Page 266 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Da’vi

Hanging up with Arianna was one of the hardest things I’d done.

I wanted to leave the line open to hear how things went, but I couldn’t risk the ship picking up on the signal when it got close.

Just having that call open when they arrived could have tipped them off that something was going on.

If they went onto the wreck Arianna was hiding on, intending to search it for a stowaway, they would absolutely find her.

Standing in front of the engine while it hummed steadily, I tried to calculate the odds.

Could I push the engines more? Give them more power?

Just thinking of trying that made my stomach clench.

This entire trip had been a balancing act—pushing them just enough to get to her in time without risking the catastrophic complications that had damaged the Balista the last time I did this.

I curled one metal-clad fist around the base of my left horn and squeezed hard, trying to banish the memory of the casualties it had caused—not the least of which were the pilot and navigator, who’d received devastating feedback from their stations, killing one and massively injuring the other.

I’d kept control of it this time because I was the only one calling the shots on how hard to press them.

Now, we needed more. Arianna needed it, she could very well be dragged from her hiding spot at this very moment.

Just the image of the small, pink human with her brown eyes, big, chunky sweater, and flirty skirt being manhandled made my entire body swell in anger.

If there was even a single mark on her fragile skin…

A deep growl rumbled from my chest, my tail lashing the air behind me.

I had to focus. The only thing I could do was calculate the risks and see how much I could push the Vagabond.

Were there ways I could mitigate the risk to the pilot and nav?

We only needed to shave two days off our journey, a single Faster-Than-Light jump while I raised the engine output…

“Akri, help me calculate these odds,” I asked the ship AI, pulling up the needed calculations on the computer.

“Arianna is in trouble, we need more speed.” After we’d come this far, I wasn’t going to fail at the last moment.

We needed to get there before Drameil could haul her away, and I was pretty sure most of my brothers were more than eager to get a shot at the Crimelord.

After we rescued Luka and his mate, Noa, the bastard had been on the run.

Then he’d suffered a major blow when one of his main sources of income was annexed by a different Crimelord.

He was on the ropes, desperately trying to consolidate his power base again.

I wasn’t going to let Arianna be a part of that, because selling a couple dozen human slaves was going to net the bastard a fortune.

I should have realized what danger Arianna was in on that wreck, stuck with dozens of stasis pods with humans in them.

The com device Arianna had called me through had come from Drameil’s very own safe.

That alone told me he knew exactly where that ship was located.

When one of my favorite wrenches snapped in two in my hands, I growled in frustration.

I needed to get a grip, this wasn’t helping her.

“Calculations complete,” Akri announced, and the numbers flashed across the screen.

It was cutting it close—very close—but it looked possible.

Then again, I thought that last time too, and look how that had ended.

Regardless, this wasn’t my choice; it wasn’t my life on the line.

With a sick feeling in my stomach, I knew what the answer was going to be.

Kitan was extremely protective of his navigator mate, he was going to say no.

I pinged Ziame and the Sune male on the com anyway, hoping their mates were there with them so they could cast their own votes.

Laying it out for them in as few words as possible, I waited for Kitan to tell me no immediately, but the male remained quiet.

“If we do not do this? You think the woman will be taken by Drameil?” Chloe said, her face appearing on my com device as she leaned around Kitan’s shoulder.

“It’s possible they don’t realize she’s there…

” I said, but just the chance that he’d find her, get his hands on her, and we’d be two days behind them was making me extremely anxious.

The Krektar mercenaries with Drameil could do all kinds of horrible things to her in that time, and what if we couldn’t figure out where they’d gone? We’d never find her.

“If they find her and take her, we’ll never be able to track her down,” Ziame said somberly, his arms twitching and tightening around his female, Abigail, who stood in front of him.

The human had her tightly curled hair out of her braids, and the springy locks poofed around her face.

Her Lacerten mate had nestled his green snout into them as he spoke, and I couldn’t help but look at that with a little envy.

