Page 388 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Ziame

The Sune was at the helm, Da’vi hovering over his shoulder as he kept careful watch of the readings. “Ready, Captain,” the mechanic announced. “We’ve passed through the Dart’s shielding, thanks to Akri’s intel. Docking now.” The others behind me cheered, the noise deafening in the tiny space.

We were all here for Akri, and though we didn’t even know her name, he told me that female was his mate, so we were here for her too.

The moment the airlock’s light turned green, the first of us started cycling through it, and then we were truly boarding the ship—spreading out in teams of two to cover as much ground as we could and take out as many of Drameil’s guards as possible before they even knew we were there.

Sunder and I were the ones who reached the bridge first; my intended goal all along.

The path had been suspiciously clear, and I had a feeling that my oldest friend had been helping out in some way.

The bridge didn’t have many people on it, but the ones it did made all my blades rise along my spine, and smoke curled from my nostrils.

“Drameil!” I roared at the evil, arrogant bastard.

He stood in front of one of the many high-tech consoles on his ship, shoulders hunched as his hands flew rapidly over the screen.

“Step away from there, now!” I screamed, charging across the space between us to tackle the older Sythral male.

A sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach told me he was doing something desperate—and dangerous.

I tackled him to the ground, pinning him in place with the blades on my right arm pressed to his throat.

“What did you do?” I demanded, my firestarter clicking in my throat as a thin stream of fire jetted from between my lips.

If he had eyebrows, they would have been scorched, but he was just a thin, old Synthral with no power or money left.

His red eyes were hazy, but filled with some kind of unholy glee. “You destroyed me, Beast! You and Brake…” he cackled evilly, coughing when I pressed down harder on his chest. “Now, I will destroy all of you. Nobody is getting out of here alive!”

He laughed even harder when the ship’s computer intoned, “Course locked in by Alpha code.” He thought he’d won; he thought he was about to destroy us all, but how?

Where was he sending this ship? I raised my arm over his head, watching the evil bastard as I brought my blades down on his neck, ending his life.

When I leaped to my feet, Sunder was already at the navigational console, two dead Krektar on the floor behind him. “I can’t change it, Ziame. That bastard has sent us straight toward the nearest sun, and he’s disabled the shields. We will reach deadly radiation in only a few minutes.”

“Evacuate now!” I ordered into my com device immediately.

“Has anyone located Akri and his mate? Are they safe?” Fear for my friend filled me as each of my brothers responded with a negative.

“Hit the ship-wide com. We have to tell Akri to meet us at the airlock.” Sunder was already obeying, using a strong beat of his wings to leap over the pilot console, hands outstretched to engage the intercom.