Page 28 of Logic Broken

“Ready to board?” I asked my brothers gathered around me in Akri’s old ship, my old ship. This small vessel wasn’t supposed to hold more than five people, it couldn’t scrub the air to support life for all nine of us and a Ferai beast. At least, not for long but we didn’t need long to get where we were going. My old ship had stealth capabilities, with it, we could catch up to the Dart without being seen. Abigail and Chloe were not far behind us with the Vagabond, the new male Oliver piloting the vessel in Kitan’s stead.

The Sune was at the helm, Da’vi hovering over his shoulder as he kept careful watch of the readings. “Ready Captain,” the mechanic announced, “We’ve passed through the Dart’s shielding, thanks to Akri’s intel. Docking now.” The others behind me cheered, the noise deafening in the tiny space.

We were all here for Akri and though we didn’t even know her name, he told me that female was his mate, so we were here for her too. The moment the airlock’s light turned green the first of us started cycling through it and then we were truly boarding the ship. Spreading out in teams of two to cover as much ground as we could and take out as many of Drameil’s guards before they even knew we were there.

Sunder and I were the ones who reached the bridge first; my intended goal all along. The path had been suspiciously clear to get there and I had a feeling that my oldest friend had been helping out in some way. The bridge didn’t have many people on it but the ones it did have had all my blades rising along my spine and smoke curled from my nostrils. “Drameil!” I roared at the evil, arrogant bastard.

He was in front of one of the many high-tech consoles of his ship. His shoulders hunched as his hands rapidly flew over the screen. “Step away from there, now!” I screamed at him, charging across the space between us to tackle the older Sythral male. A sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach told me that he was doing something desperate and bad.

I tackled him to the ground, pinning him in place with the blades on my right arm pressed into his throat. “What did you do!?” I demanded, my firestarter clicking in my throat and a thin stream of fire jetting from between my lips. If he had eyebrows, they would have been scorched, but he was just a thin, old Synthral with no power or money left.

His red eyes were hazy but filled with some kind of unholy glee. “You destroyed me, Beast! You and Brake…” he cackled evilly, coughing when I pressed down harder on his chest. “Now I will destroy all of you. Nobody is getting out of here alive!”

He laughed even harder when the ship’s computer intoned, “Course locked in by Alpha code.” He thought he’d won, he thought he was about to destroy us all, but how? Where was he sending this ship? I raised my arm over his head, watching the evil bastard as I brought my blades down on his neck; ending his life.

When I leaped to my feet, Sunder was already at the navigational console, two dead Krektar on the floor behind him. “I can’t change it, Ziame. That bastard has sent us straight toward the nearest sun and he’s disabled the shields. We will reach deadly radiation in only a few minutes.”

“Evacuate, now!” I ordered into my com device immediately. “Has anyone located Akri and his mate? Are they safe?” Fear for my friend filled me as each of my brothers responded with a negative. “Hit the ship-wide com, we have to tell Akri to meet us at the airlock.” Sunder was already obeying, using a strong beat of his wings to leap over the pilot console. Hands outstretched to engage the intercom.

Chapter 17

Akri

“We’ll be safe in here,” I assured Jenny as soon as I’d locked the door behind us. I wanted to pull her into my arms, hold her tight, and kiss every single of her hurts. Rushing for the nearest computer access instead, I hooked myself up to the system so I could bring down several of the hull breach bulkheads around our position. I wanted to assure myself that she was alright but the desire to protect her was stronger.

I couldn’t unhook either and give her my full attention, I had to monitor the situation but that didn’t mean I couldn’t talk to her while I did so. “Come here, did he hurt you anywhere?” I asked. The image of Drameil holding his cane to the fine skin of her throat was burned into my brain; I’d never forget it.

She sat down on the floor next to me, her face pale beneath all of her adorable freckles. She focused her hazel eyes on my face as she spoke, and I searched them for any hint of what she was feeling. “I’m fine, he got away Akri. That’s bad news, isn’t it?” She looked worried and scared, which was uncommon for her; usually, adventure made her smile. I couldn’t blame her for being scared now, this did look grim.

“I called my friends on the Vagabond. Ziame said they’d be here in thirty minutes, I can keep them busy that long. Don’t worry. This adventure is almost over.” I sighed, and then what? I’d failed at my primary mission. I didn’t find an answer to my control problems and worse, Jenny made it sound like all people had these issues and I just had to live with them. I didn’t think I could live with the knowledge that I might lose my temper and hurt one of my friends, or Jenny.

