by Layla Nash
“Xaravians?” Maisy looked doubtful. “I don’t think we’re tall enough to be mistaken for Xaravians.”
“Our females are not as tall as we are,” Frrar said. “And female warriors are known to be very dangerous — small, but dangerous. You will both fit right in, once we can find you the appropriate clothes.”
Jess shivered; she hadn’t worn a Xaravian disguise before, because she never thought she could fool a true Xaravian. At least it would be good practice for later. She blinked a little and shook her head; practice for later for what? When would she have to pretend to be a Xaravian again?
She caught Trazzak watching her and only shook her head again. “I will need to speak with my contact once more, to iron out the agreement and get more information on where this technology is being kept. We can do that from the cutter later.”
“We should do that now,” the big Xaravian said. He nodded to Maisy and Frrar, though, and gestured at the door. “Check on the cutter and make sure the repairs have been made, and all the supplies are stocked. We won’t have any opportunities to stop once we depart the base.”
Maisy grinned as she bounced to her feet. “Sounds like a great idea. You and Jess stay here and hang out, figure out all the details, and we’ll make sure the cutter is prepped and ready to go.”
Trazzak frowned as he watched Maisy leave, and Frrar went on her heels, already talking about the improvements he could make to the cutter’s weapons systems. Jess wanted to smack her forehead. She needed to give Maisy some points about subtlety.
The Xaravian shook his head and sat forward, pointing at the small table between them. “You still have the relay, I assume?”
“Yes.” Jess put it on the table and leaned forward to fuss with the relay, nearly falling on her face. “Don’t talk when I set up the meeting. We have to use the protocols, and he’ll get spooked if a Xaravian shows up in the comms.”
He didn’t look impressed. “Fine, but if I have objections, I will write them here and you must take them into account.”
Jess sighed; this was why she liked working alone. No one else to object when she made plans and figured out the best way to run her own mission. Inviting other people in just created unnecessary conflicts and complications. Life was much simpler alone.
She triggered the relay and sorted through the messages and encryption until she found the link to Nathan. She waited, knowing he would answer immediately rather than wait for the appropriate time. He’d never been very patient, even during training. He didn’t learn lessons easily, either, which was why he only lasted one tour in the field before being pulled back to headquarters. Jess didn’t let Trazzak’s steady breathing and immense bulk distract her, even though he seemed to take up all the air in the room, and focused on the relay. She couldn’t afford to be on anything but her top game with Nathan. He knew all of her tricks, or so she feared.
The relay lit up and sent the sweet chiming of bells through Trazzak’s grim quarters, at odds with the equally business-like Xaravian in the chair, and Jess centered herself and all her concentration on the business at hand. She answered the relay and waited until Nathan’s face appeared in the flickering lights over the open metallic case. He smiled, self-assured to the point of arrogance. “I knew you’d call.”
“I have questions and requirements, and I’m not interested in discussing them like this.”
“Not even a hello, Jessalyn?” Nathan snorted. “You haven’t changed much at all, although I suspect any change in your manners is from spending too much time with barbarians.”
“You’d be wrong about that,” Jess said. “My manners are fine; I just don’t put up with an organization that wants me dead. Did you send the bounty hunters after me, Nathan, or did the Ministry do it behind your back?”
Anger bubbled up in her chest. She hated feeling like she’d been double-crossed. Even with the possibility that the bounty hunters just happened to find her on the neutral spaceport, she wanted Nathan off-balance as much as possible. That was pretty standard — deny everything, make counter-accusations. Maybe he remembered.
The Earther blinked and coughed politely into his hand. “I certainly had nothing to do with that, Jessalyn, and you must believe me. You’re of no use to me dead, to be honest.”
“But it solves some of your more pressing problems,” Jess said, and it took all of her concentration to not glance at Trazzak as his scales rattled and a soft growl escaped. She didn’t know what he was so pissed off at, when they talked about her death alone. “Own up to it, Nathan, or I’m not interested in this particular job of yours.”
