Page 49 of Her Alien Cyborgs
“The weapons,” Heath hissed, her eyes suddenly filled with a vicious coldness Hezza did not like at all. “You’re transporting restricted weapons that belong to the IAF.”
That wasit. “I’m doing no such thing. If byweaponsyou’re referring to the two Vardarians on board theGambit, they are living beings free to make their own choices. The last time I checked, the IAF didn’t sanction slavery. Has that changed?”
To her credit, Heath wasn’t stupid. She realized her error and backpedaled immediately.
“Of course not. But they are dangerous, and it’s our stance that they need to be put into protective custody for the time being.”
She was about to let loose with another volley of snark when the screen with the progress bar flashed green. A message appeared where the progress bar had been.
“Unknown device located on panel JX17-9.”
Yes!
According to the scan, the tracker was on the starboard side of the ship near the midsection. Fortunately, her mates were already on the starboard side airlock. A quick tap of her fingers called up another view. This one showed Fyr’enth and Kalan in the airlock. Or it should have. Instead, all she saw was a lone figure spooling out a tether line. That would be Fyr’enth. Which meant Kalan was already on his way.
Be safe,she thought and wished she had their ability to communicate through internal channels. It was possible butonly if she took the nanotech treatment. It was one more reason to add to the growing list.
Everything she’d done after her mates left the cockpit was part of the plan. Hezza was the distraction, and like every street magician or hustler she’d ever met, while she drew the mark’s attention, the real work was happening somewhere else.
“Sorry for the delay, I was getting my ship repositioned so I can move it into a high orbit.” What she’d actually done was ensure the starboard side of the ship remained out of theFalcon’sline of sight while setting them up for a fast exit.
Heath’s eyes narrowed even further. “Where are your Vardarian guests?” She uttered the last word with distaste.
Hezza gestured around the small cockpit. “My ship is not large. If I tried to cram mycrewinto this tiny space, I wouldn’t be able to fly the ship.”
“That is not an answer. If you’re trying to get them off your ship…”
“To go where?” Hezza asked. “It’s not like I’m going to shove them out an airlock and hope they find someone else to give them a ride.”
She decided it was time to change tactics. “They’re struggling to deal with everything that’s happened. Your approach isn’t helping the situation. Why can’t you show a little empathy?”
The woman’s response sent a chill down Hezza’s spine. Her expression hardened, not from anger but from something worse—hatred. “I will not feel sorry for a machine. If you’re not in orbit in five minutes, I will give the command to fire on you. Heath out.”
The screen went blank.
“Fraxxyou, too,” Hezza muttered as she pulsed the thrusters in the general direction they were supposed to go. When it was time to get gone, she’d need every bit of acceleration she could get.
With time running out and no way to contact her mates, she was left drumming her fingers on the console as she watched Fyr’enth in the airlock. At least he was pulling the tether in, which meant Kalan was on his way back.
She was about to break radio silence and risk being overheard just to get a status update when Kalan flew through the open airlock.
Fyr’enth dropped the tether and slammed his hand down on the “seal hatch” button.
They both raised their hands and shook them at the camera so hard they looked like oversized Jeskyrans on aja’kreeshbender.
She got the message. Mission accomplished.
“Ship, increase the inertial damper field in airlock one and give me full power to the standard engines with no safety checks. Once we’re clear, we’ll transition to hyperspace.”
She’d already had the AI make the calculations on the best place to make the jump based on a specific set of criteria she’d given it. Every maneuver since then had been intended to put them on the best trajectory to reach that point in one piece. The orbital path she’d chosen put them in theFalcon’s line of sight, but only by a few degrees. Once she throttled up, they’d vanish behind the curve of the planet in under twenty seconds.
Heath really wasn’t very good at her job. She hadn’t seen what Hezza was up to, and now it was too late to stop her.
Well, it was almost too late. And thatalmostmade the next twenty seconds feel like an eternity.
She considered hailing theFalconto say goodbye, but rejected the idea. Taunting an enemy with more guns than you was never a good idea.
Instead, she throttled up the engines and flew like her life depended on it… because it did.
