Eow reversed her movement, now running her palm along his jaw. The dark pad on her palm felt like warm suede, and the tips of her claws lightly scratched along his skin. The sensation sent tingles down his neck and seemed to soothe the pain.
"I can make you a deal," she whispered with a glance toward the sensors on the wall opposite the cells. "If you get me out of here, I can help you get that safebox. And if you help me get off this ship, I can offer you protection by the Eridani Mafia."
He looked into her amethyst eyes, just centimeters from his across the bars. There was that dangerous spark again. He took her hand in his. "And just how do you think you can help me get the safe? Do you know how to fight?"
Eow leaned her head back and laughed, fangs glimmering in the light of the LEDs. "I am a warrior in my culture." She flexed her other hand and black claws shot soundlessly out from each finger, each claw as sharp and long as a filet knife. "But I cannot do it alone. Together, we can manage. I have a few… tricks. I imagine you do, too. By the look of it, I'm guessing your partner's right arm is more than it appears. It may have fooled the pirates, but I've seen a custom job like that before."
He nodded. "And do you have a ship?"
"In the hangar." She flexed again and her claws retracted. "We go to the Eridani first and you drop me off. From there, you're free to go where you choose. So, do we have a deal, stud?"
His eyebrow flexed at stud. "Yeah. We have a deal."
She once again ran the back of her hand across his jaw and gave him a smile, the tips of her fangs showing over her lower lip. The touch of her fur was soothing. But he didn't trust her. No one associated with the Eridani Mafia should be trusted. But there wasn't a better choice, was there?
She slipped her hand down his neck and down into his shirt, letting her fingertips play in the hair of his chest. "I don't know what the Bloodhawk has in store for us, but I'm glad I'm not alone here…" Her eyes met his. "…for whatever fate has in store for us."
Suddenly she sat back and withdrew her hand, her eyes on the door. And then he heard it too — heavy steps. The door to the brig opened with a clank and squeal of metal hinges. Mom and the two Pleiadeans dragged Yiorgos through.
"Oi! You!" Mom said to Dirken. "Turn around and put your hands on the far wall!"
Dirken did as instructed, then the cell door opened and Yiorgos was dumped onto the floor. The door slammed shut behind him. Dirken turned around and watched as the Pleiadeans stepped out.
Mom went last. As he put a foot through the door, he looked back and winked at Eow. "Hey, kitty. Later I'm goin' to make you purr." He reached down and grabbed his crotch, gave it a squeeze, ran his tongue over his lips. Then he stepped out the door, shutting and locking it.
Eow showed her fangs, staring daggers at Mom as he left.
Dirken knelt and checked Yiorgos. The cyborg was awake, but the organic side of his face was swollen and red. The metallic portions of his head, both shoulders, and right arm were dented, and the edges were bent up here and there as if the pirates had tried to pry parts off of him.
Dirken helped his partner onto his bunk and laid him down. "You look like you've been chewed up by a Horlkan and spit out."
Yiorgos gave a wan smile. "I'm still better looking than you."
Dirken scrutinized Yiorgos's right arm, the one with the plasma saber. The mechanisms seemed intact.
He bend down close to Yiorgos's ear. "We've got a way out of here, and somewhere to hide out — when you've recovered."
"Oh, good," Yiorgos said. "Another of your brilliant plans." He coughed several times, then, rolling over, added, "I think I still have a few centimeters of my body that aren't broken yet."
CHAPTER TEN
BANSHEE CRY
Dirken sat on his bunk with his back against the wall, listening to the sounds of the ship and feeling its vibrations.
Every starship had its routines, even those that lacked the annoying chimes and shift changes of the United Worlds "Silver Fleet." Though there wasn't a star or the rotation of a planet to set a day/night cycle, and every species had their own circadian rhythm, there was still a cadence to the crew and their activities. There was a natural ebb and flow of movement. At certain times, voices grew quieter. Steps grew lighter. And those who weren't needed for ship duty found themselves easing into bunks, electro-stimulant cushions, cocoons, or whatever the species in question slept in, as others awakened. Machinery grew quiet as their users left them for rest, so the vibrations through the decks and bulkheads grew quiet, too, then resumed noises as new hands started operating them.
