by Corin Cain
He swipes his finger against the loading bay. “Now, I’ll just open this door, and they’ll have no choice but to flee.”
Theme opens another door, leading away from the loading bay. If there are Aurelians working on the Reavers, they’ll only have one direction to run.
The oxygen level reader on the holographic projection reads at thirty percent.
“Okay,” Theme nods. “They won’t have stayed. I’m going to close the doors again and turn the air-field back to full power.” He fiddles with the projection, manipulating it with his fingers like he was born to do this.
Finally, he steps back.
“All done.”
“You sure no one got hurt?”
“They had time to get out. They’ll be fine.”
“Okay. Last thing to do is open Sawoot’s door. What time do you have?”
“Twenty seconds to eight. That was close.”
“Alright. Wait for it.”
The twenty seconds take an eternity. Then, Theme swipes Sawoot’s door opens, waits fifteen seconds, and closes it again.
I just hope she wasn’t in the middle of leaving when the doors slammed closed. If she was, we might have just cut my best friend in half.
“I hope she got out and left those fuckers in the dirt,” boasts Theme. He’s feeling himself after his successful hacking of the control room.
“Don’t call them names. Garrick saved her, you know. You don’t know what it’s like to be a woman around Aurelians.”
He nods. “You’re right. Sorry, Captain. I’m getting fired up.”
Fired up is better than weak and terrified. I can see he’s scared, but adrenaline is giving Theme short term focus and bravery.
The doors to the control room open. I turn, my heart skipping a beat, but it’s just Sawoot.
Her hair is in a mess. Her dress is ripped, and one of her dark nipples is clearly visible. Theme stares, and Sawoot just laughs at him.
“Eyes up, Theme. Though after what you just did? I guess you deserve a peek.”
She pulls her ripped dress up, covering herself as Theme gulps. He might be feeling confident after his hacking, but women still clearly make him anxious.
It’s just like Sawoot to torment the poor boy. She can never resist doing whatever she wants, even when our lives are on the line.
“We gotta go,” I snap. “The Wayward Scythe is still in the loading bay, but if you can hack a Reaver, I’ve been looking forward to getting behind the controls of one of those puppies.”
Sawoot pulls a keycard out from Gods know where.
“No need. I snagged this from Garrick. Poor guy didn’t know what hit him.”
There’s a trace of sadness in her voice. I guess she wasn’t Bonded to him, after all.
I sigh. I can’t think about the Bond right now. I need to focus on getting us all safe and free.
“Alright – a Reaver it is.”
“Once we get in, we can Orb-shift out of here,” Sawoot says confidently.
“Not quite,” I warn. “There are rumors about Orb-Shifting becoming dangerous – and Captain Aelon says those rumors are true.” My eyes flash. “But don’t worry – I can get us out of here, no problem.”
Piloting is finally where I can demonstrate my value.
Sawoot smiles: “I’ll always trust you, Captain.”
We step outside of the control room and start heading towards the loading bay – our path clear because it’s marked by gaping, open doors.
However, halfway down the hallway, I freeze.
I can’t quite do this.
I turn to Theme.
“Listen - Chris is a grade-A asshole, but technically, he’s still my crew. I need to give him and the rest of the men a chance. Set the doors to his prison cell to open in ten minutes, as well as a path to the airlock. They’re unarmed, and if they’re lucky, they’ll make it to the loading bay. Then, they can take the Wayward Scythe and go wherever the fuck fate takes them.”
Theme hesitates.
“They… they were laughing at you, Captain. While we were waiting for you to get spanked they were all looking forward to it – making jokes.”
Anger flares up in me. No matter how pissed off I am at them, they’re still my crew. For one last moment, I’ll be their captain. I don’t owe them a certain escape, and I’m not going to risk my most loyal crewmembers to help them out, but I can at least give Chris and the others a fighting chance.
“Set the timer,” I growl, absolutely resolute. “I’m done with them – but I won’t leave them to rot.”
