Page 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Dani

They sat on the remains of what had once been the hostile creature, wisps of smoke trailing up along the flesh. The lights were on overhead and there were still men surrounding them. Kryxis sat behind her as she settled between his legs, stunner on her lap.

“Come on, Dani, give it up,” Saul called. “He’s coming with us whether you like it or not.”

She didn’t say a word, and neither did Kryxis. They merely watched the soldiers, waiting. More showed up, standing by the door. It was obvious now they’d been told Kryxis had been found and were just waiting for orders. But she knew Saul wouldn’t make the call with her there. No matter how bad her relationship was now with her family, she was still a head official’s daughter, and Saul knew he’d be worse off if he iced her than not getting a hold of Kryxis.

And she would make them wait hours—days—if she had to. She was going nowhere without Kryxis.

Saul paced by the door, his face starting to turn red. More soldiers came but still they didn’t budge. Kryxis wrapped his tail around her protectively and she in turn gripped his thigh.

“You have to give him up, Dani,” Saul shouted. “You’re only making this harder for yourself. You already face termination, but I doubt your father will object if we take you into custody.”

“I’m not moving, so you can forget it,” she answered back.

“We could take you by force.”

She smiled as Kryxis’ head moved above hers, a low growl of warning rumbling in his chest. “I’d like to see you try.”

Saul cursed, then disappeared. A moment later, Nadine entered.

“Please, Dani, it doesn’t have to be this way,” she said, inching toward them.

“Yes, it does.”

Kryxis snarled, making Nadine jump back. “We are about to make port soon and we are certain back up will come. You will face too many to fight. It’s only a matter of time.”

The soldiers were creeping closer, getting bold despite the fact Kryxis could still take them all with ease.

“We’ll see about that, Nadine.”

Eventually she disappeared too. They were getting close, Dani could feel it. They were going to dock soon at whatever port they’d arrived at. They might be swarmed but she would fight. She’d climb on his back if she had to, to keep the ice off him, letting him slice his way through the hordes of soldiers. She didn’t care what it took.

“Let me pass, thumb-head,” someone shouted by the door, “Or I’ll burn the whole lot of you.”

The soldiers parted, and Phen slipped past, flamethrower in hand and a twinkle in her eye. Lex followed close behind. Then came Sheek who pushed a soldier aside with the hilt of her blade, hissing at them. Behind her came Myrell, Tom, and Morse, tools in hand which they now used as weapons.

“What are you doing here?” Dani asked.

They huddled around her and Kryxis. “What do you think?” Myrell said. “We’re all screwed anyway. They planned to demote us and take our pay while not compensating us for the incident on X110. So, we said fuck them. I sent the message out like you asked. Only with a little bit different wording.”

“I’m done with the bullshit here,” said Lex.

“And the lies,” Tom added.

“I grabbed the flamethrower from the ship,” said Phen, attempting to laugh evilly but doing a poor job of it.

They faced the soldiers who glanced at Saul, now looking more red than ever. “You’ll be arrested once we dock! You’re just prolonging the inevitable!”

They didn’t falter. They sat together and waited for the inevitable.

An hour passed or maybe several, and the soldiers were growing more and more irritated, starting to threaten that they would fire on them. But still they refused to move.

A voice eventually rang out. “Docking in effect. Please stand by.” The ship slowed then trembled as it came to a halt. A moment later, the voice returned. “Docking complete, doors now open.”

Dani stood up first, then Kryxis, and the others followed.

“Now you let us pass,” Dani ordered.

Saul waved at the soldiers. “Let them,” he told them. “They’ll have more armed men waiting for them.”

Dani turned to Kryxis. “Carry me?”

He did so without hesitation, picking her up like the many times he had before and cradling her to him. Her crew came around to guard his back as they made for the exit.

The soldiers followed as she knew they would. But still, they wouldn’t fire. She braced herself for a battle as they approached the exit to the ship and entered the massive docking station of a city-sized ship port.

As she feared, there were armed men waiting. Only they looked different. They wore sleek black and gray uniforms with a silver emblem on their shoulders that she didn’t recognize. In front of them stood a tall woman with onyx eyes and tightly braided hair. And next to her was—

Dani gasped and Kryxis froze.

It was another vrisha. Female by what she could tell, with slender horns and violet-red scales, wearing stunning leather-like armor.

“Do not fear,” said the woman with onyx eyes, smiling. “We are from the alliance.

The alliance soldiers and Nexacor’s were at a standstill, Saul screaming at an alliance officer who didn’t budge. No one made a move, knowing they would be banned from the port forever if they started a fight.

The onyx-eyed woman looked unfazed by Saul’s threats and approached them, along with the violet-red vrisha female at her heel.

“My name is Morgana. I am an official of the alliance, as is my companion, Crux.” She gestured to the vrisha beside her. “You must be Dani.”

Dani had Kryxis put her down so she could face her. “That’s right.”

“And this is your crew?”

“It is.”

Morgana’s eyes drifted up to Kryxis and looked at his extra limbs with wonder. She spoke to her vrisha companion in vrishan, and Dani caught some of their words. The alliance member was astounded and had seen nothing like him. The vrisha female agreed.

“Fascinating,” Morgana said. “We almost thought the message was a hoax. But we had to see for ourselves to be sure.”

“I didn’t think you’d gotten my message,” Tom said, stepping forward.

“We did. We tried to send out a response, but it had been blocked, I assume because of your company. So, we found your location and made our way here. We’ve heard rumors of vrisha fledglings being taken then found stranded many years later, so we took the message very seriously.” She waved over to her soldiers.

Just as Saul came around to try to intimidate the alliance soldiers again, another group of security exited Nexacor’s ship. Dani caught Nadine and the heads among them.

“We are Nexacor’s representatives,” said Leland as they approached. “And this crew has violated our laws therefore is under our jurisdiction, so you cannot take them.”

“On the contrary,” Morgana said. “A corp like yourself doesn’t stand above the law of the alliance. You and the owners of Nexacor will have to make your case in court under the governing systems. Vrisha are protected under us. Any foul play under Nexacor or any company will be held accountable and punished by our laws.”

“Oh, there’s lot of foul play, trust me,” Lex stated.

Leland scoffed. “You have no evidence. This vrisha came aboard our ship and attacked our people.”

“That’s not true,” Dani snapped. “Something else got onboard, and Kryxis took it down. Its corpse is inside.”

Morgana nodded to one of her officers. “Make sure nothing gets taken or thrown off the ship.”

“That’s not all,” Dani continued. “The company that took Kryxis and experimented on him paid Nexacor to try to hide the evidence.”

“You have no proof of that either,” Leland said. “These are false, baseless accusations.”

Dani went to argue that she did, then remembered the datachip was gone. “We did have proof. I swear we did, but they took it.”

Leland started to argue when Kryxis made a sound. He slipped his hand to the waistline of his pants and revealed a narrow inner pocket. From there, he took out a slender black device. Dani recognized it as the datachip.

“Kept safe.” He grinned.