6. Egara

"You must be pleased to be reunited with your beloved shuttlecraft," Piggy said.

My escort had been silent or outright demeaning the entire time I'd had the misfortune of stumbling across the hateful little man.

Now, after Agatha had been taken from me, he was all chatty and happy smiles.

I wondered if secretly he didn't enjoy the role reversal.

As a captain, even of a pirate ship, I outranked him by some margin as a merchant's lackey, and he knew it.

Right now, he was top dog and he kept a close eye on me as he led me to my shuttlecraft for me to inspect.

I ran my hands over it, taking some comfort in her coolness.

I was touching a part of me that I thought I'd lost all those months ago when I'd been convicted of piracy and sent to the slammer.

I felt a connection to the machine and felt the warm humming in the depth of the vehicle's soul.

We'd shared many adventures together and it was easy to form connections with things when you were under pressure.

That had always been true.

I was closer to my crew than I was to anyone I had ever met.

Anyone except Agatha.

She completed me in ways I had only ever dreamed about, the kind of fated mate they taught us about in schools, the sort of love every couple experienced at some point in their relationship—even if it was short-lived and never stood the test of time.

I already had that with Agatha and I wondered how long our relationship would remain special after she put her life on the line to save mine.

She gave herself to Draw to save me.

She thought I would fly off the handle and fight the ugly piggy creatures.

She was right.

I was going to do just that.

Now I had possession of the shuttlecraft but didn't have the girl of my dreams.

She'd left me in the arms of another creature.

Another male creature.

That little word—"male"—made the situation a thousand times worse.

When I ran my hands over the shuttlecraft, I wasn't running my hands over its smooth surface but Agatha's perfect skin.

She was naked and in my arms.

She trusted me not to harm her.

I could do whatever I wanted with her and she could do the same with me.

It was the kind of connection my people dreamed about.

I had let her leave in the arms of a monster, a creature that was likely touching her the same way I was touching this ship.

The sour truth was, I had to let her go.

There was no choice.

If I didn't, they were only going to kill me or else send up a flare and call the guards and their drones down on us.

This shop of theirs would drill into the ground and the hole it produced would be covered over by the sand, disappearing as if it had never existed.

The reward they would get for me wouldn't be a lot but a little was more than nothing.

I had studied Draw carefully as he left with my girl on his arm, and looked for any sign or signal he secretly passed to his men.

There wasn't one, so far as I could ascertain.

They didn't need to honor their deal.

In fact, I expected they wouldn't.

They could quietly slay me and Draw could have his way with Agatha and, in all likelihood, enslave her.

It would be clean and efficient and the prison would never have to learn the truth.

They would dump me in the desert and cover me with sand.

No one would ever know the truth about what happened to us.

I had no intention of letting that happen.

Any of it.

Least of all the idea of Agatha being used by that sick bastard.

I only hoped I could get free of these guys before creeping up to Draw's room and saving her.

Intense anger bubbled inside me and threatened to spill over.

If I lost control, I would lay this grinning buffoon out and then tear the weapons from the second guard, whose blaster pistols were aimed at my back.

I had to be more careful than that, more diplomatic.

"I want to see her," I said to Piggy.

"You've seen her already," Piggy said. "Get a move on."

"I want to see inside her. She looks fine out here but if I can't see inside, there's no way to know if you've stripped her out and left me with nothing more than an empty tin can."

"She's complete. Now, move—"

I slapped his pointing finger aside and twisted his arm behind his back.

I spun him around so he faced his buddy, who raised their rifles at me.

With Piggy in the way, they lowered their weapons.

I released my grip on Piggy, who checked his arm to ensure I hadn't done any lasting damage.

"Put some ice on it and it'll be fine," I said.

Piggy glared at me and sneered, wiggling his nose back and forth in a gesture that betrayed his fear.

I turned to face the shuttlecraft and marched over to its hatch door.

"Take him inside," Piggy said.

"But sir—" one of the armed guards said.

Piggy turned on him and slapped him across the face.

"I said take him inside! Don't make me repeat myself, fool!"

He lashed out at the guard because he couldn't lash out at me.

I was too big, too strong, and too fast for him to do much with.

Piggy took off, probably to follow my advice and put some ice on his injury.

I tapped my foot impatiently as the guards approached the back hatch door and unlocked it for me.

One guard stood back, his rifle glaring at me, and the underside plasma glowing brightly the way it did when it was being warmed up in preparation of being released.

