Page 35 of Found By the Alien Warrior

I kept close to the wall as I ran along the hall, hoping I wouldn’t smack right into a guard. The control room was ahead. The door lay open, unguarded. Most of the guards were scattered throughout the ship. Still, I didn’t feel like the way was clear.

"Come on, you've got this," I whispered to myself, part prayer, part pep talk. The breaths I took were ragged. This was more than a mission; it was redemption, for Aurik, for myself, for all those trapped by Korga's criminal ambition.

Alarms blared to life. I almost dropped the keys, caught off guard by the sudden wailing and red lights that strobed the hall ceilings and lined the floor. Shouts surged and ebbed in the distance, both on this level and somewhere in the bowels of the ship. Voices raised in panic or battle. Aurik succeeded in releasing the other fighters from the holding pen.

I tore a quick glance through a viewport in the middle of the hall as eight male fighters burst outside of the ship. Whatever makeshift dog and pony show fighting ring Korga strung together, it was in pieces now. I didn’t have time to stop and watch as Korga’s seedy audience leapt from their seats as the fight came to them.

With luck, there would be more who were willing to fight against Korga’s guards and other enforcers. With each wail of the alarms, my shock decreased, and I became more confident. Never in my life had I’d been so happy to welcome noise and chaos.

"Sonya, left!" Raze’s voice cut through the din. I couldn’t see how far he was in the hall behind me, but I followed his instruction, veered, and narrowly avoided the swipe of Vessa the Viper's claws near my nose. Where had she come from?

"I should have known you would be part of a rebellion.” Vessa bared her fangs at me in the flashing light. “You probably helped Aurik plan it while you were folding laundry.”

"Always the quiet ones." My tone was light, but my mind raced, weaving through potential escape routes. I had too few places to go in a straight hallway. She lunged again, a blur of venom and vengeance, but I twisted away, feeling the rush of air from her strike brush my cheek.

"Raze, a little help?" I called out, pressing against the wall as if I could slip through it to safety.

"Bit tied up here.” His voice was still way back in the hall. I heard grunts and punches.

A bead of sweat trickled down my temple. Vessa got closer. I couldn’t afford another misstep, not when every second counted. The control room was so close.

I aimed the tranquilizer. She was a snake in the grass, and I was tired of playing the part of the timid little mouse.

I pressed the trigger, and the dart whizzed through the air. But it bounced off Vessa, barely eliciting a flinch. Her laugh was ice shards tinkling against metal.

"Venom runs in my veins. Where do you think they get the supply to make those?"

"Damn it," I cursed through gritted teeth. "Can’t you see the only thing you’re going to get for helping Korga is jail time?”

Her mouth stretched wide in a hiss, venom glands on full display. In a last-ditch effort, I shoved the tranquilizer in her face. While she flailed backward, I shot past her. I had just enough time to see more newly freed captives as they raced into the hall and came thundering in Vessa’s direction. She latched onto the wall with her claws and went scrabbling to get to another level of the ship.

I refocused. The control room was just ahead. I couldn’t stop. Because somewhere on this ship, Aurik was fighting his own war, and I'd be damned if I let him do it alone.

My feet carried me, half-running, half-flailing, into the control room. The room was a sensory nightmare of flashing lights and whirring systems. I saw the elaborate alien puzzle box of a panel in the middle, all blinking lights, signals, and no clues for me to even begin to start.

Motherducker. I was a hostess, not a tech genius.

I clutched the square keys with complicated symbols. "Come on. One of these has to be it."

AURIK

I stood in the mangled hall of the ship’s lower deck, looking out at what would have been Korga’s debut event on Thermakon. Only now, the ring, the joke of a VIP section, and the rest of the audience seating was overturned, trampled, and scorched. My fellow fighters made short work of it.

I nodded at the effects of the revolt before turning back to go deeper into the ship. My focus wasn’t on taking my rage out on chairs and tables. I was going to make sure to present Korga in an efficient package to the Wanderstar Fleet or whoever else claimed authority in these deep parts of the galaxy.

A few years ago, I saw a bounty the galaxy officials put out on Korga. The report claimed he used to get caught in so many scrapes with other criminals that his injuries made him permanently lose his ability to shapeshift like other Quareks. That didn’t make him any less cunning, cruel, or strong.

My eyes scanned the interior of the lower level, searching for that distinct hulking, tusked form in the chaos. And there he was around the corner, slinking away.

"Korga.” My shout echoed. “If this were a match, you’d forfeit for running away.”

He disappeared into a side corridor, confidence oozing from his stride as if he already won.

Alarms wailed through the ship. It was cold steel and pulsing lights. My boots clanged against the floor, the sound a war drum driving me forward. I wove through the corridors, past damaged property, past guards and fighters hitting anyone that could slug back. Some of the more timid took to hiding in the mess hall and living quarters.

I looked all over for Korga, each turn a gamble I was willing to take if it meant making sure he didn’t get a chance to effect Sonya, me, or anyone else again.

Chapter Fifteen

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