Page 69 of Sol Survivor

“Please… Remain here.If you are harmed again, hewillkill me.”Caah met her gaze, his white eyes unsettling.“I guard you as I would expect him to do for me had you been mine.”

Sweet of him to say but unnecessary.“Fine.I’ll give him five more minutes.Can you check in with Nenn?”She peered into the darkness, desperate for some noise to tell her Drafe was okay.“I want to know how Tiny’s doing.”She chewed on a fingernail, a little worried her friend might die.

Caah tapped his neck.“Nenn, status?”He smiled.“Good, we will find you soon.”He whispered to Vic, “He has found Tiny and is treating her head wound.”

Relief drained the last adrenaline pumping through her veins.“Tell me, Caah, why didn’t my armor stop the blaster shot?”She raised her elbow to better see her bicep, dark with her blood.Already the pain had dissipated.

“Summoning it comes with practice.In the beginning, its reaction to danger is unreliable.”

“So I should have had it ready from the start?”Stops a punch but not a shot?Go figure.

“Yes and no.As you train, its formation will become swifter, almost as fast as thoughts fly.”He chuckled.“Your existence and the symbiotes transferring to you without the ceremony is what will flummox the Q.C.C.I look forward to their revelation.They can be pompous eels.”

She blinked.Did he call his superiors eels?

What lighting remained, flickered then fizzled out, enshrouding her and Caah in sheer darkness.She stilled, straining her ears to listen.A solid weight pinned her to the metallic grates, then rolled her just as a blaster shot flared white, burning into her retinae.In the flash of light, she’d caught a glimpse of Dieter, the muzzle of the blaster inches from where her head had been.She laughed then swallowed it when Caah cupped her mouth and flipped her again as another shot flew past her left shoulder.

“Computer,” she whispered, “switch on all lights.”

A scream followed.

In the blinding white fluorescents, she half-expected to find Dieter still in the passage.He’d slithered back to the engine room; night goggles lay where he must have discarded them.

“Good,” she muttered.

Across the doorway, Drafe lunged.A thud and grunt had to mean he’d tackled Dieter to the floor.While they grappled, huffing and cursing, she pushed Caah off, careful not to hurt him.He offered her a sheepish smile and helped her to her feet.

“Want to stay for the show?”she asked him.

“Got to.Drafe might need me…us.Best you stay too.”

She snorted.When she crept closer to the engine room’s doorway, Caah tried to hold her back.She shrugged him off, waved her blaster as proof she was fine, then peered through the door at Drafe with a dagger at Dieter’s throat.He growled something she couldn’t pick up, but it had Caah nodding as if what he’d said made sense.

“Blood for her blood,” Drafe said, plunged the wicked dagger into Dieter’s chest, then twisted it.He didn’t pause to make sure Dieter breathed his last.Instead, he rose, kicked Dieter’s blaster across the room, then strode to her.Sweeping her into his arms, he stole a kiss before leaning back to study her wound.“Already healing.”

“Feeling better?”she asked, despite loving his defense of her.

He scowled.“When I can no longer smell your blood, then I will be well.”

Computer intoned, “Captain, Nikko is requesting release from lockdown.”

“Denied.”She chuckled.Poor Nikko, unable to free himself on his own ship.

“Acknowledged.”

She rolled her shoulders, slamming her fist into her palm.“Time to even the score.”She took the elevator to the mess level, striding with eagerness to the sealed door.“Computer, free Nikko.”

As soon as could the door opened wide enough, she vaulted forward, pinning Nikko to the bulkhead.

“Vic?How is this—?”His eyes bulged when he peered over her shoulder at Drafe and Caah.

She squeezed his throat to get his attention.“I found the prisoners, Nikko.Care to explain?And the pods?Curious little things.Why would an ice hauler have either?”

When he struggled and clawed at her hand, she dug her nails into his skin until he ceased his escape attempts.

“No one questions an ice hauler traveling between planets, and Carne pays well,” he rasped.

“Mm, and what’s the security protocol when delivering your goods?”

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