Wyzak

by Layla Nash

  But no. There wasn’t time. Already the dock grew noisier and more bounty hunters gathered, spreading out. She didn’t stand a chance. A moving target was harder to hit. If she hunkered down somewhere, she’d end up surrounded and probably taken prisoner. Then Wyzak would have a hostage situation, and she knew from experience that those never ended well for the hostages.

  So there was nothing to do but be brave and get moving.

  Gemma powered up the ship and checked the nav screen to make sure the Yyurl had plotted a viable path away from Proxima. She checked the comms and heard a crackle and hiss as the Sraibur confirmed they heard her.

  She held her breath, then flipped the engines into powered mode. The ship surged out of its garage slot, moving into the sparse traffic into a launch queue on the dock. Gemma remained low in the ship, holding her breath as another ship launched out of the port, disappearing with a bright flash. The shouting and calls on the port, increasing as different crews confronted each other over where to find her, distracted her from the task at hand. She couldn’t afford to delay.

  Another ship departed. Hers moved up. Only one between her and getting off the port. Gemma breathed into the comms unit. “We might not need to destroy the Memphis. I think I can—”

  An alarm blared and suddenly the crews scattered across the docks, racing for their ships.

  Shit. “Never mind. Get ready to trigger the explosives.” Gemma gripped the controls and maneuvered the small ship as the one in front of her tried to block her escape. “Three, two, one…do it.”

  She braced for the explosion and focused on breathing normally. No reason to make Wyzak crazy with worry by hyperventilating and muttering to herself.

  Two ships swarmed up around her, attempting to seize hers with hooks and access arms. Gemma gritted her teeth and figured there wasn’t any reason to wait for the explosion. She wrenched her ship around and lined up to depart the port, slamming as much power into the engines as she could find.

  One of the attacking ships fell away as she accelerated toward the escape window, but the other had an access arm that pirates used to seize and capture targets. It dragged at her ship, slowing her down, and Gemma swallowed a cry of sheer frustration as the ancient ship chugged and faltered and...

  A pressure wave rolled through the entire port as a massive explosion lit up the docks. Gemma’s ship tossed in the wave and nearly crashed, the seizure arm disengaging as the other ship flipped. Gemma’s ears rang and her vision doubled from getting thrown around, but she didn’t dare wait to take action. She activated the boosters on the propulsion system and fed full power to the engines, all of her focus on the tiny escape window that meant freedom.

  More alarms blared and lights flashed all through the port as damaged ships plummeted back to the docks and bounty crews scattered to put out fires on their burning ships. Gemma flicked the nav panel and activated the comms unit in her arm. “I’m almost out. The explosives worked. It seems like—”

  The entire ship jolted just as it passed through the port’s atmospheric barrier and into space. Gemma’s head wrenched around with the force of it; lights flashed in her ancient ship and she scrambled to figure out what happened. Maybe the departure window closed and clipped the back of the ship, or perhaps—

  A shadow loomed over her ship and put everything in darkness save for the flashing lights. Her mouth went dry and her stomach sank.

  Her ship tumbled through space, anchored to the other ship by a long, mobile seizure arm—more like a grappling hook linking her ship to the much larger one. They’d reel her in and drag her ship into the belly of theirs, and that would be it.

  Gemma wanted to close her eyes and give up, but surrender wasn’t an option. She said, “I’m tethered to another ship. I won’t be getting far.”

  Wyzak growled in her ear. “We’re almost there. Do you have an escape pod?”

  “This entire ship isn’t large enough to be an escape pod,” Gemma said. She shoved out of her seat and wormed around in the close quarters to reach the survival suit and the entry hatch. “They’re starting to reel me in. Do you have a fix on the ship? Can you…intervene?”

  Not that she wanted the Sraibur to destroy another ship just for her sake, but... Her ship lurched and swayed at the end of the tether, dragged in the wake of the larger ship as it sped away from Proxima. Her ship vibrated as it got dragged along. It wasn’t built for the kind of speed the large ship could achieve. They wouldn’t stick around in case another crew tried to steal her ship from them, but if she died in the process...

