Книга: The Elarri Heist

The Elarri Heist

Plundering the Stars, Book 1

James David Victor

This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.

Contents

Act 1: The Plan

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Act 2: The Heist

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Thank You

Act 1: The Plan

I leaned idly against the tavern, the slick metal siding cool against my back. Patrons streamed past me, their drunken faces turning sour as I puffed smoke from my pipe. Thankfully, none of them tried anything. Not that it would have mattered. I was far too quick for a few drunk fools.

The night air was warm and sticky, as it always was in the capital. Even hours after dusk, sweaty traders and travelers from various systems streamed through the dirt streets. A couple of Cornacci stone merchants—small and squat, their deep red arms burly from years of digging for precious gems on their planet—walked arm-in-arm as they ate some bread. Mercenaries from Nalrue, armed to the teeth with grav-blades and custom carbon armor that had to be individually tailored over the horns that ran down their arms and legs, milled about on the other corner, passing around a bottle of cvat. They laughed in their gargling tongue.

Chytorri scuttled along, their insect forms skittering over the dirt and leaving little divots in their wake. All these and more crowded the busy streets. The nightlife of the capital was as bustling as ever. That would help in my escape later.

That was assuming everything went according to plan.

My eyes found the brothel across the way—the Silk Lily. It was an exclusive club, made for only the wealthiest of patrons, both criminal and noble. The building was constructed of polished sandstone, with intricate scenes of Elarri imperial myths carved into the walls and pillars. Bright lunar lights humming with energy hung from each pillar, brightening the edifice. My objective was in that building, but getting in wasn’t going to be easy.

A large Elarri woman, taller than many of her fellow capital citizens, stood beside the main doors. She stamped her feet and drank from a small wineskin as she guarded the large, ornate—almost gate-like—doors. I was going to have to get past her if I wanted a chance at the prize.

Here we go. I paused and looked at the stars. Right above the capital, high in the sky, was the dominating face of Varra, the gas giant that the Elarri moon orbited. The golden surface left the night alight with its soft glow, a contrast to the piercing silver of their moon. Blinking lights sped over the gas giant’s surface—starships using the jump tubes to slingshot around the planet. Sometimes, just staring at the stars and the sky, at the sheer enormity and beauty of it all, made me wonder why I did what I did.

Oh right, the vastness of space couldn’t pay off my debts.

I shoved my hands into my pockets and swaggered over to the bouncer. Her gaze found mine almost immediately, given that my pale skin stuck out in the moonlight. She stood half a head taller than me, which made her all the more intimidating. Her arms, exposed to the humid air by a sleeveless silk vest in the style that everyone in the city wore, were lean with muscle and corded with raised white scars that swirled in intricate patterns. They perfectly contrasted her rich, umber skin tone. As I approached, she crossed her arms, making them look even bigger. But that was fine. Nothing I couldn’t handle.

She frowned at me. “You better get lost quick, kid, if you know what’s good for you.”

I snorted in response and gave her my best smile, trying hard not to let her see how much she wounded me. I was short and skinny, sure, but I was certainly no kid. It didn’t help that her people tended to look down on mine. Literally. We were both human, but the Elarri were tall, thick, proud. And their empire was powerful. Me, a Goon… We were nomads, scattered across the stars.

I shook my head. “I’m not here for the brothel. I was just passing by and had to stop and admire the artwork.”

She arched an eyebrow. “The what?”

“Your eyes. They’re stunning.” Which wasn’t a lie. Her eyes were like honey, and with the way they glowed in the light, they appeared to be golden. Beautiful, truly.

It was her turn to snort. Clearly, she didn’t get complimented often. That, or she was complimented so much that she was ready to pummel the next person who tried to bribe her with pretty words. Namely me. I prayed for the former. “Nice try. You’re not getting in.”

I laughed. “Why would I want to, when the best-looking woman is standing right in front of me? If you ask me, they’re wasting your talent keeping you out here.”

She chuckled and rolled her eyes. She ran a hand over her short, braided hair, then rested a palm on one of her aristocratic cheeks. “You’re cute, but you’re still not getting in.”

“You think I’m attractive?” I asked, winking at her.

“Stop it,” she replied, but her tone was playful. She narrowed her eyes and bit her lip. They were red and lush.

I leaned against one of the pillars and pulled my pipe back out. “I’d rather stay out here.” I lit the hunra and took a puff. I immediately tasted the sweetness and felt lighter. “So,” I said. “What’s it like being the most exquisite creature in this city?”

She laughed a head-thrown-back hearty bellow that warmed me to my soul. Her smile lit up her features, brilliant and illuminating. Her laugh was so joyous that I was proud to have earned it. Truly, she was a masterpiece. A deadly one. I was sure she was like the orichi rose that grew out in the great wastes of this world: a sight to look at, but as soon as you touched the petals, you were dead in minutes. I was certain she could beat me into the dirt, but I was content with just gazing at this gorgeous flower.

Her eyes scanned me up and down, her lips upturned in a mischievous grin, as if she hadn’t really given me a good look until just then. “That tongue of yours can really work some magic.” She moved out of the way of the door. “Go on in. Behave yourself and mind your place, lest my friends inside kill you.”

I nodded to her with a bright smile. “I appreciate it, my lovely.” She scoffed, but it was light-hearted. As I went to move past her, she gripped my arm, gently.

“If you survive in there and get bored of the attractions, come find me. I’m sure I can think of some other ways for you to put that mouth of yours to work.” She punctuated that suggestion with a wink. It was my turn to blush.

“I will definitely keep that in mind,” I replied. Then I opened the door. My smirk was probably wide and stupid, but I couldn’t help it. Now I had something to look forward to once my task was complete. But that would come later. For now, I had to focus on the mission at hand. I was entering the karrek’s den, so I had to be on my toes if I didn’t want to get bit.

The brothel was dimly lit, with only a few fluorescent lights that illuminated the pink hunra smoke that permeated the air like a thick fog. There was a large raised bar at the center of the room with multicolored bottles of alcohol from every corner of charted space. Tables full of important-looking individuals in rich and colorful garments made of the finest fabrics were scattered about the room. Beautiful harlots in revealing silks flitted about, dividing their time among the various patrons.

Three Zarthians passed me, looking enchanting. One had bright green skin, another a deep blue of the oceans of Ein, and the third a golden brown similar to what some humans could have. I loved the Zarthians and their rainbow of skins. Their diversity was so charming.

A duo of bards played in the back, their bodies filled with nervous tension—one a thin Elarri woman, the other a rotund Goonish man like me. They glanced around as they played, clearly terrified of screwing up. I understood their fear.

I felt the collective eyes of the room fall on me as I entered. I wasn’t supposed to be there, but not all the patrons knew that. I collected myself and strode confidently to an empty table near the right wall.

I ordered a soup and vegetable platter to go along with some very expensive wine. I wouldn’t ordinarily spend so frivolously, but tonight, I had some financial help. I patted the leather pouch at my thigh that clinked with digits.

When my food arrived, I ate and drank as I surveyed the room. By now, most of the attention was away from me and focused on the girls and the other important people. I was invisible again, which suited me fine. Everything, especially this mission, was easier when I wasn’t seen. But that’s basically a rule of life. One that I always abided by.

In between the bards’ sets, I saw a long hallway behind their stage. Unseen, at the far end would be a large metal door with a guard in front of it. That was where I needed to go.

Before long, the rotation of girls changed, so the room became a flurry of activity as girls came and went and patrons took the time to talk to other acquaintances and let servants refill their drinks. I took the opportunity to slip from the crowd. I entered the halls that lined the main room and made for the back hall. It was dark there along the sides, so it was easy to avoid the gazes of the many guards I saw dotting the walls. I wouldn’t be able to avoid one of them though, but that was what my fancy outfit was for.

Rounding a corner and then another, I came to the head of the long hall, the bards just starting to play behind me. There was a massive man at the end of it, the guard for the baron and his private study. I sauntered over to him, my chin high and a smile on my face. I had to look like I belonged. I knew that I could pull it off. I had no choice.

The guard was Elarri and even taller than the lass outside. He wore pressurized Lavi armor, which covered his torso and was nearly impervious to grav-blades and the like. Only the best high-end blasters would pierce it. Despite the heat, he wore thick gauntlets that covered his exceptionally muscled arms. Raised white tattoos, also like the doorwoman’s, peeked out of the top of his armor around his neck. His bald head glinted in the torchlight, and I could swear I could see my reflection in it.

He glowered at me and put his hands on his hips. “What do you want?”

I stood as tall and straight as I could. I tried to convey an air of belonging and hoped that my borrowed clothes painted a convincing picture. “I’m here to see the baron.”

He narrowed his deep, black-eyed gaze. “Lord Valrude isn’t here.” A large scar that ran the length of his jaw rippled as he frowned.

“Oh, well, my apologies. My counsel must have been mistaken. If I could just leave him a message…” I reached past him for the keypad to open the door, but he shoved me away.

“No.”

I scoffed at him and screwed my face up in disgust. “Ugh, do you know who I am?”

Unfortunately, he was smarter than he looked. He wasn’t fooled by my façade. It deteriorated fast. “You’re trash. That’s who you are.”

He grabbed me by the throat and slammed me against the wall. I saw white as my head hit the hard stone. Before my vision cleared, his grav-blade slid from its sheath and the humming, vibrating tip was pressed against my throat. It bit at my skin. Seconds later, drops of blood started rolling down my neck and along my collar. I wanted to gulp but that would have made it worse.

“You think I don’t know what you’re here for?” he said, his rancid breath washing over me. It reeked of earthen tobacco.

I managed to crack a smirk. “Well, I don’t think you know much of anything, if I’m being honest.”

He snarled and pushed the grav-blade deeper. More blood, more pain. I stifled a yelp. “You had no chance of ever getting out of here with what you came for. You’re just gutter trash from your whimpering little people. And no one will miss you.”

We’ll see about that. I tucked my legs up, planted my feet on his chest, and pushed. He flailed back, wide open. I lunged at him and kicked the blade from his grip before he could recover. He cursed and swung at me, but I ducked him easily. He staggered from his momentum, so I punched. I connected with his bearded chin, but it didn’t do much. In fact, I think it hurt my hand more than I hurt his face.

I left myself too open. He swiveled and punched me in the gut. My air flew from me and I could taste bile. Before I could recover, he swung his other fist and caught me on the cheek. I whirled and crashed to the floor. Pain enveloped me. I could feel blood running down my cheek. I cursed and cursed. Things weren’t going well. I had to regain my advantage fast, or the big brute would kill me. Not an option. I had a mission to complete and a lovely lass waiting for me outside. There was too much at stake.

The guard’s boots stomped behind me. I could feel him standing over me, big and arrogant. He thought he’d won, but not yet. I put my hand against the cool tile and pushed my body. I slid beneath his legs just as he reached down to grab me. Once behind him, I popped up and turned. I spotted the grav-blade and ran for it, but right before I reached it, I felt his grip on my ankle. He yanked. Suddenly, I felt my world flip.

My jaw hit the hard ground. I bit my tongue as pain rang around my skull like a bell. Blood streamed from my mouth and threatened to choke me. I felt the man flip me onto my back. I tried to fight back, but then he was atop me, pinning me with his weight. I tried to bat him off, but he was twice my size. He wrapped his beefy hands around my throat and squeezed. And I knew that this was it.

“You little…,” he spat through gritted teeth. “You could have lived a long and worthless life, but now that will end. I’m doing you a service.”

He squeezed tighter and tighter. I couldn’t breathe. There was so much pain, too much. Agony. I couldn’t think. I tried to pull his hands off, but I knew before I tried that it was futile. My vision started to swim as black spots began to cloud around my peripheries.

I was dead. Dead, dead, dead.

I flailed my arms to try anything. I didn’t have much longer. My hope was running thin when my fingers grazed the hilt of the guard’s blade. Yes! I inched it closed until I could grip it firmly. The guard didn’t notice, because he was too focused on choking every last breath out of me. He’d almost succeeded, but then I had the weapon.

Gripping it tightly, I plunged the blade into his neck as I mustered a gurgled yell.

The pressure around my neck disappeared when he flailed back and clutched his neck as blood flowed down it in a hot torrent. His eyes bulged and blood burped from his mouth. It dripped all over me in a waterfall of sticky warmth, but I barely cared. He was dead and done, and I was alive. Once he was on his knees, I pushed to my feet, ignoring the blood all over me. I turned to him as he gargled some dying words.

I adjusted my vest and ran a bloody hand through my hair. “Now, that wasn’t so bad.” I stepped over the growing pool of blood and typed in the door-code I’d been given. The screen turned green and beeped, an internal lock unlatching with a click. I looked back at the large Elarri. “You could have lived a long, worthless life, but now that has ended.” I said. The life was already gone from his eyes.

I didn’t like killing. I loathed it, actually. I avoided it as best I could in most instances, but sometimes, like now, it was unavoidable. It was all I could hope that the saints would understand.

The door slid open. I smiled. “Let’s begin.”

Baron Valrude’s room was dark as I entered, which was no surprise, but it felt heavy, almost too dark. That made me realize that there were no windows. That would make my escape a little more difficult. I didn’t fancy having to go back the way I came, but I would make do, as I always did.

I didn’t have a lot of time. It wouldn’t be long before someone happened down this hall and found my dead friend outside. I needed to be long gone when that happened. Though it took a minute of fumbling, I eventually found the button for the lights. It was not by the door. They snapped on, their soft moonlit glow illuminating the room with silver-blue light.

It has hard for me not to gag at the decadence.

The room was awash in fine leather and polished woods, the fanciest materials from all across the stars. Polished red lavawood paneling lined by brown civvec leather circled the room. The light sconces looked to be silver, and the rug on the floor was large and green with spots of gold and brown—the hide of a Tallo cat, one of the fiercest and rarest predators in the galaxy.

All of this was worth more than my ship. And my ship was a good ship. I wanted to strip the room bare and light it on fire.

But that could be a mission for another day.

Right then, I needed to find Valrude’s access codes. As fancy and important as he thought himself to be, he was only a lieutenant to the true power in the capital: Xarren, head of the Elexae crime family, one of the largest mobs in the Elarri Empire. His private black market—that he styled as the Gold Emporium—was the most famous one in the galaxy. You could buy anything there: weapons, drugs, identities, slaves, and any other number of unsavory things. It made Xarren a wealthy man, a powerful man, someone that shouldn’t be trifled with.

But I wasn’t what most would call cautious. So I was going to rob him.

That wouldn’t be easy, but finding Baron Valrude’s access code to Xarren’s estate would be a good first step to making the heist easier.

This was all in a series of jobs to get me and my crew what we needed to pull off the heist of Xarren’s personal vault. Rowan got us the info about this access code, and Jinx had been the one to steal the code to this office. And of course, Rowan had found out how to get that too. Just theft after theft. Keeping us busy. I loved it.

I sat at the baron’s desk. Data-pads and old paper books littered its surface. The books had to be centuries old, since using paper was pretty destructive and obsolete. I ignored it all, though. It was doubtful that the baron had the code simply written down or stashed on one of these data-pads just lying in the open. No, it would be hidden on his console, which was why our mechanic Pivek had made me a hacker-spike.

I fished it out of the pack at my hip. It was a jagged cylinder that looked like… Well, it was a spike. I turned on the console and jammed the end of the spike into the first access port I could find. It clicked and secured into place. The console screen went blue, and Elarri code began to stream up and down the screen at a rapid pace that my eyes couldn’t keep up with. Though even if they did, I knew next to nothing about this sort of stuff.

There was a download bar on a tiny screen on the side of the spike that began to fill as it syphoned off all the data it could from Valrude’s console. We’d get a lot more than the access codes to Xarren’s estate, but that was the priority. Pivek had explained that some hacker-spikes were precise enough to pinpoint exactly what you wanted and retrieve it within seconds. But we didn’t have the money for one, and Pivek only had enough materials to fashion me a basic one.

This one was perfectly adequate for me.

While I waited, I stood and crossed the room to an ornate side table against the wall that had a fancy glass decanter and a bottle of yalen. Real high class, swanky stuff. The bottle probably cost more than my entire outfit. I uncorked it and winced at the potent stench that wafted out. I was used to cheap bar swill, and yalen smelled more rank the older and better it got. This was near enough to knock me on my butt. So it must’ve been good.

I poured myself a glass. There was a freezer full of ice beneath the table, and I knew that rich folk usually drank yalen with ice, but us commoners liked it warm.

However, I felt like a blueblood in these clothes. I had an image to uphold, so I took a few cubes from the freezer and dropped them in. Then I took a sip, and it felt like I was slapped across the face, in the best way possible.

This was so much better than any alcohol I’d ever had. It was an experience of its own, a war between sweet and sour, bitterness and a rich, velvet softness in my throat. My vision swayed almost immediately at the sheer level of alcohol content. I shook my head and gripped the table.

“By the saints,” I breathed. That was something.

My head cleared. I took the glass with me back to the desk, where I leaned back in the chair and kicked up my feet as I waited, relaxing like I owned the place. The spike was still downloading the data, though it was nearly through. Once it was, I was out of there.

I took a tentative sip—a small one, so I wouldn’t lose my head again. Even so, it was a kick, but manageable.

I raised the glass again to my lips when the pounding of footsteps roared toward me. It was only then that I noticed the blinking red light. Ugh, Yan, rookie mistake.

Not good.

There was a rush of conversation outside the door as they checked the dead body. Then came the beeps of the door-code being entered, and finally, it slid free with a whoosh. In streamed five very large, very angry Elarri men.

Each was muscular and imposing, the various white tattoos twirling around their umber skin. They all wore the same Lavi armor as the one I’d killed, and they each brandished grav-swords, longer than the small one my victim had used. They hummed in the silence as they sneered at me, their eyes taking in the scene.

Just then, the hacker-spike dinged. Download complete.

One of the guards stepped forward. He had a square nose and deep black eyes that looked ghostly in the light. He was about to speak, probably something menacing, a threat or a promise of my imminent death, but I’d heard all that before.

I stood and pulled the spike free, placing it back in my pack.

“Good evening, gentlemen. I’d offer you a drink, but sadly, I gotta run.” I punctuated that with a sip of yalen. I grimaced but kept my cool.

The lead guard snarled and raise his grav-sword. “Do you have any idea of who you’re stealing from?

“No,” I scoffed. “I just happened in here by chance. Thought this was the lavatory.”

The guard’s face flushed. “You will face the consequences of—”

“I’m certainly not stealing from you. I doubt you could afford a single glass.”

With that, I took another sip.

“That’s it,” he spat. “We were going to bring you to Lord Valrude, but now, I think we’ll just space you.”

“That’ll be hard to do since, you know, we’re not in space.”

He didn’t respond to that. The guard advanced on me, but I was quick. As he neared and swung, I sidestepped his blade and brought the glass to his face, where it shattered. He screamed and recoiled as bits of glass got caught in his cheek.

Then things got fast. I hopped over the desk and console, but I was not even over it when the next guard was on me, sword raised in mid-swing. I only had enough time to swivel around, grab the desk, and slide beneath it. The grav-sword hummed and whooshed as it sliced effortlessly through the desk. The tip of it sliced the nape of my neck and shoulder blade.

I yelped, but I pushed up without hesitation. I spun back around, took hold of the data-pads, and tossed them at anyone that moved. There must have been valuable things on them, because the guards were trying to catch them. That was just the opening I needed. And I didn’t need much.

The guards were blocking the door, so I went to the side table with the yalen and threw the glasses at them. They were heavy, expensive, and there were six of them, so my ammo was limited, but it would do. Strength wasn’t necessarily a virtue of mine, but I could put enough behind my throws, and I liked to think I was accurate.

I threw them all.

The glasses exploded all around the guards. As they squealed and cursed, I grabbed the bottle of yalen and took off.

As they fumbled to see through the shards, blood, and pain, I squeezed between two of the them. Hands grabbed at me, and one ripped my shirt and nearly took my head off, but I shimmied free and was out of the office and in the long hallway.

“See you later, boys!” I called over my shoulder as I took off at a sprint.

They, however, weren’t deterred for long and were on my tail before I was five steps beyond the corpse. They tore after me, angry curses filling the air, the bloodlust palpable.

It just made me laugh. I always laughed at danger. Sanity wasn’t my strong suit, either.

The hallway opened into the main room. Music still played and beautiful women still sauntered about at the beck and call of the patrons. That all ended when I came onto the scene. I dodged bodies well, but when the guards came behind me, tossing tables and brandishing swords, I had to get a little physical. I’m ashamed to admit that I may have knocked over one of the working girls.

I’d need to buy her a drink to apologize one day.

The guards were numerous, but they were slow, and there were a lot of people to contend with. Me, not so much. I was nimble. I slid under tables and spun around startled workers and patrons. I vaulted over a table between two large Navegs, their bulky frames and reptilian eyes glaring at me. I swiped one of their shots and downed it as I came to a sprint. The burn was awful, probably poison, but it cleared my vision.

I got to the end of the room, where the booths and tables ended, and it was just empty space to the door.

Almost there.

Four steps, three steps, two, one…

I burst free into the muggy Elarri night. The beautiful bouncer from earlier flailed back at the suddenness of it, making her look far more vulnerable than I ever could have imagined her. When she got her wits about her, she furrowed her brows and went to speak, but I’d already passed her.

“Have a good night, love,” I called. “I promise to come visit you.”

As she fumbled for words, I jumped into the crowded streets.

This was my best camouflage. Amid the hundreds of people from dozens of species, I was invisible. I pulled down what was left of my hood and walked casually next to some large monks. Their robes were brown and worn, and each of them was over seven feet tall and had avian-like legs peeking out. Not sure what species they were, but they provided good cover.

I crossed my arms and huddled into myself. I uncorked the yalen, took it a long swig, and let the effects knock me around. The appearance of drunkenness was needed, so I staggered a bit.

And to be honest, the alcohol really helped with the pain. My back was slick with blood, but that was something that could be dealt with later.

I held my breath as the guards searched through the crowds. They got closer and closer, their hot, angry words making my skin itch as they approached.

They were upon me. I held my breath, and the bottle tight in my grip, ready to swing.

One of them bumped me but kept going. Maybe they couldn’t see well in the dark. I mean, it wasn’t too dark, but I was a creature of the night, so my eyes was used to it. Maybe theirs weren’t. All of them streamed passed, pushing people and yelling, though they never looked back.

“Thank goodness. I’m gonna need to drink this whole bottle tonight.”

Once the mobsters were well up the street, I ducked into the nearest alley. There was an older Elarri man huddled against the wall, wearing a long cloak. It was ratty and motheaten, but it would cover my blood. I stripped off my own overshirt and cloak and tossed it to him, along with a few digits. He blinked at me as he caught them, silent questions filling the air.

“I need your cloak. Here’s something for your trouble.”

“O-okay…”

And our transaction was complete.

I pulled on the old man’s cloak, which smelled like vomit. It would do.

It was time to meet up with my friends. I hoped they had gotten their jobs done too, and with a lot less trouble than what I went through.

I headed west to the outer edges of the district, down the sloping and twisting streets, behind crappy buildings that leaned against each other. So far down that you couldn’t see the lights from the Diamond District.

Not that they mattered to me.

It took almost an hour for me to get back, what with having to dodge patrols, both mobster and imperial. I was a wanted man after all, and my injuries didn’t help matters. Finally, our rendezvous spot came into view when I rounded a corner. The Gold Moon Motel. There was nothing golden about it.

The motel was a nondescript monstrosity, all cold metal and blue lights that were barely bright enough to light the dark. I wasn’t a fan of it, because the sides were too smooth, with no handholds and no nearby rooftop, since the canal and streets were just empty space around it. So if we had to escape, it wasn’t ideal. But Rowan had insisted.

I walked past the front office, having already stolen a key a few hours ago. Jinx had rented a room, but it cost more to get multiple keycards and I didn’t know who would get back first.

There was a grav-lift at the end of the hall, all purple glows and bubble sounds. I stepped into it and let the gentle current carry me up. It wasn’t the most efficient way to change floors, but it felt like I was floating in a pool, so it was the most comfortable. On the third floor, I grabbed the nearest bar to stop myself. I hauled my body out of the lift and onto solid ground.

The hall was silent and deserted, only just-barely lit by lunar lights. Moon moths fluttered around one of them that flickered ominously.

I made my way down to our meetup, room 311. There were some whispers from the other side, but they ceased when I stopped in front of the door. I hoped that meant my friends were inside, but it was never bad to be cautious. With one hand I fingered the key card and unlocked the door. In the other, I held my bottle like a weapon.

I needed to get a knife or a blaster.

The keycard worked. The door clicked open with a beep and I stepped into a dimly-lit, dingy room.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Well, it’s about time, you idiot,” said the most angelic voice in my life.

A lamp clicked on, bathing the room in light, and there was my best friend Jinx, in all of her beauty—eyes like amethyst, glinting in the light. She beamed at me.

I smiled back. “Let’s get down to business.”

I collapsed with a ragged sigh into a chair near the bed in the middle of the room. I wiped the sweat from my face and hair, though it didn’t do much more than just make my hands slick and gross.

Jinx watched me the whole time, head tilted slightly as she bit her lip and took in my appearance. Her concern became obvious as her gemstone eyes found the blood and bruises that covered me.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” I told her with a pained smirk.

She huffed and put her hands on her hips. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

Jinx strode over to me in two long, hip-swaying steps before she knelt before me. She frowned and looked me over closely, placing a hand on the back of my neck and pulling me forward so she could get a better look, but even that small act made me wince. A fact she did not miss. Her gaze found me again, eyebrow arched.

“Things didn’t go so smoothly, I take it?” she asked.

“Am I that obvious?”

She snorted and rolled her eyes. Her fingers traced the bruises along my jaw, which made my fine hairs stand on edge. Her touch was gentle, probing, but not soft. Never soft. Those hands were rough, callused. Testament to a childhood in slavery. A life I rescued her from. On instinct, my eyes flitted to the puffy mess of burn scars around her neck, a constant reminder of the collar once branded there.

“This cut isn’t too deep, but it will need some stitches,” she declared, pulling away from me and straightening.

I leaned back against the chair as carefully as I could. “I don’t suppose you have any on you?”

A shake of the head. “Nope. But I’m sure Amara can fix you up with some bio-gel. I do have some bandages to staunch the bleeding for now.”

“Okay,” I said with a nod. I brought the bottle of yalen to my lips and gave it a swig. It swirled my senses. “Do what you gotta do.”

She gave me a long look of appraisal, accompanied by a tsk-tsk, and then got to work on the wound along my neck and shoulder blades. She grabbed a role of basic bandages from her pack and began to undo the wrappings. Bio-gel was the best option—it grafted to the skin and would close wounds in seconds, becoming like a part of the skin—but it was expensive, so we couldn’t afford to just carry it around.

So, we used bandages and stitches in a pinch. We could afford a ship but couldn’t afford state of the art medical care.

Well… That wasn’t necessarily true. I’d stolen our ship, and if I could afford the best medicine, I wouldn’t be trying to steal from the most ruthless crime boss in Elarri space.

Jinx helped me pull my shirt free of my torso, though raising my arms and getting it over my head proved to be a chore that was not at all fun. It left me panting and drenched in sweat, grimacing so bad that I feared my face would be stuck with the expression for the rest of my days. Maybe my injury was worse than I thought.

“Sorry, Yan,” Jinx said with a sympathetic smile. She positioned herself behind me and started to wrap the bandages around my chest, neck, and shoulder as gently as she could, although it was still a lot of pain. “So,” she began, “how did this mess happen?”

“I don’t know what you mean. Everything went off according to plan.”

She snorted. “Yan…”

I snickered. “Fine, fine.” So, I told her about the brothel, and the bouncer, and the guard that I killed, and about what I found in Baron Valrude’s office. Jinx sucked in a breath when I told her of the Elarri mobster I had to kill, but she let me continue. She didn’t like killing any more than I did. In fact, having grown up in bondage and seeing many people she cared about killed, she had an even higher value for life than I did.

When I was finished with the story, which was hard to tell through all my gasps and grimaces and flinching as my nurse tightened the bandages one last time, Jinx sighed and stepped away from me. Arms folded, she looked over her work. Her lips pressed into a flat line. Not quite a smile.

“I’m glad you’re alright,” she whispered.

I nodded and took a swig of the yalen. “Yeah, me too.”

She came and sat down beside me on the bed, our legs touching. I handed her the bottle, which she took greedily and gave it a long gulp. That amount would have put me on the ground, but Torgorans had a much higher metabolism than my race and could handle their alcohol much better as a result. Still, a few more like that and she’d be down for the count.

She took another sip and handed the bottle back to me before leaning back on her palms. As usual, she was radiant without trying. Her people’s golden skin shone in the flickering light, like Morbeen honey. Her long hair was tied back in a messy bun and seemed to flit between red and maroon with each flicker of the light.

Her lips curled into a smile when she caught me looking at her. “What?”

“Nothin’,” I said as I laid back on the bed. “Just wanted to make sure everything was still in place.”

She arched one of her thick eyebrows. “And why would it not be?”

“Well, you’re not as good a fighter as me.”

“I don’t need to be because I never get caught.”

That made me laugh. “Now, that’s a cheap shot.” I slapped her arm. She laughed too and fell back beside me so that we were both staring up at that dang flickering light that made my head feel woozy. Or maybe that was the yalen.

“Everything is okay though, right?” I asked.

I could feel her eyes on me as she turned her head. “Yeah.” Her breath tickled my shoulder. Her head turned back toward the ceiling. “Yeah, everything went off without a problem.”

“So, you got the uniforms?”

“I just said everything went according to plan.”

“Yeah, but you never told me what your plan was. You just said you’d get the uniforms.” I adjusted and laid on my side, propped up on my elbow, though it hurt something fierce. I endured it. “So how did you get it?”

Jinx shook her head and smirked wickedly. “Nah-uh, a mescarren never reveals their tricks.”

I grunted and rolled onto my stomach. “Ugh, that’s no fair. You have to tell me your secrets.”

“I tell you plenty!”

“But you know I love a good thieving story! It’s what I live for.”

She scoffed. “Please. You live for drinking, shagging, and hunra. Thieving is a hobby.”

I clutched at my chest. “Madam, you wound me.”

“I speak the truth.”

“Maybe, but thieving is not a hobby.”

“Also maybe.” She giggled.

We rolled onto our sides and faced each other, our noses only a breath apart.

“If we finish this job and escape with our lives and the money, then all those things go away. We can start over, somewhere far from here. Other side of the galaxy even. No more drinking or hunra. Can’t promise no shagging, I’m just a man after all.”

Jinx rolled her eyes but smiled a light smile that warmed my heart, as her smiles always did.

“You, me, the crew, we can all start fresh. No bounties. No looking over our shoulders.”

She stared hard at me, her eyes shaking from left to right as they often did. She burrowed into my mind, into my soul, with that stare. She could read me better than anyone, and she knew that was what I really wanted. A fresh start.

“We’ll see,” she finally said, in a voice that was barely a whisper.

Yes, we will see, I supposed.

We stayed like that for a while before I sat up with a groan and grabbed the yalen off the table next to the bed, taking a sip.

“Saints’ mercy, where is Rowan?” I exclaimed.

“Who knows?” Jinx shrugged. “He had to go the farthest. Other side of the capital.”

“Yeah, but he could take a tube here, or hire a strider if he found one that’s cheap. Or he could be dead.”

“Yan…” She rolled her eyes again, something I made her do far too often. “He’s big, smart, crafty, and is a slick shot with a blaster. He’ll be fine.”

“Let’s hope.”

As if on cue, footsteps sounded outside, coming steadily toward the door. It could have been just another patron, or Rowan even, but that didn’t stop Jinx from pulling a knife from beneath her heavy shirt.

The footsteps drew closer and closer before they finally stopped in front of the door. We held our breath.

And then came the familiar knock.

We sighed at once. It was Rowan. Jinx hopped off the bed and went to the door to throw it open.

“Don’t worry, friends, I am alive!” Rowan exclaimed, arms wide, as if he knew what we were talking about. He had that uncanny knack for knowing things he shouldn’t.

Rowan cracked a smile as he stepped in and locked the door behind him. He was a Goon, like me, so we shared the same pale skin and dark hair. Our eyes were similarly stormy, but that was where the similarities ended. He was all bulk and brawn to my thinness and lack of height. He was big and I was small, and he had a square head, big nose, and wide smile, whereas I was near gaunt-looking with slight features.

One would think that his size would make him terrible at sneaking about and thieving, and one would be correct. That wasn’t where his particular talents lay. He was a conman, a liar, a cheat, and he could find out things when no one else could. I styled myself as a smooth-talker, but I was sure Rowan could convince me to sell him my ship if he really wanted.

But that wasn’t what he wanted. What he wanted was to help us steal from a mob boss’s vault, and to do that, we needed the work schedule for all of Xarren’s manorial employees.

“So, did you get it?” I asked. Judging by the fact that he was alive, wasn’t bleeding, and was all smiles, I assumed that he did. Although, in the four months that he’d been part of the crew, I’d rarely seen him do so much as frown. He was always smiling, always chipper, which was one of the main reasons we’d become fast friends. Not just with me, but with the whole crew. His attitude was infectious.

He folded his arms behind him and dug into his pants for a moment before producing a small data-pad. “Of course, I never miss a mark.”

“Oh, I’m sure you would never.”

He punched my arm. “Never ever.” I couldn’t help but wince when he punched, even though I knew he didn’t mean to hurt me. He looked me over with all the bandages and had the same questions form on his lips.

“So, what happened?”

I groaned and relayed the tale for a second time, but Rowan enjoyed my misery a lot more than Jinx had. Shocker. He particularly liked how I handled the bouncer and the thugs in the office. He was so easily amused. I only wished that I had enjoyed it more in the moment. It wasn’t often I got to smash stupid mobsters’ faces with glasses more expensive than my clothes. I should have enjoyed the finer things.

“Well, you got out in one piece and with the data.” He grabbed the yalen and took his own sip. He swooned almost immediately. I laughed. “And I got my data.”

“And I got the uniforms,” chimed Jinx with a wide grin that made Rowan blush.

“So,” I said, bringing my hands together. “I’d say it was a successful night.”

We found some cheap cups in one of the cabinets and each poured ourselves some yalen. We toasted to good fortune and drank. Again, it was like a slap to the face for me and Rowan, but Jinx just sighed and grinned as wide as a canyon. We all sat on the bed together, her in the middle and Rowan and I on either side. She threw her head back and put her arms around us.

“We’re going to be all right, you know?”

It was hard for me to focus on anything through the haze of the yalen, let alone see or stand, but I heard her well enough…though she was muffled and distant. That didn’t stop me from smiling from ear to ear.

“Yeah, I think we will.”

