Imminent Danger: And How to Fly Straight Into It

by Proulx, Michelle

  He sent her an amused look and then ducked to avoid striker fire from the last three conscious Rakorsians. Eris raised her plasma rifle and let loose.

  BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

  Two of the Rakorsians slammed into the wall, and the third looked dazed enough by the explosions to be effectively out of the battle.

  “Kari! Watch it!” Varrin protested. “I’d prefer to keep my head on my shoulders if possible.”

  “You’re alive, aren’t you?”

  Varrin sighed. “Come on, let’s get going. I’m pretty sure that after this little battle, Kratis would have to be a complete idiot to not notice us.”

  “Why haven’t they sounded the alarm? I mean, we’ve been on their ship for at least thirty minutes.”

  “Oh, I’m sure someone did.” He shrugged. “But I knocked them out before they could report our location. Rakorsian warships don’t have security cameras—they assume they’re too formidable to be boarded by enemies—so they can’t locate us that way either.”

  BOOM.

  The ship rocked again. “I don’t know whether I should be pleased or annoyed that the Ssrisk betrayed Kratis,” Varrin mused.

  “Hey, as long as it distracts Kratis from capturing us before we get to the comm department, I’m ecstatic.”

  “It’s comm deck. This isn’t a shopping center.”

  Eris rolled her eyes. “Fussy, aren’t you?”

  As Eris and Varrin stood in a deserted corridor waiting for one of the ship’s lifts, they heard footsteps pounding toward them. Hurry, hurry, hurry, Eris begged the elevator. She saw Varrin looking around for a place to hide, but there were no open doors or side corridors in sight. “I always knew a slow elevator would be the death of me,” she moaned.

  A squad of Rakorsians rounded the corner decked out in full battle regalia—blinding red body armor, demonic-looking helmets, and drawn swords crackling with electricity.

  “Attack—” the leader began to shout, and then ended lamely with, “Prince Varrin?”

  “These guys don’t look like regular guards,” Eris observed nervously.

  “They’re Skin Slicers,” Varrin said. “I suggest we try very hard not to irritate them. Which means keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking.”

  “What are Skin—mmmph!” Eris shot him a vicious look as he clapped a hand over her mouth.

  “What did I say? Be quiet. Let a man handle this.”

  Oooh, I am so going to kick his ass when we get out of this.

  One of the Skin Slicers took a step forward and snapped a fist to his chest. “Prince Varrin. You must accompany us to the bridge.”

  “For the sake of my pride, please tell me you ran into us accidentally,” Varrin said, dropping his hand from Eris’s mouth.

  “You must accompany us to the bridge,” the leader repeated.

  Varrin raised his eyebrows. “And if I refuse?”

  “You are not authorized to refuse.”

  “Just how tough are these guys?” Eris whispered to Varrin.

  “Skin Slicers are the elite imperial guard. I got into a fight with four of them on Bellatrix 7. I was in the med center for a week afterward.”

  “You mean that four of them beat you?”

  “I beat them, thank you very much,” Varrin scowled. “But I got three broken ribs and a black eye for my troubles. Not to mention the electric burns.”

  The lead Skin Slicer took another step forward. “Will you comply, Prince Varrin, or shall I proceed to use deadly force?”

  Varrin did a double take. “Fino’jin, is that you?”

  The warrior removed his helmet, revealing a heavily scarred, leathery face. “It’s been a long time, my prince.”

  Varrin winced. “Yeah, sorry about skipping out on the wedding. I hope it didn’t make you look bad, being head of the Marriage Escort Squad and all.”

  “I am a Skin Slicer. I do my duty to protect the lives and honor of the imperial house,” Fino’jin said.

  “Yeah. I remember.” Varrin had a far-off look in his eyes. “You guarded me from the day I was born.”

  “Things change.”

  “They certainly seem to.”

  “So what will it be?” Fino’jin demanded. “You may be a fighting prodigy, Prince Varrin, but even you cannot hope to defeat my entire squadron.”

  Eris nudged Varrin. “Maybe we should surrender.”

  Varrin looked at her, an inscrutable expression on his face. Then he turned to Fino’jin and said, “You heard the lady. We surrender.” He waved a hand dramatically. “Take us away.”

