"Did they teach you to antagonize the enemy like that?"
"Throws them off balance sometimes," Micayla said with a nod. "Other times it just makes things worse. I don't know--"
"Holy shit," Windura whispered as she peeked through the porthole. "They're coming this way!"
Micayla didn't hesitate and began pounding on the ship's hatch with all her might.
Just as Grekkor's face appeared in the porthole, the hatch opened with a hiss and
they both tumbled inside to land at the feet of a male Scorillian.
"Close the goddamn hatch, Hidar!" someone called out from beyond the huge insect. "What are you trying to do--get us all killed?"
"But what will we do with these?" the Scorillian asked.
"These, what?" the other man demanded, coming closer.
Micayla looked up into the flashing black eyes of a tall, dark-haired Terran with a Ralayan rune tattooed above his left eye. "Well, would you look at what the bug let in,"
he said with a slow smile. "This trip might have been worth something after all."
Micayla's first thought was that, in spite of their escape, they'd managed to end up on the slave ship. "We are not slaves!" she said indignantly.
The man laughed. "Nobody said you were." The ship shuddered as it broke free of the force field and slowly rotated away from the dock. "Seems arms dealers are no longer welcome at Orleon, so we're heading back into the Andromeda quadrant. Hope you girls remembered to bring along your spare undies."
"Can I fuck them?" the Scorillian asked eagerly. "They are stowaways and must pay for their passage. I'm allowed to fuck stowaways, right?"
Micayla felt all the blood drain out of her face as she looked up at the tall, green Scorillian who was now eagerly rubbing his barbed forearms together like a gigantic praying mantis.
"Naw, we'll let Trag fuck them," the tattooed man said. "We'll have less trouble with them that way."
Micayla felt her feeling of faintness give way to nausea. She had no idea who or
what "Trag" was, but she had no intention of letting him anywhere near her. "I don't intend to let anyone fuck me."
"We'll see about that," he said as his long, leonine tail snaked out from beneath his robes.
"He can fuck with his dick and his tail," the Scorillian cackled with apparent delight. "Both of you at the same time."
"Damn!" Windura said, speaking up for the first time. "I've heard about you.
Lerotan Kanotay, right?"
"You have the advantage over me," the Terran said. "You are...?"
"Windura Rhidal," she replied. "Orleon's computer specialist."
"I see," he said with a raised brow. "And just where did you hear about me?"
"From the hookers," Windura said. "You're a Terran/Xuerreldian cross, aren't you?"
"And if I am?" he said ominously.
"Nothing," Windura muttered, looking away quickly. "Just wanted to verify that."
Lerotan came closer, peering down at the two women sprawled on the floor of his
ship. "What about you? Vessonian?"
Windura nodded. "And this is Micayla Johnson," she added, gesturing toward her companion. "She's the new communications officer."
"Officer?" Lerotan echoed. "Does that mean I should give up my quarters for her?"
The Scorillian cackled again. "Let me have them, Captain! I will keep them in my quarters. I will take good care of them. I need some females."
"Shut up, Hidar," Lerotan said absently. "I wouldn't give them to you even if they
were slaves."
Micayla was momentarily heartened by this but paled again at the thought of
being at the mercy of a male with two cocks, which would undoubtedly double her
displeasure.
"Why did you jump on my ship if you both work on the station?" Lerotan asked.
"I--I'd rather not say just yet," Windura replied. "Not until I'm sure whose side you'd be on."
"Fair enough," Lerotan said with a shrug. "But I warn you, my men are, shall we say, a bit rough."
"Meaning we should stick with you instead of the crew?"
"Exactly," Lerotan said. Holding out a hand, he took Windura's and pulled her to her feet. When he reached down to do the same for Micayla, he froze. "Who did you say this was?"
"Micayla Johnson," Windura repeated. "She's from Earth, but I'm pretty sure she's--"
"Zetithian," Lerotan whispered as Micayla rose from the floor.
"You know about them?" Windura asked with surprise.
"You could say that," Lerotan replied. "Did you know there's a bounty on them?
The Nedwuts are collecting five million credits for each male."
"And--and the females?" Windura stammered.
Lerotan grinned. "They're worth nothing to anyone but a male Zetithian."
Windura breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Then you won't turn us in."
