Hand of Steel

by Jessi L Roberts

  “They’ve got a Chix pilot, don’t they?” I asked.

  “You don’t see normal pilots turn like that,” Klate said.

  The two remaining minor ships retreated, but the Nightslayer zoomed after them and out of sight.

  Klate shook himself. “We made it.”

  “Do we need to help the Nightslayer?” I asked. I prayed we wouldn’t meet. If Nazar was with the crew, he’d recognize me. If he wasn’t, it would mean I got them killed.

  “No. They’ll manage this without us.” Klate squinted at me. “Is something bothering you?”

  “I helped capture two of their crew, Nazar and an Elba kid.” I rubbed my sore hand.

  Klate shrugged. “I heard they did a big attack recently. I’m guessing they got him back, or they’d be stalking Saddat now.”

  Relief surged through me. Nazar hadn’t been confident without reason. “What now?” I gazed at the blackness of space.

  “Ralkom will patch the ship up a little better, then we’ll head for Tupra. We need to get rid of these hunters.” Klate stood and limped from the cockpit.

  Ralkom made a better patch for the Deathhorn and checked the places that took hits. After he assured Klate his ship could make it to Tupra, we traveled there. Luckily, the ship held together until we headed for the largest moon, which orbited just outside Tupra’s asteroid field. We couldn’t risk going through the field with weak spots in the hull, and atmosphere entry would be dangerous too.

  “Krys, want to watch the landing?” Klate asked from the cockpit.

  I hurried to the cockpit. I’d healed from my bullet wound. Now, my hand hurt worse, though the brace Doc gave me helped.

  The Deathhorn landed on one of the many short landing strips. A few had craters in them, some from asteroids and others from bombings. Amellia drove the Deathhorn into a huge door in the mountain. An airshield kept the air from escaping into the moon’s vacuum.

  Once we were in, the gigantic doors of the spaceport slid closed. A few old ships, some of which were stripped down for parts, sat in a corner. With no atmosphere and lower gravity, landing damaged ships on the moon for repairs made more sense than risking entry into Tupra’s turbulent atmosphere.

  Amellia began the shutdown procedure.

  Klate left the cockpit. I fell in behind him. It was odd how he’d always offer to let me in the cockpit when he had an entire crew. Then again, I was the new person. That was probably why he’d given me special treatment.

  The Deathhorn’s gravity flipped off, leaving us on moon gravity. I smiled. Low gravity was fun, much easier to deal with than zero g.

  Klate stopped in the infirmary. Likkil and the Chix hunter were the only ones who hadn’t been released by Doc.

  Doc’s tail twitched. “How’s your hand?”

  I held my hand out. Doc removed the brace and pulled out his datsheet, which was a medical model. He scanned my hand. “It’s healing well. The bones weren’t that badly damaged to begin with, and you’re young.”

  “Thanks.” I put the brace back on.

  Doc’s eye and camera turned to Klate. “How about your wounds?”

  “They’re healing.” Klate glanced at the hunter Chix. “What about her?”

  Doc’s tail twitched. “She’ll go to trial. They’ll decide what to do with her. No one’s buying one that badly injured. We should be able to sell the Elba. I looked and he’s got a record here. Turns out he went hunter after he got in trouble with Tupran law.”

  “Fine with me.” Klate left the room.

  I bounced after him in the low gravity.

  We made it to the hold. Fresh air from the spaceport flowed through the open hatch.

  The hunters huddled in two cages. A few were still recovering from their injuries. They were no longer shackled. In the cages, they wouldn’t have much choice but to do as they were told.

  While Klate walked down the ramp and into the spaceport, I headed toward the cages. Why? I didn’t want to see the prisoners, not again. I’d avoided them for the whole week we’d been in space.

  “You!” Akar shouted. He slammed into the bars.

  At least he was alive.

  I stepped closer. The other hunters stayed back. Most likely, they didn’t want to be associated with a hunter who ticked off pirates.

  “You are a disgrace to Brok and God.” Tears ran down his dirty face. “Brok would be ashamed of you.”

