Page 74 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Chloe

Today was the first day since the incident that I was on the bridge again.

My body felt a little anxious and jittery at the thought of being near the nav-console but not allowed to plug in—to feel the rush of processing data.

Those were the thoughts of an addict, which is what my brain was.

I needed that feedback from time to time for my brain to keep working.

It was a dangerous balance, as every time I plugged in, I risked frying my implants.

Sitting down in one of the jump seats at the back wall of the bridge, I surveyed those present, ignoring the twinge of pain at seeing Diamed at the console I wished to occupy.

Sunder was at the com-station, which seemed his customary spot.

Abby was next to Ziame, who was sitting in the captain’s chair—sprawled in the chair, in fact, like he owned the place—while his agile tail curled itself around Abby’s ankle.

Jakar, under Da’vi’s careful instruction, had removed a jump seat from somewhere else and bolted it to the deck at Ziame’s side for Abby to sit on.

And, of course, there was Kitan in his skin-form.

He was dressed in a dark blue jumpsuit with the sleeves cut off.

His hands were competent on the yoke, and I loved that peek at his muscled arms—the smattering of dense freckles that covered his bulging biceps in three diagonal stripes.

I loved the way his red hair curled around his face and the intent look in his golden eyes as we prepared for the last FTL jump that should get us right into Gonavar’s orbit.

I was avoiding looking at the nav-console altogether, afraid that I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from voicing my opinion or somehow getting involved.

While Diamed was slowly performing her calculations through the ship’s computer, I tried to make myself think of other things.

Of course, that immediately brought back the memory of Miean’s bloated and decomposing corpse.

More importantly, that morning, Luka had shared the disconcerting news at the breakfast table: the time of death indicated that Miean had been alive while we were at Strewn.

He hadn’t died from the hull breach, as he likely hadn’t been in the lounge until after it had been repaired.

Feeling chilled just thinking about it, I wondered who had ended up killing Miean and how it was possible that he had survived the Krektar taking over the ship and the subsequent uprising from the gladiators.

He’d hidden just like I had—who was to say if more of the pirates had survived?

And who had killed Miean, and why, and how?

The idea of a murderer on the loose aboard the Vagabond was not one anyone wanted to contemplate.

My attention was drawn back to the rest of the people around me when Diamed announced she had the jump plotted, and Kitan confirmed he had the data.

After that, Ziame gave them the go-ahead like a proper captain.

It was all very polite, which was odd to experience after I’d lived under Captain Busar’s verbally abusive thumb for so long.

The FTL jump engaged, and for a good thirty seconds, Kitan smoothly steered us through the jump, with Diamed watching the data like a hawk to ensure we made no mistakes and encountered no deviations.

FTL jumps were nearly always smooth, so no ship-wide warning went out with them.

Unlike landing and takeoff from a planet, the gravitygenerators could easily keep up—in fact, for them, nothing changed.

Everything changed the moment we came out of the jump, though.

I had my eyes on Kitan more than on the viewscreen in front of us, so I saw the way his whole body stiffened before a change shivered through him, leaving him in his hybrid-form after the sudden transformation.

All the fur on his body stood on end, his lips drawn back in a ferocious snarl.

“What did you do?” he growled as he let go of the yoke and lunged at Diamed, claws out and the fanned plume of his triple tail unapologetically on display. “Get us out of here now!”

The nav had jumped back from her seat, holding out a raygun and pointing it straight at Kitan’s chest. “No, you should have taken me up on my offer, and none of this would have happened…” I eyed the viewscreen for a brief moment but didn’t recognize the planet at first glance.

I did know that it wasn’t the temperate forest planet that Gonovar should be.

With the gun aimed his way, Kitan at least had the sense to stop his advance.

Both Ziame and Sunder had come to flank him; Ziame had protectively pushed Abby behind his wide back, keeping her in place with a tight grip of his tail around her middle.

She was clearly not happy with that treatment, but unable to free herself from the tightly coiled appendage.