And then the yalen took hold and punched me square in the face. I blacked out and fell into unconsciousness, giggling all the way down.

I had some very pleasant dreams during my alcohol-fueled sleep, most of which involved a rainbow of Zarthian women and the most expensive top-shelf booths in the galaxy. Huh, maybe Jinx was right, maybe those were my true loves.

But then I was awoken by whimpers.

I cracked open my eyes and went to sit up, but a pounding headache and a swirling sense of nausea slammed me back onto the bed. I groaned and pressed a hand to my temple to soothe the pain, but yalen hangovers were never an easy fix.

Still, this wasn’t pleasant, and we had to get going. The rest of the crew would be waiting. I didn’t need another lecture from Amara, as if she never got drunk and stupid. Though admittedly, I did it quite a bit more often.

As my head cleared, the whimpering got louder and more frantic. I realized that Jinx was next to me, arms sprawled out and tangled in the sheets. Sheens of sweat dappled her honey-hued skin as she twisted and turned. I was beginning to think that it was just a regular nightmare, like what most people got. Not fun, but nothing to worry about.

Then it took a familiar turn.

Tears ran down her cheeks. She began to moan and gasp for air as she clawed at her throat. She thrashed and cried and sucked on air, but it looked like she was choking. As it always did. She was relieving her worst memory—the moment the slavers put that coil of blazing hot metal around her neck. That wasn’t something that someone just forgot.

Seeing her like that sobered me up quick. I sat up and pulled her into my arms, cradling her head in the crook of my neck. I held her tight while I whispered soothing prayers into her hair. Neither of us were much for religion, but I knew that she sometimes found comfort in the stories of the old gods of her people. And when I ran out of those to say, I’d recall things we did together. That always did it, and it did it here.

She stopped thrashing and settled in my arms. Jinx still sniffled and tears still fell down her cheeks like tiny streams, but she was calm. Though asleep, she wrapped herself around me and nestled against me. I sighed and kissed her head.

“It’ll be okay,” I whispered into her hair.

And I had to believe that, though I knew that all the money in the galaxy wouldn’t erase the things that had happened to her. She never spoke of it, but I knew it would never leave her. Trauma didn’t leave you, you just had to learn to live with it. It could be overcome, embraced, used as strength or as a lesson, but it couldn’t be forgotten.

I stayed like that with Jinx for another hour, getting no sleep even though my hangover demanded it. I wouldn’t leave her side. Not ever.

But we couldn’t stay like that forever. We had to get back to the ship. So, when the glow of dawn leaked through the window, I eased Jinx off of me and roused her awake.

“We need to get going,” I said firmly.

Her eyelids fluttered before she focused on me. When they did, she smiled through her tears.

“Good morning.”

I smirked back, still drained but glad to see she was fine. “Morning.”

She didn’t know that I eased her nightmares. She never did. The first time it happened years ago, I asked about it, but she was so embarrassed that we never brought it up again. But I still soothed her every time it happened, which wasn’t often now, thankfully. And each time I did, I didn’t tell her that I helped her. She was independent and deeply private about her past. She occasionally opened up to me and some of the crew, but only a little, so we gave her space when she needed it.

“You look terrible,” she said with a mischievous smile as she rose and fussed with her hair.

“Well, my head hurts, but the hangover distracts from the agony in my shoulder.”

She snickered. “I’m sure it does. You’ll be fine once we get back to the ship.”

I nodded and said nothing more. I stood with a groan and stretched, though that just caused even more pain. My bones and joints and muscles creaked and cracked and groaned. Stiff and sore. Yeah, today was not going to be a fun one. And we had a ways to go to get back to the ship.

Rowan was slumped over against the wall, his vest unzipped, and his too-hairy chest exposed, with what looked like yalen stains all over. The bottle was empty in his right hand. He was going to be useless.

I kicked his foot, which jostled him awake. He flinched and flailed.

“Wah? Who! Oh, Yan. You know better than to wake a sleeping drunk— Ow!” He held the bottle to his head, which I was sure was pounding like an Elarri war drum.

“You doin’ okay, bud?”

He groaned. “Not in the slightest.”

“Who is?” I bent over and offered him my hand. “Come on, we need to get going. We really should have gotten back last night, but we let the alcohol take the lead.”

“Don’t we always?”

“Far too often for my liking,” chimed Jinx from the lavatory.

Rowan took my hand, and I hauled him to his feet. It sent a fire through my shoulder, but I gritted my teeth and bore the pain. Jinx was right, I’d get set right on the ship.

I put on my torn shirt, though it was a pain to get on over the bandages, and I was ready. So was Rowan, who could hardly stand. We just had to wait on Jinx.

When she emerged, Rowan and I shared a slack-jawed look. She’d shed her ratty clothes and now wore a knee-length orange dress. It was sleeveless but went all the way up to her neck, covering her scars. She was not one to show a lot of skin if she could help it. Even so, her skin glowed, and I swear she blushed when she noticed our staring.

The dress was handsewn and very fine, not like the more generic outfits that most people wore. This was Elarri silk, very fine, and very expensive.

“Where, uh… Where’d you get that?” I asked.

Jinx shrugged. “I had to steal a uniform. You think I’m not gonna swipe anything else?”

“I suppose not.” I couldn’t fault her logic. When we saw something we wanted, there wasn’t a lot that could stop us from taking it. Hence the bounties.

“Well, if we’re ready to leave…” began Rowan.

Jinx arched a brow and crossed her arms. “Are you ready?”

He burped, and for a moment, it seemed like he might barf. But he held it down. “Hardly, but I’d rather lay in my own bed, so let’s get to it.”

Yes, let’s.

We left the hotel and walked south for several blocks, getting caught up in the morning bustle of the Elarri capital. The nights here were busy, but the daytime was another matter entirely. There were dozens upon dozens of different species, all jostling through the streets as ships boomed far overhead, and low, city-level gliders zoomed by just above the rooftops. People zipped by in tubes along every street, but with me and Rowan still hungover beyond belief, I would rather die than go in one, lest I barf up all my organs.

Despite his ill condition, Rowan led the way, using his bulk to push us through. He garnered more than a few dirty looks from Elarri as he bumped them, but they didn’t do anything, and he did nothing to antagonize them further. Which was nice, because he was usually more than up for a good fight. That wasn’t what we needed this morning, though.

We went farther south, into the bits of the capital that were dark, where the criminal element thrived in the rundown neighborhoods. It felt like home. The farther from the capital center one got, the more the surrounding Elarri wastelands encroached. The shifting sands swallowed buildings whole and turned whole streets into rivers of sand, but still, life went on.

Before we got to that though, I saw a strider peeking out over a distant rooftop. It stood there, its blue shell shining bright in rising sun light. The large harness on its back looked worn even from a distance, but it would have to do.

I pointed at it. “Strider. That will take us to the hangar.”

Rowan saw it and nodded. “Okay.”

“Will it make you throw up?”

“Oh, almost certainly.”

“Better than taking a tube,” added Jinx.

“Lightyears better.”

We swerved off the crowded main street and headed down some dingy side alleys, though I had to admit that the crowds had become much more manageable as we moved toward the outskirts.

I kept my eyes on the strider. It would have been a major inconvenience if we got there only to have someone hire it away. We had no way to hold it or make a reservation or something, so we just had to be quick.

Jinx took control. She grabbed our hands and pulled us down alley after alley, side street after side street. Rowan groaned the whole way, and it became clear he was getting worse. Yalen often took a very long time to work its way out of the system, so the more you drank, the worse the hangover would be. And judging by the empty bottle he’d been lying next to earlier, he was in for a long day.

No way he got through today without vomiting up a lung.

It took an agonizingly long time, but we finally came out of an alley into a sparsely-populated street. There were a couple of terribly low-budget bars across from us, lights on and still in service, but with broken windows, flickering neon signs, and a haze of hunra smoke so thick and pink that it would keep even me away. These were places for addicts and the downtrodden.

Tied up next to them was the strider. The massive insect with six long, spindly legs as tall as a building loomed over us. Its shell was pointier than most, as wide as any grav-glider, but it had a smaller head, so its big, black eyes made it look almost adorable. It crooned at us, a deep melody that sounded so peaceful and joyous that I had to smile. Striders had that effect on people.

Its owner leaned on a lamppost beneath it, a pipe in his hand and pink hunra smoke floating about him. He was as scraggily as an Elarri could get, with a graying beard down to his stomach and a long, white tunic that covered his lanky arms.

He cast us a curious gaze as we approached. He cocked his head toward the strider’s legs.

“You looking to catch a ride?”

I was about to speak, but Jinx took the reins again. She put a finger to my lips and stepped in front of me. “Depends on what your fare is.”

“And that, pretty miss, depends on where it is you’re needin’ to go.”

The man produced a data-pad that was set up for navigation. Jinx beckoned him with a wave of her hand, and he handed her the pad. She entered the coordinates for the hangar and tossed it back to him. His eyes stared at it for a long while, then back at us, then at the pad again, and back at us.

He scoffed. “Hallal? You sure you wanna go out those ways? That sector is almost completely part of the wastes.”

“We’re sure.”

“Hmm.” He chewed on his lip, then cracked a smile. “Two hundred digits.”

Jinx looked offended. Rowan too. He swaggered up to the man, though he nearly tripped and looked like the mess he was. “That’s ridiculous! It isn’t too far. One hundred.”

“That’s a dangerous place to go even for a strider. And besides, the only people that go out those ways are those that don’t want to be found. My discretion will cost you.”

Rowan growled. “A hundred and twenty.”

“A hundred and seventy-five.”

“We can take a tube out there.”

The man laughed. “You? You look like you’d die in about two seconds in a tube. One-seventy-five.”

Before Rowan could start another fight, Jinx put a hand on his shoulder and another on the man’s chest. “One hundred and sixty. Take it or leave it. We have other options, though they’re not so pleasant.”

He chewed that over. He really didn’t want to budge, but money was money. Besides, he called it dangerous, but the tseyenni that lurked beneath the sands mostly hunted at night. Mostly.

“One-sixty,” he conceded and put out his hand. Jinx shook it with a smile that defused all the tension in the air, as was her gift. No one could be mad when Jinx was smiling. It was just about impossible.

Our driver whistled. The strider squealed, spread its legs in a wide stance, and then crouched all the way to the street so we could climb into the harness.

“Well, I’m Varreck,” the man announced. “And this sweet beauty is Vel. Climb aboard.”

We did just that. Jinx climbed in without effort, because she wasn’t hungover or injured. I came next, which was a struggle. So much so that Vel turned her head almost all the way around as striders could do and stared at me, as if telling me to knock it off. Sorry, I thought, my cheeks flushing.

After a few more painful attempts, Varreck grew frustrated and grabbed me under my armpits and lifted me higher so Jinx could grab me. That really made my cheeks redden. I was not a child, even if Varreck’s people liked to think that we were, just because they were tall and broad.

Last came Rowan. He was hungover something fierce, but he managed to get himself into the harness just fine. Once we were all seated in the leather seats, Varreck hopped into the saddle harness at the front.

“Have you ever ridden a strider before?” he asked.

“Yes,” we all said simultaneously.

He grinned. “Good. Sometimes you tourist types come in without experience.” He turned back around and grabbed Vel’s reins. “Okay, here we go.”

Varreck gave Vel a gentle tug, and then we were rising far too fast, the sandstone buildings blurring around us until we towered over them. From this height, we could see all the way to the palace. The sun was just peaking over the eastern skyline. It was a beautiful sight, the deep reds and oranges bathing everything in warmth.

Of course, I’d been on planets that orbited twin stars and those sunrises were something else. Still, this was nice.

Varreck directed Vel forward and we were off.

Striders were a native insectoid of Elarra but were so valued by many governments that they were routinely bred and shipped all across the galaxy. They were docile and downright lovable, with the added bonus that they could endure most conditions, except for worlds with extreme gravitational pulls.

They were fast and their legs were so strong that predators didn’t even bother with them. Another benefit. People good and bad recognized their value.

Vel galloped along the roads, her chitinous claws clicking on the stone pavement. The ride was smooth for a while, but as soon as we passed beneath the decaying metal walls of the Halla Sector, it got…bumpy. Here, the sands of the wastes zigged and zagged, feeling like the waves of an ocean. Most consumed any building at street level. Striders could move easily through the sands, but they had to constantly sway to do so—which was why we had the harness. We were all strapped in so we wouldn’t be thrown to our deaths, but that didn’t help with Rowan’s nausea.

Several times, he had thrown up over the side of Vel’s shell, though I knew that he was getting plenty all over her. Varreck wasn’t pleased with that.

“Hey, I thought you said you’d done this before?”

Rowan couldn’t answer, so I did. “We have, but Rowan is… Well, he drank half a bottle of quality yalen last night.”

Varreck scoffed and turned forward. “Oi, fecken Goons…”

I let those rude implications pass.

It took maybe half an hour to navigate our way through the shifting sands and crumbling buildings. There were plenty of shanties and slants and lean-tos, and some had even set up residence on refurbished grav-platforms. The outskirts had a flavor all their own. It was a widely lawless and harsh place that ringed the entire capital, and since the city was about a quarter the size of the whole planet, that was significant.

Here, there was crime, and mobs, and tseyenni, and other wasteland beasts. But the thumb of Elarri rule didn’t bother coming out this far. They were too busy policing the dozens of colonies throughout the nearby systems. So, they wouldn’t care about the many illegal spaceports that dotted the outskirts of the capital. Hallal was one of the smaller ones, but it suited us just fine.

The main port building was a massive sandstone structure that looked like a warehouse monstrosity studded with corroded steel and red iron. But it was sturdier than it looked. There were a few hangars in there, but last I knew, the two aside from our own were empty.

Vel came to a halt near the entrance. She squatted down and let us off. We climbed off, though as with everything, it was a pain for me, and Rowan almost fell face first. As I winced and put my hands on my knees, Varreck cracked a yellow-toothed grin and patted my arm.

“You should get some bio-gel, that’ll fix you up.”

I snorted. “Tell me about it.”

He pulled out his pipe and packed in some hunra. He lit it, took a long drag, and puffed a cloud at me before offering the pipe to me. “You partake?”

“I do, but I’m not one for sharing.”

“Suit yourself,” he said with a shrug.

Once Jinx was off Vel, she paid Varreck what he was owed, and thankfully, he didn’t gripe about Rowan throwing up on his strider. He thanked us and we thanked him and then he was back on Vel and striding away as she cooed and sang a melody.

Of course that left us smiling.

Rowan took in some long breaths and straightened out. Jinx rubbed his back. “You okay, you big lug?”

“I’ll be fine. Just going to need a jug of water and a hot shower.”

“You might be out of luck on the latter. Last I checked, Pivek still hadn’t fixed the water heater.”

He groaned. “That’s just great then.”

We all laughed.

We made our way into the hangar through the rusty, hinged doors, too old for the sliding doors nearly universal throughout the stars. The place was a dump as far as hangars went, with bad lighting and faulty wires and foul air, but it was just a pitstop so it was fine.

Large hangar bay doors loomed over us, rusty and scratched and old. It was dark, the only light coming from an old series of fluorescents, which—as per usual—flickered like mad. On the far wall was a large panel with a single blue button in the center.

I actually didn’t know for certain what it did, I just assumed it would open the doors. So, I walked over and pressed it without a second thought. Jinx started to protest, but it was too late.

There was a click and some whirring and then it happened. The hangar doors opened with lots of creaks and groans that made my bones rattle and my teeth shake. The gearwork inside needed some oiling, for sure. Most hangars were lightyears ahead in tech, but this one, though ancient and crummy, was hidden and off the grid, and cheap.

And on the other side of the doors, bathed in sunlight and the orange glow of the gas giant Varra, was my ship. The Sanara.

She was a rangy little freighter, all sharp angles and pointy wings fashioned like the gliding raptors that the Torgorans revere. She was a non-descript gray and brown when I’d “found” her, but now she was a much livelier green, with plenty of orange trim and golden accent lights to give her some pop. Ketellin and Amara hated the coloring, and I knew plenty of others who thought it gaudy, but I liked standing out.

Which was a problem when we and our ship were wanted across the systems. But what could we do?

As we came into the hangar, the air warm and welcoming, the ship a glorious beacon in the light, I sighed, crossed my arms, and grinned wide. It was good to be home.

“I’m home!” I announced loudly as I strode up the ramp into the belly of the ship.

The Sanara was a light freighter, so there was plenty of storage space, and a bunch of extra rooms for cargo that we in turn changed into our own quarters. We didn’t fly cargo, at least not usually. For now, the cargo hold was mostly empty, but there were several workbenches set up to the left side with various bits and bobs that our chief mechanic Pivek liked to work on in his spare time.

And sure enough, there he was.

He hovered slightly over the cold ground as his retractable wings buzzed manically. He usually kept them in while he was on the ship, so he must have been excited by something. Even when he stood on his feet, he towered over everyone and had to hunch down in the other rooms and corridors. He was darn near twice my height.

He was a Bantiss, a tall insectoid race with segmented body armor and arms and legs. Similar to the Chytorri that the Bantiss shared a home world with, his beady black eyes missed nothing, given they could see for miles. He blinked at us, his vision no doubt zooming in on every last detail.

Pivek’s wings shuddered and retracted into his back. He landed on the floor with a clang, then strode over to us, which took all of one step.

He moved his arms rapidly in front of him. ‘You’re back. And late.’

His people, unlike the Chytorri, communicated at a frequency that most species couldn’t hear, so they mostly used Galactic Standard Sign Language to speak to the rest of us.

“Sorry, Pivek,” Jinx said. She patted his stomach and had to crane her neck to look up at him. “We decided to spend the night. The boys wanted to polish off a bottle of the baron’s yalen.”

Pivek made a clicking sound that was his version of a snort. ‘Of course,’ he signed. His eyes ran the length of me, and I was sure he wanted to smack me. He was not the type of person one made wait. But as much as I loved the big bug, I was not beholden to anyone’s time.

“Are the others in?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Are we stocked and ready to go? How’s my ship?”

‘Everything is good to go. Even fixed the water heater.’

Rowan almost cried. “Thank goodness. A hot shower is what I need. If you’ll excuse me.” With that, he left to take his shower.

Pivek watched him go. ‘He reeks. Too much alcohol.’

“You have no idea, Pi.”

‘You should go see Amara. Your wound smells.’

I frowned. “Is it infected? I thought Jinx did a good job.”

“I did do a good job.”

Pivek shuddered and returned to his workbench. ‘Probably just the yalen. Go see Amara. Then we take off.’

“And then we take off.” I nodded. He went back to work, and Jinx and I climbed up the ladder to the main deck.

The heart of the ship was just a crammed oval, with a rec room at the center filled with communications equipment, lounge ware, star maps, collections of data-pads, and heaps of screens, among other things. A narrow oval hallway ringed the central chamber, and around the hall were eight tightly-packed rooms crammed together, which were most of our quarters.

Jinx and I came up at the back end of the hallway, opposite from the cockpit where Ketellin was no doubt languishing, fussing over his controls and his own personal log of star maps and shipping lanes and which boom tubes were safe to use and whatnot. I let him deal with all that nonsense.

“Daddy’s home,” I called, my voice echoing down the halls. I could feel rather than see Jinx roll her eyes behind me.

“Hooray,” replied a sarcastic voice down the hall. Jinx and I took the right side and made our way to what constituted a med-bay for our ship. It was just an extra room, small with sloped walls and clean edges with a few cabinets for supplies and a meager little bed for the patient. That bed was occupied.

Rowan sat on it, hunched over as he guzzled down a tall glass of frothy orange liquid that almost seemed to glow with its own warmth. Sun’s Kiss—a terribly hot concoction that could cure headaches, fevers, migraines, and an assortment of other minor cranial ailments, including Rowan’s hangover. As nauseating as I found the drink, Rowan had no issues with it and finished it with an eager sigh.

“That’s much better,” he declared.

“Good,” I said, “Now get out of my spot.”

“He’ll get up when I say he can get up.”

My eyes flitted to Amara, our beautiful Zarthian medic and all-around weapons badass. Like most Zarthians, she was short and miniscule in appearance—even shorter than Jinx and I—but Zarthians, despite their size, had unparalleled strength. She could put me through the walls of the ship if she was in the mood.

And it looked like she was.

I couldn’t help prodding her, though. Bad habits and whatnot. “Well, I’m waiting, Doctor.”

She glared at me, and I glared back, one of our famous stare-downs. Though exceedingly kind in ways that I would probably never be, she was just as stubborn as I was. I thoroughly enjoyed butting heads with her. Jinx and Pivek tried to get me to not do that, but I could be an incorrigible ass.

I blamed that on my hard childhood.

Finally, I won our standoff once Amara’s eyes took in my haggard appearance and the blood stains on my shirt.

“You may go, Rowan.”

He hopped up and flashed a smile. “Yes, ma’am.” And then he was out of there with a swiftness he rarely displayed. That left me and Amara again staring at each other, with Jinx hovering against the door behind me.

Amara folded her arms and frowned at me, which made her cheeks dimple something fierce. Her jade skin glowed in the soft white glow of the lunar lamp on the table, and her amber eyes burned with annoyance.

“Why can’t you ever be careful, Yan?”

I threw up my hands. “I was! You try stealing from a ruthless mob boss in the middle of his own brothel surrounded by an entire squadron of guards.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure there was a whole squadron.”

“Okay, there were six, but they were big, armed, and armored, and I’m—”

“None of those things, yes, I’m aware.”

I smiled. “I appreciate your concern.”

Amara rolled her eyes. “Okay, let me take a look at you.”

I stripped off my shirt, which of course was a struggle again, but I managed it. “Jinx wrapped me up. But Pivek said the wound smelled funny.”

“Pivek thinks a lot of things smell funny.”

She set to work unwrapping the wound as gently as she could, though it still pinched and ached as she peeled it free from my skin, but I’d suffered worse. Her lips stayed set in a blank line as she worked. When she finally pulled the last bit free from the gash, I yelped, despite how gentle she tried to be.

“Sorry,” she said, but she smirked as she said it.

“I bet you are.”

With the bandages free, she gave the wound a closer look. My back felt warm, and the dried blood made my skin feel sick and stiff. Not a pleasant feeling.

“Did you clean this, Jinx?”

“As best I could, yeah. We weren’t exactly in sterile conditions.”

Amara chuckled. “When are we ever when this one is involved?” Oh yeah, she joked with Jinx but got annoyed with me in a quick second. I knew she loved me, though. I was like a kid brother to her. She may have looked the same age as me or Jinx or Rowan, but Zarthians were long-lived. Amara had already seen well over a century.

“The wound isn’t so bad,” she finally declared, after a minute more of close inspection. That was the diagnosis I’d expected.

“Please tell me we still have some bio-gel?” I asked. I didn’t mind getting standard stitches if I had to, but I wasn’t a fan of needles, so I wanted to avoid that fate, if possible.

Amara stepped away from me and went to one of the cabinets. “We do, but not much. We’ll have to stock up soon.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Why couldn’t you have done that while we were here?”

She huffed, her back to me. “Elarri charge too much for it, and the quality is poor, compared to what you’ll find in the Free Systems or in the Hegemony.”

Amara knew that stuff better than I did, so I deferred to her judgement. “Fair enough.”

“We’ll just have to not get shot, stabbed, or killed before then, okay?” She turned around with a cheeky smile and a clear tube filled with a cool, blue cream.

Jinx pushed off from the wall. “I’ll go round up the others so we can talk and get out of here.”

“Yes, yes. Good plan,” I said.

She snorted and left the room, a smile on her face.

Without any further words, Amara applied the bio-gel to my back. It was cold, as usual—too cold, like standing shirtless on a mountaintop as snow flurries whipped about, battering you left and right. I dug my nails into the soft cushion of the bed. The bio-gel wasn’t painful, it was just…different. It wasn’t a natural feeling, making the body heal so fast. It was a feeling I could endure, but not one I would seek out.

But it still beat stitches and allowing my body to heal naturally.

Once the gel was applied and settled, it got to work. It felt like an icy river suddenly rushed through my veins, sapping me of breath and making my heart race. That only lasted a matter of seconds, though. What came next was my skin literally stitching itself back together. Rapidly. The wound closed within a minute, scabbing over and becoming skin again. It itched and burned and made me grit my teeth and groan, but then it was over and all I would have was a long scar.

“Better?” Amara asked as she put the bio-gel away.

“Is it possible to hate something and love it at the same time?”

She turned around, crossed her arms, looked me up and down, and pursed her lips. “Well, that’s about how I feel about you, so I’d say yes.”

“Oh, ha-ha.”

Amara smiled widely. “Come on, Captain. Time to address your crew.”

“I wish you all would always address me as captain…”

“That wish will have to go ungranted, I’m afraid.”

Of course it would, but I could dream.

With both of us smiling and in good spirits, we left the infirmary and joined the rest of the crew in the hub of the ship. They were waiting for me when I arrived, at least most of them.

They stood around the holo-recorder at the center of the room, all cross-armed and anxious. Jinx, looking pretty and tired and ready to crawl into her bed. Rowan, who had shed his hangover, was glowing, bouncing from foot to foot. Amara stood next to him, expectant. Their eyes pinned to me as I stepped in. But we were missing one.

Footsteps sounded from the cockpit. Finally, there was Ketellin, our soft-spoken pilot. Ketellin was Batoric, an amphibious race that could breathe underwater and partially communicate with his world’s sea life. He wore a rebreather apparatus around his neck so he could breathe, and I always thought it looked funny, but who was I to judge. He was a darn good pilot and had gotten us out of more than one scrape in the past.

He came to stand by the others. And now, they were all present, my little family of misfits and thieves.

I clapped my hands together and smiled. “So, you’re probably all wondering why I’ve called you here on this fine day.”

Amara rolled her eyes. Rowan snickered. Jinx groaned. Pivek threw up his hands, and Ketellin just looked at the floor.

“Okay, okay. No messing around.” I dug into my pockets and produced the hacker-spike filled with all of Baron Valrude’s data. I dropped it onto the screen in front of me without any ceremony. “I got what We needed. One data-filled spike courtesy of one ill-prepared baron who should really up his security.”

Pivek stomped over to me and collected the spike in his mandible hands to inspect it. He put it down and signed, ‘Any specifics of what is on here?’

I shrugged. “I just plugged it in, let it work its magic. If Rowan’s source was correct—”

“My sources are always correct.”

“—then it should have everything we need.”

Amara cleared her throat. “Which is? Are you gonna let us in on the grand plan or are you just going to leave us with pieces?”

“But don’t you like playing things recklessly and half-cocked?”

She stared back unamused. As were the others, except for Rowan. They usually tolerated the aullec dung that I spewed, but it was time to get serious. I straightened up and folded my arms behind my back.

“Right, so… From what few things I’ve told you, you can probably surmise what the goal is, but if you haven’t, then I’ll spell it out for you plainly: we’re going to rob Xarren Elexae.”

That seemed to thoroughly suck the air out of the room, though none of them looked particularly shocked. Jinx knew the whole plan already, and since Rowan was my main source, he knew a good bit too, but still, to hear it so completely and without my usual lighthearted tension-breakers, it was a lot to take.

Finally, Amara broke the silence. “Well, it’s a risky play, but one that may be worth it.”

“Yeah,” jumped in Jinx. “We’re already wanted by the Hegemony, eight of the Free Systems, the Torgorans, and the Elarri Empire. So what’s one more hit on us?”

Pivek chittered and buzzed, his hands flying. ‘Actually, if you forgot, those bounty hunters we ran into on Crimmen 4 were sent by the Elexaes. So we’re already on their list.’

“See? This won’t hurt much,” I said.

“Yeah, it will only make the most ruthless crime boss in the empire put us on the top of his hit list. What can go wrong?”

Amara was hard to read at times, despite how open she was with her thoughts and emotions. Sometimes that made it more difficult, for she could display all manner of things. One moment, I thought she was on board with this, and now she was arguing. Which wasn’t a surprise, and she wasn’t wrong. Crossing the Elexae family wasn’t something to do lightly. And I wasn’t doing it lightly.

I could sway her, I always did. “You should be asking what could go right.” I stepped away from the holo-recorder and turned my back on my friends to look at the star maps. “If we get our hands on the scratch in Xarren’s vault, we can disappear. We can start over, do whatever we want.”

For each of them, that meant different things, as it did for me. None of us got into this life because it was fun or because we liked being the outcast. Though, I had to admit I liked being a thief, but that was just me. Still, we had our reasons, and I knew that my little family had things to go back to, reasons to leave if this was successful. I aimed to give them that choice.

They were silent as they mulled over my words. They didn’t have to accept this mission, of course. The Sanara was my ship, but we were a family more than a crew. I wasn’t a dictator. We would vote, and if they didn’t want to risk it, I would accept that. As much as I wanted this, needed this to help my family, this crew was my family too, so I wouldn’t risk them needlessly if they weren’t up for it.

“What say you?” I asked them.

They took more time to decide, as was their right. I was pushy and impatient in general, but this was too big to be like that. This could be life or death. This could change all our lives.

Finally, it was Ketellin who spoke. “I will do it, Yan.” His voice was impossibly deep, a sound that reverberated through you. It hummed. He didn’t speak much, but when he did, we listened. And the others did.

“You know I’m in,” Jinx said with a smile.

“Same. I never back down from a fight,” sounded Rowan.

Pivek unfurled his wings and fluttered excitedly, his head grazing the ceiling. ‘I heard Xarren has some ancient Amok tech in his vault. Can’t pass on the opportunity to study it.’

I smiled at that. Pivek was lowkey obsessed with ancient tech from across the stars, especially those that belonged to extinct spacefaring species. That was all the motivation he needed. That left Amara.

She sighed. “You’ll all die without me, so I suppose I can’t let you throw yourselves into the fire without me.”

So that was that, all of them were accounted for, as I had hoped…and expected. There had been a small part of me that was afraid they would back out—and I wouldn’t have blamed them—but it was good to know that they had my back, good or bad. We were in this together, so I knew we could pull it off, just as we’d pulled off every job in the past.

I brought my hands together again and grinned mischievously. “Excellent, crew. Now, as the captain, I—”

They all groaned. I still swore they loved me.

An alarm began to go off throughout the ship, and a flashing red light. I knew that meant the proximity alarm that Pivek had rigged was going off.

Ketellin was closest to the security consoles, so he crossed the space and started typing away. In seconds, he had the security screens of the hangar on full display. He cursed.

“We have company,” he said.

We crowded around him and looked at the screen. The camera was placed by the doors we’d come through and looked directly at the Sanara. Streaming through the doors were about a dozen armed thugs, all looking like the same idiots I’d dealt with at the brothel.

I felt several eyes on me, namely Amara. I put my hands up. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t do anything.”

Jinx cursed and sagged her shoulders. “It was probably Varreck. That shifty guy wouldn’t hesitate to sell us out if he recognized us from a wanted poster.”

Ketellin pushed away from us and made his way to the cockpit. I followed him. “Alright, K, get us off this planet, and Amara, give our guests a warm Goonish welcome.”

I didn’t have to see her to know she was grinning ear-to-ear. “It would be my pleasure.”

She disappeared into the gunner’s bay, and a moment later, as the ship hummed to life and began to hover over the cracked stone floor of the hangar, there was a resounding boom as Amara gave the mobsters our hospitality. The ship boomed a few more times as we rose higher and higher, and a few times, we rattled as the mobsters’ blaster fire slapped the Sanara’s hide, but little guns wouldn’t do much.

Finally, Amara called from below. “The beniins are dead.”

I smiled at that Zarthian curse and kicked my legs up onto the console. Ketellin didn’t even scold me this time.

“Alright, K, get us off this miserable rock.”

Ketellin hated Elarra—it was too hot and dry for his tastes. Only at night when it was humid could he tolerate it, and then only just. So, though he didn’t exactly smile, I could feel him get excited as he said, “With pleasure.”

He flipped the switch on the afterburners, and we shot out of the atmosphere.

We jumped from system to system for about a day, trying to put some distance between us and any heat that was following. The Sanara, being a light freighter, didn’t have the long-range hyper-drives that cruisers and frigates had. So, we had to just jump to the closest systems, one at a time. It was time-consuming, but there was no help for it.

I often marveled at the myriad of ways the galactic community found to travel the stars. Of course there was hyperspace travel, used by bigger ships and the most advanced, and then boom tubes that let atmospheric ships get from one side of a planet to another, or to an orbiting moon. Larger boom tubes could get you from one system to another, but they were rough and dangerous trips for smaller ships like ours. There were the solar slings that…slingshot ships to other worlds within that system, though it couldn’t accomplish extra-solar jumps.

The most dangerous were the jump-gates built around wormholes scattered throughout the stars. Those were heavily guarded and monitored by the governing bodies of the galaxy, and they cost a hefty price to use. Luckily, our ship could manage atmospheric, inter-solar, and extra-solar travel just fine.

I thanked my lucky stars every day that I had stole the ship.

While Ketellin piloted, I filled in the rest of the crew on the bones of the plan.

The data-pad Rowan had stolen contained work schedules of all the employees of Xarren’s mansion, including cooks, servants, and especially the guard detail and patrol routes. Jinx had acquired a bunch of uniforms—all servant uniforms. We couldn’t play at being guards because only members of the mob were used, and they were all Elarri, but they had no qualms hiring us “lesser” races for the help.

Finally, with the hacker-spike—which Pivek had thoroughly analyzed—we were able to learn a great deal. It contained shipping manifests for most of the Elexae crime family’s operations, as well as the schematics of the manor, private intel on many in the mob, as well as the compiled secrets of dozens of VIPs across the stars. The data alone was probably worth a small fortune, and we all made a note to sell the info later. Rowan protested, thinking that it would bring more heat on us, but we ignored him.

The only problem we had now was that we wouldn’t be able to just stroll into the manor as servants. We had to get fake ID chips and find ways to replace existing employees. Nothing sinister, of course.

And there was the issue of an escape plan. Xarren’s estate was on the outskirts of the capital on the one side that wasn’t being encroached by the wastes. He owned acres of vineyards, so we wouldn’t be able to get anywhere close with the Sanara. But we would take this one step at a time. The bones were there, we just had to find the meat.

“I actually have a friend that once contracted at the manor, before she was let go,” said Amara.

I crossed my arms and lifted a brow. “A friend? That’s a mighty big coincidence.”

“She’s more of an acquaintance really, and she’s a skeeving little thing, so she won’t be eager to help us.”

“Ah, that’s more like it. Not too easy.”

Amara rolled her eyes. “If she’s where I last heard from her and hasn’t jumped systems, then she may be a good source of intel. She might also be able to get us a recommendation.”

Jinx yawned and stretched her arms over her head. “Let’s hope so. I would hate to be stopped at the gate and have Xarren torture and kill us.”

“Cheery, Jinx,” Rowan snorted.