  I flinched. Dad died because of me. So had Reva.

  Qwalm, who was in the other cell, stepped toward the bars, his eyes on Akar. “She may be guilty of switching sides, but Reva’s death is on her own hands. Her stun pistol was still holstered.”

  Akar glared at Qwalm. “I should have known a Torf like you would side with pirates.”

  Qwalm hissed and stomped his foot. “I’m no traitor.” His feathers shot up. The hunters imprisoned with him backed away.

  “Get out of here!” Akar yelled at me.

  I backed away from the only close kin I had left in the galaxy unless Urkot survived. Once I made it out of Akar’s sight, I ran out of the ship, the low lunar gravity giving me an extra boost.

  I tried to stop at the bottom of the ramp. I tripped and bounced across the hard floor. Pain shot through my hand and leg. I climbed to my feet. At least with the low gravity, I hadn’t been badly injured.

  I wiped my eye. With the hand brace, it made the operation more difficult than it should have been.

  Klate stood under the Deathhorn. He gazed up at a hole Ralkom worked to repair properly.

  A few other pirate ships, including the Nightslayer, were docked in the huge spaceport. I spotted a young red Elba and a Skallan who might have been Nazar.

  Klate looked at me. I turned the real side of my face away from him, trying to hide my emotions.

  “Do you want something?” Klate asked.

  “I want you to let Qwalm go.” The words were out of my mouth the second the idea entered my mind.

  “The dark Torf?” Klate’s ears perked.

  “That’s him. He saved my life.”

  “And what about your uncle?” Klate spoke quietly, his voice unreadable.

  I stared at the ground.

  “Is there any reason, other than family ties, that he should be freed while we sell the others?”

  I shook my head. He hated me.

  Klate knelt in front of me. “I heard what he said about Brok.”

  I sniffed. What would Dad think of me now? I’d killed his sister, and I couldn’t say anything good in his brother’s defense.

  “He’s wrong,” Klate said. “I may not have known your father, but I do know he taught you right from wrong. He might not have realized that teaching would lead you to join pirates, but even so, you did what he taught you."

  I wiped more tears from my eye. Akar’s words still stung.

  “Once we’re on Tupra, I’ll free Qwalm. I have a feeling you’d break him out if I didn’t.” Klate said. “I’m not letting Akar go. There’s too much chance he’d try to get revenge against you or my crew.”

  I nodded. No matter what I did, I had guilt eating at me. At least Klate had taken the choice to free Akar away from me. Looking back, I’d only worried about Qwalm’s freedom, never Akar’s. “Thanks,” I said.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Klate stood. “I get no joy out of selling hunters. They’ll be slaves, but Trader Town has a lot of laws related to the treatment of slaves. They’ll be tried and sentenced, much like in Company space, so some of the ones who had the sense to use stunners might get released after a few years of work.”

  Tupra hadn’t gotten any warmer since my last visit, not a surprise, considering a year there was at least a year and a half on Saddat.

  The hunters were cuffed in preparation for the market. Tenned began herding them off the ship.

  Akar glared at me, his eyes full of hatred. Klate was right to sell him. If Akar got the chance, he’d kill me.

  “Qwalm, wait,” Klate said.

  Qwalm froze.
The other hunters hurried past him like they thought they could be targeted for whatever nefarious plan Klate had in mind.

  Tenned squinted at me before herding the rest of the hunters off the ramp and into Tupra’s cold mist.

  Qwalm flattened his feathers against his body in an attempt to make himself smaller.

  Klate approached Qwalm.

  Qwalm shifted from foot to foot, like he wanted to run but had nowhere to go.

  I hurried to Klate’s side.

  Klate motioned to me with his head. “Krys asked me to release you.” He pulled a key from his belt and reached to unlock Qwalm’s cuffs.

  Qwalm flinched at Klate’s touch. The cuffs fell from his wrists. Qwalm bowed his head to me. “Thank you, Krys.”

  “You saved my life.”

  Qwalm motioned toward the ramp. “Walk with me for a ways.”

