Page 177 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Hina

We got a call through my com, alerting us to head to the mess hall for a final briefing. We’d arrived at the Aderian outpost, where our ship’s computer indicated the pirates had picked up Riho to sell on the black market.

Chloe and Kitan had worked hard to get us to the location in both a timely and stealthy fashion.

I’d discovered only on day three that Chloe was technically blind, though apparently, she had a strange kind of vision when she was plugged into the nav console.

The young woman went about the ship on her own, unaided, though sometimes I’d heard her ask for direction from the ship’s AI.

I’d dared to ask—hoping I wouldn’t offend—last night over dinner, and Chloe had answered with a beaming smile.

“I had brain damage from a faulty nav implant, but my new one is much better, and with regular treatments from the Doc, my brain seems to be recovering. I’m starting to see shadowy shapes again, so I might eventually regain my sight completely.

” It was clear she was both a very optimistic and a strong person to deal with such a blow so gracefully.

The mess hall meeting had been very short and to the point, outlining our previously made plan one more time—now with added sensor data.

We knew that the outpost itself was located on a barren, volcano-rich planet.

The Aderians had a research center here, and on the calmer side of the planet, there was some kind of resort.

Luka hadn’t wanted to talk about just what kind of resort it was, though he seemed to know.

What we were looking for was a tiny base on one of the moons.

It was tucked away in a crater and camouflaged as one of the many sensor arrays stationed on the moon’s surface.

Supposedly, the sensors were there for readings of the rather unusual violet sun at the center of this solar system.

But there were so many that they’d hidden this little base right among them.

Time your approach to the moon just right, and as a ship, you’d be hidden from the two posts on the opposite side of the planet, which is probably what these pirates and unscrupulous Riho breeders did.

I was nervous about going with Fierce to that base to help raid it.

I didn’t have any fighting skills, so I might very well just be a liability.

But Fluffy was needed. Riho were apparently a suspicious, fearful-of-strangers type of creature.

The fact that, when young, they tended to bond with a single person was the only reason they made good pets.

Fierce insisted that if there were adult Riho present—which was likely—Fluffy would help us earn their trust. Fluffy had settled herself around my neck, and she was refusing to go anywhere without me, which was why I now had to come with them.

Fierce had tried to cajole her to come with him instead, but the little critter had refused to budge.

So there I was, in the shuttle with Camila while she checked over my spacesuit with a critical eye.

Instead of a normal, human-shaped helmet, they’d put me in one big enough to accommodate a Kertinal’s set of horns.

That way, Fluffy fit inside the helmet with me.

This did not strike me as the safest solution, but it was the only one we had.

Fluffy herself, at least, seemed perfectly content with the arrangement.

Before we’d all packed into this shuttle and flown to the tiny, hidden base, Fierce had brought Fellow to Chloe and Abby with a precise list of instructions on how to care for him—compiled by him and me, and written down by me.

I’d made sure to run it by the Doc, as I really didn’t want to cause the little one issues should he eat something he shouldn’t.

He seemed to be thriving, though, already used to his cast and scampering around our quarters in pursuit of Fluffy, who seemed to enjoy their version of tag.

It had been heart-melting to see Fierce gently say goodbye to the fluffy half-porcupine, half-badger.

He might be tough, he might be dangerous, but he loved with all his heart.

Animals, especially, seemed to earn a special place in Fierce’s, and it shocked me just how easily this wild little critter had bonded to him.

Just like Fluffy and Snarl had. Huh, just like me too, come to think of it. Fluffy had good taste in men.

“Your suit is on correctly? Not too bothered by the Riho?” Camila asked, her hands already running over her own suit in practiced moves, giving herself a final check as well to make sure we were protected from the vacuum of space.

Four of the gladiators, including Fierce, had made their way off the shuttle ten minutes ago.

They were supposed to clear us a path, with Camila guarding us, before Luka and I boarded the small station.

We didn’t want to alert the Aderian authorities on the planet, as Luka had stridently recommended against it.

So Ziame had stayed behind to pilot the Vagabond with Chloe, while Kitan flew us on the shuttle.