Jinx grinned.

“Okay, Amara,” I said. “We’ll give her a go. You have a destination for us?”

She bit her lip and flushed, her cheeks going a shade of green darker. “She’s, um, she’s on Preoria.”

Rowan nearly choked. Jinx cursed. I just laughed. Of course her friend was on Preoria. She couldn’t be somewhere easy. She had to be on the home world of the Galactic Bounty Commission, which, though it sounded official and legit, was just a club of ruthless hunters that trawled the galaxy for people like us.

Suffice it to say, going to the world countless bounty hunters called home was not my idea of fun. Although, on the other hand, it was so insane to go to Preoria with a high bounty that they wouldn’t even think to look at us.

Even so, we would have to be careful. The planet was a cesspool of crime and fighting. I usually liked those things, but not on a planet where every pair of eyes wanted to kill me and collect the price on my head.

“If this little trip gets us killed, Amara, I swear to the saints, I’ll—”

“Says the man who wants us to rob the most ruthless crime boss in the empire.”

“Fair point.”

“We’ll just need to be extra careful, okay?” said Jinx. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “We’ve been there before and survived. We’ll do it again.”

“I appreciate your optimism,” Rowan said.

Just then, Pivek climbed up from the hold and looked between the four of us expectantly. I had to fill him and Ketellin in on the plan, though I was sure that K had probably heard bits and pieces from the cockpit.

“Pi, but do you happen to have all the materials you’d need to make us all fake ID chips? New ones obviously. The last batch ran their course.”

He chittered and scratched at his neck. ‘I do, yes. I was saving them because I had a feeling we would need it soon.’

I grinned. “You can always feel when I got something cooking.”

‘It is a gift, I suppose.’

“Some might call it a curse,” chuckled Amara.

‘Some might, yes.’

We shared a laugh that defused any lingering tension about Preoria. I filled Pivek in on the plan so far, and he had no complaints or suggestions on the matter. If he did, he didn’t share them. He was never one for planning, though. He was a fixer, a tinkerer, and a mechanic. He just supplied us and let us do our thieving business while he got his cut. Fair trade.

He went back down to his workshop to start working on the chips, and the others dispersed to their rooms while I went to the cabin to tell Ketellin our new destination. He gave me a hard, wordless look when I said the word.

“Are you sure?” he asked grimly, like he was giving me one last chance to back out. But we couldn’t back out. We had to follow this lead.

“I’m sure.”

He huffed. “Okay. Setting course for headhunters HQ.” I smiled. K didn’t tell jokes, but I appreciated his sense of humor when he did display it.

He punched in the coordinates, and we were on our way.

It took a few hours to jump from star to star before we arrived at Preoria, so most of us got some sleep. K didn’t, but his race could stay awake for absurdly long amounts of time, sometimes even hundreds of hours. It was a trait I wished I had, though I was a glutton for sleep. But thieving took up a lot of hours, and sleep robbed those hours. Sleep was a better thief than I was.

I jolted awake when the ship arrived at Preoria. The ship jerked and rattled as we descended into the atmosphere. It was always worse for little ships like ours. I wished K would have given us some warning, but he liked to mess with us in his own silent way.

I stumbled out of my cabin as I pulled on a shirt and joined him in the cockpit. Jinx was there already, rubbing sleep from her eyes, her hair a tangled mess. Still, she was flawless. She smiled at me.

“Here we are, waking up in hell.”

I yawned and shrugged. “Could be worse. We could get news that all alcohol has been banned throughout the galaxy.”

“Oh yeah, that would be a tragedy.”

The others crowded into the cockpit one by own as we blasted through the planet’s atmosphere. The ship shook violently, the roar of our descent almost deafening. But finally, after nearly a minute of jerking and near nausea, we broke through to pale gray skies and a vast, bright landscape.

We approached the surface quickly. The planet was a blazing orange rock filled with ancient canyons and dried riverbeds. There were oceans, but most settlements were situated on the few rivers and lakes that dotted the planet, since the tides were so violently drastic, and the sea life was so large and hungry. It wasn’t worth living on the coasts.

The official headquarters of the GBC was in Goldclaw, a large city built into a jagged canyon that cut across the southern continent. As we approached, we could see the shimmering blue gravity bridges that crisscrossed the canyon. Small speeders and hovercars buzzed about the airways like a swarm of flies. For bigger ships like ours, there were huge holes in the surface of the mesas that went to deep, underground hangars, many levels of them housing ships of the deadliest hunters in the galaxy. K guided us into one of those nests.

While we descended and ran our “registration and identification” with the traffic control, the rest of us went to our rooms and got ready. Since we all more or less had bounties on us, we couldn’t simply walk around with bright smiles.

Over my nondescript shirt and trousers, I threw on a long cloak and headwrap, along with a pair of thick wind goggles, which fortunately wouldn’t be too conspicuous since the cities of Preoria were always hot, windy, and sand-blasted, so it wasn’t uncommon for people to dress like this.

It was a perfect disguise.

Jinx and Amara were dressed similarly, though neither wore goggles. Jinx had a thick hood that completely covered her hair and face, and Amara was only slightly less clandestine.

The ship came to a stop with a thud. Ketellin called out from the cockpit. “We’re good to go! The fee was a hundred digits for the next four hours, then it doubles after that.”

“You hear that, Amara? We have a time limit.”

“I don’t need that type of pressure, Captain.”

Once the others were ready, we climbed down the ladder to the cargo hold and made our way to the exit ramp. It was already open and Pivek was scampering down it without a second thought for us.

“Where are you heading?” I asked him.

‘I have some things I want to look into. I shouldn’t be gone for long.’

I nodded and watched as he descended the ramp. “Okay, well, be careful. Don’t try to draw attention.”

He hummed in that weird way his people laughed. ‘I’m not you. I can be invisible when I need to be.’

“Sir,” I said, feigning hurt, “I am a master thief. I never get caught.”

“If you never got caught, you wouldn’t have a bounty on your head,” retorted Jinx.

“I could say the same for you.”

She smiled and made a rude gesture.

We left Ketellin with the ship and followed Amara. We’d all been on Preoria before, but she was the one who knew where Zemi was, so it was up to her to get us there fast. Though it wouldn’t be the end of the world to have to pay double for hangar fees, I’d rather save the money for something more important, like things we might need for the heist. Alcohol for instance, or some good hunra.

Of course, we usually tried to find a discreet, free place to land, but best not to take any chances on this planet where anyone and everyone was a potential predator looking for prey.

The hangars were deep and dim, lit by floating orbs that radiated a pale green light. There were floor lights around the ships so that pilots and engineers could see while they did repairs and fueled up, but in general, it was hard to see for the common eye. Though us Goons had worse eyesight than a lot of species.

We walked past plenty of vessels large and small, some general traders and some specialized hunting ships, equipped with all manner of weaponry and traps. One had a gravity well generator, which was interesting because I thought only frigates had the power to make use of them. Pivek would love to get his hands on it, I was sure.

No one paid us any mind, thankfully. Or so it seemed anyway. Amara led us out of the hangar through a series of narrow, winding tunnels cut into the rock of the canyon. They were barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side, and that was accounting only for the size of humans. Pivek and other large species would have a harder time.

When we finally emerged into the city proper of Goldclaw, my breath caught, as it usually did on the blessed few times I’d come here. It was a city built into the canyon face, built on gravity wells and suspension ropes, and carved out of the rock itself. It was all vertical, all steepness and open air. Thank goodness I wasn’t afraid of heights, otherwise it would have been a nightmare.

It was a colorful city. The orange of the canyon walls blazed bright in the spots where the sun shone, and a rainbow of banners—belonging to the many hunting guilds—fluttered in the fierce winds.

Bounty hunters could earn more when they went on their own, but being in a guild had benefits, like having a home and family, having people on your side to help you. The same could be said with us thieves. Could we make more on our own? Sure. I wouldn’t need to split the scratch with anyone, but then if I got caught, that was it.

It was always good to have someone watching your back, no matter the profession.

Amara guided us through streets clogged with alien races and weapons. We kept close together and kept our heads down. Even though I knew I was inconspicuous, the number of eyes made me itch. Even Jinx, who usually shined in a crowd and had nerves of steel despite everything she’d been through, was anxious enough that she laced her fingers through mine. I gave her hand a squeeze and she squeezed back.

We’d be fine. We always were.

Eventually, we made our way off the crowded main streets and down some side lanes. We passed the side of what smelled like either a waste disposal plant or a really bad bar, though there were few differences. I would have thought nothing of the building, but then I noticed them. The bounty posters.

The building was built from the canyon rock, so the walls were rough and orange. Plastered across the blank surface were dozens, maybe even a hundred, wanted posters. Men, women, all races and species from across the stars, some famous and with fortunes for bounties and others you’d hardly glance at.

And then I saw ours.

It had been a while since I’d seen a wanted poster of myself. I was flattered that I was so famous, though obviously having a price on your head was very problematic. But even though it was me, the likeness had a lot of flaws. They’d made my cheeks too round, whereas my cheek bones were sharp enough to cut through our ship’s hull. My nose was too beaky on the poster, whereas I had a dainty and I’d say downright delicate nose. The only improvement was that they made my mouth a normal size. I’d always thought I had a much too big a mouth, both literally and figuratively.

The rest was pretty standard and accurate. They nailed my cleft chin and my prominent jaw, though they gave me more stubble than I deserved, and my hair was much shorter in the picture. Now it was down to my shoulders, though I usually kept it tied back. And they drew me scowling, which was so unlike me. I could be in front of a firing squad and still find a way to crack an annoying smile.

It was a blessing and a curse.

I knew it wouldn’t do any real good, but even so, I tore down the poster and shredded it. Every little bit helped, right?

The others had wanted posters too: Amara and Jinx, both so accurate that it was almost alarming, like looking at a holo of them. Ketellin had one too, though his was for a considerably lower price than mine. Pivek and Rowan were absent from the heat, since Rowan was still relatively new to our operations and thus hadn’t had a chance to earn a rep. As for Pivek, well, he always stayed with the ship.

The four of us stood in front of the bounties and looked them over. The girls scowled and tore theirs down, and for that, I did not blame them.

“Why is yours so terrible and mine so accurate?” Amara complained.

“Maybe you shouldn’t get caught so much?” I offered. She scowled and flicked my forehead, which only made me smile more.

Jinx made a point to lower her hood and pull her cloak tighter around her. I had the urge to do the same, though I felt safer knowing that my poster was a little less accurate.

Amara scoffed, did the same as Jinx, and waved us on. “Come on, Zemi’s place isn’t too much further.”

We followed her through the dense streets filled with more exotic sights than most would see in their lifetime. I swore I counted at least thirty or forty different species along the way, a denizen of every known spacefaring race present and accounted for. All the races from the Hegemony, the Free Systems, the human alliances, and even some from the Vitoss Collective and their client races, all of which rarely left their sovereign territories. It was a vast collection all together, a melting pot of galactic culture, and honestly, the one bright spot of this planet.

And, as always, it helped us blend in.

We started climbing the city levels, through various means. Grav-lifts, mostly, but a few times we had to use the perilously steep and narrow stairs carved out of the rock. I wasn’t afraid of heights, but even so, they made me nervous. How some people lived in this city and navigated its vertical nature without difficulty was beyond me.

“Couldn’t we have just taken a lift to whatever level Zemi lives on from the hangar?” Jinx asked, her grip crushing my hand. She did, as I recalled, have a slight fear of heights. This was not ideal.

Amara shrugged and didn’t look back. “Maybe. But I don’t know the way from the upper levels. You don’t want me getting us lost in this city.”

No, I didn’t think any of us wanted that. At least getting back from this level wouldn’t be too bad. There were signs pointing to the hangars, after all.

Finally, we came to a less crowded area, a cluster of shanties and stone buildings connected by rickety bridges and wires and makeshift gravity wells like the ones we’d seen on Elarra. These looked more stable, but then again, we hadn’t had to go on the ones on Elarra, so who knew?

Amara slowed her pace and darted her head left and right. She muttered as she walked.

Rowan cleared his throat, a hand tight around the grav-blade at his hip. “I hope you didn’t forget which house is hers.”

“I didn’t,” she snapped. “It’s building two-oh-oh-one-two. There’s just a lot of doors and windows.”

Knowing the number helped, so we all scanned the buildings for our target. And she was right, there were so many houses and doors and openings and people all clustered together that it was easy to lose track of where the heck we were. And unfortunately, the building numbers jumped around randomly, as if no thought was put into numerical organization whatsoever. What was the bleeding point of having numbers if they weren’t in order?

I was beginning to give up on finding our mystery Zarthian when Jinx released my hand and pointed to a house above us. She practically hopped.

“Oh, I found it! Up there!”

And there it was, a dirty mess of a building with old paper ads stuck to the sides, weathered by wind and rain, and lots of cracked windows and glow paint. Building 2-0-0-1-2.

“Looks like a piece of crap,” said Rowan.

“You sure your friend is still here?” I asked. It would be a real pain if we came all this way and risked stepping into this den for nothing.

“I told you I wasn’t sure. You knew the risk. Besides, her house looked like this the last time I was here. Though the paint is new.”

I supposed we’d just have to pray. The saints owed me a favor or two anyway. That should count for something.

Amara led us around a few of the lower surrounding buildings to where a ladder was propped up against the side. She scampered up it, though it shook and groaned even under her small size. Not a good sign. We followed and were lucky it didn’t give way under Rowan’s bulk.

We stood outside Zemi’s front door. It was made of rusty metal, with faded green paint that was chipped and peeling all over. It wasn’t a mechanized door, just an old hinged thing that no doubt would squeak loudly. Amara took a deep breath and rapped her knuckles against it. It panged loudly.

We waited one beat, then two, then five, then ten. Still, no sound came. I was beginning to give up when the faintest whisper of footsteps sounded inside. They came to a stop, and then I noticed the curtains behind the clouded window flutter ever-so-slightly. Finally, a muffled voice spoke from behind the door.

“What do you want, Amara?”

It wasn’t the voice of a friend or someone who was happy to see us. Though I supposed in our disguises, we probably looked more intimidating than we usually would.

“I just want to talk. My friends and I need some help and some information that you may be able to provide.”

There was a long pause from behind the door. I guessed Zemi was considering her options, and she came to a conclusion that I didn’t appreciate. There was the click of her door being locked and she yelled, “Piss off!”

Amara sighed and sagged her shoulders. “Please, Zemi.”

“Oh, to hell with this,” Rowan said with an exasperated groan. He pushed Amara aside and kicked in the door. It flew open with a crack and a screech that I’d expected. Zemi squealed inside. Rowan stood aside and gestured for Amara to go in. “See? Not so hard.”

She scoffed and strode in. We followed.

The inside of Zemi’s home stank of staleness and excrement and was drab and falling apart. I’d be disgusted if it wasn’t so depressing, and so, so, so familiar that it tugged at my heart.

Zemi herself laid on the ground, dazed, but she scrambled to her feet to face us. She was a sight and not a good one. Unlike Amara’s jade skin, Zemi’s was a rich magenta, but that was all that was rich about it. She was more bone than muscle, and she made the rest of her diminutive race look stocky by comparison. Her skin sagged and her cheeks were terribly gaunt. And I saw why. Her bare arms trembled, and I could see needle marks littering her skin.

Amara must have been just as alarmed, if not more, by the sight, because she sucked in a breath. “Oh, Zemi…”

Zemi growled, reached back behind her, and brought out a small blaster pistol, covered in rust and dirt but still looking effective.

And all hell broke loose.

Jinx fished out a similar small blaster from her hip and pointed it at Zemi. Rowan unsheathed his grav-blade and held it at the ready. Amara was faster than any of them. She pulled out a small cartridge from beneath her cloak that expanded into a large plasma cannon, the end burning bright and humming with energy.

Zemi shook and frowned at the sight of it all, but she didn’t lower her weapon.

Meanwhile, I was left standing there like an idiot. “You brought weapons?” I demanded, scowling and trembling at the intensity of this showdown.

Amara scoffed. “We’re wanted criminals on a hostile planet where everyone would gladly take our heads for a sack of digits. Yes, we brought weapons. Use that little brain of yours, Yan.”

Well, I couldn’t say she was wrong, though I wished she wasn’t so hurtful. Jinx gave me a sympathetic look but didn’t lower her blaster pistol either.

Amara didn’t want this to escalate, because what would be the point? It would be a waste of a trip since we came for help, not to kill some random Zarthian. So, she lowered her weapon, but she didn’t stow it, and neither did Jinx or Rowan. Zemi was a junkie on edge, so it would be unwise to put them away completely.

“We don’t want to hurt you, Zem. We just— I just want to talk to you.”

Zemi’s eyes darted all around, and it was clear she was thinking of doing something stupid. But it seemed that something smart clicked in that brain of hers, because she dropped her blaster and stumbled away until she collapsed into a torn-up chair. She hugged her knees to her chest.

“So talk, hegelli’a.”

I didn’t know what that word meant, but it made Amara tense. That would have to be a question for later.

Amara did stow her cannon, because honestly, it was overkill. Jinx kept hers out just in case. Amara walked tentatively up to her friend and crouched in front of her, but we kept our distance.

“I know you used to work for the Elexaes, specifically at Lord Xarren’s manor.”

Zemi looked away. “I… I did. Why does that matter?”

“Because me and my friends here are going to rob the vault.”

That got her attention. Zemi stared at us like we were crazy. Maybe we were.

“There’s no way you’re going to get out of there alive, Amara.”

“We have a plan, let us worry about it.”

She scoffed. “Then why do you need me?”

“Because I know that while you worked there, a friend of yours was caught trying to break into the vault and was killed. I know that you were fired because of it, that everyone was because Xarren didn’t trust his staff. And I know that you and the thief were close. So, what can you tell me?”

This was news to Jinx and I. Rowan didn’t appear surprised, but then, it was often hard to get a read on him. This seemed like information that Amara should have told us. So, this was how Zemi could help. She might have tried to steal from the big bad on her own.

Zemi started to shake terribly and tears welled up in her eyes. Amara changed into a different person. She got close to her fellow Zarthian and cupped her cheeks and wiped away her tears.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. I know what Belvi’s death did to you. But you have to help us. For his memory. If we pull this off, I’ll take care of you. Understand?”

Zemi looked at Amara through her tears and nodded.

I just blinked. Amara had never mentioned Zemi, or really anything of her life before the Sanara. That was many decades of history that we knew nothing about, and clearly, Zemi and her had some sort of past connection.

“D-do you… Do you k-know about the vault?” Zemi asked as she tried to compose herself and clear away the tears.

Amara looked back at me, a question on her lips. I shrugged. “What about the vault?” I asked.

“Most of the manor’s security can be controlled from the security tower on the southern end of the grounds,” Zemi said, seeming to feel better. “One of you will need to disable the automated sensors, and the cameras, and whatever else that freak has added.”

“But what about the vault?”

She wiped the last of her tears. “The vault can only be opened by Xarren himself. It’s biometrically encoded.”

I sighed. Jinx and Rowan both gave me concerned looks. The plans had just gotten a lot harder, but we’d think of something.

Amara nodded. “Thank you, Zemi.”

Zemi nodded. And then we descended into silence, one that was as heavy and thick as the air.

“Guys, can you give us a minute?” Amara asked.

“No problem,” Jinx replied. She holstered her blaster and took Rowan and I by the arms, dragging us outside.

We waited for a few minutes for whatever Amara had to say to Zemi. We closed the door and thankfully didn’t hear any of it. Although I was usually a glutton for conversation, now didn’t seem the time, even if there was a lot to talk about.

Finally, the door swung open with a painful creak, and out came Amara. Her eyes were red. She strode past us and climbed down the ladder with us on her heels. My heart ached for her. I considered her the strongest of us, so when she was rattled, it rattled me.

“So,” I began, trying to prod away the silence. “do you mind if I ask who Zemi is?”

Probably not my smartest move, but I was curious. Jinx slapped my arm and shook her head with a frown. I shrugged. It was an innocent question; I didn’t need their whole history. And Amara being Amara, she didn’t give it to me.

“She is…was a friend.”

And that was that.

Amara paused and looked up at the canyon ceiling above and the bits of sky that we could see. She took in a deep breath and breathed out, her shoulders relaxing.

“Come on, we have a lot more work to do now.”

That was an understatement.

We didn’t waste time once we had the information from Zemi. We trudged our way through the busy Goldclaw streets and lifts and got back to the hangar as fast as we could. No need to linger on such a hostile planet. I would have liked to stop at one of the bars, for Preoria had amazing booze and knew how to have fun, but I wasn’t going to risk my friends. I liked to drink, but I had my limits. Jinx would argue otherwise.

It was mostly silent the whole way back. None of us wanted to bring up the clear relationship between Amara and Zemi, which obviously had resulted in lots of pain and grief. That was one thing we all agreed upon: no prying into our pasts unless that information was volunteered. And none of us liked to talk about it.

I only knew of Jinx’s past, and the pain she’d experienced as a slave. But the others were tightlipped, even though we’d crewed together for the better part of four years now. Still, I wouldn’t pry.

So when we got back, we didn’t stop Amara when she strode to her quarters and locked the door. It closed with a whoosh and a click.

K sat in the cockpit, feet up on the console, reading a data-pad. As I came up behind him, I caught some Elarri wording. There were star charts and times, coordinates and names. I squinted and leaned in. It was a shipping manifest and an air traffic guide for Elarra. Studying up for the heist, I presumed. Good. Ketellin was always one to be cautious.

“You know, I distinctly remember a certain water-breather telling me not to put my feet up.” I grinned down at him, my arms at my hips.

He didn’t even spare me a glance, his ink black eyes just moving from side to side as he read the manifest. “My controls. My rules.”

“This is my ship.”

“Your ship. My controls.”

I snorted. “Get us out of here, K. I’d like to put some distance between us and this miserable place.”

He just huffed and kept on reading, but I knew good and well that the second I left the cockpit, he’d put his feet down and start the engine. As quiet as he was, he was a cheeky little guy sometimes. And sure enough, as soon as footsteps echoed against the walls outside, his boots clanked against the floor and switches began to get flipped. I smiled.

As the ship jerked and hummed to life, I returned quickly to my room to strip off my meager disguise before I joined the others. The ship shuddered beneath our feet, and then we rose. Underway and leaving this place, without much trouble, all alive and in one piece with valuable new information to boot. I called that a win.

The others weren’t as enthused as I was, though maybe they could feel the tension in the air with Amara and Zemi. I felt it too, but I wasn’t about to let it get me down. We all had ghosts, all had stuff in our past that was ugly and unpleasant, but we couldn’t let it drag us down. They did their best to cope. I had my vices—drinking, hunra, and flesh. Pivek had his tinkering. Jinx liked to read, Rowan was a gambler, and Amara trained and fought. Ketellin… Well, as far as we knew, all he did was eat, sleep, and pilot. If he had a hobby, he hid it well.

Of course, none of the others were practicing their hobbies presently. They just stood around looking gloomy and tired. I didn’t blame them, but I hated the atmosphere, nonetheless.

The ship rumbled as we broke through the atmosphere and then we felt lighter. Back in space. In a short moment, I felt a zip and knew we’d just jumped. A minute later, K lumbered into the room and leaned against the wall, opposite of Pivek, who started with his hands.

‘Did you get what we came for?’

“Sure did,” I said. “Did you?”

‘I would not be back here if I hadn’t.’

That was cryptic, but I left it alone. I trusted Pivek to do whatever he needed to do to keep our ship space-worthy and us well supplied.

“So, what did you lot find out?” Ketellin asked. More words than he usually gave.

I was ready to answer, but then Amara let out a long breath and began instead. Probably for the best. This was her information to tell. Her source, her info, her turn. She filled K and Pivek in on the things Zemi told us about the manor and Xarren’s security, and already I could see the gears turning in Pivek’s big insect brain as he began to formulate solutions to these new obstacles. K just listened and nodded, as was his usual prerogative. Amara left out some of the more…uncomfortable bits of the trip. I didn’t blame her.

When she was finished, we all stood around the room, arms crossed, chewing on our options and own thoughts. Naturally, we had a few more steps to the plan if we were to pull off this heist now. We could do it though. I had faith in my crew, in my friends. And if there was something they couldn’t do, we were all well connected enough to find someone who could help. Pivek, I imagined, could get us past Xarren’s security systems. He’d never met a program he couldn’t hack, disable, or take over. Obtaining Xarren’s bio-encryption would prove more difficult. For that, I’d need some ideas.

“So, thoughts?” I asked.

K stroked his chin, the water tubes of his rebreather bubbling. He said nothing, just stared at the floor.

Pivek, as I guessed, had a few ideas. He stood to his full height, his wings buzzing with excitement, but not enough to lift him from the ground.

‘I have some ideas for the security system, but there’s a catch.’

I didn’t like the sound of that. “What’s the catch?”

‘I doubt Xarren’s systems are simple enough to be taken down by a hack-spike. For me to know how to get past it, I’m going to need to know what he’s working with.’

A collective groan escaped all our mouths. It was complications like that that could scare thieves away from a heist. But not us. Still, not ideal. This meant he had to get someone inside the mansion who had enough knowledge of tech and security systems to identify what we were dealing with, or he’d have to find some other way to get eyes inside. Neither option was easy. Both options had major risks, and those were risks that would help lessen another risk.

Risks on top of risks. Get rid of one, open another. That was the life we lived. And I loved the rush of it all.

But sometimes, things being easy was refreshing, and with everything riding on this job, I kind of wished it would be so. Not the case.

“Okay, so we need someone on the inside,” Rowan said.

“If it were that easy, we wouldn’t have needed Zemi,” Amara replied with a sigh. “And Jinx wouldn’t have needed to steal workers uniforms.”

“And that uniform is for who, exactly?”

“It was for all of us, namely Jinx and Amara because Xarren prefers female help, but now we’re gonna need someone to get into the security tower.”

Rowan frowned. “And do what?”

Pivek chittered nervously. ‘So many questions, Goon.’

“I just want to know the plan, bug.”

They glared at each other. I chuckled. Pivek had never taken to Rowan like Jinx and I had. Even Amara and K liked him well enough, but not Pivek. We were a family, but hey, even families had issues.

“Easy, you two,” I said as I stepped between them. “The plan is fluid right now, not in its final form. Once it is, you will know it.”

Neither liked that answer, but I always kept my plans loose and secret. That way if someone got captured, they couldn’t rat on us. Not that they would, but torture could be one hell of a motivator.

Everyone settled down. Silence came back as we considered all the information. As usual, Jinx was the mediator that I wished I was sometimes. But I was too much of a crap-starter. I was a glutton for trouble. Being a reasonable human being was not a gift I was usually blessed with, so that was where she came in.

“Okay, we’re not going to figure everything out right now, so we should try to be productive.”

I nodded. “Right. Pivek, you go try to think up something so that we don’t need to physically be in the security tower for you to help.”

‘That isn’t so easy.’

“Well, if it were easy, Xarren would have been robbed already. Just stay busy, I’m sure there’s a solution in that brilliant brain of yours. K, obviously keep jumping until we need to fuel. I want to put some distance between us and Preoria.”

He nodded and left without a word. Saints, I loved his cold demeanor.

“Amara, you… Well, your day’s been draining enough, so do whatever you want.”

“Thanks, Captain.” She smiled when she said that, obviously sarcastic, but it still made me grin.

“And what about me?” Rowan asked, still annoyed, arms crossed and lips set in a hilarious frown.

As Pivek and Amara both filed out of the room, I strolled over to the cooler built into the wall, filled with dried fruits, meats, and juices. And alcohol. I opened it up, pulled out a bottle of Nemodian cider, and grabbed some glasses.

“You, me, and Jinx are going to have a glass and play a round of Spacer’s Medley so that you cool off and smile.”

He grunted, but he didn’t hesitate to take the glass when I offered it. Jinx rolled her eyes and took one too, and we all sat around the holo-recorder. We shouldn’t have played cards on it, because it wasn’t a table, but I liked to live dangerously. And so, we drank and gambled while the heist of a lifetime stewed in our minds, at first just a thought, a dream, but slowly building to reality.

We jumped several systems over the next several hours before we finally came to a stop in the middle of an asteroid belt called the Gilla Pass. There was a small mining company set up around a dozen or so of the larger rocks meant to dig up the precious metals that were buried beneath, though the activity of said mining companies varied by the day. But what didn’t waver was the large rest stop at the very center of the pass.

The asteroid was smaller than the mined ones, but it didn’t need to be big. We closed in on the clear dome on the surface that shimmered in the light of the distant sun. As we got closer, dozens of ships, mostly small freighters and schooners, buzzed about, coming and going. Beneath the dome was a handful of buildings, all cold and metal and gray, with glittering blue and gold lights. Lodgings and a fueling station and a decent tavern. All the essentials for a good rest stop.

K put us down on an empty landing pad between a bright red star runner with wide oval wings and a standard gray box-looking Varellen freighter that was probably loaded down with some bulk shipment. The runner swarmed with small green men, Oreset, with their lanky limbs and large rounded heads and unblinking black eyes that always seemed to peer into your soul. A couple of Torgorans milled about the freighter as they fueled up.

The Sanara settled onto the pad and stilled as K cut the engine. A groan filled the air as the cargo ramp was lowered. Pivek needed to fix that. He piled out first to go refuel the ship. The rest of us needed a drink and maybe a meal, if there was something good on the menu. Jinx was a good chef, but sometimes, she didn’t want to do it, which was fine. We had money to spare, and I needed some alcohol.

“Fill her up, Pivek. Unless the price is ludicrous,” I called to him as he bounded away. He turned and walked backward.

‘The price is fine. I’ll come get you when I’m finished.’

“You come join us. You deserve a drink.”

He nodded, then continued to the fuel clerk.

We started for the tavern and were surprised when we realized that Ketellin was with us. I think we all arched an eyebrow at that. K was intensely private and didn’t leave the ship all too much unless absolutely necessary.

Jinx flashed him a smile. “What brings you with us today, K?”

Eyes forward, he said, “This place has really good steamed heyvek.”

And he kept walking right passed us. I looked at Jinx and the others. We all chuckled to ourselves and followed him.

Spacers buzzed about ahead of us, chatting each other up, coming and going between their ships and the tavern and the general store. As far as fuel stations went, this place was very active. There were hundreds of dingy little outposts spread throughout the stars with barely enough resources to survive. They’d service your ship, sure, but with a bare minimum to offer. Here, though, was nice.

I nudged Amara with my shoulder, and she gave me an annoyed look. Was I that annoying? Probably. I pointed to the general store.

“Could you be a gem and take Rowan to go get us some supplies?”

She sighed. “Sure.”

“Something wrong? Are we more stocked than I thought? I swear I checked our inventory a few days ago.”

“No, we need food and some more medical supplies. I’m just tired and don’t feel like chaperoning Rowan.”

“I resent that,” he called from the other side of me. I laughed.

“You like Rowan, don’t lie. Now go on. You’re both strong. You’ll be done in no time. Want us to order anything for you?”

“Whatever meat they may have, get me two orders of it roasted.”

Jinx and I both rolled our eyes and laughed. “Sounds like a good deal,” Jinx said with a smile.

“What about you, Rowan?”

“Bowl of cedece. Hold the spice.”

“No spice?”

“No spice.”

Amara scoffed. “You’re so uncultured.” He just smiled.

The two of them veered off from us and went to the general store. They disappeared through the doors as two large Rardons walked out, their hulking frames as wide as the door and their reptilian tails dragging behind them. They gave us a toothy glance and kept on. I kept my eyes forward. Rardons always gave me chills.

Inside, the tavern was about what one would expect. Dimly lit, low ceiling, air choked with hunra and tobacco smoke, with an underlying stench of alcohol. A song with a rapid beat that didn’t suit the place pulsed from the back, muffled and sad. Broken chatter filled the room, as tables all around were jammed with spacers, smugglers, miners, and more. We were given little more than a few glances as we entered.

I was beginning to get a little down on the place when I spotted some of the plates. Steamed fruits and vegetables from across the stars, kerron bird fried to golden deliciousness. Some other roasts and sandwiches of all makes and sizes. As we passed them, I caught whiffs over the stench of the room. Delightful. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

We managed to find a table that could seat us. It was a few minutes before the Tagoran waitress took our orders. Then we played the waiting game for our drinks and meals, and wait we did, with how busy the place was. I wasn’t starving or anything, but it would have been nice to have some whisky.

It took so long to even get our drinks that Amara and Rowan had time to buy supplies and load the ship. Our alcohol arrived just as they did. I’d already ordered for them both, since I knew Amara would want a tall pint of blue honey and Rowan three bottles of veski. Not my type, but who was I to judge a man’s alcohol tastes?

We all sat around in silence, sipping our drinks, letting the pulsing ebbs of the music wash over us and drown out everything else. It was good to just sit down and relax for once. And I would enjoy a hot meal. I mean, we had decent food on the ship, but none of us were exactly master chefs, so it was nice to go out and get some good food. Though, I wasn’t sure if this place quite qualified.

Jinx gulped down her wine. “So, what’s our next move, Captain?” She winked and gave me a cheeky smile.

I smirked and whirled my drink around in my glass. “Pivek is still coming up with solutions on the tech end of things, but I have a plan in mind.”

“Such as?” Amara prodded, peering out at me behind her long lashes.

“You’re not gonna like it.”

“When do I ever?”

I laughed. “Fair point.” I took a swig of my drink so I could muster the courage to speak the words into existence. “I’m going to get captured by the Elexaes. Jinx and Amara are going to join his house staff and find a way to spring me. And then one of you will help me get into the vault.”

Silence. They all looked at me, blinking heavily. I could feel the objections coming as soon as I spoke the plan. Which I knew wasn’t my best.

“That is a terrible plan,” Amara said as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Yeah, Yan, that’s just… That’s not really a plan.” Even Jinx turned on me.

“I have no words,” said K.

“Seconded.” Rowan.

I sighed. “I appreciate the support, guys.” I took another long swig. “Look, as I said, the plan is fluid. Nothing is set in stone. But obviously, we need a way into the mansion besides just breaking in. Jinx, you already knew that you’d be going in.”

“That’s all well and good, but Jinx and I are both wanted. Our faces are known. Why not use Rowan?” Amara asked

“Because Rowan doesn’t have a good poker-face. He cracks under scrutiny.” I looked at him. “Sorry.”

He, naturally, appeared very offended. “I am getting better. I can lie just fine. Besides, you never take me on the big missions. Let me earn my keep.”

“You have earned your keep. You’ve gotten us information on this job that I wouldn’t have dreamed of getting.”

“But I can do more! Come on, Yan. Using the girls is too risky. Let me get you in.”

As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. Amara had a rep even before she joined up with us. And that rep and notoriety hadn’t gone down in the slightest. She just went from freedom fighter and terrorist and blowing stuff up on the regular to stealing what remained afterward.

