Page 17 of Hooded

Did he die on Trefa? Even if Klynn doesn’t want to go back, it looks like I’m going to have to.

And what’s worse, I’ll need to break the news to Markus, who is humorless at the best of times. I risk a glance at the massive Gryn, who seems more interested in managing his great feathers than anything else.

I can’t be surprised at his indifference. I kidnapped him, stunned him multiple times, then compounded the situation by locking him up. I actually locked this huge gladiator up, turned the water jets on him.

I’m not sure I could have handled things worse. Oh yes, I then let him manipulate me into letting him go.

So now I have a bridge filled with a feathered destroyer who is surely out for revenge. No mark and employer who is going to be incandescent with rage at my failure. I’m never going to work again.

Could my day get any worse?

The pulsar bolt striking my port engine suggests it can.

Klynn is knocked off his feet, executes a perfect forward roll, and is back up again before I can blink.

“What was that?” he growls.

“Pulsar cannon strike.” I pull up all the schematics. “The shields held, but if they manage to hit us again in the same spot, we’ll lose the engine.”

Klynn continues his growling, mostly at the console I’m working on as I attempt to identify our attackers.

“Vrexing space pirates,” he snarls as the image of their ship comes up.

“What do pirates want with me?” I wonder out loud. “This ship is too small to be carrying cargo of any value.”

“What species are they?” Klynn asks.

I run the ship through my database, and it clicks as it finally finds a match. “Tormelek,” I say over my shoulder. “Mean anything to you?”

“Vrexing Habosu but hairy,” he grumbles. “They want flesh. It’s how they make their fortune.”

“They’re going to eat us?”

“No, little fury, they’re going to enslave us,” Klynn says, eyes like two burning embers.

I feel like time has sped up and slowed down all at the same time. My mind is unable to process what he has just said.

All this time in this galaxy and—while I’ve heard slavery is something which is generally not condoned out here, it happens anyway—I had hoped I’d avoid it.

Specifically, becoming one.

Plus, with all the tech I have, all the fire power, all my knowledge, I can’t possibly have left myself so wide open for this to happen.

Or have I?

And even worse, I’ve got Klynn into it too. He might be feral, but this isn’t his fight.

With my brain back on all cylinders, I pull Beebie from my pocket. Klynn flares his wings, but I ignore him.

“Go hide, sweetheart,” I whisper to the little vidra. He gives me a baleful look, but as soon as I put him down, he skips off into ship.

Now I have to keep this thing intact because no one is going to hurt my Beebie.

“They are not enslaving anyone if I have anything to do with it,” I respond. “Hold on. I’m going to try to lose them in the nebula.”

I swing the ship away from the Tormelek and execute a dive into a nearby gas cloud, hoping it masks our engine signature enough I can evade them and get closer to the space station.

They won’t try anything if there are other ships in the vicinity. Every species hates a space pirate and will happily fire on them without compunction. Providing they are in range.

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