Nathan sighed and ran a hand through his shaggy, perfectly arranged hair. “I can check around, but I don’t think it was us. The bounty has been active for some time, though — it’s possible bounty hunters are truly ready to risk rebel territory in order to get the payday.”
Jess’s stomach soured. She made sure he saw her reaching to turn off the relay. “I didn’t say it happened in rebel territory, asshole.”
“Wait,” Nathan said. He made a face, gesturing airily in the odd lights of the relay. “We got a report from one of our... friends, that the Galaxos and her crew barely made it back to base for repairs.”
A friend within the rebels? That didn’t bode well. Jess made a mental note to come up with a safe way to notify the rebel security teams without outing herself or spooking the spy into running. Starting a mole hunt with a lot of noise and movement would only give the bastard enough warning to escape.
Nathan held his hands up to get her attention. “Rather than rehashing all of this here, why don’t we meet? I can give you more details and a new identity, and you can tell me all the impossible things you want before you’ll agree to work for me.”
“I won’t work for you,” she said automatically. That much she knew for certain. She’d never be indebted to anyone ever again, and she sure as hell wouldn’t be calling anyone “boss.” “I work for myself. Our interests coincide right now, and when they no longer do so, I’m gone. But I’ll meet you on Tridas in two days. The regular place.”
“Lovely. That will bring back wonderful memories.” He smiled wider, and Jess wondered if perhaps he knew that Trazzak listened in as well. Nathan enjoyed making other people uncomfortable, and insinuating that something happened between he and Jess on that planet made Trazzak’s scales turn dark orange, for some reason that Jess didn’t understand. Nathan clicked a few things on his dashboard, wherever he was, then waved at her. “See you soon, love.”
The relay cut off and the lights disappeared, the small device collapsing in on itself as the encryption returned to safeguard the information within. Jess exhaled and leaned back on the couch, exhausted from just that small conversation, and covered her eyes. “Great. They were definitely behind the bounty hunters. And apparently the rebels have a spy inside their ranks here at the base.”
“I’ll notify Vrix,” Trazzak said, his tone odd.
Jess cracked an eye open to peek at him, taken aback by the strange swirls in his scales. Red and orange and hint of greenish blue. Lots of anger and a little protective flare. “What’s wrong with you?”
She didn’t mind being upfront with him, even if it bordered on rude. He’d had no issues with being that direct with her, even when she was on what everyone thought was her deathbed, and for once it felt refreshing just to talk how she wanted to talk. She wasn’t playing a part anymore — not an efficient Fleet officer, not a calculating information officer, not a femme fatale trying to get valuable information out of a hapless male, not a rabble-rouser goading aliens into rebellion and chaos. She felt like just Jessalyn for the first time in ages.
Trazzak grumbled and moved to take up room on the couch opposite her, reaching to decimate the snacks he’d set out. “I don’t like that guy.”
“Not many males do,” Jess said. She knew she should have gotten up and left to finish packing, but the surprisingly comfortable couch and the plush throw she snuggled under made it more difficult than it shou
ld have been. She could stay a little longer if it meant mission planning with Trazzak. Discussing Nathan definitely fell within the “mission prep” category. “He’s something of a snake, but he’s got the interests of the Ministry as a priority.”
“You have a history with him?” The question was too casual to just be asking about professional engagements.
Jess smiled just a touch; that wasn’t any of his business, although it made her feel better to have something to tease him about later. “Don’t ask Earth women about that sort of thing, barbarian.”
Trazzak’s expression soured. “I meant running missions. Does he know how you work? Will he anticipate what you’ll do?”
“We never worked together after training,” Jess said, opening her other eye to study all of the Xaravian. Odd. Maybe she’d misread the question and his tone. “He did one field tour and went back to headquarters to follow the Minister around.”
“One of those,” Trazzak said, his lip curling. “Figures.”