Setting off an alarm in the belly of the Dart, I sent an approaching group of guards racing in the wrong direction. I was good at this, good at being a computer. When I returned to the Vagabond, that’s what I should do, upload myself to the ship’s computer banks again. A pain so strong and sharp lanced through my chest that I had to reach up to clutch a hand to my body, what was that?

Jenny’s hand reached up, curling around my thigh; her expression warm and concerned. If I was a computer once more, I wouldn’t have this. Jenny wouldn’t be my mate anymore, and I would no longer be able to touch her. The horrifying thought struck me that I might not even feel for her any longer what I felt for her now. This all-consuming need to care for her, to be near her, and to see her smile. I didn’t ever want to lose that feeling.

“Will you tell me the full story now? That Sythral thought I was the one calling the shots. That I was working together with a Crimelord. What the heck was on that amulet?” Jenny’s questions pulled me from my thought spiral and I focused as much of my attention on her as I could while still monitoring the ship to keep us safe.

Sinking to my knees, I turned so I could lean with my back against the wall. My Liades stretched up over my shoulder to maintain my link with the console. It was only now that I realized I’d locked us in a small office of some kind, there was a tiny desk with some clutter on it, a wall with lockers, and the computer terminal I was currently accessing. The space was small, utilitarian, and ugly, so this wasn’t a place that Drameil ever visited. The office of the Captain or an officer maybe.

“Forty years ago, Drameil was only just climbing the ranks as a criminal mastermind. One of his greatest ways to whitewash his money was Brake, the gladiator to who this body belonged,” I gestured down my body to indicate what I meant. I didn’t go into detail on how Drameil had come to own Brake, that story was much too similar to Jenny’s for my peace of mind.

“He moved ranks quickly because he was very good at getting dirt on those above him,” I explained. Jenny’s body was next to mine but that didn’t feel close enough, I picked her up and pulled her into my lap and she happily let me do so. I could see it by the smile on her beautiful face. I felt better for having her in my arms and I could finally give in to the urge to touch her everywhere and assure myself that she was unharmed.

“He blackmailed his way to the top? And that amulet was where he stored his dirt?” Jenny asked. She was nestled with her head beneath my chin, her arms loosely wrapped around my neck. The warm weight of her slender body in my lap was settling me, erasing the rabid worry I’d felt when I woke up without her in that cell.

I nodded, briefly pulling myself away from the conversation to direct a few more troops away from our hiding spot. “Affirmative, blackmail is his game. And he used Brake to store sensitive data on himself and others. Then Brake was stolen from him while he was in stasis and Drameil has been waiting for that information to surface ever since.”

It must have been a loose end he had to fear throughout his entire career as a Crimelord. The data on that amulet was now outdated, but some of the secrets he had gathered still had power. Including, I’d learned, some of the double-crossed dealings that Drameil had done when he started his career. If it came out, it would bring the wrath of several of the current crimelords down on him; he couldn’t afford that when he was in so tenuous a position.

“And what happened to Brake?” she asked, not with any kind of accusation but I felt a little guilty anyway. I had no way to ask the former gladiator if I could even use his body, I knew he was dead, that his essence was gone when his brain had suffered too much damage in the broken stasis pod. It would still feel better if I could have asked him permission, although from what I’d learned of the gladiator he truly had been a mean and violent type. The arena had been less bound by rules back when Brake fought, and from all accounts I’d found, he had relished his fights and the glory he received after each win.

That’s why I worried so much that his violent tendencies still ruled me too. When I explained that to Jenny she smiled and shook her head. “No way, that’s not true at all, Akri. You only fight when you have to, you don’t like it, and you’ve always come back to me. You are nothing like him. You are you.”

I tried to look at it from her perspective, for once not shutting out the possibility. If that was true, I had nothing to worry about, I could be her mate and a friend to the gladiators on the Vagabond. I wanted to believe that so badly I could barely breathe for a moment.

Jenny held up a hand and started ticking things off on her fingers. “You refocused in Drova’s bar when you realized I was in danger, you got us out of there instead of staying to fight.” She held up her pointer finger for emphasis and I nodded in response, that was true, I had pulled myself from the fight when I heard her scream.

“Then you fought those guys in the alley, remember them? You only did that to protect me, and I saw you, you incapacitated everyone except the one that hurt me.” I recalled that too, it had felt at the time like a compromise between two sides of me… but it hadn’t been difficult to stay the course once I’d made that decision.