by L P Peace
Unlike the previous days, however, this time, Sophia used her ticket to the IGC to access the lounge. Today, she was getting on board and crossing to the station. She had a chip surgically implanted in her hand that she could set to any customer service panel on IGC. It would contact the Amaran embassy immediately. On receipt of that signal, a contingent of guards would be sent to bring her straight to the embassy, bypassing port authority.
Her stomach rolled, but she was almost there. She just had to hold her nerve.
‘Avin Korvalus?’
Sophia turned to find an attractive pale-skinned Amaran in a staff uniform standing over her, smiling.
Her stomach lurched in fear. ‘Yes.’
‘You have priority booking on Schencahl. I’m here to check your ID so that you can go straight on board as soon as the shuttle is ready.
‘Excellent.’
Sophia half turned, allowing the Amaran to access her ID chip.
‘If I could just see your face?’
The helmet parted without instruction.
Immediately, the Amaran’s eyes heated. ‘May I call you Avin?’
Sophia licked her lips, suppressing a grin. Horndogs! Amarans are such horndogs!
She ordered the helmet to close. ‘Of course.’ She smiled. ‘And you are?’
‘Adrin Barrich.’ He smiled at her with sinfully full lips. ‘You may call me Adrin.’ He let out a deep breath, regret on his face. ‘Your shuttle leaves in around fifteen metri. Will you be coming back to Dahnus Ascent?’
Sophia swallowed. There was no mistaking the expression on his face, or the intent behind his words.
‘I may well be,’ she lied.
Looking around, the Amaran slipped something out of his pocket and handed it to her.
‘This will give you access to my level and bring you to my room. I hope you will consider contacting me, should you return.’
Startled, Sophia looked at the card.
‘She won’t need that,’ a deep male voice growled behind her.
Sophia turned.
The Kerisian was standing right behind her, his chartreuse eyes staring at the Amaran before he turned to her.
‘Err, I’m sorry. Who are you?’ Sophia said for effect.
‘Nice try, Marita. This female is my bounty.’ Ronin showed something to the steward. He looked at Sophia with regret but stepped away.
'You're kidding me.' Sophia sighed. ‘I don’t suppose it matters that he’s lying.’
‘He has official documentation from IGC.’
Sophia glared at the Amaran. ‘I’m going to remember this, Adrin,’ she said standing up, slumping her shoulders in a show of defeat.
As Adrin stepped away and Ronin stepped forward, she threw her bag in Ronin’s face and took off across the terminal.
Diving into a vast crowd, she used her smaller size to duck and weave through the throng. She took out a handful of small balls she'd bought during her stay and threw them through the crowd.
Behind her, she heard people shout as the balls ran over the floor, causing people to slip, dodge, bang into each other. Someone fell over. She hoped it was enough to convince Ronin she’d ran in that direction.
She continued until she broke out of the crowd and took a corridor towards a maintenance access panel which led to one of her hidden supply bags. He'd never find her once she was inside the maintenance tunnels.
Strong arms caught her and flung her over a hard shoulder.
She saw green skin.
Goddammit!' she shouted. She cooled herself instantly. There was no good getting angry, Ronin would never respond to anger. She was upside-down, facing his back. She looked at the obvious target.
'Oh yeah, there it is.' She reached down and stroked his butt. ‘Seriously, dude, how does someone like you end up with rear of the year? I have to know. Was it exercise? Implants? Were you born this way?'
'Get off my rear, female,' he growled.
Sophia stroked his ass a few more times. 'Oh yeah,' she crooned. She could feel his hard muscles working beneath his suit. She clenched both buttocks in her hands and squeezed. Satisfaction shot through her when she heard Ronin yelp in surprise.
'Get off my rear, female!' he shouted.
'Fine.' Sophia let her arms swing so that they bounced against each butt-cheek as he walked. She heard him huff. He turned his head, and something bounced off her face. She turned to look and saw his tendrils. She reached out and ran her fingers through them. 'Ooo. These feel interesting. Do they do anything?'
Ronin stopped and pulled her from his shoulder, setting her on the ground.
