of them. Let’s keep searching for our pirate.”
“Airen, he might be dead.”
“Well, we keep looking until we know for sure.”
“And keep an eye out for other monsters lurking around.”
She scanned their surroundings. “I’m not detecting anything.” Her scanner beeped and she frowned. “There are low levels of radiation.”
“Dangerous?”
“No.”
They moved along the conveyor. Ore was still stacked on the belt, glimmering under their lights.
“This is the unidentified ore. It’s showing higher levels of radiation, the same as the creature.” Horror moved through her. “Donovan, I think they had some sort of accident with this ore.”
“And some of them were exposed to it, irradiated?”
She nodded.
“Hell.” He pressed his hands to his hips, looking around with a grim face.
“It appears to be safe now, but let’s not disturb the ore.”
“There had to be hundreds of miners working here.” He met her gaze. “That’s a lot of monsters.”
They continued on, moving through a doorway.
“Living quarters,” she said.
They moved inside, heading toward a set of stairs that led up to an open, second level. She swung her light through the dark space and the beam bounced off many doors. The central area must have been an eating and relaxing space. It was a mess—with furniture overturned, and litter on the ground.
A sound echoed above them and they both tensed.
She spotted a flash of movement as someone darted up the stairs.
Donovan broke into a sprint.
Cren. She ran after him.
They pounded up the stairs and she wondered if it was another monster.
They reached the top and Donovan dived, tackling a lean figure.
“Let me go!”
Donovan pinned the man and Airen stood over him, shining the light down.
“Eon,” the man spat.
Definitely their pirate. He was older, with scraggly, gray hair and a lined face. It was clear he’d lived a hard, rough life. He wasn’t wearing a helmet and appeared to be working harder to breathe.
“We aren’t here to hurt you, Arnaf,” she said.
“Well, you two made enough noise that the space-cursed monsters will be here to eat us all any minute now.” He drew in some harsh breaths. “Already hard enough for me to breath in here, especially if I have to run.”
“How many of them?” Donovan asked.
“I don’t know,” the pirate grumbled. “Enough. Ten, maybe.”
“You’ve been hiding from them?” she asked.
“Ever since my cowardly, backstabbing men dumped me here. When I get my hands on Cyris—”
“He’s dead.” Donovan levered himself off the pirate.
The old man paused. “No great loss.”
“They’re all dead. Bar one in the brig aboard an Eon warship. He told us where to find you.”
“Idiots took the Kantos job.” The pirate cursed, and for a second, looked sad. His face firmed and he glanced at Airen. “I told them attacking an Eon outpost was a stupid idea.”
“Well, wherever they are now, I’m sure they’re regretting the decision,” she said.
“You’re the female warrior the bugs wanted. Kann-Felis.”
“That’s why we are here. We need to know what you know. Why do they want me?”
“You gonna get me off this rock?”
Donovan crossed his arms. “If the info is good.”
“They want your helian.” The pirate’s gaze dropped to her wristband.
“You can’t remove a bonded helian without killing both the host and the helian,” she said.
The pirate sucked on one of his teeth. “Bugs think they can. At least, with a female Eon.”
Airen felt a wave of something horrible wash over her. “What?”
The pirate shrugged. “Something about being female, your biology, makes ’em think they can do it.”
Donovan cursed.
Breathing deeply, she pushed her concern and anger down. “We need to go.” She needed to warn the other female Eon warriors, just in case the Kantos came after them. This couldn’t be true. She didn’t want it to be true.
“Come on.” Donovan pushed the pirate ahead of them. They headed down the stairs.
They moved out into the dark processing area, and guttural moans echoed through the space. A lot of moans.
Airen’s blood fired.
“Fuck,” Donovan bit out. “We have a lot of company incoming.”
“Run,” Airen said.
They sprinted across the space. Ahead, a crowd of monsters—misshapen beings, all different shapes and sizes—appeared out of the gloom, stumbling toward them.
Donovan whipped his laser pistol up and fired.
Airen spotted the door ahead, but it was still too far away. They wouldn’t make it before the monsters cut them off.
The pirate let out a wild yell and yanked a clunky, homemade explosive off his belt. “Go!”
“I promised to get you out of here,” Airen said.
“I’m old, and I got nowhere to go.” He lifted the explosive. “My clan’s all dead. I might as well go out