by Leslie Chase
But he could see that Lilly was just as repulsed by this situation as he was. The trouble was that, as long as she was in Cooper's death-trap, he had no room to maneuver. Saving Lilly had to come first, anything else was unthinkable.
"What's your plan, then? Where do we go from here? And what are you planning to do with Lilly?" he asked. Anything to keep her talking, to buy time. As he spoke, Jaranak looked around the room, slowly and carefully mapping it in his mind and marking where the guards stood. There were too many of them, standing around the edges of the room and keeping an eye on him and Orshar. If they tried anything now, the humans would gun them down before they could do anything. And that was ignoring the danger Lilly was in.
Hrail smirked and Cooper laughed, answering for her. "Don't worry, you'll get your girl back safe and sound — once we've got what we want. Until then, she stays here to ensure you do as you're fucking told."
"All we need is the ship," Hrail said sweetly, as though she were asking a favor not making a demand. "Just long enough to study and learn from, and then you can go if you want to. Or stay and live in luxury, we don't mind. There'll be enough to go around, you see."
Jaranak doubted that. Taking the engine apart to study it would probably wreck the Far Hunter, and that would be the end of that. Maybe they'd keep Jaranak and his crew as prisoners, but why would they take that risk? Once they had the ship, he'd have nothing further to offer them.
Not that it mattered. He wasn't tempted to take the offer anyway, not and leave Lilly's planet in the hands of these two. But he had to let them think he was tempted, or they'd never let Lilly go.
He nodded reluctantly. "As long as Lilly's safe."
"Of course she'll be safe," Cooper promised, with all the sincerity of a scorpion. "I don't give a fuck about her, or you. Let's get this done. Give us the access codes, and get your men off the ship, and we're done."
"No." Jaranak looked from Cooper to Hrail and back again. "That's not how this will work. I need an assurance that you'll keep your word, so I'm not just going to hand over everything. I don't trust you to hold up your end of the bargain."
Cooper laughed at that, cold-hearted mirth bubbling up inside him. Jaranak trembled, restraining his urge to leap at the man and punish him for taking Lilly's safety so lightly. Revenge can wait. Her life matters more.
He had to repeat that to himself, over and over, to keep from stepping over the invisible line that held him back.
Eventually, Cooper's laughter ran down to a coughing stop. "Ah, that's funny. Of course you don't trust us, you idiot. If you did we wouldn't need this whole setup, would we?"
"I suppose not," Jaranak said coldly, glaring at the human. "Let's get on with this. How can I trust that you'll let her go?"
"Don't!" Lilly shouted quickly. "He'll never—AH!"
Her body jerked in the straps again as Cooper leaned on the switch. The slightest pressure was enough to send an agonizing shock through her.
"Shut the fuck up, bitch," Cooper told her. "You've got nothing to say here."
"Cooper." Jaranak's hard, flat voice brought Cooper's attention back to him. "If you hurt her again, I will kill you. That's a promise you can count on."
Around the room, the guards shifted their weight and raised their pistols, but Cooper waved them down. "Don't fucking shoot him, you idiots. I need what's in that brain."
Jaranak ignored them entirely. Getting himself shot wasn't part of the plan but he'd risk that to keep Lilly from being tortured. He could see her response in her eyes, even at this distance. It was a mix of gratitude and anger, and that almost made him smile. She's going to be furious with me if I get myself killed doing this.
Even that was a price he'd be willing to bear if he had to.
Spreading his arms, he looked around the room slowly, trying to take in everything. His breathing slowed as he tried to relax before looking back at Cooper and Hrail. Beside him, he could feel Orshar vibrating with tension, and he prayed the man could keep himself under control. The last thing he needed was his backup starting something before he was ready.
"This is how it will have to work," Jaranak said. "I give you my word that I will cooperate. You let Lilly go, and keep me instead. My friends will take Lilly to safety, and once they are out of your grasp, I'll tell you the access codes. You can test them before letting me go, so you know I'm not tricking you."