"You'd make good bait for a male, though," Lerotan mused, looking Micayla up and down. "I could catch plenty of them with a beautiful specimen like you. One whiff of your desire and they'd come running. I could make millions."
Micayla swallowed hard as she regarded him. "I don't think I'd be any help to you in that respect."
"No?" Lerotan said. "You might be surprised." Turning to the Scorillian, he said,
"Hey, Hidar, do me a favor and go get Trag."
Hidar's mandibles clicked sharply as though he resented being used as a
messenger boy, but he went anyway, returning a few moments later, followed by a man wrapped in a heavy cloak. His long black hair hung to his waist and he was not happy.
"Couldn't you at least let me get the course set before sending Hidar to drag me off?" he complained. "What the devil do you want?"
"Just wanted you to see this," Lerotan said, stepping aside. "What do you think?"
Micayla's reaction was immediate and instinctive. Drawing back with a snarl, she
let out a loud hiss.
The one called Trag stared at her in dismay. "Great Mother of the Desert!" he exclaimed. "That's just fuckin' great, Leroy. You finally find me a Zetithian girl and she turns out to be a hissing, spitting bitch!"
Chapter 5
Micayla was mortified. In all her born days she'd never hissed at anyone, and
now, here she was, snarling at a complete stranger on sight--and to make matters worse, it was him! Windura was looking at her as though she might bite too.
"Sorry," she muttered. "Don't know why I did that." She stole another glance at Trag and fought the urge to hiss again.
"Trag, this lovely young lady is Micayla Johnson," Lerotan said with a chuckle.
"Should have known it wouldn't be that simple."
"No shit," Trag said. "I never expected it to be easy, but--"
"And this is Tragonathon Vladatonsk," Lerotan said to Micayla.
This information didn't immediately register with Micayla, but it did with
Windura. "No kidding?" she squealed. "Tycharian's brother?"
"In the flesh," Lerotan replied.
"Wow!" Windura began to say something else but was cut off by Trag.
"Don't do that!" Trag exclaimed, giving his hair a yank. "I'm not just his brother.
I'm a person too, you know!"
"Now, Trag," Lerotan soothed. "We all know that--but she did ask. No need for you to get so upset."
Trag shot a glowering look at Lerotan and growled. "I'm not upset, I'm just sick to death of being referred to as Old Blue Eyes's brother all the time!"
"Did I call you that?" Lerotan chided.
"Well, no, but--"
"I don't think you need to worry about standing in your brother's shadow,"
Windura said. "From what I've heard, you've got a few claims to fame of your own."
"Layha been talking to you?" Trag said with a wince.
"In a manner of speaking," Windura replied, licking her lips. "I heard it all."
Trag groaned and tugged his hair again, this time spearing his fingers through it near the scalp as though trying to pull it out by the roots. Micayla wondered how he managed to keep from going bald.
Lerotan shook his head sadly. "The guy's got a famous brother, a dick that's the most lethal weapon for light-years around, he's piloting a starship after being a slave for twenty years, and he's still not happy." Throwing up his hands in a gesture of futility, he added, "I don't know what to do with him."
"Maybe he just needs to find the right girl," Windura suggested. "I'd be happy to audition."
Micayla whipped around to glare at her friend. Windura, who claimed to have no
interest in any of the men stationed on Orleon, was now coming on to the one man
Micayla had been anxious to meet. Granted, she'd hissed at him, but even so, it showed a decided lack of camaraderie.
Trag dropped his head and let out a sob of frustration. "I get that wherever I go, too," he muttered.
"Sorry," Windura said with a shrug. "I figured it wouldn't hurt to try."
Trag combed his hair back with his fingers but didn't pull on it this time. "I'm sorry too. There was a time when I'd have given anything to hear a woman say that, but now--"
"He's holding out for a nice Zetithian girl," Lerotan explained.
Trag sighed deeply. "Yeah, and what's the first thing she does? She hisses at me.
Guess I'll just go back and fly the fuckin' ship." With that parting shot, he turned on his heel and left.
Micayla stared at his retreating figure, again feeling an overpowering urge to run after him, but her feet refused to move. All she could think was Oh, my God! It's him , and I freakin' hissed at him!
"Ladies," Lerotan said with a sweeping gesture. "Allow me to escort you to the bridge."
