Imminent Danger: And How to Fly Straight Into It (37 page)

“That is right!” Miguri trilled. “Do whatever you like to us, because nothing you do can change the truth. And the truth is you are cowards!

“Watch what you say, Claktill!” Hroshk snarled.

“Why should he?” Eris demanded. “We’re dead anyway! No one’s coming to rescue us! And you know what? We wouldn’t want them to! Because we want everyone to see you two are so pathetic that you have to get your minions to commit your murders for you!”

BOOM.

Eris screamed as she watched a heavy metal door shoot across the room and bisect two of the executioners standing at the back wall.

“You don’t want to be rescued?” a deep, smooth voice drawled. “You might have said so earlier, girl. It makes this whole dramatic entrance thing rather superfluous.”

I know that voice,
she thought. Wrenching her head around, she spotted a familiar figure standing in the demolished doorway, his gray eyes glinting through a fringe of shaggy black hair. He was sheathed from neck to toe in red body armor and clutched a smoking plasma rifle. Eris was so astonished by his appearance and so overwhelmed by the emotions warring inside her—anger, fear, hurt, and hope—that she could only manage one word.

“Varrin?”

37

“Y
ou people really do fall to pieces without me around, don’t you?” Varrin observed.

“You!” Kratis roared, pointing his finger at him. “You swore that you would not interfere with me or my vessel!”

“Did I?” the prince asked nonchalantly.

“You know you did! I demand to know what you’re doing here! I am getting dangerously close to believing you just broke a sworn oath!”

“That’s probably because I did.”

Hroshk stepped forward, forehead scales flaring. “You!” he hissed. “I owe you an eternity of torment for what you did!”

“What, sneaking up behind you, knocking out your engines, filling your air ducts with paralysis gas, killing a dozen of your men, and kidnapping two prisoners from right under your snout? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Rakorsian scum!” the Ssrisk hissed.

Admiral Kratis turned to Hroshk with a dark look. “Prince Varrin may be a traitor, but you will refrain from insulting my species, reptilian slime.”

“I will insult whomever I like!” Hroshk bellowed.

Without warning, the Ssrisk captain drew four strikers, rounded on the admiral, and pulled the triggers. Kratis’s head exploded, splattering the executioners behind him with blood and gray matter. His body tumbled brokenly to the floor.

“Well,” Varrin said, blinking.
“That
I wasn’t expecting.”

Hroshk trained two strikers on Varrin and two on the executioners, who had raised their axes aggressively. “I’ve learned enough from our last encounter,
prince,
to know that giving you an inch of breathing space could mean death for me. Put down that plasma rifle.”

“Now why would I do that?” Varrin asked pleasantly. “You’re vastly outnumbered. And outclassed, I might add.”

Hroshk swiveled one of his strikers toward Eris. “You clearly have some affection for the terrestrial or you would not have staged this little rescue attempt. Drop the rifle or I’ll vaporize her.”

Somehow my fate always ends up in Varrin’s hands,
Eris thought.
Luckily, he seems to be on my side. At least for the moment. Which puts the odds decidedly in my favor.

“All right, all right,” Varrin said, raising his free hand in the air. “Putting down the rifle.”

His voice was calm. But Eris knew from the murderous glint in his eyes that he had no intention of letting Hroshk survive this encounter.
Though how he’s going to manage that without a weapon is what worries me,
she thought.

Varrin, however, didn’t look concerned. “I should warn you, Ssrisk,” he said, “that you’ll never leave this room alive.”

“You dare threaten me?” Hroshk hissed. “You are the cause of this whole debacle! Had you not attacked my ship and stolen my cargo—”

“Ah, but then you would’ve sold Eris and the rat into slavery, which just wouldn’t have worked well for me,” Varrin said. “Admittedly, I sold them anyway, but that’s beside the point.” He turned his attention to the four remaining executioners. “I am now in charge,” he announced. “Anyone have a problem with that?”

The executioners glanced at each other and then snapped to attention and saluted him.

“Good,” Varrin said, nodding. “Now here’s the plan. When I give the signal, jump Hroshk.”