  Fino’jin saluted him sharply. “As my prince commands.”

  After being disarmed by the Skin Slicers, Eris and Varrin were marched to the ship’s command deck, which was swarming with uniformed Rakorsians. In the center of the deck stood Kratis, clearly in his element as he barked orders and issued commands to scurrying underlings.

  Eris was unceremoniously shoved by one of the Skin Slicers into an empty chair where she was warned, on pain of death, to stay. Varrin was dragged before Kratis, who turned toward him with a smug expression.

  “Admiral, sir?” a bridge officer said.

  Kratis rounded on his subordinate. “What?” he demanded.

  “The Ssrisk have infiltrated the ship at seven different points,” the officer reported. “One team was eliminated, but the rest are still at large.”

  “Fino’jin!” Kratis barked at the leader of the Skin Slicers. “Take your squad and track down the traitorous reptiles.”

  Fino’jin snapped a fist to his chest and strode from the room, his squad filing out after him.

  “Why has the Ssrisk ship not yet been destroyed?” Kratis shouted at the bridge officer.

  “Sir, their shields are very powerful,” the officer responded. “If we divert all power to our weapons, we might break through. But that would leave us open to counterattack.”

  “Then proceed as you were,” the admiral ordered. “I have what Hroshk wants, and as soon as he figures that out, he will come crawling to me, seeking to renew our alliance.”

  Eris recalled the Ssrisk captain’s fearless and unyielding attitude. “Fat chance of that,” she snorted. When Kratis stared at her coldly, eyebrows raised, she added, “What? It’s true! Hroshk is a Ssrisk. Everyone knows that Ssrisk are hard-headed idiots. I bet Hroshk would rather self-destruct his ship than surrender.”

  “Remember what I said about not talking?” Varrin grumbled.

  “I’ll speak if I want to!”

  Kratis watched them with a calculating eye. “I must say, Prince Varrin, you do pick the most fascinating travel companions. The girl is very … entertaining.”

  “Get bent,” Eris snarled.

  “Didn’t we just go over this?” Varrin snapped. “Don’t talk to him! You’ll only get yourself into trouble when he provokes you into saying something else you shouldn’t.”

  Eris glowered at him but said nothing.

  Kratis seemed intrigued by the exchange. “This is very interesting,” he mused. “I would never have thought it possible, my prince, but it seems to me that you care about this terrestrial.” He spat out the word care as if he had sullied himself by speaking it.

  “Going a bit senile, are you, Admiral?” Varrin inquired.

  Kratis frowned. “Insults will not misdirect me. I see how quick you are to defend her.”

  “She owes me money.”

  “Nor will humor.” Kratis cocked his head to the side, his eyes narrowing. “I was planning to simply kill the terrestrial, but I’ve just thought of an intriguing way to make things far more interesting.”

  Varrin glanced at Eris. “Do you see now why I told you not to talk?”

  “I am going to give you a choice, my prince,” Kratis announced. He strode over to Eris and grasped her arm. She let out a pained gasp, and Varrin’s expression hardened.

  “Option one,” Kratis continued. “I honor my agreement with the Ssrisk and let Hroshk have the girl. You, my prince, are loc
ked away in the smallest cell I can find and transported back to Rakor, where I will do everything in my power to see you executed for treason.”

  “Somehow I’m not loving that plan,” Varrin said. “Second choice?”

  “Option two: I kill the girl and let you go free. The choice is yours,” Kratis said, releasing Eris.

  “Free?” she blinked, rubbing her arm. “As in … you’ll just let him fly away?”

  “Precisely,” the admiral said. “At the cost of your life, Prince Varrin will gain his freedom. If my suspicions are correct, this will be a very entertaining decision to watch.”

  Eris looked at Varrin for a reaction, but his face was impassive.

  “That doesn’t make any sense!” she snapped at Kratis. “I thought the reason you came here was to capture him!” This is like some demented alien game show—pick the right door, win a million dollars. Except in this game, either way I lose. And Varrin chooses the door.

  “Wrong,” Kratis said. “I am supposed to capture the weak, traitorous prince who abandoned his father, his Empire, and the ways of his people.”

