Page 17 of Relyn (Warriors of Etlon #6)

Nora

A few years ago Nora had mastered old fashioned key locks, and had felt like challenging herself further.

She’d moved onto the fancier space locks, which relied mostly on the same set of override codes and wire layouts, and the one on the cabin door was no different, especially when she was on the inside trying to get out.

Once she tricked it into resetting, she had the door open in less than five minutes.

Stay here, Relyn had ordered. Well, technically, she was a prisoner on a pirate ship, and according to all the romance novels she’d read in her time, it was practically her duty to escape, even if it was just to feed the cat.

Nora had also learned the trick to navigating the crowded school hallways.

Always walk with a purpose and act like you expect everyone to get out of your way.

That kind of attitude parted the throngs of students like Moses parting the Red Sea.

Nora adopted that stance now, even though the halls were practically empty.

If she walked with purpose, people would assume that she belonged there, and no one would stop her.

It seemed to work. She got the odd look from a passing pirate, but considering she was wearing an oversized shirt and she was wandering around in socks, plus the fact that all of the pirates seemed to be male, Nora stood out like a sore thumb.

She probably wandered for about ten minutes, not wanting to stop and ask for directions, before she found the large bay that she’d been carried out of the night before. There was a very shiny ship parked in the middle and stacks of unidentifiable crates here and there.

Along the right side of the room were three hatches.

Two of them looked identical and the third had many more blinking lights.

She assumed that was the one that Clover’s ship was attached to.

Nora crossed over to the panel and rolled her eyes.

It was the exact same setup that was in Relyn’s room.

It would take her less than two minutes to pop that sucker open.

About one minute and forty seconds in, she noticed a commotion behind her. Two pirates flanked the big warthog gorilla and they were approaching fast. None of them looked amused. Nora keyed in the final sequence and the door slid open just as they pulled up.

“And what do you want?” Nora demanded. She put her hands on her hips and gave him the best teacher stare that she had refined over the better part of ten years.

He actually took a step back. It was amazing how many bullies across the universe were all the same.

When he didn’t answer, she turned around and headed into the ship.

Warthog gorilla made a move to follow her, and she swiveled around.

“Does this ship belong to you?”

“No, but-”

“Well, then you need to ask permission to come aboard. That’s just polite manners. And before you ask, no. You may not.”

Nora managed to get through the airlock tunnel and into Clover’s ship before the hulk processed the fact that she didn’t actually have any authority and got mad.

She heard him growl just as she closed the door.

Hopefully he wasn’t as good at opening doors as she was.

Nora had no idea how she was going to get past him again.

Perhaps he would just get bored and go away.

Either way, she had time to find Data, feed him, and figure out how to take him with her.

Nora shouldn’t have worried about locating him. The moment she replicated his food, he brushed up against her leg. It was so like a cat. She gave him a few pettings and kind words and then went in search of her other business.

First of all, it wouldn’t do to walk around in this shirt.

It was ridiculous. She peeled it off and grabbed a black t-shirt that the ladies back on Etlon Two had replicated for her.

Next, she opened the secret compartment under the bed that Clover had quickly shown her.

It was for emergencies, and this definitely qualified.

Nora had gone out shooting with her father when she was young, so she knew the basics, and could handle both guns with bullets and laser pistols.

Bullets were apparently frowned on in space, as putting holes in things was generally bad for everyone’s health.

Clover had stashed two laser pistols, a rifle in pieces and two wicked looking knives.

There was also a credit stick there with a thousand credits on it.

That could be useful, but she would feel bad taking it without replacing it.

After hunting around a bit more, she breathed a sigh of relief when she found a cat carrier on the top shelf of a closet.

Unfortunately, the minute he saw it, Data made a run for it.

She caught him though, and spent a good ten minutes trying to shove a twelve pound cat into a six pound hole.

Once she’d successfully completed the task, she tucked one laser pistol into her waistband, and slipped the other in with the cat.

She located her shoes and pulled them on, and then her coat.

Someone had sewn up the bullet hole and given it a thorough cleaning, which had surprised Nora, considering no one seemed to even own a coat on Etlon Two and Meadow had been campaigning pretty hard for her to stay.

Her lock picks were back in her pocket. She was beginning to feel properly equipped for this adventure.

Nora checked the settings on the pistol. She wanted it powerful enough to stop a gorilla, but not enough to kill him. She cranked it up one spot. He was a very big gorilla. She picked up the cat carrier and Data let her know how displeased he was with the situation.

“Don’t worry. It’s only temporary. I promise.”

Nora opened the hatch and was not too surprised the tunnel was clear.

It was slightly too short for him to stand comfortably upright, and he was probably waiting at the other end.

She shut the hatch behind her, giving it a new code.

Bright would just have to live with it, but she didn’t feel like giving the pirates free reign of Clover’s ship.

It didn’t look like they’d actually removed any of the cargo, which seemed odd to Nora.

The cargo manifest that she’d seen had a pretty pricey total on it, including some delicacies that were only available on Etlon Two, which meant Earth one percenters would go crazy for them.

Sure enough, at the end of the tunnel, Warthog Gorilla was waiting. He had been pacing, by the look of it, and getting frothier by the moment.

He saw her and stormed toward her. She raised her pistol.

“Hold it right there, Buster!”

“I am Ketle!”

She wasn’t sure if that was his name or species or some sort of emotion that the translator had bungled. She decided to go with name.

“Hello, Ketle, nice to meet you. I’m Nora, and this is my laser pistol and my secret weapon,” she said, motioning to the cat carrier, “and if you don’t calm down, I’m going to have to sic him on you.” Data chose the perfect moment to let out a loud yowl of discontent.

“I will rip its head off! I will rip your head off!”

“Do you really think so?” Nora said, cribbing one of Atticus Finch’s most famous lines. She jiggled the cat cage one more time in warning, and Data did not disappoint. His yowl echoed the hangar in the most ominous manner.

Ketle actually had to stop and think about that one.

The monster that you couldn’t see was always scarier than the one that you could, and he stared at the carrier without knowing what beast lay within.

Without waiting for him to decide, Nora raised her pistol and shot him in the chest. He crumbled to the floor in a heap, but he was still breathing. Good.

Nora calmly walked back toward Relyn’s quarters, the other pirates giving her and her mysterious pet a wide berth. Taking down the bully had raised her street cred. She might make a pirate after all.