Chapter 29
DALOX
The feel of her tiny hand in mine sends my rut soaring, the mating mix heating my veins, my desire to shift and stay shifted almost overwhelming.
Although it wouldn’t help our cause, and that’s the only thing holding me in my biped form, save for my tail, which always does its own thing.
Darax’s hangar opens out in front of us, and I check my comm for the correct flyer my quartermaster has identified.
With Gillian beside me, we quickly cross the space until we reach it. I send the relevant message to my warrior.
“What’s going on, Dalox?” Gillian asks.
“I’m waiting for the access code,” I respond as my comm chimes with the necessary information and the gangway unfolds in front of us.
We make our way inside, and with my mate in hand, we enter the bridge, which whirrs into life at my presence (and that of my code).
“One day, you’ll need to show me how to fly one of these things,” Gillian says as I help her into a seat before climbing into the pilot’s chair and firing up the engines.
“You do not have flyers on your planet?”
“We have planes, but they’re not really like flyers, except they fly, but they’re very complicated to learn to operate, and most humans don’t know how,” she says.
“You like to fly?”
“You know I do.” Her eyes flick to mine as the flyer lifts away from the pad and I turn it towards the exit.
I key my comm.
“I’m going to need an exit,” I growl. “Soon.”
Looking down, I see a number of Darax’s warriors entering the hangar and pointing up at the flyer.
“Dalox,” he growls over the flyer comm. “I know it’s you, you nevver. What are you doing with my flyer?”
Gillian stares at me. “I thought this was yours?”
“I do not have any flyers on Vorostor which can make the journey to the second continent and which are equipped to remove the mapping system from Deus’s ship.” I grin at her. “I’m borrowing this one from Darax.”
“It doesn’t sound like you’re borrowing it.” She raises her eyebrows.
I’m not sure, but I don’t think she is mad at me.
“I might not have asked his permission, but I do not need to,” I respond. “Darax won’t miss one flyer. He has plenty.” I point out the flyer window at the rest of Darax’s impressive hangar, filled with all the ships he has purchased or taken.
“They don’t look happy,” Gillian says. “They’re pointing ray guns at us.”
“Darax won’t risk damaging his flyer.” I laugh.
A pulsar bolt pings off the hull.
“Nev him,” I growl, and increase the engine power, slowly moving towards the hangar exit. “If he wants to play dirty, then let him play dirty.”
I fire the flyer’s pulsars at the forcefield mechanism, and it disengages just long enough for me to put on a surge of speed, and we burst out into the open, rising higher and higher above the Sarkarnii complex.
A few warriors follow us in their Sarkarnii forms, but they turn back after a half-hearted chase.
“I don’t know why you wanted my flyer,” Darax growls through the comm. “Perhaps the rut has messed with your nevving head, but you’d better bring it back in one piece.”
I mute the receiver on the comm and dial away from Darax’s frequency.
“I wouldn’t want to make a bond I could not keep.” I grin over at Gillian.
She shakes her head, but from the upwards twitch of her mouth, I don’t think she disagrees.
“So this was your plan all along, steal a ship from another Sarkarnii.”
“Hardly steal.” I punch in the co-ordinates for the second continent. “Everything on Vorostor belongs to me.”
“I’m not sure Darax would agree.” Gillian snorts.
“Darax gained his vast amount of credits in this galaxy because of me. What he owns, I own,” I growl.
“Especially when he has a flyer you want?” Gillian has her arms folded as she gazes at me, head on one side.
“He knows I would offer him the same courtesy.”
Gillian says nothing.
“And after all, we’re the original pirates, not just of this galaxy, but of them all. He cannot expect me, or any of the warlords, to forget what we are.”
Gillian turns and gazes out the window at the sky.
“I didn’t come here to cause trouble,” she says. “Especially with the only humans I’m ever likely to encounter.”
“This is not trouble. We will get what we need to take you back to your planet, Darax will get his flyer back, and all will be well.”
I see her shoulders drop. I’m not sure what it means.
“Okay,” she says, quietly. “But I’ll need to see my fellow humans, especially Kerra, to explain myself when this is all over.”
I check on the comm.
“We have five nova-hours before we reach the area you identified. It should take a maximum of two nova-hours to extract the mapping system and then a further five nova-hours to return. You will be able to make your peace with the humans before nightfall.” I give her my best smile.
“I guess it will have to do.” Gillian glances briefly over at me before returning to the window. “After all, you are helping me get home.” She sighs. “But it can’t be at any cost, Dalox, understand? There has to be limits.”
“Of course, my mate,” I respond.
It’s a good thing she hasn’t defined what those limits may be, as the chances are we’ve already blasted through most of them at this early stage.
And there’s still a very long way to go.