Page 181 of Galaxy Games Four-Book Box Set (Galaxy Games)

181

Kill or Be Killed

A ’Dar

I have Ran’Kin and Mel’Kan on comms. They’re both as groggy and shocked as I was when I awoke. I update them as fast as possible while our vid feed shows us the invaders marauding through our ship. There are only three humans who are all still together.

“I’m the senior officer,” I say, expecting no argument. Since Captain Lan’Bec is dead, the computer is correct. I’m captain now.

I take a deep breath before I admit, “I’m so weak I can barely stand.” I’m a Xenon. Now that I am captain, I don't want to acknowledge any weakness. I’ll blame it on almost two thousand years of stasis.

“Me too,” Mel’Kan admits.

“There is an empty cabin on either side of me on the fore side of the Entertainment Deck. We’ll hole up here. Get your battle gear and ammunition and join me on the double. We’ll track the humans and retrieve them the moment you get here. Once we rescue them and return to these cabins, we’ll decide on our next plan of action.”

I almost sign off, then feel compelled to add, “Ran’Kin, if they split up, you take the short one. Mel’Kan, you take the one with the short array, I’ll take the one with the long array.”

“We’ll be there soon,” Mel’Kan says as he tugs on his armor.

There is something about the one with her long brown array swirling around her shoulders. She tied it at her nape in the past, but most of it has escaped. I don’t know if it’s the way she tosses it when she’s done thinking and moves to action, or the symmetry of her odd, tuskless face that calls to me, but she’s the one I’m going to rescue and bring back to my cabin.

I grew up without knowing a female my age. My hands itch to touch her. My palms yearn to hold the weight of her breasts. I need to keep her alive, not just for the continuation of my species, but for me.

“Captain? What about machta ?” Ran’Kin asks.

One of us had to address it. The possibility is as real as the air we breathe. It has the power to kill. If I’m to be honest, it’s one of the reasons I haven’t awakened the rest of my crew from their pods.

I’ve never experienced machta . No one on this ship has. I have a feeling that’s about to change.

“Let’s worry about one thing at a time. We need to save them first.”

Maya

How can one living being have so much blood? It’s everywhere. Some of it spurted from her fingers, some dribbled from her torso, and the greatest volume sprayed from her carotids. It’s not just all over the floor. I’m soaked. Thankfully, I don’t feel any pain so none of the blood is mine.

“Are either of you hurt?” I ask. They both shake their heads.

“We need to keep goin’,” Emily says, even though she can’t pull her gaze from the carnage at our feet.

She acts like this didn’t faze her, but her voice is trembling and her hands are shaking. Anna is so panicked her eyes are huge and her upper lip is beaded with sweat. So much adrenaline is pulsing through me it’s hard to figure out if I’m terrified or angry. It doesn’t matter. We have to keep running.

“We’ve got to traverse the maze of what the map labeled the Entertainment Gallery, then pass those six isolated cabins at the fore. Then we’ll decide if we should hole up for a while, or take the steps down to the bridge,” I say, switching the grip on my knife as I lower it to my side.

We’re silent as we leave the shaggy blue alien’s partially decapitated body and press forward. I just killed a person. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, that this is a kill or be killed situation, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. Not only am I a killer, but I think this won’t be my last kill of the day. Actually, I hope it’s not, because if I don’t kill anyone else, that will mean someone killed me.