“He’s all of the above,” I say through gritted teeth. “It’s a good thing he’s not on Vorostor, or I’d be finding the alien equivalent of scorpions and putting them in his bed.”
“Only his bed?” Lydia raises an eyebrow.
“Depending on how many I could find, in his boots and pants too,” I retort.
“You areveryinterested in getting up close and personal to the Sarkarnii you profess to dislike so much,” Lydia says.
“If you want to do bodily harm to someone, you have to get up close and personal. That’s how it works,Lydia.”
“I’m aware of that,Maggie.” She glares at me. “Anyway, I overheard Dante and Darax talking, and Driok is on his way back to Vorostor…”
I don’t hear the rest of her sentence because the breakfast I was so keen on a few minutes ago is going to reappear with some considerable urgency.
Driok is coming back. To this planet. I’m going to have to face him.
I might even have to tell him.
Our one-night stand…after which I told him to never darken my door again…it’s left me with more than the walk of shame and residual embarrassment.
He’s been away long enough for me to know for sure.
I’m pregnant. And the baby is his.
DRIOK
“Turn the nevving dampers on!” I bellow across the bridge as a spray of sparks and flame sears over my scales, causing zero damage, save to my dignity.
We lurch to one side, and I’m already beating over to the console where the young warrior is trying and failing to follow my instructions. He’s flung to one side, hitting a bulkhead and sliding down, but that’s the least of his worries. I hit the correct sequence for the dampers, and we stabilize, albeit with far too much noise and sparking of our systems coming back online.
“Weapons report!” I bark.
“All weapons functional, Lord Driok.”
“Then nevving fire back!” I snarl.
No Sarkarnii warrior should ever have to be told to fight. It’s in our blood, it’s in our accelerant sacs, it’s deep in our flight lungs.
Fortunately I don’t even have to draw breath before there is the sweet sound of plasma cannon and nebula class torpedos being sent in the direction of our attackers.
“Try to keep the cargo intact.” I sigh, sitting back, attempting to keep my tail under control, given my shift wants to happenright now and the bridge of my ship isn’t big enough for all of us to be in our Sarkarnii forms. “Or this entire mission is a waste.”
As if the entire mission hasn’t already been a complete waste of time. The intelligence we received was entirely false. Whilst we found these pirates and are currently extracting their cargo to return to the original owners. I can’t stop thinking about the delicious little female I had in my quarters two nova months ago. The one I had to leave behind when I thought we had no choice but to leave Vorostor immediately.
The one I rut for. The rut which has caused me pain every nevving day since. My mood sours further.
“Their engines are disabled, Lord Driok,” my weapons master calls out. “They have an atmosphere leak on decks five through seven, but the cargo bay remains undamaged.
“About nevving time,” I growl, shoving myself upright. “Raiding party number one with me. Parties two and three, make ready. I want to be in and out before they have time to blink.”
Time is running out. Dalox, the one Sarkarnii warlord who can order me to do anything, has insisted I return as soon as this cargo has been secured.
It matters little that Dante somehow discovered there are Gonoz in this galaxy we accidentally, and annoyingly, found ourselves in. It makes ruling it a little difficult, but there’s no reason why we cannot, not if we secure this cargo.
The Gonoz will not stand a chance, nor will any other species who thinks it is a good idea to challenge the Sarkarnii. Especially any other species.
We might have ended up here due to a wormhole which is long gone, but it doesn’t mean we have to accept anything other than what we were made for.
“Time to conquer,” I growl at my cohort of warriors as I strap on a belt of psi-grenades and slide my personal plasma pistols into the custom holsters on my belt. “No prisoners. Cargo only.”