And so Dirken sat and listened, waiting for the right moment to make their escape.
In his right hand he held his lucky Rigellian runestone. He rolled it around absentmindedly with his thumb as he listened to the ship. Then he looked down at it. Brown with green, glistening specks. Smooth. Irregular. Ovoid. He'd found the stone in some ruins during a mission to Rigel C and one of its worlds. Engraved on one side of the stone was a rune from an ancient Rigellian culture. The rune resembled a Chinese character — a collection of straight lines and swirls that, if you squinted, looked vaguely like a pinup girl wearing a conical hat. "Luck" is what it stood for, according to a hoary Rigellian wizardess he'd consulted who'd laughed maniacally at him, the mouth at the top of her pear-shaped head emitting a warbling "Lululululululu!"
Yiorgos had slept for hours after his interrogation as his body rested and his mechanical systems repaired themselves in what ways they could. Now he sat in his bunk performing his Netfolding ritual. His head was bent in meditation, eyes half open and focused on the holographic Sphere of Unity projected into cupped hands.
Dirken watched as Eow went through some sort of martial arts kata in her cell, the series of moves performed in slow motion. Now arms were outstretched as she dipped into a bow. Then she swept upward, leg raised, into an upright stance. She turned, bent, and extended her claws, then sliced the air. Her slim muscles pulsed under the fur as she held each position. Her eyes were half-closed. Breasts rose and fell with careful breaths. The line of her flexing, muscular thighs rose in a steady curve to her firm ass as she turned. And then she was facing him, dipping low, the tightly-adhered clothing revealing the intoxicating arc of her crotch.
He looked up to her face and saw that she watched him with those amethyst eyes. He didn't look away. She kept eye contact as she lowered and made a sweep with her hand in a clawing motion, exhaled, then turned into a stance, her tail moving the other direction to aide in balance. Then she swept the ground as if picking up a staff, turned away, and lunged forward.
It was a sultry dance he could watch for hours and never grow bored. Indeed, it was a talent that could make her a very profitable living in a thousand night clubs across the galaxy, particularly if that thin outfit happened to slip off….
He noticed her fur seemed perfect, unblemished, except for a small, oval blank patch at the back of her neck had the same suede appearance as her palms.
Yiorgos muttered, "Let it be joined," signaling the end of his Netfolding. The projection ended, the Sphere of Unity disappeared, and he opened his eyes all the way. He turned and looked at Dirken. The organic part of his face was a giant bruise. Dirken figured his own was much the same.
"Well, Dirk?"
Dirken knew what he meant. He nodded to the cyborg. The ship had grown quiet enough. It was time to make their escape.
"Eow," Dirken said. "Time."
The Ananak drew her kata to a close, her left hand held in a stiff upright salute at her chest, her right hand clawed down by her thigh. Then she nodded her agreement, a smile playing over her lips as her gaze swept down over his body.
He returned the gaze, imagining her athletic form in his hands. Oh, what he would give for a night with her… if they both survived this, that is.
Dirken closed his eyes for a moment to compose himself, then he got up from the bunk and nonchalantly stepped over to the door of the cell, making himself as wide as he could
, arms at his sides, blocking much of the view from the surveillance system.
He heard the clicking and whirring of Yiorgos's arm transforming, then the reverberation of his plasma saber kicking on. A split second later came the metallic whoosh of him cutting through the bunk supports.
"Now!" Yiorgos barked, and Dirken stepped aside. The bunk went sliding past him, turned sideways, just narrow enough to pass through the bars, and slammed into the surveillance system.
The metal bunk contacted the projecting electrocution needles. Electricity arced across all the components as it shorted out and the system went down, the lights on it flickering and going dark before the electrical arcing stopped. The bright LEDs in the ceiling flickered several times and went out. Red emergency lighting blinked on.
Klaxons echoed through the corridors beyond the brig door. Voices shouted.
Yiorgos raised his saber and brought it down with a sweep, cleanly cutting through the lock, and they were out.
