Page 17 of Fighting Gravity
“You think you know how war works?” he said. “What wars have you fought? Petty arguments on Earth cannot compare to a galaxy filled with things you do not understand.”
He had me there. I took a deep breath and straightened my posture, trying to feel taller, but it was impossible with Norman.
“Ok, so I haven’t fought any wars, but someone’s going to have to answer for what you did.”
“The galactic federation does not even recognize humans as a spacefaring species yet. You haven’t ventured past your solar system. No one is answering for anything anytime soon.”
“ThenI’llmake you answer,” I threw back.
“Maybe. For now, we have you. And you will teach us what we need to know.”
“Because you want to kill us all? Seems like a pretty bad bargain.”
“Because perhaps gek have more to offer than valerians.”
“More than syfer?”
“Where do you think they got the planet that produces syfer in the first place? Just because they speak elegantly and tell a sad story does not mean they are innocent.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He sighed, one hand coming up to rub at his forehead like he had a headache. As if on cue, his right wrist cuff flashed red three times and drew his attention. He raised it to his mouth and spoke into it with words I couldn’t understand before grumbling irritation at whatever had been said back to him. After a moment to process, he looked at me with a clipped sigh.
“Rest. It’s my understanding that humans need a lot of that.” He turned to leave. “And you’ll want to be rested for what comes next. I’m not done with you.”
I rushed after him, but as soon as he was in the hall, the door slid closed and I was left on the other side. I slammed my hands against the cool, metal barrier, sliding them about in search of that control panel, but nothing came up.
“Dammit!” I barked. “This is bullshit!”
7: Rhone
I stepped onto the maintenance deck to find Kaar sifting through diagnostics with a frustrated groan. He loved his tech and he was good at fixing things, so when he was frustrated, there was something very wrong.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
“When that valerian ship shot at us, it continued to erode the blast area,” Kaar said. “It got into the wiring. The radiation shields are failing. We’re going to have to make repairs. We’re leaking ohson fluid all over. It’s going to make us stand out.”
“Blood in the water,” I muttered to myself. “How soon do we need to dock?”
“Soon. I’d say make for Theanus, but we won’t get that far. The closest space station is Tao Prime.”
“No one on that damned asteroid can be trusted. It’s owned by the shikari.”
“Give them the human,” he shrugged. “They do love their zoos. They may share some mediocre services for her. Services that will at least get us to one of our ports.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and slowly turned my head toward him in exasperation. Kaar swallowed, getting the hint, and began to map out other ideas, but I knew as well as he did that there were no other options. Without radiation shields, space would eat us alive.
“He is right,” Veron’s voice cut the silence.
I turned to give her a half glance where she stood at the entrance to the engineering deck.
“We do not deal in the skin trade,” I said.
“Of our own people. That female in there is not us. The female you gave Inali’s old quarters to. Why are we allowing her to sleep in a bed when she’s a prisoner?”
“Comfort lowers one’s guard.”
“We should put her back in a cell, torture her, and then sell her if she cannot provide us anything useful.”
