Page 64 of Shielded in the Shadows

“I would like to do that.” She headed for the ladder beneath the aft hatch. “Siber, we’re all clear. Also, we have a new companion and guardian aboard the Nivilus.”

“I was monitoring the situation, Captain,” the AI said. “I have downloaded and processed all information on the care and feeding of gorgas from the appropriate databases. The food synth has been updated with recipes for producing nutritional fare for your guardian.”

“Thank you, Siber,” Keela replied, blinking in surprise. “That was…very thorough. You can unseal the engineering level and unlock the hatches now. We’ll be leaving the ship to speak with Deckmaster Byx once I set up a place for the gorga to live.”

“Acknowledged, Captain.”

Once we’d climbed back to the main level, Keela and I watched the gorga ascend the ladder with astounding speed and dexterity. Its ungainly appearance was thoroughly misleading. And in fact it was rather adorable as it scuttled down the corridor ahead of us toward what I assumed would be the galley.

Instead, it turned and went into my cabin. When we caught up, we discovered it had climbed into the middle of the nest and wriggled into the blankets, eyes closing in contentment.

When Keela tried to reclaim one of her pillows, the gorga opened one eye and quietly hissed. I tensed, but those potentially deadly teeth didn’t make an appearance.

“Well, then.” Keela put her hands on her hips, studied the gorga, and then turned to me. “We may have lost ownership of this nest and everything in it.”

I wrapped my tail around Keela’s leg, which the gorga watched with open suspicion. At the moment, I seemed to be on probation rather than fully accepted by our new guardian. “I have been named Executive Officer in Charge of Cabin Refurbishment and Nest Construction, remember? If you will grant me permission, Captain, I will begin plans for creating a nest in your quarters that is worthy of you.”

She caressed my tail, wrapping her fingers around it near the base and stroking along its length. Her touch sent a lightning bolt of pleasure straight to my cocks. The rush of arousal was so powerful my abdominal muscles contracted and I had to suppress a grunt.

“Permission granted,” she murmured, and if there hadn’t been a razor-toothed creature in this nest and a dozen tasks demanding our attention, I would have divested my mate of her clothing and spent the next hour doing things between her lovely thighs that were illegal in at least three star systems.

Instead, while Keela set up water and food and a place for waste for our new guardian, I changed from my hastily donned jumpsuit into a cobalt blue greatcoat with gold buttons and matching trousers. They went very well with the same tall boots I’d worn yesterday.

As I slipped a fourth dagger into hidden sheaths inside the boots, Keela reappeared back in her brunette disguise with her hair in a single long braid. I very much looked forward to the day she no longer needed to resort to such measures—for the bounty’s sake, at least. Disguises were a key element of smuggling.

At least she let me give her a long kiss before we headed for the ship’s hatch.

“You know,” Keela mused as we stepped through the hatch into the already bustling and extremely noisy docking bay, “you said you have impeccable taste in clothes, but I didn’t expect you to buy an entire wardrobe.”

“I represent this ship and my captain now,” I said with a grin. “I feel compelled to make a favorable impression.”

“You make an impression, all right,” she grumbled. She came close enough to murmur, “But we’re in hiding. Surely you’re not using your credit account?”

“Not ones the GAIS or my former crew know anything about.” I treated myself to touching the small of her back, the move hidden from view by my wing. “It would be exceedingly foolish of someone in my position to not have funds hidden away for eventualities such as this one, when I find myself suddenly changing careers and on the run with the most beautiful of smugglers.”

Keela snuck her hand behind me and pinched my ass. I growled. After ensuring no one was watching us, I lashed her bottom with a snap of my tail. She squeaked and glared at me with such injured dignity that I struggled not to laugh.

“Garon! And the lovely Captain Adelaide!” Byx’s voice rolled through the dock from its far side, where his mobile water tank was on a dais surrounded by terminals. His tentacles danced across the screens as we approached. He grinned down at us. “You’ve found your intruder, I believe?”

“We did.” Keela cast one more baleful look at me before turning her attention to our host. “Apparently, one of your gorga has decided to leave her parent’s nest.”

“So it seems, so it seems,” Byx chortled. “Zwee took advantage of the scanning crew’s comings and goings to sneak aboard. She’s always been restless, that one. Wants to travel.”

“Zwee? That’s a good name. I like it.” Keela folded her arms. “Any news for us?”

“Yes indeed, Captain.” One of Byx’s tentacles retrieved a datapad from somewhere out of sight and handed it to her. “Per your first mate’s request, I’ve used extreme caution while looking into this strange bounty. The party behind the posting seems very motivated to find this friend of yours named Keela, who is apparently in the company of traitorous murderer Tal Noku.” Byx winked at me with half of his many eyes. “The unlucky bastard Tal has a bounty on his head as well—this one funded by his former captain and crew.”

I read the datapad over Keela’s shoulder. It displayed confirmation of what Byx had said. Keela’s bounty posting had been updated with information about her visit to Ghira Station, including a few images clearly taken from station surveillance. Only one had a good view of her human face with its false tattoos and brown eyes. Another image showed her disguised as a Gandarian, heading to her ship with the antigrav sled.

The third and final image was from the Final Chance bar and showed her meeting with a Kurutan. A tremor ran through Keela’s body at the sight of that image, and then she was stoic once more.

This must be the contact who’d drawn her out of hiding. I had to stifle a snarl at the sight of the being who had put my mate in such danger.

Expressionless, Keela scrolled to the next file, which was my dead-or-alive bounty posting courtesy of Captain Sjer and the remaining crew of the Fleeting Fancy. It included the false background information about Tal Noku I’d provided to Sjer, plus two images: one from aboard the Fancy with me in my medic’s garb, and the other from Ghira Station, showing me in L’mel’s bloody kilt firing his crossbow at Boorginamai.

Their description of my actions was that I’d murdered three of my shipmates and nearly killed a fourth before absconding with the bounty the crew had been seeking.

So Jonor had somehow survived his wounds, then. I growled. Highly annoying.