Page 70 of Space for More

“And you are now?” They lick their lips with interest. Any other day before this week, a look like that would have me dragging them up their docking ramp and having my way with them in their cramped quarters.

“I am.” Their dotted brow raises in surprise, but I shake my head. “Not with you! Sorry, that was misleading.”

“If you’re not here for fun, then you’re here for…?” They ask, mirroring my crossed arms as they look down at me.

“Business.”

Their cybernetic eye narrows to a pinprick of light. “Really? A pampered princeps like you needs help from a Y’thir?”

“Yes! Wait, how do you know about my title?” I squeak in surprise.

They grin at me again, knowing they have the upper hand. “Your mothers have a contract out on you, to find you and bring you home. I didn’t realize who you were until after I left the station last time and was checking through a jobs database, otherwise I may have tried harder to keep you by my side.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I mutter. Anything I could give Hadrell would be inconsequential compared to the bounty my mothers would’ve offered to bring their wayward daughter home. I stumble back a step, and their hand darts out to stabilize me before I fall on my ass.

“Relax,” they say with a soft chuckle. “I didn’t come here for you. I may be space trash, but I don’t kidnap people.”

“Oh thank the Goddess,” I exhale as they release me. “Listen, I don’t have a lot of time. I need you to pretend to be a data smuggler.”

“That’s not exactly a stretch for me.” They cock their head. “What’s the catch?”

“It’s a bunch of convoluted nonsense, but basically some greedy assholes with a big medtech conglomerate are trying to entrap one of my mates, and they kidnapped my other mate. I need you to pretend to be the person Phelix is meeting with so we can turn the tables back on them.”

Their natural eye softens when I mention my mates. Yes, I knew they’d love that angle. Seladin are a bunch of romantic saps. “This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but if your mates are in danger, I won’t refuse you.”

“Good! I’ll explain on the way. Thank you, Hadrell. I’ll give you my entire life’s savings if this works. Shit, I’ll pay you my mate’s entire savings.”

“I assume one of your mates is the nexxit I met the other night. I didn’t catch his family name—who is he?” They ask flippantly, like they assume that won’t mean much.

“Phelix val Nafar,” I say with nonchalantly.

“Es’het, of the second house of Nexxa Itat?” They grin at me in delight. “Looks like I’m getting a new ship.”

Eden tremblesthe entire transit ride to Perseus district and my chest aches with the need to comfort her. She’s been throughso much these past few days and her tender, inquisitive nature has been trampled by everyone she’s encountered. I want to tell her we know what’s going on. That Mezli and I have a plan and that everything will be okay. But she keeps glancing at her comm and looking over her shoulder and I know the bastards that are manipulating her are too close by. If they’re reckless enough to kidnap a human and attempt to entrap a member of Nexxa Itat nobility, that could translate to violence. I would rather die than have any harm come to either of my mates. The one small relief is that Mezli isn’t here. If I had to worry about both of my mates, I think I’d have a nervous breakdown.

I take Eden by the hand when we arrive at our stop, guiding her through the bustling mid-morning walkways to the fake meeting spot. “Almost there. Just let me do the talking. This shouldn’t take long.”

“Phelix, I…”

I pull her in and kiss her, not wanting her to endanger herself at the last second. I use my lips and the press of all four hands against her soft, delicate body to convey that she’s safe. That I understand and I don’t care about anything that she’s done. That I just want to be with her and Mezli.

An imposing, hooded figure on the other side of the secluded courtyard clears their throat and Eden startles, stumbling back and clutching my arm. “Do you have the package?” they say in a voice that sounds like a stereotypical criminal from an old spy vid.

“Uh, yeah.” I fumble with my satchel and pull out a datapad at random. It doesn’t matter which one I hand them—they’re all filled with vids of baby flesstrasand recipes for homemadeskrllpt.

Eden tries to maintain her grip on me, but I extract myself and walk to meet the tall, mysterious person. Whoever Mezli got seems convincing enough, if a little melodramatic in their presentation.

“Wait!” Eden says, her voice frantic. But it’s too late. Two ankites enter the alleyway, one with orange-yellow skin coming in behind the fake buyer and a shorter pale green one behind Eden. The shorter of the pair gives me a smug once over, pushing Eden to the side to get closer to me. My fists clench with the need to destroy them for daring to lay a hand on her and for all the emotional trauma they’ve put both my mates through.

“Dr. Phelix val Nafar, it’s good to finally meet you,” they say evenly. “You’re a lot less impressive in person. No offense.”

“What’s going on? Who the fuck are these people?” the fake buyer asks, spinning around to find a blaster pointed at their chest. “Whoa, whoa! I don’t want any trouble.”

Eden gasps, seeing the weapon. My stomach lurches even though I anticipated they might show up armed. Thinking about facing down a blaster is much less terrifying than actually seeing one brandished a few feet away.

The orange ankite holding the gun frowns at the fake buyer. “Should’ve thought about that before you decided to trade in illegal medtech. You and your associate have a choice. Turn yourself into the authorities and hope you don’t get sentenced for too long a stay on a prison colony, or pay reparations to our employer and give us the names of the others in your network.”

“What if I don’t like either of those options?” the hooded figure asks in a rough growl, and I want to yell at them to shut up.

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