Held by Luna Voss

11

Melyta

I’m extremely nervous as Jenyta goes to get the coordinates the next day. I know she’s accepted the risk. But I still worry for her.

Barion and I don’t talk much as we wait for her to return. I even sneak off to my room for a secret, illegal orgasm to burn off some of the stress. When I return to where Barion waits in the hotel lobby, I feel guilty, but relieved.

Jenyta gets home just before dinner. She doesn’t say a word to us as we ride the elevator up to our hotel room, ignoring our desperately inquisitive looks. We’ve just been killing time all day waiting for her to get back.

“Well?” I burst out as soon as the door closes behind us. “You made it home. That’s a good sign.”

She pulls a small memory chip from her pocket and hands it to Barion. “I got it.”

“You got what?” he exclaims.

“All of it,” she says casually, with a shrug. “The coordinates for an as-of-yet unexplored planet that’s been flagged for Ditrykium mining. And the flight paths for every Ditrykium mining kit ship in this sector for the next three months.”

“Ditrykium mining kit ship?” I repeat.

“It’s what Rangasta sends out when they’re going to start extracting a planet,” she explains. “Contains mining equipment and habitats for workers. Prefabbed. Everything but the people. Equipment depends on the material you’re trying to extract, obviously.”

Barion’s eyes light up. “How much can it mine? A single ship, I mean. It’s going to be hard for us to get our hands on more than one of them.”

“I don’t remember the total capacity,” says Jenyta. “But it’s an amount that Rangasta considers commercially viable. Enough for an industrial-level mine. Gonna take some setup, though.”

“And you deleted the coordinates for the planet from the archives? Completely?”

“Of course. Systemwide change will update across the galaxy at hyperspeed, of course. But as far as Rangasta is concerned, Planet 88224 never existed.”

I wrap my arms around my friend in excitement. My heart is much lighter with this most dangerous part of the mission over.

And then Barion ruins my illusions of the danger being over with his next question: “How many crew on a mining kit ship? We’re going to need to overpower them.”

Jenyta goes pale.

Right. We are doing crime, after all.

Korva comes out to Fugarsh 44B a week later, and he and Barion set about planning the attack on the mining kit ship. What they settle on sounds like something out of a movie: they’re going to rent an Epeshi pirate vessel, use the specialized technology onboard to pull the mining ship out of hyperspace, then dispatch the crew and fly the mining equipment straight to Planet 88224.

Then it’s up to Jenyta to fly us back. In an Epeshi fucking pirate ship.

Sounds simple, right?

Neither Barion nor Korva like that Jenyta and I have to come along. Vostra guys and being overprotective with women. Eyeroll. But it is what it is, and they know that. And so do we.

Jenyta is visibly nervous when it comes time to meet the Epeshi pirates Barion and Korva have hired. Just like Vooriangangsters, Epeshi pirates are famous across the galaxy, basically the default image that defines their species to outsiders. I’m sure it’s no more common for Epeshis to be pirates than it is for Voorians to be gangsters. But their reputation for being bloodthirsty and duplicitous is one that’s hard to ignore.

“Ready to meet your two-cocked boyfriend?” I tease Jenyta in a whisper as we head to the dingy Epeshi spaceport that we are apparently to depart from. The fact that Epeshi men have two penises is an endless source of amusement to me.

She cracks a smile, although I know her well enough to tell that she’s deeply anxious about what is to happen next. “Yeah, fingers crossed.”

I’ve never met an Epeshi up close before. They’re taller than I expected, taller than Voorians. At least six inches bigger than Barion and Korva. Although built with a generally humanoid structure, they have pale blue skin and beaked faces, and there’s a smell to them that I can’t exactly describe as pleasant.

“How do you do?” one of them asks us gruffly, the taller of the pair standing outside a boxy, grime-covered ship that looks like it’s been built and rebuilt a dozen times. My eyes flit to the gun in his belt, and I notice for the first time that Epeshis have six fingers.

“We’re well,” replies Korva. “You’re Captain Tog?”

The Epeshi smiles, or at least that’s what I assume he’s doing with his beak. “The very same.” He gestures to the other alien behind him. “And this is Bart. He’s all the crew we need for this. Assuming you strapping young lads are coming along.” He makes an awful noise that I imagine has to be a laugh.

Barion nods. “We’re coming. Four of us, four of them. And they won’t be expecting us.”

Captain Tog gestures to Jenyta and I. “Can I ask what the women are for?”

“They’re coming with us,” Barion informs him.

“Like hell they are. Women on a pirate ship?”

“You said there was room.”

“There is room, but that’s—”

“They’re coming,” Barion growls. “I’m not paying for your opinion on gender roles.”

The Epeshi shakes his head, a gesture that needs no translation. “Fine. But I’m not gonna be responsible for what happens to them.”

Barion grimaces. “No, that’s my job.”

I don’t care for Captain Tog or Bart very much. I had expected pirates to be crude, and they fit that mold, but I’ve seen that before with vostrata. These guys just plain give me a bad vibe.

“Can we trust them?” I whisper to Barion as we lift off, part of me nervous that the ship is going to come apart in the process.

He gives me a tiny shrug. “No,” he whispers back.

Great. All I can do is trust in Barion, then, and the fact that he wouldn’t have brought me here if he thought it was excessively dangerous.

It takes us a day to reach our location, a spot in the middle of nowhere empty space. Its significance, however, is that in about eight hours, the ship carrying the Ditrykium mining kit will fly past, and then be forced to a standstill by the pirate ship’s hyperspace disruptor. Then it’s just a matter of attaching our ship to theirs and boarding.

Yeah, just a simple matter. Of boarding another vessel in open space and overpowering the crew. No big deal, I try to tell myself.

Not like I’ll be part of the boarding party. Barion, Korva, and the two Epeshis are taking care of that. Jenyta and I are under orders to remain on the pirate ship at all costs, no matter what happens.

But still, I feel nervous the way I would if I were leading the charge. My mate will be out there, risking his life.

Jenyta assures us there will only be four crewmembers to deal with. And Barion assures me that four crewmembers won’t be a problem at all.

I’ll relax when it’s over.