Page 27 of Beast Unburdened

I was expecting Sunder and the new guy at any moment and I was anxious to get back to the bridge. I hadn’t been sure if I wanted to see Ziame fight but now that the choice might be made for me it didn’t feel right. I wanted to know what was going on, wanted to be reassured by the viewscreen that he was still alive.

Instead, I leaned a little closer to the small window to get another look at the dock on this side of the ship. It was just a big stretch of tarmac really with various spaceships parked all over and stacks of crates waiting to be loaded. The entire place was busy with activity, small floating forklift-like things ferrying crates too and fro and spaceships coming and going. Then there were the various aliens walking around, it was just one big hive of activity and it was hard to spot if any of the moving figures in the distance was Sunder or not.

A hard thud on the outside hatch had me jumping back in shock and then suddenly Sunder’s fearsome face was peering in through the small window. Heart pounding from fright I hurried to pull the hatch open. I struggled with the heavy weight of the thing as I was using the manual opening mechanism and not the automatic one like we’d used in the hangar bay of the ship.

As soon as the door started opening Sunder shouldered his way in, then leaned out to pull someone up from the tarmac. A moment later two bags were thrown inside and a woman had followed the big gladiator into the small airlock. The two barely spared me a glance but instead both quickly shut the hatch, leaving only a tiny crack, and then they peered out as if checking if they were followed.

“See any?” Sunder rumbled in his low, gravelly voice. “No, I think we took care of them all. They won’t be able to guess which ship we boarded out of the dozens here.” The female didn’t speak English or any earth language I could recognize, though much to my surprise she looked entirely human. Except her hair was a shocking shade of red and her eyes when she finally glanced my way were this beautiful shade of gold.

When she straightened to her full height I realized she and I were the same size, which was a surprise because I rarely met a girl as tall as me. She cocked her head, red hair sliding over well-shaped muscular shoulders. This chick was stacked, in her tank top and work pants with scuffed boots covered by a long leather duster it was clear she was one tough lady and she looked like she could bench press me if she felt like it.

Still, when she moved to turn toward me and get a good look at me the way I was at her, she moved gracefully, womanly. She might be tough looking and strong but she was all woman, with makeup highlighting her striking eyes and red coating her full lips. She smirked at me, “Well hello there, aren’t you a cute one.” I had the unsettling feeling that this woman didn’t generally think much of other women.

She shrugged her shoulder and then strutted to the airlock exit. “Show me what I’ve got to work with then, Sunder the supposedly dead one.” Another cocky smirk was aimed at Sunder who looked pensive and maybe a little miffed though that was hard to tell since he always looked growly and fierce.

I was about to pass the new nav to point the way to the bridge when Sunder grabbed my arm and held me back. “I’ve got what we need, Strewn, it’s a shipyard two weeks out from here.” From the excited tone of his voice, I knew he was happy that he’d filled that part of his task, arguably the hardest part. “That’s fantastic Sunder, I guess we’ll be headed that way the moment the others return.”

As he let go of my arm I gently patted his shoulder, not in the least surprised that unlike the insides of his palms, the skin there felt pretty much exactly like touching stone except it was warm. The tall, red-headed woman behind me scraped her throat in what was obviously annoyance, “Are you guys always this slow?” From the corner of my eye, I saw Sunder glare at her disrespectful attitude and I matched his glare.

“This way,” I said and gestured for her to finally head out of the airlock. As we started walking I told the Tarkan male, “Sunder, can you let Tori know you’ve returned?” At my words, the male brightened considerably and with a nod, he shouldered the two bags our new nav had brought with a little higher, “I’ll drop these in your cabin.” We split up in the corridor and I led the new female toward the bridge while Sunder headed for the cabins and mess hall.

“Welcome aboard,” I said, trying to be friendly when the female was making me a little uncomfortable. She was probably just rough around the edges, a little abrasiveness was to be expected from a woman picking up a job like this on her own. That was risky after all. “I’m Abigail, what can I call you?”

She appraised me again with those sharp gold eyes, “Abigail huh? Human, I presume? Freed slave just like the rest of this lot?” I couldn’t tell if there was any judgment in her tone of voice so my spine stiffened, worry curling in my belly. Was this going to be a problem? Did we need to make sure she didn’t send out any coms?

Shrugging I said, “What makes you say that?” Striving for nonchalance without confirming what she said was true. The woman raised a shoulder to her ear, “I have eyes. And Sunder’s face has been plastered on posters all over the city for weeks, announcing his match.” Exactly what we’d worried about, so he’d been recognized, at least he’d shaken his tail and gotten us a nav. Though it remained to be seen if we could work with her, she still hadn’t given me her name.