  This is the same twisted logic Grashk used on me, Eris thought, when he stopped Tarsis from torturing me because I stood up to him.

  “If Prince Varrin chooses the second option,” Kratis said, “and sends you to your death, it will tell me three things. One, despite his treachery, he is still a Rakorsian at heart. Two, he still possesses the Rakorsian resolve to survive at any cost. And three, he has not fallen so low as to conspire with terrestrials as he sadly appears to have done.”

  “Well, that’s stupid,” Eris said. “You’re insane. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that your entire species is crazy! Does no one in outer space have a shred of decency?” She glanced at Varrin, who was still suspiciously silent. “Would you say something? Back me up here.”

  “The prince has not responded because he is still thinking,” Kratis sneered. “Something which terrestrials are obviously not very fond of.”

  “Not very fond of?” Eris cried. “Seriously? But what about the part you’re not saying? You’ll let him go free, sure, but then you’ll take off after him the moment he’s had a head start. This whole thing is just a sick game for your amusement!”

  “Manipulating life and death is a noble tradition on Rakor.”

  “If all Rakorsians are as horrid as you, no wonder Varrin left!”

  “Ha!” Kratis sneered. “Did he not tell you? Prince Varrin left Rakor to escape an arranged marriage. The physical appearance of his fiancée offended his delicate tastes, and when his father refused to call off the wedding, he fled.”

  “Yeah, well, see, I knew that.” Eris glanced at Varrin, but he was staring blankly ahead. “Anyway, that’s not the point. My point is that Varrin isn’t like the rest of you. He pretends to be a ruthless mercenary, but at heart he’s a decent human be—I mean, Rakorsian.”

  The admiral chortled. “Quite a speech, terrestrial. You certainly have a lot of faith in the prince’s conscience.”

  “I do!” Eris said. “He’s not going to let you win this little game. Varrin would never sacrifice me to save himself, not after everything we’ve been through!”

  “Let’s put that theory to the test, shall we?” Kratis smirked. “What will it be, my prince? Spare the girl and doom yourself, or sacrifice the girl to save your own hide?”

  Varrin turned his head slowly to look at the admiral.

  We’ve been through too much for him to betray me again, Eris thought with certainty. He’s going to do the right thing. I just know it.

  “Prince Varrin, what is your choice?” Kratis demanded eagerly. “What fate will you bring upon yourself and your precious little terrestrial? Speak!”

  Even the officers engaged in attacking the Ssrisk cruiser paused from their duties to listen to his response. Every eye was on Varrin.

  Staring straight into Eris’s hopeful eyes, he said, “I think … that I’m going to have to go with option two.”

  34

  “Damn it, Varrin!” Eris shrieked after a moment of stunned silence. “What the hell are you playing at?” She searched his face desperately for some sign he was lying, deceiving Kratis in order to turn events to their advantage. But all she saw in his gray eyes was steely resolve.

  “I kept warning you not to trust me,” Varrin said. “But you’re too stubborn to listen to reason.”

  “Don’t play all high and mighty with me!” Eris cried. “What do you mean, option two? You’re seriously going to sacrifice me to save your own hide?”

  “I thought my answer was quite clear. But I can repeat it, if you’d like. Yes, I have condemned you to death. Trust me, it’s really for the best.”

  “But why?” Tears welled up in her green eyes. “I thought—all this time, I thought …” I thought you might actually have been starting to care about me.

  Varrin gave her a piercing look. “Thought what?”

  “Thought that you’d changed,” she said. Looking into his eyes, Eris couldn’t catch even a glimpse of the Varrin she thought she knew. “But I was obviously wrong!” she raged. “You’re the same insensitive, self-serving jerk you were the day you kidnapped me!”

  Varrin said nothing.

  “He’s going to hunt you down!” she railed, changing tacks. “You moron, he’s going to capture you again, and then you’ll end up dead, or imprisoned, or whatever, whether you like it or not!”

  “What would you suggest I do?” he demanded. “Give you to the Ssrisk to be sold into slavery and ensure my own return to Rakor as a captive? How could I possibly rescue—no, never mind.” His face became impassive again.

