Page 73 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

The days went far too fast for my liking.

I wanted them to stretch on forever so that the moment where Chloe had to go into stasis might never come.

I didn’t want to have to miss her company; we’d practically been glued to each other’s side most of the time since she’d woken up in the med-bay, with the exception of the moments I spent training in the gym, teaching Ziame to fly the Vagabond, and the nights when she slept in her own quarters.

While I did have hope now that stasis was going to provide the solution that would save her life, I didn’t want to pressure her into being with me.

I still remembered too clearly the warning the Doc had given me that day I found her hiding in the hold—that day her big blue eyes had imprinted themselves straight onto my soul.

With Da’vi finally accepting his spot aboard the ship, the mechanic had taken to climbing all over her from the top to the bottom.

Jakar was always at his side so he could be his hands, learning the trade as they went along.

So far, they were just inventorying what needed to be done, and they’d entrusted Chloe and me with the task of opening up the sections of the ship that had been closed because of hull breaches—breaches that had been fixed with brand-new plating while we’d been at Strewn.

She was suited to the job because she knew this ship better than anyone, and she quickly ferreted out three more smuggling hatches when we opened up a portion of the middle deck that housed a surprisingly extensive lab.

We’d left Luka to it the last time we were there, as he had taken over, exclaiming happily over one thing after another.

He’d even requested that some of my brothers bring in that faulty stasis pod—the last one stubbornly holding on to its inhabitant—in hopes he could find a way to open it.

In the belly of the ship, we discovered an actual brig with room for four occupants.

I hated the sight of it. These cells were better equipped than the makeshift ones they had locked us into, featuring both barred doors and a force field to contain prisoners.

We were damn lucky a hull breach had made these cells inaccessible; it would have made escaping much harder.

The last room we’d lost access to was the lounge.

Star Class Cruisers like this one were built for space exploration, so they often ran long missions and needed areas for the crew to relax in.

Chloe eyed the bulkheads that currently separated the lounge from the rest of the ship, and I could read some trepidation in her posture.

“Da’vi said the hull breach here was only small, right?

Not big enough for anything to get sucked out? ”

I nodded. “That is right.” I eyed the scanner in my hand to check the readings.

Oxygen levels were good on the other side, with no heat signatures and no excessive cold.

The temperatures were the same inside the lounge as outside.

“Don’t tell me you’re scared someone’s in there…

Didn’t the pirates all get wiped out by the Krektar? ”

She bit her bottom lip, and I repressed the urge to rub my thumb over the spot.

She shrugged a shoulder, then shot me a grin.

“Of course, no one is alive in there...” She jabbed a thumb in that direction.

“But who knows? Maybe one of them thought to hide here. It’s pretty maze-like.

They’ve used the lounge to store stuff ever since the big viewscreen broke. ”

Yuck, so she was worried about a body decomposing in our lounge.

With the bulkhead still closed, there was no way for me to pick up any smells yet, but I’d probably know the moment we opened this place up.

When I told her that, she wrinkled her tiny pink nose and made a disgusted face. “Well, better you than me, I guess.”

I nudged her shoulder gently while grinning widely. “Hey, now!” Placing my hand on the door panel, I raised a brow in question. “Ready?”

She dramatically pinched her nose, her eyes bright with laughter.

“Yup.” Prepared for the worst now, I opened the doors and was almost bowled over by what was indeed the ripe smell of decay.

We were over a week out from Strewn at this point, and the room had been cycling normal temperatures on par with the rest of the ship since then. “I guess you were right.”

Switching the lights on in the fairly large, open-plan room, I surveyed the towering stacks of mag-locked crates that filled it.

“I guess Tori and Sunder have got their work cut out for them…” Chloe gave me a sweet but slightly sad smile.

“Maybe they'll find something valuable in here. Should we call Luka to examine the corpse?”

She had a point; we needed to check the cause of death and possibly the time, too.

It would be good to know if the dead pirate here had died due to the rapid decompression from the hull breach or something else.

While I called the Doc on my comm, Chloe wandered further into the room and flinched when she peered around a stack of crates.

“Found him. I think it’s Miean, the doctor,” her voice sounded entirely calm and collected when she spoke.

As I pulled her aside and took a look myself, I spotted the body of a badly bloated male.

Judging by the pointed ears and gold hair—along with what had been piercings and a chain connecting the lot from nose to earlobe—it was an Elrohirian just like Thorin.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” I told Chloe.

I didn’t want her to linger near the decomposing body of one of the pirates who had a part in keeping her as a slave.

I had no idea what this particular pirate had done to her.

I also should have been heading to the bridge by now for a flying lesson with Ziame; it was important to have a second pilot.