by L P Peace
Yet again, Sophia considered contacting Makios and Rhona. Just as quickly, she shrugged the idea off. There was a chance their communications were being monitored. She had to prioritise getting to the IGC. When she was safely ensconced in the Amaran embassy, then she could reach out to them.
Once again, Sophia went through her plan: get to the station, sell the ship, book passage on a gate transport.
She knew that they crossed back and forth several times a day. Most gates had a regular service to the IGC for those using commercial passage.
Upon reaching the station, she had a way to safely contact the Amaran Embassy. It would be a simple matter to prove that she was who she said she was after that.
This new information from Dar—this bounty—was an annoyance. It was a threat. But it was only dangerous to her if she was caught out here.
As long as she kept the suit on in public and her fake ID passed inspection, she’d be fine.
Dahnus Ascent was humongous! It was the only sensible way to describe it.
Everyone on Endurance was familiar with the engagement ring configuration of the jump stations. It meant that a regular space station, with all its services, could be integrated with a jump station. In the past, the jump stations were separate, and it had made them harder to function for some reason. There was something about the Adian stones' power distribution that interfered with the radiant needed to power the Adian start-up process. It meant the two power sources required plenty of room between them, so the Amarans had designed what was now the standard configuration.
Suit on, Sophia went through the registry on Dahnus Ascent as she approached. There was a guy who bought and sold ships. Grinning, she contacted him and arranged to meet, sending him the Vernaya’s specs. He returned with a berth number, prepaid, and Sophia programmed the ship to follow the directions.
The outside of the bay was protected with an energy barrier. Sophia let the craft auto dock so that she was free to watch.
Passing through, she saw a massive space that went up more than a dozen floors connected by a spiralling walkway. Ramps, like piers, were separated by a dozen or more feet as well as the climbing height of the spiral. At the end of each was a large, circular platform. There were around thirty berths in total with more than half of them already occupied by ships of various sizes. A quick glance told her the smaller ships were higher up the structure, while the larger, heavier ones were towards the bottom.
Aliens walked up and down the spiral, some heading into the station, others back to their ships. Automated trollies rolled along, carrying goods to and from vessels, and Amarans in coveralls walked up and down observing everything.
‘Cintra, what is this place?’
A ping went off in the cabin. ‘According to the system, this is the Corisan air dock,’ Cintra’s voice returned a moment later.
Sophia huffed a bemused laugh. But her eyes scanned the space with concern. ‘Cintra, mould the suit, so it looks like there’s an augmented Surilan in here.’
‘What configuration would you like?’
‘Any. And translate everything I say into Surilan.’
Sophia felt the suit mould around fake cybernetic implants.
‘Language output confirmed.’
The ship docked and settled onto the platform. Switching off the engines, Sophia looked around, feeling more than a small twinge of guilt that she was selling the alien’s—Ronin’s—ship. Still, he’d been planning to hand her over to Hekalion Dar. She hadn’t watched the recording, couldn’t bring herself to, but what else could the call to Dar have meant? Shoving the guilt aside, she made her way downstairs.
When the cargo bay doors opened a few moments later, she stood on the ramp with her bag slung over her shoulder, putting on a casual air.
‘Caglius Minarin?’ Sophia said as a Potuun male appeared on the deck in front of her.
‘Avin Korvalus?’
Sophia nodded and walked down the ramp.
‘You want to sell this ship?’ Caglius said, a sceptical look on his face.
‘I know. She’s a beauty, but I’m done with it.’
The Potuun looked from her to the ship and back again.
‘What’s wrong with it?’
‘Absolutely nothing,’ she said, telling the absolute truth. Sophia had spent the last five days going over every inch of the ship. It was perfect. Beautiful. If she could have flown it through a jump gate herself, or to the IGC, she would have. But Dar knew the pilot, so he probably knew the ship too. ‘I’m just done with the life.’
‘The life?’
