He bit back a curse, quickening his step even though he probably wasn't going in the right direction. Why was he not surprised? He'd told her . . . “Where are you? What happened?”
“Nuh uh,” Barix taunted. “This knight in shining armor is going to carry the dam-HEY!” Aiden winced as the Ishivi abruptly shouted, his earpiece a beat too late muting the volume back to tolerable levels. Which was needed, since Barix continued shouting.
“Yes, I do indeed recognize you're holding a KFM, although frankly, I'm amazed you've evolved to the point you can wield simple tools like glorified clubs. I said HEY! Do you not see what I'm holding? How many of you gangs of evolutionary dead ends do I need to warn not to screw with me, because with this I can liquify your insides? Yeah, which is why I'm laughing while you wave a club at me . . . that's what I thought, piss off.”
Yeah . . . Aiden had no idea what was going on with Barix and Lana, but there was no way he was swallowing that the Ishivi had just scared off a bunch of armed Midpoint thugs. He half suspected the little weasel had done something to the girl himself. Although on the other hand, at least it meant he wouldn't have to visit his contact, who tended to be pricey. “Barix! Where. Are. You.”
“Almost back to the ship,” the Ishivi snapped, voice once again strained with effort. “And like I said, I fully intend to get the lady there on my own.”
Aiden had taken off running as soon as he got a location. The Last Stand's dock wasn't far, and when he rounded the final bend of the corridor leading to the airlock he was relieved to see that Barix was, indeed, nearly there.
And dragging an unconscious Lana by the arms.
He rushed to catch up. “What happened to her?”
Barix set her down with a relieved groan, ignoring how her head thumped on the deck. “Ran into some human traffickers. She was just lucky I happened to be in the area.”
“Lucky you happened to be in the area?” Aiden asked, amused.
His science officer drew himself up in affront, which didn't do much to bridge the height disparity between them. “I'm more than capable of defending myself, and others, thank you very much.”
“Uh huh.” Aiden crouched and picked Lana up, slinging her over his shoulder; it probably wasn't doing her much good, getting dragged around like that. “And how much did you have to pay the slavers to “defend” her?” Barix's glare intensified, which was all the answer he needed. “Just because you paid for her doesn't make her your slave,” he warned. “No slaves on my ship.”
“You think I don't know that?” the Ishivi demanded. He followed Aiden through the airlock, cursing and grumbling under his breath. “You could at least compliment me on my generosity.”
“She wasn't your problem, or mine, so if you're looking for compliments you'll have to wait until she wakes up to get her gratitude.” He hardened his voice. “Only not in the form of any “favors” or genetic material. And on that note, I hope you didn't use her incapacitated state as an opportunity to steal any DNA.”
Barix sucked in a sharp breath, usual amusement nowhere to be seen. In fact, for once he looked genuinely pissed off. “With all due respect, Captain, screw you.” He stomped off.
That hadn't been a no. Then again, the Ishivi hadn't been wearing his usual “I'm guilty as sin but think you're too stupid to see through me” look. Still, probably worth sending Ali to do a sweep of the twins' lab; it was good sense to do that every now and again anyway.
Aiden sighed and glanced down at Lana's face, bouncing softly against his abdomen with each step. She looked surprisingly peaceful given what she had to have just been through. “I'm not one to say, “I told you so,” he told her. “But since you're unconscious I'll go ahead. I. Told. You. So.”
She didn't respond, of course.
Calling for Ali, he carried the young woman to the medical bay. For all his “heroics”, Barix really should've tried to keep Lana from getting knocked unconscious. That was a serious medical condition, one that could have lasting effects even with advanced medical technology and an adult companion's medical expertise.
He left Ali to her work and started towards the bridge, toggling his mic. “Go ahead and get us out of here, gunner.”
“Just arrived,” Belix said over the radio, breathing heavily. “Thanks for giving me a chance to run through the station half-naked and draw some appreciative looks by giving the order to leave five minutes earlier than you said you would!”
Right . . . sure she'd known he was leaving early before he even did. She was probably already lounging back in the engine room, changed out of her slinky little dress into her uniform and eating caviar while listening to that distorted screeching of robotic animals being mutilated that she called music.
“I don't feel the rumble of engines taking us away from this miserable dump,” he told the gunner.
“Disengaging docking clamps now,” the young man replied in his emotionless voice.
Aiden reached the bridge in time to take over the pilot's chair as they flew away from Midpoint, headed to the nearest usable rift location. From what he could see, no one was following them.
That was the end of the Fleetfoot job. Time to get started on the next one.
Chapter Seven
Crewman
The first thing Lana heard when she woke up was Aiden talking.
To her, apparently. “You know, it kind of defeats the purpose of rescuing you from slavers, if you're just going to make a beeline for the first group of them you see every time we stop at a spaceport.”
She opened her eyes and saw with vast relief that she was back in the Last Stand's medical bay, or at