When we stepped onto the bridge the female’s eyes immediately went to Kitan who was sagged out in the pilot’s chair. He straightened with a wince the moment we arrived and then his eyes widened and they stayed locked on our new nav. “Sune,” he said in a growl which didn’t sound friendly at all. The female shrugged and acted as if his hostility didn’t matter, “So are you.”

Well, that cleared up the species thing, not! The woman looked nothing like Kitan, they couldn’t be the same species. But listening to their speech I could vaguely tell that they spoke something that sounded similar even if my translator did all deposit it in my brain as if I had just understood my own native tongue.

My attention was drawn to the viewscreen however because I suddenly saw that Ziame was moving onto the sand. A close-up showed me his fanged mouth as he roared for the public, his spikes standing up straight all over his body.

“It’s started!” I yelped, rather awkwardly and I felt embarrassed when both Kitan and the newcomer turned to look at me in surprise. Then the woman popped a hip against the nav console and eyed the viewscreen. “Ah yes, the big fight with the Beast, two back-to-backs I heard, impossible odds.”

She send a lazy look my way, “Hadn’t pegged you for a fan pretty girl.” I didn’t have an answer for a moment, rather insulted and shocked by her demeanor but it was Sunder who’d just stepped onto the bridge who put her in her place. “That’s enough Diamed, that’s the first mate you’re trying to insult there.”

The woman, Diamed apparently, straightened and frowned my way, “First mate? Her?” This was the first I heard of it too but I tried to pretend I’d always known that, I figured the males thought I was because Ziame was Captain. Who knows? Pointing at the viewscreen I indicated Ziame, “And that there on the sand is your Captain and you better believe he’s coming back.”

I focused on Kitan, “All the betting closed yet on his fights?” He nodded, “They’ll open up the betting for a brief window after the first fight. You betting on your male?” When I nodded sharply he grinned with his scary fox-like snout, this big cheeky grin that showed all those sharp teeth. “I think I’ll do the same. We’ll put all the credits we found in the crew cabins on him yeah?”

“You can do that from here?” I asked, my eyes already focused on Ziame and his first three opponents. They looked fearsome and scary to me but I realized as they neared my male, as the guys here would say, that they were not anywhere near Ziame’s size.

Two were the same species, burly and muscled they were red-skinned and covered with intricate swirling marks but otherwise looked human. I’d seen one of their kind before, aboard this ship, the gladiator who’d sadly died in our uprising. These two seemed to be working in tandem, each equipped with a spear and shield as they tried hard to flank Ziame.

The third male was a little bigger and less human-looking. Skin black and cracked looking with deep purple running between the fissures. His head was adorned with two horns, far smaller than Ziame’s impressive set but lethal-looking nonetheless. His hair was like a lion’s mane, wild and thick and strikingly purple. Clawed hands and feet added another dangerous element and I figured that weird-looking skin was as tough as Ziame’s. He held a long blade, a sword much like one of those two-handed medieval things and he wielded it effortlessly as he tried to drive Ziame into the spears of the other two.

“I can do it from here with the creds though if we win big we might need to ask the others to cash us out to gold.” Kitan spoke but his words hardly registered, “As long as we can get out of here as soon as possible.” I waved my hand at the new addition now sitting at the nav console, her large duster draped over the back of her chair.

Sunder came to stand at my shoulder then, “He’s keeping the sun at his back, that’s smart.” I eyed the fight again, watching how Ziame had managed to keep all three in front of him while he caught a spear thrust on his bladed forearm and twisted, breaking the spear shaft. “Yes!” I cheered but then gasped when that second spear went under his guard and caught him in the side. “No!” Heart pounding I frantically searched for any sign of blood but on his dark green scales, I couldn’t tell.

The others on the bridge were talking but I wasn’t paying attention now. I was worried too much that Ziame had gotten badly hurt, the fight wasn’t supposed to be to the death but those were real weapons. What if these three took their chances and he got fatally injured?

Ziame roared when he took the hit, shook his head with those wicked horns, and then twisted his body just as that large sword came swinging for his head. He ducked just in time, swung his head around to catch one of the red males in the midriff, and swung, flinging the male several feet through the air until he landed hard in a heap in the sand.

The male with the still-functioning spear glanced at his fallen comrade but didn’t let it distract him further. He rushed in and bashed away Ziame’s swinging tail with his shield, jabbing at him with his spear.

Ziame ducked and punched at it but couldn’t get in reach of the male himself and didn’t manage to repeat the success he’d had with the other spear. Now he’d lost the advantage of the sun too, they’d rotated on the sand so that the sun hit their flanks instead.