Page 14 of Written in the Stars

The boss broke the silence by laughing, his head thrown back and belly jiggling. “Oh, that is a good joke. Why would you think you could do that?”

“Does it matter?” Drask took over, which was good news for me. I’d had quite enough dealings with a dangerous gangster for one evening. “We’re willing to give it a shot, and you can only win here. Either we succeed, in which case your rivals get screwed over, or we die. No loss to you, right?”

The gang looked at each other, muttering too quietly for me to make out what they said. The boss silenced them with a harsh chopping gesture and looked Drask up and down.

“Maybe you can pull this off. So why are you here, not down there?”

“We need some help from you, sir,” I said. The butterflies in my stomach were multiplying, and I feared that any second now I’d throw up everywhere, but I had to keep going. “Neither of us knows where to find them and figuring it out would take time and be risky.”

The boss frowned, thinking, and the wrinkles on his golden face showed his age. A tough, brutal man, yes, but to have held onto power this long, there must be more to him.

“Fine,” he said finally. “The Black Hole Gang meets in the depths of the station, one of the automatic docking ports. Lais will give you proper directions and a couple of comms.”

One of the other gangsters scribbled on a piece of paper and passed it to Drask. “You come back here with A’Lun’s head, and I’ll pay for your ship’s repairs myself. Don’t manage it, don’t come back. Are we clear?”

“Clear as oxygen,” Drask said.

9

DRASK

Fiercely protective, a human will insist on risking themselves for their friends, family, and even their pets. It would be endearing if they weren’t sosquishy.

A MERCENARY’S GUIDE TO ALIEN EMPLOYERS, BY PRIN ZAHAB

We left the Starshine Lounge in a silence that lasted all the way back to the spiral walkway. My mind was on the hunt, but Megan’s was somewhere else entirely.

“Is this okay?” She broke her silence as we descended, the adverts on either side illuminating us and blaring out slogans. Most seemed to be from before the station was abandoned, and many were for companies or products that no longer existed. No one was close enough to hear us over the background noise.

“What do you mean? This plan will get us what we want—freedom from the Black Holeandthe Stellar Kings. We can travel anywhere we desire once I’ve repaired my ship.”

“Yes, but…” She trailed off, struggling to articulate her thoughts. I waited, a hand on her shoulder to provide reassurance and comfort, not pressure.

(Mining work getting you down?an ad whispered in the background.Why not work in Paradise instead? Innovative VR immersion reskins your coworkers and your environment to a beautiful pleasure planet. Hundreds of settings to choose from!)

“I guess I mean, are we okay morally? We’re putting the Stellar Kings back on top, and okay, I prefer them to the Black Hole, but they’re still shit.”

“Megan, I am a mercenary,” I reminded her. “I have fought for worse causes than this. Today, I fight for the woman I love. If it benefits the Stellar Kings as well, so be it.”

Megan’s reaction surprised me with its intensity. She leaped up at me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and her legs around my waist. I staggered under the sudden pounce, and she pulled herself in for a long, powerful kiss.

“I am not complaining,” I said when she finally came up for air. “But what did I do to provoke that? I wish to know so I can do it again, often.”

Giggling and blushing, Megan looked away. “You said you love me. And I love you too, silly.”

The words set my soul alight, a fire burning bright in my heart and silencing my thoughts. Without thinking about it, I pressed Megan into the wall of the spiral, hologram adverts passing over us and casting strange lighting onto her pale skin.

We broke the kiss breathlessly, looking at each other. Megan’s smile shone brighter than any star, and I knew in that moment that I would always navigate toward it. Whatever made her happy, I would do. Anything that took her smile away, I would kill.

There was no room for doubt in my heart.

“Okay.” Megan breathed the word, licked her lips and tried again. “Okay, it’s not like I have another idea for what to do. What’s the plan, then?”

Reluctantly, I put her down. We’d get no planning done while she was in my arms, at least not useful planning. A plan for what to do once we were in private again, certainly. Plans for what to do aboard my ship, where the gravity generators could leave us weightless? Absolutely.

I shook my head to clear out those thoughts and focus on the much less pleasant task of killing our enemies. A necessary step on the way to that freedom.

“My plan is simple. I will retrieve my personal weapons from my ship, descend to the bottom of the station, and kill this A’Lun and his men who threaten you.”

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