Metal Pirate by Lauren Esker

Author:Lauren Esker [Esker, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-22T05:00:00+00:00

Claudia had almost forgotten, until stepping outside with Skara, that she was on an alien world.

It didn't quite seem alien, was the thing. The transition from Seattle to Louisiana had been more jarring. The forest around them, of mixed coniferous and deciduous trees, could have been a forest in the Pacific Northwest, aside from the purple cast to some of the bushes and trees. Even that seemed like a peculiar optical illusion, as if maybe she'd just forgotten she was wearing purple-tinted sunglasses.

Then she looked up and noticed the planet's rings.

They arched overhead at an angle, a pale stripe across the sky from horizon to horizon. They could almost have been mistaken for a jet contrail, except the band was too wide and too solid and there was no hint of drift or fading. Loose feathers of clouds trailed across it, emphasizing its steadiness and strangeness.

Claudia stared upward with her mouth open until realizing Skara was no longer by her side.

He'd gone over to berate the villagers loading barrels onto a makeshift wooden sledge. Claudia sighed aloud and started to follow him, then decided it wasn't her job to smooth things over between Skara and other people. If he wanted to yell at people and burn bridges for himself here, that was his issue to deal with.

"—at least ask me before opening my cargo doors and taking things from my damned ship—"

... anyway, he kind of had a point.

Claudia stretched on tiptoe, but it didn't look like Lyr was on top of the ship anymore. No one was paying any particular attention to her. She wandered over to investigate the trees.

Aside from the purple tint, most of the trees looked normal. Claudia crushed some needles between her fingers. They had a strange, sharp smell, not really like pine at all, and left a purplish smudge on her fingertips as if she'd been picking berries.

"Be careful," Skara said behind her, and she jumped.

"Why?" she asked, turning quickly around and scrubbing her fingers on her jeans. "Is it poisonous?"

"No, there's big wildlife on this planet, and a lot of it is immune to energy weapons. Didn't you notice the fence around the village?"

"No," Claudia said. "The only part of the village I've seen is the inside of one house. They stunned me and took me there."

"Jerks," Skara muttered, and it suddenly occurred to Claudia that a good deal of his anger was on her behalf, not his own. Before she could examine this more closely, he said, "Hey, give me your hand."

"Why?" But she trustingly put her hand in his.

Skara brushed his fingers across the gold cuff on her wrist. It split open and dropped off into his hand.

"Hey!" Claudia snatched it and jerked it out of his reach. "Those are mine. Uh, I mean, actually that other guy's, but—okay, so I stole them, but—"

"Whoa, slow down. They're not baubles, you know. I can get you pretty bracelets if that's what you want. These are—"

"Extremely powerful energy weapons," Claudia said, cupping her hand protectively around the cuff as she sealed it back into place.

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