6. Ryklin

I expected Noelle,not two humans with greasy hair and dirty clothes whose bickering was quickly turning into a shoving match. My ear twitched, and I glanced farther down the hall just in time to see the light on the outside of an escape hatch blink once—a confirmation that the door was locked.

It shouldn"t have done that with no one inside.

"Hey! Get out of here!" the human with longer hair spotted me and shouted, spittle flicking out with his words.

His taller companion took the opportunity to shove the other one out of the way. "This is our spot. Take a hike."

"Your spot?" They weren"t wearing the uniforms for any of the maintenance or groundskeeping crews, and with Sector J being rehabbed at the moment, drug cookers were using all the empty corridors and closets to full advantage. "Maintenance is working in this closet."

The taller one coughed out a laugh and leaned down to pick up a canvas bag that I hadn"t noticed. "Yeah? Think they"re coming back soon?"

Thoughts fled as I saw Noelle"s bag, and images of what they might do to her assailed me.

I charged at the humans, but they were faster than I expected. The shorter one dodged around me and kicked the side of my knee, almost sending me crashing to the floor. The taller one took the opportunity to try and punch me, but I dodged, and he didn"t hit anything vital.

I grabbed his fist and twisted his arm, throwing him back into the closet. He grunted and came right back for me, and we crashed back into the hall, fists flying and bodies colliding.

He landed a lucky blow to my chin, and I had to pull back, blinking to clear my vision.

"Come on, knock him out!" the shorter one shouted.

My vision cleared, and I lunged for the short one, grabbing the collar of his shirt and slamming him against the wall. It had been years since I fought, since I used my body like the warrior I"d trained to be, and my blood pumped fast in my veins. I felt alive in a way I"d never have acknowledged if I wasn"t eager to put these men down.

The soulless weren"t supposed to feel eager.

At the moment, I didn"t care.

We"d managed to cross half the hallway and were right by the escape hatch I"d spotted earlier. I risked a glance inside, but it was darkened, and I didn"t see anyone.

Then the taller one slammed into me from behind, knocking the air out of my lungs and making me stumble forward. I released the shorter one, and he scrambled to his feet. The two of them teamed up, whatever tension had been rising earlier forgotten in the face of my threat. They wrenched me around and slammed me back until I banged against the control panel for the escape pod, and a light overhead blinked in warning.

It was preparing to launch.

One of the men cursed, knowing an unauthorized escape pod launch might bring security running. Or it might not. Security on Nebula Outpost was lacking, to say the least.

I headbutted one man and slammed my elbow into the other"s guts. While turning around, I spotted something through the porthole into the escape pod.

Noelle.

Her eyes were wide and terrified, and before I could reach for the panel to stop the launch, the pod disengaged, and she went right with it, falling off the station and into the gravity field of the planet below.

After that, it wasn"t a fight.

I would not let Noelle be lost to the empty landscapes of Nebula.

The men I was fighting were decent brawlers, but they had no training. Once I truly made it my mission to neutralize them, it took less than a minute, and they were left in a groaning pile of pain as I hurled myself into the escape pod farther down the hallway and launched myself after Noelle.

It never occurred to me to call for help, to contact the station and let them know Noelle was in danger.

All I knew was that I had to save her, and it drove me forward into the unknown.