Especially not with a pissed-off Captain Aelon, who’ll no doubt grill them brutally on where I might be going. I don’t think Aelon would stoop to torturing them – I have to believe he’s better than that – but I don’t want to test how far he’d go to recapture his Fated Mate.
“Alright,” Theme nods. “I’ll set it for ten minutes. The Aurelians might get back control of the ship by then, but at least they’ll have a chance.”
Shit. We’ve got less time than I’d thought.
Theme tinkers with the controls, setting the doors on a timed delay. “Let’s go.”
The three of us run down the empty hallways of The Instigator. We must look ridiculous. Two women in skimpy dresses and one geeky guy. I keep expecting us to turn a corner and run into a triad of Aurelians – and if we do, we’re fucked; perhaps literally.
At best, we’ll be captured for sabotaging The Instigator. The worst-case scenario would see us run into the same sort of Aurelians as Kit and his triad had been – the kind that would use the opportunity of having the other Aurelians locked away in order to take advantage of two women.
Theme would be no use against them, and I don’t like the odds of Sawoot and I since we’re dressed in thin slips of dresses and totally unarmed.
But fortunately, the majority of the Aurelians are on the surface of that moon, and Aelon’s probably sending frantic messages to them right now.
We’re running out of time, and it’ll take all my skill for us to escape with our skins. We’ve got no weapons, no backup, and if a single Aurelian is blocking the hallways, we’re screwed.
We rush back past Sawoot’s room. There’s a hard banging against the door. “Open up!” Garrick’s voice is booming with command. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard him raise his voice. He must be incensed to have been betrayed by the same humans he’d so gallantly protected.
Sawoot stops for a moment on the other side of the door. “I’m sorry, Garrick! I’ll miss you!”
She’s not mocking him. I can tell she had affection for the warrior – but she was the one who’d told me to never fall for an Aurelian, and if Sawoot does one thing right, it’s follow her own advice.
Soon, we’re running again. Our path is easy, and I don’t even need my mental map to chart it out. We simply follow the open doors.
We beat the odds and burst into the loading bay without having encountered another soul. The air in the huge bay is thin, but it’s already recharging and thickening from the venting earlier. In any event, there are no Aurelians passed out from asphyxiation or waiting to confront us.
So far, this escape plan has caused no casualties. Tools litter the ground where Aurelians dropped them in their haste to escape the deadly loading bay – but, apparently, they all did so.
The bay’s doors are now wide open, ready for a ship to leave through them. I can see through the haze of the air-field that locks the oxygen inside, and it looks like our escape route is still clear.
The moon that orbits Tarrion is pale and huge in front of us. I expect to see tiny dots as Reavers launch from the surface to pursue us, but if they’re taking off, the moon is thankfully too far away to see them yet. We’ll have just enough of a head start to give us a fighting chance.
Behind the moon and the planet of Tarrion is the endless emptiness of space.
It’s familiar. I’ve been living in the emptiness of space for the last decade. Three of those years
have been under my own command, as captain of the Wayward Scythe – my loyal little ship that still rests on the opposite side of the loading bay.
I gaze out into space for a moment. It feels like… home. I’ve barely felt solid ground beneath my feet in years, except on space stations where I’ve unloaded both my illicit and legal wares. The loneliness of space yawns in front of me, but I welcome the sight of it. Soon, I’ll be swallowed up into that nothingness – never to be found.
The loading bay is huge. I remember how scared I was when I first faced Captain Aelon here. At the time, I’d never thought he’d have such an effect on me. My life will never be the same again – and nor will his. The three aliens are scarred onto my being until the day I die, just as I am on theirs.
It feels like a lifetime ago that we were sucked into the belly of this ship – and, indeed, it’s like I’ve transitioned from one life to another while I’ve been here.
I falter with the Bond, weakening my mute on it. For a second, the auras of my three Aurelians lovers become crystal clear – sharp and vivid, before I can force them back down to almost nothingness in my consciousness.
