Page 34 of Relyn (Warriors of Etlon #6)

Relyn

“ Y ou sure you’re good to go?” Wendy asked again, as Grom poured himself into the back of the crate.

“I can go without oxygen for several hours. And there’s a lot of extra oxygen here too,” Grom said.

“I don’t like this plan,” Wendy said.

Relyn wasn’t too keen on it either, but if there was a better one, Relyn couldn’t see it.

Grom was back up. In case things went bad, he would be lying in wait for whoever was unlucky enough to open the crate.

He’d be unarmed, but a Georgun was fluid, literally, and could be hard to kill by traditional methods.

They were also hard to spot in the back of a shadowy crate.

“We won’t seal it until the last minute,” Relyn said.

“We can’t lose these,” Grom insisted before melting into the corner.

Grom didn’t know that Bright had already hedged their bets.

She’d taken the majority of the genetic material out of the containers and into some that would be safely stored aboard this ship.

She’d left enough to fool a quick scan, but losing any of it was risking the potential of reinstituting the entire Etlonian species.

The coordinates that Alana had sent them were remote, near a large planetoid.

It had no atmosphere, so Relyn didn’t anticipate that she intended to land and do the hand off on the surface.

Besides, that type of exchange is what had lost her the crate in the first place.

No, Alana would have to dock with them. If it came to it, Relyn would risk blowing his whole cover, and surround Nora taking any potential blows while maneuvering her back onto the ship.

They’d been waiting at the coordinates for nearly two hours, which Relyn didn’t mind. It meant that the Etlonian warship had more time to close the gap. But it also gave Rutra more time to somehow track them down and catch up.

If Alana’s spy was still in play, then she would already know that Relyn had succeeded in taking the crate. All the variables were swirling in his head and a knot of dread where his stomach should have been.

Relyn left Wendy and Grom and headed back to the cockpit where Bright stared at the console as if she expected to see something.

“Got any more secrets that might get us all killed?” Relyn couldn’t stop himself from asking her.

“None that I anticipate being relevant,” Bright said. “You must admit, so far this mission has been mostly successful.”

“If you call Nora being held captive a sign of success,” Relyn said.

“You got a mate. We got a way to repopulate my species. Wendy has an admirer. These are all very positive outcomes.”

“Wendy and Grom?” Relyn questioned. “I can’t see it lasting long term.”

“Why? Because he’s not Mahdfel?”

“No. Because he’s a pirate. I mean, sure, if you plop him down and turn him into an algae farmer on a neutral planet, but you think Wendy would be happy with that?”

“And you? Will Nora be happy with being the mate of a spy who’s always pretending to be someone else?”

Relyn felt his anger grow inside, but he smashed it down.

Bright was right, and they both knew it, but until the chaos that she caused was righted, there could be no discussion of what happened next.

Surely Caldar didn’t expect him to be a spy his entire life.

A mate changed things. Before he had a chance to construct a reply, the console blipped.

“Finally!” Relyn said.

“You will let me do the negotiating,” Bright said. Her hair was turning colors more often than she probably intended, showing off a spectrum of bright hues.

“Fuck no. Alana doesn’t trust you. Hell, I don’t trust you,” Relyn said.

“Our ultimate motives are aligned. I only want-”

“I know. And you’re willing to trade anyone to get it.”

“That is not true. I would not trade Clover, or Orth, or probably Wendy,” Bright added.

“Exactly. Probably.”

Relyn hailed the other ship. “We have what you want. Prepare for dock.”

“No,” Alana’s voice came over the speaker. “No docking. Space the crate and we’ll retrieve it.”

Relyn cursed under his breath. “No. We are going to dock and we are going to trade Nora for the crate, just as we agreed.”

“I don’t trust you. Space it, and we’ll scoop it up and then talk about returning Nora.”

“No Nora, no crate,” Relyn stated.

“Our docking clamps are broken,” Alana spat out.

“They were working just fine a few fucking days ago. I call bluff. We’ll go together to-” he scanned and found the nearest object with a breathable atmosphere. It was a space station a few hours away, but it was not Mahdfel nor particularly lawless. “Station Garin 27.”

“The docking clamps-”

“They have a hangar big enough for your ship,” Relyn said, cutting off her excuse.

“Just space the crate and-”

“Not until I see Nora.”

“She’s not here,” Alana said.

Relyn let that sentence linger in silence for a long moment.

“Then we will fly there together, and when we land-”

“You can’t go there-” Alana blurted out.

Another long pause.

“You just admitted that Nora is not aboard your craft, and that you want me to give you the crate, and that you have no intention of allowing me to go to her location in order to retrieve her,” Relyn said.

“That’s not what I said,” Alana spat out.

Relyn used the silence against her again.

Patience was the key to this game. Bright opened her mouth to speak and Relyn held up his hand to stop her.

Alana wanted that crate just as much as he wanted Nora.

When she realized that she wouldn’t get it until he laid physical eyes on Nora, then they could start making a deal.

“Okay, you got me. She’s here,” Alana said.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Nora’s voice said over the coms. Relyn had no doubt it was her. Her voice sent a shiver of longing through his entire frame.

“But the docking clamps are broken. We’ll put her in an EV suit and send her over,” Alana said.

Bright muted the console. “Two things,” she said.

“The docking clamps are not broken, and that was a recording. Nora is not on the ship,” Relyn supplied.

“But you’ve successfully sold being a sucker and we may now space the crate with less suspicion and follow it and Grom to Nora’s location.”

Relyn nodded and headed back to the cargo area.

“Cargo is shortly on its way,” Bright said on the com.

Two eyeball stalks protruded from the crate. As Relyn came into the hold, they pivoted from Wendy to him.

