10
TSCHENKAR
Thuliak’s smug face filled the screen on my bridge. “...we put our differences aside and meet this threat. I don’t want a single woman harmed or even touched by these monsters.”
I sat in my scion’s chair, slouched to the side, trying to look as arrogant as possible. I wanted Thuliak to think I was going into a boarding pod in a few minutes, and that I’d be launching headlong into battle just like he was about to do. Even if I were going to do that though, I wouldn’t do it with a smile on my face, and I wouldn’t bow and scrape at his feet. I’d agree reluctantly, and I’d try to get as much out of him as I could before I agreed to help.
“Make me Second.”
He growled. “No. You’re Fifth. If you don’t want to help, then the women of Eden will see who is willing to help them.”
“Third.”
“Fifth.”
This fucking cunt of a scion. I wasn’t even negotiating wtih him in good faith! But if I were, he’d have lost me by now.
“Do you understand how haggling works?” I said. “You have to actually givesomewhere, Thuliak.”
He ground his teeth together, and he said the word almost as if he were spitting it out into my face. “Fourth.”
I cupped a hand over my ear, turning my head toward him. “Fourth? You’re making us Fourth?”
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
I turned toward my bridge crew. “You heard him. We’re Fourth now, boys!”
I gestured for them to all start cheering. I’d get them better than Fourth, but I couldn’t tell them that, just in case someone in my pack who had a bone to pick with me decided to rat me out to Thuliak.
“I’ll see you in orbit,” Thuliak said.
“Or on the surface. If it comes to that.”
Thuliak nodded, and the screen shut off.
“Are the boarding pods ready?” I asked.
“Two minutes,” my helmsman said.
“You have the bridge,” I said to him, and then I was off toward the boarding pods.
I met with the boarding squad just outside the pods. It was 100 of my fiercest warriors. There were thousands of pirates, maybe even tens of thousands, but an alien in battle armor could take on hundreds of pirates without breaking a sweat.
“Keitan is going to lead the boarding pack,” I said.
Keitan raised an eyebrow at me.
“I won’t be joining you,” as if on queue, the ten men I’d hand-picked strutted in, fully armored and equipped. Their gleaming battle armor was a pale pink. It was mechanical in most places, but where it touched skin, it melded with our warriors’ organic forms. The organic-machine interface allowed our warriors to fire their weapons or adjust the properties of their armor with a mere thought. I touched the wall, and the ship split off a part of itself which formed into armor for me as well. It melded with my body, strengthening my lungs, circulatory system, and internal organs for the extreme g-forces I was about to experience.
Keitan, eyeing the others, nodded understanding. It was clear I was leading this small squad on some kind of special operation, and my whole pack knew I’d vowed revenge on Thuliak. Keitan was smart enough to not ask questions.
He slammed his big, strong hand onto my now armored shoulder. “Good luck, and may the Seed be strong.”
“The Seed is strong!” We all said in uniform, and then we slid into our pods.
My armor interfaced with the pod, and then my pod connected directly to the other pods in my squad. Technically all of us were interconnected through the Hivemind—even Thuliak and I were connected through it—but these connections between pods and armor were direct—and exclusive. Unless there were a traitor in my hand-picked squad of ten men, Thuliak would have no idea we were coming unlessWrathdetected us via a scan.
“We go hard and fast,” I said to the rest of my squad. “Accelerate as hard as your meatsack can tolerate. I don’t give two shits if you pass out or shit yourself, as long as you wake up again when it’s time to board.”