Page 64 of Taken to Kor
“How did this happen? Shroving Herannathon!”
“I’ve never seen him like that before,” Tevbarannos says. “He was losing his mind. Said that the tank belonged to him. He was talking about the sleeping female inside like you talk about Deena.”
“Huh,” Deena says, eyes wide. “You think he’s in love with her already? He doesn’t even know her?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I mutter, trying to refocus these pirates, though Deena’s assessment is correct and Herannathon’s behavior, odd. “What matters is whether or not we can find that ship again. The cloaking device on Herannathon’s ship is strong.”
“Ontte. That’s why I had to come to tell you in person. The Drakesh took our tokens. But Ashmara and her reavers tookRhegaran and Ewanrennaronto track the ship. They’re on its trail.”
I exhale, slightly more relieved than I was, “Good. We’ll go after them while you clean up this mess and find me Pogar and…”
“Hey! They’re not here!” The voice of one of my pirates shouts up from the open hole carved out of the building Deena emerged from. I squint and see Nikkowerranorru standing in the opening holding a blow torch in one hand and, in another, a radium knife. He shrugs. “Your traitors are gone.”
“What?” Deena shouts, starting forward. “I saw them both go up the stairs. And I shot Mathilda twice. She can’t have gone far.”
“Ontte. There’s red blood on the stairs. You musta tagged her good. But there’s no body. There’s an opening though in the wall where it looks like they might have tunneled out, except it just leads to the alley behind this one. Big alley though.”
“Big enough for a ship?” I ask.
“Ontte.” He nods, gesturing back towards the house with his blowtorch. “And there’s scorch marks on the ground.”
“Interesting.” I frown and quickly fire on my token. “Gerannu? Gerannu, what’s the status of the mothership? Any communication requests come through to you to allow a ship to travel off planet?”
There’s static.Static. “What the shrov is going on? Did you build faulty tokens using out of date yamar?” I tap the token in my ear, as if that might encourage Gerannu to speak through it. “Nikkowerranorru. Why can’t I get through to Gerannu?”
The male steps through the opening and approaches us with one hand raised. The other is fiddling with a circular device built directly into the skin of his lower left wrist. I’ve never seen this device type before and ask him about it.
“Experimental tokens. We meshed some yeeyar bits with something we bought off the Lemoran.”
“They’re a primitive species.”
He nods. “They are. But their crystals aren’t.”
Suddenly an image flares to life, bright as a flame, above the disc on his wrist. In it, I can see a face. Gerannu’s. And it’s covered in black blood. All that’s visible are his teeth, because he’s grinning. “It took you long enough to think to use this channel to get through to me Nikkowerranorru,” Gerannu hisses.
I step forward and grab Nikkowerranorru’s wrist. I speak directly into the token. “What the shrov is happening up there?”
“Mutiny. Erobu let twenty Egama mercenaries on board and then gave permission to a series of ships to take off from Kor. The warriors they sent were Egamafemales. Their cries disabled us. Their jammer took out our tokens but I managed to tap into the yeeyar of the ship and rig up a scrambler. After that we managed to take back the command center, but we couldn’t stop them from opening the hangar and stealing a dozen of our battle cruisers. We’re tracking them here and they’re making good progress towards your planet, Deena.”
“Shrov.” My curse is complemented by the curse of a dozen or more pirates who can hear this.
“We need to alert the humans,” Deena says.
I balk. “Against Niahhorru battle cruisers your Voraxian allies don’t stand a chance.”
“Then we need to give them one.”
“It’s risky, Rhorkanterannu,” Gerannu says. “We don’t want war with the Voraxians.”
“There won’t be a war,” Deena says and she starts off at a run — a waddle. “Because I’m leading the charge.”
Quintenanrret starts after her first, even before I do. “Deena! You should be resting. You’re in the final stages of your pregnancy.”
She pulls her nano blaster from underneath her dress, points it at Quintenanrret’s feet and shoots between them. He jumps into the air and I grin so hard it feels like my cheeks are composed of stone and are cracking right up the middle. “If youdaresuggest that I don’t join you on what is sure to be the most exciting battle of my lifetime, then you are even crazier than Nikkowerranorru.”
“What did I do?” Nikkowerranorru shouts behind me.
“Quintenanrret, step aside or issue a challenge,” Deena says, rising up onto her tip toes. “I will fight you.”