  Gemma gritted her teeth. Not today. She just had to pilot the ship so it didn’t end up destroyed in the wake of the other ship, and eventually the Sraibur would intervene.

  Or the bounty hunters would reel her into their ship, lock her up, notify the Tyboli...

  She paused, staring unseeing at the viewing screen and the vast expanse of space. What if they’d already told the Tyboli and those bastards were on the way? What if they arrived in time to capture her and the Sraibur? She choked on her breath and barely managed to steady her voice enough to say, “Is the radar clear? The Tyboli won’t be far.”

  “It’s clear. We arrive soon.”

  “Soon” wasn’t soon enough. Gemma struggled into the survival suit. Just in case.

  The cable leading to the other ship began to shorten, dragging her closer to captivity and a quick death if she was lucky. Her mech hand clenched. She looked down at it and took a deep breath.

  Maybe being a monster wasn’t a terrible thing. Maybe being “enhanced,” like the mechanic called her, could be a benefit.

  She put her ship into stasis, so it wouldn’t take off once she freed herself from the cable, and returned to the entry hatch. Gemma never thought of herself as particularly brave, but sometimes there wasn’t a choice. A few deep breaths helped.

  She fixed her attention on the hatch and said, “Wyzak, I’m getting the ship free. Hopefully by the time you get here, it won’t be an issue.”

  “No,” he snapped. She could just imagine his face and the flash of color in his scales. Probably red and orange for being furious with her.

  “I can’t just sit here and wait for them to reel me in,” she said. “It’ll be fine.”

  “Don’t do it,” he said, a hint of desperation in his tone. “Just wait, Gemma. I’m almost there.”

  She opened the hatch and maneuvered half out of the ship, searching for where the seizure cable anchored in the somewhat rusted exterior of her ship. “I’ll be here. See you soon.”

  Something about the survival suit or space affected the comms unit and made her motions stiff and uncoordinated. It took all of her effort to hold onto the ship as it dragged behind the larger ship; she had almost nothing left to spare to think about Wyzak’s feelings. She had to save herself. There wasn’t a partner around to help, and even Wyzak was too far away.

  Gemma clenched her fist and hauled herself outside the ship, hooking the safety strap to the exterior so she wouldn’t float away. It was all or nothing. At least she had her freakish arm to pry the grappling hook free. A regular Earther wouldn’t have been able to manage it.

  It was the first time she started to appreciate the damn thing.

  Chapter 39

  Wyzak

  Wyzak broke everything he could get his hands on on the bridge, and everything he could rip loose from the walls after Faros banished him to the loading bay. Nokx trailed behind him, shaking his head, and muttered about deploying one of the escape pods to try and distract whoever was dragging Gemma’s ship out into space. Wyzak barely heard.

  All he cared about was the comms unit pressed to his ear as he strained to hear every breath and whisper from Gemma. He thanked every star in the sky that she hadn’t silenced her comms unit, so at least he had the agony of hearing what happened as it unfolded. He didn’t have to imagine it in his nightmares.

  She was outside the ship. She’d gone outside her ship to try and free herself from the seizure ca
bles that the bounty hunters used. He wanted to tear his hair out and scream in frustration and fury. She’d lost her mind. Completely.

  Nokx tapped at the panels in the loading bay and announced calmly, “We’re approaching the ship. It... looks like there are more on the radar in pursuit. We might have a fight on our hands.”

  “She’s outside the ship. There will not be a fight.”

  “Wyzak, the other ships—”

  “We will get there first,” Wyzak said. He couldn’t conceive of leaving her outside that ship while others were barreling toward her, intent on capturing her.

  Nokx pointed at the survival suits on the wall. “Then suit up and get an escape pod. We can launch you to intercept her ship, and maybe you can escape before the bounty hunters notice.”

  Wyzak was moving before the loadmaster even finished speaking. The Sraibur barreled through space and the viewing screen lit up as they came in range. He growled as he strode to one of the escape pods, jumping in and activating the controls so he could get his mate. He hit the comms with the bridge and said, “I’m going to get Gemma.”