He was making a mistake holding it ready like that.

It would explode if he wasn't careful.

That was the problem with plasma.

It was powerful but unstable.

If you charged it up for too long it could explode and backfire.

That was why I insisted my crew use phasers rather than the more powerful plasma rifles inside the ship.

When you were in the depths of space, a weapon of such power was a bad idea, especially if your crew suffered from itchy trigger fingers.

Blast a hole in the hull and suddenly you could be sucked into space and die from both intense ice and fire in the same moment.

The second guard pressed a button on a set of controls on the wall and the shuttlecraft's hatch door whirred open.

It thunked into place, making a loud clunk noise as it set down on the metal grating.

I was disappointed to see the locks attached to the shuttlecraft's underside were still in place.

"I need to fly her around," I said. "Check to make sure she's space-worthy."

"No flying," the guard with the itchy trigger finger said.

He glared at me, the light from the plasma container shimmered and cast ugly lines over his face.

He looked like something from a terrible nightmare.

"I need to fly her," I said stubbornly. "Otherwise I'm going to have to check her engine systems. And do you know how long that's going to take me?"

Not long, in truth, but they didn't need to know that.

"You can't fly her," the guard at the controls said. "We don't have the keys to unlock the most valuable items."

It wasn't difficult to guess who did have the required authority.

Draw.

But there was also a chance he had a second who might have access.

Better to be safe than sorry.

"Only Draw has the authority?" I said.

"Yes. Now are you going to check the ship or aren't you?" the guard at the controls said as he joined his buddy with the quivering forefinger.

If I just waited a few more minutes, that rifle would explode and destroy the two guards.

Then I could scoop up the second rifle and disappear through a door in the back that would take me upstairs to Draw's quarters.

A simple, but effective, plan.

"Ease down on the plasma rifle," the second guard said, dashing my hopes. "You know you always overdo it."

The guard eased up on the controls and let the rifle power down.

Ion steam issued from the tip of the rifle.

Damn! It was so close to blowing too!

I stomped inside the shuttlecraft and pressed at the buttons randomly in an effort to appear like I knew what I was doing.

I wasn't the greatest engineer but I was a damn good pilot.

But no matter how many buttons I initiated and switches I flicked, nothing worked.

"Hey," I said. "Where's the power?"

"It's been disengaged," the smarter guard said.

"So re-engage it. I need to check she still works."

"As I said, she works. Have you seen enough?"

He motioned for me to come out of the shuttlecraft but I couldn't do that.

Not yet.

I'd come down to my final and least-preferred option.

I was going to have to fight my way out of there.

But I'd need a weapon to do that.

"All right," I said. "Let me check one last thing."

I approached the front of the cockpit.

Under the pilot's console was a button that worked independently of the main power system.

It was the distress beacon.

As this shuttlecraft belonged to my ship, it would receive the transmission first and be compelled to investigate.

I leaned under the console and said a quick prayer to the God of Small Chances that these industrious creatures hadn't thought to disable the distress beacon too.

I licked my lips nervously and pressed the button.

The light flashed in time to the signal it sent into space.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

But that wasn't all the distress beacon was capable of.

I'd asked my engineer to install a small cubby hole where I could store a single phaser in case I should ever fall into a situation such as this.

I reached for it and said another prayer—he was going to get a bunch of messages in his inbox from me today.

I felt at the tiny hole and slipped my finger inside.

I wiggled it around until I felt something hard, round, and narrow.

I think that's it…

Isn't it?

I yanked it free.

It fell and was going to clatter to the floor, getting the guards' attention for sure.

I adjusted the angle of my arm and caught it.

"What are you doing down there?" the guard with the itchy trigger finger said, edging further into the ship, his gun trained on me.

"I had to check the engines still work," I said. "You won't put the power back on, remember?"

I pushed myself up onto my feet and randomly pressed a few of the other buttons.

Hopefully, they weren't anything too important.

"Yep," I said. "I think I'm pretty much done here."

The guard eyed me suspiciously.

He was too dumb to realize what I'd done.

Too dumb by half.

"Why are you standing like that?" he said.

"Standing like what?" I said, keeping my hand tucked behind my back.

"Like that. With your hand behind your back."

Yikes. Not so dumb after all.

"I'm not standing here with my hand behind my back," I quipped.

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"Where's your buddy?" I said. "The smart one. Let him do the thinking for you, huh? You're not making any sense."

