Secondhand Spaceship by Noah Adams

Author:Noah Adams [Adams, Noah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Miles stumbled up the ship with Mykira close behind him. She didn’t even need to be that close to intimidate him, what with the remote in her hand, but she seemed to like to make sure everyone was aware of her mass. The rest of the Culpras forced Kajsa and Zerith to pick up Traz and Chase, who were still unconscious, and carry them through the bulkhead door.

“You, stay here with the unconscious ones,” Mykira ordered and pointed at Zerith. “You two, come with me. You’ll fly the ship.”

One of the Culpras shoved Kajsa away from the rest of the group, and she and Miles followed Mykira out of the cargo hold and into the cockpit. Miles wondered if Captain Jack had any protocols for this kind of thing, some kind of booby trap that would eject interlopers into space, but he had no idea how to find them, much less trigger them. Not to mention there was a good chance they were as broken down as the rest of the ship if they even existed in the first place.

Kajsa and Miles sat in the co-captains’ chairs beside the console while Mykira took the third behind them. It squeaked as it took her weight, and she had trouble fitting her considerable bulk within the confines of the armrests. That didn’t stop her from leveling her weapon at Miles’s back as he hesitated.

“Get us off this planet,” she ordered.

“I will, but the ship just needs a moment to warm up. Patience is a virtue, y’know,” Miles said as he began to flip all the right buttons and dials to wake the Skyhawk up. “And… don’t you have your own ship, anyway?” He gestured around the crowded Skyhawk. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it isn’t exactly spacious here… and there are five of you.”

“What, and miss the chance to ride around in the ‘mythical’ Skyhawk?” Mykira laughed. “I suppose I could take some of your crew onto my ship as hostages while some of my people stayed here, but I don’t think you’d actually let me do that. I have a feeling you’d be meddlesome,” she shrugged. “This way there’s no one to rescue, and I can keep an eye on you.”

Suddenly, she leaned in even closer, and Miles suppressed a shudder as he felt her breath on his ear. “And besides, I don’t mind if things get a little cozy, do you?”

“Whatever lights your fire, I guess,” Miles shrugged, hiding a grimace. “I just figured someone like you would be… smarter. If I were in your shoes, I’d shoot all of us here and now, take the translation device, and head to Malion…” Miles said, turning in his seat to stare at the Culpras. “But you’re not doing that, so I’m gonna guess that Elriog doesn’t actually know you’re here. In fact, maybe he expressly forbid you to interfere. Maybe that’s why you need me and the Skyhawk. At least until we have the device, right? Because then I’m betting you can just ask for forgiveness, huh?”

“You talk too much,” Mykira growled.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.