Dirken pointed to Eow's door as the brig bulkhead was unlatched from the other side. Many voices were shouting outside the door. He raised his fists in a ready stance and stood to the side of the door. "I'll hold them off."
Another metallic clang as Eow's lock was cut through.
Dirken braced himself as the door swung open.
There was the brief sight of pirates on the other side, then Dirken was knocked aside as a lavender blur flashed past him. Eow released a banshee cry as she leapt into the pirates, claws outstretched. One was kicked in the chest, his blaster shooting up at the ceiling. She swiped her claws across a Proximan's face, ripping out an entire side of his radial head, blue blood splattering across the other pirates. She turned back to the first pirate.
Dirken blinked in surprise, then jumped into the fight, hitting a Rigellian in his slack jaw, then into his belly flaps, doubling the alien over.
Yiorgos joined, too, slicing through the chest of a human, then, dodging a punch, he stabbed into the red-painted belly folds of a molting Reptiloc. Her eyes rolled as she yelled something in her hiss-like language, then died before her green, scaly head hit the deck.
Eow let out another yowl, twisted into a stance, and punched a Pleiadean, hitting the man in the throat. As he gasped for breath, she grabbed his horns and slammed his face into the wall, then broke his neck with a well-placed kick.
A Rigellian fired his rifle twice, nicking Dirken's arm. Dirken jumped and launched himself off the wall and into the Rigellian, grabbing one of his flaps and pulling him to the ground, then stomped on the line of eyes on his head. He wailed an ear-splitting "Eeeeeeeee!" firing the rifle at the ceiling. Dirken disarmed him, then shot him in both of his hearts.
In seconds it was over. Pirates lay on the floor, dead or critically injured.
"Six pirates down," Dirken said. "Grab their blasters." He picked up the Pleiadean's, which was a combination of parts from two different models.
"I know where the safebox is," both Dirken and Eow said at the same time, bumping into each other as they both tried to take the lead down the corridor. They looked at each other in annoyance.
"Ladies first," Dirken said, waving his blaster toward the hall.
She flashed a sidelong smile, spots of blue blood spattered across her face. "I'm a warrior, not a lady." Then she slapped his ass and bounded down the corridor.
"Just your type!" Yiorgos said as he ran past. "Don't trust her."
Dirken followed, and the three of them came to an open chamber, an instrument repair room with rusting machine parts around the sides and a chain-and-pulley systems hanging from the ceiling. Across the room was the interrogation chamber.
Four pirates stood in the center of the room, the safebox on the floor behind them. Grendel grinned at them, flexing his arms, as Mom put a hand on the big Oranchian's back. "I was hoping you'd do somethin' stupid like this, maggot!" he said to Dirken.
To Mom's left stood a Rigellian with a pulse rifle in his long, flap-like arms. To Grendel's right a tall, pale Tau Cetian brandished a blaster in both of his six-fingered hands.
One of those blasters was Dirken's Gree-tech pulse emitter.
Eow wailed again, ran forward, dodged left as the Tau Cetian opened fire, then leapt upon Grendel in a bear hug across the Oranchian's chest. Grendel's eyes went wide in surprise, then turned to shock and pain as Eow flexed.
Scores of ebony spikes shot out from her chest and back, giving her a porcupine appearance.
The Oranchian wailed in pain as the spikes penetrated his torso. He tried to rip her off, but the claws on her hands and feet were dug in. Then she sank her teeth into his broad neck and shook her head, ripping the skin apart.
For a long moment everyone watched in shock, then they snapped out of it as one.
Dirken and Yiorgos fired on the others, and everyone took cover around the machinery. Plasma bolts and laser fire flashed across the middle of the room and over the safebox.
Dirken took careful aim and fired as the Tau Cetian popped up. The shot went cleanly through the narrow oval of his head and he fell to the floor, light pink blood and brain matter spilling out.
But he had exposed himself. Mom fired his laser pistol. It cut through the air, narrowly missing Dirken's face and slicing through the blaster. The gun exploded in his hand as the power pack perforated. Dirken fell backward behind the machinery, his right palm and fingers red and blistered. He gritted his teeth and sucked in air against the pain.
