didn’t have much patience for meathead warrior species questioning her vision. She was what one of the old Earth politicians called a “feminist,” even though EJ knew Gygak believed only in her own superiority and everyone else as a distant second. She was relying on that sense of self-preservation, though. The Psonil sniffed and moved toward the horribly uncomfortable cot in her cell. She slid weapons out of the frame and the mattress and took a sophisticated communicator from under a bent floor panel. “Do not believe your eyes, Xaravian. What you see is not all that is there.”
EJ was impressed in spite of herself. “So you take the ship and deliver the settlers to somewhere they can prosper, then you’ve got your ship. If you want to fuck with the Slasu on a more frequent basis, I can introduce you to some people who have made that their job. I think you’d like them.”
“How?” Gygak stood at the door once more, calm and collected as if she weren’t going into battle with a makeshift stunner and a sharpened blade.
Which was a great question. EJ knew Faros or a true pirate would have smiled and waved it away, made an empty promise to keep in touch, and then gone off to pursue their own ends. Just thinking of what Faros would do irritated EJ, and in a fit of determination to not be him, she pulled out the flashing comms puck. Violet probably knew how to work it from the other side, so it was probably more use with Gygak and the gen ship than it ever had been with EJ. “This.”
EJ unlocked the door so Gygak could take the device, turning it over in her hands, then the Psonil eyed her with a new degree of suspicion. “How, precisely, did you come by this?”
“We need to go,” Nokx said, growing urgency in his voice and the colors swirling in his scales. “Perhaps you can trade stories after we’ve all accomplished our respective missions.”
EJ concentrated on breathing, though she aimed an elbow back at his gut to make a point. “Friend of a friend took it off a Fleet ship, from what I was told. She’s on the other end, monitoring it. An Earther, on the Sraibur with me. You know how to use it?”
“Of course,” Gygak said. She maneuvered the contraband comms unit up to the puck and abruptly pushed them together, twisting and locking some mechanism on the puck that EJ hadn’t even seen. “We’ve been stealing these from the Fleet for ages. Best tech in three galaxies so far. Now that we have sync’d...”
The Psonil checked the devices, where the lights on the puck had changed color, then nodded in satisfaction and handed EJ hers back. “I will be able to contact you, and you me. Should you ever pass through this quadrant, signal so that you are not inadvertently... greeted with more enthusiasm than warranted.”
EJ smiled with half her mouth and put the device away. She’d meant to just give it to Gygak and hope that Violet knew how to connect to it later. “Noted. We’ll get out of here and leave you to it.”
Gygak squinted at the panel and flicked through the schematics of the ship, shaking her head. “There are many sectors already sealed off or damaged. Your best chance is the starboard side, three fonkiks from the primary propulsion center. They shut down engineering, so there shouldn’t be many guards left in that sector. There are still two functional escape pods.”
“Good,” Nokx said. He caught EJ around the waist and started jogging.
EJ grunted as she bounced against his side, then called to Gygak, “Happy hunting. We’ll be in touch.”
The Psonil waved negligently, all her attention on the panel, as the power shut off again and plunged them into darkness. The glowing panel illuminated Gygak’s eerily beautiful face and three rows of teeth as she plotted taking over the ship with a gang of criminals. Doors began to open and a low rumble of anticipation rose behind them, and EJ truly appreciated how fast Xaravians could run.
Chapter 40
Nokx
Five times as EJ talked to the unnerving alien, Nokx almost caught her up and ran. Danger closed in around them and made his nerves twitch. Whoever controlled the ship had cut off the repeating message after only three cycles, which meant they likely knew where the directions to play it came from—even on an old pile of haugmawt waste like the Hollbrd without modern tech. But