Chapter 23
LYK
Zelup’s ship might even be faster than his own cruiser, which made Lyk burn with jealousy. His brother always had the best toys. It came with the territory when you were the commander of Vartik’s considerable military forces.
“They couldn’t have entered the wormhole any longer than seven minutes ago, calculating your ship’s speed against mine,” Zelup announced. “We can catch them.”
“That still gives them a considerable advantage. How are we going to determine which path they took?”
Zelup frowned as he typed on his console. “I wish Nojan were here to explain this damn thing, but here is a rudimentary schematic of the wormhole.” The viewscreen flashed with what looked like a tornado with multiple tails.
“It has five exits?” Lyk asked, amazed.
Zelup nodded. “Six, if you count the entrance near Vartik.”
“This thing is a godsdamn game changer.” For Vartik to have sole access to this system of rapid transport throughout the galaxy would mean a priceless advantage for his people.
But if others found out about the wormhole and ended up discovering they could land on the doorstep of the mythical Vartiks, a priceless advantage became a liability.
“As you can see, the tunnel nearest Vartik has a long runway until it gets to this juncture, here.” Zelup pointed from the one end of the tunnel, the one nearest Vartik, to a point where it split into three.
From that junction, one tunnel later split in two again, meaning there were five possible directions Celdrake could take if they didn’t catch him in time.
“That runway takes longer than seven minutes to traverse?”
“Definitely.” Zelup alerted his crew to their entry into the wormhole. “If we max out our speed, we should be able to overtake them with a few minutes to spare. We don’t tend to go maximum velocity because of the drag the wormhole creates itself, but in this case, it’s necessary.”
The ship shot forward, the thrust from the ship’s engines magnified exponentially by the pull of the wormhole. On the viewscreen, the stripes of colored light that made up the wormhole’s composition seemed to elongate and blur.
Lyk turned to Ally, who’d been silent, watching the viewscreen as they soared like a bullet. “So what’s your plan?” he asked, wondering how she’d respond. His money was on her not actually having a plan, but he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Lyk didn’t mind that his female was full of bluster. In this case, she’d wanted to stick by his side instead of going down to Vartik. Since Lyk never wanted to be separated from his mate, keeping her beside him sounded right, even if the danger was greater.
He’d spend his last breath defending her. No one would dare hurt her when they risked Lyk tearing them limb from limb.
“It’s simple really,” she said with a smug smile.
“Celdrake is mad at you for being some kind of mega-rich superman. So I tell them that you’re not those things.
In fact, I was sent by your brothers as an undercover operative to infiltrate your operation with the express purpose of stripping you of your title and seeing you executed for your crimes. ”
Lyk frowned. “Why would we chase him down just to tell him that?”
“We didn’t. That’s just the icing on the cake. We chased him down so that Zelup could make him an offer he can’t refuse. He agrees to be a witness against you at your public trial while also flipping on his crew, and we’ll give him the ship and an honorary position on our wormhole patrol.”
Zelup laughed. “Why would I make this kind of primo deal with Celdrake?”
“It’s simple. He’s smart enough to have turned the tables on Lyk, to have gotten one over on one of your species, and you respect him for it. You like to make use of smart and capable men like him.”
“Play to his ego, and his apparent jealousy of me.” Lyk nodded. “It could work.” He didn’t add that the odds were against her plan. It was clever, especially considering their time constraints.
“If you say so.” Zelup was hiding a smile. “I’m fine playing along, as long as I don’t have to improvise. Ask my wife sometime about how we met. She’ll tell you how rubbish I am at putting together a convincing lie on the fly.”
The proximity alarm sounded, and Lyk’s heart started to pound.
“We need to bind him,” Ally called. “He still looks a bit beat up, which is good, but he needs to look like our prisoner.”
Zelup nodded, then called a crewmember to provide him with a pair of electro-cuffs. Lyk held out his hands as his brother fastened them on. He wasn’t anticipating the leg sweep that came next, knocking him to the bridge floor.
“What the—”
Ally held her fingers to her lips, then winked at him. “Stay put and act like a prisoner.”
His ship appeared on the viewscreen in the distance. “I want a communications link established immediately,” his brother barked.
A few beats later, Celdrake’s scowl appeared on the viewscreen. “How are you doing this? I jammed the comms array.”
Zelup smiled warmly. “You’re piloting one of our cruisers. It has an override that your former captain may not have informed you of.”
“What do you want?” the cyborg growled. “If you’re thinking about shooting me down, I’d be careful if I were you. Too much weapons fire, and you might collapse your precious wormhole.”
Zelup laughed. “You’ve got the wrong idea completely. If we’d come to shoot you down, you’d be facing down a fleet of Vartik battle cruisers right now. We’re coming to thank you.”