‘Bounty hunting,’ Sophia said. ‘I got a job, some smuggler. Caught him, but ended up on this desert planet, you know the type?’
The Potuun, a confused look on his face, nodded.
‘Anyway, ended up in the digestive tract of some pit monster. Can you believe it?’ The Potuun’s confused expression deepened, but he shook his head dutifully. ‘Had to cut my way out and that was it. That was the moment I decided to go home, retire. Ya know?’
The Potuun still seemed lost even as he nodded along.
‘Right,’ Sophia said, leaning against the bulkhead and crossing her arms. ‘How much you going to give me for this?’
The final price was way under what the ship was worth as far as Sophia could tell, but it was still a hefty sum. Shaking the hand of Caglius—no, she couldn’t call him Cag—she took her bag and walked through the exit before joining a quick-moving queue. When she got to the front, a dark-skinned Amaran scanned her ID chip.
‘Face,’ he instructed.
‘Reveal face,’ Sophia said, her heart speeding up. The front of the helmet opened, and the Amaran gave her a brief look before nodding.
‘Welcome back,’ he said, clearing her for entry as she instructed the helmet to close.
‘Thank you,’ Sophia said, the helmet transmitted her words in Surilan. She walked on, grateful he hadn’t asked her any questions with the helmet off.
The picture on her ID was crafted to look like a Surilan version of her. Port inspectors were busy people. When he looked at her, he expected to see the Surilan in the image, and she was close enough that he did, his brain filling in the missing pieces.
Still, it was a risk and a terrifying one at that. The trick was confidence, and that was the one weapon Sophia brought with her.
Stepping through with a nod, Sophia wandered onto Dahnus Ascent proper.
She had been here with the crew of Tala a couple of times. They’d gotten rooms and gone to several establishments. Sophia was made up to look Surilan so that if this time came, she had an existing record of being here and being a good customer. It made it less likely that anyone would question her further.
Dahnus Ascent reminded Sophia of Harrods in London or Tiffany’s in New York. It had an unnecessarily overdone rich quality to it, with decorative pillars and splashes of gold. Sophia’s mother loved those stores. Sophia tolerated them, but she also knew how to act in them. She was an Abara, and she’d shopped in places like this her whole life. Pulling every ounce of her wealthy upbringing around her, Sophia strutted through the station as though this was exactly where she belonged.
Walking over to one of the many customer service screens, she cycled through the menu until she came to outgoing flights to the IGC.
Everything was booked up for the next three days. Sighing, Sophia booked passage on the first flight available, then cycled through to find hotels. She booked the best room she could afford with the ridiculous amount of credits she’d gotten for Ronin’s ship. If she was going to be here for a few days, she might as well be comfortable.
For a moment, she felt another stab of guilt. That poor Kerisian was speeding towards some unknown destination in a towel. She laughed, remembering the surprise on his face as she barrelled into him and the way his face had gone slack when she talked about sex.
He really had no idea what to do with her. Which was a shame, or would have been if he weren’t working for Hekalion Da
r, she reminded herself.
Room booked and paid for, Sophia wandered through the cream and gold arrivals hall until she came to a station transport terminal.
It looked like an elevator, though it was slightly larger. The walls were glass and they showed off various spots within the station as Sophia was sped to the hotel. Depositing her on her floor, she stepped out into the grey and gold hallway, studying the door numbers until she came to hers. Her credit chit opened the door.
The living room was purple, brown, and gold. She shut the door behind her.
‘Enough gold already! Jeez!’
She walked through the large, luxurious lounge. The plush furnishings were covered in a brown animal hide, the tables made from purple wood. The walls were a dark aubergine with gold flecks, and the room was filled with fresh white flowers. There was a large sofa in the centre of the room. Four chairs surrounded a table on one side, and a dining table filled the other. Viewscreens were filled with glades of flowers on an alien world.
She walked through a large set of double doors on the back wall.
