Page 3 of Stolen Slave

When the door opened and Mila jolted beside me, I scrambled to my feet. Still unable to see clearly, I did my best to follow the dark blob in front of me.

Steam enveloped me as I entered the bathing room. I didn’t hesitate this time and hurried to the tub, able to see just enough to know where it was, but not enough to know if the tub had water in it. Remembering there hadn’t been any in it the day before, I immediately leaned forward to place the plug and listened as the water started to flow.

The creature that led me to the room approached. I held still as it crowded into my space. The flat expanse of its face came dangerously close to mine. When it hissed, I felt the tip of its forked tongue against my skin. I didn’t shiver. I didn’t react. Instead, I thought of Mila, her desperation for me, and her warning that I couldn’t afford another shock. Today, there could be no mistakes. No hesitation.

It hissed again, and I felt a claw at my throat just above my collar. My stomach dropped sickeningly. Was it threatening me? Did it know I couldn’t see for shit?

I swallowed hard and listened to the water. It was almost full. The first alien would want its bath soon.

CHAPTER TWO

KHORAHN

I double-checked this system’s charts as I approached the verdant planet. Narlin Four in the Prime Twelve system was known for two things. Its mineral-rich soil and the Wsoau who mined it. Neither boded well for me. Yet, this was the closest location for refueling and repair, both of which my quarry would need because I’d damaged his cells just before he jumped.

Hailing the largest of Narlin Four’s mining camps, I requested permission to land under the guise of a mineral trade. As soon as they granted it, I preset the landing sequence and left the nav center.

The rapid cadence of my footfalls echoed in the large ship. The vessel, which had been my home since my beginning, had everything I needed. Ample space, a luxury cleansing unit, and a huge cargo bay. Those before me had worked hard to ensure I would lack for nothing.

Nothing except a companion.

At my approach, a door opened to the rarely used med bay, a room that had paid for itself several solar-runs ago. While I kept the sys-unit in top working order, that wasn’t the reason I visited this room. I needed to check the hidden stasis bay installed by the most discreet tech runner in the systems.

I typed in a code on the sys-unit’s access pad, and a panel of the med bay’s wall slid out into the room. Four of the five stasis plates already encased lifeforms. Hopefully, by the end of the flare, the fifth would be full as well, and I could make my way to the nearest Helix station to collect my chits and new bounty assignments.

The biometrics light flashed on the third holding plate, and I pulled up the readings. The numbers were the same as the flare before and the one before that. Stable was good. Stable would see the ship's cells recharged for the next round of assignments and, if I was lucky, some spare chits to add to the grow bay.

I closed the panel and went to secure the rest of my ship. Most ports didn’t require ship inspections; however, edge-of-the-system planets like this tended to have their own rules that kept their supplies stocked.

After securing my rations, I checked my weapons cache. The walls hid the bulk of my phasers. The rest, I wore. Two were affixed to each thigh–one secured to my left side and another on my right hip. Wearing six in the open kept things civil.

By the time I finished securing my ship, the landing warning sounded, and I strode to the cargo bay door. The terra-connection vibrated through my feet a moment before the faint whir of the drives went quiet. Using the remote access pad, I ran another check on the atmosphere before opening the small, single-person bay door.

Fresh, clean air blasted into the ship.

Ducking, I stepped out onto the ramp and straightened to my full height. Wsoau moved around the rustic port, unobtrusively watching me breathe in deeply and take in my surroundings in a sweeping glance. Several more Wsoau with burn packs paced the perimeter of the landing site, scorching the vegetation that grew as I watched.

Two other ships were docked, but neither were my prey.

“What are you here for?” a Wsoau asked, scuttling up to my ship.

The black orbs of his eyes were a mirror of my all-blue ones. There, our similarities ended. The Wsoau were an exoid race, beings with their skeletal enforcement on the outsides of their bodies. Their large, dark plates made them as hard to kill as their weak minds made them impossible to reason with. They understood negotiation and trade well enough, though.

“Cleansed terra.”

The Wsoau made a sound that his next words confirmed was a laugh.

“You don’t possess the chit for it.”

“Try me.”

“Five hundred stacks for one unit.”

I whistled low, which made every Wsoau in the area pause.

“A unit of terra wouldn't even fill my hand, and you want five hundred stacks? Five hundred chits, possibly. Ten thousand isn’t worth it.”

“Our terra is the richest in the systems.”

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