Lyk laughed. “Which is why you pay exorbitant amounts to your powerful friends, right? They look the other way while you import slaves, making both of you rich along the way.”
“You’re one to talk. You’re a pirate! A scoundrel!” Rigellus spat on the floor in front of Lyk’s feet.
Cocking an eyebrow at the parasite in front of him, Lyk grinned. “You’re right. But I don’t trade in innocent flesh.” He aimed a kick into Rigellus’s fat gut, causing him to double over then tumble back onto the floor. Lyk’s smile widened when he realized the slaver was now lying in his own spit.
The gasp from behind him reminded him of the women’s presence. “Take them to my quarters,” he said to one of his men, but the one he already considered his spoke up immediately.
“No.” She crossed her arms, defiance clear in every line of her body. “We’re a part of this. We’re not going anywhere.”
He eyed them. His woman was breathing heavily, her cheeks flushed, her eyes bright. The female beside her, however, had gone pale, her eyes too wide. Clearly, she was the one who’d gasped.
Still, Lyk had to respect their grit. They’d managed to escape their holding cell and take out the creature that had taken him down until his superior Vartik healing had kicked in. Maybe she was right. Maybe they deserved to see this through to the end.
The viewscreen suddenly switched on, revealing a view of the other ship’s bridge. One of the men he’d sent over appeared shirtless. He held up a squirming mass, covered by black fabric, presumably the man’s shirt.
“We found this thing skulking in the corridor,” he said, pulling back the fabric to reveal the bulging face of the creature that had attacked Lyk.
“Popkins!” Rigellus shouted.
At the same time, Lyk shot out a warning. “Keep his mouth closed! He emits a paralyzing gas.”
The other member of his crew came to lend a hand, and together, they made sure the creature was secured.
“Don’t hurt my baby!” Rigellus blubbered from the floor. “Please!”
“Your baby?” Lyk scoffed. “I wasn’t aware that the male of your species carried the young.”
“You don’t understand. He’s not my young. He’s my pet. My little Popkins! I won’t be separated from him!”
“Have it your way,” Lyk said, then reached down to grab Rigellus by his arm. Using his considerable strength, Lyk lifted him to his feet. “Get him back to his ship. Lock him in his own quarters with his pet.”
“Wait!” Rigellus yelled, but Lyk’s crew didn’t hesitate to follow his orders. “You can’t do this! I’ll give you anything! Riches! Women! Anything you want!”
Lyk ignored his cries, which diminished as he was dragged from the bridge. Turning back to the viewscreen, he ordered the crew on Rigellus’s ship to plot a course following him. Once Rigellus and his handlers were back on their own ship, Lyk ordered the docking clamps to be released.
As Lyk steered back into the asteroid field, Celdrake returned to the bridge. “Ten men in red livery are under guard in the mess. What are you planning to do with them?”
“We will offer them a chance to join up, or we’ll drop them back on Gamma-17.”
“You aren’t worried about any of them talking?” The cyborg’s tone was neutral, but Lyk could tell his second in command was questioning his decision.
Lyk turned to his trusted friend. “He’s a slaver. He won’t be missed.”
“You’ve never shied away from violence, but you’ve also never gone out of your way to murder someone. What makes Rigellus special?”
It took everything inside him not to turn and look at the female who was even now studying him. “I might be a pirate,but I have never exploited those weaker than me. I’ve gone after those with too much, those who are just as crooked as we are, but never an innocent party.”
“So you took his cargo and scared the stars out of him. Isn’t that enough?”
“No.” Lyk’s tone was firm. “Who knows what has become of the hundreds he’s sold? What they’ve suffered. Rigellus losing a cargo hold full of fancy furniture and antique bric-a-brac isn’t going to stop him.”
Celdrake inclined his head in acknowledgement, stepping back as Lyk spoke to the men on the other ship, still visible on the viewscreen. “I want you to set a course for asteroid C3-D17. The big one. Set it on autopilot, to resume ten minutes from now.”
Rigellus, tied to his massive chair, was sobbing in the background, his pet rolling around at his feet, wings and mouth bound. Even his mustache looked defeated. Still, Lyk felt no pity for the slaver. He was disgusting, profiting off depriving others of their freedom.
“On your way out, start a small mechanical fire. In the event that someone does come looking for his carcass, it will throw them off our trail, make them think the ship crashed due to a mechanical failure.”
“Will do,” his crewman acknowledged. Then the feed went black.