  “At least with option one we’d both survive, even if only for a little longer!” Eris shouted. “Kari, you really haven’t changed at all, have you?

  “Now now, play nice,” Kratis interjected, stepping between them. The admiral looked delighted by the turn of events. “I do so enjoy crushing a person’s hopes and dreams before killing them. It makes the death sweeter.”

  “You are despicable,” Eris told him viciously. “But at the same time, Admiral, I guess I have to thank you. I don’t think I’d have ever believed his truly heartless nature until you forced him to reveal it.”

  She turned to Varrin, looking for a reaction. Is he just going to stand there staring at me? Eris thought incredulously.

  Varrin looked past her to Kratis. “My freedom?” he asked.

  “As promised,” Kratis agreed. “You may leave on your ship as soon as—”

  “Sir?” one of the officers interrupted. “Prince Varrin’s ship is currently on the Ssrisk vessel. They tractored it aboard.”

  Eris gasped. “Oh no! Miguri!”

  “This does complicate things.” Kratis sighed. “I apologize, my prince, but I must deal with the Ssrisk before I can release you to your ship.”

  “You see?” Eris demanded of Varrin. “This is where he goes back on his word!”

  “On the contrary,” the admiral said. “Prince Varrin is free to go wherever he likes on board so long as he does not sabotage my ship. He is a Rakorsian and therefore honor-bound by our agreement.” Turning to his officer, he added, “Have someone take the terrestrial to a holding cell.”

  Two guards approached Eris. Not quite able to believe this was really happening, she looked desperately to Varrin. The prince held her gaze for a moment and then looked away without a word.

  “Take her away,” Kratis barked. “I have had enough of terrestrials for one day.”

  As soon as Eris was dragged from the bridge, Kratis said, “So, my prince, now that we’ve taken care of that little bit of business, tell me truthfully—why did you board my ship?”

  Varrin shrugged. “To assassinate you, of course.”

  Kratis nodded and then peered curiously at him. “I must admit your decision to accept my offer of freedom in return for the life of the terrestrial surprised me.”

  “Then you must be losing your touch,” Varrin said. “A
ny self-respecting Rakorsian puts his own well-being before anyone else’s—except the emperor’s.”

  “Strength and glory to the emperor,” Kratis intoned. “But surely you are aware that the moment your ship Pulls, I will come after you?”

  “No Rakorsian worth his klavk lets his prey escape. I remember the martial code as well as you do, Admiral. Stop testing me.”

  Kratis bowed. “As my prince commands.” He peered closely at the seemingly unflappable young man. “You haven’t changed at all.”

  Varrin snorted. “I certainly hope not.”

  “But your choice still puzzles me. You claim to have no feelings for the terrestrial, and yet I know you have risked yourself to protect her before. Why choose death for her over mere enslavement?”

  “Don’t forget I get my freedom as part of the deal.”

  Kratis waved a hand impatiently. “We are experienced military men, Prince Varrin. Do not fool yourself. Even with your prodigious talents, you will not be able to elude me for very long. So again I ask, why have her killed?”

  Varrin stared at the admiral for a long moment and then shrugged. “It may surprise you to learn that, for the girl, a life of servitude and oppression without any hope of escape would be far worse than death. Even though she obviously doesn’t realize it.”

  “Since when did you start considering what would benefit terrestrials?”

  “I haven’t,” Varrin said. “But this particular terrestrial was my companion for some time. An ally, if you will. And, as a self-respecting Rakorsian, I pride myself upon treating my allies with at least a modicum of respect.”

  Kratis inclined his head to Varrin and gave him a regretful look. “Your years in exile have given you wisdom. It is a shame you must die for your childhood mistakes.”

  “You really think the emperor will leave my brother as his only successor? Don’t make me laugh. I may be facing a few years in prison, but death? Not a chance.” Varrin glanced around the crowded command deck. “It’s been years since I was aboard such a fine ship. I’d like to look around while I have the chance. You have my word that I will in no way sabotage you or your craft.”

  “Very well,” Kratis said. “I shall send word when your ship is retrieved. You may, however, consider simply remaining aboard my vessel. If you stay, you will be allowed the benefits of your rank. But if I am forced to hunt you down, you will be treated like any common criminal.”