10. Valmore

10

Valmore

As Jesse and I walked down yet another corridor, I growled, "Where are you taking me?" I thought I had a pretty good idea, but the more I kept this twit talking, the better my chances of him lowering his guard.

"Zol wants to talk to you." Jesse opened the hatch and waved me through. "You're our guest of honor now, aren't you?"

He didn't sneer or grin when he said this. Maybe he was telling the truth when he said the situation had changed.

I stepped onto the bridge. Two grunts stood off to one side with their rifles slung across their chests. Three unarmed officers sat at their stations. Zol turned around from his podium, his gelatinous body wobbling in the movement. "Finally. I thought you'd never get here."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I returned. "And what happened to the plan? I can't even tell anymore if I'm still under cover or if I'm a prisoner now alongside Hazel."

Zol chuckled low. "Ah, Hazel. She's a peach, isn't she? No one would know that better than you. As for the plan, it turns out we're in range of three different trader species: the Trex, the Fevli, and the Adrik. I already contacted them and started a bidding war between them. As soon as we get one confirmed buyer, we can off-load the female for ten times what the IPA would pay for her."

I blinked at him as I tried to grasp what he was telling me. "You started a bidding war… for Hazel… with the Trex?"

Zol waved me off. "Don't be so squeamish. You might have spoiled her purity with that little stunt in the mess hall, but we can still get good money for her. I'm offering her as a ‘slightly used,' perfectly fertile breeder."

My blood started pounding in my ears. Why did this surprise me coming from these chumps? "That wasn't what we agreed on. You said no one gets hurt and then you sic this mutt on her…" I jerked my thumb toward Jesse.

"Be reasonable," Zol cut in. "You had your fun with her. You can't fault Jesse or any of the others wanting the same thing. Regardless, she won't be touched further, as our bidders seem to prefer her unused."

"But we agreed to ransoming her back to the IPA, not selling her to their enemies."

"We agreed, but that was before I saw what a pure valuable female the IPA sent us. That changes things."

"Not happening." The words came out by themselves without a moment's thought from me. "No one is taking Hazel anywhere except back to the IPA where she belongs."

Jesse rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "You can drop the whole Kavian mates act, pal. She's a cash cow, and you're space scum, just like the rest of us. You don't think you're going to ride off into the sunset with her, do you? Not after she finds out you faked being her bodyguard to help us kidnap her."

"I'm under no such delusions, but we had a deal. No one gets hurt. You already tried to force yourself on her. Do I need to remind you what the penalty for that is if the IPA catches you? You should be thanking me on bended knee for stopping you."

Jesse exploded in raucous laughter, but Zol interrupted again. "You don't have to go back to the cell. Since we aren't selling her to the IPA, she won't be needing you as her escort. We'll deal with the female from here."

He started to turn away. Mounting rage built inside my chest. "I don't think so."

Zol glanced over his shoulder, but he barely looked at me. "Excuse me?"

"I said I don't think so."

Before anyone could move, Jesse took a step toward me. He raised his laser pistol and jabbed the muzzle into my chest. "You know what? We were being nice, keeping you alive. But we really don't need you anymore."

At the same moment, the grunts swung their guns up. With three guns pointed at me, the odds were heavily in their favor.

But then again, they were threatening a Kavian's mate, so maybe not.

I let that one thought take over my whole being. That white-hot ember smoldering in my chest spread to all of my muscles. I felt myself straining to pummel all these bastards to kingdom come.

Zol turned away again. He waved one tentacle at Jesse. "Take care of him."

Jesse did something with his gun. I didn't see what it was, and I didn't care. He might have even fired it point-blank into my chest, but I felt nothing. In a blur, I caught him by the wrist and yanked. He staggered toward me and stumbled right into my arms.

Without thinking, I hooked my elbow around his neck and jerked upward. The sickening crunch of bone vibrated into my pulsing veins as his body went limp.

The grunts shouldered their guns in slow motion. As their fingers tightened around their triggers to fire, I grabbed the only thing available to block their shots.

I swung Jesse's body in front of me and the twin lasers sizzled into it. The stench of burning flesh filled the bridge. Shouts and gunshots echoed all around me, but I barely heard them. They sounded far away.