What would it be like to press my chin to the soft brown locks that crowned Arianna’s head? Would she smell good?

“That settles it, then. If you believe the risk is acceptable, Chloe and I will try,” Kitan said, and he grinned, showing off his sharp canine teeth.

“Right, Chloe? It’s been super fun flying at these experimental speeds, what’s one more?

” His gold eyes glittered at his mate, and her blue eyes sparkled back at him, a grin splitting her own face.

I was already moving, initiating the steps required to give the Vagabond the speed she’d need in FTL to make it to Arianna in a couple of minutes instead of two days.

I should have known that the couple was excited by the experimental engine upgrade, they were born to fly.

Now that Chloe’s eyesight had also recovered, Kitan was far more laid-back again, too.

I left it to Ziame to get everyone strapped into a jumpseat as a precaution, while I communicated with Kitan and Chloe to get them ready for the jump.

Chloe would have to plot the course, sending the data to Kitan to help him guide the ship through what was going to be an incredible leap through space.

If not for the metal prosthetics that covered my hands, I was pretty sure my palms would be clammy with sweat.

“Akri, you’re sure about these calculations, right?

” I asked, aware of how stupid it was to ask an AI that, of course its calculations were perfect.

I just couldn’t shake the fear that this was going to go terribly wrong, that I’d be responsible for another navigator/pilot pair getting injured or killed, and Arianna on top of that.

“Ready, Da’vi?” Kitan asked me over the com.

I could see them on the screen, sitting behind the navigator and pilot consoles.

They were strapped in, with Chloe plugged into the nav console, her eyes closed as she worked out the best route for our FTL jump.

Kitan’s hands were relaxed around the yoke, his expression calm.

Behind him, Ziame and Abigail were strapped into their own seats, while Ziame spoke into the com device on his thick wrist. I heard his voice over the ship’s intercom, announcing to everyone that we were ready for the jump.

“Ready,” I said to Kitan, because everything was ready: the ship’s engines were primed, and Arki had affirmed to me that his calculations were infallible.

I didn’t feel ready; I felt like I was heading straight for disaster.

My mind was flashing with images of the navigator, Ru’ol, lying in a coma in that hospital room after the accident with the Balista.

I had seen death and injuries during my stint in the military, but knowing that it was my fault… I didn’t want that to happen again.

It would be my fault if we didn’t do this and Arianna was taken or injured.

That thought was what spurred me into action, to make peace with this choice.

When Kitan started counting down for the jump, I curled my arm and tail around Babbit, holding him safely to my chest. My eyes were fixed on the readings in front of me, monitoring the engines every step of the way.

They were holding; we were still somehow toeing the line.

Had I done anything different compared to last time?

Had I fixed the fatal flaw in this experimental upgrade?

I didn’t think so, but the engines stayed in the safe zone.

The minutes we were in FTL seemed to stretch out forever, lasting and lasting.

My eyes burned from lack of blinking, my entire being focused on keeping track of the readings that could flash into the red at any moment.

I didn’t want to miss the warning signs.

The engines flashed, then their hum dropped to a lower pitch. I flinched in my seat in response, but it was just the ship dropping out of FTL. Then Kitan crowed over the ship’s intercom, “Made it! That was awesome. Approaching the wreck now, no sign of another ship.”

I was out of my seat, settling Babbit on my shoulder, and then I rushed to disable the upgrades so they couldn’t activate without my say-so.

It only took a few seconds to flip the right switches and pull free a necessary cable.

“Akri, do a full system check. Make sure you inspect the engines for any stress fractures.”

“Affirmative, Da’vi, initiating full system check now.

Are you heading for the airlock? Kitan has started docking procedures.

” The mention of the airlock jolted me completely out of my focus on the ship and brought it squarely onto Arianna.

Yes, I needed to know that she had survived.

Kitan had said there was no sign of another ship.

That meant we’d missed Drameil. Had she been taken?