Last Call (Stranded in the Stars Book 1) (24 page)

“Look.” He nudged her shoulder with his chin.

Right outside the view screen, a small black ship was attached to an asteroid. They were close enough that she could see right through and into a darkened cockpit across the space.

The vessel was a spider clinging for life with no web to break its fall. The mechanized flyer, smaller than Jack’s ship, was a bundle of metal carnage.

A quick spark pulsated over the crystalline glass barrier, briefly obstructing her view. They were gliding forward, the structure growing before her eyes. A static pop nipped her ears, followed by a steady stream of white noise as an unfamiliar voice cracked through the room. She was unable to locate its source.

“Of course you’re alive.”

“It’s nice of you to wait for me, Pirate, you really didn’t have to.” Jack taunted behind her.

“Fuck you, Cyborg.” The static barrage of the unknown male’s voice grated her nerves.

A blast of black shrapnel erupted from the metal mass as cylindrical drones filled the distance between them. Jack laughed as his ship tilted dramatically to the right as huge chrome plating opened up before them on both sides and pushed forward as cannon-like structures descended into its vacated space. The giant guns dropped their safety as beautiful blue streaks, similar to Jack’s armor, blazed around the openings.

The cannons aimed at each drone, assaulting them with bright continuous streams of lasers. The colors lit up the dark void of space, blasting each battle-drone until they ruptured. Dozens of bots crackled with fissures of energy just before they ceased to exist. Orange plasma fire flared out like bullets amongst the intense streams until each drone disintegrated into dust.

Jack’s ship had barely moved. Not one hit made it through.

“Is that all you have, Larik? I must say, I’m disappointed.” Jack sighed. “And here I thought you were a challenge.”

“Cut the crap, robot, you can see my ship’s cannons are damaged. I’m just fucking happy that it's lifeless enough that you can’t infect it with any real effect.”

“I can control a vessel that's running on generators.” Jack’s fingers twitched as the broken junk before them lit up.

“But you can’t make it fly. Come and get me, I’m growing tired of this conversation.” The static vanished with a fizzle. Allie’s ears opened up with relief.

Jack was quiet as he maneuvered his ship next to the pirate’s broken one. A translucent green shield tunneled out to the hatch of the other ship. A layer of silver framework slid over and attached each vessel together, creating a passageway between them.

She was out of Jack’s lap now and pressed up against the abyss-cold glazed glass, enthralled by the floating debris and colors. She knew Jack was controlling everything, even the foreign ship as it met the tunnel halfway. His abilities were fascinating and frightening.
I’m happy I’m not the one being hunted.

She looked down at the gun still in her hand and wondered if he could control that too.

“There is only one life form on his ship. If he had crewmates, they are dead.” He got up and exited the cockpit, motioning her to follow. They walked down through the central hub and toward the docked passageway.

When they reached the door he turned to face her. “I want you to wait here. Keep your body behind the door, only look if you absolutely need to.” He lifted her hand with the gun. “If anyone tries to get through, shoot them. Never hesitate. They won’t.”

“I– I don’t know how to shoot.” Her battered nerves short-circuited.

“Pretend. Be confident. They don’t know what you know.” He checked his weapons, all of them much larger and scarier than hers. “I’m nearly 98.8 percent positive you will encounter nothing. If I felt this situation was at all dangerous, you would be far, far away from it.” He said as he stopped what he was doing to bore into her eyes. His were sparkling storms, the glisten from the visor enhancing his most unnerving features. “I need to know that you’re near. I need you close to me so I can protect you. You wouldn’t even be here right now if this wasn’t a great opportunity to start your training. I never dock my ship with my enemies under normal circumstances.” He went on, trying to make her understand.

I do understand. I need you close to me too.

Jack turned away from her as the hatch opened. “I’ll be back in several minutes.” He stepped through.

“I love you,” she blurted quickly, stammering her words. Allie crushed her teeth against her bottom lip.

He stopped in his tracks. She let her feelings leave her, let them settle in the air between them to be caught or to float away.

“I love you too.”

