Page 84 of Mazorium Buys a Human

I'd tried to run into the ship and lock it down, but they were too fast. They grabbed me then searched the ship and found Nadia. Thankfully they were scared of hurting her, so they dragged me to her room and had me pick her up.

Then they forced me into their decrepit shuttle. How was the thing even space worthy?

Once we were inside the shuttle they shoved me in a cage meant for an animal and took off.

When I tried to talk, I was snarled at and threatened with bodily harm. I’d remained quiet and tried to comfort Nadia while keeping a close eye on all of them. All I needed was an opportunity.

Then we were landing with a hard jolt that sent Nadia into another fit of crying. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs right along with her.

“What's going on?” the guy who'd banged on my cage asked the Talin across from him.

“It felt like something hit us,” the other one said.

“Could it have been a breach?" a third asked. “There isn’t much wind, but a high branch could've come loose and hit us.”

“Everyone, pay attention,” the leader said, stepping out of the pilot area. “We have a situation. Mazorium arrived as we were leaving. He used some of his bots to jam our lift thruster. He’s landing now. Arm yourself and neutralize him while I pull the bots out of the thruster.”

Maz was here! My excitement ended the moment I saw them open up a locker and pull out some extremely dangerous looking weapons. I’d never seen so many in one place before.

Oh god, they were going to kill Maz!

As far as I knew he didn’t have a single weapon, at least nothing that was purposely built to damage or kill.

“No,” I whispered, unshed tears making my eyes burn. Seven armed Talins waited for the old hatch to creak open in stages.

While they waited, the leader turned to look at me. “You’re going to make all this worth it. Station Director Gorum promised me enough wealth that I’ll be able to set myself up on a new colony planet. I’m going to start a new clan and get myself on the Apogee Assembly. Everyone will have to look up to me.”

As he spoke, I finally realized I’d met this Talin before. He was one of the Talins who attacked Maz on Helsin Station.

It was hard, but I kept my mouth shut.

The hatch finally finished opening and the other Talins filed off the shuttle, but the leader crouched down in front of my cage. I pushed myself against the back of the cage, trying to make myself small.

“Station Director Gorum only wants that child,” he said, reaching a hand into the cage. I tucked Nadia against my side to keep her away from him. He was able to touch my leg, but not her. “Soft, worthless humans. I don’t understand why Talins are so obsessed with your species.”

He sounded an amused rumble and ran his claws against my skin. He didn't dig them in, but the threat was there. “She plans to keep you for as long as it takes to make sure the child will thrive under her care. Then she’s going to give you to me. That’s part of our deal. You’re going to be the perfect status symbol for my new life. It might be fun teaching you to be obedient.”

So many things popped into my head, but I held them all back. Telling this guy what I was really thinking at that moment might get me hurt.

“I can’t believe it took us so long to find where Mazorium was working,” he said. “Even though it’s not a secret, it’s not easy information to gather. Finally we get here only to have to wait until your guests left. But now that I have you and that pup, my patience is being rewarded.”

The sound of weapons fire made the Talin pull his hand out of the cage as he sounded a rattle of affirmation. “Hopefully thatmeans Mazorium is either dead or soon will be. I owe him for what he did back at Helsin Station. I’m going to personally make sure no one ever finds his body. No proper memorial service. No entrance to the Domicile of Souls.”

With that, he stood up and left the shuttle.

Part of me wanted to curl up and cry, but there was no time for that. It wouldn’t be long before all those men came back into the shuttle and my chance at escape would be over.

The cage wasn’t hard to get out of. It had been made to keep an animal in, so all I had to do was reach my hand through the wide bars and find the release switch. The warped door popped open with a loudting.

It was awkward to crawl out of the cage while holding Nadia. I cut up both my knees from the ragged spots some poor animal had torn into the metal bottom. Ignoring the pain and blood dripping down my legs, I got to my feet and ran to the pilot’s seat.

I’d taken an introductory class on piloting years ago. It was being offered for free to employees. I’d been annoyed at the time that the instructor spent most of the time talking about shuttles because they were used in more diverse circumstances than ships. If I ever saw that instructor again, I’d thank him profusely.

Sitting down, I rested Nadia on my lap, holding her in place with one arm as I took in the display.

Thankfully it was a standard display, so I knew what to press even if the language was set to Talin glyphs instead of Universal character stacks. There were several flashing warnings, but one of them disappeared as I was watching. I felt the bottom thruster start up and the flight-worthy indicator showed.

He’d cleared the bot out of the thruster. I needed to launch before he or the others came back in!