Page 16 of Taken to Kor
“You sure you want to turn back? We can keep looking for her.”
Her. Because there is only one that matters.
I grunt, remaining silent. “Centare. I’m sure of nothing.” I look up at him and he watches me with a frown. Does he know that she’s my lifeline and that that line has been severed? I think so. I didn’t make any real effort to hide it from anyone but her.
He shrugs and huffs out of one corner of his mouth. “Suit yourself. You heard the pirate,” he shouts at the three dozen pirates working the walls covered in controls. “Let’s get back to mother.” The joke earns him a few chuckles, a few bawdy laughs, more than a few lewd comments about the pleasures waiting for us back on Kor.
There are houses for pleasure. Any and all kinds.
But females capable of bearing Niahhorru kits? Centare, these are a rare find.
And I lost her.
I can feel the ship beneath me gathering power as she prepares to warp, but before she can, a soft voice whimpers into reality and for a moment, I wonder if I haven’t lost the tenuous grip I have on my thoughts. Instead, I hearherand she says, “Te…te…te…teoranka tak.”
A shiver moves up my spine and lifts me onto my feet. I twist at the wrong moment, like a youngling whose hiannru tines are hardening for the first time and they aren’t yet fully conscious of them, and get stuck in the command chair. I wrench free and find Herannathon watching me with a small smile curling his mouth. I wave him off with a growl, then hold up one hand.
“Wait,” I tell him, then turn and stalk across the command center until I reach the view pane. The black yeeyar condenses over my palm before shooting off again, refusing to remain static — its only fallible property.
In the quiet, I whisper her name. “Deena?” There is no answer. “Deena, can you hear me?”
I can’t determine what I’m hearing — scrabbling or static or heavy breathing?
“Deena?”
And then a gut-wrenching moan and her voice shoots into my brain so loud it hurts me down to the soles of my feet. “I’ll fuck you,” she gasps and it doesn’t sound like her. This voice is deep and scratchy, starved.Desperate.“I’ll fuck everybody…every…body in Kor. I’ll fuck you…thirty…cocks…all the pirates in the whole shroving galaxy.” She’s sobbing and it breaks every piece of me.
“Eye sockets,” she squeals, voice twisting out of the back of her throat in a pitch so high only beasts could understand it. There’s a pounding, like a fist, then she sobs harder, “Just come get me. Rhorky bear, please. Please…”
“Deena — ” My voice breaks. I rub my face roughly. I start to pace. The chilling temperature of the bridge drops even further. I watch as my typically-bawdy crew quiets. Wandering hands still. Eyes follow my every move. Bodies edge away from me, framing the perimeter of the asymmetrically shaped room.
There are no hard edges, only fluid angles shaped by the will of the yeeyar. I stomp across every one of them, moving awkwardly, brutally. I grab hold of the back of one chair and grip it with all four of my arms. I squeeze and the metal bends beneath my fists.
“Coordinates,” I manage to say, though my voice is thick and Deena is screaming. Crying screaming shrieking breathing way too shroving hard. I need her to calm the shrov down! I need her to explain to me in clear detail what is happening to her and where she is but I know she’s not capable of that, not with the tortured way she’s freaking out.
“I’ll do you and…I’ll do Herannathon…Gerannu…Erobu…I’ll fuck…your whole shroving…crew!”
“Deena!” I roar and I’m not sure I’ve ever screamed like I’m screaming now. But it’s hard to control my pitch when all of my organs are liquifying and pouring out through my mouth. “Deena, tell me the shroving coordinates!”
“You just want…the other human women…not…defective…”
“Deena!”
She does that screaming squeal again and I pull my right elbows back and send them flying. The chair crumbles inward in front of me. “Promise me you’ll come get me, Rhork!” She shouts.
“I swear! Just tell me the coordinates!”
“Quad…quad 0, star system 3-4-8-8-8-8-0-9-0-2, position…position…”
“What is the position, Deena?” My fingers are shaking as they hover over the control panel. It is an enormous thing, spread entirely across one wall. My crew shoves each other to get out of my way fast enough.
“Position 62…you’ll…see an asteroid field. I’m in the middle…Balesilha…covered in…rot…” She breaks into sobs again and when they start to peter out, a horrible urge to destroy something sits on my chest like a fat shroving opponent and I can’t get out from under it. I sink into one of the command chairs, brace one elbow on my knee and cover my eyes with one hand.
I can feel the movement of the ship accelerating beneath me and my crew murmuring as the transporter jumps, moving us back into the grey zone. We’re far from Kor, but not even a location pinned outside of the eight known quadrants would keep me from going for her now. I use my lower left hand to rub my mouth. It’s dry and I’m hot and I want to strangle her.
“I think…I’m running…out of air.” Her voice is quieter than it was, but no calmer, jerking with every second word.
My gut is shroving fire. I’ve…I’ve never felt like this. “You aren’t running out of air. You have twelve solars’ worth in the oxygenator.”
