Page 47 of My Alien Sunshine

“He went after Drayth,” I respond, exhaustion seeping into my voice.

“HE WHAT?!” Lyriana shrieks. Ellen jerks awake and starts crying anew. At my glare, Lyriana lowers her voice. “He did what?!” she whisper-yells. “For fuck’s sake, you people are like herding sandcats! You catch one and two escape. I’m done with this. We’re leaving.”

My eyelids feel like they weigh a ton each, but I force them open for a little longer. “But Faelin said he’d be back. He said…” I trail off, trying to remember what exactly Faelin had said but find it difficult to navigate my foggy mind. “He’d catch a different ride,” I finally remember. “I don’t know what he meant by that.”

“I do,” Lyriana grumbles, but her expression softens the longer she watches Ellen and I.

My baby has fallen asleep again and is now snoring lightly in her sleep. My only wish at the moment is to join her. To curl up on a bed with Ellen in my arms and pass out for a few hours. Or days.

I must have fallen asleep, but I jerk awake when someone tries to take Ellen from my arms. I swallow back the scream I was about to let forth when I look up and don’t see any evil slavers wanting to steal my baby. I see a woman resembling Lyriana, except this one is smiling, so it can’t be Lyriana. That bitch doesn’t smile.

“Let me carry her,” the not-Lyriana whispers. “Just to bed, then you can hold her again.”

I want to protest, but fall asleep instead. The next thing I know, someone is lowering me onto a wide, comfortable bed. I eagerly inhale his scent, then frown because it’s most certainly not Faelin’s.

He said he would be back soon.

“He will be fine,” Lyriana replies. I must have thought out loud. “He does shit like this all the time. We’ll pick him up later. Sleep now.”

As if I could do anything else right now. I vaguely notice the furry animal unwrapping itself from my neck and curling up somewhere by my feet. It’s warm. Someone places a blanket over us so I snuggle into it, pulling Ellen’s back to my front.

Half-asleep, I mumble soothing words to my baby every time she’s jolted awake by a nightmare, which is often. Fortunately, my voice is enough to lull her back to sleep.

Chapter 25

Faelin

The maintenance walkways feel even more cramped than last time. When I get back to the Supernova, I’ll demand our next mission take place somewhere out in the open. The vast grassy plains of Ilure 3c would be perfect. Nothing but open space for hundreds of miles. I’d be able to turn around without bashing my elbows on a fucking water pipe and stand up straight instead of having to crawl on all fours.

Perhaps Nala would like it there too? She spent nearly five years on a space station. Surely, she and Ellen would like to visit a beautiful planet. Touch real grass, feel the rays of an actual star on their skins. Breathe air that hasn’t been filtered over and over a billion times. Oh yes, I bet they’d love it.

My sweet fantasies get me through the last, particularly narrow section of the maintenance walkways. I slow down, knowing Drayth is hiding in one of the rooms around me.

Finding him is surprisingly easy. I just follow the sound of yelling. Through a ventilation grate, I watch as Drayth paces a lavish living room while screaming into his comm. “... provide security! Your fucking slaves have taken over my ship and killed my men! It’s your obligation to—”

A hissing voice interrupts him. I don’t hear the High Broker’s response but it sounds like he told Drayth to fuck off, because the latter furiously throws his device across the room. It dents one of the wide vid screens, distorting the image of the rebel slaves taking control of the bridge.

“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Drayth mutters over and over.

As much as I enjoy watching him fret, I’m running out of time. Kicking out the ventilation grate, I slip through, elegantly landing right in front of Drayth. He shrieks, fumbling for his gun but it’s out of his hand and sliding across the floor before he can pull the trigger. I sneer at his ridiculous lack of skill. How did an idiot like this become a crime lord? What a pathetic piece of shit.

“Y-you…” he stutters, his wide eyes filled with terror.

“Me,” I confirm.

Drayth backs up until he’s forced to stop as he hits the wall behind him. “W-w-wait! Wait. I…I’ll pay you! Just get me out of here and I’ll—”

My fist collides with his mouth, sending a few teeth flying out. It’s fucking exhilarating to finally be able to silence this piece of shit. “You’ll pay me with what? The money you earned from selling slaves? From selling Ellen? Or the money you earned from pimping Nala out to every lowlife in the fucking galaxy?”

“I never hurt her! I didn’t even make her wear a fucking collar. Both Nala and that fucking spawn of hers lived on my property rent free! I fed and clothed them! I could have sold them both into a fucking brothel. They should be thanking me!”

I punch him again. And again. Then, gripping his throat and squeezing tightly, I watch as his eyes begin to bulge and his face turns different shades of red.

Drayth weakly pulls and scratches at my arms but I keep squeezing until the very last spark of life vanishes from his eyes. “I told you I’d watch you take your last breath,” I tell his body. “And I’m a man of my word. You deserved a slower death, but I’m not wasting any more of my time with you.”

I grab his comm, hoping D’Aakh can extract some useful information from it, and unlock the door. Returning to the airlock is much faster now that I don’t have to crawl.

A female Ataxian is waiting for me by the airlock, holding a space suit. “Boss said to give you this and space you,” she grins. “You sure about that?”

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