by Lily Thomas
She was a good woman, and he felt bad that the Hennians had ruined her booming career. He wanted nothing more than to help her out, but he wasn’t sure what he could do for her. The only place he had any influence was back on his homeworld. She’d have to figure it out on her own.
His heart pinched a little at the thought of leaving her. Though their time together had been brief, he’d grown used to all her chattering.
The hum of engines starting up drew his attention back to the Hennian ships.
“What the hell?” Bruyx cussed as he stood up straight and watched a couple of Hennian guards board the closest ship. “Wake up!” He hollered as he darted over to Jessica, grabbed her shoulder and yanked her to her feet.
Bethany let out a shriek, but he ignored her.
“Let’s get going!” He barked.
“Going?” Jessica asked her sleepy mind trying to catch up to what he was saying.
“Their leaving.” Bruyx grabbed his stuff and leaped into action. He wanted to take them off the planet, but he wasn’t about to stay while they tried to figure out what was going on. The Hennians were leaving ahead of schedule, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying to leave.
Bruyx darted between the rocks doing his best to make a B-line for the ships that were warming up their engines. He could buy Jessica some time to get into gear, but that was all.
As he pulled up next to the ship, he darted inside the open side hatch pulling his sword out. What he needed was a plasma weapon. He saw a Hennian typing on a console in the hallway he’d just entered. The man’s back was to him.
Bruyx crept up behind the man, took aim and sliced the man’s head off in one fell swoop with his sword. The head bounced down the hall as the body slumped to the ground in a lifeless bundle. Dropping the sword, he took the plasma pistol out of the man’s holster.
He smiled. It felt good to have a plasma weapon back in his hand.
Jessica plowed into the hatch, Bethany on her hip. “We made it!”
“Close the hatch!” He yelled at her before he made his way through the small ship. He wasn’t too sure how many Hennians there were in this ship, but he could only see max five in a ship this size. One was down, so hopefully, there were four or less to go.
He heard the hatch seal behind him before Jessica caught up to him. “Stay behind me. The men on this ship will be armed with plasma weapons. I don’t want either of you getting shot.”
“Okay.”
He heard her place Bethany on the ground.
“Where are we?” The little girl whispered.
“We need to stay quiet,” Jessica whispered back.
“Okay.” The girl said back.
Slowly, he crept through the ship checking every room he passed, until he came up to the door leading to the bridge. He turned to Jessica and Bethany. “Stay here. I don’t want her to see any of this. I’ll clean off the bridge and come back when I’m done.”
Jessica nodded before uttering, “Stay safe.”
Bruyx tossed her a smile. “I have a lot to live for and won’t die easily.”
Jessica watched him enter the bridge, and then the door snapped shut behind him. All she could hear were plasma weapons firing frantically on the other side. He was meeting resistance. She wanted to back him up but all she had was a spear, and that wouldn’t do much against plasma weapons.
She waited for him her heart in her throat. She feared the bridge door opening again only to reveal Bruyx had lost.
“Stay by my side,” Jessica whispered over at Bethany.
“Okay.”
She let go of Bethany’s hand and got her spear ready. She wanted to be ready for a Hennian coming through that door.
Everything on the other side of the door went quiet.
“Did he win?” Bethany asked.
“I’m not sure.” Jessica waited as the silence stretched on forever.
Then the door opened, and she lunged, the fear spearing her on. Her spear tip missed Bruyx as he ducked to the side.
“For fuck sake’s woman!”
“Sorry.” Jessica let the spear fall out of her hands before wrapping her arms around his neck and planting a kiss against his lips. It might be forward of her, but they’d slept together, so it wasn’t that weird.
“What are you doing?” Bruyx pushed her away as his eyes narrowed on her like she was completely insane.
“It took you so long to come back and tell us you were still alive! I worried a Hennian would be the next thing to walk through that door!”
He pushed her away until she was arm’s distance away. “If you’re done, we can finally get off this planet.”
“I’m ready to leave.”
Bruyx walked back onto the bridge Jessica following hot on his heels.
“Where are the bodies?” She glanced around taking in the pristine-looking bridge.
“Dumped them out an airlock.” He pointed over to a side of the bridge.
“Oh.” Jessica glanced around spotting Bethany who was walking around the perimeter of the bridge. “Don’t go far, Bethany. I want you within calling distance.”
The little girl nodded as she continued to explore the bridge.
Bruyx took position at the navigation console.
“Will anyone notice we took the ship?” She glanced out the viewscreen which showed a couple of other Hennian ships heating up their engines and preparing to leave.
“I’ll do my best to make sure they have no idea what’s going on until it’s too late to do something,” Bruyx reassured her.
“I hope no one sees the dead bodies you threw out the hatch.” She criticized.
“Nothing I can do about it now.”
“What does this button do?”
They both turned to see Bethany’s finger descending towards a button on a console on the other side of the bridge.
“No!” Jessica leaped forward, grabbed Bethany’s hand and yanked her away from the console. She looked the child in the face. “You should never go around pushing buttons. You never know what they might do.”
The girl’s eyes watered slightly.
“It’s okay. You didn’t know, but now you do. Just ask next time you think about doing something that you don’t know is okay.”
