Page 56 of The Captain's Bounty
The body of the scav drew back its narrow shoulders and tilted its helmet back to a haughty angle. “I,” said the alien, “do not… fart.”
“Of course you don’t.” Cory rolled her eyes and planted a hand on her cocked hip. “Do you shit out new ships?”
“No,” it answered coldly. “I animate dead things. And since I do not have to care about this vessel’s integrity, I will have little difficulty moving this ship, if not as fast or as far as I would prefer, and even less difficulty defending it from the attacks that are surely coming while you stand here and babble out your infantile worries.”
Cory put a hand over her heart with exaggerated remorse. “Pardon me for expressing concern about the guy who said his capture would mean the end of the known universe.”
“Allthe universe, known to you or not,” the alien corrected. “The consequences of my capture cannot be overstated, and yet here I stand while you squander the head-start I have given you!”
Six pairs of eyes stared at him: Bruwes was sure his were still burning red, while the rest gazed on in various states ofconfusion. Lissa’s eyes, the only eyes that mattered, were still closed.
Slowly, Vullum raised his hand. “I’m lost. You… gave someone head and that’s going to save us how?”
Cory silenced him with a gesture. “It’s not that kind of head. It’s an expres–never mind. I’ll explain later.”
Bruwes could not have cared less about translating colloquial sayings between species. Hefting Lissa in his arms, he stood up. Glaring from the alien to his crew, he already knew he wasn’t going to argue. The last ten minutes had taught him enough to know he could not beat the being, not head-on and perhaps not ever. Not when the price of retribution might mean his death. Leaving Lissa completely undefended? Not for all the bounties in the known universe.
Like a burlican pup with its tail tucked, he ordered his crew onto the scab vessel. “Kelys, find ops and get me a status on the ship. The rest of you, grab only what we need, food, supplies, medical.”
“You don’t want a sweep first?” Kelys asked with a frown.
Bruwes nodded at the alien inhabiting the scav’s body. “It says it’s clear.”
Kelys’ frown deepened and he lowered his voice, as if that would really keep his words private from the entity standing between them. “And you trust it? It could be sending us straight into a galley full of scavs, making us its start… ahead… starter. Whatever! It could be a trap!”
Bruwes looked at his reflection in the scav’s mirrored helmet. “It’s not. Get moving, all of you.”
Obedience was not immediate, but after a few glances and some Cory-grumbles, his crew went to work. Bruwes supposed he owed some word of thanks to the alien who had saved their lives, but he was still pissed and nothing felt very saved while Lissa still lay limp and scarcely conscious in his arms. Hemanaged a terse nod that went entirely unacknowledged, took one last look around at the belly of the beast that had been The Raider—his captaincy, his home, an extension of his soul and self after all these years—and then turned away.
Careful of the precious load he carried, he boarded the other vessel in search of the old captain’s chambers.
CHAPTER TEN
Lissa saton the heap of pelts gathered from the far corners of the galaxy that presumably was a bed in this small cluttered room and stared at the vidscreen that mimicked a window, tapping each star as it drifted by, like a planet-side child collecting wishes. If she didn’t know better, she’d think they were barely moving, but they were, in fact, hurtling through subspace at many times the speed of light. Although she’d traveled in space many times over the course of her career, this view never failed to transfix her, and right now, she needed the time to not think.
She didn’t look up when she heard the door to her new room open. There was no point. They might be on a different ship, but she was still in a prison. No one had said specifically that this was the cabin Bruwes had claimed for his own, but on some level, she’d known it and hadn’t tried to leave. The entity wasn’t in her anymore, but she still wasn’t free.
To be honest, she wasn’t sure she wanted to be. The desire to make one great contribution to science and restore her family’s honor in the process was still there, burning hot and bright as a sun, while at the same time, dim and far away, like the stars that seemed to pass her by. All of them were suns, too. Andwith distance came a kind of new perspective. After what she’d been through, grand quests for fame and redemption felt a little silly, the fantasy of a child. Even thoughts of Martin had no sting anymore. For the first time, she found herself wondering why he’d done what he did without any of the anger or betrayal such thoughts had always brought before. it was hard to imagine going back to her old life, finding another dig site, another patron, pretending as if nothing had ever happened to her and she was just like anyone else she might encounter. Just a normal person.
Her eyes shifted from the stars on the vidscreen to her bruised and blistered hand. She slowly closed her fingers into a loose fist, then opened them and stared at the red glow deep in her palm, brighter in the blisters. As she watched dully, that buried light grew brighter, rising up from within to form a bubble on her skin, like another blister, only this one continued to grow, becoming a perfect sphere that lifted away from her palm to hover in the air, connected to her by a thin, crackling thread of red lightning.
A hard greyish hand clamped onto her wrist, breaking her concentration. The bubble popped soundlessly, but although she couldn’t see it anymore, she could still feel it, ready to emerge again at her command. Slowly, she closed her fingers into a loose fist…
“Stop that,” Bruwes said sharply.
She looked up into his frown. It was hard to imagine going back to her old life without ever being subject to that censuring frown again, either. Or all the wonderful things that frown was likely to lead to.
“Why?” she challenged. “Use it now or later, at some point we both know a situation is going to arise that will force me to do something eventually. It’s not like either one of us can just pick a planet, step off this ship, and go back to pretending everything isnormal. I don’t have a normal anymore. From now until the day I die, I will forever be the girl who can do this!”
She forced the next ball of energy up through her arm, to build on the tips of two fingers. It burst when he knocked her hand down.
“Do not!” he ordered. “It is not infinite.”
If anything, that made her angry. Or maybe she was already angry, and that just added fuel to what was already a bubbling fire.
“Afraid they’ll knock my price down when they find out I’m not all powerful anymore?”
His frown turned as dark as his black eyes, the whites bleeding into red with startling quickness.
