Page 42 of Time Traveling Space Bastards

I was just as livid as Torrek and usually I was pretty level-headed in a crisis. Valtens had my Velne. And what was more than that, my time machine let him take her. I watched the footage. Time hadn’t been kind to my brother. The ideal on my planet as well fed, but also strong and healthy.

Valtens never learned to care for himself because he had people who did that for him. He would have had to have learned to cook, wash his clothes, and groom himself if he left his ship and Enix behind when he realized he was stuck. I had no doubt he would have had that programming added to Ghol before they left because he didn’t take anyone with him but Ghol.

He hadn’t been caring for himself well, even being on his own for fifteen years. He wasn’t armed because he couldn’t carry our weapons in public on this planet. If Big Daddy hadn’t gassed Omi, she could have handled Valtens. Valtens was wearing a mask, so Big Daddy would have known the gas was going to knock everyone out but him. He could easily take Baxter, and he did.

And my fucking time machine rarely explained his motives when he did whatever the fuck he wanted. Big Daddy was a lot like my mother in that regard. He wanted us to figure it out. But this was a lot more dangerous than crashing into a child’s pool. Valtens could really hurt her.

“If you won’t tell us why, tell us where she is,” I demanded.

“You can’t just go barging in,” Ghol said. “Valtens packed weapons from our planet and he didn’t leave them on the ship. Valtens is jealous of you. You’re smarter and he knows more people like you than want him as king. You’ve beaten him at everything since you were kids. I’m pretty sure he thinks the only way he’ll win is if he removes you from the equation.”

“Which is illegal, but if there are no witnesses, he can spin whatever story he wants,” Torrek said.

I knew my brother was jealous. It was why we stopped being close when we got older. Everything was a competition because eventually, we’d be in the biggest contest of our lives for the throne. I didn’t beat him because I was smarter or stronger. I just tried harder. Valtens expected everything to be given to him, even when it was a contest with his equal.

I hated to say this because he was my brother, but he’d turned into the kind of male who would kill me and all my friends to win the throne. And he had my Velne right now. If I knew Baxter, she’d keep that quiet.

If Big Daddy had a neck, I’d be wringing it right about now. But he didn’t feel pain and couldn’t really be reasoned with. Still, he liked Baxter, and I didn’t think he wanted her to die.

“Are you actually going to help?” I snapped.

“I accessed surrounding cameras and have his location. Before I give it to you, you will need a plan.”

“You’ll need weapons,” Ghol said. “Valtens was able to buy from the military, so he’s not going to be using what the average citizen can get.”

“No,” Enix said. “I’ve scanned the data and I’ve seen what kind of weapons they have on this planet. They are primitive and brutal compared to ours, but the noise is the same. Their police force usually shows up when they are fired because someone calls. Baxter was able to explain our appearance before, but we are going to have a pretty hard time making people think we aren’t from another planet if we have weapons with tech not available on this planet. If they don’t automatically think we’re from another planet, they will think we are terrorists, and it won’t end well for us. We have to avoid those weapons going off.”

Fuck. That complicated things, but it wasn’t completely undoable. I needed to think, and I was having trouble doing that with my Velne involved.

“Human security is primitive compared to ours, but they do have it,” Enix said. “Big Daddy sent me the address. I was able to access the blueprints and his security. It’s just cameras. I can trick those. I’m fairly certain he’s counting on those to warn him we are there.”

“Their locks are also primitive,” Omi said. “If I can bypass my mom’s biosignature on an S7 door, then I can pick those locks.”

Torrek pulled Omi into a hug.

“I wanted to strangle you when you did that, but good. I would have just kicked it down.”

“And Valtens would have started shooting,” I groaned.

Omi’s criminal past was going to pay off in more ways than one. And she started laughing hysterically.

“I’ve got an idea.”