The girl nodded.
“Here,” Jessica guided her over to the captain’s chair, “why don’t you sit here in the captain’s chair.”
“The captain’s chair?” Bethany said with awe in her voice.
“Yep. Best spot on the bridge.” She helped Bethany onto the chair and then made her way back to Bruyx.
“You need to keep a better eye on her.”
“I’m not the only adult in the room.” Jessica huffed.
“The only adult that wanted her.”
Jessica frowned. “Just get us out of here Mr. Grumpy Pants.”
He raised an eyebrow but got the ship moving as the other Hennian ships lifted off.
“You’re pretending to be one of them.” She said in admiration as she watched him fly the ship. He kept surprising her with his smarts. First with the ropes and now with this.
“Exactly.” Bruyx continued following what the other ships were doing. They lifted off and left orbit. Stars filled the viewscreen in front of them.
A smile spread across her face. She never thought she’d ever be flying through space again, and it was the best feeling ever!
“When do we split off?” She asked eagerly, nearly jumping with her happiness.
“You might want to get both of yourselves strapped down.” He warned her as he concentrated on the console before him.
“Right.” Jessica darted over to Bethany and tightened the straps around the girl’s shoulders and waist.
Then she sat herself down in front of a random console and strapped herself down. “We’re ready!”
Bruyx didn’t waste any time. He entered in some coordinates with quick fingers, sending their ship spinning around as he pointed it in a new direction. Then they were
off.
“Have they noticed?” She asked hoping they’d make a clean getaway from the other Hennian ships.
The ship shook as shots screamed past the hull of their ship.
“They noticed,” Bruyx growled as his fingers continued to fly over the console in front of him.
The console in front of her beeped, and she turned her attention to it. She’d sat herself down at the communications console. “I think they want to talk.”
“Don’t answer! They already know the ship isn’t in their control, no need to let them know only one person on here knows what they’re doing.”
That was true. Jessica had no idea how to successfully outrun someone in a ship, especially one like this. She was more used to flying shuttles.
Shots screamed past the viewscreen as the Hennians continued the chase.
“Any good ideas on how to dodge them?” Jessica asked as her fingers gripped the armrests.
“Yes, but you might not like it.”
“I don’t like a lot of turns my life has taken, but you don’t see me complaining.”
“I’m sending a distress signal on the Sri’thaen wave band,” Bruyx informed her. “Our ships will pick it up since we are near Sri’thaen space. Now we just have to hope someone is nearby to assist us.”
Great. Of course, the Hennians would be neighbors with the Sri’thaens. Bruyx had been right. She wasn’t necessarily thrilled with the idea of being rescued by the Sri’thaens, but she’d face one problem after the next and right now the Hennians were the bigger threat.
The ship shook as they were hit, and she was jerked against her restraints.
“Are you firing back?!” Jessica barked. If they were shot down, she wouldn’t mind a few Hennians going with them. She glanced over at Bethany whose eyes were wide blue disks.
“I am!”
“Okay, okay.” She turned back to her console. “No need to yell.”
“We’ve got incoming!”
“Is it friendly?!” Or as friendly as she could get when she was stuck between Hennians and Sri’thaens.
“It’s a Sri’thaen warship responding. Dropping out of subspace.” His voice held a hint of excitement.
The stars stopped streaking past the viewscreen as they dropped out of subspace. Then an enormous spaceship dropped out of subspace in front of them. They were definitely saved. The Hennians wouldn’t have enough firepower to defeat this ship.
Jessica’s mouth dropped open as she took in the ship that was on the viewscreen. Damn. That was a big ship.
Bruyx flew their ship under the Sri’thaen vessel so they could be easily protected by the warship. The Hennian ships dropped out of subspace and with a few quick shots from the Sri’thaen war vessel the smaller ships blew up in a spectacular display of light.
One problem down, now she just had to worry about the Sri’thaens wanting to kill her and Bethany.
The screen in front of her began beeping.
“The Sri’thaen vessel is hailing us.”
“Throw it up on the viewscreen,” Bruyx instructed her as he maneuvered the ship.
“Okay.” Jessica had no idea what she was doing but assumed it wouldn’t be that hard to figure out.
Jessica stared down at the mass of buttons in front of her face. She may have told Bethany not to press random buttons, but she was about to do just that.
The tip of her finger descended toward a promising button. She tapped it. The screen on her console lit up, and the face of a human woman appeared. Her straight brown hair was tied behind her head in what appeared to be a bun.
“Who the hell are you?” The human woman accused.
Once Jessica got over her shock she responded. “Jessica. Who are you?”
“We got a Sri’thaen distress signal. You aren’t Sri’thaen.”
“You don’t say.” Jessica drawled.
The woman’s head snapped back at her saucy tone. “What did you just say to me?”
“I was saying you’re very astute, assuming you know what that means.” Jessica folded her arms in front of her chest. This human woman, whoever she was, rubbed her the wrong way, and she couldn’t help the sassiness that just came out of her.
The other woman’s hazel eyes flashed. “Maybe I should slit you from ear to ear.” The woman pulled out a dagger from off screen and made a slashing gesture near her face.
