Now, she probably wasn’t really saying ‘fucking’, but the translator in my brain translated context along with words, so I could truly understand the frustration oozing from her pores and coloring her words with derision. If this male asked her why she didn’t just make him a list I was going to march in there and help her beat his ass.
“Well you don’t have to be rude about it. Just relax, Breena, we’ll find her and then everything will be fine. You’ll see. No big deal.”
The sound of flesh hitting flesh followed by a pained grunt followed swiftly by a wheezing gasp made me grin.
“You idiot. If she gets to the hangar before us and gets off this ship we are fucked. She’s a damn good pilot by all accounts and this heap won’t be able to catch her. I fucking told you idiots to go for the healer human. What do you think Rathal will do to us if we fail to deliver his prize?”
I snorted to myself. If they’d taken Sam they’d already be dead. Torn to pieces and lit on fire. Hell, their family line might be wiped out right along with them. Aga would have hunted them like a demon possessed madman. Poor Sam. She really just had no idea, the sweet summer child.
“You're stupidity is costing me, Brekkus. Don’t make me kill you.”
Do it, lady.
Feeling sympathy for the enemy probably wasn’t healthy. I could commiserate with the female aliens' frustrations though. Incompetent people were the worst. They brought the whole unit down with them. There had been a man who’d taken exception to a woman being a pilot and in the same squadron as him. He’d been subtle about it, mostly passive aggressive comments here and there, but it had set my teeth on edge every time. Back on Earth there hadn’t been much I could do about it either. Sure, I could tell my squadron commander about him,but then that would get around to everyone else and make my life harder. No thank you.
I could have confronted him head on, but then that would have been giving in to what he wanted and finally given him an excuse to bury me. Again, no thanks. Here in space though? I could throat punch someone and all the predators around me would nod their heads in approval and that would be that.
Not all change was bad.
Still, no matter how much I might pity the female’s situation with her coworker, they were in my way and I couldn’t very well just leave them upright and walking around while I was trying to escape.
I pressed myself against the wall as they came to the door, waiting while the screeching metal folded into the open position and the pair stepped through. The female was purple, tall, and had a long mohawk of dark hair cascading down her back. She had four ice blue eyes, stacked on top of each other and a slash for a mouth. Her metal armor was worn and discolored, as was the gun she carried.
Her male counterpart was a short and stocky lizard of shifting colors. He had beady little eyes and a punchable face. Imagine that. Both of them had their eyes opened wide, pupils blown to try and take in as much light as possible, but still falling short. This section of the hallway was almost completely dark. The bulb holding the emergency light was burnt out.
Calling up the golden armor from under my skin and ignoring the unpleasant prickling sensation as it covered my forearms and hands, I stepped behind the two as they continued down the corridor unaware of me in the dark. I took a few running steps and jumped to add momentum at the last second as I brought my fist down onto the back of the lizard male’s head. He hit the ground like a sack of bricks.
The purple female swung her rifle around, pointing it at the spot I’d just occupied, but I was already behind her. My arm came around her throat in a sleeper hold. It was more dignified than a punch to the head. She struggled, dropping her rifle to slap at my arms and face. I applied more pressure until she went limp and slumped in my arms.
I set her gently on the floor, checked her pulse, frowned at her throat when there wasn’t one, found it further down than I was used to and frowned again at its odd triple rhythm. Weird, but she was alive so I moved on, taking her rifle with me.
Past the corridor, where the pair had come from were two large doors sitting opposite each other, bright red and thick, with alien glyphs painted in yellow across each. They read WARNING: AIRLOCK.
There was a triangular window in each door about the size of my head. Through the window I could see the hangar bay. The left side was empty, but the right had four ships of various sizes. The hangar doors were closed and the double purple light that signaled an atmosphere was present were lit up. As I went to punch in the code conveniently written in fluorescent ink above the keypad into the access panel, the ship shuddered once and then came to a stand still. A smooth mechanical female voice spoke over the PA system.“Docking procedure complete. Atmosphere stable. All crew proceed to In-processing Station Forty-Seven for Verification and Compliance.”
Well that couldn't be good.
A voice echoed throughout the ship, doubling on itself as it traveled through the corridors.
“Well, well, what do we have here? Trying to escape, my prize? That simply won’t do.”
The voice was male, cultured, accented in something close to maybe an Indian dialect, and smooth like poured molasses. He sounded like trouble.
I turned back to the access panel to make my quick exit and found its display dead.
“What the fuck?”
The voice chuckled through the invisible speakers. “Access denied, darling. Quit playing and meet me.” I turned to glare at the air and the voice clucked at me. “Now, now. Don’t make me come and get you.”
I flipped off whatever camera was giving him a view of me before taking the butt of the rifle and smashing the display glass until it shattered. Sweeping the glass out, I reached in a careful hand and started pulling fuses until the door opened.
Thank you, Rema, for all your security lessons.
Grinning, I saluted the camera and walked into the hangar. As I crossed the space to the first ship, the outer hangar doors groaned open, stopping a few feet apart, and in strode a god.
three
Callie