That ought to be convincing enough, he thought. And the only person really at risk would be him. Hrail nodded thoughtfully, but Cooper didn't like the idea.
"Give up my only leverage? I don't fucking think so," Cooper scoffed. "You're willing to risk death for the girl, but you look like a tough bastard. Might be willing to die to keep us from controlling the ship. No, I'll tell you what's going to happen — your friends are going to get out of the ship, and you'll give me the codes. Hrail will make sure we have access, then I'll let you all go, Miss Hardridge included."
That promise was worth slightly less than nothing, Jaranak could see that in the human's eyes. There was no way that he'd let them go once he had what he wanted. He thought he had all the cards, and he was very nearly right.
Hrail didn't look entirely happy with Cooper's demands, but she didn't argue with them either. As long as she got what she wanted, she didn't seem to care about how it happened or what it cost others. Perhaps a little more than Cooper, or perhaps that was simply what he wanted to see in her. She was a member of his species, after all.
But apparently that didn't mean much to her.
Jaranak took another slow look around the room, focusing on the details. Paying attention to where the guards were standing, where the lab technicians stood, where the cabling lay. The room was a mess of equipment, laid out haphazardly, and that was going to make any attempt to fight in here difficult — and that aside from the danger that it would put Lilly in.
Would taking that risk be better than surrendering to the certainty of life in a cage? Because that was all the option that he saw for her. The look in Lilly's eyes told him her opinion: fight. He wasn't surprised, but he was pleased by her choice.
The only question was how to get Cooper away from the switch. As long as he was right there, there was no way to win. Jaranak had to keep him talking.
"This isn't going to work," he said, slowly. "But I can see a compromise—"
"Enough," Orshar snarled from behind him. "I have a solution, Captain Hrail."
Jaranak looked around, eyes narrowing, and Orshar's cold smile widened. Cooper looked at him curiously as Hrail gestured for him to continue.
"Jaranak will never give you what you want," he said. "He never planned to. But I can, and will — because we can be partners."
"You can't be serious," Jaranak said, but he could see the truth of it in Orshar's smile. How long had Orshar been planning this betrayal? He couldn't tell if it was a spur of the moment thing, or whether he'd had it in mind from the first decision to confront Cooper. You won't survive this, he swore silently. Turning on your captain would be bad enough, but putting Lilly in danger is unacceptable.
"Intriguing," Cooper said, cocking his head to the side. "And how do you see that working?"
"Jaranak gave us all the codes before he walked in here," Orshar explained. "We couldn't risk his death stranding us. That means I can give you control of the Far Hunter as easily as he can. The three of us each bring something to the table — Hrail has the transstar core, I have a ship that can use it, and you, Mr. Cooper, have the mind we need to unravel its secrets. Between us, we have everything we need to revolutionize this planet and the entire solar system. Taking over, ruling, hunting as I please — that's what I want, and I don't think that you want anything different."
Hrail and Cooper exchanged a look as Jaranak raged silently. The smiles that spread across their faces were triumphant, and when they turned back towards him, the hunger in their eyes was plain to see.
"What about them?" Cooper asked, gesturing at Jaranak. Orshar smiled.
&n
bsp; "Let Jaranak and his female live, I owe him that much, but beyond that I don't much care," he replied. "They can live out their lives in comfortable confinement with Parvak and Karnan, and we all win."
"The world is big, we can share," Cooper said, nodding. "What's your name, young man?"
"Orshar Avi-Haranar Ko," Orshar said formally, bowing and grinning as he gave his full oath-name. That wouldn't mean anything to a human, but Hrail would know that Orshar was taking this seriously.
Jaranak took a deep breath, let it out, and tried to focus as Cooper smiled. His hand slipped into his pocket as all attention focused on Orshar. He might have been disarmed, but that didn't mean he was helpless.
"This is working out better than we'd expected," Cooper said, rubbing his hands with glee. "But it seems that we don't need your captain, Orshar. Jaranak, if you resist, I will fry your precious Lilly right here. Cooperate, and she'll live. I have no reason to kill her."
