“Understood. Team One away, sir.”
“I’ve decided that after our current mission is concluded, we’re going to take shore-leave on one of the pleasure planets.”
“What about collecting the bounty on the human brooder?”
“I’m considering whether to keep her.”
“Keeping her is a good choice, sir. I was thinking of spending my mating dowry on purchasing her from the Pax once she was returned safe and sound.”
Among the Drakon, females are scarce. Ones capable of brooding are truly rare. Only one in a million Drakon females are true brooders in that they are capable of carrying young for many species. If a warrior wants a true brooder, he practically has to be a wealthy raider to afford one. All other Drakon males are left to save every credit they earn early in their lifespans to pay a mating dowry. If no can be found among the Drakon, the dowry is used to purchase a companionable female from among the many species who trade with the Drakon. I can easily understand why Lehar is interested in my brooder.
Lehar is smiling from ear to ear. “She’s fierce.”
“She is, and from now on you are not to look at her.”
Lehar chuckles, “This infatuation of yours sounds serious. You should have the medical unit run a scan.”
“Are you perchance developing a sense of humor, Lehar? If so, I don’t approve of it one bit.”
“Sorry, sir.”
I’ve been the recipient of my crew’s good-natured ridicule for days. At first it was whispers and then outright joking to my face. It’s getting tiresome. If we weren’t about to pull off the heist of a lifetime, I’d tune them up a little.
Instead I lean forward in my seat, watching the huge viewing screen on my bridge. My fighters are cloaked and surrounding the Tandorian freighter. I know exactly where the gemstones we are looking to extract are located because I’ve had a little peek. My bots attached to their hull, drilled through, and plugged the hole with durabond as they scurried through. Though they were little more than the size of my thumb, the images they sent back left no doubt in my mind the quantity or location of the Tandorian ship’s precious cargo.
I watch the first two of my cloaked fighters slip into position and jump from my seat. Naturally, this isn’t the kind of mission to leave to others. Stepping down, I face my second in command. “Lehar, you have the bridge. I don’t want to hear of one single scratch to the hull of my magnificent ship upon my return.”
“I will protect this vessel with my life, sir.”
Shooting my longtime friend a lopsided smile, I smirk. “See that you do. I’d hate to be forced to vent you after all these years.”
Lehar snickers, leaving me with the distinct feeling he thought my threat was a joke of some sort. That doesn’t sit well with me at all. Stepping on the lift, I feel excitement strumming through my body. The thrill of the hunt is only superseded by the thrill of battle. My inner dragon is barely leashed at this point. I can feel his bloodlust straining to break through.
As my cloaked shuttle gently connects with the enemy ship’s docking ring, I rein my inner dragon’s fury and excitement in. Despite the fact that my warriors took great pains to dock the ship, the Tandorian vessel is aware of our presence, klaxons blaring and emergency lights flashing. Stepping onto the freighter, I take a deep breath. There is nothing quite like the scent of fear in the air to start the day out right. Moving swiftly, my team and I converge on the loading bay containing the gemstones, cleverly cutting off the area from the Tandorian security team.
Activating our personal shielding devices, my warriors set charges along the seam of the bay doors. As they work, I pull down a data pad from the wall and begin hacking into the ship’s computers. Though my family thought I had a fascination with tech, what they don’t realize is that I have a passion for hacking and manipulation.
Today I am a hacker with a purpose. I gain entrance to the database through lower ship functions, turning off the emergency warning protocols before clawing my way through the system to find the engines and weapon controls. Since my ship is out of firing range, I bring down the ship’s engines first. By now, my warriors are standing around staring at me. The pressure is on to take the weapons offline. The software has an automated AI, but I give it a wide berth and pinpoint what I’m looking for instead. Punching in the command to bring weapons offline, I signal Lehar to move in through my wrist device and toss the tablet away. “We have less than four units to get the cargo to our ship and run.”
My warriors run so fast, they’re a blur even to my eyes. The explosives blow the bay door off and they levitate the cargo out as my shuttle and the other fighters dislodge themselves from the freighter and head from our vessel. My men hang onto the huge pallet and my ship grabs it with a tractor beam.
As my crew hauls our new treasure in, I keep pressing the homing button on my uniform. I never leave my bots behind for others to reverse engineer. Suddenly, they’re crawling down the walls and scurrying towards me. I can’t help the smile that eats up my face. No sooner does the last one attach to its tiny housing unit on my pant leg than I see furious Tandorians beating on the window of the door separating us. They’re screaming and making threatening gestures. It makes me laugh. I lean back and push off the edge of the bay door into the dark abyss. Three thrusts with my powerful jet pack and I’m inside the bay of my own ship. The
