Page 182 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Luka

There was a pool of dread in my stomach, writhing anxiously whenever I realized just what a dangerous stunt we were pulling today.

Raiding this smuggler’s hideout—smack in the middle of the Jihari system?

I knew how many risks were attached to that for me, but with innocent animal lives on the line?

I wasn’t going to tell Fierce we couldn’t do this.

I’d identified the location with Thorin on a moon orbiting Jihari. Right next to an Aderian outpost on the planet, a planet I was all too familiar with. Except for a small scientific outpost, it was run—owned—entirely by my family.

Being this close to them was a risk, but I trusted Kitan’s piloting skills and our ability to pull this off in a stealthy manner.

My mother was the type who always seemed to know everything that was going on, but I couldn’t imagine that she’d know about this kind of smuggling post. She was still Aderian—a rather unscrupulous, greed-driven one—but our kind didn’t tend toward the sociopathic.

She wouldn’t know about animal suffering of this magnitude.

Wouldn’t condone it. At least, I was firmly trying to convince myself of that, but a part of me had this niggling feeling of doubt.

What if she did know? What if she was part of it?

While Camila was helping Hina with her spacesuit, making sure all the seals were good and her buckles tight, I tried to center myself and do a quick meditation.

Regardless of whether I feared my mother’s involvement in this, I needed to bring my A-game.

There were going to be a lot of strong emotions and, sadly, a lot of animals in pain.

If my mental shields weren’t at their strongest, this was going to be rough.

I was so focused on my shields and on being ready for when I needed to jump into action that I barely paid attention to what my friends were up to as we boarded the old, abandoned mining facility.

It was derelict, with orange emergency lighting flashing eerily across the walls.

It was uncomfortable to my sensitive eyes, so I made myself focus on following Snarl, the big Ferai beast that had bonded with Fierce.

As we stepped into a large chamber, I spotted the many stacks of crates and cages that filled the space.

They were all empty as far as I could see; I even heard my friends say so while they headed for the room beyond this place.

Just to be sure, I pulled my handheld device from my belt and scanned the area.

Something was tickling at my brain—something that almost felt like… There!

My scanner picked up a small life-form in the corner beneath a stack of crates.

It wasn’t in the best of shape, so getting to it was extremely urgent.

I barely paid attention as my friends continued talking.

I started pulling empty crates from the stacks, making my way to that little blip of life I’d spotted.

The closer I got, the better I sensed it. Fear, pain… I felt sorry for it. No one should have to go through something like this—not my gladiator friends, nor any animal. It kept astounding me just how evil people could be.

I spotted a tuft of white fur and slowed my movements, trying to be quiet as I shifted crates so I wouldn’t spook the poor creature further.

“Hey there, little one,” I said in a soothing tone.

“It’s okay, I’m here to help you.” I shifted the last crate to reveal something that looked almost humanoid, with two arms and legs.

There was a slender prehensile tail and a little face with large, frightened eyes.

“There you are,” I said softly, going down on my haunches to carefully scan it with my handheld.

This was a type of primate, intelligent, and its genes had been edited in some manner.

What was shocking was that this primate was definitely from Earth; my scanner indicated it was something called a pinche monkey.

Or at least, it most closely resembled that species before it had been gene-edited.

What it was now… That would be entirely unpredictable.

The little monkey stared at me with its dark eyes from beneath the impressive mane of white fur.

Its face and shoulders were black, but its arms and belly were white again.

It wasn’t quite so scared now, so I held out a hand to it, kicking my aura into gear and sending soothing, inviting vibes.

It worked. The little guy crawled from its hiding spot, took my hand with two chilled little hands, and everything about him told me he wanted to trust me.

Tucking my scanner away, I gently picked him up and curled him against my chest. He came trustingly, but his body was weak.

Holding him with one hand, I scanned him again, relieved to note that he was not as dehydrated as I’d expected.

This one was not in a cage; he’d managed to scavenge some fluids from somewhere.

“Here, I’m going to give you something that will perk you right up,” I told the little guy.

Pulling free a high-calorie tube of sticky, sugary fluid, I tore open the tip with my teeth and offered it to him.

He snatched it from my fingers, suckling from the open container in greedy gulps.

“Good boy. Take what you need,” I soothed.

He would need better care aboard the Vagabond, but this would tide him over until he could get more food and drink.

This would replenish most of what he had lost.

“Let’s go find the others, shall we?” I asked my little find.

He blinked his dark eyes at me and continued to greedily suck on his snack.

There was a shuffling noise behind me, the sound of a crate sliding across the floor.

I turned, expecting to see one of my friends approaching.

Instead, I was greeted by two men in unfamiliar spacesuits.

Their black faceplates hid their faces from me, so I couldn’t tell what species they were.

I stood up, turning to fully face them. “Whoa, who are you?” Their auras were filled with nothing good—aggression, anger. I dropped my handheld scanner and grabbed the laser pistol Camila had made me strap to my hip that morning. “Stay away, I’m armed.”

There was no reply. The two just suddenly leaped for me with outstretched arms. I tried to get the pistol up to fire at them, but I was too slow.

We slammed into the stack of crates with a clatter—one I fervently hoped my friends had heard.

I tried to curl my body around the little pinche monkey to protect him and ended up knocking into more empty cages.

A sharp pinch hit me in the back on the left side, and then everything went black.