Their auras are filled with fear, confusion, and horror. They’re terrified of losing me.
They’ll have to suffer that pain, though – just as I’ll suffer my own pain.
“Sawoot? Let’s see if that card works.”
“On it, boss.” She picks the closest functional Reaver and scans her card on the entry chip. The doors to the attack ship open.
I walk to my old ship to say goodbye. The Wayward Scythe is bigger than the Reavers, and significantly clunkier, but it’s got a third of the power and barely any armaments.
My old ship is pitted with scars from countless close escapes. Unlike The Instigator, my ship got her wounds from running away from fights, not powering head-first into them. It took all my money and a big loan to afford this ship in the first place – the first one of my own.
But the Wayward Scythe is worthless compared to a Reaver.
Reavers are the smallest vessels in the Aurelian fleet, but that’s not saying much. They’re still made for the huge, alien species – and scaled to match. I step through the hatch of our new Reaver, whistling softly under my breath.
It’s spartan inside. There are two gunning stations, a cockpit, three small bedrooms and a brig for carrying prisoners. Those are the only main rooms aboard this assault ship. These vessels are made for long journeys and short combat engagements – normally manned by a single, Bonded triad.
Now, we’re the trio who’ll be taking the helm – me, Sawoot and Theme.
“I’ll take the controls,” I order. “You two are on gunning duty. We’ve got to get out of here before the ships on that moon close the distance. We’ve got a good head start, but I don’t want to leave anything to chance.”
“Yes, Captain,” Sawoot and Theme chorus.
I sit down in the huge commander’s chair. The ship is built for an Aurelian triad – a triad of men significantly larger than me. I’m practically swallowed up in the seat, but I can still see out the huge, tempered glass cockpit easily enough.
The controls are unfamiliar at first, but adjusting to them is a matter of instinct for a pilot like me. My hands quickly figure them out, almost without conscious thought.
I press down on the thrusters and we lift up silently. I’m used to the roar of engines, but Reavers are powered by an Orb – so the acceleration is smoother and faster than my old hulk.
Theme and Sawoot take to the gunnery stations, looking small and childlike in those massive, oversized seats as I do in the commander’s chair.
Each of them now has the controls of an Orb-Beam – a fearsome weapon that can lay out enough power to take out three Toad assault ships in the blink of an eye. If I’d had this Reaver, I wouldn’t have had to run from that Toad Captain – and we’d never have ended up on The Instigator.
I’d have never been Bonded to Aelon, Vinicus and Iunia.
Sawoot glances back to the loading bay as I hover in front of the air-field. I hesitate. This is it.
If I do this, I’m leaving those three men behind. I’m leaving them with new depths of pain.
“Tasha?” Sawoot demands. “Should I blast the other Reavers, so they can’t follow us?”
I wince. It’s the right decision, for my crew. If Aelon regains control soon, he could use those Reavers to chase us down. He might even be crazy enough to try to Orb-Shift towards me.
I do everything I can to push his aura out of my mind. If he can’t feel which direction I’m heading in, he won’t risk an Orb-Shift for nothing. That’s what I hope, anyway.
But I hate the idea of Aelon disappearing into nothingness because of me, if he attempts an Orb-Shift and it goes wrong, as we’ve heard increasing reports of.
I make my decision.
“Hold your fire. They stole from us, but they’ll need every ship they’ve got if the Toads come back.”
Theme clears his throat. “We might not be willing to Orb-Shift with those rumors you’ve heard, but Captain Aelon is insane. He might risk it. We need to blast the Reavers, or we’ll definitely be re-captured.”
A light blinks on my HUD, showing that Theme has a Reaver in the sights of his Orb-Beam.
“Stand down, Theme! We’re not leaving them with fewer defenses than they already have. You know Aelon won’t shy away from a fight, even if he’s outgunned.”
“That’s not our problem!” But then Theme checks himself. “I’m sorry. You are the Captain. I won’t shoot.” The light blinks out on my HUD. He’s not targeting anything anymore.