The guard pursed his lips and if I didn't know any better, he had either summoned the memory of the taste of the sour fruit lemdox or he was growing even more suspicious.

Or he was constipated.

One of those for sure.

"Show me your hand," he said.

I extended my hand to him.

"Not that one. The other one."

"Okay."

I tucked my first back behind my back, pretended to drop the phaser into it, and then brought out my other hand that still held the phaser.

"You just switched hands!" he said.

"No I didn't, look," I said.

I opened the hand facing him.

A small dexterous action and the phaser was suddenly in my fingers.

"Oh," the guard said.

Then, belatedly realizing what it was, his eyes bulged in surprise.

I firedat his chest at point-blank range.

Even for a phaser, this distance could be dangerous.

His arms flew to either side and his body jittered on the spot before collapsing to the floor.

His buddy rounded the back of the shuttlecraft, still in the process of tucking himself in from his restroom break, when his eyes fell to his buddy on the floor.

His eyes bulged in realization and he reached for the plasma rifle slung across his shoulders on a strap.

The beauty of the miniature phaser was it wasn't powerful enough to knock you off your feet when you fired it, unlike a plasma rifle.

It saved valuable seconds.

The drawback was it only had a few good shots, and every one counted.

I caught the guard in the foot and he screamed as he went down.

Great, I thought. Now all his buddies are going to come investigate.

This time my target wasn't moving and I shot him in the chest.

The shot hit him cleanly but didn't have half the effect it did when it struck his buddy a moment ago.

Crap.

The phaser was out of juice already.

At the blow, the guard's arms flew out and his rifle struck a fine collection of ancient helmets from some forgotten tribe.

It wouldn't delay him for long.

I dropped to the floor on the other side of his buddy's still-writhing body.

I reached for his plasma rifle and pulled it to me.

Out the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the second guard bringing his rifle around.

Uh-uh.

I yanked his buddy's slumped figure over to use as a shield, confident he wouldn't open fire on his own friend.

I was wrong.

I heard the sharp "zing-pop!" of the plasma rifle, akin to the sound of scraping shards of glass against each other.

The guy on the floor shuddered even harder, spooning me and gyrating with his cock at full mast, attempting to pierce the fabric of my pants.

"Dude!" I snapped.

The guy couldn't help it—as the froth raging from his mouth could attest.

I eased the rifle around the shuddering guy but another blast of enemy fire slammed into the shuttlecraft controls above my head.

"Quit blowing holes in my ship!" I yelled.

I needed to hurry.

Not only was Agatha upstairs with King Pig but the other guards would soon show up.

If they got here before I managed to vamoose…

I'd be locked up in solitary confinement before you could say, "To hell with you, God of Small Chances."

I analyzed my options.

I could either try and fire around the flailing figure on the floor beside me again—and fail—or I could wait for the rifle fire to blast a hole through the shielding body and fire back through the hole—a little gruesome for my taste, and not the most reliable option as I had no idea where the hole would form.

Or, I could get a little creative…

I couldn't aim at the guard out there but I could aim at the stand the traditional helmets had been placed on.

I took aim and fired.

I struck the base of the helmet rack.

It teetered and collapsed forward, atop the guard lying on the floor.

The helmets clattered.

This was it.

One chance to return fire.

Don't get scared now.

I eased up onto one knee and took aim.

The guard tossed a pair of helmets aside and brought his plasma rifle up.

I pulled the trigger.

The bolt exploded out the end of the rifle like liquid magma fired from a rocket launcher.

It crackled through the air as it dived headlong for my target.

It didn't even matter where it hit him.

It singed the top of his head and ignited his cap like hay on a midsummer's day.

I smelled it immediately as the guard's entire ensemble erupted into flames.

He let off a single shot that struck the far wall.

I ran to him and kicked the rifle from his hands.

Not that he was in much mood to fight about then.

He kicked and flailed and fought and patted the flames to put them out.

"Roll, asshole!" I said.

As his attempts weren't working so well, he did as I said and rolled.

He crashed into a nice collection of extinct species' furry hides.

They immediately burst into flames.

Some people could never catch a break.

I reached for his plasma rifle when a bolt of liquid lightning struck the floor in front of my hand.

The other guards drew down on me, racing up the ramp.

They were not good shots.

Their bolts flew everywhere and nowhere.

Say what you like about perfect headshots but it's hard to beat a crowd of frantic shooters.

