Chapter 2
Sloan’s head whipped around at the heavy footfall of Ganthar’s minions as they sprinted toward them. Heart pounding, she knew this could go sideways in a second if she didn’t play her cards right.
“Fuck! Get him on the shuttle. Get on the comm to the ship, and tell them to get ready for an FTL jump as soon as we are docked.” She held her hands raised in the air as she faced the incoming threat.
“Boys, boys, what is the problem?”
The guards slid to a halt with their hands on their blasters. The leader of the reptilian brood stepped forward. “Commander Ganthar has decided that the terms of your agreement are no longer satisfactory,” he said.
“That’s too bad. We made a deal. We even shook hands on it, against my better judgment. Since we shook on it and exchanged credits, I think we will be departing now.” Sloan made to return to her shuttle but prepared for the worst. As she spun to leave, the leader placed a hand on her shoulder. She grabbed her blade and blaster and whirled back so quickly she caught him unawares, his nose touching her blade.
“I would refrain from touching me without my permission,” she said, growling as her muscles tightened.
She had the blaster trained on his comrades. “I’m going to enter my shuttle and leave peacefully. Ganthar and I have a deal. I would hate for your pretty face to come to harm by allowing him to renege on a sealed deal.” Sloan backed away slowly, keeping the blaster trained on the group. From the corner of her eye, she spied one of them splitting off from the group to try to cut her off. She slid her hand slowly up her back and unsnapped the cover from her concealed mini-blaster. As she spun to make a break for the ship, she whipped it out and shot five shots in rapid succession, taking out the guard who had separated from the crowd along with two others who had advanced her position.
Sprinting as fast as her legs would take her, Sloan ran up the ramp that led to the small interior and slammed her hand down on the outer seal control. She pushed past their newly acquired visitor and raced to strap in, as Dev had already initialized for a hasty departure.
“What are you waiting for? Punch it before they start shooting!” Sloan activated the rear cameras and the Ganthar’s goons were shouting into their comms, probably speaking to Ganthar and training their weapons on the shuttle. They needed to move. The leader of the group closed his comms and immediately called out to the others, ordering them to fire on the shuttle.
They hovered in the cargo bay of the ship, then started toward the airlock to escape when their security protocol was rescinded. Sloan saw the guards signaling to the control room to cut them off. The shuttle yawed and pitched in the tight bay as they rocketed toward the exit.
Dev burst through the airlock as the shuttle bay started to close behind them. Sloan was sweating from the close call. This trip hadn’t gone to plan at all. Picking up a severely injured prisoner wasn’t on the original agenda, but she’d seen him on the way through the holding area and couldn’t help the urge to rip Ganthar to shreds. She had kept her cool as she had approached his cell.
“What do you have here? I didn’t take you for a flesh collector, Ganthar.”
“I’m not usually, but this one has been particularly interesting to practice on. He ended up being a lot less valuable than I was led to believe.”
Sloan suppressed a shudder as she thought of what practice might entail. The deal was initially a trade for a client, but after seeing this wounded man, she couldn’t help but add him.
“My client would like to purchase the fuel rods, but they would also like a new servant. This one probably wouldn’t make it through an FTL jump. Shame. We could have done the delivery at the same time for a good price,” Sloan said, hoping she was keeping her disgust and eagerness to collect the prisoner out of her voice.
Ganthar huffed, snorting through his lizard like snout. “He would definitely make it through an FTL jump. You should have seen him when we first got him. He was well built. It took some time to break him down. He’s still strong, though. My guards have been working him over for a while, but he is still able to put up a fight. How much would you be willing to part with for him?”
“I couldn’t say. He’s mangy and damaged.” Sloan wanted to spit at Ganthar. She knew that as a vile piece of space crap, he would attempt to screw her over and get the highest price possible for this poor man. She needed to play it cool.
“As I said, he is strong and would make a great servant. I would charge you only a thousand credits.”
“A thousand? Are you serious?! I would have made an offer of five, six hundred maximum. Cleaning, decontaminating, and nourishing him will severely eat into any of our profit.”