Thank the Gods for a man who can follow orders.
I stare ahead, through the air-field.
If I hesitate any longer, I may never leave. It’s now or never.
I slam the thrusters forward, and we punch out of the loading bay – leaving The Instigator behind us and screaming into the dead of space.
Aelon will fight the Toads even if he’s outgunned, outnumbered, and outflanked. His plan is a good one – unless the Toads come in truly unsurmountable numbers. That’s a real possibility, with such a rich prize to be claimed.
That’s my biggest problem with Captain Aelon. It isn’t his possessiveness, his dominance, or his arrogance. The reason I can’t see myself being with him is that he doesn’t value his own life or future. He’d take revenge even if it killed him.
I wish Iunia had more of an effect on him - if only to convince Aelon of the fact that he has a Fated Mate now, and a chance to be a father. It’s as if those things – the most important things to the Aurelian species – don’t matter to Aelon. That’s what hurts the most - that the thought of fatherhood doesn’t change him, even now he has everything to lose.
The Bond suddenly thrums in my mind. My hands twitch on the control, but I fight them off. I can fight the Bond urging me to go back. I’ll get used to dealing with the wave of urges that it brings up in me.
Sawoot whoops as we punch out. I fly away from the moon, putting as much distance between us and the Aurelians as the impulse engines will give me.
“I can’t believe it! You got us out!”
I can barely believe it myself. The three of us snuck out of an Aurelian warship and got away clean.
“Well,” I scoff. “I think Theme gets the credit for this mission.”
“I just did what I could.” His voice is more confident. This experience has changed him for the better. He’ll be a loyal and trusted member of my crew now – as long as I keep my faith in him.
Being captured by Aurelians changed Theme for the better. Did it change me for the better, too? Or did it make me worse?
That, I can’t answer. I shed Chris and his cronies like dead weight – only I don’t feel lighter for it. I’m definitely leaving The Instigator with a greater burden than when I arrived. Did I truly know what I was getting into when I allowed myself to be Bonded to those three Aurelians?
The problem is – I want them.
>
It’s not just the Bond urging me back. I want to help them. I want to cure the pain that wracks Aelon, Vinicus and Iunia. Instead, all I’ve done is open their old wounds, and carved new ones. As much as I try to push their auras down inside my mind, traces of their pain and grief keep slipping through.
They’re going to hunt me down to the ends of the universe, I know it.
Well, fine. I’m used to being hunted. But you put me at the helm of a Reaver? No one in this universe can catch me now.
That being said – my life is going to require one hell of a lot of running now. When The Instigator is back to full functionality, we’ll have to deal with it powering up and lumbering after us. Until then, who knows how many Reavers Aelon will spare to pursue us.
I hope it’s not too many. I hope he doesn’t jeopardize his fight against the Toads just to pursue me.
As for my fate – well, it’s no problem. The Reaver outpaces The Instigator easily, as long as it doesn’t Orb-Shift. Other than that, there’s no way for Aelon to catch us. I’ll change course once I’m out of his scanner range, and once I’ve done that he won’t even be able to Orb-Shift after me.
“How long do you think we have, Theme?”
“I was a little antsy when I gave my estimates back onboard,” my engineer admits. “We should have at least half an hour before Aelon regains control of The Instigator. Even if they Orb-Shift after us, by then they won’t know which direction we went in. Aelon runs a tight command on his ship, but even he couldn’t convince his men to Orb-Shift in random directions just in hopes of catching us. Aurelians are brave, but they don’t have a death wish.”
He snorts.
“Well, most of them don’t.”
I know he’s making an underhand comment about Captain Aelon – but I let it slide.
Theme’s right. No matter how much he rages and yells, Aelon won’t be able to convince his men to chase after us by Orb-Shift. There are chilling rumors of ships being lost in the void, and they won’t gamble on shift after shift just on the slim chance of finding us.
This means our escape is clean.
I can hardly believe it.
