Page 25 of A Mate for Vasek
She recognized the words “fire,” “destroy,” and “now.”
Vasek closed out the message, then got up and joined her at her almost-organized piles. She still didn’t know how she’d be able to store them so they were easily accessible as well as organized in the long run. The fact that the cabinet was just one giant dump zone was the problem to begin with.
“We need to get everything back into the cabinets now,” he said, picking up the corners of the sheets under one of the piles and tying them into a bundle.
Dawn followed his lead, doing the same to the pile she was currently sorting. “What’s happening?”
“Pirates. They are demanding that we let them board or they will open fire. I have not replied, but I have slowed my ship down. They will not fire if they believe we are choosing the nonviolent option. This ship is not well equipped with weapons.”
Dawn frowned. “But you don’t plan on letting them on board,” she stated rather than asked, because she didn’t think him the type to simply roll over.
“No, we are going to get close enough that they can’t fire on us, but not close enough for them to magnetize. Then, I’m going to blast right through them. They’ll need to turn around before they can pursue us. And even the mount turrets need time to recalibrate. It will give us a head start.”
There was only one pile left to tie and bundle when the shuttle’s alert had Vasek scrambling back to the pilot’s seat.
Realizing there was no time to pack this one up, she shoved the whole thing into the still-open and overflowing cabinet, then pushed at the door until she heard the click of the locking mechanism.
“Get in the transport now,” Vasek demanded. “Strap in. This is going to be rough.”
Dawn scrambled to the back of the shuttle and had just barely managed to get into the transport when the force of the shuttle lurching forward had her slamming back hard into the seat.
Vasek
Vasek made another hard left and evaded another shot. He had long since realized that the pirates inside the two ships currently chasing them wanted him alive because they were still trying to get him to give up and agree to be boarded.
If they were only interested in the goods on the ship, then they would’ve used lethal force already, since the medical supplies protected in the ship’s storage often survived crashes, smoke, and small fires. The question was, were they after him? Or Dawn?
Did Morad have the contacts and the influence to have someone already waiting for their arrival? He doubted it.
If he had to guess, he’d bet they were run-of-the-mill pirates who wanted his shuttle. The thing about stealing ships was that many of them required both a code and a genetic match to operate. Without them, they would have to tow the ship, then pay someone a lot of credits to hack the system, or they couldpart it out and sell it piecemeal, but they wouldn’t be able to use the ship.
The easiest option was to force him to tell them the code and remove the failsafe, which was what they were likely trying to do.
His best bet was to get as close as possible to Kean’s compound and message for help. But he would then owe the powerful drug lord a favor. Vasek preferred it the other way, with others owinghimfavors for saving their lives.
Another shot flew at him, and he barely got his shuttle out of the way. He sure hoped Dawn had gotten herself strapped in; even safely secured this was going to be rough on her human body. They weren’t as resilient to extreme changes in gravity as Talleans were.
Luckily, the shots fired at him were meant to control his ship's direction rather than to kill. But he also didn’t like being herded. They were trying to force him behind the closest moon where he could bet another ship waited, ready to ambush him. He didn’t want to play that game.
It wasn’t only his survival he had to worry about now, but Dawn’s. So he did something unexpected, turning and aiming his shuttle straight down toward the planet. They were nowhere near a port or even a major city. The only thing as far as the eye could see was dense jungle.
Would they be desperate enough to follow him in? That depended on when their last successful attack had been. Desperate males did desperate things.
What would they do to Dawn? The thought had him growling and gritting his teeth.
Distracted by the distasteful thoughts, he’d noticed the incoming shot too late.
“Fuck!”
A sudden jolt had the entire shuttle shaking and rattling. The lights flickered, and the screen turned black for a singular moment as he realized that they’d been hit. They were going down.
Chapter 14
Dawn
Dawn blinked, but nothing except the darkness inside the transport greeted her. She reached for the seat’s harness and realized she wasn’t upright anymore. She braced her feet so she wouldn’t slide over to one side. So that was why everything felt wrong.
What had happened? The last thing she remembered was holding on and wondering if they were going to make it as the shuttle veered from side to side. Then nothing.
