Page 63 of Shielded in the Shadows

“What is the situation?” I asked.

“Gorgas are native to the Wundi homeworld,” Keela explained, her hand resting on the creature’s back as if she was trying to reassure her. “The captain who transported me off Ganai had one to guard his ship. I haven’t seen one since. They’re rare anywhere but a Wundi ship, but I bet Byx has one. Maybe it had a litter of offspring, and now one of them belongs to us—well, to me.”

I frowned. “She belongs to you?”

“Well, she probably thinks I belong to her.” She sighed. “They choose who they bond to, and they bond for life. They’re incredibly territorial. So unless I kill her, the Nivilus has acquired a gorga guardian.”

Everything she’d said made sense in an intellectual way, but I was still processing this new development.

“You say she’s young?” I asked finally. “How big do they get?”

“About this big.” She made a circle with her arms and my eyes widened. “Lots of teeth, lots of…well, I guess you could call them legs, but they’re actually technically something else. Sort of like a cross between tentacles and cilia?”

I eyed the gorga’s appendages. “That does seem like an apt description.”

She grinned. “Also, in addition to changing color, they can change shapes when they get older to camouflage themselves, and they’re very fast. Absolutely a terrifying foe for anyone who tries to sneak aboard my—our—ship.”

The creature had been watching me during the conversation, her flesh gradually returning to the pink coloration it had earlier. She blinked at me, her eyelids closing from both right and left.

“So we have…a pet?” I ventured.

Keela waggled her head from side to side in a so-so gesture. “Guardian is the better word. She might not seem very threatening at this size⁠—”

“I saw her teeth,” I pointed out. “I felt moderately threatened.”

“I’ve seen the teeth of an adult gorga,” Keela said with a wry chuckle. “And I watched that adult eat a Kurutan who tried to hijack the Wundi captain’s ship. Exoskeleton and all.”

Kurutans were essentially one-tonne armored vehicles. If anyone else had made that claim, I wouldn’t have believed a word of it. But since it was Keela and I saw no humor at all in her expression, I was forced to believe the story.

“Come here,” Keela said. “Once she smells us together, she should know we’re…mates. And crew mates. She probably won’t attack you.”

“Probably won’t?”

“Probably won’t.” She grinned. “You’re a spy turned pirate turned smuggler. You want guarantees of safety?”

“Fair point.” Slowly, I rose and approached warily as if the gorga was an ill-tempered Hardanian lava squid. At least with a lava squid I’d have time to get out of reach. They were deadly but extremely slow-moving. The gorga apparently had the potential to move quickly.

The gorga let me get close this time. I saw no wariness in her eyes, though—only suspicion and warning. My instincts made it clear this was a fellow predator that happened at first glance to look like an overgrown Ngaran slug.

Two nasal slits opened in the flesh above her eyes as I neared. The gorga let out a strange groan that made me freeze in mid-step.

“Keep coming,” Keela said, and now her mouth was twitching as if she was fighting to suppress laughter at my expense. “That was a good sound.”

The lowing sound and flaring nostrils continued until I was crouching in front of Keela and our new guardian.

After about a minute of inhaling our scents, the sense of impending explosive violence lessened steadily. Eventually, the gorga let out a chirp and closed her eyes.

“I think we’re good,” Keela said, and moved the gorga from her lap to the deck. The gorga opened one eye and stared at Keela in what I would have called a grumpy expression if that emotion could be attributed to such a being. “She needs a name,” Keela said with an unexpected note of cheer in her voice, as if gaining a murderous slug guardian had put her in a good mood. “Any thoughts?”

“I believe naming should be the captain’s prerogative,” I said, rising.

I offered my hand. Keela pulled herself up and dusted off the seat of her jumpsuit before I had a chance to offer my humble services.

“Hmm…I’ll have to think about it,” she said, tapping her lower lip in a way that made me want to bite and then lick it. “In the meantime, we’ll need to tell Byx that we’ve apparently adopted one of his gorga’s offspring. And speaking of your friend…” She raised her brows. “Have we had any word about the bounty?”

If it weren’t for our new guardian, I wouldn’t have minded sleeping at least another hour, and surely Keela would have benefited from additional rest since she required more sleep than what was sufficient for me, but our day had clearly begun.

“None yet,” I said in answer to her question. “He probably assumes we’re still sleeping. We can check with him now if you’d like.”