As though you need one. Jaranak felt his jaw tighten, rage building too high to be ignored. Sinking to his knees, he kept his eyes on Orshar who frowned down at him, confused.
"You don't want to do this," Jaranak said in their own language, "You swore an oath to me, and besides that, you don't want to be on their side for this."
Orshar laughed. "Don't be stupid, I'm not on their side. I don't doubt the human knows it, too. But we'll both enjoy playing the game, and when I win—"
"You won't win," Jaranak interrupted. "Neither will he. Karnan — now!"
Before Orshar or Cooper could react, he threw the blade of skymetal he'd palmed into the air. Karnan's warp field caught it at the top of its arc, and the humans stared as it hung there, motionless for a moment.
Then it moved, darting like a spinning knife into the nearest of the guards and punching straight through his chest. Emerging from his back, gleaming red and bloody, it turned sharply and sliced across the neck of another. A bright red spray of blood arced across the room, and the other guards finally started to react.
Jaranak didn't waste any time watching the chaos. As soon as the knife left his hand he dove forward, Cooper's warning ignored. Speed was his only chance.
The whine of the generators spiked and electricity crackled. Lilly's cry of pain split the air, and his heart — he was the one causing the pain. But he had no choice.
He didn't leap straight for Lilly, though. The chair would kill her before he reached her, he knew that. Instead, he grabbed the nearest lab technician and threw him into the tangle of cables above the chair. Lightning crackled and the man screamed, thrashing as the torture device shorted out. The room's lights flickered and dimmed, and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. But Lilly's scream stopped, to Jaranak's relief.
Before Jaranak could make a move towards her, Orshar barreled into him from behind, slamming him against the abandoned desk. Around them, gunshots rang out as the guards futilely tried to stop the skymetal knife's murderous ballet. Karnan's remote control sent it into a fresh target and another spray of blood splattered across Orshar's face as he reared up, raising a fist high.
Grabbing the nearest object, Jaranak smashed a flask full of some bubbling liquid into Orshar's face, sending the man rolling aside screaming. Jaranak swung himself over the table and towards Lilly.
Cooper was there, frantically pulling at the switch — but the fuses had blown, and there was no power. A guard leaped in the way, whether to protect Cooper or to escape the flying knife Jaranak neither knew nor cared. He grabbed the human and slammed a punch into his face, dropping the unconscious man behind him.
The confusion around him escalated, but he knew it wouldn't last. Karnan could only work from the images he'd sent, and now everyone was moving from the position he'd seen them in. Soon the knife would have no targets at all.
Hrail grabbed Cooper, dragging him away from the chair. The human's eyes were wide and he shouted for help as Jaranak ran to Lilly. Jaranak ignored the retreating pair for now — their time would come soon enough, but this was more urgent. Saving Lilly was the important thing, and right now there were too many wild bullets flying around for him to leave her restrained in the center of the room.
"I knew you'd come," Lilly gasped as he grabbed the straps binding her right arm, unbuckling it as quickly as he could. "You're an idiot, you know that don't you?"
"As long as I'm your idiot, I don't mind," Jaranak said looking up from his work to smile into her eyes. A flicker of a reflection in them was all the warning he got as Orshar caught up with him.
Jaranak whirled to meet him, catching a punch in the ribs and staggering back. Next to him, Lilly managed to pull her arm free and set to work on the other straps. That was all he saw before Orshar slammed into him again, and the two of them reeled away into the center of the laboratory.
A punch connected with Jaranak's cheek and everything seemed to spin around him. His vision unfocused, and as he turned with the impact, the world slowed. It was as though he was moving through syrup, and he had time to see everything.
Something had caught fire, and acrid smoke filled the room blocking his vision. The black glowing sphere hanging in the middle of the ceiling pulsed. Energy crackled from it, and where it struck the walls it left scorch marks. And the skymetal blade still leaped from point to point, trailing blood and drawing fire though it wasn't hitting any of its targets. Bleeding and injured guards lay around the room, some trying to shoot it down.