“It does. He thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room all the time, but he’s blinded by his own arrogance.” Jess started to sit up, knowing she was tired enough that she might spill the beans that needed to stay locked up. And yet somehow the words kept coming, as if the tap had been turned and nothing would cut it off. “Makes him very easy to manipulate. You can challenge him on something small and he’ll spend most of his time trying to prove you wrong on that instead of on the big-picture things that actually matter.”
“You don’t have a very high opinion of him,” Trazzak said. His arms draped along the top of the couch, marking his territory. “Odd that he’s the one you would talk to.”
“I didn’t pick him,” Jess said. She bit back a yawn, irritated that she was so tired even after sleeping for half a day. “I sent the message to the Minister, and the Minister sent Nathan.”
Trazzak’s eyebrows rose. “So he was picked for a purpose. He doesn’t seem like the kind of professional the Minister should have picked, if they took this mission seriously.”
And that was the problem. Jess tugged at her hair, twisting it out of the way and missing her braid. “The ‘why’ is part of what you shouldn’t ask about.”
Realization dawned and the Xaravian didn’t look pleased at all. “Is he expecting more from you?”
“He can expect all he wants,” Jess said. She braced her hands on her knees and took a deep breath, preparing to stand. “Doesn’t mean he’ll get anything.”
Trazzak moved to help her up, and for a second, Jess leaned against his broad chest and closed her eyes. He felt stable and secure — like he wasn’t going anywhere until she was ready to let go. As much as she didn’t want to rely on anyone on her mission, a small part of her was grateful for Trazzak’s steady presence. He loved order and precision and obedience, and while those were all things Jess rebelled against, she knew Trazzak’s focus would keep them all safe when Jess tried to run the mission off in a dangerous direction.
He cleared his throat and Jess flushed, pulling away when she realized she’d been hugging him for far too long. She didn’t look at him as she stumbled to the door, though Trazzak held her elbow as he steadied her the few steps it took to reach the exit. She stopped dead and whirled, running into his chest once more, and stammered, “I need to get the relay.”
“Right.” Trazzak propped her against the wall and retrieved the small device, holding it out to her as he studied her face.
Jess flushed more under his scrutiny, and pocketed the relay before she opened the door. “Great. I’ll just… Later.”
She fled before she could say anything embarrassing, though her escape was at a shuffle rather than a run. When she turned the corner, she caught sight of Trazzak still in the doorway, watching her walk away. Maybe this mission would be dangerous in more ways than the obvious.
Trazzak
Trazzak kept an eye on Jessalyn as they loaded the cutter right before the departure, and he didn’t even mind the grin Vrix failed to hide when he caught Trazzak carrying her bags for her. He didn’t care — his sisters would have beaten him up and down the sand dunes for not helping, if they caught wind of it. And he wouldn’t put it past Vaant to call them and let them know. And Jessalyn still looked unsteady if she spent too long on her feet.
Maisy consulted with Mrax for quite a while, nodding and occasionally gesturing at Jessalyn when the other woman wasn’t looking, and Trazzak wondered if there were other side effects that Jessalyn didn’t know about. Apparently the poison hadn’t reacted the way they expected to the cleansing regimes and various other medical doodads they tried. He grumbled in irritation and gestured for Maisy to get on the damn ship already. They didn’t have as much time as he liked to get to Tridas and search for trouble, and Trazzak didn’t like rushing. He was the captain of the cutter, renamed Heva after his mother, and he made the timetables.
Except Jessalyn was sitting in the captain’s chair when he reached the bridge. She frowned at a map of the sectors they would pass through on the way to Tridas, and didn’t look up as he approached. “We’ll have to avoid the asteroid belt, but other than that —”
She made a strange squeaking noise as Trazzak picked her up, carried her to the navigator’s seat just a few steps away, and put her down. He took the captain’s chair and looked over at her. “You were saying?”
Her face turned red, though he didn’t know if it was anger or something else. Jessalyn sat up straight and gave him a dirty look. Definitely anger, then. “I was saying we need to take a direct course to Tridas. If we mimic the signatures of actual pirates, we shouldn’t get stopped by any bounty hunters.”