“Time to go. We’re spacing the crate. Grom, this might get dicey. We’re going to have to follow them to Nora.”

“I’ve encapsulated the trackers and am ready to go. You can count on me,” Grom said from a mouth somewhere inside the crate. The eyes shrunk back and Wendy put on a reassuring smile as she closed the lid. The second the seals locked, her face fell into a grimace.

“This is a horrible idea,” she said again.

“I know, but I still don’t see any alternatives,” Relyn said as he shifted the crate into the airlock. “Seriously.” Relyn would go himself… if he trusted Bright farther than he could throw her. His shapeshifting ability was still his ace in the hole.

He closed the forcefield, opened the hull door, and watched the crate get sucked out into space.

Back to the cockpit, this time with Wendy hot on his heels, Relyn watched the crate drift further into space. Alana’s craft maneuvered itself into the crate’s path and easily hooked it with a mag hook.

“Now for Nora,” Relyn said into the com. Sure enough, a moment later, they spaced an EV suit. The visor was dark, so one couldn’t identify the person inside it. They weren’t moving either.

Alana’s ship was already putting some distance between them, probably wanting to be far away from them before Relyn discovered the motionless suit was indeed empty.

Bright stared at the EV suit. “Do we even bother?”

The console dinged, but that was the only warning they got before laser fire filled the viewscreen followed by a large flash of an explosion. Something had blown the EV suit to smithereens.

“That didn’t come from Alana’s ship,” Wendy said.

“An empty EV suit would not explode like that. They must have filled it with explosives,” Bright said, backing them away from the wreckage. Alana’s ship was already speeding off. The other ship fired after it but missed.

Relyn finally got a good look at the other ship, and it didn’t take much to realize that it wasn’t the Alana’s Misery, but Grom’s ship that Rutra had pursued them in.

“They wanted us to take the suit in and then set off the explosives. Alana just tried to kill me,” Bright said. The offense was clear in her voice.

Perhaps it was finally sinking in what it felt like when someone betrayed you.

“Maybe you should be wondering if Rutra wants to kill us too, because I’m pretty sure this ship isn’t a match for that one,” Wendy said.

She was absolutely right. Bright kicked it into high gear and sped off in a different direction than Alana. Now Rutra would have to pick a target. Would he choose the easier prey or follow the woman he was really after? Relyn couldn’t afford to have either ship destroyed.

He hailed Rutra, hoping that he would listen. His only play now was to stall for time.

“Now before you go and ruin the plan, Grom is on that ship,” Relyn said, slipping back into the even keeled tones of Rel, mercenary for hire.

“Plan? Plan? Your plan included stealing from me?”

“Your ship is full of Alana’s spies. If I hadn’t stolen it from you, then she would have known and secondly, I wouldn’t have any bait to track her back to her hiding place,” Relyn said.

“You’re on her fucking side!” Rutra howled.

“Did you not just see that explosion?” Bright interjected. “Alana sent a bomb over. You just stopped her from killing us all!”

“I’m just saying,” Rel drawled, “take a breath, let her get away and we’ll follow her at a respectful distance back to where she’s keeping her piles of treasure. But for all this fucking work, I’d better be getting forty percent.”

Rutra activated the vid screen. His gelatinous face appeared and he stared very intently as if trying to read his face.

“And what about my computers?” Rutra asked.

“Oh, I couldn’t have you following me that close if I wanted to make it look good. I’ve got the antiviral right here. Five minute fix and you’re right as rain. That spy problem though,” Relyn trailed off.

“That was a five minute fix as well. I spaced most of the crew,” Rutra said casually.

Relyn hid his horror. Rutra could be given his justice after Nora was safely in his arms.

“Then maybe we should make that a fifty percent split if you’ve got less crew to pay out,” Relyn said smoothly.

“There will be time for renegotiation at a later date,” Rutra said before flipping off the vid screen.

“He totally plans to murder us too, doesn’t he?” Wendy said.

“Absolutely. Do we still have a good stream on Grom?” Relyn asked.

“Still getting data,” Bright said.

“Then we head toward the Etlonians. We can’t take Rutra to Alana,” he said. He’d have to take the risk that Grom could hold his own, or that Alana would discover that the cylinders were practically empty. Then she’d be forced to contact them again for a real trade.

“Why the hell is this all so complicated? Wendy asked. No one answered. Mainly because the vidscreen was suddenly filled with a large sleek top of the line Mahdfel warship.

“Better late than never,” Wendy mumbled.

The console dinged and a smiling Etlonian appeared.

“Wendy, sister of my mate! Glad to see you are unharmed!

“Kave,” she said.

“And Bright. We shall have many, many words. Later,” Kave said. He appeared distracted for a moment. “The other ship is flashing Mahdfel friendly, transport carrier distress signals.”

“The Georgun captain just told us that he recently just spaced most of his crew,” Relyn said.

“And he tried to blow up Nora,” Wendy added.

Kave’s face literally darkened, flashes of mottled green played across his skin. “Do you have any preference as to his fate? Attempted murder of Mahdfel mates is a capital offence, but there is little honor in killing a Georgun. They are so...” He seemed to falter for the right word.

“Viscous?” Wendy added. “I know he’s Grom’s uncle, but he doesn’t have an honest bone in his body.”

“Georguns do not have any bones, let alone honest ones,” Kave said. “Though how a bone is honest, I-”

“You may try to capture him alive, but hopefully he puts up a fight and the whole point will be moot,” Bright added. Relyn agreed.

“We shall start after Nora. You follow when you have dealt with Rutra,” Relyn said.

Kave nodded and ended the transmission.