  “We’ll hold off the others,” Faros said, sounding bored. “Get her back, brother.”

  Wyzak nodded to himself, closed the hatch on the escape pod, and launched into space.

  Chapter 40

  Gemma

  Gemma had never wanted to spacewalk. It happened sometimes when something went wrong with the ship, but she hated every minute of it, every single time. It was so much worse when being dragged behind another, much faster-moving ship.

  She kept her right hand fixed to the ship and crawled along the exterior of the ship to where the cables attached. She gritted her teeth and wrapped her mech hand around the hooks. She maneuvered the hook, flexing with all of her strength and the super-grip of the mech hand, and clenched her jaw along with her grip.

  She didn’t have long. The ship dragging her was still reeling her in, although slowly. She had a minute or so, maybe more if they didn’t notice what she was doing. But if they were good bounty hunters, they had someone monitoring the effort to reel her in. They’d know what she was trying to do.

  Gemma worked faster as she struggled to breathe. No surprise that the survival suit on the ancient ship was also ancient. The cables slipped in her grasp and the hooks held firm. She cursed and tears blurred her vision. She had to do it. There wasn’t another choice.

  “Come on, damn it,” she whispered—to the hooks, to her hand, to the entire universe.

  The exterior of the ship dented as she pulled. The claws creaked and strained as they held fast, the cables stretched to their limit as the ships raced through the dark expanse. Gemma closed her eyes and centered herself, reaching deep for all of her strength and conviction. She could do it. She would do it.

  She opened her eyes and murmured, “This is it. Let’s do this.”

  Her mech fingers curled around the base of the grappling hook, bending one prong back. It tore into the exterior of the ship and left a rent in the protective armor, but at least it was free. The cables creaked and the rest of the hook strained, sending her ship swaying at the end of the cable. Gemma held on with both hands as her stomach flopped. It felt like an eternity before the ship stopped swinging, and all the while, the cables kept dragging her closer to the bounty ship.

  It was almost too close. The loading bay door began to open, lights spilling out into the darkness of space. She saw the silhouette of the loadmasters and probably some guards waiting. They pointed in her direction and movement erupted inside. So maybe they hadn’t realized she was trying to disengage the hook.

  Gemma panted with the effort of holding onto her ship and wrestling with the hook. The second prong didn’t want to disengage; it was more deeply seated than the first, and the third was the worst of all. Her mech arm ached with a deep burn. For the first time, she started to wonder if she could break the arm or push it into malfunctioning. Then she’d be completely out of options.

  “You can do it,” a deep voice said in her ear, and Gemma jumped.

  It took her a moment to recognize Wyzak’s voice. He sounded far calmer than he had the previous few times they’d talked.

  “You can do it, Gemma,” he repeated. “You are strong. Hold on. I’m coming for you.”

  “They see me,” she whispered. “They know what I’m doing. It’s… They’re pulling me in faster. I don’t know if I can get the hook out in time.”

  “You can.” Wyzak’s smooth tone and confidence settled some of the panic in her chest, drove away some of her doubts. “I know you can.”

  He believed in her. When her own faith in herself faltered, Wyzak was there. Gemma closed her eyes briefly and said, “I can do it. I will do it.”

  She heaved at the hook, bracing a boot against the exterior of the ship to use as much of her body for leverage as she could. The damn thing wouldn’t...

  It creaked more and then shifted; Gemma slipped. Felt her grip slide. Stared as the hook came free and the cables snapped back and sent the whole thing twisting. Her ship tumbled when the tension from the cables disappeared. Gemma watched as the hook spun around, almost catching her arm, and dove for the hatch before the damn thing could knock her into space.

  She struggled with the hatch as the ship drifted and spun. The larger ship immediately slowed and turned, the loading bay still open. They prepared to launch another seizure cable or an escape pod to capture her. Gemma gritted her teeth and wormed into the ancient ship. Just as she reached the controls, the entire thing jolted and shuddered, and another ship blocked her viewing screen entirely.