If they fired a hundred shots, odds were good at least one would find their mark.

I took the hint and left the rifle where it was.

I ran toward the back of the hangar for a door I knew had to be there.

I was relieved to find I was right.

I kicked it open and immediately slammed my back against the wall.

If someone was going to get the drop on me, it would be from here.

I would be facing an enemy on two fronts and chances were they would pin me down.

That would be the smart thing to do.

But were these things smart?

The jury was still out on that one.

They knew what they were doing with their merchant business, that was for sure.

They needed to be good at hiding to survive for this long beneath the prison guards' noses without them knowing they existed.

But that didn't translate to being good at fighting.

When no shots fired from the other side of the door, I knew I at least had a chance of getting out of there.

I eased the door open with the tip of my rifle and peered around it.

The stairs were on the left and the slaves I saw earlier huddled in a corner.

Their chains clinked as they raised their arms over their heads in surrender.

They made low moaning sounds of pure dread.

If they weren't so far gone, so helpless, I might have released them of their chains and encouraged them to fight their captors.

They were too far gone for that.

They were as likely to attack me as they were their enemy.

I hastened up the broad stairs three, four at a time.

They belonged in a palace more than a ramshackle vehicle such as this.

I didn't stop until I reached the top.

I checked over my shoulders and found no one pursuing me.

At least, not yet.

I approached a wide arch of a doorway.

On the other side, I spied a pair of figures.

The bracelets hanging from their thin wrists caught the suns' glare and winked at me.

"Hello?" I said. "Is someone there?"

I aimed at the opening and waited as one of the figures stepped forward.

She was tall with long lithe limbs and lips that were a little too thick for my liking. She was otherwise a stunner.

"Do you have an appointment to see his excellency?" she said.

Her voice was slow and drawling.

Just listening to her made me feel relaxed.

"Uh, no," I said. "I don't have an appointment."

The girl smiled at me amiably and motioned for me to enter.

"Please, take a seat. Draw will be with you in a moment."

Okay, so this wasn't what I was expecting.

A gang of ravenous guards armed to the teeth and willing to fight to the death?

Absolutely.

A battle with the putrid and disgusting Draw who possessed more strength and speed than I ever thought possible?

Sure.

A pair of sweet girls with happy smiley faces?

Not so much.

I eased through the doorway and kept a close eye on my surroundings in case this was part of an ambush.

I saw no danger and slipped inside.

I appraised the open layout and the modern feel to the room.

The other girl had a ribbon of red hair that kept moving even when she didn't move a muscle.

"May I take your jacket?" she said.

"Uh, no," I said. "I'm okay. Thanks."

She reached for the plasma rifle and I gripped it tighter.

She didn't wear an expression of surprise, only interest.

"You can keep it if you want," she said.

"I will, thanks," I said.

The first helper floated over with a tray.

On it was a cold towel and a fresh glass of water.

I waved her away and focused on them both.

"I'm looking for the girl Draw brought here. Her name is Agatha."

"She's with the supreme leader right now," the girl with the flowing hair said. "We suggest you take a seat and he'll be right with you once he's… finished."

It was the first and only time I noticed a hint of hesitancy in her tone.

She blinked as if coming awake and then immediately returned to her glassy-eyed expression.

It was all an act, I realized.

Neither of them wanted to be here anymore than I did.

I stepped toward her, and she took a step back.

"I'm not here to hurt you," I said, raising my hands. "I'm here for the girl. That's all."

"The supreme leader will be available shortly—"

I held both her feminine hands in mine.

She was shaking like a leaf.

"Listen to me," I said. "I know a lot of bad things have happened to you. Help me, and you'll be able to escape."

The girl looked at me.

Her eyes were bloodshot and filling rapidly with tears.

"This… This isn't a test?" she said.

"A test? No. I just need to find Agatha. And I need to find her now."

The girl's attention flickered back and forth between my eyes.

"You care for her."

"With all my heart."

It was what the girl needed to hear.

She smiled and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I haven't heard anything like that in a very long time."

The other girl placed a hand on her arm.

"Jixa, don't," she said. "This won't reflect well on you if you help him."

The friend's words of advice had an effect on Jixa.

I placed a hand on her other arm.

"Please. Help me."

Jixa was torn between the two of us.

I could understand her friend's concern.

I could only imagine the ordeals they'd been put through.

They likely hadn't received a single kernel of kindness in a very long time.

