Page 10 of Pursued By the Dragon Alien

She hesitated, then followed as he led her out of the command room and into the main corridor. The Darkslip was a beauty—fast, lean, and deceptive in her firepower. It had been an early prize for him after he broke free of the Axis’ control and fled the metals refinery he’d been forced to work in for most of his youngermig-cycles. Razion knew every corner and connecting tube of the ship. Lilas trailed behind him, taking everything in like she was already calculating escape routes.

“Where exactly are we going?” she asked.

Touring the ship made sense, but Razion was also stalling. He needed to figure out where to put her—what role to give her. A passenger was one thing. A crew member, even provisional, needed to pull their weight.

“You’ll see,” he said.

She huffed out a breath. “Great. More vague answers.”

Razion ducked his head through a bulkhead door and entered the crew quarters. “Not a patient one, are you?”

“Not a strength of mine,” she replied.

“Well, you’ll need to grow some. Patience is a necessary tool when fighting the Axis. This will be yours,” he said, hitting a button beside a door. It opened to a small but functional room. “Smaller than the room you were in earlier, but that was a guest’s quarters. This is a crew room. Put your hand to the panel beside the door and it will read your biometrics.”

Lilas did as he instructed, then stepped inside and eyed the space. “Better than a cage,” she muttered.

Razion leaned against the doorframe. These rooms were all the same—a bunk, a storage compartment, a slim console builtinto the wall, and a tiny washroom. His was here, too. He’d turned the “official” captain’s suite into a secure data analysis area. Vedd practically lived there when he was working on decryption. “You ever been on a ship before the raiders took you?”

She shook her head. “No. We were isolated, to say the least.”

He filed that away. “Do you learn fast?”

“I survive fast,” she said.

Same thing, really.

“Well,” he said, pushing off the frame. “You need a job here, and I need to figure out what you’re good at.”

She arched a brow. “You don’t just throw me in front of a console and hope for the best?”

“You want me to?”

She huffed. “Not particularly.”

“Come on, then.” He led her through the key areas—the exercise and training rooms, the weapons hold—which she wouldnothave access to—the engineering center, the off-duty lounge, and the central storage compartments. She moved silently, though the way her fingers twitched, he had the feeling she wanted to touch things just to see how they worked.Interesting.

When they reached the main cargo hold, she eyed the slow conveyor belt. It had just begun moving the first load of salvage from Gribna’s ship. Crew members were beginning to scan and sort items, with more moving the spoils to either crates for selling or the air lock for expulsion. “You steal ships often?” she asked.

Razion shrugged. “Salvage. Acquire. Repurpose.” He plucked a pristine vocal resonator from the line, then placed it in a nearby crate. “Call it what you want.”

Lilas snorted. “Piracy. I call it piracy.”

He liked her directness, even if he didn’t agree with her word choice. “We take from criminals,neverinnocent people,” he said. “You have a problem with that?”

She lifted a shoulder. “Depends. You ever get it wrong?”

“No,” he said. “We do our research. If you’re hauling Axis cargo, odds are you deserve a visit from me.”

She studied him for a beat, then nodded. “Fair enough.”

Razion chuckled. “Then let’s start simple. The crew here needs help sorting through this salvage. You check for tracking devices, classify valuable parts, and prepare the dregs for expulsion. Think you can handle that?”

Lilas tilted her head, considering. “You want me to pick through junk and see what we can sell off? Yeah, that sounds like something I can manage.”

“Good,” he said. “Because you’re not qualified for much else at the moment.”

“Please, remind me again how useless I am.”

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