  Chapter 41

  Wyzak

  He watched from still too far away as the bounty hunter ship detached from Gemma’s, the cable swinging wide, and she dove for safety as her ship spun out of control. The bounty hunters turned their ship, intent on recapturing her, and Wyzak directed the escape pod to intercept. He called back to the Sraibur, “Take the bounty hunters. I’ll get Gemma.”

  “We’re on it,” Nokx said.

  The Sraibur appeared on his left, a reassuring and massive bulk that headed straight for the bounty hunters with weapons primed. Wyzak maneuvered the pod around to block between Gemma’s ship and the bounty hunters, then seized her ship to hold it steady so he could get to her. There was enough room for a few Xaravians in the escape pod; he could drag Gemma in and keep her next to him until they were back on the Sraibur.

  The bounty hunters weren’t the only threat, though. The escape pod’s viewing screen showed other ships approaching quickly. He didn’t have much time. The pod latched onto the ancient ship and held it tight, moving the ship so that the open escape hatch was aligned with the pod’s entry.

  The entry opened and he expected Gemma to fall gratefully into his arms. Instead, a flailing, furious girl exploded into the much roomier pod. She managed to whack him in the side of the head with her mech arm, sending Wyzak staggering, before he managed to catch her arms and hold her still. “Gemma, it’s me.”

  The survival suit looked three generations too old, and it blocked his view of her face for far too long. Wyzak couldn’t let go of her as Gemma sagged against him; he wanted to hold her tight for the rest of his life. But they weren’t safe yet. He could see through the entry hatch that at least three ships were approaching.

  He secured the hatch, not releasing Gemma, and half-dragged, half-carried her toward the pilot and navigator seats. Wyzak pulled off his survival suit respirator, then worked to remove hers. Gemma struggled and it took forever until he could finally catch her face and drag her mouth to his for a kiss. He needed to touch her, to feel her. To reassure himself that she was alive despite the chaos and terror of almost losing her, almost seeing her launched into space without a tether.

  Gemma broke away, sobbing for air, and staggered toward the nav seat. “We have to…go. The ship is coming back, and—”

  “Yes,” he said. Wyzak released the pod’s capture arms so the ancient ship she’d been in fell
as the pod flew away from all of the approaching ships. The Sraibur bullied its way into the midst of the conflict, attempting to deter the bounty hunters, and Wyzak upped the propulsion until the pod accelerated and started to gain some distance.

  Gemma shivered and started to shed the ancient survival suit. She favored her left arm, wincing occasionally, until Wyzak worried she’d done permanent damage to herself in her crazy plan to free her ship from the bounty hunters. He reached out to catch her right hand, his hearts starting to calm now that he finally had her safely beside him. “Are you injured?”

  “No,” she said quietly, but something in her tone made it clear it wasn’t the whole truth. She shifted in the seat and adjusted the restraints, not looking at him. “Are we… Are they still chasing us?”

  He flipped the viewing screen over to the radar view so they could both scan for threats. Wyzak growled and caught her hand again, needing to feel her smooth skin against his scales. “The Sraibur will deter them. They’re no match for the Sraibur. We just need to get enough distance that the bounty hunters won’t be able to identify them.”

  The pod cruised away from the chaos that unfolded as Faros gleefully laid waste to the three or four bounty hunter crews that had attempted to catch Gemma. The smaller ships held their own for a while, but it wasn’t long until all departed but the largest—and no doubt they were tempted by the massive bounties due for capturing the full Sraibur crew.

  The Sraibur could hold its own. Wyzak set the pod to autopilot and checked the viewing screen once more to make sure no one else approached, then turned all of his attention on Gemma.

  She’d started shaking, staring at the viewing screen, and she didn’t speak. He knew the signs of shock. He’d seen it a few times in warriors after the first time they truly stared death in the eyes and came out the other side. Wyzak caught both of her hands and tried to get her attention. “You are very brave, and very foolish. What happened? Why did you leave the ship?”