'You will stop handling me,' he warned her.
'Sharing is caring. Is this not a sharing experience?' She gestured helplessly with her arms. 'Here was me, thinking we had something. Come on, sweetie. I know we’re destined to end with you selling me into slavery, but can’t you give us a small chance?'
'How dare you accuse me of selling you into slavery,' he said.
'You're getting money for me,' she said with exaggerated slowness. 'I'm getting slavery. That's literally the definition. You call it what you will if it makes you feel better. But I know what this really is.'
Ronin opened his mouth, then closed them, his teeth gritting.
‘Let’s get back to my ship. We can talk there.’
‘Whatever.’ Sophia shook her head. ‘Just know that the fate of my world is in the balance, and you’re on the wrong side.’
The female had given up too quickly. That told Ronin she had a plan. She was intelligent, resourceful. Dar could say what he liked, but it was obviously easier to sell the idea of slavery if people pretended they were better, more advanced, even more evolved than the enslaved. But the human wasn’t some animal. She was…
Spectacular.
Ronin’s eyes roamed over her as she walked ahead of him. She moved with a grace and self-confidence that was extremely attractive. So far, she hadn’t tried to escape, but he was sure she would. Any moment now, she would do something, say something. But Ronin was prepared.
The Amaran male had been handing her access to his room, and she had reached out her hand to accept it!
Ronin bristled.
She’d flirted with him.
How many times had he thought about the way she looked at him, smiled at him, flirted with him?
Of course it was an act. To her, Ronin was her captor, nothing more. To her, he was the male who’d put her in a cell. She must have seen the communication with Dar, knew who he was working for. Did she know what a Bentari was? According to Sarah, Earth had nothing to do with aliens out here. Could she know what the Bentari would do to such an attractive race if they could gain control of their homeworld?
It was either an act or the female was fickle, and Ronin had his fill of fickle females for one lifetime.
‘Okay, what’s up? I can hear you stewing back there.’
‘I am not stewing.’ Ronin went for firm, but it came out impetuous.
‘Is this because I stole your ship and ejected you in an escape pod? Are you really going to let that stand between us?’
‘Are you sure you don’t want to let it stand between you and the Amaran?’ He almost cringed. Why bring that up?
‘What, Adrin?’
She knew his name. She didn’t know Ronin’s name!
‘I was just talking to him. He was the one flirting with me. I’m not responsible for the actions of other people.’ She shrugged her narrow shoulders and looked back at him, a smile on her face. ‘I know Amarans are horndogs, but seriously, we talked for like thirty seconds. That was shocking.’
Horndogs?
‘You didn’t seem shocked. You seemed to be welcoming it.’
‘Are you jealous, Ronin? Grey is boring. Green’s my favourite colour.’ She looked back over her shoulder again. The helmet obscured the rest of her head, but her face was on full display and her eyes wandered over him, leaving a shiver of awareness behind.
‘You will not foo
l me again, human.’
‘I hadn’t realised I’d fooled you in the first place. I’m sorry, Ronin, but you should know flirting with the Amaran was curiosity. Flirting with you is more serious.’
Ronin huffed a laugh. ‘Only because I’m the one with the key to your—’
‘Heart?’ She grinned at him.
Ronin frowned back. ‘Cell. I’m the one with the key to your heart.’ It took Ronin a moment to realise what he’d said. ‘I mean cell! How do you know my name?’
‘Oh, yeah. I found it when I changed the registry to your ship,’ she said. ‘Did you get it back?’ She was grinning now.
‘After paying for it. I had to pay for my own vrokking ship. Would you stop laughing? This is not funny!’
The human only laughed harder.
A pod came, and a dozen people disembarked.
‘Oh, wait.’ The human stepped into him. She placed a hand on his chest, and Ronin’s heart almost stuttered to a stop. Her head tilted back, pupils expanding to swallow the dark, dark brown of her eyes. She smiled at him, this one gentle, more open and honest than the previous ones.
