Taken to the Stars by J.N. Chaney

Author:J.N. Chaney [Chaney, J.N. & Partlow, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

15

I thought about lying. Not that it came naturally to me, but we were in a tight situation here, and Giblet had been right. This woman was profiteering off crime and victimization, and just because she was a refugee didn’t mean she was a good person.

But she was a refugee…from the Anguilar.

“The three of us,” I told her, “were all prisoners on an Anguilar zoo ship.”

The sharp intake of breath beside me from Laranna told me her reaction to my honesty, but she kept her mouth shut, perhaps because she trusted me but more likely because she realized it was too late to turn back now. Ulan’s reaction was just as notable. Her eyes went wide, and the muzzle of the gun wavered.

“Those actually exist?” I would have expected the question to be skeptical, disbelieving, but instead, there was horror in her voice and her expression. “I’ve heard stories of the menageries, but…”

“They’re real,” I confirmed. “I was taken from a planet that doesn’t even know any of you guys exist. We’ve barely visited our own moon. We all woke up from our stasis chambers because the power cells had run low, and we were about to be boarded by pirates. We managed to fight them off and steal a couple of their power cells, which was just enough for us to jump here.”

“Just the three of you?” Now she was skeptical. “Were there weapons on the ship?”

That was too much for Laranna to contain herself, despite the threat of being shot for speaking out of turn.

“The warriors of the Strada are never unarmed. We are taught to be deadly even when naked.”

Oh, shit. That brought up mental images that I did not need distracting me right now.

“We used what we had and took their weapons,” I cut in. “We got away, but our problem is, we can’t go any further. We need another power cell, and everyone said Jerrad was the only place we could get it. We offered him all the exotic animals that were on the boat with us—we brought samples down in our lander—in exchange for a power cell, but he turned us down. Instead, he offered us another deal.” I sucked in a breath and steeled myself. She might react to this how I’d imagined, or she might just shoot us. “He’d give us the power cell if we killed you for him.”

Of all the reactions to that statement that I could have imagined, raucous laughter wasn’t among them. The woman even lowered the gun she’d been pointing at Giblet, though she still kept it aimed in our general direction, guffawing hoarsely. Her kids snickered as well, the boy around a mouthful of greens.

“Oh, that loathsome little shit,” she said, the laughter fading to a chuckle. “He’s tried this before, you know.” She used the gun as a pointer, which made me nervous as shit. “He’s recruited every drifter and mercenary that’s come through this little slice of hell to try to sabotage my business or even take a shot at me because he doesn’t have the balls to try it himself.

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