Hotbloods 6: Allies

“No doubt you’ll end up harassing some other poor soul on another port-planet. You wretched scavengers never cause anything but trouble!” the pawnbroker muttered to herself, turning to retrieve a pay disc to add the credits to.

In that moment, I saw red. The word “scavengers” rang in my ears like a siren, my eyes narrowing, my throat constricting. I snapped, pulling the scarf from around my neck and wrapping it around my fist, before plunging it through the glass of the nearest cabinet. I grabbed an electric spear from inside and stunned the pawnbroker in the back. A blue shock visibly bristled down her spine.

Navan turned to me, his face aghast. Ignoring the look, I twisted the spear around and made for the glass display case that held the compass. My knuckles were already throbbing from the glass pane I’d put my hand through, but I pressed on, smashing the display case with the sharp tip of the spear, reveling in the satisfying sound of it shattering.

Real sirens exploded across the room. Evidently, the pawnbroker had only rigged the most important cabinets.

“Riley! What in Rask’s name do you think you’re doing?” Navan yelled above the din. “The authorities are going to come running!”

“Then we’d better get out of here!” I fired back, reaching into the cabinet and snatching up the compass. I thought about dropping the spear, but some of my blood was already smeared on the pole, and we needed every weapon we could get. This one was coming with me. “Get the weapons!” I shouted, shoving the compass in my pocket and making for the door.

Navan stuffed the weapons back into our bag and high-tailed it to the door, slinging the bag over his shoulder. With him safely beside me, we tore out of the store, the sound of alarm bells ringing in our ears.

“What was all that about?” he asked as we ran.

“I stole a compass. It’ll lead us to Lauren, I hope,” I explained through sharp breaths. “It traces the blood of different species. I figure it can show us where any humans might be. We’re not exactly a common occurrence in this part of the universe.”

Outside the shop, it was unbearably hot, the atmosphere arid. Across every street and road there was a thick blanket of black sand that couldn’t be swept away. The uneven terrain made it tricky to run, but we were doing the best we could as we hurried down the street. As we rounded a corner, Navan grasped my wrist and pulled me to a halt. I thought he was going to shout at me, or chide me for being completely reckless, but instead he scooped me toward him, planting a fierce kiss on my lips.

“It’s so ridiculously brazen, I’m not sure whether to applaud or freak out. I’m starting to think I’m a bad influence on you,” he said with a nervous laugh.

“What’re you talking about? You’re the best influence on me!” I rose up on my tiptoes and kissed him back. “But if we don’t keep running, we’re going to get caught!”

Navan grabbed my hand and sprinted down the street beside me. I cast a glance back over my shoulder, hoping the pawnbroker was okay. Yes, she’d been curt with us, but that didn’t mean I wanted her to suffer, and I’d jabbed her pretty hard in the back. Hopefully, she’d wake up with nothing but a headache and sore shoulders, ruing the day we’d walked into her store.

We’d just turned down a narrow alley when the clamor of odd, howling sirens chimed behind us. The authorities had reached the pawnshop, by the sounds of it, and it wouldn’t be long until they started chasing us. Ronad had warned us that port-planets really didn’t take kindly to thieves, but I’d been desperate. Even so, I felt bad for stealing the compass and hurting the pawnbroker like that. It had been impulsive and cold, and I wished I could’ve done it differently. I didn’t want to become a person who relied on violence.

Keeping to as many of the shadowed alleyways as possible, Navan and I sprinted back to the shipyard where we’d parked the Coeptis. It was the same ship in which Navan had left Northern Vysanthe to come and rescue me after receiving Brisha’s blessing, but the poor old girl had definitely seen better days. The hull was riddled with holes that had been patched up in deep space, using ancient spacesuits and even older repair kits, and most of the systems were temperamental at best. The engine was ravaged after the pirates had given it a kicking, the weapons systems were more likely to blow us up than any enemy, and the gravity simulator was barely hanging on. The only thing that still seemed to function was the life support system, which was one comfort we could take out of all this—at least we wouldn’t asphyxiate in our sleep.

Stopping at every corner, we made sure there were no authorities trying to intercept us. I could still hear the sirens blaring, but they were far behind us now. Somehow, despite the risk I’d taken, it looked like we were going to get away with it. I touched the compass in my pocket for reassurance, a nervous grin spreading across my face.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Navan said, smiling.

“Killjoy,” I muttered.

The shipyard itself looked like an enormous dock, with ships tethered to electrical posts, though there was no water nearby. Pulsyde was a desert-like planet that had sprung up in the middle of a trade route through the universe, meeting the needs of passing ships and cargo vessels.

Engineers and mechanics were toiling away at the engines of many of the docked ships, the sound of clanking and hammering filling the air, but we hadn’t been able to afford one. The guy who’d knocked on our hatch—a wiry creature with lurid pink skin—had more or less spat on us when he found out we had pretty much no credits to pay for any repairs, before sauntering away to the next vessel that had touched down. I guessed the workers here had no interest in time-wasters like us. To them, we were just taking up valuable space.

Instead of passing by the sentry towers that stood at the entrance of each shipyard, we ducked through a gap in the fence. We’d seen countless people do the same, coming in and out of the dock. In fact, it was how we’d entered the commercial district in the first place—to go in search of a pawnshop—after finding out that a fee had to be paid to even leave the shipyard. We didn’t have that kind of money to waste on a return trip.

Making sure nobody had seen us slip through the gap, we hurried across the yard toward the Coeptis. Ronad and Bashrik were working away on the hull as we approached, patching up the last of the exterior holes.

“Get inside!” I hissed. “We need to get going!”

They exchanged a worried glance. “What did I tell you, Ronad? I said Navan would get in some kind of trouble and we’d have to leave this place with our tails between our legs!” Bashrik muttered, following us up the gangway.

Navan shook his head. “It wasn’t me, this time.”

The two guys looked at me in shock, but there was no time to explain; they could have all the gory details later, once we were safely out of Pulsyde airspace. I had no idea how quickly the planet’s outer security could be alerted to a breach on the ground, and I really didn’t want to find out.

“Come on, let’s get this thing in the air!” I barked, running into the cockpit, where Mort was lounging at the controls. Navan followed straight after, shoving the startled shifter out of the pilot’s chair.

“Hey, I was—”

Navan flashed him a warning look. “Do you want to spend the rest of your miserable days in a Pulsyde brig?”

The shifter shook his head.

“Good, then keep quiet and let me fly us out of here.”