  I glanced at Klate.

  “What you do is up to you,” he said.

  I followed Qwalm off the ship. We walked to the edge of the spaceport. He looked around, then stopped. “No matter what you decide, I won’t report you.”

  “Decide what?”

  “What you’re going to do.” Qwalm shifted feet and looked at the ground. “If you want to work with me, we can be a team. We can hunt together like planned. Your family didn’t want to tarnish the Karzil name by reporting you, so you’re still safe, and I can convince Urkot you’re dead.”

  I pictured hunting with Qwalm. It would be a steady job, and together, we’d be able to avoid taking innocent bounties. Maybe we could even team up with the Samaritan and get bounties like Nerrini from Tupra.

  “Why were you aboard that ship?” I asked.

  Qwalm shifted from foot to foot. “Got paid for being on there, even if we never boarded anyone. Thought it would be easy coin. The Ordained want the pirates gone. You know our rulers are set in place by God.”

  My optimism evaporated. I couldn’t live under the Ordained, or Company, not now. “I can’t work for them, not when they’ve enslaved so many innocent people.”

  Qwalm’s feathers drooped. “I understand.” His eyes narrowed. “Are you going to be a pirate?”

  I glanced toward the Deathhorn. “I don’t know.”

  “I won’t judge you if you do but don’t compromise, no matter what side you choose. Remember, the Company is stepping up their war against piracy. It’s going to get harder.”

  “Thanks for the advice.” My mind churned. “Goodbye.”

  “Goodbye, Krys,” Qwalm said. He strode out of the walled spaceport and into the town. Being a Torf, anyone who saw him would assume he was one of the many Torfs who sided with Tupra.

  I headed back toward the Deathhorn, my mind still churning through the possibilities of what I should do. With Qwalm’s promise to not report me, I could get away with going back to Company space, but what would I do there? I couldn’t live my whole life washing tables. Even if I could give up the dream of being a hunter, I still needed to help people.

  Before I made it to the ramp, Melsha met me. Her tail swished, fast enough I guessed she was glad to see me. “So, you decided not to go with that hunter?”

  I nodded.

  “You joining the crew?”

  “I don’t know.” I looked at the ground. “I was a hunter too long to be fighting them.”

  “Most we do is smuggling,” Melsha said. “Getting bendsteel from Lokostwa or Derbis and taking it to Saddat, Chibbink, or even Korska.” She smiled. “Our attacks are almost always against slave ships. Free the slaves and sell the owners.”

  Hirami glided out the Deathhorn’s hatch and landed a short distance from the ship. He ran through the spaceport and past the guards at the open gates.

  A few other kids of various species ran to meet him.

  My cybernetic eye magnified the view. One of the Human children had a blue slave tattoo. I watched them run after Hirami, happy and free.

  “I’ll talk to Klate.” I strode up the ramp and into the hold.

  Klate stood in the back of the hold counting nigotum cells. His green pants were no longer stained with the blood he’d spilled to save me. I recalled everything he’d done in the time I’d known him. I could trust him to do what was right.

  He turned, his ears pricking. “So, the hunter didn’t convince you to run away?”

  “No.” I paused, trying to work up my courage. “Would you like a new crew member? I’m not much of a fighter, but I think you’re doing the right thing, raiding slave ships and all.”

  “I hoped you’d ask.” Klate smiled. “It’s time this ship had some new blood. Who knows, you might even make captain someday.”

  I tried to wrap my thoughts around the crazy idea. “I’m not captain material.” Tenned would never accept me as captain.

  “Don’t cut yourself short. Besides, by the time you got to that rank, most of this crew would be retired.” Klate patted my shoulder. “There will be plenty of excitement until then. After all, there’s no bounty on your head, so you’ll be our public face until you’ve got a bounty.”

  I smiled. A bounty on my head would be a small price to pay for doing the right thing.

  GLOSSARY

  Species

  Chix: Chix are arboreal omnivores native to Chibbink. They have gliding skin between their arms and legs and a furry tail that helps them balance in the trees and steer during a glide. While they appear rodent-like, they share no relation to rodents and find being compared to rodents to be an insult.