Across the room, Yiorgos ducked behind a machine as the Rigellian's pulse rifle pounded the far side.
Eow leaped off the bloody Oranchian, her spikes retracted. Grendel stared lifelessly up at the ceiling as his flamingo pink-colored blood pooled around him.
Mom turned to attack Eow. Dirken sprinted at him. Mom turned in time to get a fist in his face, knocking him back.
The pirate raised his laser pistol, but Dirken chopped his wrist and the gun clattered to the floor.
Dirken ducked as Mom swung a roundhouse. The pirate recovered with a right hook to Dirken's chin, knocking him back.
Dirken grabbed Mom by the head with both hands and at first shoved him back. When the pirate overcompensated by leaning forward, Dirken used the momentum in a judo move to pull his head down, then brought a knee up into the pirate's gut, doubling him over. Dirken uppercut into Mom's face. His red cap flew off his head. Blood poured from his nose as the pirate fell to his knees, dazed.
Dirken finished him off with a left hook to the head, knocking the pirate to the ground, going unconscious with a sigh.
The Rigellian fired his pulse rifle, its bolts burning through the air within millimeters around Dirken. Then Yiorgos bolted forward and sliced clean through the Rigellian's tube-like head, which flopped to the ground, his long, vermiform tongue shooting out of the tentacled mouth at the top of his head. The rifle, still in his hand, continued to fire in rapid bursts. One shot hit a pipe, which ruptured and sprayed water into the room, a length of the pipe clattering to the deck. Another shot hit the safebox near its top, spinning it around.
There were shouts as more pirates came running toward the room.
"Eow!" Dirken yelled. "The door!"
Eow slammed the door, then lodged the broken length of pipe against the mechanism just as the other pirates arrived.
Dirken reached down and picked up his Gree-tech blaster from the dead hand of the Tau Cetian. He wiped the pale blood on his pants. Then he spied a device on each of the Tau Cetian's wrists. Wide, silvery bracelets with a prominent button. He pressed one and it immediately expanded into a mirrored vambrace that covered the forearm: a bit of mirror armor to protect against lasers.
These could be handy to deflect lasers, he thought, though only my forearms. He shrugged and pressed the button again, causing the vambrace to fold back to a bracelet, then he took the bracelets off and put them on his own wrists.
The pirates pounded on the door, trying to force it open. But it was holding… for now.
Eow was covered h
ead to feet in Grendel's blood. She stepped under the spraying water and let the blood wash off. The water showered her, glistening over her lavender fur and adhering it to her skin. Every firm muscle was revealed as she ran her hands over her body, wiping it clean. Her hands slipped over her head as she looked up into the downpour, eyes closed. Her hands slid down her shoulders, across her slim breasts, then down over her tight abs and over her muscular thighs. She stepped out of the water, dripping, and opened her eyes to look into his.
Dirken didn't look away. He met her eyes with hunger. She returned the look with a mischievous smile and ran her hands over her breasts and down her firm belly to her thighs. "Care for a shower, space jockey?"
The pirates banged on the door and there came a metallic, ripping sound. They were prying it open.
He tore his eyes away from Eow and stepped over to the safebox. There was work to do. The keypad, door, and top of the safebox had been mangled by multiple attempts to cut through it, and the top was scorched by the pulse rifle. He reached down and grabbed the handle to pick it up. The safe raised half a meter, then, with a horrible metallic screech, the top ripped off and the rest of it crashed to the deck.
Dirken blinked in surprise, still holding the handle and top, and peered inside. Eow and Yiorgos also came over and looked in.
Inside was a metal sphere with a diameter almost the length of his forearm. The thing that the Bloodhawk had referred to as "the Heart."
He dropped the lid with a clang and reached inside, pulling the sphere out to examine it. It was heavier than he'd thought. The silvery metal of the outer sheath had an old, slightly oxidized look, and ages of dust still hid in the nooks of the mechanism. There were dozens of ports arrayed on the outside as if it were to be plugged into multiple data cables. Small, green lights blinked very slowly from in between the creases.
The First Nova I See Tonight Page 6