The same way Agatha and the other Prizes hadn't.

Jixa came to a decision.

"Follow me."

Her friend looked on helplessly, holding the tray in her hands as she watched us head down a hallway just off the main entrance.

I held the rifle close to my chest and followed Jixa as she rushed through the hallways.

There were so many doors that fed into other corridors that there was no way I could have found Agatha without her help.

The longer we traveled, the more scared I grew that I might be too late.

I tried to memorize the twists and turns we made but after a while, they mixed into a heady daze.

We would have to find another way to get out or else ask Jixa to help us.

Then again, heading back the way we had come wasn't the best idea when Draw's guards were out there waiting for me.

"How much further is it?" I said to Jixa.

"Only a little. Just up here."

I kept a close eye on our backs and the hallways we'd already traversed.

I didn't want the guards crawling up our ass.

Finally, Jixa came to a stop outside a door a plush walnut color and polished to a high shine.

"In here?" I said.

Jixa nodded and backed away from the door.

I reached for the handle, causing Jixa to whimper and turn away.

"Wait," I said.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I can't."

"How are we supposed to get out of here?"

She had no answer for me as she turned and ran back the way we'd come.

I pressed the handle and shoved the door open with a firm shunt.

The door swung open and didn't emit so much as a squeak.

I peered inside and eyed the room beyond carefully.

It was dark but there was light from a single source.

Daylight, I thought.

It streamed through a long series of windows along the back wall.

More light could have gotten through if it wasn't for the fact they'd been greyed out, giving the room a tint the color of a turgid nightmare in the dead of winter.

I moved behind a set of blinds and listened carefully.

The room filled me with terror.

It wasn't the kind of place where good things happened.

Arranged along one wall was a long row of machines.

They were bizarre devices with straps and handles, cranks, and protruding nails.

The blood fell from my face.

It was a torture garden?

I swear, if he hurt so much as a single hair on her head…

"Ohhh," a ragged male voice said. "Yeaaah. That's good."

"Do you like that?" Agatha said in a teasing voice.

I couldn't bear to hear her say that.

Not when she was saying it to someone else, at least.

The situation, everything about it, didn't make any sense.

I couldn't bear it any longer and stormed around the blinds.

I aimed with the plasma rifle, prepared to unload into the evil beast at a moment's notice.

I came to a stop and stared in disbelief at what I was looking at.

Let me rephrase that.

I came to a stop and stared in disbelief.

What in the Creator's name am I looking at?

In all my expectations of what I would encounter in this room, especially after seeing those evil-looking devices, I had feared the worst.

But never this.

Draw was strapped into a machine.

His stumpy arms and legs were held down by leather straps that pinned his considerable girth in place.

Agatha stood perched over him armed with a candle that dripped wax.

She wore a pink outfit of a fluffy creature with long ears that I'd never seen before.

They turned to look at me.

Suddenly, I felt self-conscious about being there.

"You?" Draw said. "What are you doing in here? Guards! Guards!"

"Egara?" Agatha said.

She dropped the candle and ran to me.

She threw herself into my arms and I swung her around.

"You came for me?" she said.

"Of course I came for you. I thought he was going to hurt you. Instead…"

Draw struggled against the straps in an attempt to pull himself free.

He growled and pulled so hard the machine rocked on its struts.

"Guards! Guards!" he yelled.

I ignored him and felt the gorgeous woman in my arms.

She was warm and soft the way I remembered.

Our lips joined and the fear melted like ice.

"How about we get out of here?" I said.

"Guards! Guards!" Draw continued yelling.

"Your guards aren't coming!" I snapped at him.

I approached the figure strapped to the bed and wasn't sure what I was meant to feel.

All I could manage was pity.

Of all the things he could have done with Agatha, he chose something anyone could have done.

He didn't seek to take advantage of the true beauty she was.

I was relieved and appalled at the same time.

"Unless you want your guards to see you strapped to the machine like this, I suggest you quit shouting," I said.

Draw shot me a glare.

"Set me free," he ordered. "Set me free and I'll give you your shuttlecraft."

"You can't give me what's already mine."

"Actually, technically it's mine now," Agatha said. "I did the work, remember?"

I beamed at her.

"Fine. But I'll be the pilot."

She ran a finger down my nose, tickling it.

"You'll always be my pilot," she said.

We kissed again.

The ground shook beneath my feet.

What a woman.

"That was the best kiss yet," I said. "I felt the moon shift."