  Though they rarely stand over three feet tall, their military is a force to be reckoned with. Their fast reflexes and spatial awareness make them the best pilots in the Known Region. This gives any Chix-piloted aircraft a distinct advantage. On the ground, they make up for their small size by riding huge predatory warhounds into battle, which is enough to strike terror into their enemies.

  Elba: Native to Tupra, Elbas are the biggest species in the Known Region and have a slightly feline-like appearance. Their coat colors vary from black, brown, and red, to blond and white. Those in the Southern Hemisphere tend to have spots, while the northern races have stripes. With large claws meant for tunneling and a powerful upper body, they make dangerous fighters. Though their long-range vision is poor, their night vision and echolocation give them a huge advantage in the darkness of their massive tunnel systems.

  Gorkam: With a tough exoskeleton, Gorkam see no need for clothes. Because Lokostwa is so barren, they travel long distances to find food and water. Though they cannot fly, they use their wings to increase the distance they can leap, a big advantage when crossing mountain ranges. Though they have a fierce appearance and their earth-toned shells can function as armor, most are pacifists of the Martyr sect.

  Human: Humans are native to Earth, but two colonies left shortly after the Tower of Babel fell. One colony, the common Humans, settled on Chibbink. Common Humans tend to have red or blond hair and green or blue eyes, as well as fair skin. The hisrut race is covered in dark hair. They tend to be shorter and more slenderly built. They have dark eyes and dark skin.

  Earth Humans inhabit Derbis, but outside a few traders, there is no contact between them and those in the Known Region.

  Skallan: Skallan are a semi-coldblooded species native to Saddat. Like the Chix and Humans, they were one of the first space-faring races. They own much of the Company, which puts them in high regard with the Chix and Humans. Their extreme capitalistic culture has led to a massive force of mercenaries and bounty hunters in place of traditional militaries and law enforcement.

  They tend to be slender and a little taller than the average Human. From a distance, they could be mistaken for Human, but up close, their green or brown scales, lack of a nose, and their golden, orange or red eyes leave no doubt that they are far from Human.

  Torf: This theropod-like Lokostwan species is known for their endurance and speed. They have sharp teeth so they can strip plants of leaves and bark, but they’re also known for eating anything they can catch. They typically hav
e earth-toned feathers, with black and white being extremely rare. Other than during extremely severe weather, Torfs never wear clothing, other than belts that allow them to carry tools or weaponry. They sport a long inner claw on each three-toed foot, giving them a lethal kick, as well as a long feathery tail that helps with balance during fast turns.

  Varsillian: This arboreal species lives near the equatorial regions of Tupra. They can change their scale color at will or when they experience strong emotions, making them experts at hiding since they don’t wear clothes. They’re vegetarians who use their sharp teeth to rip through the outer hulls of fruit to get to the juicy inner flesh. Like Gorkam, they rarely leave their home planet Some people find them unsettling because of their serpentine bodies and tentacle-like limbs, even though they have little ability in the way of fighting.

  Planets

  Chibbink: Home of the Chix and common Humans, also known for being the most populated planet in the Known Region. The planet is mostly ocean, and the land is very tropical in nature. It has a large continent in the northern hemisphere and a smaller one in the south, as well as various island chains. Most of the land is swamp and jungle with a few plains on the southern continent. Because their years are only forty days long, the seasons are mild.

  Most of Chibbink’s fuel reserves are under their ocean, making it hard to mine.

  Derbis: A planet so rich in metals that there are more metals on one of the continents than stone. It was recently colonized by Humans, who live exclusively on the steel continent, while the other land masses are inhabited by a sentient flying species.

  Lokostwa: A cool planet with only small seas. The planet is arid with no forests. The majority of the planet is grassland or desert with barren mountain ranges. The two sentient species on the planet, Torfs and Gorkam, travel long distances to find enough food to survive. Because of this, Lokostwa is the least populated planet of the four planets in the Known Region.