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Rokai simply kept his gaze on her, waiting for the rest.

Finally, she sighed and gave him what he wanted. “What do I look like?”

“You look like a warrioress from the clans of planet Lin’cress.”

“And so I am. Close enough, anyway.”

“How did you get here?” he asked.

“My people don’t exist anymore. Not in the way that we once did. They chose different paths, different regions, different leaderships over the years, leaving our people a ghost of what they once were. There was nothing left for me to do, and no one left for me to commune with. I left and never looked back.”

“Seems like you’re looking back now.”

“No point wanting for something that will never be again. I’ve spent a number of years, drifting, looking for battles that deserved my attention. And lying low when there are none.”

“You call what happened today lying low?”

“I was!” she exclaimed defensively, “until you showed up. Then I decided I could get involved and help you, or I could stand by and watch things unfold. I decided to get involved.”

“There’s more to this I’m sure,” Rokai said, as he lifted his communicator from its resting place and woke it up by skimming his thumb over it. He waited only a moment for Bart to answer.

“Do you have her?!” Bart demanded.

“I do.”

“Is she well? Does she say that she’s been treated well? Is she…”

“Stop! I have none of those answers. She’s unconscious. Alive, but unconscious. I don’t think she was treated very well since I found her hidden in a room concealed behind a wall.”

“I’ll kill them. I’ll kill every fucking one of them.”

“We’ve already killed those involved. It’s better that you change course for Cruestace. I’m taking her there for treatment, along with the other female.”

“Other female?” Bart asked.

“There were three of them. One didn’t make it, I have Mirilla and the second female. Somebody needs to go back for her and make sure her remains get back to her family, whoever she was.”

“You’re right. I’ll make sure it’s handled. I still want to burn that fucking place to the ground.”

“Instead, you should put a team in place to intercept the ship that was coming for Mirilla and the other two. The way one of the males told it is that it’s a blue ship.”

“It’s massive,” Elspeth whispered.

“It’s a massive ship, and it arrives twice a month to purchase whatever females have been stashed away for them.”

“They come like clockwork. Except for this month, I haven’t seen them yet this month,” Elspeth said.

“Who is that?!” Bart demanded.

“Elspeth.”

“Elspeth, who?”

“Just Elspeth. She’s going to need immunity as well.”

Bart started to speak, but Rokai interrupted him.

“She helped me find Mirilla. And she held an entire drinkery at bay with me.”

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