Chapter 8
A day later, they arrived at the spaceport.
An aging and battered port run by humans.
Good. Humans were easier to threaten than other species, especially now, with the human government embroiled in a war.
They wouldn't spare many, if any, troops on some insignificant, rundown, civilian-owned spaceport.
Poor thing looked ready to collapse in on itself.
Rusted metal ready to give in to the vacuum of space and suck its occupants into space. The true definition of a rust bucket.
Ak’kel sneered at the battered structure. He may have teased his mate about how her ship looked, but honestly, her vessel looked better than this decrepit mess.
"Patch us through." Ak'kel instructed his bridge crew.
"They’re already hailing us." One of his bridge crew informed him as his console beeped up at him.
"Let's see them on the viewscreen then."
An image flickered onto the viewscreen of a human male, his face framed by scruffy brown hair.
When he smiled, yellow teeth greeted Ak’kel, and he felt one corner of his mouth pull back in a frown.
The man was in desperate need of a bath.
Thank the stars they were speaking through the viewscreen because he’d be willing to bet the man smelled like ripe garbage or sewage.
"What can I help you with?" The man asked as his eyes lazily roaming over the view of the bridge before landing on Ak’kel.
"We need information on a ship that may have visited your space port." He informed the human, his voice cold and precise.
The human leaned closer to the screen. "Well, I should be able to help you with that. If you send me the name of the ship, I can check my records."
Ak’kel raised a hand, signaling one of his men. Quickly, the man tapped away at his console, transmitting the data they had on Sara’s ship. A tense moment stretched by testing the limits of Ak’kel’s patience as he waited for the human to acknowledge he’d received the information.
"You should have the name now." Ak’kel said, watching the human carefully. He hoped Sara hadn’t gone elsewhere.
Perhaps she'd chosen a different route. Maybe the male he’d interrogated had lied to him in one last loyal attempt to keep Sara from Ak’kel.
Perhaps she wasn't at the gas giant or the space port.
It was definitely a possibility since she knew he was hot on her ass.
"Ah, yes. I know this ship and her captain very well." The human looked up at Ak’kel through the viewscreen. A crooked grin crossed over his lips, revealing even more of his rotting teeth. "And what might this information be worth to you?"
Ak’kel’s mood darkened instantly, like a sudden plasma storm. As if he’d barter with this man for information. With the flick of his fingers, Ak’kel signaled his weapons officer, who promptly directed all arms at the space port.
Voice as cold as ice, Ak’kel growled, "How about this, you give me the information you have, and I spare your miserable life." Only one person was in control of this situation.
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"Captain, you'll want to look at this." Berg's sharp yet steady voice broke Sara out of her tense thoughts. His tone immediately piqued her interest.
Since meeting Ak’kel and successfully getting him the fuck off her ship, she'd done some research on the man. Even more than previously. After delving into his life, it’d become a lot clearer just how scary that particular Vrak’rir was.
Fate seemed to have partnered her up with an absolute terror.
A few words to describe him would be dangerous and unpredictable.
"What is it?" Sara asked as she leaned forward in her seat a little.
"Look." Berg gestured toward the viewscreen as he pulled up an image of a debris field. The jagged shapes and shimmering fragments of metal called to every fiber of her picker’s soul.
"Almost looks like a spaceport or maybe even a space station exploded.
I know we want to keep ahead of Ak'kel but," Berg turned in his seat to meet her eyes, "this might be a stop worth the risk. There’s bound to be some pretty valuable items in there just waiting to be found. "
Sara nibbled on the inside of her cheek as she debated what to do.
Her mind raced with the tempting salvage right before their eyes.
On one hand, this would be a major pick and it was hard to resist the pull.
On the other hand, Ak’kel scared the fudge out of her, and she wasn't above admitting it.
If he caught them, there was no telling what he might do to them.
Closing her eyes, she rubbed her temples with her fingers, feeling the weight of command on her shoulders.
"We will take a vote of the bridge staff." Sara rose from her seat and turned to face everyone on her bridge, her gaze sweeping over the faces around her. Some of the faces were new, people who’d been hired on or promoted from other parts of the ship after Ak’kel wiped out a decent number of them.
"Before voting, I want each of you to consider how the men and women under your department might react to us staying.
Do you believe the salvage would be worth the risk? "
Every crew member slowly nodded their heads in silent agreement.
"Okay. Who votes we stay and scavenge?" Sara asked.
Every hand on the bridge rose in unison, a collective decision, which made everything much simpler.
"Then inform the crew and get them ready. I want to be swift.” Sara commanded her crew. “I'm giving us only one hour to scavenge. After that, we leave. No exceptions."