Agatha frowned and drifted to the window.

"I felt it too. Only, it wasn't the moon. It was the building."

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I recognized the sound immediately.

I grabbed Agatha and whipped her away from the window.

The drone zipped past the window and then paused, turning and attempting to peer through the grey covering.

It leaned in close and thought it'd seen us for sure.

Then it pulled back and joined two other drones that buzzed off.

"They found us…" Agatha said.

"They found this building. They haven't found us yet. Where are his clothes?"

The sudden shift in topic made Agatha's brain freeze.

"What?" she said.

I moved through the room, looking for the small pile of clothes I knew should be there somewhere.

"Over here," Agatha said.

I tossed Draw's sheer fabric to one side and found the device I was looking for.

It was small and black and fit neatly in my pocket.

"What is it?" Agatha said.

"The device that will unlock the shuttlecraft and allow us to get out of here."

I moved to the window and peered through the grey lattice at the ground below.

"Are there any guards?" Agatha said.

"Not that I can make out," I said. "But that doesn't mean they aren't out there."

Draw gnawed on his restraints but wasn't having much luck.

The machine had been designed for him not to escape.

"I'm going to let you out of this machine," I said. "But first I need you to tell me how to get out of here."

Draw's breath sawed through his nose as he peered at me.

His eyes slid over to Agatha and his expression softened a touch.

"Go through the door at the end of the hall," he said. "Turn right and use the stairs. They'll take you to the back exit."

I released one of the straps from his arm and flabby legs and another from his head.

"I'll let you open the rest," I said.

It would buy us a little time to get out of there.

I turned on my heel and marched across the room.

I was surprised to find Agatha wasn't at my side.

She stood beside Draw and my heart was in my throat.

This guy was dangerous and I had released some of the restraints.

Couldn't she see that?

"Hey," she said, smiling at Draw warmly. "You don't need to be ashamed about this. We're not going to tell anybody. And your men will never know."

Draw responded by smiling appreciatively up at her.

"Thank you."

"And you know," Agatha said, bending down to retrieve the candle she'd dropped earlier. Its wick was still aflame. "You could always do this for yourself."

She put it in his hand and they held it together as she tipped the wax over his skin.

He hissed with a mix of pain and delight.

Agatha joined me and I led her out the door.

I cast one last look at the obese figure in the bed and watched as he raised the candle over his body and tipped it to one side.

I swear, I would never understand how a man could prefer to do that than use the gorgeous hot body of the girl I had at my side right now.

On the plus side, it was better he was the one being (deliberately) violated than the other way round.

I prayed to the God of Small Mercies as we bolted down the stairs in the direction of the hangar and the route to freedom.

Freedom had never felt so damn close.

The stairs were too widefor me to take in bounds of two or three at once.

I could only manage one and a half at most.

I clutched Agatha's hand and together we hurried down the stairs with a leap of excitement in our hearts that could only come with the knowledge of approaching freedom.

We would soon be out of here.

Still, the thought was tinged with sadness.

Agatha wanted to return home.

And I would want to go back to living a pirate's life.

Or did I?

The idea of running down a freighter and marching on board like I owned the place didn't seem quite so exciting anymore.

Or as necessary.

I had saved up a good amount of booty over the years,

I saved it with a single purpose in mind: to get more.

If anyone asked me what I wanted to get "more" for, I couldn't have answered them.

It was the pursuit of money that mattered, not what I intended to do with it.

Now, the pursuit felt like the final few droplets of rain after a heavy downpour dripping down the back of my collar.

She was the reason I was gathering that money.

Agatha.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I had always been waiting for her to come into my life, for her to make a nest and get comfortable inside it.

And now here she was.

Her hand held tightly onto mine and it was the most natural sensation in the world.

She was my fated mate.

There was no question about that.

We eased around the final flight of stairs, careful to slow our approach, not knowing what we might find when we crossed into view.

Earlier, I had left a group of armed pigs a little worse for wear and with good reason to give me a good hiding when they saw me next.

They weren't there when we came to the ground floor.

A dented metal door lay in the middle of the wall and I knew with certainty I wouldn't hear much through it even if I tried.

I tried anyway and was disappointed I was right.

Agatha touched me gently on the arm, concern rimming her eyes.

"Be careful," she said.

"You know me," I said, returning her smile easily. "I'm always careful."

The dent in the door had morphed the sheer plate and made it stab into the wooden doorframe.

