Page 5 of Akur

“We should stop at the next station.” E’lot rolled his shoulders. “Regroup. Find what’s left of the rest of us. Make a plan.” E’lot was right, but his words fell like sharp knives.

Lips curled, Akur pulled his attention from the viewscreen and looked up at his comrade. “Why come along if you think our chances so dim?”

E’lot’s eyes narrowed only slightly before he rolled his huge shoulders again, bones cracking and muscles rippling. E’lot was one of the few warriors that could match him in a fight. But no aggression came from his comrade. There was no pushback. Not right now. “I wasn’t going to let you come out here to die alone.”

As E’lot’s heavy footsteps faded as he headed to the rear of the ship, guilt tweaked Akur’s conscience.He was not the only one who had lost everything.

Subtly, Akur rubbed the nefre at his nape, trying to ease the strange tingling within it. “We’ll find them.” But he wasn’t sure E’lot even heard. Wasn’t sure he even said it loud enough. Because…what if he was wrong? What if he was stubbornly trying to deny the fact this was, indeed, the end?

What if even the humans knew it? What if that look in that female’s eyes…what if even Kon-stahns knew?

Qrakking crukks.

His nefre pulsed again, and he brushed a palm over it roughly, annoyed at the insistent pulses going through it. Eyes on the void, he willed something to happen. Anything.

The answer was there; he simply had to find it. Even if he had to search through every star chart, trajectory, and smuggler’s route in the quadrant, he’d find them. The Restitution couldn’t end like this. On such a pitiful note. Not after all these orbits. He would tear apart the whole qrakking universe if he had to.

It was the only purpose he had left.

And that’s when he saw it. A blip on the screen. A single flash of fine light in a sea of nothing. He stiffened in his seat, staring at the spot where the blip had occurred. There was nothing there now. Almost as if it didn’t happen. But he knew he saw it. A spark of hope in a sea of darkness.

His nefre pulsed as he leaned closer to the screen, staring at the coordinates as they generated before him. He felt his mouth curl, a snarl rising on his lips.

It was them. He was sure of it.

A long shot, but they had nothing else to go on.

And this time, he wouldn’t fail.

2

Constance

Gulping,Constance fought to maintain her steady breaths as she opened one eye. Gator-guards were moving outside the cell. Her jaw still ached from where one of them had punched her days ago.

Back then, she’d been so pumped with adrenaline and fear, that the pain had felt like nothing. But now it ached like a bitch. Her jaw was swollen, probably black and blue, but at least she still had all her teeth.

Opening her mouth as wide as she could, she rolled her jaw and stretched the aching muscles, forcing blood to flow as she kept her eyes on the guards. None seemed to notice she wasn’t unconscious. They’d stopped paying attention to her and the other two women imprisoned in the cell ages ago.

And that was a blessing.

The ship shuddered, the deck plates vibrating beneath her, but not enough to cause alarm. Because for the entirety of their journey towhereverthe ship had been shuddering. Something was definitely wrong with it. She didn’t know much about spaceship engines or mechanics—being a therapist didn’t exactly lend itself to aerospace engineering in between counseling sessions and paperwork. Just a few months ago, her biggest concerns had been growing her practice and helping her clients.

Now here she was, on a damaged spaceship light years from home with walking alligator guards intent on her demise. It was still so unreal, like a bizarre dream she kept expecting to wake up from. But the constant tremors of the struggling engines kept reminding her this was anything but a dream.

Turns out waking up on an alien planet after being forced into cryogenic sleep wasn’t the nightmare. It was the terror of being abductedagain.

So much death, and for what? The Restitution was destroyed, countless lives lost, and just to retrieve—squinting in the dim light, she turned her head slowly, eyes landing on the others with her—twoother humans? Unless there were other captives somewhere else, surely this was a failed mission.

Her gaze locked with the woman across from her. Meredith, she’d said her name was. She was lying on the floor in a similar position, sharp gaze pointed at the guards, her chest rising and falling with heavy breaths.

Meredith was ready. And so was she.

They were to pretend to sleep or act like they were still unconscious. Lull the guards into a state of complacency and then take hold of the ship. Somehow.

It wasn’t a solid plan. About as solid as the shifting deck plates beneath them. But it was something.

She clung fiercely to that thought. Therehadto be hope. She just needed to survive long enough to find it. Because they were on their own. No one was coming to save them.

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