Fire Strike by Elsa Jade

Author:Elsa Jade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science fiction romance space opera
ISBN: 978-1-941547-32-8
Publisher: Red Circle Ink
Published: 2022-04-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Tick watched without comment as they laid out the plan that was supposed to win them Ydro-Down.

They would take the Q stash that she’d shown to Arjay and load up the transport. Once they’d jumped clear of QueCorp’s ships in orbit, they’d send out a sale call. They had QueCorp’s customer list, and there was always demand for qubition. They had enough to sell to turn a hefty profit, enough to buy the defensive weapons and fighters that Ahmya wanted and Arjay apparently didn’t.

“Mercenaries are like rats,” he said. “Once they’re around, we’ll never get rid of them.”

“I was essentially a mercenary,” Ahmya pointed out. When Arjay stammered a sort of apology, the woman smiled, with a lot of teeth. “And you’re right that I’m never leaving.”

Gavyn tapped his thumb on the tabletop, breaking the tension between the two. “The difference this time is that the guards won’t be keeping us trapped; they’ll be keeping us safe. And we are all leaving—at least long enough to make these deals to secure our future.”

Tick’s heart skipped a beat at the thought of leaving the deeps for the vastness of space and the unpredictable dangers of other people. She’d been on her own for so long, hiding, yes, but good at it. And now she was floating high in the sky, looking down on her moon. It was one thing to keep herself alive, but taking responsibility for all that hard rock and fragile life…

Being a queen was terrifying. No wonder so many princesses went to sleep instead.

Oh, she wasn’t really royalty, she knew that well enough. Although the thought amused her, and watching Arjay’s lips twist helplessly when she said it was even more fun. But when she looked at Gavyn, she saw a real leader. Someone like Madre, who thrived on the challenges of people and ideas, action and planning.

Her gaze shifted to the foreman’s right-hand man. She was more like Arjay, curious about the details and what made things tick. She almost laughed at her own pun, but then they’d definitely think she was wormy. She glanced at Gavyn again, her wariness of him dissipating. She’d been afraid of what he would be willing to do to protect his people. But probably Madre would’ve seemed as forbidding and uncompromising to someone who didn’t know how she could laugh and recite poetry. But this wasn’t the time for evening songs.

She put her hand on the table, not quite the same thump that Gavyn had done, but in her head it felt like a bit of punctuation. All three looked at her, and her heart picked up the beat it had skipped before at the combined focus of three such strong people. “When do we leave?”

Gavyn took a breath, his broad shoulders seeming to double in size to carry the burden of a free moon. “We leave with the next sunset. When the nightly vapor vents are opened, Jashanna will ignite the damps. The backwash will serve as a distraction and a sensor jam, hopefully long enough for us to get clear in the transport and make our jump.

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