Page 2 of Nansar
On the scanner, a ship had materialized like a bird of prey, closing fast on our position.
"How long have they been tracking us?" I asked, moving to stand beside him, my eyes already scanning the tactical readout despite the fact that the alien symbols meant nothing to me.
"Twelve minutes. They dropped out of slip-space right on our tail." He pointed to the display with one clawed finger. "We picked them up immediately, but they haven't responded to hails."
I studied the blip on the screen, watching it pulse with each sensor sweep like a malevolent heartbeat. "Can you identify the vessel?"
"Not yet. They're partially cloaked. Could be Romvesian, could be pirates, could be—"
The ship rocked violently to starboard, the deck lurching beneath our feet with enough force to send unsecured equipment skittering across the floor. Alarms shrieked as the lights flickered, plunging us briefly into darkness before the emergency systems kicked back in. Karvat's hand shot out to steady me, his grip firm on my upper arm. I endured it for a few seconds before pulling away with an awkward grunt of thanks.
"Incoming fire!" one of the crew shouted—a tall male with long blond hair and two ivory horns set prominently in his forehead. "They're using pulse cannons!"
Another impact slammed into us, harder this time. I grabbed the edge of the console to keep my footing as the deck tilted at a sickening angle.
"Redirect all auxiliary systems to shields and return fire," Karvat ordered, his voice cutting through the chaos. "And get us the hell out of here. Plot a jump to—"
"Jump drive is offline!" The engineer's voice carried an edge of panic. This guy looked like a cross between a ferret and a hedgehog, his spiky fur standing on end as his four-fingered hands flew across his console. "That last hit damaged the power coupling. We need at least ten minutes to reroute."
A new sound cut through the bridge. A transmission crackling over the open channel, distorted by static but clear enough to understand. The voice was male, speaking in a series of clicks and growls rendered into words by my translator.
"Alliance vessel, power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded. We have no interest in your crew or your cargo." A pause, then: "We want only the human female. Surrender her and you will be permitted to leave unharmed."
The bridge went silent except for the hum of damaged systems and the beeping of proximity alarms.
My throat went dry. Of course they were here for me. Fucking Hewes. I flexed my arm, remembering the tracker implanted beneath my skin and wondered if somehow, Hewes had used it to find me.
"Captain?" The horned crew member's voice was uncertain, looking between Karvat and me. "Your orders?"
Karvat's jaw tightened, the muscles working beneath his pelt. Those blue-gold eyes met mine, and I saw the calculation happening behind them. He was weighing options, running through scenarios with the tactical mindset of someone who'd navigated a thousand crises. His ship was damaged. His jump drive was offline. He had a crew to protect.
And he had me—the bait he'd been tasked to transport, the woman who'd apparently brought a world of trouble to his doorstep.
"They're not getting you," Karvat said, his voice dropping to a low growl edged with steel. He turned back to his crew. "All power to forward shields. Evasive pattern delta-seven."
I moved closer to him, keeping my voice low enough that only he could hear over the controlled chaos around us. "Captain, you need to consider your crew." I swallowed hard. My whole mission had been to draw Hewes out of whatever cesspool he'd been hiding in, and it looked like it had worked. Part of me was pleased. Another part, not so much.
"I am." He cut me off with a sharp glance that pinned me in place more effectively than any restraint. "Always. And we all understand what happens if Hewes gets his hands on you out here."
I opened my mouth to respond, but he continued, stepping closer until I had to tilt my head back to maintain eye contact, my skin prickling with unease at his proximity.
"We're in unsanctioned space. That tracker in your arm? The one that's supposed to keep you safe?" His eyes flicked down to my forearm, then back to my face. "First thing he'll do is cut it out. Maybe he'll be careful about it, maybe he won't. Either way, once it's gone, you disappear. No signal. No rescue. No Alliance task force coming to pull you out of whatever hole he drags you into." He stepped even closer, his voice dropping to something almost intimate despite the violence erupting around us. "The Alliance surveillance grid doesn’t cover this sector. There's no way to track his ship. Out here, there are no rules. No oversight. No one to hear you scream."
The bluntness of his words hit me like a slap, but I forced myself to hold his gaze. I'd known the risks. I'd accepted them when I agreed to this mission. But hearing them laid out so starkly, by someone who understood the dangers of space better than I ever could, made them suddenly, viscerally real. My mindreeled back to my months of captivity, when I was treated as nothing more than a toy to be enjoyed, a plaything to be broken.
"We need to get you to sanctioned space," Karvat continued. "Once we cross into the Outer Territories, that's Alliance-monitored space. The ship can be tracked." His jaw tightened. "But we're still two days out from the border. Two days in the black where anything goes."
Another blast rocked the ship, this one close enough that I felt the heat of it through the bulkhead, smelled the acrid tang of scorched metal and melting circuitry.
"Shields at sixty percent," the engineer called out, his spiky fur bristling with stress.
The navigator leaned forward from her station, her movements fluid and deliberate despite the chaos. Her skin gleamed like polished amethyst under the emergency lighting, a shade of lavender so rich it seemed to shimmer with each breath. Three breasts rose and fell beneath her uniform's open collar—a biological feature that still caught me off guard. I forced my gaze to her face, to the intelligence burning in her violet eyes.
"Captain, there's another option for the human." Her voice cut through the tension like a knife. "We're nine hours from the prison planet Palaydium."
Karvat's head snapped toward her, his expression darkening. "All arrivals and departures are prohibited there."
"Yes," the navigator acknowledged, her fingers dancing across her console as she pulled up coordinates that bathed her face in blue light. "But there are holes in the defense grid. One of our escape pods is small enough to slip through undetected." She paused, her gaze steady. "It's not ideal, but Palaydium is Alliance-controlled."