Her eyes searched his, his gaze flicked back and forth. He felt the beginning of a smile touch his lips, and his eyes found her lips. She leaned up, infinitesimally, and Ronin found himself leaning down to her.
The room spun, and he crashed to his ass.
He looked up, confused by his change of orientation to find the pod doors closing on him. The human, regret and victory warring on her face waved at him.
‘Vrok!’
He activated his gauntlet. ‘Cintra, activate the tracker.’ He’d slipped one on her when she was over his shoulder. She’d been so busy playing with his rear that she hadn’t noticed.
He stood and hit the pod plate again.
A three-dimensional representation of the area of the station they were on appeared above the gauntlet. The human was still on board the pod, moving away from him.
Another pod appeared, and the door opened.
Ronin got in. ‘Set this pod to follow hers, and don’t allow anyone else access to this one.
‘Affirmative.’
The pod chased Sophia’s. He expected her to go to the docking bay where her ship… his ship, was still sitting. Shaking his head, he swore once again. This female! This female interrupted his thoughts. Damaged his calm.
The pod stopped several hundred meters ahead, and the human got out. She was running down a corridor when she stopped… and disappeared!
‘Where did she go?!’ Ronin said. The pod drew to a halt, and he stepped over to the door, waiting for it to open.
‘She seems to have gained entry to the maintenance accessways within the station.’
Ronin growled. ‘Can you track her movements inside the maintenance access ways?’
‘No. They are shielded to prevent scans that might then be used by those with malintent.’
‘Run an open scan. Watch for her to reappear. Why isn’t this door opening?’ He hit at the door, his frustration erupting.
‘The other pod seems to be sitting stationary at the entry.’
Ronin froze. Vrok, but he couldn’t help but admire her. He started laughing. She’d used her Cintra to stall the pod and stop him continuing the chase.
‘She is spectacular!’ he managed between guffawing laughter. ‘Cintra, access the pod and release it to general use.’
He took a deep breath and thought through the human’s actions for a few moments. She’d go back to the ship; there was nowhere else for her to go. ‘Take me back to the air dock,’ Ronin said. He was still laughing when the pod set out once again.
By the time he returned to the ship, Ronin’s humour had faded somewhat, but his admiration for the little human had only grown.
Having met a handful of humans before, Ronin knew little about the species, and except to remind himself he’d done the right thing on Tessa five solars ago, he’d stopped thinking about them.
But this human was nothing like Sarah. This human was a different kind of creature altogether. Organised yet random, always one step ahead of him.
Ronin pictured her, arms over her head, a suggestive smile on her face, right before she’d escaped him for the first time.
Walking through the doors to the air dock, Ronin laughed, remembering the way she’d hit him with a pan and the look on her face when the escape pod returned.
‘Something funny, Ronin?’
Immediately, Ronin’s humour disappeared. He turned to find Dukal, a Bentari bounty hunter, approaching him from up the spiral.
‘Nothing you’d understand,’ Ronin growled, feeling his lips curl into a snarl. He turned, heading back to his ship, a sense of foreboding settling over him.
‘Hekalion has sent me to help you bring in this human, since you seem to be struggling. Or delaying.’
Ronin froze, his back to the Bentari and closed his eyes. Of course Dar had sent someone else. It had been eight rotes since he’d heard from Ronin.
‘What happened?’ Dukal went on.
‘None of your business,’ Ronin snapped, opening his cargo bay door and waiting for the ramp to lower.
‘That’s fine,’ Dukal said, turning. ‘But Hekalion wants a report from me and he wants me with you when you go in, or you’re not getting paid.’
For a moment, Ronin considered letting Dukal leave. But the human was still out there and might run into him with no idea who he was. Ronin realised he needed to keep him close to keep the human safe, at least for now.
‘Come on.’ Ronin nodded at the doors that led back to the station.
‘I think we’ll talk here,’ Dukal said, boarding Vernaya and disappearing up the stairs. Growling, Ronin followed him.
Dukal was going through the cupboards in the galley. ‘Get the vrok out of there,’ he grumbled as Dukal found a bottle of a Kerisian spirit Ronin kept aboard. He popped the bottle open and poured himself a drink. After taking a moment to consider, he poured Ronin a glass before leaving the bottle on the counter and walking around to the sitting area.
