear or feel, no looking back.
I thudded down onto the platform. Wrigo pulled me through. I couldn’t believe I made it without him clipping me.
Wrigo pushed a long-range blaster into my hand and we whirled around. Without speaking, we aimed our weapons down and fired at Moddoc’s silvery back. Where was he going?
At the sound of the twin blasts, he looked over his shoulder but kept going until he was back through the docking bay doors leading to his ship.
“Why did he give up?” I asked, drawing in a shuddering breath.
“He may need medical assistance. One of my shots hit him.”
Enziji raced from the back of the bay toward the docking bay doors, but they were already half closed. Just before they shut, a small brown arm clutching a pink wrapper stuck out from behind Moddoc’s wing. I could have sworn there was a smirk on the Drakon’s silvery face.
Wrigo and I gaped at the closed doors.
“He took the young one...” The smooth gray skin on Wrigo’s forehead wrinkled while he and I tried to puzzle out what he wanted with Puff.
“He didn’t try to hurt him. He could just be taking as many hostages as possible,” I said. “Or its as valuable as we thought.”
“Possibly.” Wrigo angled his head my way.
“What?” I asked. “I should have waited until he got on the elevator, but we’ll get him and the others back.”
“The young one did get on the elevator, but the Drakon snatched him before the doors closed. Oyna will be disappointed.” Devastated, his tone suggested.
“Don’t tell her.” I rubbed my achy arm.
On the way to the bridge, he said, “You need medical assistance.”
“Later,” I said. “Did the twins make it out of there?”
He nodded. “We will prevail.”
“Good. Only two to rescue. We need to strategize about how we’re going to rescue them.”
Oyna stepped into the hallway before we could get onto the bridge.
“He has two of ours,” I said to her. “Round up an extraction crew. Take Enziji, Uedox and Dorue—”
“Who did he take?” She went to her station and sat down.
“Jaegly.”
“Captain Esmerelda, the young one—”
“I found out what the little minion is. It’s an Almorday. That’s what Moddoc called it. When this is all over, we —”
“Did you see him on your way up?” she asked
I blew out a breath. “The Drakon got ‘em.”
“No...” Oyna breathed, shaking her head. “Why?” She spun around and banged away at her console.
I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go into the war room and formulate a plan for getting our people and Moddoc Hielsrane in his cell before his rescue ship gets here.”
The interlink comm beeped, and a guttural voice barked an untranslated sentence, then the automatic translator kicked in and spat out, “You have intercepted and detained a Drakon Hielsrane ship. You are commanded to release it immediately.”
“This is Captain Black and if you want your ship back you will —”
“And this is Captain Tarion Hielsrane, commander of the Hielsrane Operation. If you refuse, we will destroy your ships one by one. Release Moddoc Hielsrane now!”
“Tarion Hielsrane...” Oyna whispered.
We all exchanged glances.
My enigmatic fire breather was no insignificant Drakon or Hielsrane. He was important enough that their top commander had come for him. They must have a special relationship.
“It’s a bluff,” I said.
“We should compromise.” Wrigo drummed his fingers on the console.
“Negotiate for the release of the hostages,” Oyna said.
“I’m keeping his cargo,” I said. I opened the interlink. “I’ll tell you what, Captain Tarion. You can have him back, but not the ship. From what I’ve heard of you Hielsrane, you’d never surrender your loot and there’s no way we—”
An alarm blared across the bridge. Critical hit sustained flashed in red on the center battle screen with a list of statistics rarely displayed.
“One of our craft has been destroyed!” Wrigo’s voice contained a level of disbelief I had never heard from him. His eyes scanned the screen multiple times. “It’s… it’s Lognx. He was piloting that vessel.”
“And five crew members,” Oyna’s cold tone snapped me out of my daze.
Tarion Hielsrane’s voice thundered over the communication channel. “Surrender, Captain Black, or we will destroy another ship, and then another. How many I destroy will depend on how long it takes you to surrender.”
We had been in tougher positions than this. There was always an opportunity for escape, but not if our entire crew was dead. We were in this predicament because I didn’t listen to Wrigo and Oyna to begin with. Five dead, three captured.
“Captain Black!”
“I surrender,” I whispered, the words venomous. Shaking, I dropped into my seat.
10
Moddoc
Esmerelda stood between Dashel and I with her hands clasped in front of her. She had not spoken since she and her crew were apprehended. She refused to meet my gaze, no matter how long I stared.
The female commanders, mates of Dashel and Lehar, marched onto the bridge. One was the color of summer nectar and the other the color of winter blossoms. It had been a long time since I had looked on a human in the flesh. These females seemed to be of the same species as Captain Esmerelda Black. One of the captain’s parents had to be human.
Esmerelda’s head popped up. Her lower lip quivered, and bewilderment flitted on her face as she took a step back. Her head swiveled from Lara to Natalie as if she had never seen another human female. That was unlikely given the size and diversity of her fleet, though small. They had traversed more of this universe than I had. Although she was a little taller than the other females, she seemed almost fragile.
I stepped behind her and put my hands on her shoulders. She did not pull aw
ay as I expected but leaned back against me. “I’ll take her to the cargo hold,” I said.
“We have her.” Natalie grabbed her by the elbow.
Blank-faced, Esmerelda shook her hand off. “I don’t need help walking, sister.”
Natalie snorted and put her face a nose’s length from Esmerelda.
The muscles in Esmerelda’s shoulders knotted under my fingers. My thumb automatically circled the tight areas. She twisted and glared at my right hand.
I stilled. She had abducted and tried to ransom me. I could not forget that. My nose still tingled from her kick.
“Esmerelda,” I snapped.
Her head tilted up and her usual smirk returned.
Captain Esmerelda Black is a Hielsrane adversary—my enemy.
I pushed her forward. “Take her to the holding cage. Bind her arms and legs and use the ceiling restraint.” She would face the same treatment that I endured under her care.
Natalie clamped on leg cuffs while Lara secured her arms.
“Don’t worry.” Lara curiously tugged on one of Esmerelda’s multicolored strands of hair and ran a finger across her back. “Wings...interesting. Our little cosplayer isn’t going anywhere, are you, Essie?”
“Captain Esmerelda Black.”
The human women flanked her, interlocking each of her arms with their own. Lara and Natalie aimed their tasers aimed at her head and midsection with their free hands. “Walk,” Natalie commanded.
Esmerelda twisted around and shot a dirty look my way as if I were personally responsible for destroying her ship.
Dashel shook his head slowly as they disappeared into the corridor. “She is the first human I have ever encountered to command a fleet of this size.” His voice contained a hint of awe I might have shared if forty percent of my body weren’t recovering from injuries inflicted by her and her bandits. “The cargo holds of her fleet are near capacity with premium goods. Getting rid of unwanted cargo has been too easy with the Pax Alliance. Now that they have declared war on Thirren, we will have to find other traders.”