Clara’s mouth fell open. She remembered then that Jessica had been fighting the crew with some real skill. A Capo though? She whispered, “What’s a Capo doing on that bride ship?
Jessica’s eyes closed and then reopened. “I knew something I was not supposed to know, is my best guess. Only I don’t know what it was.” Her smile was rueful. “I did know the ship was bound for Narnlia though. I had planned to escape as soon as we were let out of the pods. Take an escape ship and run. But that seems to be out the window.”
Margie whispered, “Who are they?”
“Wreckers, of course.” Jessica frowned. “I’d say from Inner Magda. They have that look and seem to speak the colony tongue, but they speak it with a little bit of accent so they might just be using that to throw off anyone who might know it, or their real language. Or they might just be using it because it’s a base language and one that anyone can learn fairly quickly. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say they’re from the same system, but not the same planet, wherever they’re from, and they’re a crew because they all have one thing in common, and it’s not exactly race.”
Ariel asked, “What do you mean?”
Clara had already figured it out. “She means they’re space pirates.”
“Yup.” Jessica sighed. Her narrow shoulders slumped. “I’d also say they know exactly what they’re doing. It’s been exactly half an hour since they took the ship and they just launched the hull. Look.”
They all turned to the long windows. The ship they’d been on had been scrapped and stripped down to a bare gleam of metal. There was nothing left to identify it. The ship they were on let out a series of loud rumbles and the tubes opened to disgorge a dozen of the wreckers.
Jessica whispered. “That’s fourteen, and they stripped it in half an hour.”
Holy shit. It was impressive, no doubt. But what did that mean for them? Clara’s teeth chewed at her bottom lip. She scanned them carefully, her eyes assessing them. Jessica had been right. They were all definitely from the same system, but not the same planet. Some were shorter than the others, and some had eyes that were a lighter blue. They all spoke that language.
Clara asked, “What’re they saying?”
Jessica shrugged. “I brought you over here so they wouldn’t hear me saying I understood them. Unfortunately, I can’t hear anything but their voices either so I don’t know.”
The four gave each other long glances. Jessica asked, “What’re you in for?”
Clara said, “Running tables and carrying currency.”
Margie said, “I’m not a good citizen, and Ariel got sold off to clear debt.”
Jessica nodded. “Well then. I guess we are each other’s best bets for survival. The others didn’t seem to be too willing to fight or have the guts for it either. I wouldn’t leave them behind if I had a choice to save them, but I wouldn’t exactly trust them to be around if we do have to go to war with these guys.”
Clara nodded agreement. She already saw Jessica as an ally and the other two as potential ones. Margie and Ariel both had every reason to want to get out of there and to go somewhere else. But where?
Clara’s eyes went back to Renall. He stood close to Talon and a few other wreckers. The ship gave a long shudder and headed upward, parting the darkness of space as it slid through it.
Narnlia appeared, a small blue and orange planet to the right. Clara stared at it, relieved at not being sent there but still afraid that the next option might be even worse.
Talon came close. He said, “Renall wants to see you.”
His fingers pointed at Clara. Her heart sank. Why was she being singled out? She didn’t know, but she did know she didn’t have a choice but to agree. She said, “Fine.”
She followed Talon toward Renall. Renall said, “I’d like a private word.”
Great. He likely wanted sex. She eyed him warily. Did his kind have sex? Her nipples stiffened in an unbidden and unwanted way at the thought. She said, “Ok.”
He jerked his head toward a small hallway. Clara followed him down it. The hallway led to a series of smaller rooms, many of them with beds. Quarters, she surmised.
They reached a large bay. Renall stopped and turned toward her. His eyes raked her from head to toe. He held his hand out. There, on his elongated palm, set crypto-files. Her heartbeat ticked up. “What?’
“You’re a carder.”
The words hit hard. Ire surged up. “So what? Why do you care?”
“You any good?”
Her eyebrows rose. “Depends.”
Renall’s eyes bored into hers. “On what?”