I groaned. “Fine. But Jinx will go too. She’s far less recognizable. She isn’t even wanted by the Elexaes, so they have no reason to know her. Plus, we already have her uniforms and credentials.”

Amara rolled her eyes. She wasn’t convinced. She turned her attention to Ketellin. “What do you think, K?”

He sat, arms crossed, eyes unblinking as he looked at the table. “The bones are good. More details will be needed. Even then, there will be a lot of risks.”

I put my hands up. “Of course there will be risks. A score like this isn’t taken easily. But I know we can pull this off. This is the job to end all jobs. Once we do this, we can be out, do whatever we want to do, be whoever we want to be. I shouldn’t need to convince you.”

“You don’t need to convince me. I just don’t want you idiots getting caught and killed, or worse, by the mob.”

“I appreciate the concern, Amara.”

She blew me a mocking kiss.

“We will figure it out. But this is our way in. We have the uniforms, schedules, and credentials.”

“Then what did you need me, and now Rowan for?” Amara asked.

“It’s always good to have backup. Besides, I’m thinking Pivek is gonna need one of you to access the security center. The other is gonna spring me.”

“And after that?”

I grinned. “I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

They all groaned.

“I hate you sometimes,” Jinx said with a smile.

“I told you the plan was fluid.”

“How do you plan on getting through Xarren’s bio-encryption?”

“We’ll need to find out what kind of encryption is it. Fingerprint reader? Blood sample? Retinal scan? Other? I don’t know. That’s why Jinx is going to case the place for a few days before we hit it. We need info before we go in.”

Jinx wasn’t surprised. She just nodded along. I hadn’t told her in straight terms what the responsibilities were, but she knew me well and knew how I thought and knew how I planned things. I knew her skillsets and she knew mine.

“What if Jinx gets caught?” Amara asked. She wouldn’t risk Jinx so callously.

“I won’t get caught,” Jinx protested.

“The only one getting caught is me. Don’t worry.”

“We need to worry. Caution can keep us alive.” Amara was ever the cautious one, which I found hilarious since she was also the one who delighted in blowing things up.

“We have time to plan it out. First, we need Pivek to come up with something. We can’t have anything concrete until he does.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Rowan asked. Amara arched an eyebrow, the same question on her face.

“He will. He always does.” And that was the truth. Pivek always came through, even if all of us failed. I couldn’t count how many jobs we would have failed if it weren’t for his quick thinking. The others knew this too. They shouldn’t and wouldn’t doubt Pivek. They could doubt me all they wanted because my past was paved in blunders, but Pivek came through.

Before anyone could speak more, K straightened. “Yan,” he said simply, his voice cold and grave.

I felt the air shift into something deadly. We all went quiet as we sipped our drinks and ate our food. Out of the corner of my eyes, I spotted them. Armored mercenaries, a large group of them, sitting to my left. They were strapped with weapons. That would have been fine, but K noticed it, and I did too. They were silent, rigid, and kept glancing our way.

“Ah, crap,” I said.

Amara noticed too and sighed. “Here we go.”

“What?” Jinx asked. She was never as savvy with spotting danger in crowds.

No time to answer. Only enough time to yell, “Get down!”

That was the exact moment when the bounty hunters stood abruptly and turned to us, blasters raised.

Then all hell broke loose.

Plates flew and glass shattered as tables were turned over to serve as cover. K threw our table over and we all ducked behind it right as red blaster bolts zinged over our heads. They exploded against the metal tabletop, making it shutter and shake, but it held. Patrons cursed and screamed and streamed around us, trying for the exits. It was chaos. Bolts flying all around, most from the bounty hunters but some other random patrons were firing back. No doubt there were probably other bounties here besides us.

Jinx squealed beside me, her arms covering her head. She was not good under fire, and I hated seeing her so distressed, but there was nothing I could do about that right now. Best she could do was keep her head down. The others, fortunately, were far more seasoned. Amara was unfazed other than a deeply angry scowl. She pulled out her plasma cannon.

“I was enjoying my meal, dang it.”

I snorted. “They’re gonna get it now.”

Ketellin sighed and produced a pair of short grav-blades that he kept on his thighs. I knew from experience that those were the only weapons he needed. But he’d need some cover. Which was where Rowan, Amara, and I came in. Rowan and I both pulled out blaster pistols. I almost hadn’t brought mine, but something told me to err on the side of caution. My gut was right yet again. Undefeated.

Rowan took a breath and switched the bolts from stun to kill. “Did anyone count how many there are?”

I left my pistol on stun. We didn’t need to kill the bounty hunters. But that was my choice. The others had to make that choice on their own. I shrugged. “Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw four.”

“There are seven,” K said bluntly. He closed his eyes and started muttering a prayer. Something he always did before he killed.

“You can handle it?” I asked him.

“If you keep them occupied, yes.”

I cracked a grin and locked eyes with Amara and Rowan. “We can do that, I think.”

Amara nodded. “Tell us when.”

It took him a few more seconds of prayer. He would not be rushed, not by us, and not by certain death. It didn’t matter that blaster bolts zipped overhead and pinged against the walls and table. No, he would be ready when he was good and ready. I admired that level of sheer stubborn fortitude.

Finally, he stopped muttering, opened his eyes, and gripped his blades tight. “Now.”

And so it began.

As soon as there was a pause in the bounty hunters’ barrage, we popped up out of cover and unloaded on them. I was a decent shot in most cases, but I’d admit that under heavy fire, I wasn’t the best, mostly because my body was a coward and didn’t want to get pinched. I wasn’t cowardly enough to leave, but when the lasers were flying, my aim tended to get worse.

But I didn’t need my aim to be true, I just needed to cover for K. So I fired, even though my arm shook and my breathing hitched and my heart pounded out a beat more frantic than that crappy music that was still playing. My bolts flew across the room and crashed against their overturned tables. The hunters ducked into cover as we sent back a barrage of our own, but not before I clipped one in the shoulder. That spun him around with a gasp as the jolt of my stun hit him.

A half-second later, a green bolt from Rowan struck him in the chest. Dead. Not on me, though. Not my problem.

Amara hadn’t fired a shot, because she was waiting for the right opportunity. She found it when three of the hunters popped up at once, guns drawn. That was it. They didn’t get a shot off, because Amara unleashed her fury and pulled the trigger of the plasma cannon. The air seemed to fizzle and crackle with a steady whir as the cannon warmed up and then…

BOOM!

A giant blast of pure plasmic energy shot forth looking like a mini star. It exploded into the bounty hunters. The three that were standing were consumed in a violent shriek. There was a flash and a loud bang, and then when my eyes cleared, there was only a pile of ash and a table with a gaping, smoking hole.

I blinked and lowered my weapon. “Maybe lead with that next time,” I said with a sidelong glance to my little jade weapon-master.

“Maybe be a better shot next time.”

“Hey!” I put my fists on my hips. “I hit one.”

“Well…” She flashed me a bright, faux flirtatious smile. “I hit three.”

“You have an unfair advantage.”

“This is not the time to have a conversation!” Jinx said, crouched beneath us, her eyes pinched shut and her arms still over her head. She was not enjoying this one bit. And she was right, now was not the time, though not because we were really in danger. The survivors were too stunned to even react.

Which was all the opening that K needed.

He erupted from the shadows and came at them, blades raised. The bounty hunters shouted and raised their weapons, but he was too fast. K was in arms-length of the first before he could pull the trigger. A blade went through armor and skin and muscle. Then out. Then he was on to the next, a blur, a dance of limbs and a spray of red. The bounty hunters were skilled, and the last two managed to pull out their own grav-blades and hold off K ever-so-meagerly, but it was all for nothing. They were dead.

On the last one, K parried his blows before he spun around the flailing body like a dancer. He did a pirouette and on the return spin, plunged his blade into the hunter’s neck, and out again, and K was striding back toward us. The poor hunter clutched at his neck, gurgling, as blood poured from him, his life fading fast. He dropped to a knee, then two, and was dead before his body hit the cold ground with a thud.

So, we won.

I sighed and holstered my weapon. “That was something, huh?”

I got no answers other than shrugs and grunts. Yeah, probably not the time for lighthearted banter. Amara and Rowan both put away their weapons and stepped out from behind our table. K sheathed his blades.

“K, go back to the ship, get her ready. I wanna be out of this system in ten minutes.”

He nodded and left the room. We didn’t have a lot of time. No doubt more hunters would be on the way, plus the mine’s security force. We didn’t start it, but we were criminals, so it was unwise to stick around.

I knelt beside Jinx, who still had her eyes closed. She shivered. She really hated firefights, and I didn’t blame her. They were terrifying. We did what we had to do, but we certainly didn’t enjoy it. I put my arm on her shoulder and gave her a squeeze.

“Hey, it’s over now. It’s okay.”

She nodded but didn’t open her eyes. She kept on shivering. I knew that sometimes when Jinx got into traumatic situations—like a deadly firefight in a dingy tavern—it would trigger her PTSD. She’d been through so much, being a child slave and seeing so much horror. I knew this was hard. So I put my arms around her and pulled her to me and held her tight. I whispered into her hair an old prayer that we Goons used to say.

“Keep your eyes open in the dark, because then you’ll eventually see the light.”

It didn’t make sense for a lot of scenarios, but it always did the trick with making Jinx feel better. She sniffled as she tried to hold back her tears. Her fingers gripped my shirt as she pushed her head into my chest. I was her protection. Jinx was strong and capable and, in a pinch,, she was a good brawler, but when the guns came out, she wasn’t much use. So, I protected her, from physical dangers, and from the monsters in her mind. Or at least, I did the best that I could for my friend.

As she was coming to her regular faculties, Amara called from beyond the table-wall. “Uhh, Yan? We have a problem.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “One second.”

“This is important.”

“So is Jinx.”

Which made Amara clamp her mouth shut. I’m sure what she needed to say was very critical, but she viewed Jinx as a little sister as much as she thought me a little brother, so she wouldn’t rush her.

Finally, Jinx wiped her face against my shirt and looked me in the eyes. They were red and puffy but still so pretty. Glittering. She offered me a soft smile that would melt the hardest of hearts.

“Thanks, Yan.”

I smiled back, cupped the back of her head, and pulled her to me so that I could plant a kiss on her forehead. “I’m always here for you, gemstone.”

She chuckled and wiped her eyes again.

Jinx crawled off me and pushed to her feet, where she offered me a hand and hauled me to my feet. But she didn’t join me when I walked over to Amara and Rowan. She didn’t want to see the death. I didn’t fault her one bit on that front.

Once by my friends’ side, and privy to the fact that the cooks and waitresses were looking through the door windows and holes to the kitchen, I crossed my arms and arched an eyebrow at Amara.

“What’s the matter?”

“That.” She pointed at one of the dead bounty hunters. The one that I’d stunned, before Rowan blasted him in the chest. My eyes followed the direction of her finger and at first, I didn’t know what she was referring to. But then I saw it, on his arm—a swirl of ink, a tattoo. A sigil, in fact. The family sigil of the Elexaes.

“Ah, crap.” I ran my fingers through my hair.

“They followed us here, Yan. This was no coincidence.”

I nodded with a groan. “Yeah, yeah, I realize that.”

Rowan was conspicuously quiet, but I didn’t press him.

“Who knows how they found us?”

“I don’t know, but we need to leave.”

“Yan, what if they’re tracking us?”

“Then they’re tracking us. We still need to leave. If they are tracking us, then more will come. And even so, the mine security will be here any second and I’m sure they’ll love to meet us.”

Rowan snapped out of his stupor. “Well, they’d love me. I can’t speak for you two.”

I punched his arm. “Ass. Come on. K should have the ship ready.”

We returned to the ship and promptly took off without delay. I looked out the cockpit window in time to see a sizeable force of security show up, ready to bust skulls. But all they found were dead bodies and frightened staff. And then my view ended as we angled up and up and shot into the blackness of space.

As we soared through jump after jump, the others sat together in the comm room. Rowan stood against the wall with a tired frown and sweat beading down his face. Amara was tweaking her gun, and Jinx sat in a chair with her back to the rest of us and her knees hugged to her chest. We were all pretty shaken.

Amara didn’t look up at me as she spoke. “Pivek is running a scan for tracking devices. Said it could take an hour, though.”

I nodded. “Okay.” My voice came out as a soft whisper.

“It was probably just a coincidence,” Rowan said, pushing off the wall. He grabbed a bottle of wine from one of the adjoining cabinets. “The Elexaes have troops of enforcers all throughout the stars doing who knows what.”

“Maybe.”

“I don’t think so,” said Amara. “They hadn’t ordered anything, and they all seemed ready for a fight. They knew we’d be there.”

“So how did they find us?” Rowan demanded.

She folded her arms and sent a glare back at him. “Maybe it’s as simple as there being a tracking device on our ship, and Pivek will find it.” Amara stepped closer to him. “Or maybe someone sold us out.”

I don’t think anyone in the room appreciated what she was insinuating. “Okay, let’s calm down,” I said as I stepped between them. “We’re all family here. None of us would do that. Don’t ever think we would.”

Amara blushed and lowered her gaze. “S-sorry. You’re right, Yan.”

“We’ll figure it, okay?”

“Yeah.”

“K will keep us jumping. We’re fueled up, we’re supplied, and at the least, we know we’re being tracked, or think we are, so we’ll be ready for them if or when they find us again.”

The ship lurched as we jumped, and jumped again, and jumped again. We all took time to cool off and breathe. We took turns showering, to get the grime of blaster particles, sweat, and smoke off us. It was a very refreshing feeling. Water was always at a premium in space, so we didn’t shower all too often. But we found ways to keep ourselves hygienic.

We sat around the comm room with some drinks and snacks as we waited for Jinx to finish up. She took her time because she was last, but I suspected she was still shaken from the fight. When she was done, her damp hair held back by a towel, she sat beside me and put her hands in her lap, her eyes on the floor. She still seemed to be far away, her mind reliving past traumas.

I reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. “Hey,” I whispered, “You okay?” A stupid question, I knew, but language wasn’t my forte.

Jinx smirked, a light little smirk that made my heart thump loudly. She squeezed my hand back. Her grip was warm. “I’m fine, Yan. I just… I need some sleep or something to distract me.”

“I can think of a few ways to distract you.” I winked.

She rolled her eyes and chuckled. “You’re the worst.”

“Maybe, but you’re smiling, aren’t you?”

Her grin grew wider. “Yeah, I am. Thanks.”

Ketellin came into the room and leaned against the wall as he grabbed a drink. At the same time, the metal stomping of Pivek’s approach resounded throughout the ship. A moment later, he bent down to enter.

“So?” I began. “Anything?”

‘No tracking devices are attached to this ship or on board it, unless there’s a new type that I’m unaccustomed to.’

“With how tech progressive you are? I doubt there’s anything new that you haven’t heard of.”

‘Let’s hope that that is the case, Yan.’

“So what you’re saying is that we don’t know for sure,” said Amara, her scowl almost venomous. I swore it felt like she’d been wearing that mood for days now.

Pivek chittered and fluttered his wings in a weird insectoid tsk-tsk. His version of being annoyed at the implication that he wasn’t doing enough to be helpful.

‘My scanner is top of the line. If there was a tracking device on this ship, it would find it. So either it’s a coincidence the bounty hunters found us, or someone sold us out.’

Amara threw up her hands. “That’s what I’m saying.”

Jinx and Rowan both looked uneasy by the accusation. I stood. “Stop! No one here would ever betray us. We are a family, and if I hear these types of accusations again, I swear to all the saints that I will thump you something fierce.”

It was all bluster mostly because Amara could rip me in half quite literally if she was ever inclined to, and Pivek was a nine-foot insect that could shred me to bits, but they knew what I meant. Everyone blinked and stared then averted their gazes in shame. Good, that was what I wanted them to feel.

“Sorry,” Amara murmured.

I ran a hand through my hair and sat back down. “It’s okay. Let’s just… Let’s just all clear our heads, okay? We were in a firefight and it was a close call, but we’re alive and it was probably just a coincidence.”

“Do you really believe that?” Jinx asked meekly.

“I do.”

Amara scoffed. “That’s a little naïve, Yan.”

I crossed my arms. “Or maybe it’s optimistic. I like to look at things through rose-colored glasses.”

“More like hunra-clouded glasses…”

That made me laugh, though I didn’t deny it because she wasn’t necessarily wrong.

Silence descended upon us for a long moment, heavy in the air, suffocating almost. I was optimistic as a start, but of course I did consider the possibility that one of us had sold us all out. But, I mean, who would do it? It wasn’t me, and Jinx and Rowan were my best friends. I knew that Amara and Pivek had always disliked Rowan, but he’d proven true more than a handful of times. As for K, Pivek, and Amara, well, we’d crewed together for years. What would their betrayal net them?

Plus, everyone in the tavern could have been killed. Wouldn’t the bounty hunters have made sure not to hurt them? They didn’t seem to be hesitating in the slightest to shoot at any of us. Pivek had been fueling up, but he had his own colored history with the Elexaes so I knew he wouldn’t ever work with them.

So, who could it be? None of us, because we would never do that. This went beyond optimism. This was about trust. This was about family, and I trusted my family. Was I being naïve? Maybe. But I’d rather be an optimistic fool than believe one of my friends, one of these people that I loved, would betray us.

If that was wrong, well, I didn’t want to be right.

Finally, Rowan snapped us out of our stupor. “So, what do we do now?”

I shrugged. “Depends.”

“On?”

“On if Pivek has figured out how to get in the security tower without physically being there.”

He buzzed. ‘I didn’t realize I was the one holding us all up.’

“You’re fine, friend. No pressure.” I patted his hard shell. “Getting past the security measures and Xarren’s bio-encryption are the main obstacles I’m worried about.”

“You should be more worried about Xarren killing you on sight in your idiotic plan to be captured.” Amara was often too pessimistic. Maybe that was why I was so optimistic. We had to balance each other out. She was the doom and gloom, and I was the hope and sunshine. Both points of view were important in maintaining a healthy mindset.

‘What is she talking about?’ Pivek asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied.

‘I really feel like I should.’

“You got enough to worry about. You deal with those problems and let me and Amara figure out a way for us to get in and out without dying.”

“Yeah, we still don’t have an escape plan.” Amara.

“I’m liking our chances less and less.” Rowan.

“I appreciate the confidence, you all.”

For the next day or so—it was hard to tell when you’re jumping from system to system—we all did our best to come up with solutions. Rowan was hard at work in his quarters gathering information through his shady backchannels, which he let none of us have access to. That was his process. None of us were allowed to touch Pivek’s workshop either, so stuff like that was fair. We all had our skills and specialties.

Jinx memorized the work schedules and sent in a digital application to be a scullery maid for the Xarren estate using one of Rowan’s contacts. So, we made some progress. Still nothing from Pivek though, but brilliance was often a slow process.

My rudimentary escape plan involved Amara using her terroristic skills to cause one heck of a diversion, but that was some rough planning on my part, and I doubted she would appreciate it very much. Still, it was something to think about. The main problem was getting access to Xarren, because even Pivek doubted we could simply bypass the bio-encryption. Those things were pretty tough to crack even for the best hackers.

Jinx did have an idea, but I didn’t like it.

“I can seduce him,” she told me as we sat on my bed. I was against it. I didn’t like her being in that type of vulnerable situation.

“No,” was my obvious response.

“Why not?”

“Because.”

She’d crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow with a pout. “Because?”

I doubted my answer would please her. “I don’t want you in harm’s way.” A weak argument.

One she tore apart immediately. “If you didn’t want me in harm’s way, we wouldn’t even be doing this heist, as it’s easily the most suicidal thing we’ve ever attempted.”

Also true.

“Jinx…”

She laughed and laid back on my bed, her hair splaying around her head like a halo. “Don’t be prude now, Yan. Let’s not pretend that I’ve never done this to steal and survive. It’s a tactic that I can use to great effect.”

I groaned and laid beside her. “I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Jinx rolled onto her side and looked at me. I did the same. She reached out and placed her palm against my cheek. She smiled. “I appreciate your concern and trust me, I’m worried too. But we have to keep every option on the table. From what I’ve heard, Xarren is a lecherous old fiend, so I should be able to pull this off.”

She could pull it off, I knew she could. Jinx was strong and capable and kind and determined. She was damaged, but who wasn’t? If this was how we could get Xarren’s bio-encryption, then we… I would consider it. That wouldn’t stop me from worrying excessively.

“I just… I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Jinx smirked, which sent a surge of warmth through me. She took my face in her hands, pulled me to her, and kissed my forehead.

“If we pull this off, everything will change for the better. Don’t worry about me, Yan.”

“It’s my job to worry about you.”

She snorted. “It’s your job to annoy everyone.”

“I can have multiple jobs.”

We both shared a laugh. One that didn’t last long, because just then, the ship rocked violently. We were thrown from the bed, with Jinx landing on top of me. I groaned as the wind was knocked from me.

“Oh, sorry, Yan!”

“Ow,” I groaned. “I’m fine.”

But that wasn’t true. I was fine physically, but something was wrong.

“Get in here now!” K roared. Hearing K raise his voice in any context was a major cause for concern. We stormed out of my quarters and into the cockpit, along with Amara and Rowan. Pivek was probably down below, and I hoped none of his large inventions fell on him.

I came to a halt in the cockpit alongside Ketellin. I had to keep my jaw from dropping, though I couldn’t help myself from spewing forth a stream of curses. Outside the cockpit flew dozens of small fighters, and they were all firing at us.

We could never catch a break.

Blue bolts zipped around the ship, with a few landing every few seconds, rocking the ship and making it hard to stay standing. Ketellin was as focused on the controls and the blackness of space beyond as I’d ever seen him. He maneuvered as best he could, but there were far too many fighters. He didn’t need to say anything, because it was obvious to everyone what had happened. We’d been followed. Or ambushed. One or the other. Point being, this wasn’t a coincidence.

Maybe Amara was right. Maybe I was too naïve.

We’d come out of a jump and were readying for another, and then we were beset by this swarm of fighters. Now it was a fight for our lives. Again. Only this time, I didn’t very much like our odds. But that wouldn’t stop me from fighting.

I whirled around and found the others staring in shock, Pivek included. I was not used to this. They were usually so calm under pressure, but we’d only ever been in a few minor scrapes with bounty hunters, and K always got us out of it. This was a whole new level. It was amazing that I had to be the voice of calm.

“Amara, get on the gun!” I yelled. She blinked, nodded, and bolted down the hall. “Jinx, Rowan, strap in. Pivek, turn on the forward guns and then do…whatever you gotta do to make sure we don’t blow up.”

They dispersed, and I took my seat next to Ketellin. I buckled in and gripped the arms of the chair as we went into a barrel-roll. With the artificial gravity, we barely felt more than a slight shift. Jinx and Rowan buckled up behind me and kept their mouths clamped shut as Ketellin shifted and swerved and worked the controls like a master. I did what I could, monitoring the shields, redirecting power to the rear or portside or whatever was needed. K didn’t usually want or need a copilot, but this was not one of those times.

Outside, as bolts blasted all around us, black and purple fighters, sharp and small and wickedly pointy, buzzed about like a swarm of insects. But I was able to make out the faded, scratched symbol on the side of one—the intricate seal of the Elaxaes. These were mob ships, not bounty hunters or imperials, then it was obviously not the empire. If it was the empire, they would have brought something a tad bigger.

But that begged the question. How did they find us? Pivek already swept our ship for trackers, and K would have known if we were followed manually. Those were questions we needed answers to, but we’d have to survive first.

The cannons beneath the Sanara boomed, and bright orange bolts blasted out into the darkness of space. A fighter exploded in a ball of flames.

“That’s one,” Amara called from below.

I whooped and pumped a fist. “Atta girl!”

“There’s many more,” said K, ruining the moment.

“Don’t be a killjoy.”

The ship intercom buzzed to my right, and three loud clangs sounded, muffled and distant. At the same time, there was a whirring hum all around the cockpit, and two green lights came on. I smiled. “Forward guns are online.”

“You better use them, Captain.”

I flashed a wicked grin. “It would be my pleasure.”

Unlike fighters and star runners, whose weapons systems were integrated right into the piloting systems, freighters often liked to mix things up. Thus, K was the pilot and I was his humble little gunner. It made it hard to aim, because K had to line up my targets for me and that wasn’t his priority. His priority was keeping us from being blown away.

So I had to make do, and I did.

It was always a practice of holding your nausea when gunning for him. He jerked us around and around, though it was all he could do to keep us from taking a direct hit. Ketellin was one of the best pilots across the stars, but he was still mortal.

Amara’s orange bolts blasted beneath us, and I pulled the triggers of my own guns. Streams of rapid-fire darker orange bolts sprang forth. It was hard to hit anything, but our return fire scattered the Elexae fighters and made them reconsider their approach. Amara didn’t let up, as the bay cannon could swivel and move so she had a full 360-degree range of motion. I didn’t have that luxury. But I fired, nonetheless. Plasma bolts were unlimited energy as long as you didn’t overload the cores.

We went at this for a long time. We zipped and zoomed around, doing our best to avoid fire. Ketellin was a class above any of the mob pilots and had us outmaneuvering them easily. If there weren’t so dang many of them, it would be over already. But they’d done their research. They knew how good our pilot was.

It was a dance of ships, an explosion of color. If our lives weren’t in danger, I would have marveled at the beauty of it all. That was weird to say, but with all the bolts and explosions and the backdrop of nebulas and stars, it was truly something awesome. An artist would weep for the chance to capture this scene, but one wasn’t here, and we couldn’t let up or we would die.

Amara hammered away below, taking out a ship or two every minute of flight. I had much less luck. It was hard to focus on anything with all the lights and turns. Us humans had lower perceptive skills than, say, Zarthians. Jinx or Rowan wouldn’t have done much better, not to mention they didn’t have any training whatsoever on the gun.

I managed to blow up three fighters, so I helped.

But there were still another two dozen or more. K was brilliant, but we were a big target. Fast as we were for a ship our size, fighters were faster and could maneuver far better. If we had a less than superb pilot, we would’ve been dead long ago.

“We’re not going to last much longer,” Ketellin said without sparing a glance. His voice was grim. Not encouraging.

“What can we do?” asked Jinx. The fear in her voice made my heart flutter. I had sworn to her once that I would do my best to make sure she was never afraid. I was failing that mission today.

Before any of us could answer, there was a boom below us, and the ship shuddered violently. Amara’s orange bolts ceased. I turned around, even though I knew I couldn’t see the gun bay.

“Amara!”

For a heart-stopping second, there was no response, but then, “I’m fine!” Another pause as bolts still boomed around us, rocking the Sanara. “The gun is dead. I’m useless down here!”

Well, that was an unfortunate turn of events.

“What do we do?” Jinx asked, the panicked tone in her voice leaking into me and notching up my nerves. Rowan was cursing beside her, growing more and more vulgar with each passing second.

Two mob fighters zoomed toward us. I redirected our shields to the nose and started firing, just as K put us into a wild spin. One of those dizzying moments, but I kept my eyes ahead and had the bolts firing. The fighters didn’t know what to do. They just kept at us, firing, their bolts slamming against our shields. The ship shook, but we kept on flying, and I kept on firing, and K kept us spinning, faster and faster until my bolts hit home. The fighters exploded in front of us, and we flew right through the flames.

I chuckled. “That was something. Good flying, K.”

“This doesn’t solve our problems,” he said back, stone cold.

He was right. There were twenty more ships, and it was all we could do to avoid a crippling blow. I didn’t have an answer, didn’t know a way to get out of this. None of us did. If Pivek did, he was sequestered below making sure the shields and core and guns were still functioning. We were out of options.

This was it. End of the line. After all we’d been through, we were going to get blasted into the cold depths of space and left to float on forever. I reached back for Jinx and squeezed her hand. She returned the favor, her eyes glistening. Of all of us, I wanted her to live, wanted her to have a full and happy life, one where she could be whoever she wanted and follow her dreams. After all the horrors, all the pain of her life, Jinx deserved to be happy. This wasn’t the end I wanted for her.

But it was the end we got.

Even though K kept flying valiantly, avoiding the mobster bolts with precision, there were just too many of them, and our ship shook each second, impact after impact. I released Jinx’s hand and kept shooting, but it was all I could do to line up a shot. We moved too fast and the fighters were even faster. I was hopeless.

The ship shuddered violently. One of the lights in front of me beeped repeatedly, shrill and alarming.

“Shields down to twenty percent,” I said, my voice hitching.

Then it really sunk in to all of us that this was it. Even Ketellin, so stoic and calm, shuddered and took in a large breath, the tubes of his breathing apparatus bubbling with effort. Jinx sniffled as tears spilled down her face. Rowan kept on cursing, until he finally undid his safety harness and bolted from the cockpit. I didn’t know where he meant to go, whether he meant to go pray or call someone or…or I didn’t know. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t help.

Amara appeared a moment later, breathing heavy. She said nothing, just looked at me and out the cockpit with the same stunned acceptance. She sat down beside Jinx and took her other hand. Jinx was crying in earnest now, and even a few tears came to my eyes. Not for me, but for my family, my friends, my crew. My heart ached in my chest.

So, we readied ourselves, ready for the moment the shields finally gave out, for the explosion, for the cold of space. For the end.

But then the bolts stopped flying and the ship stopped rocking. K stopped maneuvering, and his black eyes narrowed as he looked about in confusion. We all did. We should have been dead. I glanced at the shields and found that they were at only five percent. Only a couple more hits and that would have been it. So why were we alive?

A chime sounded in front of us on the console and echoed from the comm room. K blinked. I blinked. I imagined that Jinx and Amara stared at it too.

“We… We’re being hailed,” Ketellin breathed.

I frowned. “By who?”

As if to answer, there was a tearing sound outside that could only mean the arrival of a ship coming out of a jump. There was a red static strike that lit up the area for a brief flash, and then a large cruiser suddenly shot forth from the great black abyss and loomed over us.

I undid my harness and shot out of my seat. I stomped out of the cockpit and into the comm room, with Amara and Jinx in tow. Rowan arrived same time as me, looking baffled, his hair all mussed.

“Why have we stopped, and why did they stop shooting?”

All I did to answer was point to the blinking light on the central comm console, the one we hardly ever used, the one we ate off of and played cards on and kicked our legs up on and occasionally spilled alcohol on, but didn’t break because it was high quality. Now it blinked a soft yellow light every couple of seconds. Hailing us, beckoning us. Ominous.

We stood around it in silence. It took too long before my limbs moved. I didn’t want to keep whoever was in the big ship waiting, lest they lose their patience and blow us up out of sheer annoyance. Though wouldn’t that be something, my annoying demeanor finally getting me killed?

No, not now. If I was to die because of annoyance, it would not be like this. I inched forward and found the switch beneath the flashing light. I flicked it up. There was a whir and a beep and the light at the base of the table and above beamed to light, projecting a holo before us.

“Ah, good, glad to see that piece of trash can receive a hailing frequency,” boomed the voice of the large holographic head in front of us.

Though I’d fortunately never met him in person, or at all, I recognized the sneering face of the esteemed Baron Oro Valrude, chief lieutenant to Xarren Elexae and the Elexae crime family. The same man I’d robbed only a week ago. It seemed he’d figured out who had done him in. Hmm, I needed to work on my stealth.

He was a bald, narrow-headed Elarri prick with fancy white tattoos etched along the sides of his temple and above his ears. He had wide, narrow eyes that glared at us and thin lips that curled into a sneer, with a hint of angry teeth peeking through. His cheeks were sharp, his chin a dagger, and a nose like a smooshed potato—the only round thing about him. I would’ve snickered if not for the fact that it would end in all our deaths.

“Ah, hello, sir, to what do I owe the pleasure?” I said, trying to sound coy and calm.

“Don’t be dense, boy. Do you have any idea who I am?”

I pursed my lips and shook my head. “Can’t say that I do.”

Valrude chewed on that for a moment. Contemplating whether or not to keep playing with his food or swallow us whole, no doubt. “Well, let me jog your memory.” He leaned forward into his own holo-recorder so that he appeared even bigger to us. Just a big old pointy face filling up our space. “I am the man who you so brazenly stole from.”

I scratched my chin and crossed my arms. “I steal from a lot of people, so you’ll need to be a little more specific than that.”

“Yan,” Amara hissed. “You—”

“I am Baron Oro Valrude, you swine!” the baron roared, spittle flying from his mouth but thankfully couldn’t travel via holo. “You desecrated my pleasure house, broke into my office, and stole from not only me, but from the Elexaes.”

“Oh… Baron Valrude. Yes, sorry, I hardly recognized you with your nose and face and eyes and all.”

The baron looked about ready to blow us out of the heavens. One might think that it was a bad idea to antagonize this man, and one would be correct. But someone like Valrude wasn’t going to let us live. Better to have some fun before we died in a ball of flames.

“You have no idea the forces you are dealing with, filth. But it matters not. You’ll be stardust in just a matter of moments.”

“Are you sure you don’t wanna talk this out, Baron? I’m sure we can come to some sort of arrangement that benefits us both and leaves you looking less useless to Lord Xarren.”

Valrude’s nostrils flared as his glare burned bright. “Hardly.” He turned to someone out of view of the holo. “Target their vessel. Send them to h—”

I put out my hands. “Wait, wait, wait!”

Valrude hesitated and glared at me, his eyes turning to narrow slits. “Pray tell, why should I spare you or your pathetic crew? What could I possibly have to gain?”

“I am Yan Slim Hands, as the bounty posters like to call me. I have a bounty in almost every settled star system and so do most of my crew. Your boss would especially pay you for the trouble of bringing us in, and I’m sure you’d gain a lot of respect and clout with the family. Think about it.”

I could feel my friends’ eyes burrowing holes in my back. But I had a plan, they just needed to trust me.

My words seemed to get through to Valrude. He stroked his chin, eyes still narrowed in suspicion. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?” he asked, voice gravelly and low.

“Easy enough to prove.” I shrugged. “Check any of the bounty channels, you’ll find us on there. Call Xarren if you want.”

He leaned back and murmured something to one of his men, no doubt asking them to check if my words were true. Then he turned his attention back to me and folded his arms, a slight smirk playing upon his features.

“Why do this?” he asked. “Whether you die now or die after days of torture at the hands of Lord Xarren, you will die. I’d be offering you mercy right now, but you seek suffering?”

I gulped and straightened. “I will die, yes, but my crew hasn’t done enough to warrant that fate. Maybe they will be locked up, or maybe they’ll go free. But they’ll live. That’s all I want—that they live, that they’re spared.”

Valrude chuckled. “An admirable position from such filth. Surprising.” He stroked his chin again. “You must know that I can’t guarantee their survival. Xarren isn’t known for his mercy.”