The bedroom was deeper than it was wide. The walls were covered in a black and grey design with flecks of red and gold. The dark grey carpet was plain but deep. The built-in wardrobe covered one side of the room. To the other was a vanity desk. The huge bed covered almost the entire back wall.
‘Orgy for twenty, coming right up!’
Near the vanity was another door. The bathroom was in green stone that reminded her of Ronin. Even the sunken bath was carved from the same stone. Everything that wasn’t stone was gold, from the taps to the towels.
‘Ugh!’
Shutting the door on the bathroom, Sophia walked back to the main room.
‘Cintra, can you access room service stuff here?’
‘Accessing. I have full access to room service.’
‘Awesome! Let’s order!’
The food was delivered in an impressively short amount of time and laid out on the table in the main room. The rich out here apparently preferred real people delivering their food because when she’d stayed here before, room service always arrived by bot. When they were gone, Sophia finally took off the bounty hunter’s suit.
‘Cintra, can you access the quartex? Can you talk to me from the room?’
‘Affirmative.’
‘Great. Access the quartex and scan for news about High-Protector Thanesh, or humans or the Tessans at the IGC.’
Sophia sat and tucked in while Cintra went to work.
‘High-Protector Thanesh is currently over the Raqhan planet of Vasa. There has been some disaster there, in the city of Alidai.’
‘Oh, shit.’
‘There is also a bill submitted by the Amarans at IGC concerning a human ship and the crew.’
Sophia perked up. ‘Tell me everything about that.’
Word had gotten out about Endurance, which had been picked up by Thanesh and his people. The bill concerned crew who were breaking laws to free themselves from their illegal slavery. Sophia grinned. If it passed, the crew would have to be released by all member states of the IGC. It was likely there were crew being held by non-member states, but it was a start.
Please let Zoe, Tara, and Addison be okay! And Danielle, this must be hell for her, and Kayleigh, and Avi, and Marcus.
Sophia’s list continued for several minutes until she’d named the entire crew.
All she had to do was get to the IGC. That was it. If she could just get to the Amaran embassy there, her mission would be done.
Ronin woke up in the chair with a crick in his neck. He groaned. This was the fourth night in a row he’d fallen asleep before he turned the chair into a cot. As he moved, every joint seized with stiffness.
‘Vrokking—!’ He stopped, refusing to give in to anger.
There were no clothes in the vrokking pod. That was something Ronin had to take care of when he got back to the ship.
Leaning forward, he looked at the display. He was almost there. Another couple of hacri and his eight-rote nightmare would come to an end.
Backtracking the slave circuit worked. He was on his way to Dahnus Ascent, where he’d find that little human and throw her back in his cell just for the sheer hell of it!
‘Eight vrokking rotes!’
He was definitely going to tie her up and hang her from the ceiling!
‘Naked?’
Almost immediately, his cock was hard again. It had become a real problem over the last few rotes. He couldn’t think of the female without imaging her tied up as he pounded into her. ‘Vrok!’ His hand was already waiting for his cock as it pushed out of his cloaca. He ran his fingers over the length of it, rubbing his thumb over the ridges of his helmet. ‘Vrok!’
‘If you’re not going to tie me up for naughty sex games…’ She’d pressed her body to the viewscreen. Her breasts flattened and spread, pushing her nipples against it, and the cold of the screen seemed to affect them until they protruded harder. Ronin had never seen human nipples. He wondered what they looked like. What colour they were. How they would feel against his tongue. The noises she would make as he teased her.
Ronin gritted his teeth and worked his hand over his girth. Precum spread over the glans and he spread it with a flick of his thumb, groaning at the sensation of touch, his hips bucking hard.
Flexing his fingers, he firmed his grip and sped his pace until he couldn’t resist the urge to add the rhythm of his bucking hips.