Both ships would need to remain in constant contact and stay hidden.

It had been a tight squeeze—the shuttle was tiny—but trying to fly Ziame’s old ship, which apparently had some kind of cloaking tech, would have been impossible. We wouldn’t all have managed to get aboard it, and we needed enough numbers to make sure we could handle any resistance on that base.

I twitched, rubbing my glove-clad palm over my suit-clad thigh, anxiously.

Ten minutes was a long time to wait without hearing anything from the guys.

What if something had gone wrong? I’d practiced the com with Fierce, so I knew he could make calls now.

We’d agreed on complete radio silence, though…

When the signal finally came—a thud on the outside of the shuttle’s airlock—I just about jumped into the air. Heart racing, I watched as Camila calmly opened the airlock and stuck the point of her laser rifle through it. Thorin was on the other side, flanked by Fierce and Snarl.

The Ferai beast was kitted out in a special suit, the kind they made for aliens like Ziame or Sunder, who had weird extra appendages or horn shapes.

The suit apparently conformed to the body it was put on, regardless of its shape.

It made Snarl, who was a muscled, terribly fluid-looking beast of a creature, look even more impressive.

The black suit almost made his shape seem like a strange mechanical creature, especially when you saw the glint of his red eyes through the faceplate.

When Fierce had helped Snarl into the suit earlier, Camila and I had stared. There was something so freakish about what looked like a mix between a huge hound and a black panther patiently letting itself be suited up for a spacewalk.

I had been certain Snarl would refuse, with the chance at weightlessness ahead of him—he had certainly freaked out during the shuttle ride off the planet.

After his calm and intelligent behavior down on the planet, I had been shocked to see him act like that.

So it had been a surprise to see him so calm now.

Maybe the mission itself was focus enough for him, and, as far as I knew, we hadn’t been without some kind of gravity yet.

“Ready to go, my love?” Thorin drawled with a smirk at Camila, stepping up close to the point of her rifle and letting it rest against his chest.

Camila immediately pulled the weapon back and slung it from its strap over her shoulder, her face disgruntled as she wagged her finger in his face. “What did I say about gun safety? You’re a former police officer, you know better than that!”

I figured it was entirely for that reason that Thorin did shit like that—because he was grinning this shit-eating grin.

As he stepped aside and gestured his female into the darkened interior of the base, the two seemed to make a unified front, despite the fact that she was still quietly reprimanding him for being an irresponsible idiot.

Fierce was watching me quietly as I stepped nervously out of the shuttle and onto the base, my boots making odd clunking noises as they hit the metal flooring.

A heavy pack of supplies hung from my shoulder, and I carried a travel cage in my hand.

Luka had a similar kit and cage with him.

Together, we hoped to be prepared for the basics.

Emergency lighting flashed across the ceiling at intervals, the orange bursts painting everything in dramatic streaks. Rust-colored metal walls and creaking floor panels shifted and groaned ominously as I stepped on them.

Snarl fell in behind us, guarding the Doc, who was following us.

Luka hadn’t said a single thing, but if anything, he looked more nervous than I felt.

Fierce took me by the hand, guiding me through corridors streaked with dirt.

My HUD was telling me the air was breathable here, but I was fairly certain there was going to be some kind of smell.

Neither Fierce nor Thorin had taken off their helmets, so I was following their example.

The hallways were giving me flashbacks to horror movies I had seen.

My imagination supplied images of scary, killer aliens hiding in ducts or around corners.

I walked a little closer to Fierce’s large bulk, which was delightfully outlined in the form-fitting black spacesuit.

I liked him in his leather kilt, but damn, was he sexy like this, too.

“Jakar and Da’vi are in the control room,” Thorin said.

“We haven’t run into anyone yet, so they’re trying to figure out if they’re hiding or if they’ve abandoned this place.

” My heart sank into my shoes. If they were all gone, was there going to be no Riho to rescue?

Besides feeling disappointed and sad myself, I couldn’t imagine what that was like for Fierce.

I found his gloved hand and clung to it.