Page 57 of Havik: Warlord Brides
And she didn’t know how to fly a spaceship.
She did know how to clean up a mess and doing that would improve the animals’ lives, albeit temporarily.
Thalia found a hose with a spray nozzle and a waterspout. She rinsed off the floor, directing the worst of the filth into the center drain. At least the ship was generous with water. The potable water was on a different supply tank than the recycled gray water used for almost everything else.
Wet and up to her knees in filth, Thalia did not hear the door open.
“Who let you in here?” Sue demanded.
Thalia released her grip on the hose’s nozzle. “Naston.”
“Lazy bastard.” Sue narrowed her eyes. “I suppose you’re some bleeding-heart animal lover and you want answers.”
“You’re poachers.”
Sue grimaced. “Nah. Smugglers. I don’t do the actual poaching, just transportation.”
“These are endangered animals. Don’t you care that you’re destroying something special and rare?”
“What did you think we smuggled, sugarplum?” Sue’s fingers brushed against the blaster on her hip.
Thalia held up her hands in surrender. “I don’t know. Overtaxed goods. Luxury cheese. Drugs. Weapons. People.”
Sue laughed, almost barking. “You didn’t think we smuggled people? There’s no profit in people. I’d have to stack them tip to tail, and there would be no way to keep the inventory healthy in those conditions.”
“People are not inventory,” Thalia said, knowing full well that other smugglers had no problem with the conditions Sue described.
“People are not profitable inventory,” Sue clarified.
“What about stasis chambers?”
“Do you want me to traffic people? Is that what you’re getting at?”
“No! No. The cages are cruel and difficult to clean. Stasis chambers seem more humane,” Thalia said.
Sue shook her head. “The tech is controlled too tightly by the military and planetary governments. Any working units you can find are ancient or cobbled together from decommissioned parts. They’re finicky and the failure rate is too high.”
Thalia nodded, remembering what the warlord had said about the backup batteries failing in the recovered chambers. “What’s going to happen to the animals?”
“I’m sure I have no idea. Whatever the collectors want: a new pet, to eat them, to fight, grind up their bones for tea, or maybe even fuck them.”
Thalia’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “So, no people?”
Something cold flashed in the captain’s eyes. “Not unless they’re profitable. I’m going to need your comm unit now.”
Thalia swallowed the lump that seemed to have lodged itself in her throat but complied.
Sue continued speaking as she slid the comm unit into a pocket. “It’s really fortunate the way you fell in my lap. I had a whiny little man—Toddy, Timmy, something boring—to bring to the auction. He owed my boss a lot of money, but some idiot paid me twice what Tommy was worth. You’re just pure profit.”
Thalia was wrong. She had never put her plan into action. She had been bait the entire time.
Chapter 15
Thalia
After mucking out the cargo hold, Thalia spent the next two days locked in Paadric’s old cabin. She tried to keep herself from thinking about the dead man but went through a closet and drawers full of mismatched, oddly sized clothes. Perhaps there had been a Paadric once and his weight might have fluctuated enough for the various sized flight suits, but not his height. This cabin seemed to be the dumping ground of all the belongings from Sue’s deceased crew members like some space-age Bluebeard.
Thalia would have read the hell out of that book. Living the reality? Not so much.