‘Vrok! Vrok!’ With a lightning strike of pleasure, his cum spurted across his abdomen and thighs. ‘Vrok!’ he groaned. A sudden flash of anger overcame him. He wanted to call out her name, but he didn’t know it. He should have talked to her. Told her he was… what? He was still trying to figure out a plan by the time she got him in the escape pod.
Ronin laughed. He’d been furious the first rote, but as time passed, he couldn’t help but admire the little human. She was… Ronin didn’t have words. More and more, whenever he thought about her, he thought about the little Kietta. The way they raised their front legs in challenge. They were a victim of the universe but refused to acknowledge it. This little female, her people were being contrived to be victims out here, but she didn’t act like a victim. She acted like she was the one with all the power. Even when she was in the cell, she didn’t see the bars.
The pod had a small toilet and cleaning facility. Cleaning himself up, Ronin sat back down and contacted Dahnus Ascent. His pod would zero in on the ship regardless of port authorities, so he had to make them aware he was coming.
When he finally reached the station, instead of finding an outer berth as he expected, the pod headed for an energy barrier in the side of the station.
Once inside, it rose through the levels, passing by the spiral of circular air berths until his ship came into view. It headed straight to the airlock and docked with Vernaya.
Crossing the small space, Ronin hit the door access with more force than necessary and stepped out into his ship.
He let out a sigh of relief as he stretched properly for the first time in eight rotes.
‘Who the vrok are you, and what are you doing in my ship?’
Ronin turned.
An elderly Potuun was standing in the doorway of the main living space.
‘Your ship?’ Ronin’s mouth dropped open. ‘She sold my ship,’ he gasped.
‘The bounty hunter,’ the Potuun said. ‘She sold me this ship.’
Ronin growled. He really was going to tie her up. He’d spent days fantasising about it. But he was actually going to do it, and this time, he wasn’t going to get hard and pleasure himself to the thought.
‘That female was my bounty,’ Ronin lied. ‘I am the bounty hunter. She stole my ship. She didn’t have the right to sell it.’
‘Her name was on the registry.’
‘What name?’
The Potuun’s face grew wary. ‘I don’t divulge client information to third parties.’
‘We can do this the easy way,’ R
onin growled, ‘where you tell me everything and give me my ship back, or I can call Amaran authorities and they’ll return this ship to me.’ He walked over to the Potuun. ‘Then they’ll look into how an escaped human slave was able to sell you anything, let alone a ship.’
‘Escaped human…’
Ronin grinned. No doubt Dar had sent the bounty information by now. He knew it would be a lie, but he also knew it would pass any inspection. It was from Hekalion Dar, after all.
‘I bought the ship. I want my money back.’
Growling, Ronin went over to the living area wall to a hidden compartment and looked at the credit chits still sitting inside.
‘How much?’
The price the Potuun named was far, far less than Vernaya was worth. It was still everything Ronin had.
He went through the ship, making sure everything he owned was still there. While the Potuun went to get the things he’d removed, including some of Ronin’s weapons and his plant, Ronin got dressed. No doubt the human had donned his missing suit.
When everything was back in its place, Ronin exchanged the credit chit for the name the human was using. Armed with that information, the fake bounty Dar had provided, and a prototype Cintra gauntlet from his mother, Ronin entered Dahnus Ascent.
The departures lounge had become a familiar sight to Sophia. For the last three days, she’d bought tickets to various spots under various identities so she could sit around and watch the ebb and flow of the place. She’d learned in training for this mission to become familiar with the terrain. Learn about the people, the staff. Learn the layout.
She’d bought bags, clothes, and credit chits, filling them with a set sum of money, clothes, and food, and hid the bags in panels, in access tubes around the station. If anything happened, if she was exposed, she could survive in the bowels of the station for months. Not that she’d need it. In her flight jacket had been identity chips, an applicator, and many other handy knickknacks provided to her by Thanesh. Those were in the same bags hidden throughout the station—all except one identity chip and another of the handy little lockpick gismos.