“Maybe not, but it’s a chance. Dying here gives them no chance.”

“Hm, so desperate to cling to your pathetic existences. Fine, thief. I will take your ship and your crew and smile as I watch Lord Xarren slowly kill you.” And with a sneer and no further ceremony, he barked at his men in High Elarri—the language of the imperial elite—and then clicked a button.

His face vanished as the holo turned off.

As soon as the holo blinked out and the pale blue light faded, I was bombarded with words and curses and shouts as my friends all spoke at once in a cascade of worry. Amara looked like she wanted to put me in a grave, Rowan appeared ready to lose his mind, and Jinx was wide-eyed and talking with her hands in front of me.

I heard none of it. The ship lurched violently, and we were being pulled toward Valrude’s cruiser by his gravity beam.

No time to lose. I ignored my friends and sprinted from the room toward the cargo bay hatch. They yelled after me and moments later, their footsteps pounded in my wake.

“Yan! What the heck are you thinking?” Amara demanded.

“Patience, my love. I have this under control,” I called back. I could only imagine the scowl that response probably invoked.

Her and Jinx kept talking, but their concerns sailed over my head. I knelt beside the hatch to the cargo bay and threw it open with a creak. I thundered down the ladder rungs, hand over hand. I would have jumped I was so excited but spraining an ankle wouldn’t do us any good at the moment.

My boots slammed against the cold metal floor with a bang and I was running toward Pivek and his workstation. He was already turned to me, his large eyes wide with questions. He grumbled, the sound he made when he breathed heavily. The shirt he wore over his exoskeleton was charred in spots. His people didn’t need to wear clothes like mine did, but many did anyway just to fit in. His hands flailed erratically.

‘What is happening, Yan?’

I filled him in on the battle and the arrival of Valrude. Pivek put his hands on his hips and tilted his head, his mandibles twitching as he wondered what my play was. He seemed about as lost as the others. Speaking of, their footsteps sounded behind me as they came into the cargo bay.

“What’s your plan?” Jinx asked, cheeks flushed, eyes wide with terror. I hated to see her so distressed, but I didn’t have time to explain.

“Pivek, did you ever finish that vortex bomb you were working on? I know it was a bit of a passion project for you.”

‘It’s mostly done, but I wasn’t able to rig a timer yet.’

“How would you get it to detonate?”

He chittered, his wings expanding as he started to understand where I was going with this. ‘With enough kinetic force, it would detonate.’

I smiled. “Good.” I turned toward the others. They looked at me expectantly. “I have a plan.”

“No kidding,” Amara spat. “Mind filling us in on why we’re surrendering?”

“We’re not.” I nodded to Pivek, who nodded back and plodded into the mess of his workstation. He dug through junk and inventions and bits and bobs before he produced a large cylinder covered in wires and pieces, looking very ramshackle and not at all reliable as the bomb that it was. But if anyone could make a bomb out of garbage, it was Pivek, and he’d put a lot of work into this beauty.

I pointed at it. “Pivek and I are gonna load that little present into our escape pod. Once we’re snuggled inside the cruiser’s hangar, we’ll launch the escape pod and boom, there goes the cruiser and our attackers.”

They should have been ecstatic, but they weren’t convinced.

“But what about the gravity beam?” Jinx asked. “The bomb will go off, sure, but we won’t be able to escape and will just get sucked into the vortex ourselves.”

“Yeah, I’d like to avoid getting compressed down into a singularity,” snorted Rowan.

“No need to worry about that.” I arched an eyebrow at Pivek.

‘I rigged the bomb to give off an electromagnetic pulse as it goes off.’

“But won’t it affect us too?”

‘Yes, which is why we’d need to be ready to jump as we fire the escape pod.’

I folded my arms behind my back and looked at Ketellin with a grin. “Think you can handle that? You won’t have a lot of margin for error.”

His frowned and crossed his arms, considering the task. He nodded. “I will do my best.”

“Your best will do.” I clapped my hands together. “Okay, we don’t have a lot of time to spare. K, get to the cockpit and prep the ship to jump to the closest system.” K nodded and turned before I could get another word out.

“Pivek, get our shields repaired as best you can. In case things don’t work out, I want us to have a fighting chance.”

“If that bomb fails, then we’re dead,” Rowan said, chipper as always.

“If we’re going down, I want to go down with a fight,” shot back Amara.

“Yeah,” said Jinx, though I knew she wanted to avoid that at all cost. We all did. And we would.

“It will work,” I affirmed. It had to. It was like she said—we were dead regardless, so we may as well try to go down fighting. Whether that was guns blazing or with a vortex bomb that would crush their ship and everyone in it to the size of an atom was yet to be determined. I hoped for the latter. “Amara, think you can tuck that bomb into the pod like a baby?”

“Sure, want me to swaddle it to? Let it suckle my breasts?”

I laughed. “Thank you for the enthusiasm. Only do that if you have time, love.”

She rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help the smile that formed.

“What about us?” asked Jinx, indicating her and Rowan, both looking just as nervous and not at all confident in my plan. She was usually optimistic and gave me the benefit of the doubt, but if she was worried, that made me worried. And I was. I knew this plan could fail and we’d all die or get captured and tortured and then die, but we had to risk it.

“You’ll be with me in the cockpit, helping K and I try not to die if the shooting starts. Rowan, get on the comms and send out some SOSs.”

Everyone looked at me. “Why?”

I shrugged. “Little bit of a wildcard. I like chaos. Maybe it will help.”

“Or maybe imperials or mobsters will come, and we’ll be doubly screwed.”

“Maybe, but that’s why it’s a wildcard.”

He rolled his eyes but didn’t argue. So, I clapped my hands like a captain breaking the huddle of a nerferball match. “Okay, team, let’s do this!”

Their response was less than enthusiastic, but I couldn’t worry about that now.

Pivek passed the vortex bomb off to Amara, who took it tenderly in her arms very much like she would a baby. If the baby weighed about the same as me and was half as large as I was. It looked huge in her arms, but with her Zarthian strength, it wasn’t much of an issue. She scrambled over to the small bay at the opposite end of the room, where there was a small alcove with a circular door that led to the escape pod. She popped it open with her elbow and gently laid the bomb inside.

Rowan climbed up the ladder to the main deck, with Jinx on his heels and me on hers. K had already gone ahead to ready the ship. Rowan broke off into the comm room and started clicking buttons, though I caught him muttering something about not understanding the point of his task.

A question everyone asked at some point when they crewed with me.

Jinx and I arrived at the cockpit in time to see us come upon the large bay doors of Baron Valrude’s cruiser. There was a large shield gate that shimmered a translucent orange. Their fighters could come through from the hangar, but blaster bolts and ships coming from space would bounce harmlessly off it. We got closer and closer until the orange surface was looming over us like the surface of a dying star. Closer and closer and closer until I could have reached out and touched it, close enough that the nose of the Sanara was about to kiss it. And we would crash and die.

Was Valrude duping us? Seemed like an odd way to kill, but maybe he had a sick, weird sense of humor. I certainly had one. I just didn’t think it would be the reason for me and my friends’ untimely deaths.

Then at the last second, the shield flickered and disappeared, giving the Elarri mob baron his precious prize to present to his master. Well, he wasn’t going to get us that easily.

The cruiser hangar was impossibly tall and went clean through to the other side of the ship. If not for the shield gate, a fighter could fly right through and do some damage. Course, that would be too easy.

Elexae fighters were docked all around, most resting comfortably and unused but a few having just arrived from doing battle with us. It made me smile. Good, come back to the nest so that we can blow you up with your momma. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, because there were still a million things that could go wrong, but I liked to look on the bright side, and all the fighters coming home to roost was a good sign.

Our ship hovered in the air for a moment before coming to a stop on the hangar floor. Already a whole battalion’s worth of Elexae thugs marched our way. And at the head of the column was Valrude himself. I almost admired his courage for coming down here to dispose of the trash. I doubted Xarren or many others would do the same. Still, I was about to compress him and his ship into a singularity, an experience that I’m sure was infinitely painful. So now I only felt slightly worse about it. Only slightly.

As they came, I settled into my seat, Jinx gripping the back of it, and turned to K. “You just about ready? Please tell me you are.”

He punched some numbers into the center console and pulled back the jump drive switch. He looked at me, his large cold eyes almost happy. His never-smiling lips curved up. “I’m ready when you are.”

I smiled too. “Good.” When we launched the escape pod, it would smash into the wall ahead of us, and hopefully—please, Saints, let it work—the force would be enough to set off the present inside.

“As soon as I launch, go hard to starboard and get us out of here.”

“And if the shield is up?”

I wriggled my lips. “Well, then the bomb didn’t work. So you’ll turn us around and I’ll blast the pod, if they don’t blow us up first.”

“And if Pivek didn’t do a good job on the pod?” Jinx asked in my ear. I looked back at her. She shrugged. I faced forward.

“Then we blast our way out of here. Or die.”

“Good plan,” she said, patting my shoulder.

“I try.” I cracked my knuckles and touched the intercom button on my right. It crackled to life. “Is everyone ready?”

There was a pause before Amara spoke through the static. “Pivek said the shields are as good as they’ll get.” Another pause, then, “He won’t elaborate on if that’s good or bad.”

“That’ll have to do. Get ready, this is gonna be a ride!”

So, I took a deep breath, nodded to K and Jinx, who nodded back, and gave one last look at Valrude and his men as they came within a stone’s throw of my ship. No way would I let them lay a finger on her. I flipped up the glass case over the escape launch button. It was foggy because we hardly used it or cleaned it. The big black button beneath was covered in dust.

I punched it, and it worked just fine.

The ship recoiled violently. There was a whoosh and we saw the escape pod shoot forward at blinding speed. It crashed against the hangar wall in a single second. Then another second. Silence. Ketellin should have had us in the air already but he was watching the pod. Nothing happened. Only some fire and smoke. One second, two.

And then a shockwave ran through the cruiser. Lights flickered and went out, and the ship started to tilt. It had done it. The bomb went off! We didn’t need to see the glory of a small blackhole consume their ship—or ours.

“Let’s go!” I yelled.

“With pleasure,” K replied with more vigor than I’d ever heard from him.

The Sanara rose into the air as the cruiser began to rumble around us. The very air started to shake as all the matter was pulled toward the vortex. I gripped the edge of my seat while Jinx’s nails dug into my shoulders. They hurt, but I was too focused on the carnage outside the cockpit.

As the ship quaked and quivered, we still didn’t move. We just hovered in the hangar while things sparked and flamed and cracked apart. Our ship was spared that, but I was sure Pivek’s shielding could only take so much punishment. I looked at K, who had his eyes focused forward, his grip on the stick.

“Uh, K, why aren’t we moving?”

“We are moving, but Pivek’s bomb is too strong. We’re caught in its pull.”

“Does that mean we’re gonna die?” Jinx asked, her nails digging deeper and deeper. I had to slap her hands away.

K typed and prodded away at the console. “I’m still getting us ready for a jump, but I need more time.”

A panel from the hangar ceiling crashed down and smashed against the cockpit. The glass got scratched but that was it. Still, we all jumped. The deflector shielding that surrounded most ships were meant to withstand blaster fire, plasma bolts and the like, but pure physical force couldn’t be stopped so easily. So, if the whole hangar collapsed on us, well, we’d be seeing the saints real quick.

Explosions shook the air around us. Even I started to feel heavy. My gut dropped as a force pulled me back against my seat. Jinx gasped as she felt it too. She wrapped her arms around my neck and chest and held me tight. I covered them with my hands.

“K, get us out of here now!” I yelled.

I knew I was being unreasonable. Charting a jump couldn’t be rushed, lest we jump right through a star or planet or come out of it near an uncharted wormhole or quasar. Space was a scary and dangerous place, and she needed to be treated with cautious hands. But when you were slowly being condensed into a singularity, it made you panic.

Ketellin grimaced. His rebreather began to crack, which was not a good sign, but he kept at it. He growled and yelled, his voice gargling with his rebreather as he got higher and higher. Outside, a mob fighter careened through the hangar opening and exploded against the wall. The floor cracked and splintered.

“K!”

He roared. There was a satisfying ding, the glorious sound that could only mean that the jump was ready. Ketellin slapped an amphibious hand to the jump lever and pulled it back with all his might.

And we jumped.

In a blip, the stars distorted, and we shot forward, a blast that always made my gut drop to my toes if only for a second. It was something we’d all long ago grown used to, and today, I was happy to feel it.

We were safe. We were alive. And an enemy was dead.

After jumping a couple of systems in complete silence, our hearts still racing, Ketellin put us down on a small backwater planet called Ager-4476, which was mostly arid rock but had a fertile equator that was all grassland and savannahs and a few isolated settlements. We found a little spaceport that couldn’t be more than a handful of buildings. In fact, there was only one other ship docked—a fat, brown junker.

I paid for the space, then we all went out and found a small inn with an outdoor dining area. We sat around a table and just chewed on our thoughts, though we didn’t order anything. I was sure we were a little paranoid considering our last stop at a tavern ended in a shootout. This time, though, it was just us and a couple of other patrons.

Jinx’s arms kept brushing against mine, sending pebbles along my skin. Rowan had his arms over his eyes and his head back. Amara tapped her fingers against the table. Pivek and K both just sat stalk-straight.

“So,” I said, breaking the silence. “I’ll be the first to admit that I may have been a tad naïve thinking that we weren’t being tracked.”

“I told you,” Amara said.

‘So, will you admit that one of us may have sold us out?’

I slammed my hands onto the table, which made everyone flinch, even K, who was as stoic as anyone. “No, I will not concede that! It seems obvious to me that either they’ve come up with a new way of tracking interstellar travel that we are as of yet unaware of, or it’s something so old that your scanners wouldn’t pick up.”

“Both of those seem pretty plausible,” said Rowan. “Didn’t you say that Xarren has ancient Amok tech in his vault? He could easily have some ancient tracking device that modern tech can’t make out.”

Pivek’s mandibles wiggled as he considered that. ‘You… You do have a very valid point, as much as I hate to admit it.’

That elicited a wide smile from Rowan.

“Well, how do we move forward with the heist if we can be tracked so easily?” Jinx asked.

“Should we even go through with it?” Amara replied. “The risks are mounting, Yan. If Xarren suspects what we’re doing, we don’t have a chance.”

“No! That’s out of the question. We’re doing this.”

“How then?”

I leaned back and pointed toward the hangar. “We’re thieves. We steal.”

“So?”

“So, we’re gonna steal that junker and work out of that for the time being.”

Amara laughed. “That thing is quite literally a piece of junk. And you’re just going to leave your precious Sanara here?”

“We’ve all worked with worse, it’s part of our occupation. And I’d rather the Sanara gather rust on this rock than get blown to bits. Besides, I want Jinx and K to fly her out and find a nice little hiding spot out in the savannah and then we’ll come pick you up.”

They didn’t respond to that. They just thought about it. They would agree with me. They were as desperate for this job as I was. We all had our reasons. We all had our wants and dreams that this money would solve.

“Who would pilot the ship to pick them up?” Rowan asked.

“Don’t say you,” Amara breathed as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I am the captain, after all.” She groaned, and I laughed. “I can pilot any ship well enough, I just couldn’t possibly do what Ketellin can do.”

“I think it’s a good plan,” Jinx added with a smile as she covered my hand with her own. Her support was always appreciated.

“What happens if there are crew on board the junker?” Amara asked, arms crossed and still looking skeptical.

“I’m pretty sure they’re inside the inn behind us. But if there are crew aboard, well, that’s what we have you for, love.”

“Thanks for volunteering me.”

“Welcome. I know you like cracking skulls.”

She pursed her lips. “That is true…”

I clapped my hands together. “Are we all in agreement?” They all nodded. “Good. I know we can pull this off. We can do this, and then we’ll be set.”

“Let’s hope.”

“We will. Now come on, let’s get to work.”

So, with our hearts still roaring from two life-or-death fights the last few days, we went to the hangar. Amara went aboard the junker and found that no one was there. Jinx distracted the solitary air traffic control officer while the rest of us moved everything we needed for the heist from the Sanara to the…well, the ship didn’t have a name as far as I could see. Just a designation: Diego IB337N.

Once everything was switched on, thankfully without incident, Jinx and K took our ship and left. Pivek disconnected the corporate tracker from the junker’s software so we couldn’t be tracked in our stolen vehicle.

And then I was behind the sticks for the first time in forever. It took me a few minutes to get acclimated and refreshed on what all the buttons and switches did, but I eventually figured it out. I pulled back on the stick and we ascended. As we did, I could see through the slightly-clouded cockpit window that the junker’s crew was running toward us, yelling and waving their arms.

I gave them a smile and a wave, and then we shot forward.

Rowan at my side and Amara behind me, we cheered as we raced over the golden savannah grass. Large herbivores with rough, brown, leathery skin grazed in the grass, large spinal spikes up in the air. I didn’t know what they were, but they looked magnificent.

A minute later, we picked up the ping of the Sanara’s transponder. We found Jinx, K, and my ship parked in a steep gully of red rock cut into the savannah like a bad scar. With the way the sun shone, my ship would be hidden in the shade for much of the day, so she would stay hidden. Didn’t need any scavengers touching my baby.

With the others aboard, I gave way to Ketellin, and he took us out. The junker, thankfully, had a jump drive, so we would be able to travel like we were used to. And it was fueled up as well!

I cracked open a bottle of yalen I’d snagged a while back, even before the theft at Valrude’s brothel, and passed it around as Ketellin punched in the coordinates for the next system.

I raised my shot. “To fortune.”

They raised theirs. “To fortune!”

We clinked our glasses together. We drank. K pulled back on the jump switch. We shot forward, my gut dropping.

And we sailed toward our dreams and to our fortune. And we would have them both.

Act 2: The Heist

Red blaster bolts zipped over my head and nearly nicked my hair, but luckily were just a…well, a hair shy. My boots pounded against the cold metal floor of the space station as I pushed through throngs of seedy vendors and the even more suspicious clientele that perused their wares. I didn’t have too much trouble, because as soon as the blasters sounded, the throngs that crowded the market scattered and parted before me. That made it a lot easier for me to run, but made it easier for my pursuers to hit their target. Which would be me.

I risked a glance behind me and was annoyed to find the Aaugor bounty hunters still hot on my trail. Their species was fat and round with paper-thin leathery skin that was very fragile to most air outside of their home planets, so they wore thick leather trench coats over advanced carbon armor systems that kept their skin concealed. They had thick masks covered in twisting tubes and red visors. So, in total, they looked like a nightmare.

Now, one would think that creatures so large and fat would be slow and awkward, but that wasn’t the case. They had stubby legs with small retractable appendages like insect legs that allowed them to glide over the ground quickly. Just my luck. They weren’t very vertical, so if I found something to climb up, I could evade them, but so far, I hadn’t found anything.

They yelled at me in their gargling language, not bothering to use Galactic Standard. Their words were menacing, so coupling that with their appearance, it was no wonder they were feared by many amongst the stars.

A bolt shot past me, singing my coat and sending a hot pain along my arm. I yelped but kept on going. It’d just grazed me. I would be fine.

I shouldered a pair of Zarthians with green and yellow skin. They yelled at me and I apologized, glad they didn’t use their surprising strength to crush me. Their scowls turned to fear as the Aaugor pushed past them. More shots. I dove over a meat vendor. The bolts slammed into and charred some strange bluish-brown meat that I thought was Gorkin, which I’d heard was delicious…for non-humans. If I ate one, it would kill me.

All the best things do though, don’t they?

I kept on, pumping my arms and dancing around bodies large and small, around slime and scales and feathers and leathery skin. I even nearly collided with a Ter’vi, which wasn’t good because they looked like giant walking flowers, but their petal-y faces would peal back to reveal rows of jagged teeth that would devour me happily.

As I ran, the large, open-air hall of the market closed and the gate to the next district loomed before me. Security guards in rustic brown-and-red fiber-mesh armor stood at attention. I didn’t have time to flash them my forged ID, though they would hopefully help deal with the Aaugor on my tail. Kaori Station 5 was a hive of shady dealings and illegal activity, but even it had rules, and I’m sure the members of the Crimson Court that ran the place didn’t appreciate bounty hunters shooting into crowds and scaring off valued customers.

Still, no time for talk. The guards snapped to attention and raised their guns. At me and my predators.

“Stop, present identification, please.” The guard had a hollow, metallic voice, so he must’ve been an android. A rare toy. But I couldn’t stop to comply.

“Sorry, no can do!”

I flashed the android and the large Torgoran guard on the other side a smile as I launched myself onto the generator next to the door. It whirred and clinked and was warm to the touch, but my gloves kept my hands from the worst of it. From there, I scampered up to the vents above and pulled out my blaster pistol. I blew a hole into the vent as more bolts pinged around me, scorching the metal walls. Thank the saints these particular Aaugor were bad shots.

I pulled the vent free and hauled myself inside. They wouldn’t be able to follow me in here. Sure, I didn’t know exactly where this vent would take me, but it was better than being shot or arrested.

It was a tight fit, but I was able to shimmy my shoulders and crawl forward. I’d experienced smaller vents on previous jobs, so this wasn’t too bad. The perks of being a scrawny thing was that you could get to places that others couldn’t. The Aaugor shot at the vent, which shuddered violently and rang like a rocket blast in such close quarters, but I was too far in for them to hit me. They barked in their guttural language before finally resorting to Galactic Standard.

“Open door, machine,” one said with clear malice directed at the android.

“I cannot. Please relinquish your weapons and present appropriate identification.”

The fat slug cursed and growled. “I’ll scrap you for parts! What say you, Torgoran?”

There was no response from the Torgoran guard, so maybe they were mute, or maybe I got too far away to hear, but either way, the dialogue ceased. I smiled and wiped a sheen of sweat from my forehead.

“Boring conversation anyway.”

The vent was hot and dirty, and more than a few times I spotted a few critters scuttling ahead of me that I didn’t have names for, but if they were hardy enough to survive in the vents of a black-market space station, they weren’t to be messed with.

I continued through the cramped spaces, taking a winding path through until I was thoroughly lost, which meant the bounty hunters wouldn’t know where I was either. After several long minutes, I came to another opening. The din of hundreds of loud voices sounded as I approached, and a moment later I was looking through a grate, peering down on a small arena-like room.

People of all races and species and allegiances crowded around a small ring, a hundred of them, maybe two hundred, all cheering and jeering and pumping fists. Their attention was focused on a dusty circular arena covered in dirt and chunks of what looked like broken exoskeleton. I immediately thought of Pivek, my friend and my ship’s mechanic. He was insectoid, and though I doubted he would be captured so easily, slave gladiator fights were not uncommon in the lawless Free Systems.

Thankfully, that wasn’t what this was.

Two large beetles, one greenish-black with a wide ramming horn on its head, squared off against a smaller red beetle. This one had spikes all along its back and sides and legs. It was faster and had fluttering wings that let it hover ever-so-slightly, but the green beetle had size and better armor. A classic matchup, one I would have enjoyed watching if I had the time and money, but I had somewhere to be.

I wasn’t in the best position to open the grate, but nonetheless, I managed to punch it open, thanks to the always-convenient power of neglected maintenance. It clattered into the crowd below but was hardly noticed over the chaos of the fight. That suited me just fine. With a lot of effort, I wriggled myself free and carefully climbed down. I was two stories up, but there was enough loose wiring and broken panels to repel down.

Once in the crowd, I received some nasty looks and even some shoves, but nothing more than that. I smiled and shrugged and pulled on my hood. Who knew if there were bounty hunters here just soaking in some harmless extracurricular entertainment? No need to tempt the saints.

The exit was on the far side of the room. High above was a large cage-like ceiling, revealing the stars above and the many ships and arms of the station. It was quite a view.

I slowly made my way through the pulsing mob, careful to not draw too much attention to myself. Eventually, I made it to the door and slipped out along with others and came out into a bright corridor of neon lights and delicious smells. Food stands and restaurants lined the walls, illuminated by signs for their wares and services. There were windows with scantily clad dancers moving to a faraway beat. This was my kind of place, and my stomach rumbled, but there was no time to indulge. One day, I would come back and have my fun, but I had my mission.

Feeling safe, I made myself act casual as I strode through the crowded way. I stuck my hands in my pockets and took a deep breath. Everything was fine. We’d gotten what we came for and just had to get back to the ship. I hadn’t had contact with Rowan, but I trusted his abilities. Besides, he wasn’t the one being hunted.

I fished the device out of my pocket and held it in my palm, the neon glow painting it in light. The cause of all this trouble. A perduleq, or as us beings with tongues would call it, a pulse-hack. It looked like a tiny bug with a stinger, but it didn’t fly, and the stinger didn’t sting. Well, it did, but not in the conventional sense.

Plug it into any computer system and it would emit an undetectable pulse that would just turn everything off for three seconds, and in that span, it would take over everything. Pivek said there was no system that could stop it, but because of that, it was highly illegal. Only a few people made them in the entire galaxy and frankly, we didn’t have the funds to simply buy one. So here I was, with one stolen perduleq in my pocket. Worth more than my life, probably.

A simple job that wasn’t supposed to result in a chase and bolts flying over my head, but that sort of thing always seemed to find me. Honestly, I was a tad tired of all the life-and-death struggles lately.

It was only a couple of weeks since our near-death encounter with Baron Oro Valrude of the Elexae crime family and his squadron of ships. We managed to escape after we allowed them to capture us and used a vortex bomb to create a mini black hole in the middle of the baron’s ship, which crushed them into a singularity. It was glorious, but we were lucky to be alive.

We’d laid low for the last fortnight, after we ditched my precious ship on a backwater planet for safekeeping. But we’d now decided it was time to get back to work. By we, I meant me, and by work, I meant enacting my scheme to rob Xarren Elexae’s vault. It would the heist to end all heists, an end to the struggles of my friends and I. But we needed some things.

So, here I was.

At least this time, we weren’t tracked by bounty hunters. This encounter was entirely accidental, and also my fault. I’d pulled back my hood to scratch my head for a whole five seconds and of course I was standing next to a wanted poster of myself. It was one of the poorer ones that I personally felt didn’t capture my likeness well at all, but apparently, it was enough for the Aaugor, who’d been looking in my direction.

I wasn’t used to being recognized so easily. Even though I had by far the largest bounty out of my crew, I prided myself in being shifty and anonymous enough to keep my likeness relatively hidden. I was known, but someone shouldn’t have been able to look right at me and recognize me in seconds. It was unnerving.

If we managed to pull off this heist, we could disappear for good. We could fulfill our every dream and desire. We wouldn’t want, nor worry. But we had to survive, we had to succeed, and that was a daunting task to say the least.

But I liked a challenge.

I shoved the pulse-hack back into my pocket and continued my steady stride through the crowds. The restaurants eventually gave way to slums for the sorry sods who lived here. This wasn’t the route I wanted to take, and I wasn’t too familiar with the layout. Rowan and I had agreed to meet up in Cobalt Square, which was hardly more than a cramped urban space surrounded by artisan shops and centered by a rusty fountain that sputtered acidic water. But it was iconic. Getting there would take longer now.

It took me too long before I found a map, one that had been plastered with yellowed paper and covered in graffiti, but it had all faded so I could make out the details of the map below. With a quick glance, I reoriented myself and made my way east to the square.

I passed through more slums, and a long, long hall that was dimly lit and had several people huddled in corners smoking hunra and doing all manner of other things. The pink smoke of it was sweet and beckoned me, but hunra was a treat for later. Now was not the time.

At the end of the hall was a set of dingy double-doors partially eaten through by rust. Beyond, I could hear the bustle of the square and the violent spurts of the fountain. I pushed the door open with my shoulder, flinching at the awful screech that accompanied it. Absolutely terrible. However, upon opening it, I caught a sight for my tired, thieving eyes:

Rowan standing by the fountain, large arms crossed, looking impatient.

He was a Goon like me, pale and short, as most of us were—at least in comparison to the other human races. But whereas many of us were scrawny or diminutive like me, Rowan was built like a battering ram and hit like one too.

I strode toward him. “Rowan!” I called. He turned at the sound of his name and smiled when he saw me.

Then his smile twisted into a look of shock. “Look out!” he warned.

Only then did I notice the large mass in my peripheries bearing down on me. Luckily, I’m nimble. I turned just in time to avoid a large gloved hand swiping at me. As I took in a startled breath, I found myself face to face with another of the Aaugor. Looked like they made it through that checkpoint alright. Unless this was a different one completely.

There was no time for pleasantries. He aimed, I kicked, and my boot threw his blaster into the air. Then Rowan was there, tackling the beast around the waist. Before I could blink, he had his blaster out and put a bolt in the bounty hunter’s chest.

I blinked and grimaced. “Did you have to kill him?”

He shrugged as he reached down and scooped up the fallen blaster rifle. “I don’t think he was going to afford you the same courtesy.”

“Yeah, but still.”

People ringed the square, whispering at us, but most didn’t seem to care that there was a dead body just lying in the middle of the space, sickly blue blood seeping into the seams of the metal floor. This place was such a sty that they probably saw things like this often. I could relate.

“Did you get it?” Rowan asked.

I pulled the hack out of my pocket. “No thanks to you. The safe combination was wrong. I had to knock out the owner and sneak past his guards.”

“Why are you mad?” he asked with a grin. “You like a challenge.”

“Maybe, but you’re slipping, my friend.”

“Well then, we better raid Xarren’s vault before I’m completely useless.”

We both chuckled.

We were ready to go when a sudden uproar to our left drew our attention. People were shouting and yelling as they were pushed aside. And of course, who emerged but a trio of Aaugor. I groaned. Couldn’t catch a break today.

They opened fire without a care. We dove behind the fountain. Rowan cursed. “You really pissed them off, Yan.”

“I’m sorry I’m so infamous and dashing.”

“Yeah, I am too.” He rolled his eyes. Bolts slammed against the fountain, spraying us in bits of dirty copper. Rowan popped up and returned fire. A moment later, he crouched back down as he inhaled air. “So, there are four now.”

“We need to split them up.”

He nodded. “Agreed. On the count of three, I’ll cover you. Go right, down that hallway to the bazaar one unit over. You can manage two, yeah?”

Could I lose two? Yes. Could I take two on in a fight? Absolutely not. But that was semantics. So I said, “Yes.”

“Good. We’ll meet back here if we survive.”

I nodded. We shook hands. Then, “One…”

“Two…”

“Three!”

Rowan stood and opened fire. I darted to my right just as he told me and took off at a sprint. I shouldered past fleeing civilians and the rare fools that couldn’t be bothered with the fact that there was a shootout.

The bazaar was bare bones compared to the larger markets I passed through earlier. Just a series of small booths built hastily, with very few customers to speak of. It was too quiet, and there weren’t enough people for me to hide. The firefight continued behind me, but I had to trust that Rowan knew what he was doing. He wasn’t our weapons specialist, that was Amara, but he could handle himself just fine.

Though, the Aaugor weren’t a group to trifle with.

I walked through the sparse stalls, lost in their sadness and poverty. The eyes of the merchants beckoned me forward to purchase something, anything, so they’d have money to feed their families. I wanted to help, truly, but I had neither the money nor the time. Because just then, one of the fat piles of dung chasing me showed up out of nowhere, plowing through a stall and knocking the small, chimpish vendor aside.

I was too surprised to react properly.

With a gargled roar, the Aaugor swung his rifle at me like a club. He was faster than I thought. I managed to deflect the brunt of the blow, but it still knocked me over, slamming into the blaster wound on my arm from earlier. I clattered to the floor, my bones rattling. I wheezed with pain, but I wasn’t dead yet.

The bounty hunter didn’t waste time. He loomed over me and began to raise his blaster to finish me. No time to lose. I gritted my teeth, flipped myself onto my stomach, and used all my strength to push myself back. I slid beneath the Aaugor’s body and many legs. Once clear, I launched from my stomach, drawing my blaster and my grav-knife. The slug whirled around in a rage. I didn’t hesitate. I pulled the trigger. A gold bolt flashed and smashed into the Aaugor’s shoulder. He roared in pain and spun around from the force. He did a full circle, and when he came around, I slashed with my knife, severing the breathing hoses on his mask. With a loud hiss, the bounty hunter screamed.

As he writhed on the ground in pain trying desperately to fix his ruined mask, I turned and sprinted away. I had to get back to Rowan and not dwell on the life that was just about to end in agony. He deserved it, sure, but killing was just…ugh. I knew Rowan could handle himself better than I could, but there were more after him than me. Plus, he wasn’t so good when it came to escaping. Too big.

Blaster fire sounded off ahead, along with screams and shouts. That must’ve been them. I didn’t like that he was in the middle of a fight, but as long as there was one, it meant he was still alive.

I ran back through the bazaar and to the square. It was mostly deserted now. The fountain was blown to hell and the ground and walls were covered in char marks from the blaster bolts, the air filled with smoke from the discharge. It smelled acrid.

The fighting continued through the long hall that I’d previously come through. More char marks. The squatters and addicts had fled. No bodies, so that was good. As I got to the end, the blaster fire ceased. Not good, not good, not good. I sprinted and pushed open the doors to the next room.

I was back in the slums. More char marks. There was a body that people were fussing over, but it had a large orange tail attached so it wasn’t Rowan. Sad as that was, I moved past them and followed the char marks and debris through some abandoned homes and down a series of hallways before I heard the gargled language of the Aaugor. I froze. Their voices were right around the corner.

I needed to leave. Rowan was probably dead, and I would be too if I stayed. My mind told me to run back to the ship, but I knew I couldn’t do that. Dead or not, Rowan was my friend. I simply couldn’t leave him. So, I took out my pistol and steeled myself for a fight.

Deep breaths. I inched over, my back pressed against the wall. Deep breaths. I peeked out to see what the situation was.

Five Aaugor, all bunched together, backs turned to me. Saints, how many were there? Rowan and I had taken out two already and who knew if any of these were the ones I’d given the slip earlier. Aaugor liked to travel in groups, but seven? More? Seemed a bit excessive.

They had their blasters raised as they spoke amongst themselves. And on the receiving end of their guns was Rowan, arms raised and still alive. I almost laughed with joy, nearly getting myself killed. I held it together. We were still in a bind. I was behind them and they were unaware of me. Could I take them all out? Unlikely. Their armor was thick, and I wasn’t the best shot. Plus, they were quick and might shoot Rowan on accident.

As I struggled with a solution, I noticed the space we were in. They had Rowan backed into a maintenance tunnel, with pipes and wires covering the walls and ceiling. Steam occasionally seeped from the pipes. That would have been nothing until I noticed a steady stream of steam coming off a series of slender tanks. Liquid nitrogen. I grinned.

Rowan noticed me. He frowned harder than he already was. I nodded to the tanks. It took him a second, but he seemed to understand. He inclined his head. Good, he got the plan.