A metal door in a wooden doorframe?

Whose idea was that? I wondered.

It stuck and I pressed my shoulder against it, pressing my weight onto it.

My intention wasn't to shove it open but ease it one inch so I could peer inside and get a good look at what lay on the other side.

I pressed my weight against the door and the wooden frame splintered and cracked.

The dented corner scratched the frame and tore a deep gouge in it.

It occurred to me few people must come this way otherwise there would be a ton of gouge marks in the wood already.

Or else the dent was newly formed and there was no mark because no one had opened it.

The wooden frame gave and the wood splintered into a thick explosion of spikes.

Too far, I thought. I only wanted an inch and it gave me a yard.

My hand was still perched around the handle as I planted a foot to prevent the door from opening any further.

Instead of pulling the door shut and pretending it hadn't happened, I left the door open.

It wasn't going to be a surprise what'd happened and we needed it open anyway if we wanted to pass through.

I expected to see Draw's guards standing with weapons drawn and aimed at our heads.

I expected to see them clearing up the remains of their friends, either or both of whom could already be dead.

What I did not expect to see were the armed guards speaking to three prison officers, and a pair of drones floating above their heads.

The drones snapped to attention faster than the guards, but they weren't much slower.

The shuttlecraft sat to one side and there was no doubt in my mind we weren't going to reach it if we attempted to bolt across now.

I slammed the door shut as the drones whirred, charging up the bolts of plasma that would fire from their underside.

The door could withstand the blast from their weapons but I took Agatha's hand and led her away from it anyway.

I slipped the lock into place and backed away.

The attack on the door didn't come.

"What are they doing here?" Agatha said.

"Their drones must have found something," I said. "Or they're only here asking questions."

Well, they certainly got their answer when they saw us standing there.

"Come on," I said.

I took her by the hand and led her back up the stairs.

Two flights and we were on the second floor.

The drones buzzed below like angry hornets.

They would first check the empty doorway opposite that led to the other side of the building.

It wouldn't be long before they realized we'd headed back upstairs instead.

We ran to the window that looked out on the main clearing.

I eased it open.

Peering down, the fall wasn't a long one but it might be enough for us to slip past the guards of both stripes.

I pulled the security device from my pocket and stabbed at the buttons before thinking better of it.

"Computer," I said into the device. "Deactivate all security protocols on the shuttlecraft in the hangar."

"There are multiple shuttlecraft in the hangar," Computer said. "Please specify the model."

I did, and Computer paused for a moment.

"All security systems are disengaged," it said.

"Activate the engines and bring the shuttlecraft up to us," I said.

"Negative. The shuttlecraft is not plugged into my system. It cannot be activated remotely."

Damn.

"We're going to have to get down there ourselves," I said.

The buzz of approaching drones issued up from the stairwell.

They were coming up, and they weren't alone.

Heavy thudding footsteps climbed one step at a time, their booming clumping boots echoing up the sparse stairwell.

I peered out the window and noticed none of the guards down there.

Or any of the drones.

They would have called for reinforcements the moment they spotted us.

They would be on their way here now.

As fast as they were, it would take them some time to reach us.

That was our window of opportunity.

I kept an eye on the doorway and took aim with my rifle.

"Agatha, I need you to climb out this window and get down there."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to hold these guys off. When you get to the shuttlecraft, tell Computer to pick me up. If there are too many guards, tell Computer to take you to New Haven. It's a planet. You'll be safe there."

"No. I'm not leaving you."

I brushed her skin with my thumb.

"You're not leaving me. I'll find you."

I planted a kiss on her lips and felt the heat pulse through my body.

The footsteps grew louder and soon the buzzing drones would be even more cacophonous as they eased up and locked onto me.

"You must go," I said. "Now."

She looked torn but she did as I asked.

She turned and climbed out the window.

She shimmied down using the broad angles of the corrugated side to slow her descent.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

The first drone rose into sight and I focused my attention on it.

I squeezed the trigger of my rifle in rapid succession.

The first few bolts flew before the drone was fully in view.

One clipped its wing and twisted it off balance, knocking its own retaliatory fire into an adjacent wall.

I fired again, this time taking it through the heart.

Agatha squealed as she fell the final few feet, breaking her fall with her hands.

She turned, peered up at the window, and then bolted inside the hangar.

The second drone took the place of the first and I opened fire again, shooting wildly this time, knowing the drone will have automatically learned from the mistakes of its fallen comrade.