“Although we could be attacked by rebels for being pirates,” he said under his breath.
Before Jessalyn could say anything else, Frrar popped through the doors, bright-eyed and bright green with excitement. “Engines are ready, captain. Let’s get going.”
Trazzak nodded, checked the screens to make sure everything was squared away, then glanced at Jessalyn. “Navigator, set our course. Quarter speed.”
Her lips thinned as she looked at him, but the Earther offered a grudging, “Aye aye.”
She even put in the course and began flying the ship out of the port and into open space. She was better at it than he expected. Trazzak laced his hands behind his head and relaxed in the captain’s chair as he watched the screens and the sudden emptiness of space ahead of them. He could get used to being captain.
They reached Tridas with no more trouble than a few stray asteroids and another, slightly curious pirate ship. Jessalyn pulled out more of her tricks and managed to wave them off in the opposite direction with promises of a disabled ship waiting to be pillaged. She did not disclose that it was actually the Heisenberg.
Trazzak didn’t know where “the usual place” was, where Jessalyn agreed to meet the smarmy bastard who answered the relay, but Jessalyn piloted the ship toward one of the orbiting markets far from the planet’s surface. Trazzak leaned forward to study the odd half-ship, half-station market that revolved around the planet. He’d never seen anything like it.
Jessalyn brought up the comms and another garbled language escaped her lips as she addressed the orbiting market, then a beam locked onto them and began to autopilot them into the crowded docks around the station. She got up, apparently unconcerned with their slow progress toward the market, and glanced at him. “It’ll take a little while before we’re docked. We have enough time before I meet Nathan to get a little shopping done, and make sure no one’s following us. I’d recommend at least two people stay with the ship while I’m out, just in case we need to depart in a hurry.”
“We’re both going to meet Nathan,” he said. When Jessalyn opened her mouth to argue, Trazzak eased to his feet. “No arguments. I go, or neither of us goes. That’s just how it is.”
“He won’t talk if you’re there,” Jessalyn said, her face reddening once more. She shoved her sleeves back and planted her fists on her hips. “I’m going a
lone.”
Frrar sat up from where he’d been monitoring the communications system, and cleared his throat. “I’m just going to go check on the... the... the gravity pump. Right. Why not.”
The doors whooshed shut behind him, and Trazzak made a note to talk to the Xaravian about being a damned coward. Trazzak didn’t budge as he kept his attention on the furious Earther. “You’re not going anywhere alone, and that’s an order. I’m the captain.”
Her eyes blazed with fury as she marched up to him and poked him right in the chest. “Look, Captain. This is still my mission, and I’m in charge of how this plays out. I know Nathan, I understand how he’ll react if he sees you lurking around. I’m not going to risk the mission just so you can feel better about intimidating him.”
“I don’t care if he’s intimidated,” Trazzak said. He loomed over her a little more, refusing to let her full lips and soft curves distract him. He never thought he would miss the bulky, unisex uniforms she usually wore. “And I’m not going to risk you because you think this idiot and the Alliance will keep their word.”
Her mouth hung open as she stared up at him, and the flush climbed all the way to her hairline as Jessalyn floundered for a response. She finally growled and poked him again. “Don’t concern yourself with me. You’re not… risking me. There’s nothing to risk, and no reason for you to care, got it? This is why I work alone. No one’s feelings get in the way.”
“You’re not working alone anymore,” Trazzak said. He wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her a little, just to make her listen. Stubborn Earthers. “So get used to it.”
Jessalyn scowled. “This isn’t —”
He couldn’t take it. Trazzak seized her face in his hands and dragged her mouth to his, kissing her until lust raced through him and he didn’t know if he could ever stop. Jessalyn braced her hands on his chest, making a surprised noise, and he fully expected to get kicked in a sensitive place by the prickly Earther. Instead, as his tongue tangled with hers, Jessalyn sighed and relaxed against him. She melted in his arms, and even kissed him back when Trazzak started to retreat.
