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On legs that still leak blood from multiple blaster wounds, I race to my ship. With every footstep my head swims, and I have to fight to remain in my sivot form. Stronger as my beast, I can feel the rapid healing abilities that come with my altered form, my flesh knitting together as I run.
The ramp from the command deck is still down, beckoning me inside. I skid to a halt as a flash of bright green catches my eye. It's Mordox, waving me down from across the field. I raise a weary hand in reply then notice the hauler parked off to the side, the front heavily damaged from when I crashed it into the luminetric barrier trying to escape the Ziarians.
With the swipe of my clawed hand, the panel scans my palm and releases the ramp into the cargo hold. Then I wedge my massive, beastly body behind the controls of the hauler and drive it over to where Mordox sags on his feet.
"The Lizordian took the females," Mordox tells me as I squeeze out from behind the controls and open the cargo hold door.
"Help me get all the males inside the hauler. We're going after them."
Together, we carry the four unconscious males into the belly of the hauler.
"Did the Lizordian say where he's taking them?" I ask as we hurry back to my ship.
"As I fought to remain conscious, he told them he was taking them to Valose, where other humans are waiting for them." Mordox rubs at his temples. "Does that make any sense to you?"
My sivot shakes his shaggy head. "No. Valosians are an unenlightened species. They know nothing of what lies beyond their world. There are no humans on Valose."
"That's what I know to be true, as well," Mordox says. "Maybe something has changed that."
The hauler bumps up the ramp, and I don't slow until we're inside the cargo hold on my ship.
"I will hail my brother Behtu," I say, morphing back into my Kaul form and exiting the hauler. "If there's a way to track the Lizordian’s ship, he will know."
"Let me get them settled, and then I'm right behind you." Mordox opens the hauler's hatch as the other Ziarians begin to awaken.
I nod in agreement, and Mordox stays behind while I race to the command deck, set the ship to launch, then hail Behtu.
"What trouble now, Qhix?" Behtu drawls, so arrogant, I can hear the cocky smirk in his voice.
"A Lizordian has taken Tasha and four other females from Crao. I need?—"
"Crao?" he interrupts. I can practically see him sneering. "What in the bliking dund are you doing on a planet at the edge of the known Universe?"
"I'll explain later." I bristle over his chastising, but my wounded pride will have to wait. "Can you use your ship to track another Lizordian craft?"
"Perhaps..." Behtu's voice fades off as I hear the tips of his fingers rapidly tapping on a monitor. "I'm sending you coordinates for a Lizordian freighter moving away from Crao."
"Can you tell where it's headed?" I drop down into my seat at the command console and set a path to intercept.
"No," Behtu says. "It's between galaxies. Hard to tell where it might veer off. Where are you now?"
"Just left the surface of Crao."
"I'm closer to the craft than you. Want me to intercept?"
"Yes!" I shout, my heart pounding in my chest. "Halt him, but with caution. There are five females on board and one is my mate."
TASHA
My body jolts with a surge of awareness, yanking me out of the darkness. Groggily, I squint my eyes open and struggle to orient myself. The room comes into blurry view, and waves of agony pulse through my veins, courtesy of the cowboy lizard guy and his stun gun.
The groan that slips from my lips is muffled, as if I'm hearing it through water.
I blink rapidly, willing my vision to clear. The sterile sheen of a medical bay materializes around me, its walls transparent. Romy, Zoe, Darcy, and Stacy are here, their bodies still and lifeless as they lie sprawled across the cold floor. Three other girls, strangers huddled together in the far corner with unease etched on their faces, share our transparent prison.
As I pan my gaze left, my breath catches in my throat, a silent scream at the sight of the cowboy lizard. He stands with his back to us, behind a command console on the opposite side of the barrier. He's not paying us any mind, too busy navigating us through space displayed on the viewscreen before him.
He is a cascade of turquoise scales, with a thick tail that sweeps the ground, and a neon-red and yellow mane cascading from beneath his white Stetson, a stark contrast to the clinical sterility of our cage. I'll never forget the sneer on his scaled face when he leveled his weapon on me and fired.
