Fathom (Mermaids of Montana #3) - Elsa Jade Page 0,70
Cretarni spaceship, her nighttime hair scrunchies had gotten lost—she didn’t think the door was opening from this side. She braced her hands on either side of the panel and lowered her forehead to the smooth plasteel, closing her eyes again. The only tool she had…
No, she couldn’t risk it. Not yet.
Straightening, she slammed her palm against the panel until her fingers stung before stepping back. “Open this damn door! Hey! Let me out of here, you dry-humping soil-suckers!”
A hiss behind her brought her whirling around. Oops, no wonder the panel had resisted her prodding.
The entire wall slid aside to reveal a half dozen Cretarni soldiers, and she squinted against the sudden burst of light. Judging from their silhouettes, they’d slimmed down from their attack armor, but the obvious thickened pads over vulnerable portions of their anatomy made it clear that they weren’t at ease. This hadn’t been a pleasure jaunt where they accidentally snatched an unsuspecting innocent Earther.
Not that she’d really believed bombing Wavercrest was a mistake. But a girl could hope.
“Light switch,” rumbled the Cretarni standing in the middle-front of the group. The boss, she assumed by the squared stance and overlarge pistol in one seven-fingered hand pointed straight at her.
But the word? “Light switch?” Her universal translator recognized the Cretarni language but she wasn’t getting the context. “No lights here. You left me in the dark.”
“Make light and I will shoot you.”
Well, the last half of that was clear, at least.
She lifted her chin. “This is a violation of closed-world protocols. Release me at once.”
“You are a violation of closed-world protocols. If they knew you were here, local authorities would thank us for removing you.”
She swallowed again. She’d always said she wasn’t a fighter like Ridley or a leader like Marisol. She was just…herself.
Her vision adjusting, she swept her gaze once around the group. Though indignant and scared, she was curious too; they were only her second alien encounter, after all. Their faces were masks of furry feathers, with large, tufted ears and bare, damp-looking triangle noses. Their small, round eyes were a dull yellow-orange except for the black pupil. They reminded her of lemurs mashed up with parrots, stout-bodied and long-limbed, though she saw no tails of any sort.
Under her scrutiny, several of the Cretarni…stepped back? Their large, wide boots splayed oddly on the plasteel decking, splitting into seven separate, reticulated toe sheaths on each foot. That was a lot of footwear engineering; maybe a deliberate contrast to the typically unshod Tritonans? She frowned thoughtfully, and a couple more retreated.
Odd. No one had ever been afraid of her before. Except the Tritonesse, who were the exact opposite of the Cretarni. How nice to be hated equally by two groups that considered each other mortal enemies.
The boss didn’t move except to raise the pistol higher. “No light.” Despite the hooting undertone to the voice, the command was clear even if the reason wasn’t.
But the Cretarni hadn’t shot her yet, so… “The intergalactic community has rules about abduction.”
“Those rules do not apply to intra-system civil disagreements.”
“Disagreement? For how many centuries?” She scoffed. “Why not call it what it is?”
The Cretarni flicked the muzzle of the pistol. “War, then. But those rules you cite still do not matter.”
True enough, considering she was caught and no one knew where she was.
But Sting would find her.
She knew that, in her deepest heart. He’d been gone all day, but she knew he hadn’t left Earth yet. She knew. How she knew, she didn’t know. But he was out there, somewhere, and when he realized she’d been taken, he would come for her.
She gave the Cretarni a thin smile with her best channeling of Titanyri teeth, and all of the Cretarni stepped back this time.
“You lost the war,” she reminded them softly. “Do you really want to lose again?”
The boss stiffened, all his fur-feathers bristling. “You only lose the war if you stop fighting. But I’m not here to fight you.” Another gesture with the pistol. “Come. This way.”
She glanced at the rest of the party who’d arrayed in a defensive shape, all of them with their seven-fingered hands covering their weapons. “Where are you taking me?”
“That will be up to you,” the boss said. “Depending on what you do next.”
Her breath hitched. She’d never mastered the kind of power all these aliens seemed to fear, and even now, she knew, whatever the Cretarni seemed to believe, that power still wasn’t hers.
They did have all the guns, after all. She just needed to hold