Alien Brute's Captive - Aya Morningstar Page 0,59

I can get to her.

It’s still not a risk I’m willing to take. I want to talk to her before I try to breach into the anti-matter core.

I cut through a few more layers. I’m synched to the blueprint of the ship, and it overlays onto my visor. I’m one layer away. The core is just on the other side of the wall in front of me.

No one has spotted me yet, but that’s probably just because I burned through the walls so fast. If I linger around here, someone will see me soon enough.

I study the blueprint, and I find the door to the core. I make my way toward it.

My autocannon is fully charged and ready. I peek around the corner that leads to the door and spot them.

There’s one officer, three soldiers, and five guys with cutting tools.

The officer is standing with rigid posture. The soldiers are trying to stay at attention, but are slouching, and the welders are sitting on the floor, playing cards with each other.

I guess Commander Yakuri hasn’t wanted to test Catherine yet. These guys don’t even look like they have orders to stand-by. They’re there “in case” and as a last resort.

I raise the autocannon and paint my targets.

The soldiers spot me just as I’m finished painting them.

I could have just killed everyone, but the cutting team doesn’t deserve it. The soldiers probably don’t either, but Cat hasn’t made me that soft.

My autocannon goes off.

The officer hits the ground first, then three of the soldiers die before getting a shot off.

Two of the soldiers’ rifles go off. Bullets clatter against my breach suit. The cannon kills the remaining soldiers.

Searing pain hits my leg. It feels wet.

I hit a button on my suit, and HealAll is injected into my leg, as well as some more stims and painkillers for good measure.

“Get the fuck out of here,” I shout at the cutting team.

Never having seen a full-size, pure-blooded Cygnian in person, they scurry down the hall at full speed, leaving their welding equipment and cards behind.

I find the officer’s tablet and thumb through it. It takes me a while to navigate the archaic interface, but I finally find what I’m looking for: A comms link directly to the anti-matter core.

41

Catherine

“Cat,” a voice cracks into the comms.

What the fuck? No way it’s him.

“Th...Krakon?”

My heart pounds against my chest. My nostrils flare, as if my body expects his scent. I can’t smell him through a comms channel, though, which is probably for the best.

“I don’t know if they can hear this,” he says. “I took care of the team outside, though. Let me in, Cat. I just want to talk. I promise.”

How the fuck did he get on the ship? He’s just outside the door? Is this some kind of trap by Yakuri? No. How would Yakuri be able to fake Krakon’s voice?

“What the hell is a Krakon?” Sanchez asks me.

“Get out of here, Krakon,” I say, tears stinging my eyes. “This ship is going to blow up.”

“I know,” he says. “That’s why I’m here. Please, let me in before they send another team.”

I don’t know why exactly I do it, but I hit the button, and the door starts to open.

I mostly didn’t want to think about it. The more I thought about whether I wanted to see Krakon--the more I let my brain and logic have a crack at that problem--the more confused I became. Instead, I just cleared my thoughts and waited for my body to do what felt right.

And my hand hit the button.

“Oh, my,” Sanchez says. “So that’s a Krakon?”

She has a big, shit-eating grin on her face. That look disappears when Krakon sweeps me off my feet, lifts his faceplate, and kisses me.

I surrender, but promise myself that it will be only a temporary surrender. His scent engulfs me even more than his arms. His tongue overpowers me, and when I feel myself completely and utterly losing control, I fight to push him away. I pull back.

“Krakon,” I say, panting.

“Cat.” He grins at me, licking his lips.

“No,” I tell him. “I don’t know why I let you in. We’re all going to die in here.”

“Not if I can help it,” he says. “I have a comms link to the Cygnians pursuing the ship. They will negotiate with you directly.”

42

Krakon

“We get to go to Cygnus,” she says. “Wherever we choose. You get no direct say over where we live, who we stay with, or where we work.”

I watch her talk. Damn,