He put the two glasses on the table and motioned Ronin to join him.
‘Couldn’t help but notice the lack of a human in the cells.’
‘Keep your vrokking nose out of my ship.’
‘Relax. Dar gave us permission to have fun with her while we return her to him.’ Dukal grinned. ‘I figure we can take the long journey. Maybe we get a little lost on the way.’
Rage flared up in Ronin. He stood, knocking the drink out of Dukal’s hand. ‘Get the vrok off my ship.’
‘Or what?’
Without responding, Ronin launched across the table, grabbing the sensitive tendrils on the back of Dukal’s head and smashing his face into the table hard, three times.
Dukal roared. Ronin wasn’t sure if it was in pain or anger, but he wasn’t stunned, as Ronin expected.
Ronin felt an elbow connect with his gut, winding him. If he’d been wearing the suit, it wouldn’t have had nearly this effect on him, but suddenly, he found himself staring at the floor, desperately trying to draw in a breath.
Something connected with his side, and he blacked out.
Sophia had a plan.
The tenuous safety offered by Dahnus Ascent had ended. Ronin showing up threw her off, panicked her. She thought if there was going to be trouble here, it would be from port authority realising she was human. The guy booking her onto the shuttle was too busy trying to get laid. It had been a relief, as he wasn’t interested in her race so much as her pussy. But Ronin showing up! How?
Sophia shook her head. It didn’t matter. She needed to get off the station. She couldn’t return to departures now; the suit was too visible, and she wasn’t willing to let go of the anonymity it provided. What she needed to do was get back to Ronin’s ship and fly it out of here. Preferably to another station where she could catch another shuttle to IGC. A quick shuttle, before Ronin managed to catch up with her again.
She’d grabbed one of the
bug-out bags and was standing in a pod, on her way to the docking bay.
Sophia knew she had to be smart about this. Ronin was smart. He’d somehow managed to redirect the escape pod to follow his ship. She had to assume he would realise his ship was the only way off. Now all she had to do was hope that he hadn’t figured out all of the surprises she programmed into Vernaya before she left.
Instead of taking a pod to the port authority, who’d possibly been warned about her by the bounty hunter, she walked to an adjacent hall. When the few aliens walking about disappeared, she let herself into the maintenance hatch using Cintra to hack it.
‘God bless whoever designed you, Cintra!’
‘My systems were designed by the Kerisian scientist Vernaya Dosh.’
‘Vernaya. Like Ronin’s ship?’
‘Indeed. Vernaya Dosh is the mother of Ronin Dosh’Ventis, the bounty hunter.’ Cintra proclaimed in her dulcet, feminine tones.
‘You’re kidding!’ Sophia followed the path Cintra had laid to her. It would take her several levels above Ronin’s ship, on the opposite side so she could watch it for signs of him.
‘Kerisians are atheist.’
‘Sorry?’
‘You said, “God bless whoever designed you, Cintra.”’ Her voice replayed inside her helmet. ‘Kerisians had an ancient form of Ocean worship two thousand solars ago. Since then, they’ve been an atheist society.’
‘So none of them believe in God. Erm, I mean a deity?’ Sophia came to the door that would take her out to the platform beyond.
‘There has been a resurgence in ocean worship in recent centuries, but that number has remained consistently small. Vernaya Dosh is not among them.’
‘Oh, okay. Cintra, can you detect anyone outside this door?’
‘Negative. The way is clear.’
Sophia pushed through quickly.
She was standing in the spiral. There were ships to either side of her, each one on an extending platform. The bay was a few hundred meters across and the platforms were spaced a dozen meters away from each other. Because of the upward spiral, each ship was separated on its own level.
She looked down at the Vernaya. It really was a sleek and sexy ship. It looked like a luxury yacht in space. She crept closer to the edge and crouched to make herself a less obvious target. The ship was quiet. No one came or went through the hour she waited. There was no sign of Ronin.