Zelup shifted, revealing Lyk and Ally to Celdrake’s gaze. “You helped us bring my brother to justice. You have our gratitude.”
Celdrake’s eyes narrowed as he took in the scene. “What’s she doing there?”
“She is one our agents. We sent her undercover to infiltrate your operation. And she succeeded. Wildly. As you can see.”
The cyborg didn’t look convinced. “Why now? I’ve been with the captain for over a decade. Why send someone now?”
Zelup opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
Damn, Lyk thought. He said no improvising. He’s going to blow it.
“You think this is the first time they sent someone after you?” Ally laughed. Putting a hand on her hip, her expression was mostly smirk. “They’ve sent several after you, but none managed to infiltrate your gang. Your captain was too smart.”
Lyk looked up at his female, pride filling him, but he forced himself to play his part and scowl at Ally. She shook her head, then reared back and aimed a kick at his prone form. She connected, without much force, but the image of the kick made Celdrake’s eyes widen.
“If he’s so smart, why did you succeed when so many others have failed?” His voice remained skeptical, but Lyk could tell that he was starting to thaw.
“Because I’m a female, the kind he can’t resist. His family briefed me on the type of woman that would appeal most greatly to him, which is why I was selected.
I seduced him, distracted him, made him do things he normally wouldn’t, everything I could do to earn his trust so we could get him back to Vartik without suspecting anything. ”
Confusion filled the cyborg’s face, and Lyk could see that he was wavering. Then the hostility roared back. “This still doesn’t explain why you’re going after me now? You want this ship back? If so, you’re going to have to take it!”
Zelup held his hands up, palms out. “You’ve got the wrong idea. We don’t care about the ship. We care about you.”
Lyk had never seen his brother smile so widely and filed the image away to tease him about later.
“If you hadn’t picked this exact moment to mutiny, we risked losing everything.
Your captain was getting suspicious, hence that whole diversion with the shuttle, but things were starting to fall apart.
You distracted him at a crucial time. Well done. ”
Celdrake’s brow was furrowed, his expression vacillating between shock and pride. Lyk glanced at the viewport, where the flashes of color still blurred past. We’re going to reach the juncture soon. We need to reverse course before he gets there.
Ally looked at him, her expression confused, but she quickly blanked her face and turned back to the viewscreen.
“We could always use a smart guy like you on our team. I’d love to work closely with you myself.
” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and ran a finger slowly up and down the portion of her chest exposed by the coveralls.
Is she flirting with him? His Vartik instincts kicked in and he started to struggle to his feet. How dare she flirt with him? I’ll crawl through that fucking screen and kill the cyborg for even thinking of touching her perfect body.
Zelup shifted, putting his boot in Lyk’s chest and knocking him backward, then planting that boot on his torso to hold him down.
“What do you say? Come back to Vartik, testify against your former Captain, and we’ll name you and your crew as a member of our patrol.
It pays well, and once our people learn of your efforts, you’ll be hailed as a hero by the Vartiks. ”
Lyk could tell their ass-kissing was having an effect. But time was running out. He struggled against the force of his brother’s weight on him, causing Zelup to frown down at him. The juncture, he mouthed, and Zelup lifted his head so slightly, no one would notice.
“Not to rush you,” he said, his shit-eating grin equipped, “but we’re coming up on the place where the wormhole splits. I’d like to have your decision before then, as we need to get the prisoner back to the home world.”
“It’s tempting,” the cyborg said, his grin genuine. “But I’m an outlaw at heart. I don’t see myself adjusting to being on the side of the law.”
“Just give us a chance to persuade you,” Ally purred, her husky tone causing Lyk to struggle again. “And if you decide not to join up with us, you will have at least been able to enjoy the feasts and parades in your honor, and a few more… intimate events.”
Celdrake was practically leering at Ally now. Lyk let out a roar and shoved his brother’s leg off him with too much force, causing Zelup to stumble. He rose to his feet and shouted at the screen. “Don’t you fucking dare! She’s mine, Celdrake! Mine!”
Zelup tackled him, knocking him to the floor while multiple other crewmen joined in to subdue him. Lyk groaned as they rained down blows on him, feeling sick when Ally started to clap while she laughed at him.
“I suppose I could at least visit your planet.” Celdrake’s grin was arrogant. He looked down at his console. “Reversing course.”
Lyk relaxed at last, going limp, and Zelup’s crew backed off at last. Zelup gave the cyborg a thumbs-up, then suggested Celdrake follow his ship back to Vartik. “Few outsiders have been allowed to visit Vartik. You’re going to get a lot of attention.”
“And not just from me,” Ally said with a wink, blowing a kiss at the screen.
Celdrake pretended to catch the air kiss and put it in his pocket. Lyk fought the urge to throw up in his mouth.
When I get my hands on that asshole, I’m going to beat him with his own metal limbs.