Everyone on the bridge nodded. Her heart constricted inside her chest. Hopefully this didn't come back to bite them all in the ass.
Berg guided the ship in towards the wreckage, the sensors of the ship pinging softly from his console, alerting him to nearby debris. "Definitely something big,” Berg murmured, eyes flickering over the readouts before him, “and it doesn't look like anyone else has stopped by yet."
Sara’s hands tightened on the armrests of her chair. "Be careful and keep our scans of the nearby space active. I don’t want to be caught off guard."
"Expecting trouble captain?"
"Not necessarily, but I also know how attractive these debris fields can be to other scavengers. It isn’t just Ak’kel we have to worry about.
Plenty of other humans pose just as much a threat to our safety.
" Better safe than sorry was her best practice. She’d avoided a lot of fire fights due to her sense of caution.
"Understood, Captain." Berg spun in his chair. "We are in position. Just need to get the crew ready and we can begin that countdown."
Suddenly, an alert blared through the bridge, piercing the tense silence.
"Incoming!" Berg yelled at the top of his lungs as he braced his feet against his console.
Sara barely had time to brace herself before the ship lurched violently all around her, throwing her forward.
She attempted to grab her armrests, but her momentum was too sudden, and her hands slipped past the armrests as she tumbled out of her chair and landed on the floor with a grunt.
Groaning, she rolled back to her feet. "Report!" She yelled. Had Ak’kel already found them? She knew he'd be pissed, but would he really risk blowing up his mate? Vrak’rir weren’t known for endangering their mates, even if he might have a few loose marbles.
"Space pirates, Captain. And we're being boarded." Cat’s voice unnervingly calm amid the chaos, as if she was describing an everyday event rather than people forcefully boarding their ship.
"Arm yourselves. Inform the crew." Sara ordered as she reached down under her chair and pulled out a plasma pistol. Ever since Ak’kel’s attack on her ship, she'd made sure to have weapons more readily available.
"Keep the bridge doors closed and secure,” she commanded her crew as she headed to the lift.
Her voice steely as she solely focused on keeping her people as safe was she could.
"Where are you going?" Berg asked when he noticed her walking to the bridge doors.
"To help the crew." Sara growled. No more lives were being lost if she had something to say about it. If this was Ak’kel, she might just shoot him.
Before Berg could protest, Cat stepped forward. "I'm coming with you."
"No." Sara shook her head as she held up a hand to stop Cat. “Stay here and help defend the bridge. I'll see you guys in a bit. I'm sure we can handle some space pirates."
As she entered the lift, she sucked in a breath through her mouth and then let it out her nose. This was another fight, another test being thrown at her by the universe, and she would come out alive.
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The lift stopped on the deck with their shuttle hangar.
The moment the doors hissed open, Sara heard the sizzling shots of plasma gun fire in the distance.
Hugging the walls, Sara ran through the corridors of her ship until she reached the doors to the hangar bay.
Closing her eyes, she sucked in a steadying breath, and then spun, the doors opened, and she ducked inside, sliding right next to one of her crew.
“How many?” She asked as the area around them was peppered in a flurry of plasma shots, searing the metal around them.
“Too many.” The man shook his head. “They’ve taken cover behind the material we’ve scavenged just like us, but they keep pushing us further and further. Soon we will have no choice but to head into the corridor and retreat.”
The space pirates were well practiced like they’d done this before to other ships, which made her her wonder if the debris field was an elaborate trap they used to lull in ships like Sara's.
It would explain why the debris field looked untouched.
Maybe the pirates even blew up the ships after getting rid of the crew and taking what they wanted, creating an even bigger debris field to lull more ships in.
But she refused to allow them to add her ship to this debris field.
Crouching and holding her plasma pistol close, Sara watched blue plasma bolts sear by her face. With this constant shower of plasma, there’d be no chance for her to get some shots of her own off.
"The pirates have used the corridor on the other side of the hangar, and we’ve received reports that they’ve gotten to engineering and disabled our engines." Another man nearby reported to fill her in on the situation.
"Damn." Sara huffed with frustration as she shook her head.
The pirates were like a swarm of ants and her ship was like a sandwich that'd been left out at a picnic, and now they were infested.
And unlike other space pirates, these guys seemed to have their routine down like a well-oiled machine.
It wasn't their first time boarding and taking over a ship, that was for sure.
"Shit!" Plasma shots flew past them from the other direction.
The pirates had managed to get behind them!
Spinning, Sara raised her pistol, but before she could get a shot off, a plasma shot hit her in the right shoulder.
With a scream, she hit the floor. Her crew opened fire, and as she gritted her jaw against the pain someone's hands latched onto her and dragged her out of the line of fire as she blacked out from the pain.