I couldn’t understand how the Sune nav would be willing to go up against three big, well-trained males like that—even with a gun.

I didn’t see how she thought this would end up going in her favor.

“You lie,” Kitan scoffed. “You self-serving bitch! You would have sold me out whenever it suited you!” And the female just smirked.

“Sure, but you would have had some fun first.” I felt a wave of horror at the mercenary sentiment—shouldn’t I be used to it by now?

This was probably something the pirates would have taken in stride, but…

this was Kitan. I couldn’t fathom someone being so cruel to him.

And why, even? What was she selling him out for?

“Chloe, get us out of here,” Kitan told me.

“Just don’t plug in.” Surprised that he’d ask me to come near the nav-console after what happened last time, I hurried to the station, only to jump back in shock when the ray gun in Diamed’s hand swung my way.

“Do not move. We’re not going anywhere.” I contemplated diving to the ground so I could crawl to the station anyway—anything to get us out of this system, wherever it was.

It was clear that Kitan was in great distress about our location.

Sunder shifted his body closer to mine, spreading a wing out so Diamed’s aim at me was blocked.

“Why are you doing this, female?” demanded Ziame at the same time, the blades along his skull, spine, and the sides of his forearms flaring out aggressively.

Kitan’s three tails twitched reflexively, and I realized at that moment that he hadn’t been lying that day we met.

The three tails—it really was a secret that could land him in serious trouble.

Somehow, Diamed had seen them. I had to get us out of here.

***

Kitan

I felt worried as I worked on prepping the jump.

I didn’t like working with Diamed as my nav, but I liked it even less when Chloe was on the bridge to witness it.

Despite the peril-fraught, near-deadly escalation of the one time she and I flew, I craved that connection with her more than anything.

I’d never flown a ship so effortlessly and with such speed.

At least I’d spoken with Ziame about Chloe’s situation, and he agreed that getting her the surgery was a priority and that she’d make the perfect permanent nav aboard the Vagabond.

I was thrilled to be able to tell her that later today.

We’d worked out a plan to get the credits too; Abigail had kindly sat down with me and pored over our financial situation.

We were short a hundred thousand universal credits to make the payments right now, mostly to pay for the ports Luka had specified.

For now, we had just enough to cover the cost of the surgery.

With Chloe in stasis, we could make the flight to the nearest arena, where Thorin, Jakar, Fierce, and I would all participate in some matches.

With two winning purses, we’d have enough, plus some extra, to cover our basics, such as food and clothing.

Win all four, Abby had told me, and we could buy some of the parts that Da’vi had put on a shortlist to further repair the ship.

Despite my discontent over flying with Diamed, I could tough that out a little longer if it meant getting my Chloe all better.

As soon as we’d dropped off the Ferai beast, we could get started on that.

Fierce was in the cell block right now with the beast, keeping it calm and preparing it for its new home.

I didn’t see what that entailed, but he’d taken on the care for the beast diligently from nearly day one, so he probably knew more than me about that.

Once Diamed sent me that data for the jump, I could lock it in and engage the FTL drive.

It felt good, definitive—this was the last obstacle before the start of our journey to fix Chloe’s ports.

I felt lighter as I surfed us through the high-speed currents.

It was a solid course with no turbulence, no issues, and, when I dropped us out of FTL, we were—as we were meant to be—right above a planet. Except it wasn’t Gonovar.

My hackles rose, and my body shifted without conscious command at the sense of betrayal rushing through me. I knew that planet anywhere—Sune, the very bane of my existence—the one place in the entire galaxy I never, ever wanted to set foot on again.

The female had betrayed us—me, mostly. I felt like an idiot for not realizing that she had seen my tails that day when I came out of the shower, after she’d somehow gotten into my room.

She had managed to navigate us right to Sune without us realizing, aided by the fact that the only person who could accurately understand the complex star charts was kept off the bridge because I was terrified she’d hurt herself.

Sure, Gonovar was a system relatively near Sune, but in hindsight, she had probably insisted on that location for the Ferai beast precisely for that reason.