Page 13 of Saving the Space Pirate

I was trying to process this. If Zak had been captured, then he wasn’t halfway back to Earth by now with Rekowski and Yolanda. We’d been relying on Zak to come back and rescue us eventually. That clearly wasn’t going to happen now. And where were Rekowski and his horrible fiancée?

“That’s not all,” Joe said, and I had an idea I was about to find out. “There’s another prisoner in the dungeons. Only no one knows who this one is.”

“Any idea what he looks like?” I asked, sickness crawling in my stomach, threatening to creep up my throat.

“Dark red hair, green eyes.”

I swallowed the bile. “Is he all right?” I might not actually like Rekowski, but I hated the thought of him being tortured, maybe worse.

“He’s been questioned, but all he’ll say is he’s on vacation from Earth and visiting his girlfriend. He’s not in good shape, but he’s not dead. Yet.”

Yolanda. The bitch. “Yet?”

“Rumor has it your buddy Zakary Mer and the Earth guy are scheduled for execution.”

“When?”

“Not sure, but sooner rather than later. Right now, the whole planet is crawling with Federation troops and intelligence agents. The consensus is that the palace doesn’t want to make waves until they’re gone.”

“Why is the Federation there?” Killian asked.

“According to our contacts, there was supposed to be some big high-powered Federation leader visiting. No one knows who—it was all pretty hush-hush. After the trouble you stirred up, he canceled, but his forward crew was already on the planet. They are pulling out as we speak.”

So, not good. “Then they could be about to execute Zak and Rekowski,” I said. “We have to get back there and now. We have to save them.”

“Not possible,” Joe replied. “For a start, we have no way of getting to the planet.”

Was he stupid? It had to be possible. I looked to Killian; he was staring at the ceiling, his metal eye flicking. He was trying to come up with a solution, and from the frustration on his face, he was failing.

But failure was not an option.

“Anything is possible,” I said and hoped it was true.

Anger flashed in Joe’s eyes. “Do you not think we wouldn’t have gotten everyone off this shithole before now if there’d been a way?”

I didn’t care. I was finding a way. “The person who gave you this information—how did he get here?”

“On the supply ship.”

“Then we go back on the supply ship.”

“No chance. It’s heavily guarded.”

Beside me, Killian seemed to give himself a shake and come back to us. I glanced at his face, saw his resolve, and some of the tension eased from me. I’d been scared, deep down, that maybe he would let them die. Look after himself. And me. But that wasn’t enough.

“How many guards?” Killian asked.

Joe frowned. “You can’t seriously be—”

“How many fucking guards?” he snarled.

“Five. All armed. Plus the crew of two. We can’t take them. It’s too dangerous.”

Killian took a step toward him. “We are taking that ship. We would like your help, but if not, we will do it without you.”

“You’ll die.”

“Then we’ll die. But at least we won’t have to live on this godforsaken rock with a load of sniveling cowards who might as well have kept their chains.” He whirled around and stalked away, came to a halt, and punched the rock wall.

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