“Try it and I’ll shoot you,” Hroshk hissed.

Why hasn’t he shot us already?
Eris wondered, noticing his purple eyes darting toward the door.
Does he think he can still get out of this alive?

“See, I think that if you were planning on shooting us, you would have done it already,” Varrin said. “So I’m going to call your bluff. Execution squad B, attack!”

As the Rakorsians rushed Hroshk, he turned all four strikers on them and opened fire. Two of the executioners sank to the floor, screaming and clutching at their chests. The other two blocked the shots with their axes and fell upon the Ssrisk. As they grappled, the executioners’ electro-axes swung madly through the air, occasionally making sizzling contact with Hroshk’s scaly hide. Bursts of striker fire blazed across the room—several of the shots barely missed Grashk, who was still slumped in the corner.

Varrin danced past the brawl and over to Eris’s side. “Hey,” he said, beaming at her.

“Less talking, more rescuing,” Eris said.

Varrin shook his head as he crouched beside her. “Honestly, girl,” he said, sighing, “you could be a bit more appreciative. I did risk my life coming to save you, you know.” Pulling a striker from his belt, he directed a quick pulse of plasma to the control panel. The restraints clicked open.

Rubbing her neck in relief, Eris slowly pushed herself off the block and looked at her pouting savior. “Gah,” she muttered, swatting him on the shoulder. “I’ll yell at you later. Just get us out of here.”

“As my lady commands,” Varrin said and then turned and blasted the control panel on Miguri’s block.

“Thank Kari!” Miguri trilled, scrambling free.

“
Phhh.
How cute.”

They spun to face Hroshk. The Ssrisk captain was bloody and scratched. All the executioners lay dead on the floor behind him.

“Well, damn,” Varrin said coolly. “That didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped.”

“Enough with your feeble attempts at humor. It is time for me to take my revenge,” Hroshk hissed.

The Ssrisk lunged across the room, straight at Eris. For once, Varrin wasn’t fast enough. Hroshk knocked him away with his spiked tail and then grabbed Eris and pressed a striker against her head.

“You slimy—” Varrin began, wiping blood away from the corner of his mouth.

“Silence!” Hroshk spat. “I am in charge now! Drop your weapon and back away, or I kill the human.” His grip tightened on Eris’s arm, making her wince.

I really need to stop being kidnapped,
she thought.
This is getting out of hand.

“Do not worry, my friend,” Miguri called, huddling behind his metal block. “We will get out of this.”

“Drop your weapon!” Hroshk repeated.

Varrin clenched his striker tightly, his gaze darting between Hroshk and Eris. “I’m not loving that plan,” he said. “Got any others?”

“Wrong answer,” Hroshk sneered, shoving the striker harder against Eris’s skull.

She whimpered.

Conflicting emotions flickered across Varrin’s face. After a few seconds, his striker clattered to the metal floor. “You win,” he said. “Now let her go.”

“I give the commands here,” Hroshk hissed. “Now lock yourself onto that.” He indicated the metal block to which Eris had previously been shackled.

A calculating look sparked in Varrin’s eyes. As he started toward the block, Eris exclaimed, “You complete and utter fool! What are you doing?”

Varrin paused, shooting her an annoyed look. “I’m trying to nobly sacrifice myself to save you, if you don’t mind.”

“That’s a terrible plan! Use your Rakorsian super speed and get yourself and Miguri out of here!”

“Could you
be
more inconsistent?” he demanded. “The last time I abandoned you, you yelled at me. Now, when I try to stay and help you, you yell at me. Make up your mind!”

“I yelled at you the first time because your decision made no sense.”

“It did, actually. I thought you’d prefer a quick death to a lifetime of suffering and endless captivity.”

“Oh,” Eris said softly. “But this is different! There’s no need for both of us to die!”

“Have a little faith,” Varrin said as he knelt beside the block.