She watched as he disappeared into the weighted gloom.

Chapter Seventeen:

---

H
is steps were soft but they didn’t need to be. He had control of Larik’s ship and he knew where his heat signature was located. The man was sitting at the helm of his broken ship, eerily still at the captain’s seat.

Even if he didn't have a blueprint ingrained in his mind, Jack would have been able to locate the pirate by his breathing alone. The man was relatively relaxed, his breaths quiet and sad.
Just not quiet enough for a Cyborg to miss.

Jack wondered why Larik was making this so easy for him.

He passed through the ship with ease, dust mites and unsterilized dirt glided behind him in his wake. He was impressed with the heavy, dark appeal of it. Even the interior trappings matched in style and mood. Shadows clung to the ship like a death shroud.

It was half the size of his but was decked out to the nines like a fallout bunker. The only color besides the oppressing black was a military gunmetal-green. Jack would never have pictured Larik as such a stoic, combat-ready man.

He clipped his gun back into place and dimmed the streaks of light on his armor as he entered the helm. “That’s it? No fight?” He clicked his visor up and perused his surroundings.

Larik was hunched over in the captain’s seat, his elbows resting in defeat on his knees, staring at a revolver in his hands. “Have you come here to kill me or capture me?”

“Capture. You pissed off the wrong people this time, Larik.”

The man sighed, “It was a risk worth taking.”

“Mmm.” Jack understood his meaning. “Was it a woman?”

Larik’s weapon went limp in his hand, only held up by his finger through the trigger. “It was for an ideal.”

Fuck idealists.
“You’re known throughout the inhabited galaxies, Captain Larik, Commander of a legion of outlaws and pirates. Organized intergalactic crime. What kind of ideal does a man like you have?” He was incredulous.

“You might find this surprising, Cyborg
, but we’re the good guys.” He sighed. “I’m tired. Let’s get this over with.” He stood up and turned the handle of the revolver over to him. Jack took the ancient weapon and led
Larik out.

When they approached the hatch, he stopped the pirate and called out. “Allie, we’re coming through.” Larik turned toward him with a look of surprise.

Jack grabbed the back of his vest and pushed him forward, shutting down the ship behind him and closing the second hatch. Allie stepped out of her hiding place behind the door and checked out the new man.

He felt an unusual flame of jealousy course through his systems, both halves equally affected by his abrupt possessiveness. It didn’t help that Larik dug his feet in, bringing them to a halt in front of her.

“A girl?” He asked, nodding his head toward him.

“Keep moving, she’s none of your business.” He ground out.

“You better listen to him.” Allie swung her charged gun between Larik and him, making them both jerk back. “He’s a Cyborg.”

“Is he now?” Larik smirked.

Jack unceremoniously pushed him forward. “Keep. Moving.” Leading Larik into his ship and forcing him to break eye contact with Allie. He could hear her follow quietly behind them.

Once he threw Larik into the brig and sealed the entrance with a laser shield he relaxed his tense muscles. He watched as Larik settled his back into the cushioned wall and slid down; his arms loosely draped over his knees.
      

“Where are you taking me?”

“Taggert.”

The pirate swiped his hand over his long golden dreadlocks and swore. “That’s going to be a bitch to escape from.”

“I don’t doubt you will.” Jack kneeled down to keep eye contact with the man, feeling a modicum of respect for him. “Why did you drag me all the way out here? There’s no place to hide out in open space, especially from me.”

“Why does it matter?”

“After all the shit I’ve been through these last several weeks, it matters a lot.”

Larik looked at Allie behind him then back at him and grunted. “After I heard that the council hired you to apprehend me, I knew it was just a matter of time before you caught up with me.” He sighed, “death is the only way to escape you... is what I've been told.” Larik ran his thumb over his lip in thought. “I ditched my syndicate and left my second in command in charge. I figured I could spare them at least.”

“Cut the crap. I don't care about your underground kingdom. Why did you take us out to the fringes?” Jack needed to know, something uncomfortable ticked at the back of his thoughts.

“My brother.”

“Your brother?” Allie asked, stepping forward.

