Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
D’Var
O ur ship effortlessly finds the trail of the Sternotheri ship. It took a detailed search to get us started, but after the first hours, it was obvious the Sternotheri were considering themselves safe because they were easy to track.
We have left the cover of the asteroid belt, our ship has amazing cloaking abilities, and their scanners should not be able to see us. They should not have been able to find us at the belt, but O’Rec has a theory that we might have missed something of a tracker on L’Ren. The only way to see through our cloaking is to accidentally bump through our shields, or to poke at them if you have an idea of where they are. Once you have passed the barrier of our shields, you can have visual of our ship. We believe that’s where they deployed the disturbance.
I know they both feel guilty, O’Rec for rebooting the system, T’Rak for pulling me away from L’Ren to look at the data. In a way we have made it easy for the Sternotheri to take my Zarra, but we will not let them keep her for long.
We are nearing the ship, it’s only 2 hours ahead of us and O’Rec can fairly easily plot their course to a small moon of Esparix, days away. Esparix is where the Caudata live, only the richest reside on their moons so that means that whoever is involved, is an influential fucker.
My bond is aching, making me flinch.
“I have to get her back soon, the bond is flaring up. I am afraid it will not hold much longer.”
T’Rak turns his chair around, looking at me, a cold look in his eyes. “They were dead the minute they decided to come after us. To steal your Zarra is the ultimate crime. I vow to you, my brother, we will have their heads and your Zarra back in your arms within the next day. This is what we are going to do.”
O’Rec also turns around as T’Rak lays down the strategy.
“Their technology is good, but ours is better. We have to insert a virus into their system, anchor our ship against theirs, then break their hull in stealth mode. We cannot assume anything, so we are going to hover close first and scan for lifeforms.” He turns towards O’Rec.
“O’Rec, it is your job to pick the spot where we are going to enter the ship. Do you think our body scan will show the difference between the Sternotheri and L’Ren?”
O’Rec thinks on that and then he nods. “I believe so. Humans have a higher body temperature than most species we have encountered.”
My bond flares up. This is promising. We can pinpoint my mate's exact location and I can focus on getting to her.
T’Rak looks at me. “My friend, you will go to your mate and take care of her. We will focus on the fucking Sternotheri.”
I nod slowly. Every cell in my body is at war with itself at the moment. My instincts are screaming for blood and the heads of everybody who dared to touch my Zarra, but also the need to get to her, to protect her, to make sure she is safe is pulling me in the other direction.
T’Rak sees my conflict and gives me a stern look.
“I command it, D’Var.” he says and it puts my body a bit more at ease. It is unheard of for an Araccate Warrior to disobey his captain, so I breathe in and focus on my calm and the prospect of holding my mate.
The next two hours pass quickly, we are preparing ourselves in silence. The ship is continuously scanning while we arm ourselves to maximum capacity. We are all in full warrior mode now, centered from within. The mating bond is pulling at me, I reassure it we will be with our mate soon.
I join T’Rak and O’Rec at command when we have a visual of the Sternotheri ship. It is as ugly as the Sternotheri. It is round, bulky and the outside resembles the scales these fuckers have on their back.
“Is it not cloaked?” I ask O’Rec and he grins.
“They think it is, but I have a little program that messes with their tech. When we are close enough, I will launch a tiny bot that will also wreak havoc on their security system without them even knowing.”
We are close enough to scan for lifeforms, I feel a tightness inside my gut when the scans come up. O’Rec’s smile is feral.
“There are six Sternotheri, all in the front part of the ship. This should be fun.”
“L’Ren?” I growl and he pushes some other buttons.
“She is down in the belly of the ship, no other lifeforms near her.”
We wait while O’Rec shoots his little bot-missile and just as soon as it hits their ship, data is coming in .
“We wait for the map,” T’Rak commands. “We transfer it to our wrist comps and then we enter them.”
We hook ourselves to the Sternotheri ship, it takes but a few moments before we are ready to enter. My heart beats a steady drum, while we wait for the airlock to connect and the bots to break their hull.
I smile a deadly smile. They will be dead before they know what hit them.