Eris’s mind was spinning.
What’s he planning? Does he even have a plan?
Until this moment, she wouldn’t have believed him capable of such a gallant act. Yes, he had risked his life to protect her from the jsgarn on Vega Minor, but she knew he hadn’t expected to die in that encounter.
But this is different—he’ll die for sure if he does what Hroshk says. So why is he doing it?

“Lock him in, Claktill,” Hroshk commanded. Miguri scrambled to do as commanded, white hair spiky with agitation.

Her thoughts continued to whirl.
He came back for me, to save me. Now he’s risking his life for me. He cares about me, even if he won’t say it.
The idea that he might die filled her heart with incalculable dread, and Eris suddenly realized something.
I can’t let him die for me. I love him.

“Don’t do this, Varrin!” she pleaded.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” Varrin said lightly, as Miguri fiddled with his shackles out of Eris’s view. “Sooner rather than later, it would seem.”

Hroshk’s face split into a pointy-toothed grin as he yanked Eris closer. “You attacked my ship without warning,” he hissed. “Time for me to return the favor.”

“What are you going to do?” Varrin asked. “Attack my ship? It’s already aboard your ship, you idiot. You can destroy it whenever you want. I’m hardly in a position to stop you.”

“Not your ship. But something equally precious to you, I think.”

Eris felt the striker jabbing harder into her temple.
He’s going to shoot me,
she realized. “Varrin, he’s going to—!”

Before she could finish her warning, Grashk appeared out of nowhere and barreled into his captain. The impact knocked Eris free and sent both reptiles crashing into the wall. Hroshk’s striker fell from his grasp and clattered to the floor. Miguri squeaked and ducked behind his block.

As Eris staggered away from the grappling, hissing Ssrisk, Varrin jumped to his feet. With deadly calm, he picked up one of the discarded electro-axes and stalked toward the combatants. Lifting his foot, he kicked Grashk out of the way. Then he used the flat of the axe to unleash a powerful blow on Hroshk that sent the disoriented Ssrisk staggering back.

Eris hurried to Grashk’s side. Her former guard was badly beaten up and bordering on unconsciousness. “Are you all right?” she whispered, shaking his scaly shoulder. He gave a spluttering hiss and then blacked out.

Turning back to the battle, she saw Varrin striding toward Hroshk, hefting the axe in both hands. She tried to decipher the look in the Ssrisk captain’s cold, purple eyes, as it was one she had never seen there before. Then she realized what it was. It was fear.

“I’ve got a game for you, Ssrisk,” Varrin said grimly. “And I already know who’s going to win.”

38

E
ris didn’t consider herself a vengeful person. But as she watched Varrin lay into the bane of her existence with an electrified battle axe, she couldn’t quite suppress a feeling of intense satisfaction. “Yeah! Kick his scaly butt!” she cheered as Varrin exacted her revenge by beating Hroshk to a bloody, scorched pulp.

It was an unfair battle, but Varrin obviously didn’t care. He slammed the flat of his axe into the Ssrisk’s scaly body again and again. Each successive blow drew a louder grunt of pain from Hroshk, but Varrin didn’t let up. The fury swirling in his gray eyes was fiercer than Eris had ever seen.

Practically snarling, Varrin gave a mighty swing that catapulted the badly beaten reptile across the room. Hroshk hissed in agony as he slammed into the wall and fell, landing on the bloody corpses of the two executioners that had been bisected by the exploding door. Varrin strode toward him, not giving the Ssrisk a chance to recover. “Any last words, you reptilian scum?” he spat, a deadly glint in his eyes.

“Oh, yes,” Hroshk hissed. “If I am fated to die this day, I will not be the only one to suffer a loss!” He reached behind his back and pulled out a striker.

Varrin raised the axe in a defensive gesture. But Hroshk whirled and aimed the striker at Eris instead. She saw Varrin’s eyes widen as Hroshk
phhh
-ed maniacally and pulled the trigger.

ZWOOSH.

Varrin watched helplessly as the glowing projectile streaked across the room and exploded against Eris’s chest. “Eris!” he cried.

Hroshk began to laugh—not the typical Ssrisk
phhh
but the full-blown cackle of a being that had passed far beyond the limits of sanity.