I took a deep breath, gripped my blaster tighter, and stepped out of cover.

“Hey!” I yelled. The Aaugor whirled around. “Miss me?”

Rowan threw himself on the ground and covered his head with his hands. With gargled words and yells, the fat bounty hunters raised their weapons. I raised mine, and my trigger finger was faster.

BOOM!

The tanks exploded with terrifying force as the Aaugor were violently thrown against the wall, a spray of freezing liquid nitrogen pinning them in place. They screamed in agony. Of course, this would probably kill anyone, but the Aaugor were especially susceptible to cold. As they died terribly, Rowan crawled beneath the deadly stream and came to me.

He covered his heart and sucked in air. “Nice shot.”

“The best I’ll ever get.” I pushed him back the way I came. “Let’s get out of here before more of these slugs show up.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

And so we ran from the destruction and death that we’d caused and returned to our new ship and our friends, hoping that this crazy mission was worth it.

We managed to make it back to hangar bay Au-17 without being attacked, which was a miracle. Maybe we’d dealt with all the bounty hunters. I wanted to believe that, but we couldn’t afford to feel safe.

My eyes scanned the loading docks for a splash of green and sleek wings, hoping to see my precious Sanara. But alas, we’d had to dump her for fear that she was being tracked. I would return and get her one day. For now, though, we had our new ride, one my eyes weren’t so pleased to see.

There she was, the Diego IB337N, a standard issue junker, fat and wide and brown and covered in scratches and scorch marks, just an all-around ugly lady. But she was sturdy, and she got the job done. She was nondescript and didn’t stick out and she actually had a jump drive, so she ticked all the boxes of what we needed. Though, I wished she had a bit more firepower for the skirmishes we’d inevitably fly into.

At the Diego’s feet, my lovely Jinx sat on a cargo container, lying on her back as she tossed a ball in the air. Her amethyst hair was splayed out around her and she had a smile on her golden face. She briefly made my heart stutter.

When she heard us coming, she sat up, ignoring the ball that bounced harmlessly away. “You’re back! How did it— Are you okay?” she asked, taking in our haggard appearances.

“Ship, now. Talk, later.”

She parted her lips to ask something else, but I grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her up the gangplank and into the bowels of the Diego. It was a little rude of me and I was almost never like that with Jinx, but I didn’t want to risk any more run-ins with the Aaugor, nor did I want them to see what ship we were on. Maybe they were all dead. Maybe not.

Rowan, Jinx, and I climbed through the very large and cramped cargo hold to the living quarters above. The junker had a very similar layout to the Sanara, which wasn’t surprising since many ships were relatively the same. Cargo below, then the main deck, with some variations here and there. Of course, the Diego’s cockpit was larger and had its own deck above the main.

We were greeted by Amara and Pivek having a heated conversation about the heist, though listening would only suggest it was a one-sided argument from Amara. She paused, while Pivek, our large insectoid Bantiss, signed rapidly at her.

‘It will work. Why do you doubt me?’ He stood at his full height, his wings fluttering with frustration.

Amara signed. “I don’t doubt you. I doubt this whole thing. I’m on board, but I just get the feeling that everything is going to go wrong.”

“Don’t worry, my dear, everything will be just fine,” I said as we entered the room.

Pivek and Amara turned to us. Amara crossed her arms and took in my appearance. Her jade skin was still flushed from the argument, but she took a deep breath and settled herself. Her long head-tentacle wrapped over her shoulder and neck like a scarf.

“You’re back…barely.”

“Yup.” I flashed her a grin, which I knew would annoy her. I walked past her to the hatch to the cockpit, cupped my hands together, and yelled, “K, in the air, now! We may have guests!”

There was no response, but then we all felt the sudden hum and jerk of the ship coming to life. I let out a breath. Good, no more worrying about the Aaugor, if there were even any still alive to follow us.

I turned back to the rest of my crew. Amara stood in the middle of them, arms still crossed and frowning, her brow arched. “You want to explain why you two are so beat up and dirty and why we’re leaving so quickly?”

“I mean…” I shrugged. “You can probably guess.”

She threw her hands up. “You can never make things easy on me or any of us, can you, Yan? This was supposed to be simple.”

“It’s not my fault! Let me explain.”

And so I did, every detail. The theft of the hack, which was made harder by Rowan’s lack of help, the Aaugor’s coincidentally finding me, the chases, and the killing. I explained that they were probably all dead, but that I was just being cautious. That just made Amara snort and roll her eyes. I made her do that a lot, but this time, it annoyed me.

“You? Cautious? Okay.”

I frowned, and said in a mocking voice, “‘Thank you, Yan, for getting this heavily guarded thing for us and nearly dying.’ Oh, you’re very welcome, everyone. It was my pleasure.”

Amara’s eyes narrowed. “Do you want me to throw you through that wall?”

“Only if you’re okay with decompressing the ship and killing everyone.”

Jinx stepped between us. “Okay, you two, that’s enough. Things went wrong, but everything worked out. Rowan and Yan are alive, we’re in the air, and you got the hack.”

I nodded. “Yeah.” I pulled the stupid thing out of my pocket and tossed it to Pivek. “Here. Hope it does what you say it does.”

His mandibles twitched. ‘It will. Don’t worry. This will make the mission a little less than impossible now.’

Rowan laughed. “Ha, the bug is sarcastic now.”

Pivek rose to his full height and even hovered a bit on his wings, something he couldn’t do on the main deck of the Sanara. Much too cramped there, but in here, not so much. ‘You better watch it, Goon.’

They glared at each other. Jinx groaned, took a spoon out of a bowl on the shelf to her right, and smacked them both.

“Everyone needs to stop fighting or I swear I will go turn the life support off. We Torgorans don’t need oxygen, so I’ll make you all sleep for a while if you keep pissing me off.”

That was a disturbing but very real threat. We looked at each other, then at the ground and grumbled our assent. Satisfied, Jinx huffed and backed off.

“Good. Now, Amara, fix these two idiots up while I make us something to eat. Then we can discuss things further.”

“Yes, ma’am,” we said like the scolded children that we were. Usually Amara filled the pseudo-motherly role of the crew, but on rare occasions, Jinx did it. Not often, but sometimes we needed to be put in line. Ketellin also did it, but no one wanted to make him mad. An angry K was a bad day for everyone.

Pivek went to help Jinx make our meals while Amara led Rowan and I by the arm to the room she’d commandeered as her own. It was the biggest of the bunch, belonging to the former captain of this fine vessel, but since there wasn’t a med-bay on board, Amara got the extra space to set up her supplies. Much like on the Sanara.

“Sit down,” she ordered. We did so. “Shirts off. Let me take a look at you.”

We complied and stripped off our coats and shirts. Rowan was covered in muscle next me, always making me feel thoroughly inadequate. I didn’t spy any injuries though, aside from some bruising, but I wasn’t a doctor, so I’d leave that appraisal to Amara.

She prodded him and fussed over every detail. He flinched when she poked his ribs, and when she inspected his back, she cringed.

“You got hit, you idiot.”

“I’m aware.”

I blinked and looked at him. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Rowan shrugged, “Didn’t hurt too bad, and besides, we were a little preoccupied.”

“True.”

Amara sighed, hands on her hips, and shook her head. “You two are too much for me, I swear.” She grabbed a portable x-ray device and hovered it over his ribs. “I don’t see any breaks or fractures, so probably just bruised. But that hole in your back is bad. You’re lucky we still have a good amount bio-gel.”

“Thank the saints,” he said.

“No, thank me.” She turned her annoyed gaze my way. “I see the wound on your arm. Not as bad as his, but again, you’re lucky.”

“I don’t feel a thing if I’m being honest.”

“Because the bolt burnt the nerve endings around the wound.”

I cracked a grin. “Well, at least you don’t have to waste any morphine.”

She snorted. “Like I’d waste it on you two idiots regardless.”

“I love you too, dear.”

Amara rolled her eyes and got to work. She applied the bio-gel to Rowan first, who gasped and gritted his teeth as she did. Bio-gel was never a fun experience, no matter how convenient it was. Then, while the new cells grafted to his back, she wrapped his ribs. Once that was done, our Zarthian doctor turned her attention to me.

“Your turn.”

“Hooray.”

She dug out a small glob of bio-gel from the jar. It was a translucent greenish-blue, though it had a noxious chemical smell that drove me mad, so I had to hold my breath while she applied it. The immediate pain when it touched my skin was like a fire racing through my veins, fast and intense, but thankfully, that pain always died just as quickly, unless the wound was particularly gruesome.

It was when the cells grew and grafted and became part of my skin that was a real discomfort. Like a hot itch, irritating, so annoying that any sane man would go mad with the urge to scratch at it, but you couldn’t do that. I had to sit still and grit my teeth while the healing process got underway.

Amara smiled at me as it did. “What?” I asked her.

“Nothing, I just like making you two uncomfortable.”

I smiled back at her. “And you just earned yourself some retributory pranks coming your way.”

“Bring it on, little Goon.”

Once we were more or less patched up, we returned to the common area just as we felt the ship jump to the next system. That familiar pull in my stomach when it happened just made me even hungrier.

Pivek and Jinx were still cooking, Pivek was chopping assorted meats and vegetables, and Jinx was mixing and adding spices to a roux or soup or something. The smell was heavenly. Ketellin, our stoic and silent Batoric pilot, climbed down from the cockpit, the water in his rebreather bubbling as he took in a breath.

“You have us set for Kesher-88?” I asked him.

“Yes, as planned. We should arrive in a few hours.”

“Good.” I stretched, scratched my arm now that the bio-gel was finished grafting to my skin—which felt amazing—and took a seat in a torn leather booth on the opposite end of the little kitchen. In a few hours, we’d be meeting some contacts that could help us with the heist, and with the hack. We were well underway.

We sat around in silence for a while, waiting patiently for Pivek and Jinx to finish the food. Rowan reached out to some contacts over the extraweb, though about what I did not know. Amara, our ever-obsessive weapons master, took apart one of her blasters and meticulously cleaned it before putting it back together. Something she’d learned in her “militia days” before we ever met. Ketellin simply rested his head against the wall and shut his eyes.

Finally, Jinx smiled and clapped her hands together with a little flourish. “Okay, food is ready!” It made us all smile. She was adorable, and it was impressive how adept she was at picking up the mood.

We lined up and each took a bowl, helping ourselves to the delicious-smelling bisque they’d concocted. And it was amazing. Creamy, chewy, flavorful. Jinx did not get enough credit.

But our somewhat enjoyable meal soon came to an end.

“So,” Amara began in-between bites, “are we going to talk about what happened on the station?”

I squished my brows as I stared at her. “What’s there to talk about? We got the device, got shot at, and escaped.”

“Yeah, pretty typical for us,” added Rowan with a chuckle.

Amara growled with frustration. “No, it’s been typical for the last few months since we’ve become more bold and brash and stupid. Before you came along, Rowan, we were a lot more careful and low profile.”

He narrowed his gaze, his body going tense. “Are you blaming me, Amara?” The way he said her name made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight. I sensed this topic of conversation going down a bad path. Not with a good ending.

“No, I’m simply stating that we’ve been far more reckless lately, and now you just happen to run into a whole squad of Aaugor bounty hunters?”

“It’s a coincidence. I was standing in front of a wanted poster of myself.”

“Yeah, but you said he was looking right at you the moment you pulled down your hood, and he started firing immediately. Your posters are notoriously sad excuses of the real you, and Aaugor don’t typically have the best eyesight. That’s a fine coincidence, if you ask me.”

“So, what are you getting at?” I asked. I dropped my spoon and folded my arms.

She got in my face, her glare enough to make most men shrivel in fear. “I’m getting at the fact that I doubt this was just another coincidence. This is yet more heat on us, Yan. Between the bounty hunters tracking the Sanara, the ambush with Valrude, and now this? There’s too much smoke. We need to get out of the fire.”

I huffed and looked around for some support, but the others were more than content to sit this one out. Figured. I put my hands on my hips. “Why can’t it be a coincidence? Why does everything have to be some grand plot to take us down?”

Amara grumbled and threw her hands up. “You’re far too naïve for your own good, Yan. There’s way too much evidence to think that we aren’t being hunted.”

“So what? You want us to back down, lay low, abandon this heist that we’ve already sacrificed to achieve?”

“Yes. Not forever, but for now. Just until the heat dies down.”

“We don’t have time for that.”

“Rushing it could lead to death, Yan.”

“And doing nothing will lead to it too.”

“Yeah, for who? I’m sure your life of luxury and whores can wait.”

Oh, that was the wrong thing for her to say. I fumed, my arms shaking. My face grew warm as I gritted my teeth. “My family!” I shouted.

The room went silent. Amara backed away as if I’d slapped her. Rowan looked surprised, and Pivek and K both took that information in stride. Jinx gave me a sympathetic look. She was the only person I’d ever told of my family.

“What?” Amara asked.

“I don’t do all this for myself, or for you. My mother is dying, my father is an addict with a gambling debt that would make our collective bounties blush, and I have a sister stuck working endless hours trying to pay for them. I’ve tried to get them out, to help them, but all I can do is steal. This is the only way I know how to help them.”

“Yan…” said Jinx as she came up to me and placed her hand on my arm.

It wasn’t her fault and I wasn’t mad at her, but even so, I jerked my arm away. I didn’t look at her though, since I knew the hurt would be plain as day.

“I can’t wait. They can’t wait. They’ve waited and suffered long enough.”

Amara crossed her arms and sighed, dipping her head into her chest. “I’m sorry, Yan. I didn’t know.” But then her expression turned grim. “But we all have loved ones, all have something that drives us, and I will not have us all die needlessly. If we’re going to do this, we need to be ready. And without half the galaxy on our trail.”

“How can you say that?” Spit flew from my mouth. “I just—”

The ship came out of the jump with a violent shake, which we’d learned meant that we’d arrived at our final destination.

I glared at Amara, my teeth bared and eyes full of fury. She matched it with a frightening glare of her own that would have ordinarily terrified me, but not today. Today, I would back down to no one.

Without turning away, I said. “K, cockpit. Now. Take us to port.”

He huffed and got up. I followed him up the ladder, finally breaking eye contact with Amara. This was not over. Not by a longshot.

Kesher-88 was in view as I climbed into the cockpit. K was already strapped in and flying. The trading post was more city now than simple backwater, but it still had its charms. Kesher-88 sat in the middle of a large asteroid belt that orbited a neutron star, which always cast the colony in eerily pale light.

The city itself was a series of domed districts across several large asteroids held loosely together by gravity wells. Ships zipped between them, boom tubes throwing the smaller ones back and forth. As an extrasolar vessel, we needn’t resort to those.

Kesher-88 was open to all and not beholden to any governing body, only occasionally paying fees to the Free Systems that she was a part of. Still, we had to pay a landing fee, which was annoying, but Ketellin paid it when the intercom buzzed asking for it. We set down on the left-most dome, the second largest, home to the entertainment district of Kesher—and the place to find an information broker or two.

We adjusted to Kesher’s time, which meant it was time for most to go to bed, which was fine with me. I was exhausted after nearly dying today, and Amara had my blood boiling worse than any near-death could. Which probably said a lot about me as a person, but it was what it was.

K landed us, and he and Pivek stayed with the ship while the rest of us checked into a nearby hostel for shipping crews. None of us spoke, and Amara and I needed the buffer of Jinx and Rowan between us. We thankfully were able to book a suite of rooms, though upon contacting the Diego, Pivek and K said they’d rather stay with the ship. That was fine. Less money to spend.

I collected our keycards and led us up a flight of stairs until we came to the fourth floor where our rooms were. The hall was dimly lit and cold, but luxury was not something we could afford. I gave out the keys, and Amara still wouldn’t look me in the eye. Fine by me.

“Get some sleep, everyone. Tomorrow, we go find my contact.”

They grumbled their acceptance and went into their rooms, leaving me standing in the hallway, alone and still trembling with anger.

I’d held it together for a long time. For years, I stole and stole and stole and conned and conned, accruing wealth, sending it back to pay for my father’s debts, never getting close because of the cursed interest rates. All the while, I put myself in harm’s way and garnered a reputation and a bounty that would get me killed one day soon if we didn’t pull off this heist. And if I died, well, my family was dead too.

So no, Amara, I couldn’t wait any longer.

I sighed and unlocked my room. It was a dingy sty with stained green carpet and a flickering lunar light that was a poor choice given the weak light of the neutron star and no moons. The walls were metal and cracked in spots, and there was a repeated dripping coming from the bathroom, just repeating… Drip, drip, drip…

No bother, I’d lived in worse. I leaned my head against the wall and took a deep breath. It’d been about an hour since the fight, but my heart was still pounding, and my skin was still flushed. I hated feeling like this. I lived my life with blinding optimism and joy, because anything else was too depressing to comprehend. My family was in debt and dying and thinking about it hurt too much to bear. But I did everything for them, and for Amara to suggest we just throw this aside because of the danger? I couldn’t do it.

She meant well, I knew. She loved me, as we all loved each other and wanted the best for us. This heist would save us all from our own personal hells. I wasn’t going to give that up. Amara would come around.

A knock sounded at my door. I took another deep breath. “Come in.”

The door slid open. Golden light flooded into the room, and a silhouette stood there, swaying as she looked at me, her shoulder leaning against the doorframe.

“You’re just gonna sit in the dark and mope?” Jinx asked.

I smirked, though my heart wasn’t in it. “Well, I was gonna drink myself to death, but unfortunately, I don’t have the money for that venture.”

Jinx padded forward and found the dial for the light. She turned it up, but thankfully, just enough to see by. I didn’t want the brightness. I glanced at her. She’d showered, her gem-like hair messy and in wet strands. She wore a red tunic much too big for her that ate her torso and appeared almost like a dress. Her golden legs extended out of it.

“You okay?” she asked, her voice low and tense.

“You know, I’m usually the one who asks the stupid questions.”

That got a chuckle. “I think everyone has to have a little stupid sometimes.”

“Maybe.”

Jinx sat beside me on the bed, her thigh and shoulder pressed against mine. She took my hand in hers and threaded her fingers through mine. Her grip was firm, warm, comforting. It made my heart race.

“We’re going to make sure your family is okay, you know that, right?”

I nodded. I could feel tears pricking at the corner of my vision.

Jinx leaned her head against my shoulder, her wet hair pushed against my cheek. “Everything will be okay.”

It was hard to say if she was telling me that, or if she was trying to convince herself.

We sat like that for a while until my eyes grew heavy. Jinx must have felt the same, because her hand fell from mine as she stood up and stretched. I didn’t want her to go, but my lips didn’t part to speak. She turned back to me, leaned in, grabbed my face by the cheeks, and put her forehead to mine, our noses touching. She took a deep breath in through her nose.

“Ashe vallicun en she trydi neo,” she whispered. I gulped. It was Old Torgoran, the language of her people, spoken rarely now. As a slave, she was forbidden from speaking it, but her and the others still clung to it, speaking it in the dark. It kept her alive when madness and despair threatened to drown her all those years ago.

“What does it mean?” I whispered back.

“It means, ‘Hold hope in your heart, for it can shield against all evils’.”

“That’s a…beautifully loaded saying.”

She smiled. “But true. We have hope, and that’s all we need.”

I closed my eyes and breathed. “Thanks, Jinx.” She was the best friend I could ask for. For all the times I’d hold her at night, soothing her through her nightmares, it was nice to know she would do the same for me. She thankfully didn’t have the opportunity often.

“Welcome, Yan.” Jinx breathed deep, and for a moment, we shared the same air. Her fingers ran along my cheeks, down my neck, and paused on my collar bone. Gooseflesh ran down my arms and neck. She then raised herself up, kissed my forehead, and took a step back.

“Sleep well, friend,” she said.

“And you.”

Jinx went to the doorway and turned down the light until I was bathed in darkness again. She paused, once again a silhouette against the hallway light. Her head turned as she looked back at me. I couldn’t see her eyes, but I could feel their intensity. Then she turned and strode out, the door sliding shut in her wake. My heart yearned for her to come back.

But the words wouldn’t come up my throat. So, I did as she told me. I laid down, shimmied under the covers, and went to sleep, hoping the next day would bring me some renewed hope.

When I woke hours later, I was feeling a lot better. Bitter, but better. Anger didn’t suit me, and though I was gonna have another talk with Amara later, for now, I could bottle my issues. So, I got up, took a disgusting shower—the water tank here needed to be cleaned, for sure—and got dressed. Then I went into the hall and roused the troops.

And by rouse the troops, I meant bang loudly on their doors and yell obscenities at them.

One by one, they came out. Rowan cursed as he rubbed the dream crust from his eyes. Amara scowled and made a very rude hand gesture at me that only caused me to chuckle. Of course, Jinx yawned and smiled and said her good mornings, because absolutely nothing I did ever fazed that girl.

“Get dressed. We have things to do. I’d say shower, but take it from me, you’ll probably be dirtier after.”

With some grumbles and eye-rolls, they returned to their rooms. Minutes later, they came back out to find me lying on my back in the middle of the hall while I twiddled my thumbs and whistled a tune.

“How are you so chipper, Yan?” Amara asked.

Rising up, I smiled, crossed my arms behind my back, and leaned in so that our noses were inches apart. “Because, like any good sociopath, I am adept at hiding my emotions.” I bopped her on the nose with my pointer finger. “Silly.”

“Ugh.” She looked disgusted and annoyed and every other emotion one could feel when dealing with my nonsense. But then I saw it: the slight twitch of her lips into a micro smile.

I smiled. Victory.

We left the motel. Pivek joined us after we stopped for breakfast, mostly because he was bored on the ship, which I found odd because he always had something to do. I led my friends through Kesher’s vast entertainment dome. Gambling dens lined the streets. There were hover-bike tracks and gladiatorial arenas, both lethal and non, between sapient species and those of less high-brain functionality. There were, of course, numerous brothels, centers for extraweb gaming, clubs of all variety, venues to see live music, and so much more. It was a fun place to be if you had the money and time to spend here. We, unfortunately, had neither.

Hidden beneath it all was a vast trade network that was different from the trade markets two asteroids over. Here, they traded in secrets, in information both evil and benign, and favors. If you needed dirt on a politician, this was the place to go. If you wanted to know insider info on stock prices, they had that. And if you said you needed some help breaking into a vault of a notorious mob boss… Well, they could assist with that as well.

For a price.

We passed a glittering neon building with flashing screens all showing extraweb games being played, and near each were a list of stats and then some screens with odds. But the gaming center was not what we were here for. Between Li’yow’s Gaming Hub and the Red Rordan Arcade was a small, innocuous alley.

I took my friends down the alley to the end, where there was a random brick wall. Both buildings were made of stucco and metal and not an ounce of brick. No, there was just this one patch of brick, and a very muscular Vespon with onyx skin and glowing eyes. He glowered at us, arms crossed, the muscles like rippling shadows.

“What business do you have?” he asked, his voice impossibly deep, like most of his kind.

“I need to speak with Gedon.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No, but tell him his old friend Yan is here to see him.”

The Vespon guard grumbled but thankfully did what I said. Sometimes bouncers thought they knew better, but I found that was rarely the case. He leaned his head onto his shoulder and spoke into a communicator. A gargled voice responded, speaking a language I didn’t recognize. The Vespon spoke in the same language. There was a long pause, then the voice said something again, and the Vespon clicked off the communicator.

“You may proceed,” he said.

“Thank you.”

The guard stood aside and produced a keycard from his pocket. He held it over a seemingly random brick until there was a click, and the wall suddenly shuddered, specks of dust and mortar raining to the floor as the brick shifted and the wall pushed back and slid away, revealing a doorway that descended into darkness.

“Proceed down. You will be required to relinquish all weapons at the bottom. If any of you have an issue with that, stay behind.”

We all looked at Amara. She frowned. “What? I’m not a bloodthirsty animal. Screw y’all.”

I laughed. “We said nothing at all, my dear.”

“Will there be a problem, Goon?” the guard asked.

“Nope. We’re good.”

“Then proceed.”

So we did. We carefully picked our way down the stairs. The air was hot and musty, oppressive. Nothing compared to the nights on Ellara but still not particularly pleasant. But then we got to the bottom where light seeped in through a grated gate. Another Vespon guard stood in front. This one was skinnier and didn’t have such an intense, severe demeanor. Still, I wasn’t going to try to provoke that side out of him.

He was flanked by security cameras. He cleared his throat and gestured toward a locker to his right. “Weapons in there.”

I gave up my blaster pistol and a couple of grav-knives. The others did the same. Amara had the most, of course, pulling out weapon after weapon, most of which seemed small but could become much larger when needed. The Vespon looked at her with what seemed like an almost impressed expression. She sure could jam a lot of firepower onto her person.

When we were finished, we allowed him to pat us down in case we were hiding anything. It was annoying, but I understood their caution. Information brokers accrued the favor of many powerful individuals, but they made just as many enemies. That made them pretty large targets, and Gedon was one of the best, so the bullseye on him was bigger than most. Better to be safe than sorry.

Satisfied that we were disarmed, the guard nodded, turned around, and unlocked the gate. “Behave yourselves.”

His tone was much too ominous for my liking.

We emerged into a large and elaborately decorated foyer that looked like it belonged to some swanky blueblood mansion, rather than an underground information den. But then again, Gedon had always had a taste for gaudy things. The walls were lacquered and paneled in polished leather. There was a large crystal chandelier above, the crystals themselves giving off a warm glow that lit up the room in twinkling light.

Jinx whistled. “This place is impressive.”

“It seems like someone is compensating,” added Rowan.

“No,” I said with the shake of my head. “Gedon just has a big ego and likes to show off his hard-earned wealth.”

“Same difference.”

There were three doorways ahead of us, though they weren’t blocked by doors but by heavy velvet curtains. We approached the guards that stood on either side of the center way. One was a Bantiss and was even taller than Pivek. They regarded each other coolly. He had several wicked-looking blades strapped to his back and chest. On the opposite of him was a buff Goon that was even paler than I was. He frowned at us but didn’t say a word. He lifted back the curtain and ushered us through.

Gedon’s office wasn’t as lavish as the rest of his operation would make you expect. The room was trimmed in gold, sure, but otherwise, the wood walls and standard electric lighting were fairly tame for him. It was a mess of books and databanks and old paper. He loved to use paper things. Paper couldn’t be tracked. Paper couldn’t be deleted or detected with security software. Paper was subtle. His tastes were outlandish, but his techniques were not.

We didn’t draw his attention right away. Instead, we stood in silence as he read through a yellowed scroll that must’ve been older than I was, but no doubt had some sort of new and relevant information for him. I knew he knew we were there. Ravkans had amazing senses of smell and hearing. Gedon just wanted to make us wait.

But I was impatient so, unwisely or not, I cleared my throat.

Gedon’s finger, which had been tracing over the words of the scroll, stopped. He stood, his yellow eyes turning to narrow slits. Gedon was Ravkan, a tall, reptilian humanoid race that was short-lived but incredibly ambitious and hardworking. Long and lanky, he appeared human aside from the green-brown scales that covered him from head to toe. Oh, and the spike-covered tail that flicked behind him with curiosity.

“My, my, my. What a surprise to find Yan Slim Hands and his merry band of thieves standing before me. You know, I never really found that name becoming of you.”

“We don’t always get to pick our names.”

He smirked. “Hm. Indeed.” His eyes flitted to Amara. “And a pleasure to see you as well, Amara.”

I shot my Zarthian friend a glance. “You’ve met before?”

She shrugged. “Rebels need information too. How else do you think we take down operations and governments bigger than ourselves?”

Gedon chuckled. “I think many would rather label you as a terrorist, my dear.”

“It all depends on who’s telling the story. If they support you, you’re a rebel. If they’re against you, you’re a terrorist.”

“Quite right. History is written by the victors, as they say.” Gedon stepped out from behind his desk, arms clasped behind his back. He cleared his throat and gestured to chairs stacked against one wall. “Please, sit. How can I help you all on this fine day?”

We took our seats. I pulled my chair so that I was front and center. As I should be. “We need some assistance with a heist.”

He smirked. “Naturally. Must be some mark if you’ve come to me for help.”

“Oh, it is, I assure you.”

“Well? Don’t leave me waiting.”

I gave my friends each a glance, as if asking permission to dole out this information. I wasn’t, but sometimes appearances mattered. When I didn’t get a protest, I continued and gave the information broker the info he desired. “We’re going to rob Xarren Elexae’s vault.”

He stared back at me, his mouth sealed shut. Unblinking, his yellow raptor eyes scanned me. Then, he burst into a raucous fit of laughter the likes of which I knew for certain was rare for him. I didn’t know if I should be annoyed or laugh along with him. I decided to just stay silent and let him get his giggles out.

“You, Yan, are one bold man with a death wish.”

“I’ll admit, it’s one of my more suicidal ideas.”

“And he roped all of you into this?”

Jinx shrugged. “I volunteered. I always have his back.”

“I’m still on the fence,” said Amara with a subtle glare that dared me to renew our argument. I really wanted to, but now wasn’t the time. We had to be professional, no matter how hard that went against who I was.

“Yes, well. I have a plan,” I continued. “But we need your help, Gedon. If you have the information we need.”

He scoffed, as if offended. “I have all the information you could possibly need.”

We’ll see about that. “Do you have a copy of the blueprints to Xarren’s mansion?”

Gedon didn’t flinch. “Depends on which one you’re asking about?”

That caught me off guard. “He has more than one?”

“Of course he has more than one. He’s the head of one of the most powerful and wealthiest crime families in Imperial Space. He’s got resources. Now, do you want his vacation home on Tishnu? The sport lodge on Ush’rai 7? The Elarra estate?”

“Show off,” I grumbled. “The Elarra estate, the one with his vault.”

“Ah, I do have the blueprint to that.” I rolled my eyes. Gedon smiled and went back behind his desk where he went about typing away at his console. I was relieved. Despite Gedon’s impeccable reputation and track record, even he had his limits on the information he could acquire. Though many Elarri building plans were public record, it was unlikely that Xarren Elexae would allow the secrets of his manor to be obtained easily. So for Gedon to have the blueprints for all his residences? Impressive.

“This was not easy to come by, you know,” Gedon said as he typed away furiously. “Lost a very good agent trying to obtain it and received quite a bit of heat for it. It won’t be cheap.”

“We can pay.”

“I should hope so.”

We’d been in luck when we stole the Diego. Her cargo of rare spices had fetched quite a good amount when we fenced it. That profit was bankrolling this current expense. That was unless Gedon tried to rip me off, and as an ambitious little Ravkan, he just might do that.

His console pinged as the blueprint appeared as a small hologram before us. It was very elaborate and multilayered, but I didn’t dwell on the details. I would do that when we went through the plans.

“Here we are,” he declared. “So, for this piece of information, I’ll need…thirty thousand digits.”

My turn to laugh. “You must be joking.”

“This is very sensitive and highly sought-after information.”

“We can do fifteen.”

“And I can have you leave.”

“And you have to consider how our heist benefits you.”

That gave him pause. “How so?”

“If we succeed, not only will it put a big financial hit on Xarren Elexae, but it could signal to the other heads of the family that he’s weak and vulnerable, and could lead to infighting, which takes heat away from you. And when there’s fighting, there’s leaked information. All of that helps you.”

He stroked his chin. “Maybe, Slim Hands. Twenty-five thousand.”

I groaned. “You’re killing me.”

“We’ll do twenty, Gedon,” Amara said suddenly. “And you’ll take that because you owe me for that job I did for you when you were just starting out a decade ago.”

Gedon did not look happy at that. He didn’t like being reminded of his humble beginnings. “Fine. Twenty thousand.” He put out his hand to shake. “But if that heat gets turned on me again, you’ll wish that Elexae killed you.”

“Fair enough.” I took his hand and shook.

He downloaded the blueprint to a small data-spike, and I transferred the fee to him. Once he had the money, his chipper demeanor returned. Money was the cure for all his ills.

“It was a pleasure doing business with you all. Now get out.”

And with that rude dismissal, we left his office and returned to the foyer of his little underground base. I was ready to get back to the ship and get our plans underway. No more waiting. We started for the exit, but then a booming voice cut me off.

“Yan Sangine, as I live and breathe.”

Ordinarily hearing my full name—information I did not give out freely—would have had my arms riddled with pebbles and alarm bells blaring in my head. But when I heard the familiar voice of one of my best and oldest friends, those alarms didn’t come.

Standing in one of the tunnels that led deeper into Gedon’s base was a truly massive individual. He was about as tall as Pivek, but with arms and legs like slabs of stone. Rough orange skin. Huge hands and feet as wide as my waist was around. Every bit of him was huge, except for his square head that seemed much too small perched atop his chiseled neck. He was a Korgan, and my best friend from childhood: Rago.

It had been years since I’d last seen him. He’d taken up bounty hunting at the time I’d jumped feet first into thieving with Jinx. This was well before we met Amara, Pivek, K, or Rowan. I would have had Rago join us, but he’d been long gone hunting people like me.

Well, not quite. He tended to only hunt the most dangerous. And maybe that danger was too much because here he was wearing the uniform of one of Gedon’s guards.

I waved at him as he approached. “It’s been far too long, my friend.”

Rago laughed and clapped my back with his massive hand. It knocked the wind out of me, which made him laugh even harder, and then got me to laughing. Meanwhile, the others just stared at us. Jinx smiled though, having met Rago a few times years ago.

“You’re looking better than your wanted posters,” he said with a snicker.

“I would say the same for you since you’re presumed dead.”

He shrugged. “Bounty hunters can’t kill what’s already dead.”

“I thought you were a bounty hunter.”

“Well, clearly not anymore. Long story.”

“For you, a long story will turn into a full-length novel.”

He grinned and punched my arm, though thankfully he knew enough to not put any strength behind it. Jinx came up to him and wrapped her arms around his stomach, though her arms couldn’t even connect.

“Hey, little gem,” he said. “Looking good. All grown, I see.”

“Yeah, all grown. Wish I could say you were less ugly, but…”

“Ha! I always liked you, Jinxie.”

“Can’t say the same for you, Rag.”

I swore if you could die from laughter, Rago was gonna find out. He bent over holding his stomach as creamy tears leaked from his eyes. Rago was always a joy to be around, because he had more joy and life than anyone I’d ever known and was one of the reasons I tried to live so carefree.

When he was finished, he looked at the rest of my crew and waved his massive hand. “Hello, friends of Yan. I am Rago.”

They all waved back awkwardly, though they tried to smile sincerely. I shook my head.

“Raggy, this is Rowan, Amara, our weapons expert and medic, and Pivek, our mechanic and mad inventor.”

They said hello.

Pivek signed. ‘I take exception to being called ‘mad.’ I prefer to be referred to as an unappreciated genius.’

I crossed my arms. “Oh, I think you’re appreciated plenty.”