"Blew that one, didn't you?" Windura observed dryly as they followed Lerotan down the passageway.
Micayla's gaze was focused on Lerotan's tail, which danced behind him as though
luring them into a trap. Hidar's lurking presence intensified the feeling. "I didn't mean to hiss at him," she protested. "It just... popped out."
"You could have at least talked to him," Windura went on. "I mean, he's one of your own people--not to mention the handsomest man I've ever seen in my life. Come on, girl! Get a grip!"
"It's been a very odd day." Micayla sighed. "I find out what I am, find a man who's like me, and also find out who tried to exterminate my people. How am I supposed to act?"
"Uh, what was that last bit?" Lerotan inquired, pausing to look back at them.
"You mean the part about the exterminator?"
"Yeah," he replied. "That part. Anyone we know?"
Windura nodded. "You've probably heard of him," she replied. "Name's Rutger Grekkor--a Terran, I think."
"You mean that big, blond sonofabitch who runs the Commerce Consortium?"
"I take it you don't care for him either," Micayla observed.
"You could say that," Lerotan agreed. "I've had run-ins with him before--and yes, he's Terran. He's also a pompous asshole who has amassed way too much money for
what he does for a living, and he's not very kind to his competition."
"No shit," Windura said. "We just heard him admit to having killed everyone on Zetith because his wife had a Zetithian lover. Oh, and he killed the lover too."
"That doesn't surprise me a bit," Lerotan said. "What does surprise me is that he isn't out there boasting about it. After all, destroying an entire world is quite a feat."
"Wait a minute," Micayla interrupted. "Destroyed? You mean the whole planet?"
Lerotan nodded. "A Nedwut ship somehow managed to redirect an asteroid into
Zetith's orbit, causing it to explode--or so I've heard."
Micayla's chest felt as though that same asteroid had just crashed into it. It was one thing to not know where you came from, but to suddenly discover that it no longer existed was shocking. "It can't be!" she protested.
Lerotan's smile was grim. "Yes, it can. It was assumed to be a natural occurrence until Cat had a vision."
"Vision?" Micayla echoed. "And who is Cat?"
"Cat's another survivor. He had a vision--Zetithians are known to do that--which showed that the Nedwuts were responsible. No one ever doubted him, but how those
thugs ever had the know-how or the money to pull off something like that has always been something of a mystery. Now we know. Grekkor's probably made enough money
selling illegal drugs to finance the whole thing."
"He wouldn't admit to that," Micayla pointed out.
"No, he wouldn't," Windura agreed. "Odd that he'd admit to genocide but not drug dealing. Go figure."
Lerotan shrugged. "Everyone has their standards, I suppose."
"That's a laugh," Windura said. "Everyone knows he's involved in the drug trade somehow, but it really doesn't matter what else he does; blowing up a planet has got to be against the law."
"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Lerotan agreed. "Trouble is, with Zetith gone, I'm not sure who would prosecute him."
"And we have no proof other than what he told us," Micayla pointed out. "We might not be considered adequate witnesses against someone like that. I mean, it's his word against ours."
"And if we were dead or sold as slaves..." Windura added.
"Well, we'll try not to let that happen," Lerotan said. "They'll have to catch us first."
"Fast ship?" Micayla said hopefully, glancing about her. It didn't look like much, but sometimes it was hard to tell from the inside.
"Faster than anything he's got, I can promise you that," Lerotan replied. "Better weapons, too."
"So they are to remain on board?" Hidar asked expectantly.
"Yes," Lerotan said firmly. "Do you really think I could just toss one of the last remaining Zetithians out on her ear? Jack would make me miserable for the rest of my life!"
"I appreciate that," Micayla said. "But who is Jack?"
"Captain Jack--actually Jacinth--Tshevnoe," Lerotan replied, "but don't call her that to her face. She's a trader--in legal goods, by the way--and she's married to a Zetithian she calls Cat--the one who had the vision. Anyway, they travel with Leo, another Zetithian, and his wife, Tisana. Tisana is a witch who can communicate with animals and set you on fire with a glance, but she's a good witch. Jack, on the other hand, is, well..." Lerotan paused as though at a loss for words. "You'd have to meet her to understand. And speaking of Jack, we'd better let her know we found you. She'll be delighted to hear the news."