Larik lifted his gaze back to her. “When did you get a girl, Jack?”

Jack cocked his gun and pointed it at his head. “Answer her.”

“My brother’s ship disappeared out here about six years ago. Never had the time to come out here and investigate. But since I was on a countdown… It seemed like the right time to do it.” The pirate trailed off, still looking at Allie. “You’ve seen it, haven’t you.” He sat up, hope glistened in his eyes.

Jack interrupted. “We encountered a battlecruiser. Crashed and dead on the planet’s surface, Argo, most likely hit by a meteor shower like we did and there were no survivors.”

“What about her?” His eyes had yet to move from Allie.

“I was the only survivor.” She whispered.

Jack had a headache brewing behind his eyes as Larik sized her up. “No one else survived. The ship is gone, it’s deep beneath the planet’s surface and in crumbles–
Fuck
, it probably has been eaten at this point.” Larik ignored him and questioned Allie, angering him.

“Why were you on my brother’s battlecruiser?”

“He– he was transporting myself and others.”

An awkward silence stifled the air as a thick tension settled in. Larik’s jaw ticked, his fists clenching and unclenching. Allie barely breathed as the silence continued. Jack closed his eyes and willed the pounding in his head away.

The pirate turned his gaze back toward him. “You are certain there are no other survivors?”

“There were no other survivors.” He heard himself say, unsure why he cared enough to answer.

A long exhausted sigh released from the pirate as he leaned back into the wall, his head tipped up, his eyes closing.

Jack hit the intercom screen and shut the brig with a bang.

***

“Jack, we need to talk.” She looked over at him staring at the wall where the brig had just been. Her Cyborg turned toward her with a wince.

“We do.”

She followed him as he led them into the cockpit.

“What happens now?” She watched as he unhooked the gun attached to his arm and set it aside. She wanted to stay, she knew she could, but she wanted to hear it from his lips again.

The rubble of Larik’s ship caught her eye and she walked over to the view screen to examine the pieces floating in space. The tiny pieces of metal that flaked off sparkled with starlight. She watched Jack’s reflection approach her in the glass.

His arms snaked around her and pulled her into his armored form. A deep, low voice whispered in her ear, “You love me.”

Allie bit her lip as her gaze caught his, their faces overlaid with the nebulous colors and abyss of space. “I love you.” She lost her breath as his body tightened around her.

Before she could respond she was forced up against the chilly window and her leggings were yanked down around her knees. His heated fingers gripped her hips as he pushed his way into her.

“This is what happens next.” He grunted as he encased her and his hands moved over hers and plastered them to the cold glass. Her forehead rested on the barrier before her as she braced for his thrusts, her toes came off the ground as he claimed her with each breath. “I love you too.”

He took her hard until his desperation died. He took her until she was sore and her muscles shook from overuse. They ended up curled together on the captain’s chair with their clothes, armor, and weapons strewn across the glistening floor.

His fingers brushed through her hair as they relaxed into the calm afterglow.

“We need to leave. The distress beacon will have been picked up by others before we arrived.”

“Where are we going? To take the pirate in?” She asked.

“Yeah. It’ll take a few days.” He strapped them in.

“Okay.” She smiled, relaxed for the first time in years as Jack blasted the ship into space. She could live like this. Live in the moment with him. They didn’t need plans as long as they were together.

***

Several days had gone by without incident and the further away they got from the
‘Hell-in-Space
’, the lighter the mood became. Allie spent most of her time looking at the stars and with practicing how to handle his weapons. She also ate a lot. He found her often punching in random codes on his food replicator to try new cuisines. He would have done the same if he had been deprived of real food for half a decade.

Dropping Pirate Captain Larik on Taggert was bittersweet to say the least. He had grown fond of the quiet, reserved pirate. Probably because he had never spoken after that first day. Allie had remained in the cockpit when he took him off board and delivered him to the Earthian Council guards. The bounty instantly wired to his accounts. Soon after, the news of the infamous pirate’s capture flooded the intergalactic networks and he had requests coming in for his service from hundreds of sectors.