Once the niceties were exchanged, Rago said, “So how are you? How’s thieving?”

“Not too great, but we have big plans. Hence why we’re here.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I know you need the money bad. By the way, Yan, I’m sorry about your family. I tried to help, but there was nothing I could do.”

I went rigid.

“What did you just say?” I asked, my voice suddenly devoid of life.

Rago, sweet joyful Rago, recoiled like I’d struck him, the horror obvious in his eyes. “Y-you… You haven’t heard?”

My heart rate spiked. I could hear it slamming with each beat in my ear. “What didn’t I hear, Rago?”

He was stricken. The sorrow crashed into me, and I feared for the worst. Rago wrung his hands as he looked at his large feet. “The Elexaes were tired of waiting for your father’s payments. They… They took your sister. Forced her into one of their brothels to help pay off his debts. Now it’s just your dad looking after your mom. Neither of them have been in the best health. Javvin is helping your dad kick the secehunra, but he’s struggling. Your ma… Well, she’s bedridden now. Vi and Colder are looking after her, but as you know, they don’t have the money to spare for medicine.”

My heart stopped. My legs grew heavy, wobbly. I stumbled back, but Amara caught me before I collapsed completely. My vision blurred as tears started to well.

“No…” I whispered, with even that small croak of a sound making my throat burn.

Jinx was at my side in an instant, her hands clasping mine. “Yan, you listen to me. Everything will be okay. We’re gonna get that money, and we’re gonna get Yara out of the brothel and your mom will get her medicine. I promise you. You have to have hope, remember?”

It was hard to have hope when it felt like the whole galaxy was bearing down on you. “Hope?” I asked, but not really to her. I was asking myself. Was it safe to hope? Hope was beautiful, but when hope was crushed, it could be deadly.

“Hope, Yan.”

I nodded and swiped at my tears. “Okay.” Amara and Jinx helped me to stand. I turned back to her. “Amara, I—”

She silenced me with a finger to my lips. “No, Yan, you were right. We can’t wait. Your family can’t wait. We’ll go after the Elexaes with everything we have. We’ll get that money.”

Saints, she was gonna make me cry again. I swiped at those stubborn tears still fighting to survive. “Thanks. I promise we’ll get this done too, Amara, safe and not reckless. We’ll be full of recks.”

“You’re ridiculous.” She smiled and I smiled and that made things better.

Rago was still looking on with grief when I turned my attention back to him. “Thank you for letting me know, brother.” I put my hand on his chest since it would have been an awkward stretch to reach his mountainous shoulders.

He put his hand on my shoulder. It covered it completely. “I’m sorry I had to be the one to tell you. I really am. If you need anything, just let me know.”

An idea occurred to me—a pot of money that we’d been sitting on for a while now that we hadn’t cashed in yet. I turned to Pivek.

“Where’s the data-pad with all the data I stole from Valrude?”

Pivek gave me a look that I couldn’t discern before he reached back and pulled the data-pad out of his tool bag that he always carried.

I frowned. “Why do you have that on you?”

He shrugged. ‘I like to read it when I have free time. It’s good information to have.’

Fair enough.

I took the data-pad and started back for Gedon’s office without another word. The others were quick to follow me.

“Uh, Yan? You wanna fill me in?” Rago asked.

“In a moment.”

Jinx was right—hope was a good thing to have. Hope gave me this plan that could save my mother while we worked to save my father and sister.

We came in front of the guards. “Me again. I have some information that Gedon might find very valuable.”

This time, seeing us with Rago, they didn’t hesitate. “Go on in.”

We went on in. Gedon was at his desk, reading something, his legs kicked up, a new glass of wine in hand. It smelled like hunra now, though. Couldn’t say that given the circumstances I approved, but it was his operation, his office, his rules. He looked up with a start at the sudden crowd in his office.

“What is it now, Yan?”

“How much would you give me for all of this?”

I handed him the data without any ceremony. He looked me over once more, as well as raised an eyebrow at Rago and my crew. Then he finally noticed the data-pad. He took it with interest and scrolled through it. As he did, his eyes went wide.

“This is… This is incredible! Where did you obtain this?”

I snatched the data-pad back from him. “Ah-ah, you know I don’t kiss and tell.”

He chuckled and took a sip of his wine. “Trade secrets. Of course, of course. I’m all too familiar.”

I nodded and crossed my arms. “What can you give me for it?”

“Hmm.” He stroked his chin. “This is very sensitive information. I take a risk putting this out there. If the Elexaes were to catch me…”

I scoffed. “Don’t pull that business on me, Gedon. I know the type of people you deal with. You’ve sold dirt on royals and officials from every governing body in the galaxy. The heat doesn’t scare you. I know you’d make a killing with that information at auction. So please, from one professional to another, give me a fair price. Or I walk and find another buyer.”

Gedon gave me a long, stoic stare that ran the length of me. Finally, he smirked. “From one professional to another, I respect your brazen confidence. And being a friend of Rago’s, I shall help you out.”

“Good. How much?”

“I can offer you a hundred thousand digits.”

The gasps behind me made me smile. “You got yourself a deal.” He smiled wickedly, but not in a menacing way. We shook hands again, as we had earlier.

“A pleasure, Mister Yan. Now, let me transfer your funds to a credit chit.” Gedon went back behind his desk and started to type away on his console. A few moments later, it produced a small black card with dark blue glowing edges. He swiped it from the machine and handed it to me. I handed him the data-pad.

“Thank you, Mister Gedon. I sincerely hope you sell that info to someone who will give the Elexaes and their dealings all sorts of hell.”

He snickered. “I will most certainly try.”

And so our second meeting of the day was done, and now I was a lot richer. Once we were all out of his office and in the foyer again, Rago whistled and leaned against the railing.

“That was something else. Gedon doesn’t usually negotiate on equal terms so often.”

“Well, I have my ways.” I handed him the credit chit. “Get this to my mom. It should cover all the medicine she needs, whether I make it or not. Hopefully, there will be a little left over to help Dad.”

Rago took it gingerly, like it was a precious thing, like a tiny infant that he was afraid to break. “I will, brother. I’ll keep an eye on your mom too until you all succeed. You have my word.”

I inclined my head. “Thanks, Raggy.” I put out my hand. He consumed my whole hand and wrist in his.

“You take care now, all of you. Those Elexaes mean business.”

“We know.”

He gave us a curt nod, his mouth set in a line. “Good luck.” He turned and left us.

Silence engulfed us for several seconds. I sighed. Not worrying about my mom was a huge weight off my shoulders. Now I just had to worry about Dad and Yara. And Xarren and his vault. The joys of my life.

“You sure you can trust him with that?” Amara asked. It was a fair question. She didn’t know Rago after all, but I did.

“He’s one of my oldest and closest friends. I trust him with my life. And I trust him with my mother’s.”

“I hope you’re right.”

So did I.

That wasn’t something to worry about. For now, we had a lot bigger things to deal with. I clapped my hands together and smiled. “Alright, it’s time to rob the mob.”

With the money secured and Rago on his way to help my mother, I returned with my friends to the Diego with a renewed sense of hope, but also plenty of urgency. My sister was in a brothel and my dad was in a dark pit that he needed help getting out of. Now was the time to act.

Once Ketellin had us in the air, he punched the coordinates for Elarra and we were soon jumping back to the imperial capital, and all the heat, death, and mobsters that would be waiting for us.

Now that we were underway, we all piled into the center conference room and gathered around the holo-display and consoles. I handed the data-spike Gedon gave me to Pivek. He inserted it into the center console and brought up the blueprints on the holo-display. It looked like a small translucent 3-D manor, but then he zoomed in and the plans blew up around us. Not enough to engulf the room, but large enough so that we could see every last nook and cranny of the manor in exquisite detail.

“So, let’s begin,” I said with a smile. I pointed to the big front doors. “Jinx will go in as the help and case the place as best she can, her main priority being to find out what sort of encryption Xarren has on the vault.”

Jinx nodded, her eyes scanning the blueprints, no doubt memorizing the routes to take to get to the vault. I would have to do the same, though Jinx had an incredible memory, so this was easy for her.

“The day before the heist,” I continued, “Rowan will apply to be a guard. They don’t like Goons, but you’re skilled enough and big enough to satisfy them. Also try to be charming and funny. That’ll help.

“I always am.”

“Yeah, but not as much as me.”

He scoffed. I continued.

“Employees of the Elexaes are searched head to toe and patted down every day upon arrival, so it will be up to me to get this little EMP device that Pivek cooked up into the mansion. It will take down everything except for security.”

“And how will you do that?” Amara asked, brow raised. “They’re absolutely going to check you too.”

“I’m so glad you asked that, my dear.” I smiled and lifted my shirt to reveal my hip. “You are going to surgically insert it into my hip. I will swallow one of those small surgical lasers and once I’m locked away for the night, I’ll heave it up, cut out the EMP, and activate it. Hopefully you have some bio-gel for me to use after.”

“We do, you maniac.”

“Good. Now, once the power goes off, Rowan needs to be in position to knock out the security system with the hack. Jinx will come and meet me at the vault.”

“You just said that they’ll search me. How will I get the pulse-hack in? It may be tiny but they’ll definitely… Oh, no, Yan. I won’t do it.”

“I didn’t suggest a single thing, Rowan.”

“I’m not swallowing that thing! That stinger will cut up my throat.”

“Well, would you rather stick it up your bum? Take it from someone who’s been to prison, that’s the usual way to go.”

He went red. “No… I…”

“Oh, for the love of— I’ll eat it,” Jinx said with an annoyed grunt and a glare at Rowan.

To which we both yelled, “No!”

She eyed us warily. “Why not?”

I knew my reasons, but I was curious to know why Rowan was against it. “Rowan is the only one that can get to the security center. You’ll be in enough danger. No need to risk yourself any further. Rowan will do it. Right, Rowan?”

Rowan worked his jaw side to side as he tried to formulate a response. Clearly, he wasn’t happy with the whole arrangement. “Fine, Yan. I’ll do it, but only because I’m the only one.” He cast Jinx a glance. “But if I choke on my blood from this thing cutting me up, saints help me, I will haunt you for the rest of your life.”

“Well, if things go wrong, that won’t be too long of an afterlife for you.”

That got some chuckles and lightened the mood. Even K and Amara smirked. I don’t know if they thought it was funny or they just felt a need to laugh because of the outrageousness of what we were attempting.

“What about me?” Amara asked.

“You will be our insurance. If things go wrong, you will blow a hole in his manor walls and get the hell out of there. They’ll be distracted and we’ll slip away.” I stepped into the blueprint projection and gestured along several winding paths. “Xarren has several escape tunnels leading out of the manor. One here in the prison, one from the armory, and one from the vault itself.”

“All three of those are in the deepest parts of the manor,” piped in Ketellin. “In the event that you trigger the alarms, those areas will be the first to be searched.”

“Well, that’s why we need to be very careful to do this whole thing quietly. Jinx and I will raid the vault and escape through the tunnels beneath it.”

“There are a lot of variables that could wrong in this, Yan,” Amara warned. She’d lost her belligerently argumentative tone about this heist since learning about my family, but she was still set on being the voice of reason. That was fine with me. We needed someone sane and rational, because I was not that.

“I know, Amara, but there will always be risks. And we have time to go over them and prepare.”

She didn’t look completely convinced, but then again, she never did. A plan could go exactly as planned and she still would find something to nitpick. But it was that cautious approach that had kept us alive so many times in the past.

Jinx, who’d been silent for most of the conversation as she memorized the routes and contemplated the responsibilities, spoke up. “So, I go in, get the lay of the land, learn what type of encryption Xarren has. Come back. Pivek comes up with a solution. Then Rowan joins me at the manor, and the next day, Yan gives himself up, probably gets beaten, does impromptu surgery on himself while Rowan takes down the security, and I meet you at the vault where we rob it and escape without being noticed? That’s the plan?”

I looked at her. Ran the plan through my head. “Yep, that’s about it.”

She stared hard at me for a long moment before smiling and looking away. “Okay, sounds good.”

“We’re all going to die,” Amara muttered and covered her eyes.

“Can’t live until you die a little,” I retorted.

“Spoken like a man with a death wish.”

I beamed at that while Rowan and Jinx chuckled. And with that, the initial planning was done. We could plan out the minute details later. I went to the little fridge in the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of wine. The bottle of yalen beside it beckoned to me, but that could be saved for when we were victorious and rich.

Until then, we passed around the wine and told stories and laughed and had a good time, because after tonight, it was unknown when we’d be able to do this again. There was so much that could go wrong, so much that could go right, so many ways that this heist would change our lives, one way or another.

So for tonight, we drank. We lived.

It took several hours before we arrived back in the Elarri system, home to the seat of power of the entire Elarri Empire. By then, we’d had time to sleep off the worst of the alcohol. I’ll admit, it hit me pretty hard, though it certainly didn’t help that I’d had way too many glasses.

I felt the ship slip out of the jump and my stomach drop at the feeling of being in orbit. The ship was eerily silent as I came out of my room and into the hall. My crewmates were probably still asleep. K was probably being silent in the cockpit as usual. Though I was a boisterous person by nature, it was the sheer silence of space that I truly appreciated in our travels. When everything else in this universe had a sound, there was the cold reaches of space with its vast and oppressive silence. It was almost serene in a way.

I tiptoed next door to Jinx’s room. I rapped my knuckles against the door and quickly heard a muffled come in from the other side.

The door slid open and I entered. Jinx sat on the edge of her bed, fully dressed in the uniform of Xarren’s servants. Her hair was pulled back, shirt buttoned to the neck, boots laced, bag packed at her feet. She was ready to go, and the thought of her walking into the nest made my heart seize.

In her hands, she held the metal collar that had once been branded onto her skin. Her eyes were distant as she stared at it, the memories of that time clearly swimming in her thoughts. My eyes found the mess of scarred skin around her neck that would never heal fully. A constant reminder.

“Hey,” I whispered.

“Hey,” she whispered back.

I sat next to her, though I wasn’t sure how to proceed. Did I leave her to her memories or would she rather me pull her out of that pain? It was always hard to tell. She took strength from her trauma, but at the same time it still haunted her. It was a hard line to walk, between pain and strength.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked, a question so idiotic that I knew it would illicit a smile.

And it did. “I’m thinking of the time when all us slaves were given some time off because of a terrible storm. We huddled together for warmth, cause the winds and rain leaked into our quarters, but we had a fire and a large pot of moq’eno that we passed around. We sang and danced and despite everything, we experienced some happiness.”

Her lips curled into a smile as a lone tear ran down her cheek. Jinx dropped the collar onto her lap. I reached over and took her hand, and she squeezed mine back.

“I’m glad it’s not all bad memories.”

She nodded. “Yeah.” Her hand fell away from mine. She grabbed the collar and walked around the room. “Did I tell you what I want to do once we have this money?”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so.” And I felt bad for that, because I’d spoken to her about what I wanted—to help my family, to get my dad out of debt and my mother her medicine and now to rescue my sister from a horrible life. I’d been so consumed by that drive that I hadn’t spared Jinx a thought. I was her only family, so I’d always assumed her plans would involve me.

She stopped her pacing, her back to me. “If we survive this and make out like royalty, I’m gonna buy a cruiser, amass a loyal squadron and fleet, and hunt down slavers throughout the galaxy.”

Woah.

My jaw dropped.

“I— I didn’t know you felt that way.” Truthfully, we never spoke of dreams and goals in the future. For as long as we’d known each other, our lives had been about survival, and mine had been about stealing and saving enough money to help my family. Jinx had been with me the entire time, supporting me, hellbent on helping me achieve that goal.

“I’ve given it a lot of thought,” she said after a moment of silence, still turned away from me. “The pain, the suffering, the cruelty that is endured by slaves. The families torn apart, the culture and joy that is extinguished… I don’t want anyone to go through that. I want to help them.”

I nodded and stood, though I didn’t move toward her. “I understand. That’s a worthy dream to have.”

Though I couldn’t see it, I was sure she smiled. “It is.”

“Where does that leave me? Or the crew?” I asked.

Jinx whirled around to face me, her eyes glistening. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” I scratched my head. “If and when we survive this heist and get our money, will you just leave? Will I see you again?”

I wasn’t going to ask her to stay or to abandon this dream. I was selfish plenty, but I would never ask her to do that when she’d given so much of herself to me, for my own goals. If this was what she wanted, then when the time came, it would be my turn to support her.

Jinx wiped her eyes and walked up to me. With collar still in hand, she grabbed my shoulders, her grip firm. “I couldn’t imagine doing this without you, Yan. I want you to come with me when I get this chance, all of you. Amara, Rowan, K, Pivek. We’re a team, and I want you all with me. If you want.”

I had no plans past this heist, past saving my family. Once it was done, where did that leave me? I couldn’t let Jinx just go into the unknown dangers of space. So I would go with her, and that was what I wanted.

“I’ll come with you, Jinx. Always.” I smiled and placed my forehead against hers.

She grinned and laughed and cried. “Good. Because if you said no, I don’t know what I would have done.”

I laughed and hugged her tight. “Don’t worry. I won’t go anywhere.”

Her arms wrapped around me and squeezed me tight. She buried her face against my neck. “Thank you, Yan.”

We stayed like that for several minutes. Content, happy, safe in each other’s arms, knowing that we may not get this opportunity again. I hoped that this heist would end well, truly believed that it would, but there were risks—there were so many things that could go wrong—so we made the most of it.

Jinx finally pulled away. Her eyes were wet from the tears, but she was smiling. She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I guess we should wake up the others.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

I roused the others, though for once, I wasn’t annoying about it. K put us down in a small spaceport not too far from the Koreth District, where Xarren’s manor was. It was not in the wastes where we usually hid, since our ship wasn’t easily recognizable. Once we landed, we piled onto the loading ramp and said our good-byes to Jinx. Everyone hugged her and wished her luck. Jinx did the same in turn. She was trying not to cry, knowing that this was a different mission than ones we’d gone on before. This was everything. Though we expected to see each other again, it was possible that Xarren might find her out, and if that happened…

Well, I didn’t want to have to think of that. Because we simply couldn’t think that way.

Once the good-byes were through, the others waved us off. I grabbed Jinx by the elbow and led her away until we disappeared from the hangar and into the hot Elarri morning. Shops were already set up and people were already going about their days. Merchants shouted and people gossiped, and children ran and played along the streets. I caught the tune of a rhyme some of them were singing that I hadn’t heard since childhood.

It was strangely warming to know that our cultures, despite our dislike, shared some things.

We walked along in silence for a while, content to just enjoy each other’s presence and take in the bustle of the capital. I didn’t have much to say anyway. What more could be said? We knew how important this was, knew how dangerous and risky it was. I knew how capable Jinx was, and she knew her own abilities. I had to trust that she would get the job done. She’d never let me down before, and I had no reason to doubt her now.

A few blocks from the manor, we came to a stop. I pulled my hood lower. It was unlikely that any Elexae thugs would be looking for me here of all places, but no need to test that theory.

Jinx and I settled into a dark alley right off the main road. She sighed and held the straps of her pack tightly. “Well, here I go.”

I looked her over, memorizing every detail in case…well, in case. “Yeah, here you go. Have your forged papers and your backstory?”

“You know it, boss.”

I smiled. “Good.” We took a moment to just smile at each other. “Well, I guess I should let you get to it.”

“Yeah.”

“Good luck in there and stay safe, Jinx. I don’t… I don’t know—”

She silenced me by leaning in and kissing me on the cheek, close enough that the corner of her lips grazed my own.

“I know, Yan.” She started past me and went into the street. Then she paused, looked back, and smiled. “I’ll see you.”

And then she was gone, and my heart thumped, wishing she’d come back. I took a deep breath. She would be fine. Everything would be fine. She would get the info we needed, and the heist would go off without a hitch and we’d all live happily ever after like in those old fairy tales.

Yeah, that was what I told myself so I didn’t go insane.

I made my way back to the Diego. Time to play the waiting game.

Five days we waited to get in touch with Jinx. She wouldn’t contact us from a holo or comm device, of course. That would be much too risky. No, she would meet me and Amara at our predetermined rendezvous point. But it was nerve-wracking waiting to see her. Not just for the all-important information that she would hopefully possess, but with every passing moment that she stayed in that big ole house, I grew more worried.

She was, after all, a wanted criminal just like me. Only much less so. But the possibility of her being recognized existed. At least she wasn’t wanted by the Elexaes.

The rest of the crew and I didn’t sit around and twiddle our thumbs, of course. Pivek ran through all the possible things that Xarren could have on his vault: retinal scan, fingerprint analyzer, voice key, passcode, etc., There was a myriad of options, and Pivek was coming up with solutions to all of them.

Meanwhile, K just kept us moving through the capital system, taking boom tubes between planets. As bumpy as those rides were, it was near-impossible to track someone in one, plus it was good to keep moving. We all knew that it was a matter of time before some authorities ran some sort of scan of our vessel and have a ping come back as stolen.

Rowan and I memorized the layout of the manor and spent too many hours staring at the blueprints until we knew every inch, every dark corner and hidden passageway. Timing would be key, so we had to have the fastest routes down. Then we went over the guard schedules and rotations. That was more important for Rowan so he could be on the right rotation to knock out the security center. Once I had the power out, it wouldn’t matter what the schedule was because it would be chaos.

Once that was done, Amara demonstrated the proper techniques to cut out the EMP from my hip so I didn’t lose too much blood or cause any permanent damage. It would be embedded right beneath the top layer of skin, but still, she wouldn’t take any chances. For once, I kept my mouth shut and listened intently. I would, after all, be cutting myself open. That wouldn’t be fun.

So, the five days went by in a slow slog, but we were prepared, and dare I say it, ready for the heist. We had backup plans for if the security system didn’t go off or if Xarren’s vault only housed large, physical wealth too heavy to move by ourselves. That would involve some improvisational drilling on Amara’s part and having to rent a ground speeder, but we’d come to that problem if we had to.

Personally, I was hoping his vault would just contain a server farm filled with his digitized wealth. That would be so simple. I probably wasn’t that lucky, though.

At the end of the fifth day when Jinx’s shift was supposed to end, we boom tubed from a small mining base on one of the several gas giants that occupied the capital system and made our way back to Elarra.

My worry built the closer we got until we exited the boom tube with a terrible, turbulent jolt that knocked around a bunch of things all throughout the ship. Thankfully, everything important had been secured.

K brought us down to the same spaceport we landed at to drop off Jinx five days ago. The ship hadn’t powered down and the loading ramp wasn’t even fully extended before I was halfway down it and out of the ship. Amara was behind me, but I could feel the roll of her eyes that all my actions caused.

“Calm down, Yan. She’ll be there.”

“Maybe I’m just excited to walk through the city?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

We strode through the streets with purpose, mingling with the many people as they went home from work as the sun set over the capital. It was still blistering hot, and before long we were both drenched in sweat, though Amara’s jade skin didn’t glisten quite the same as mine. After a while, we found a long alley that disappeared into shadows between a grav-tech repair store and a rundown clothing outlet.

I led us down it, then to the turn at the end and finally came to a stop. There was a small etching of star over a cracked window in front of me. Something about it made me pick this spot as the rendezvous.

So I leaned against the wall, Amara next to me, and waited. And waited. And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally, I groaned and snapped, “She’s taking way too long. She should be here by now.”

“Relax, Yan, I’m sure she’s fine,” Amara said, sounding way too calm and reasonable. Now she wanted to be the optimistic one? How the heck did that happen?

I wasn’t ready to be calm. Jinx was supposed to be here half an hour ago. That was cause for alarm. Other jobs I wouldn’t have been so worried, but for this? No, I was going to be a high-strung mess. “But you don’t know that!” I squealed, my voice cracking embarrassingly. “What if Xarren caught her? What if she’s in his dungeon right now? What if—”

Amara smacked me hard across the face with enough force to whirl me around and knock me to the floor. Which for her was nothing because, with her Zarthian strength, she could have had me through the wall beside me.

“Calm down!” she hissed. “Thinking like that, assuming the worst, for one, is a terrible look on you, and two, is not helping either of us right now. So get it together, you stupid Goon, or I’ll slap you on the other cheek.”

I laughed as I struggled to my feet. “Please do. I need to even out the feeling in my face.”

“Ugh.”

So, we waited for another ten minutes. Despite what Amara said, I couldn’t help the worry that mounted in my mind with each passing second. I did a better job of controlling my mouth and body from acting on my concern, but that didn’t keep my brain from screaming at me to do something.

Just when I was about to crack again, I heard it. Footsteps coming down the alley around the corner. Steady, soft, determined, fast. Could it be? Could it be?

It was. Jinx.

She was winded, her golden cheeks red and sweaty, her hair plastered to her forehead. She smiled at us, so innocent.

“Sorry for being late. There was a terrible mess in the kitchens right when the night staff was to come on and we had to stay behind and clean it up. I got here as fast as I could without arousing too much attention. I hope I didn’t make you worry—”

I cut her off with a hug. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pinned her to me. “I don’t care. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Jinx blinked at me, lips pressed into a line. Her gaze flitted to Amara. “So, he worried?”

“Oh yes, he worried.”

I released her and stepped back, letting her breathe. “Forgive me for showing concern. You were in the den of a monster for five days, for saints’ sake.”

Jinx chuckled and returned my hug with a brief squeeze. “I appreciate the concern. I just hope it didn’t keep you up at night.”

“N-no, it didn’t.”

It had.

“So, did you get what you needed?” Amara asked. Practical as always, asking the questions that needed asking.

A wicked smile spread across Jinx’s face. “Oh, I got what we needed. Pivek won’t even have to do a thing.”

Amara and I shared a glance. We wanted Jinx to elaborate, but she just kept smiling, walked past us, and waved for us to follow her. Sometimes, she was a little minx. Jinx the minx. I was surprised I hadn’t thought of that earlier.

She led us back to the ship where she gathered us all together so she could give us her report. The rest of us waited anxiously while she washed her face. She made a show of it, though, and took her time. Something I would definitely do just to annoy everyone. Huh, so that’s what that feels like.

“Jinx!” Amara snapped.

Jinx whipped around with a smile and dried her face with a towel. “Right! So, you’re probably all wondering why I gathered you here.”

Several groans. I just smiled like a proud parent. Amara glared at me and leaned in to whisper into my ear. “I blame you for passing on your bad habits.”

I shrugged and kept on grinning like the cheeky git I was.

“Anyway. So, you’ll be happy to know that Xarren’s vaunted bio-encryption system he uses to keep out us unwanted thieves is a simple fingerprint scanner, and I…” She trailed off as she dug into her bag and pulled out a small, clear bag with a cotton swab inside. “Got his thumb print!”

“Holy hell,” Rowan muttered.

‘Impressive,’ Pivek signed. ‘Do you know it’s his thumb, though?’

She nodded. “He had me cleaning his sitting room. Several of us servants had access to it, but only he had access to his bedroom. I saw him use his thumb print on the door to his quarters. I dusted it and here we are.”

“But the vault?” I asked.

“I spoke to this little Elarri girl that he has cleaning the vault approach. Never the inside of course, but the hall and the vault door itself. Xarren is very peculiar about cleanliness. I asked her about the door, and she told me that it had the same fingerprint-reading device as the bedroom door.”

‘We still don’t know if he uses his thumb for certain.’

Jinx shrugged. “If need be, I can dust for additional prints tomorrow.”

Pivek nodded. ‘I suppose that will do.’

“We’re lucky that it’s a simple print scanner and not a retinal or voice scanner,” I said.

‘There are many other more extreme measures he could have taken. It’s very surprising that it’s this simple system.’

Amara crossed her arms. “He’s an arrogant man. Doesn’t think anyone would dare steal from him. Why pay for a state-of-the-art vault security program when no one would dare cross you anyway?”

“Well then, we’ll use that arrogance to our advantage.”

“And we’ll rob him blind,” Jinx chimed with a grin.

“And we’ll all be rich!”

We all whooped and cheered. Everything inside me wanted to celebrate now, but I knew we still had a lot of work to do. I was curious as to what the others wanted with the money. We all had our reasons. They just never deemed it necessary to divulge them to me. Would they want to come with Jinx and I after? I didn’t know, though I hoped. That would be a question to ask once we were victorious.

“So, we have everything we need?” Rowan asked.

“Seems so,” added Amara.

“You’re welcome.” Jinx grinned.

Pivek signed rapidly, his movements cautious. ‘There are still contingencies we should go over. There’s a lot that can go wrong and even more things that we can’t possibly anticipate. We have to be ready for as many possibilities as we can.’

“Whatever issue arises, we’ll handle it,” Jinx said with a determined smile that made me feel all kinds of warm. It was rare to see her so bold, but I felt like her new dream to hunt down slavers was driving her. I liked this side of her.

I put an arm around her shoulders and smiled ear to ear. “Let’s go over the plan again, just so we’re safe. Then, tonight, we drink, feast, and drink some more. Because the day after tomorrow, we undergo the greatest heist of our lives!”

Screw the waiting, I popped open the bottle of yalen. They all cheered.

The day of the heist finally arrived.

After months—no, years—of dreaming and planning this, in secret and in front of my friends, the time had finally come. No more waiting, no more dreaming and hoping and wondering what-ifs. It was today. It would end today, one way or another. If I was to die, then so be it, but it would end today.

But I didn’t want to think like that. Had to stay positive. Being a worrisome mess would get any thief caught.

We orbited Elarra, adrift amid the space traffic around us. My crew gathered around the kitchen, and I poured each of us some wine. Nothing too strong since we had work to do soon, but it was the calm before the storm, and we were going to spend it together as a family.

Jinx prepared a large meal for us all, roasted meat and fish and bugs from across the stars, some veggie soup and grainmeal, several courses of appetizers that we all pitched in with. Fried cocin balls and smothered bellbird marinated in redpear sauce. It was quite the spread and the sort of feast that was few and far between for us. Our meals were usually fast and light and not very luxurious due to the constraints of our profession. But this was, perhaps, the last time we’d be able to do this, though no one wanted to admit that out loud.

We passed around a couple bottles of wine, but none of us drank too much. Being drunk and/or hungover was not something we needed today. Still, it was nice to have that warmth in my skin. It brought a smile to my lips.

Stories were swapped, many of which we’d all been present for, recapping our very best heists. That time I snuck into a Hegemony Courthouse and erased the criminal records of every Goon in the system, and then, for good fun, freed all the prisoners being held below. They still blamed that on the mysterious “Hack Hive.”

Jinx retold her best story of when she seduced half a dozen Elarri politicians who thought she was one of the workers at the pleasure house she was hitting. They ended up all drugged and tied up, and her with the contents of their purses. That had been a good day and earned us a nice engine upgrade for the Sanara.

Amara told stories of her rebel days, some of which involved K, who even volunteered his own tales, though he wasn’t very good at emoting. Pivek wasn’t a thief like us, but he told us about his brothers who had been bank robbers once upon a time. Pivek had been their supplier. They’d been very successful until they got pinched by some Free Systems bounty hunters. They were still being held in a dungeon somewhere. So now we knew what Pivek was going to use his money for.

We kept on telling tales for several hours until all the food was eaten, and the bottles of wine were empty. We were all nearing the point of being drunk. Well, at least Rowan and I were. Goons didn’t have the best metabolism when it came to alcohol. The others could stomach a lot more.

It was time to call it. In an hour or two, we’d be heading down planet-side for the heist, so we needed to clean up and sober up. Not that I was drunk. I felt warm and my head swam only slightly, but otherwise, I was fine. I helped Jinx clean the dishes and kitchen while the others gathered their things for the heist. Pivek climbed down to his workshop to do whatever it was he needed to do. K returned to the cockpit.

I stood next to Jinx. She handed me a plate, and I washed it. We didn’t say anything, just content to stand next to each other, shoulder to shoulder.

“You ready for tonight?” she asked me after several minutes of silence.

“Ready to turn myself over to one of the most ruthless crime bosses in the galaxy, get beaten, and then cut myself open?”

She nodded, her lips pursed.

“Yeah, I’m as ready as I can be.”

“I’d give you tips on getting beat up, but you have plenty of experience in that department.”

“Oh, ha-ha, Jinxie.”

She smiled wide.

We continued to clean in silence. It felt like there was a lot that needed to be said, but neither of us found the words, so we kept on in silence until everything was clean. Jinx wiped her hands.

“We’re going to be okay, right?”

I put a hand on her shoulder. “You bet your pretty little head we will.” And then a red alert started sounding throughout the ship. “Unless whatever that is kills us.” We wasted no time in sprinting to the cockpit. The others joined us moments later.

“What’s happening, K?” I asked. He simply pointed out the window. It was obvious what he was referring to.

An Elarri Imperial Cruiser loomed over us. A searchlight suddenly snapped on and illuminated the Diego. It was nauseatingly bright.

“Well, that’s not good.”

A beeping sounded from the console. “We’re receiving an audio transmission,” K said.

“Let’s hear it then.”

He flipped the switch, and a deep Elarri voice brimming with authority boomed at us. “This is Captain Tregan with Elarri Imperial Police. You are in possession of a stolen ship. Surrender immediately or face the consequences.”

Then the message repeated.

The Elarri were a no-nonsense people, so the “consequences” could range from long amounts of jailtime to torture to death and all the lovely things in between. They would have no qualms about blowing us out of the sky if we didn’t comply and pay the owners for the damage. They didn’t have time for petty trials and lawyering, which was unfortunate for us criminal types.

Still, we had a chance before they lit us up.

“Time to go!” I shouted. I vaulted out of my seat and climbed out of the cockpit, the others right on my heels. This was not part of the plan, not one bit. Saints, we couldn’t catch a break. But it was alright. K could get the ship clear of the authorities.

I returned to my room and put on some nondescript trousers and a ratty shirt that I wasn’t fond of. The Elexaes were going to beat me and do saints knew what else so no need messing up my favorite attire. Besides, once I cut myself open, there was no way I’d be able to get those bloodstains out.

Footsteps pounded down the hall and entered my room behind me. “Yan, what are we doing?” Amara asked, out of breath.

“We’re escaping obviously.” I turned to face her once I pulled my shirt on.

“And we just what, leave Pivek and K to the imperials?”

I frowned. “Please, my dear. K can outdrive any cruiser, even in this hunk of junk. We are going to take the escape pod and jet down to the capital while he and Pivek get out of here.”

“Yeah, well, the imperials are no doubt going to see our escape pod.”

“By the time they search for it on the surface, we’ll be long gone.” I tried to move past her into the hallway, but she folded her arms and wouldn’t let me by. Apparently, my answer wasn’t satisfactory. I sighed and gripped her shoulders. “Look, obviously, this isn’t ideal, but we’ll be fine. The imperials will want to arrest us, not blow us out of the sky, so we have that on our side. You just have to trust me, okay?”