Jaranak felt another punch slam into his side, and a bone cracked under the impact. Time snapped back to normal, and he lashed out with a kick that caught Orshar's knee, sending the other man tumbling to the floor with a scream of pain. Jaranak leaped after him, not wanting to give Orshar a moment to recover again. The smoke thickened around them, and Jaranak could hardly see to hit him. He didn't let that slow him down.
His punches rained down on Orshar's arms as Orshar protected his face and rolled aside, trying to get to his feet. Changing tactics, Jaranak caught him a solid blow to the stomach, and Orshar gasped in pain. One of the human guards stepped out of the smoke, swinging a huge fist at Jaranak. He caught the hand and twisted with a snarl, sending the human back into the smoke screaming.
When he looked back, Orshar was gone, vanished into the poisonous fog. Shit. Where's that bastard gone?
Then he heard Lilly scream. The sound was enough to pull him from the search instantly.
"I'm coming, Lilly," he shouted hoarsely, coughing and staggering towards the noise. The smoke stung his eyes and he could barely see, but no one else was doing any better.
"Stay away," someone shouted, panic in his voice. Michael Cooper, he thought, but couldn't be sure. "Stay away or I'll shoot her."
"Let her go, and I'll leave you alone," Jaranak promised. "That's the best offer you're going to get."
A gunshot rang out, the bullet missing him by inches, and he dropped to the floor. Making his way forward as quietly as he could, he tried to narrow down where his targets were. Those bastards weren't taking Lilly anywhere, not if he had anything to say about it, but he had to be careful. If they got a good shot at him, he wouldn't be much good to her.
Behind him, a hole opened in the warehouse wall as Parvak joined the fray. One of the guards snapped a shot in his direction, and then Parvak's disintegrator wand burned a hole through his chest.
"Jaranak, catch!" Parvak cried out, throwing him another wand. With a hunter's grin, Jaranak dived into the pursuit. Now that he was armed, the odds were even.
Behind him, he heard more gunshots, and the whine of Parvak's disintegrator wand answering them. Most of the humans were fleeing as the building started to burn in earnest, and he knew that the fight was going out of them. The more dangerous humans were ahead, and they had Lilly.
Plunging back into the smoke, he snapped a shot into a guard that came too close, sending him tumbling back. A gust of fresh air told him where the door was, and he heard an engine start outside. Doubling his efforts, he crashed through the doorway just in time to s
ee a delivery truck pull away, aimed for the gates of the compound. Jaranak raised his wand and took aim.
"Jaranak!" Lilly shouted from the back of it. If she said anything else, it was lost in the noise of the engine.
Black Sun, he swore under his breath, lowering his weapon instantly. He couldn't risk shooting, not with her aboard, and they clearly weren't going to stop for a threat. But he wouldn't let them get away, either.
There were other vehicles parked beside the laboratory, and he leaped over to the nearest one that looked electric. The human technology was primitive, inefficient, and nowhere near as powerful as their oil-burning cars, but it was something he understood.
On its own it would never catch up with Cooper's truck. But he had to try, and he knew some tricks that the humans didn't.
20
Lilly
"What the hell is he doing?" Mr. Cooper growled, peering out of the back of the truck as it accelerated away. Lilly tried to see past him, but Michael held her too tight, and she couldn't move. She concentrated on breathing — the lungful of smoke she'd inhaled made her cough, and she couldn't help expecting a fit.
But her new, healed lungs seemed to cope just fine. One more thing to thank Jaranak for. Hopefully I'll have a chance.
The back of the truck was crowded, half-full of crates before they'd crammed themselves aboard. Now, as well as the Coopers and Orshar, it held Lilly and Hrail and a guard. Hrail looked furious, staring back the way they'd come with a terrifying intensity.
Orshar, on the other hand, looked like he was having the time of his life.
"What do you think? He's coming after you," Orshar said. The alien crouched beside her, holding a length of metal pipe in one hand and breathing heavily. His grin stretched wide, and he hefted his improvised weapon casually. "Nothing will stop him, so long as you have the girl."
Cooper turned to look at her, then nodded. "Let him fucking have her then. Throw her out the back."