I peeked over Jesse's shoulder to see the grunts advancing on me with their rifles raised. Another surge of power flooded my veins as I hurled the body at them. The force of my throw toppled both men. They stumbled onto the navigation console behind them.

They never had a chance to recover before I landed on top of them both. I seized them by their collars and hauled them together, smashing their heads in an implosion of skulls and brains.

My fury erupted beyond all reason. Hazel. Only Hazel mattered. Anyone who so much as considered selling her to the Trex deserved only one fate .

I whirled my victims against a wall and spotted Zol cowering behind his podium. The pedestal didn't come close to hiding him from me. No one who wanted to harm Hazel could ever hide from me.

I dropped the grunts next to Jesse and stalked toward the podium. "Come out here, Zol," I hissed.

The son of a bitch didn't hesitate. He slithered out and stood there quaking in front of me. He seemed to have shrunk in the last couple of seconds… Or maybe I expanded. I couldn't tell.

"Now just take it easy, Valmore," he stuttered. "We can work this out. I've always treated you fairly, haven't I?"

"You should have stuck to our agreement, Zol," I snarled.

"Uh… Y-yes…" he stammered. "I… I realize that… And you're right. We can contact the IPA. We can continue with our original plan. You can have the whole ten million."

I shook my head and grabbed his two main tentacles. For some reason, I actually felt sorry for this glorified blob of jelly. "You made a grave mistake by crossing me. Next time, stick to the agreement."

With that, I let the power unload from my muscles. I ripped the two tentacles apart, and the blob squelched to the floor. I stomped down on his head and the giant bulb popped. Goo and jelly splattered across the floor and onto the pedestal.

I stared down at him for a second as my blood pounded in my head. That was the end of that. Everyone who knew about this wretched plan lay dead at my feet. Now the ship was mine.

A beeping noise woke me from my trance. I glanced around the bridge to find the helmsman, the tactical officer, and the navigator gaping at me with huge eyes. None of them moved to answer the incoming signal.

I scraped the sludge off my boots and stepped over what remained of Zol. I swiveled around the captain's podium and took his place. "As you were, all of you."

The three men attacked their stations in a flurry of activity. They kept their heads down and didn't look up again. Oh, well. This wouldn't be the first time I commandeered a ship, and I knew for a fact that Zol stole the Methuselah from the previous crew.

I tapped the incoming message. The identity tag read, "Intergalactic Peace Alliance." What was the IPA contacting us for if Zol didn't tell them that he kidnapped Hazel?

I opened the message and frowned at the results. The file contained documents on a certain planet in the Trozolla system… The IPA hadn't named it yet. They just gave it a number: VXC3.

The documents turned out to be long-range scans of the surface. The readings revealed several endemic life forms living there. One was a large, scorpion-like creature called the Vorlax. A few other monsters roamed the surface.

I scowled even deeper at a map of the planet included in the file. High concentration of non-native species located here. Believed colony of squatter refugees. Colony concealed in a heavy mountainous region inaccessible to penetrative scans. Colony believed to be inhabited by a large number of Kavians escaped from Kavius in the Gilev system.

It couldn't be… Could it? Kavians—out here? Was it possible so many of them survived and set up a refugee colony somewhere no one would find them?

A colony—an entire colony of them—a home for me and my mate… I pushed that thought away. I wouldn't be bringing Hazel anywhere except back to Elysium. Anything else was impossible.

Maybe I could return to my people, though. Maybe I could finally stop running. What made me think that—now, of all times?

"Sir?" the tactical officer piped up. "There's an incoming communique from the Trex. They're asking for payment details on the commodity. "

I didn't look up. "Tell them we found a different buyer. The commodity is no longer for sale."

Another document in the IPA file confirmed that the unrest they sent Hazel to investigate came from the Kavians. The long-range scans couldn't ascertain the source of the attacking force, but the IPA assumed it must be some other species trying to annihilate the Kavian refugees. The Kavians would have no reason to fight among themselves. Were the Ranxi attacking them again?

"Sir?" the navigator asked. "Do you have any orders for us… Any change in course?"

"Steady as she goes." I turned away. "And get this bridge cleaned up."

Now that I was in charge, Hazel was safe. The situation was finally under control. It was just a matter of releasing her.

But would she forgive me when I told her the truth?