She didn’t want to, she really didn’t. I could see it in her eyes—that ever-present doubt—but she gave in. “Fine. But if I get arrested today, I will kill you.”

“If we get arrested, then I don’t think you’ll be the one to kill me.”

“You better hope not.”

To that, I just gave her a wide smile.

She and the others gathered all the things they needed for the heist—uniforms, tools, and so on—and met me by the escape pod. Jinx and Rowan were already in their uniforms and ready to go to work. Amara looked concerned, but fair enough, we had an imperial cruiser bearing down on us.

I slapped the door control button on the side of the escape pod dock. With a woosh, the door swung open. The others piled in, with me last. It was a tight squeeze but thankfully, Amara, Jinx, and I were all small so we could fit. A few people Rowan’s size would have had a much tougher go at it. Once we were inside, I looked over my conspirators.

“You ready for the mayhem?”

“I was born ready, mate,” Rowan replied with a grin.

Jinx offered a muted grin and nodded. Amara huffed and said, “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

And with that, I closed the door and punched the large orange button by my seat. There was a pause, a click, and then we were jettisoned free from the Diego.

We plummeted through space, dropping fast and hot. We inched around the viewing window and watched as the Diego grew smaller and smaller, the immense imperial cruiser staying the same size. That was disheartening. But then, right as we were about to lose sight of our ship, K put on the afterburners and took off. The cruiser’s blaster cannons opened fire, but the Diego was too small, and K’s piloting too skilled.

Then he was too far away to see, and we sunk back into our seats with sighs.

“Do you think they’ll be alright?” Jinx asked. A question we were all wondering. We all knew how good of a pilot K was, but anything could happen. We just had to have faith. If he was in the Sanara, I’d have no doubt that he’d leave that cruiser in the proverbial cosmic dust, but in that piece of junk? I wasn’t so sure.

“They’ll be fine,” Amara said. She’d known K before even I had, and had flown plenty of actual combat missions with him. She knew better than any of us how he did under pressure when lives were on the line. She sounded convinced, so that put us all at ease. It didn’t erase all the doubt, but it helped us focus on our trials to come.

The escape pod shook violently as we entered Elarra’s upper atmosphere. We each strapped in so we weren’t thrown about, but even so, the approach was so violent that I wanted to vomit up the entire beautiful meal we’d just had. Even in large ships, breaking through atmospheres could be rough. In this little escape pod…it was awful. Rowan even banged his head so hard, despite the cushioned headrest, that blood trailed down his face. He didn’t lose consciousness though, so that was good.

The top of the line escape pods had better thrusters and state-of-the-art seating and safety harnesses so that getting hurt was a near-impossibility outside of crashing into something like a cliff. Some even allowed the pod to be piloted. Not ours. So we just sat back, tried to hold down the remains of food from our stomachs, and prayed that we made it.

Finally, we broke through the upper atmosphere and settled into the scorching skies above the capital. We gulped down deep breaths, glad to be through the worst of it.

“Are you alright?” Amara asked Rowan, eying the blood that trailed down his neck with concern.

He blinked as some of it dripped over his eyes. “I’ll be alright. I’m more worried about the bloodstains on my uniform. I feel like my bosses will have some questions.”

“Just say you got mugged or something. Plenty of crime to justify that claim.”

“Yeah, but would a simple mugger attack one of the Elexaes’ guards?”

That was a good point. Only members of a rival family would have the courage to do something so stupid. Or they could be me.

“Try to make it personal,” Jinx offered. “Say that your father is greatly against you working for the mob so you two got into it. Most of the guards in the manor are bullies and thugs, but they’re still people with similar issues. I’m sure they wouldn’t pry any further with that explanation.”

Rowan nodded as a smile crept onto his face. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s good. I’ll go with that.”

Jinx, always the schemer. And Rowan was supposed to be the expert conman.

We sat in silence for the remaining few minutes as we descended into the city. As this was a more basic escape pod, we weren’t really able to control where it landed, so I was disheartened to see us land in one of the more abandoned districts that was slowly being swallowed by the wastes.

It would be a long trip to Xarren’s estate, but on the other hand, an escape pod coming down in the middle of one of the busier districts would attract far too much attention. So in the end, this was fine.

As we approached the ground, the pod’s emergency break thrusters kicked in and kept us from smashing into the dirt. Probably wouldn’t have been deadly, as we landed on a large dune that had half-swallowed a multi-floor building, but it wouldn’t have felt good either. No matter. The thrusters were old but sufficient, so we landed softly with only a last-minute jolt as we hit the ground.

“Well, that was uneventful,” I said with a smile. I did not get any smiles back in turn.

Once we came to a halt, I undid my harness while the others did the same. I opened the pod doors and scampered out. With a groan, I stretched my legs. That was not a fun trip I looked forward to doing again. If this heist went off without a hitch, I probably wouldn’t have to.

The others climbed out after me. Amara thankfully brought a first aid kit and cleaned the cut on Rowan’s forehead. It wasn’t a bad one, not too deep, just really bloody, but she worked her magic. And by magic, I meant she put a big bandage over it.

“I’d use some bio-gel on it, but I had to use the last of it on Yan to cover our little surgery scar,” she said.

He shrugged. “No big deal.”

With that out of the way, it was time for business. Time for the greatest heist of our lives. For a moment, we all stared at the sky and wondered how K and Pivek were doing. It was impossible to see beyond the atmosphere. We could make out a few tiny specks far above, the larger cruisers and frigates in orbit, but not even a hint of a flash from a cannon. No, whatever was happening above was beyond us now.

I clapped my hands together. “Okay, does everyone know the plan, know their roles?”

They all nodded. Good. No need to go over things again. We’d beaten the details into our brains over and over again over the last few days—every angle, every contingency, every bit of info that could affect each and every one of us. They knew the plan. Now it was up to them to execute. And just maybe we’d walk away from this with a lot of money and all-new lives to live amongst the stars.

“Let’s get to it then.”

Rowan and I shook hands. “Good luck,” he told me. “Try not to bleed out in that cell. That would be awfully embarrassing.”

“Not as embarrassing as you getting bullied to death by your new Elarri coworkers.”

He grinned. “Yeah, not looking forward to that.”

“You’ll be fine.”

With a nod, he let go of my hand, and I moved on to Jinx, who enveloped me in a big hug. “Be careful,” she whispered in my ear, her lips grazing my lobe and making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge.

“You too.” I pulled back but held her in place and offered her a smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t do anything stupid.”

She rolled her eyes so very Amara-like. “You always say that, and yet…always with the stupid.”

I kept on grinning as I backed away from her. “You two take care of each other, if you can,” I told her and Rowan. They nodded, then hiked down the dune. Jinx gave me a long glance back before she followed our large Goonish friend.

So that just left me and Amara. She had the least to do unless we absolutely needed her, which hopefully wouldn’t be the case. She had a lot of time to kill. So did I, in fact. I wasn’t going to turn myself in until this evening when I knew Rowan and Jinx had their shifts.

I wrapped an arm around her. I felt her gaze burrow into me. “So, what do you wanna do to kill time? I’m sure there’s a hotel nearby that we could…”

She scoffed. “You really have a death wish, don’t you?”

“Almost always.”

Amara shook her head. “Let’s go find a casino. The cards are calling me and maybe I can have some last-minute luck before we all get arrested.”

I nodded. “I appreciate the enthusiasm, let’s do it!”

Amara didn’t have any luck with the cards, so hopefully all the luck was being saved for the heist. Saints knew we needed all the help we could get on this one.

As the sun slowly inched toward the western horizon, it was time to get to it. Amara and I parted ways. We hugged and wished each other the best. She wasn’t the best at showing her emotions and neither was I when it came to serious stuff, so we left it at that. Besides, no need to make things seem final. We had this. We just needed to execute.

I watched Amara for a moment more as she disappeared into the evening crowds. We were in the entertainment district so as the day came to an end, the casinos and bars and brothels would swell with people looking to drown in the fun. This was my kind of scene. I loved the crowds, loved the multitude of people, and wondered about their stories and what they had going on. And I loved how one could just disappear among the masses.

That sort of anonymity was a thief’s dream. Of course, it didn’t always work out so perfectly.

I made my way to a familiar street, one lined with brothels and bars. My two favorite places. I leaned against the cold sandstone wall behind me, crossed my arms, and stared up at the large regal edifice of the Silk Lily, the Elexae-owned brothel—formerly under the proprietorship of the late Barron Valrude—where this entire heist began. It was there that I stole the data for Xarren’s mansion that kickstarted this whole thing.

The Elarri bouncer that I’d flirted with to gain entrance wasn’t out tonight, which was a shame as she’d been a beauty. But it was all good. I was going to be recognized soon enough anyway.

The Silk Lily was not my destination this evening, though. No, that pleasure went to the Fever Pit, one of the Elexaes’ many gambling halls. It was a perfect target for a robbery and thus a perfect target to stage my arrest. I couldn’t just turn myself into the Elexaes or have them catch me pretending to break into the manor itself—both were too suspicious—but getting caught trying to steal the winnings from one of their casinos? That was perfect.

It was right down the street from the brothel, so once I took a deep breath and readied myself, I strode on over. Unlike the Silk Lily, the Fever Pit catered to clientele of all financial backgrounds, so commoners like me were welcome to come in and throw away our money. The mob didn’t discriminate when it came to getting paid.

The inside was a vast open space, a low-ceilinged room with lots of low lighting on the walls and only bright spotlights to illuminate the tables, so that they were the only things potential suckers saw, like moths being guided to the flame. It was smart of course, a good strategy to relieve the naïve of their mostly-hard-earned digits.

On top of that, sweet hunra-infused air was pumped into the room to make everyone just a little bit more agreeable and clumsy, enough to make even some of the smartest people put down money on odds they had no hope of overcoming. It was a good thing I wasn’t here for leisure otherwise they would have suckered me out of…well, not a lot. I obviously wouldn’t bring a lot of digits on a heist.

The casino was already near filled to the brim with patrons, dregs from all manner of places across the known systems. Once again perfect for me. I slipped between the crowds, staying to the shadowed bits away from the lit-up tables. Music blared—synthetic beats that lulled the crowds and fed on the feelings of the hunra. Truly, Xarren Elexae knew what he was doing. I had to respect it. He was a thief just like me, only his skill came from different means.

It took longer than I wanted to get to the edges of the room through so many bodies jostled together, but I did make it. Most Elarri buildings had a similar style. A foyer upon entering the structure, followed by the main room beyond it. Circling the entire main room was one hallway, and usually rooms and wings would offshoot from it. It was a pretty standard design, at least for the bigger structures of the empire, and it held true here.

Now, I happened to know exactly which back/side room held the casino vault, as I’d once cased this place for a possible past heist, but I’d decided that hitting Xarren at his house was more worthwhile. Getting to the vault wouldn’t be too hard. Just cause a distraction large enough for the guards to be drawn away and hack in. Of course, that wasn’t going to be my play this time around.

I found a lavatory on the western wing and entered. Inside there was an old vent shaft. These old Elarri buildings used rudimentary air-conditioning systems that were beyond obsolete, but no one wanted to bother paying for replacements. That worked fine for me. I climbed up and used a cutting tool from my pack to get the vent grate open. Yes, it would be confiscated later, but that hardly mattered.

The vent was small and cramped as all vents were, but blessedly cold. It took a lot of effort to shimmy my way through the labyrinthian ducts, but I’d memorized the layout months ago in preparation for stealing the casino winnings. I just had to brush up on the plans a few nights ago.

It took the better part of an hour for me to wriggle my way to the casino vault room. I was panting by the time I came to a stop, coated in sweat and dust. With some effort, I managed to retrieve my cutting tool from my pocket—which I probably should have just carried in my mouth—and hacked the vent grate free. I pulled it to me before it could fall to the floor. I peered out. Below me was the vault and stacks and stacks of digits. All perfectly orderly. There were other things too. Ornate furniture and clothes and jewelry and whatever desperate gamblers would bring for collateral. It was impressive and so enticing to my little thieving brain, but I had much bigger game to hunt.

Now one might think that I was already in. So easy, so simple, so why not rob it? Well, there were motion alarms all along the floor, so as soon as I stepped down, they would know I was there. And that was the plan.

Of course, if I did want to rob this place, Pivek could’ve whipped something up for me.

I shimmied myself around so I could lower myself down feet-first. It was not easy, as turning around in the cramped confines of the vents made it near-impossible, but I managed it after a lot of awkward and painful stretching.

This was it. I would drop onto the ground, alarms would blare, I’d get captured and beaten, and the heist would be on. Or things would go horribly wrong and I would die.

So, no pressure.

I took a deep breath and sent up a prayer to all the saints I could think of, and then dropped down.

My boots hit the floor, and a deafening siren began to scream from the walls. I didn’t have to fake my surprise, because I genuinely didn’t realize how loud it would be. Just then, the doors behind me slid open. I whirled around. Two large Elarri thugs covered in their raised white tattoos and wearing thick armor came in. They raised blasters.

And they shot.

Not part of the plan.

I only just managed to duck and dodge out of the way of their initial shots. I threw my hands up into the air.

“Wait!” I screamed. I didn’t think they heard me over the siren, but they both hesitated, eyes narrowed. The one to my left, who was on the hefty side, brought his wrist to his mouth and spoke into a communicator.

“Turn off alarm.” Moments later, the alarms stopped, though the ringing didn’t leave my ears. “Why shouldn’t I put a hole in your stupid, little Goon head?”

“Because you’ll make a lot more money if you take me to your bosses instead.”

“Oh yeah, and why is that?”

“My name is Yan Sangine, aka Yan Slim Hands. Maybe you’ve heard of me? You Elexaes have been trying to pinch me for years, and I’m sure Lord Xarren would be very pleased with you if you brought me to him.”

The other mobster who was taller and with a smashed-looking face, leaned into his coworker. “I’ve heard of him, Selle. His wanted poster is everywhere.”

“Hmm.”

Man, sometimes I hated being a famous and wanted criminal, but recently, it had saved my life.

The mobster lowered his gun. “Alright then. Let’s bring him to the boss.”

“Maybe we’ll get a reward.”

“We better. The reward for this rat is high. We should split it.”

“Yeah, I can get my wife some jewelry since she knows I been messin’ with Ceirin.”

“You’re such an idiot.”

You’re both idiots, I thought. But idiots were easy to manipulate. Being nearly shot in the head wasn’t part of my plan, but I was captured and on my way to Xarren, so all was going the way it should.

The Elarri with the mistress pulled me to my feet and tied my arms behind my back. I was led out of the vault and down the hall and through a series of rooms until I was in a bland stockroom filled with supplies. I was only able to take it in for a moment before a thick, black sack was placed over my head and I was lifted off my feet by one of the thugs.

From there, it was tricky to tell what was happening.

I was brought outside then put in a speeder. We zoomed through the evening, the sense of motion obvious even with me being on the floor. Sounds whipped by outside, muted, in one ear for a second and gone in the next.

Minutes later, the speeder came to a halt. The doors opened, and I was picked up again. I didn’t like being manhandled like this, but I didn’t have much choice in the matter. Besides, all according to plan, right?

As I was carried, doors opened and closed, some were grav-doors while others were on old-fashioned hinges. Muffled voices whispered around me, but I couldn’t make anything out. Whatever material this sack was made of really did a good job of obscuring all my senses from reality. Not ideal.

Eventually, I was carried down a long flight of stairs. Honestly, I was surprised that I was carried at all. It would have made more sense to make me walk. Why would they exert the effort? But I wasn’t about to complain.

When my captor got to the bottom of the stairs, he walked a few more feet, his boots echoing off cold metal, each step a pang. He stopped, typed in something, and a door slid open. He brought me into whatever room awaited, slung me from his shoulder, and put me in a metal chair. My restraints were redone to have me secured to my new seat.

Then the sack was removed from my head and my gaze was met by four very angry Elarri.

“Um, hello,” I said, trying to sound chipper. “So, I don’t know about you, but I’d love to speak to your boss, and maybe I can put in a good word for you—”

The first fist flew and connected with my jaw. I saw stars.

From there, it was a barrage of a punches and kicks and blows all over, until I couldn’t speak, couldn’t scream, couldn’t breathe. I’d anticipated that I’d get the crap beaten out of me, but I’d thought maybe I’d see Xarren first, or… Or…

I don’t know. But not this.

It didn’t take long before their beating knocked me out completely. And thus, the plan hit the first hurdle.

When I came to, everything hurt. Every fiber of me yelled out in agony, every inch of my skin a quilt of bruises and pain. This was only the first night. Saints only knew what Xarren had in store for me next.

With a groan, I pushed myself up off the floor, though each tiny movement was a colossal effort. I wanted to cry, wanted to curse my saints, but I knew this would happen. It wasn’t really their fault when I volunteered to get the hell beaten out of me. Though, I had hoped they wouldn’t be too bad the first night. I hoped they’d take it easy on me so there would be more and better beatings in the future, but I supposed they wanted to get their licks in early. Fair enough.

Not ideal for me, but I didn’t think anything was broken except for maybe my nose, which was no big deal as I’d broken it many times in the past. I lifted a shaky hand and felt it. Immediate immense pain. I winced. Yep, broken.

Quick fix though. I put my thumbs on either nostril, took a deep breath, and snapped it back into place. I bit on my tongue to keep my yells bottled inside.

For all that is holy, that really hurt.

I took in more labored breaths until I was calm. My body still hurt, but I was able to ignore most of it. Amara would have a field day attending to my wounds, but that would come later.

First, to get my bearings. I was in a small metal cell, the room I’d been in when I had that sack taken from my head. Only now could I look to see that there was only one door and no windows, and no wonder, since I was probably deep underground. I had no way of knowing if there was a guard outside or not. That could be an issue. I didn’t spy any cameras, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t being watched.

Oh well. For now, I had some impromptu surgery to attend to, and I was not looking forward to it one bit. If there were cameras and a guard at the door, they’d be able to stop me in a minute. It was one of the few things we couldn’t really plan for. We either had the luck or we didn’t.

Fingers crossed. Here went nothing.

I leaned forward on my hands and knees and stuck my fingers down my throat. Making myself throw up was not fun, but it had to be done. A moment later, I was gagging and gagging until the vomit surged up my throat. It burned as it came up. Not pleasant. As I took some deep breaths and surveyed the mess I’d made, I was dismayed to find that the laser scalpel I needed was not in my filth.

Great. I cursed.

So I tried again and hoped that this wouldn’t be a classic case of “third time’s the charm.” For once, luck was on my side, because the second time, I felt the wicked pain as the small folded scalpel came back up with what remained of the meal I’d shared with my friends. It was a shame, but I’d always have the memories.

It brought tears to my eyes forcing that little thing back up, but it was done. Once I settled myself and spit most of the bile from my mouth, it was time to operate, and I was the unfortunate and unlucky patient.

With a grimace, I scooched back until I could lean my back against the wall. Even through my shirt, the metal was cold to the touch, but I appreciated the stability. In shaky fingers, I took the surgical laser and turned it on. With a click, a little blue light shot out about the length of my finger. It was like a blow torch, but refined and delicate, and not nearly as painful if pressed to someone’s skin.

I hoped.

Well, judging by the fact that no one had come in to stop me, I thought it safe to assume that there were no cameras. Lucky me.

That meant no one had to see this next part. I took in several long breaths as I pulled up my shirt and pinned it with my chin against my chest, grabbing a good bit of it in my mouth. I took a deep breath as I studied the small lump on my hip where the perduleq sat, waiting to be retrieved. I held the laser over the flesh, ready to plunge it in.

This was really going to hurt.

Okay, just do it, Yan, I thought. Don’t stall. One, two, three!

I inserted the laser into my skin on the far side of the lump. I bit down hard on my bundled-up shirt and yelled, but my cries stayed muffled.

With as much care as I could physically muster, I made a small, precise incision along the lump. It was one of the worst pains I’d ever experienced. No wonder patients were knocked out for surgeries, because this was awful. Thankfully, the cutting—though painful—was fast and not terribly deep. Once it was done, I switched it off.

Now for the real pain.

I cracked my knuckles, took another deep breath, and inserted my fingers into the hole I’d made. A whole other level of pain. I nearly tore my shirt in two I was biting down so hard, but a second later, I felt the pulse-hack. With a weak smile, I wrapped my fingers around it and pulled it free.

And just like that, my surgery was done.

I stayed against the wall for several long minutes, just collecting my breath and my thoughts. I stripped off my shirt and tied it tightly around my waist to staunch the bleeding from my wound. As predicted, the Elexaes took my pack, so no bandages, though I’d expected that. For now, my shirt would do. If I got out of this alive, Amara would take care of me. Or maybe I’d be so rich I could just pay off my bounties and stroll into a hospital. A man can dream.

Once I was back to relative normal, aside from the cocoon of pain I was encased in, I held the pulse-hack in front of my face. It was so small, such an innocuous little thing, and yet so powerful, so chaotic and dangerous and just perfect.

“Hello, beautiful,” I said with a smile.

I pressed the small green button at the center, and all hell soon broke loose.

The perduleq blinked once, twice, and then made a sharp zip sound that shocked me. I dropped it and waved my hand in pain. At the same time, the dim fluorescent light above me—which had been giving me a headache—blinked out and plunged me into darkness. The circulated air switched off, and the magnetic door shut off with a click.

Perfect.

It worked. I smiled. Time to get to work. With a groan, I pushed myself to a stand and made my way to the door. It was dark, but I’d long ago grown used to seeing in dark spaces. I wouldn’t be a good thief if I had to use light all the time, although it certainly helped. It took a few seconds before my eyes adjusted fully but once they did, I crossed the room to the door and pulled it open.

I exited to a long hallway lined with other cells with the same doors and no windows. I didn’t see any guards. One by one, the doors started to open and fellow prisoners stumbled out—a couple of Elarri, another Goon like me, a tall Torgoran, a large Chytorri, and several other large and terrifying individuals. They would certainly help. It was hard to make out details, but we were all on the same side.

Footsteps pounded down the steps at the end of the hall. Just then, several guards streamed in with guns raised, small lunar headlights on the ends of them. That wasn’t good.

But as soon as they came into the room, a massive Norgoth barreled into them. The tall, white-haired beast was all hair and muscle and spikes down its back and arms. Despite their fearsome appearance, Norgoths were actually a very artistic people, but they could absolutely be a terror in a fight. As this one was. They tore into the guards until they were piles of gore. Thankfully, it was dark enough to not see the details because I would have thrown up yet again.

The Norgoth grabbed their rifles and tossed them to the nearest prisoners. Not me, but I was holding back. The prisoners who caught the blasters whooped and charged up the stairs, along with the Norgoth and some of the others. Well, I hadn’t planned on starting a prison revolt, but it would probably help. That would teach Xarren to keep dangerous criminals in his basement.

Once they were gone, I started up the steps too. I had a different objective.

At the top the stairs was an open doorway that led to the rest of the manor. Shouts and gunshots rang through the manor, and I spied servants scampering through the dark. I had a sudden realization that Rowan and Jinx could be caught in the crossfire of my prison break, Rowan especially since he was pretending to be a guard. Jinx wasn’t good during shootouts, so I just had to pray that they would both make it through without any issues.

Or without getting shot.

On that somber note, I crept along the adjoining hallway and made my way toward the center of the manor. The entire center of the estate was a large cube, one level being a dining hall with sort of a throne room for Xarren’s big ego and for family meetings. The two floors above it were sleeping quarters. And below the dining hall was a long stairway that led to the vault. That was where I needed to be.

The layout of the whole manor was clear in my mind. I knew every turn and every nook and secret tunnel. Unfortunately, there were no secret tunnels that led to the vault room. Well, there were the escape tunnels that connected to both the vault and the dungeon, but I wouldn’t be able to get into the vault from the other side, so the point was moot. It would be my escape route, though.

As I went along, the chaos slowly died down into silence and soon, I was alone in the dark. I ran into no one. No guards or mafiosos or servants. One might think that that was a good thing, but it was unnerving. It was too quiet. It should have been chaos—especially with the escaped prisoners.

I had to hope that it was a good thing for my friends, but I had a sinking feeling that something was wrong. Saints, I prayed not. I didn’t know what I would do if I lost them. But enough of those thoughts. I had to keep my mind straight for this.

After several long and mostly silent minutes of maneuvering through the maze of halls and rooms, I rounded a corner and came to the doors that led to the vault approach. And I finally found some life.

A lone Elarri guard stood in front of the door, a blaster pistol in one hand and the other resting on the hilt of a grav-blade at his hip. He was speaking into a communicator, but it was in Old Elarri so I couldn’t understand him. It was still pitch-black and he had no light, though that was only a good thing for me. As quietly as I could, I found a couple of vases and removed the exotic blooms from within. I hoped this guard was thin-skulled, because otherwise, I’d be in trouble. As quietly as I could, I tiptoed toward him. His conversation thankfully hid any sound I made, so before long, I was right behind him, and he had no clue.

So, I did what I had to. I smashed him on either side of the head with vases.

With a resounding crack, they shattered against his skull. He collapsed into a heap. No movement. He was out. The communicator started yelling, with questioning tones. That would arouse suspicion no doubt, but it was too late to worry about that.

I hauled him out of the way of the door and pulled it open. It gave way with a groan. Below was a stairway that led into darkness, but at the bottom were some lights. The vault. I smiled and raced down the stairs, fast but careful.

The stairs gave way to solid ground. A narrow passage. Smooth, metal walls on either side of me. A high ceiling with large bulb lights, though of course they were out. I approached the massive, massive door ahead of me at the end of the passage. Lights littered it, giving it in an eerie glow.

I inched forward and swallowed hard.

This was it. I was at the vault. Just as Jinx said, there was a thumbprint reader on the side of the massive door. And I was already wearing Xarren’s thumbprint.

Pivek had taken the prints that Jinx had gotten for him and made several duplicate gloves that perfectly matched Xarren’s fingerprints. It was ultra-thin and translucent and fit over my left hand perfectly and undetected. Fortunate that it was a lefty. If it had been Xarren’s right hand, it would have made it a lot harder for me to do my impromptu surgery. So, a bit of much-needed luck.

As we guessed, the vault ran on backup power, but the security measures should have already been wiped out by Rowan and Jinx. I was a little concerned that she wasn’t here yet, but in all this chaos and darkness, I wasn’t surprised. She would get here, and I would have the vault already open. I just had to hope that no one tried to stop her.

I cracked my knuckles. “Showtime,” I said with a smile.

With that, I pressed my thumb against the scanner and held it there. There was a low hum and suddenly, a small green line of light ran the length of my thumb. Then it dinged.

Access Granted, it said in a low, female-sounding voice.

Excellent. I kept on smiling.

Slowly, the locking mechanisms of the vault unbolted and unlocked, loudly, reverberating too much for my liking. But with all the chaos of prisoners escaping and the power outage, I hoped no one would hear that.

Finally, the last gear or electronic bit ceased, and the vault door slid open, disappearing into the large door threshold. I started walking forward before it was all the way in. A dim light awaited, probably from the backup power. I stepped inside the vault, arms twitchy, ready to see the hordes of treasure that would save my family and change the lives of everyone I held dear.

Instead, I found that I was not alone.

I was instead met by a dozen Elarri men, all clad in black armor and brandishing blaster rifles, all pointed at me. And standing in the middle of them was the man whose very face was the stuff of my hate-fueled nightmares.

Xarren Elexae.

He was tall, leanly built, and covered with those white tattoos and scars that the Elarri liked so much. His eyes were so dark and his pupils so large that there was hardly any white to them at all. His gaze was unnerving, and his thin lips curved into a wicked grin that sent a shiver down my spine.

“Yan Slim Hands,” he said with a deep voice that I knew all too well. “How nice of you to join us.”

No. No, no, no, no, no.

He knew the plan. He knew I’d be here. But how? Everything was going to hell. And I had to get out. Regardless of the fact that I had lots of blasters pointed at me, I turned away from him and tried to bolt, but before I had my back to him completely, something hard smashed into my head.

And once again, I was knocked out. That really wasn’t good for me.

Water was splashed into my face. At least, I thought it was water. I sputtered awake, gasping and coughing as the liquid went down my throat. My eyes flew open. Instant regret. So much pain, all over, all the injuries from earlier roaring back. The wound at my hip throbbed like it was on fire. My face hurt, and my head hammered loudly. I pinched my eyes closed to quell the nausea starting to build.

What happened? I was at the vault, and Xarren was there. But he shouldn’t have been. None of this should have happened.

Jinx? Rowan? Were they alive? Were they found out? Were they dead? The very thought made my chest ache.

I tried to move and found that my hands were chained together behind my back. My ankles were chained too. My boots and socks were gone. My feet were wet and cold. Great. With some effort, I opened my eyes again. I was in another cell, this one a lot more ancient. The walls were stone and wet and cold. There were cameras and a grav-tech door, and bright fluorescent lighting that made me dizzy.

I cursed as I tried to sit up, though everything hurt. This was it. The heist was over. I lost. I was captured for real now and there wouldn’t be any way out. Xarren was going to kill me. And my friends? Well, I just had to pray for the best. They were a rough and unruly bunch of degenerates, but they were hardy and if anyone could escape the Elexaes, it was them.

Me? No such luck it seemed.

The door slid open before long. In came a couple of Elexae guards and then the big man himself. Lord Xarren. He had a wide grin on his devilish face, like he’d just been given the keys to the planet.

“How are you feeling, Slim Hands?”

I spit at his feet. “Bite me.”

He snickered. “Oh, I promise we’ll do a lot more than that. But first, I like to talk to my victims, have a connection. You have any questions for me? Don’t worry, there are no dumb questions.”

Xarren’s taunts stung, and he wanted me to take the bait. I didn’t want to do that, but he was right. I had questions, questions that needed answers desperately. So, I took a breath to control my anger, licked my lips, and asked the preeminent question in my mind.

“How? How did you know?”

That was the exact question he wanted to hear. He smiled and folded his arms behind his back. Just then, the door slid open again and in walked a familiar face. Far too familiar.

It was Rowan.

But he wasn’t beaten, or sad, or bloodied, or in cuffs. No, he was perfectly fine, unbound, his chest puffed and with an air of confidence about him. And he was smiling.

“Hello, Yan,” he said.

I couldn’t speak. My tongue became too dry, too heavy in my throat. I just… Rowan? Rowan? No.

No.

No.

Still couldn’t speak.

“I see the yorbek got your tongue,” he chuckled. I used to love his laugh, but the sound now, it just made my blood boil. It sounded wrong.

I finally found my words. “You? You betrayed us? Why?”

“Truthfully? I wasn’t trying to get you all when we first met. I didn’t even know who you were. But after a few jobs, I realized who you were and that I could turn all of you in. It proved…more difficult than I thought. You crooks had a knack for escaping trouble no matter how much of it I threw at you.”

I blinked at him as it dawned on me. “All the bounty hunters, Valrude, all of it was because of you. You put a tracker on the ship.”

Rowan smiled. He pulled out a small red pill from his pocket. “This is an old Amok beetle tracker. Ancient tech, very rudimentary but can’t be traced on scanners like Pivek’s.”

“And what about the Aaugor? They almost killed you?”

He chuckled and shrugged. “They weren’t part of the plan. They were a happy accident. But I think it all worked out.”

I gritted my teeth and pulled against my restraints, as futile as that was. “Why wait this out? Why befriend us?” My voice broke as tears threatened to choke me. “We were best friends. What about Jinx? Amara? The others?”

“What can I say? I have a flare for dramatics, and I’m a good actor. Those things you know about me. And I wanted to find out more about your connections.”

“But you actually committed crimes!”

“And the Elexaes are murderers. I’m not working for the imperials.” He smiled and looked at his nails. “I’ll admit, things didn’t go according to plan. You lot were very difficult.”

Xarren snorted. “I should say. You cost me Valrude and all that data this scum stole. I still have issues with that.”

Rowan cleared his throat and looked away. “I will continue to apologize for that, sir. I didn’t know that was his objective when he broke into the Silk Lily. And also, I would have tried to keep Valrude from dying, but there was nothing I could say that would sway them. Amara and Pivek never trusted me fully, I don’t think.”

“We trusted you!” I roared and strained against my restraints. The Elarri guards had to grab me by my shoulders and hold me firm.

Rowan grinned and crouched before me so we were eye level. “And look what that got you. You know, for thieves and criminals who have been through so much, you trust much too easily.”

I growled and thrashed, but of course for naught. “They’ll come for me. Jinx won’t—”

“Oh, we won’t have to worry about them. Jinx has been taken care of, and soon, we’ll have the others too.”

I stopped. Stopped cold. My blood halted in my veins. “What?”

His smile was so evil that I wanted to rip him to pieces like a Norgoth. “Jinx is dead. I shot her myself.”

No.

No, no, no.

No, she can’t be. Jinx can’t be gone.

But as I looked into his eyes, I just knew. He was a liar and a traitor, and I just wanted to do unholy things to him, but there it was—a spark of truth in his gaze. Jinx was gone. My sweet, sweet Jinx. My best friend. My everything.

I snapped.

I lunged with all my strength and managed to head-butt him. The crown of my head smashed into his nose. He recoiled. My head exploded with pain, but I didn’t care. I wanted to wring his neck and use his corpse to beat Xarren to death. I wanted to tear him limb from limb and paint the walls red.

I screamed with rage, but I was too weak, the restraints too strong.

“Son of a—” Rowan held his nose. He lunged at me, but Xarren caught him around the waist with a laugh.

“Easy, easy. There will be plenty of time for that. Let’s leave him to stew with thoughts of his dead friends, eh? Come, we need to talk about your many failures.” He smiled. “But also your triumphs.”

Rowan gave me one last glance as he held his nose, trying to staunch the bleeding. “Yes, sir.”

They left, and the guards left, and the door slammed shut and locked with an audible click. The lights turned off completely, but it wasn’t from an EMP. I was bathed in the dark, in the black and homeless void.

I was left in darkness to rage and cry and break and die. I screamed and screamed until my throat was raw and dry, until I couldn’t make another sound. My Jinx was dead, and my other friends would soon follow, and my family was doomed. All was lost.

I would die, tortured and alone at the hands of a mob boss and a best friend. What a fitting fate for scum like me.

But even scum had their day, so I swore to the saints, every one of them, those named and unnamed, those known and unknown, that if they gave me the opportunity, I would kill Xarren and Rowan, and I would kill them good. Even if it killed me too. But I would kill them.

That was a promise.

And Yan Slim Hands never breaks a promise.

Thank You For Reading

Thanks for reading The Elari Hiest, the first book in the epic Plundering the Stars series.

Things really blew up there on Yan didn’t they? He’s not done yet, though. As long as he’s still alive, there’s a chance he will get his revenge.

The next story in the series is called The Xarren Escape and you can order it now on Amazon.

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