That was what made defeating them so difficult.

The drone bucked and weaved.

I fired another volley and the drone unleashed its own sporadic gunfire.

My eyes bulged and I threw myself to the floor.

I took aim as the drone passed into view, its underside glowing bright and glaring.

I fired and didn't notice if my bolt struck it or not.

I couldn't take the risk its shot might hit me.

I was rewarded with the broken buzz of the drone as it fell to the stairs.

The guards hustled up to the doorframe and took position on either side.

I couldn't hope to defeat them all.

They would pin me down and wait for their reinforcements to join them.

And that would be the end of me.

I had one choice.

And when you think about it, having a choice of one isn't really a choice at all.

I ran across the open space and threw myself out the window.

I didn't have time to slow my descent or hope for a soft landing.

Three streaks of plasma scorched the air and zipped past me.

One came so close I heard it crackle before screeching into the distance.

I hit the ground hard and entered a roll.

My landing was rough and I felt my shoulder dislocate.

I came up onto my feet and clutched my arm to my side.

I'd lost my grip on my rifle and couldn't see it through the haze of sand kicked up by my fall.

I became aware of a dull whirring sound.

The front cone of the vehicle was turning, speeding up fast.

Draw and his men would soon be out of here, digging up the earth and disappearing down a tunnel of its own making.

There would be no chance of the shuttlecraft taking off then, especially if they left the hatch open the way it now was.

I bolted across the open space, clutching my arm close, and ran for the open hatch.

A pair of prison guards opened fire.

Their aim was off.

It must be the cloud of sand messing up their line of fire.

The whirring cone drill bit couldn't have helped matters.

I entered the hangar and found my shuttlecraft hovering, its engines glowing as they defied gravity and turned around.

The hatch door was open but it swung away from me as it turned on the spot.

Through the front window, I made out Agatha, sitting in the pilot seat, in control.

Her eyes alighted on me and we shared a grin.

A thin layer of sweat dampened my brow at the pain of my dislocated arm, but it didn't matter.

All that mattered was her.

And escaping with her.

Then her grin broke and her eyes fell and she shouted a warning, one I couldn't hear over the shuttlecraft's hum and the grinding crunch of the giant drill bit.

I dropped immediately and rolled to one side from her warning, not knowing what was behind me.

A bolt of plasma struck the floor and melted the metal grating.

I kept rolling until I passed around a tall collection of artifacts neatly arranged on a shelf that stretched to the ceiling.

The bolts of plasma chased me, tearing up the grating in my wake.

I came to a stop behind the shelf but my assailant continued to fire, blasting the items off the shelves like sliding targets at a traveling fairground.

The shuttlecraft's engines whirred and bolted forward, striking a clutch of Draw's guards and knocking them off their feet.

I could see them now through a gap in the shelving unit.

The shuttlecraft knocked them back again and they lost their feet in the gathering swirl of dust.

The shuttlecraft's ass waved side to side.

I got to my feet and ran toward it, hurling myself inside.

"Egara!" Agatha yelled.

"Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!" I screamed back.

"Computer, take us out of here!" Agatha screamed over the overbearing screams.

The shuttlecraft banked and took us away, ascending into the sky at a sharp but not precipitous angle.

I crouched and waited as Agatha ran to me and kissed me on the face, the cheeks, the forehead.

"You're okay!" she said.

"Mostly," I said.

She glanced at my arm and her eyes turned round with concern.

"It's all right," I said.

I ran a hand through her hair and smiled at her.

I pressed my lips to hers and fed her every morsel of my deep undying love.

"We're leaving," Agatha said.

"Yes," I said. "We're leaving."

I couldn't imagine a happier thought.

Alone.

Out among the stars.

Free.

With Agatha.

Zzzzzzzzz!

I heard the noise but it took a moment to register.

It made no sense in this shuttlecraft.

It wasn't until I heard the dull clink of metal snapping together that the truth of our situation came to fruition.

The hatch door was closing, but not fast enough.

Sunlight sparked off the white outer shell of the drone that activated the powerful magnets on its underside.

It had locked a cuff around an ankle and would carry its prisoner away.

But which one of us?

Agatha's eyes bulged.

She scrabbled at the floor and clung to the small shuttlecraft's protruding innards but the magnets were too strong and she lost her grip.

The cuff on her ankle snapped as it struck the drone's underside and it took off with her.

It carried her out of my life, away from me forever.