“Fine. Seven, then. You can have him for seven hundred.”
Sloan pretended to think it over. She would have been willing to pay thousands of credits to free this man. Sloan, too, had known the sting of a flesh dealer’s whip and the brutality of captivity. She jumped at any chance to release someone, which had gotten her into a few tight spots over the years, but she never wavered.
“That will be a difficult sell, but with a five percent discount on the fuel cells, you have a deal.”
Ganthar held out his touchpad. “Deal.” He held out his rough, slightly slimy hand, glancing down to his claws, then up at Sloan. She grasped his hand and scanned her touchpad on his.
Ganthar told one of his guards to open the cell. “I should mention that he’s slightly . . . feral.” Ganthar cackled his amusement at getting one over on Sloan.
Great! Sloan thought as she walked into the cell. This man had been through the wringer. His coverings were bloody and tattered. He lay on the floor and seemed unable to even move.
“Look at how damaged he is. You’ve allowed your incompetent guards to do this? You lucked out on this deal. You wouldn’t have gotten two hundred for him on the open market, let alone this price.”
“I know.” Ganthar laughed as he walked away and left Sloan there with Dev, the guard, and their soon-to-be passenger—if they made it out of there. She crouched down and gazed into his striking green eyes. “It’s going to be all right. I’m going to help you get up slowly. Be careful, because I’m sure you’re feeling weak.” As she reached down to pick him up, he was like a sack of potatoes. “Dev, get over here!”
***
As their shuttle docked with the Trinity, Sloan called for the med bay to retrieve their new visitor. She opened a comm to the bridge. “I don’t know why we aren’t moving, but you had better tell me we aren’t out of fuel.”
“No, Captain! Just wanted to make sure you’re safely on board.”
“Well, I am, so let’s move it,” Sloan said, barking impatiently into her comm. “All we need is Ganthar powering up and trying to screw us over in this deal. He always tries to renege and get the money and goods back. That’s probably why we were the only ones who would take this contract,” she said, mainly to herself but also to Dev. He’d been with her for a while but hadn’t dealt with Ganthar before.
Jan’s voice came over the all-ship call. “Prepare for the jump.” Vibrations from the ship powering up for FTL jump reverberated through Sloan’s body. The countdown blasted from the speakers, and everyone held on to the safety rails around the ship. Sloan felt the slight drop of her stomach at the lurch, which rocked everyone.
The med team showed up with a grav stretcher as Dev helped unfold the visitor from the shuttle.
“Run a full diagnostic. Be sure to check for parasites, put him in the med pod, and get him any nourish-packs he needs. Give me an update as soon as you can.”
Sloan examined her new crew member, and he stared up at her with a look she knew all too well. His eyes filled with tears, and she couldn’t handle being able to see so clearly into someone else’s soul. She ducked her head down to his and whispered in his ear, “You’re free now. We will get you back on your feet. Don’t worry.” She stood and addressed the med team. “What are you waiting for? Get him well!”
The med team departed quickly, leaving Sloan and Dev in the shuttle bay.
“New crew member, huh?”
“Did you want me to leave him there?”
“It’s another mouth to feed, and you paid way over market for him.” The corners of Dev’s mouth raised slightly, which was the closest to a full-out grin he ever got.
“Gah, you’re such an asshole sometimes. Would you prefer if I had left you in the cell I found you in? I had to drive the price down, or none of us were getting out of there.”
“Maybe I don’t like the idea of your newest fixer-upper replacing me,” he said, still smiling.
“Don’t worry, Dev. You’ll always have a special place in my heart—and in my wallet, for how much it freaking cost me to get you out of there. Don’t think I’ve forgotten how much longer I had to wait on those reactor repairs because of the way you stared at me with those sad violet eyes.” Sloan threw her arm around his shoulders, standing on tiptoe to give him a pat.
“You’ll soon get over not being my latest crew acquisition. I’m sure.” Sloan dropped her arm and gave him a playful shove. “Let’s get to the bridge before we end up having to unload the rest of our cargo.”