“You are seriously disturbed.”
“I’ll show you disturbed once we board your ship and figure out how a human is using Sri’thaen distress signals.” The woman threatened.
A Sri’thaen man shoved her out of the way. “Adira, what are you doing up here again? Didn’t I ban you from the bridge?”
Jessica got a great side view of his face and the double pointed ears that were characteristic to the Sri’thaen species.
“You tried, but you forgot I was trained to go where people don’t want me,” Adira said from off screen.
“Woman, you’re going to drive me insane.”
“What the hell is wrong with you people?!” Jessica cried out completely bewildered by the fact there was a human onboard a Sri’thaen warship, and she was acting like she was married to this Sri’thaen. At least they were bickering like a married couple.
“What’s wrong with you?” Adira asked as she popped back on the screen.
“Get off the bridge, woman!” The Sri’thaen looked like he was going to pop a vein.
“Sheesh, you don’t have to yell, you brute.” Adira walked off screen once more.
“What is going on over here?” Bruyx asked as he pulled up beside her. “Didn’t I tell you to put this on the viewscreen?”
“I was going to, but these two are… distracting.” Jessica vacated the seat, allowing Bruyx to take a seat.
“Councilor Bruyx.” The Sri’thaen’s eyes widened.
Jessica glanced between Bruyx and the Sri’thaen on the screen. So, he really was from a prominent position. That could bode well for her and the girl.
“We thought we’d never see you again when the report of your disappearance came out.”
“The Hennians took me to one of their hunting planets.” Bruyx waved it away. “It’s all a long story, but I think you can imagine how I might like to take a shower and change into new clothes. So, enough with the chit-chat. Open the shuttle bay doors, and we will fly in.”
“Right away.” The Sri’thaen ended the transmission.
Bruyx rose from the seat and went back to sit down at the navigation seat.
Jessica went to stand beside Bethany who was still sitting in the captain’s chair, just watching everything that was going on around her with wide eyes. She’d probably been shocked into silence. Jessica was feeling the same way.
The warship opened a couple of doors. The shuttle bay doors pulled away to show a shuttle bay. Bruyx flew them in, and she couldn’t help the pit forming in her stomach. He was her way off the planet, but she did wonder if it would still end with her death.
As far as she was aware, the Sri’thaens were still trying to annihilate her race.
They landed in the belly of the beast. Bruyx rose from his seat and strode over to her.
“Ready?”
Her eyes skimmed over the face that had become a part of her life and those double pointed ears that were her new obsession. It was time to find out how much she could trust him. “Yeah.” She plastered a fake smile on her face. She had to remain hopeful that they weren’t about to be killed.
Chapter 11
Bruyx was relieved they’d been rescued by a Sri’thaen warship. Those Hennian ships had been right on their tail, and he hadn’t been sure they’d be able to get out of there in one piece. And it also meant he was one step closer to being home.
He led the way out of the Hennian vessel they’d stolen and took in the familiar sights of the Sri’thaen warship. All sorts of small Sri’thaen shuttles filled the shuttle bay as well as many Sri’thaen mechanics.
A smile spread over his face. He was home,
and it felt wonderful. His shoulders relaxed a bit now that he wasn’t on the Hennian hunting planet.
Then the Sri’thaen who’d been on the viewscreen with the human woman and several other Sri’thaens strode into the shuttle bay.
“Councilor Bruyx.” The Sri’thaen from before stepped forward.
“And you?”
“General Rakshasas Sa’ri.”
“Ah, Sa’ri.” Bruyx nodded his head as he took in the general in front of him. The men were about the same height. He met and held the other man’s eyes. “A well-known family. Glad to see you all are still doing well.”
Rakshasas nodded his head his greenish eyes looking slightly over Bruyx’s shoulder. Rakshasas might be a general held in high esteem, but Bruyx was a councilor and therefore was the one who deserved respect. “The Hennians will have to answer for kidnapping a Sri’thaen councilor.”
Bruyx shook his head. “I hear we already have one war.” His brown eyes turned towards Jessica who had a death grip on Bethany’s hand. The little girl’s mouth was wide open as she took in all the tall, muscular aliens standing around her.
“Yes,” Rakshasas said, “we have declared war on the humans, but before we speak more on this topic I remember your interest in refreshing yourself.” Rakshasas waved forward a Sri’thaen soldier. “He will show you to a room. And what would you like done with the humans?” Rakshasas eyes flashed over Bruyx’s shoulder for a second to look at Jessica and Bethany.
Bruyx looked over his shoulder at Jessica and Bethany. “Give them a room with a guard.” He faced Rakshasas. “And know that any harm that befalls them will fall on you.” He stepped closer and was satisfied when Rakshasas nodded taking a step back.
Rakshasas might be from a well-known family, but his lineage had nothing on Bruyx’s. The Ar’ewth were one of the most powerful councilor lineages there were.
He turned back to Jessica. “I will be with you as soon as possible. Until then stay in your quarters.” And then they would have to figure out what to do with Jessica and Bethany. But first, he needed to wash and put on some fresh clothes, so he had a clear mind to think about their next moves.
