Merchandise (2 page)

Chapter One

Present

“I will not repeat myself again.
Release my kinsman, you dishonorable
Cobrini
fiend,
or face the consequences!” the
Hadarian
commander
yelled.

Brale
kept his utility blade pressed directly against the temple of his
Hadarian
captive. The warrior put up quite a struggle, but
given
Brale’s
more solid build, he had no problems
restraining his slender, well-built pretty hostage.

Need
to be careful. Only have a single shot at this.
Brale
had no illusions Farr would follow on his threat immediately.
His first impression of the lieutenant?
Farr embodied
everything that defined the proud
Hadarian
warrior
race. Too bad
Brale
also displayed the cunning,
serpentine, and greedy stereotype of his
Cobrini
heritage.

“Would you kindly give me a few
minutes to think this through, Lieutenant Farr?”

Farr made a disgusted sound in his
throat, but as his honor demanded, he raised a hand to stop his fellow warriors
from gunning or gutting down
Brale
.
Brale’s
tongue slid out to taste the emotions permeating
the air. Even standing a few feet away from the
Hadarians
in the cargo bay,
Brale
could practically smell the
thirst for bloodshed on them.

The tense lines of their bodies,
the hard expressions on their faces, betrayed their killing intent.

“Lieutenant, the last thing this
Cobrini
scum deserves is our mercy,” one
Hadarian
shouted.

“If he’s as honorable as he claims,
then he would fight you, or either of us in a one-on-one duel to settle this
fight,” another
Hadarian
cut in.

After centuries of war, neither of their
races had given each other an inch. It was a sorry business, this ongoing war,
but unlike most of the members of his power-hungry race, the last thing
Brale
was interested in was risking his life. After
fighting in the
Cobrini
army for years, he decided he
had seen his fair share of bloodshed and loss.

Brale
may
be good at killing, but that part of his life was over. He rather liked living
and working as a freelance bounty hunter far too much, thank you very much.

“What say you,
Cobrini
?
Will you fight me one-on-one and settle this stalemate once and for all?” Farr
said. “In my opinion, it seems more than fair, given you were fool enough to
raid this merchant vessel and fool enough to get caught.”

“When I took on this job, there was
no mention of a
Hadarian
battle cruiser. Methinks you
and your fine crew of bloodthirsty warriors cannot be simply just passing by
for a game of cards.”
Brale
knew he’d hit the mark
when the lines of Farr’s face tightened.
“Unless there’s some
shady business afoot?”

“Lieutenant,” one of the warriors said
impatiently. “This
Cobrini
scum must be eliminated at
all costs.”

“Aye.
I’m
afraid my offer has just expired,
Cobrini
. You are
far too smart for your own good.” Farr made a purposeful step towards him,
halting when
Brale
pressed the tip of his knife to
the throat of his hostage. The small cut drew a line of blood.

“
Hadarians
sacrificing their kinsmen to kill one
Cobrini
pirate
for the good of the entire race? This is quite a predictable script we are
following, Farr. Have you ever thought of changing it a little on occasion? ”

“You dare question my honor,
Cobrini
? What does your race know of honor? Over the last
month alone,
Cobrini
raiding ships have hit
unsuspecting towns and villages near our northern planet shores.”

One more step and he was free.
Brale’s
boots finally touched the edge of an enormous and
bulky object covered by a sheet. Underneath the sheet was an emergency
hovercraft strapped with the merchandise he and his partner were paid to
recover. Once they got the package delivered to their well-paying client,
Brale
and his partner could finally retire and buy an
island on some expensive off-world tropical planet.

They’d still take on small jobs
here and there just to keep life interesting, but they’ll no longer be under
the direct line of fire.

“I am truly sorry, kinsman,” Farr
said with obvious regret to
Brale’s
captive.

His warriors raised their laser
rifles. The
Hadarian
commander was a little more
progressive than the other officers of the
Hadarian
army,
Brale
decided, by daring to bring modern
weaponry. It was a curious and alarming observation, and one he could examine
another time. He wasn’t out of the frying pan yet.
 

“Your name, kinsman,
so we may offer your spirit and sacrifice to our great
Hadarian
gods?”
Farr was asking.

“Fuck the gods. Where were the damn
gods, when those in my squadron needed them the most?”
Dyos
spat.

Farr looked taken aback by
Dyos’s
obscene curse, probably unused to hearing any
Hadarian
sound so crass.
Brale
loosened his arm and dropped the blade. It was getting stiff anyway. Farr’s
eyes narrowed with calculation.

“Sacrilegious
traitor.
You’re working with a
Cobrini
pirate?” Farr snarled.

Laser shots whizzed through the
air.
Brale
yelped when one nearly caught him in the
foot. He hopped over to the hovercraft, pulling the canvas sheet aside and
jamming his fist at the sensor pad to open the craft’s domed pilot seat.

“
Dyos
, we
need to make our exit before fortune favors these
Hadarians
and they manage to blow up our only escape craft,” he yelled.

Dyos
slipped into the second seat behind his. The transparent dome closed above
their heads, deflecting the laser shots aimed at them, at least for a while.
Brale
programmed the tiny craft for flight. Soon enough,
the engine hummed under them. The vessel hovered several inches up the enormous
cargo bay of the merchant ship.

He spotted Farr shouting against
the chaos, probably telling his men to close the half-opened airlock still
connecting the bay to their ship.

“Is this piece of junk equipped
with any offensive weaponry?”
Dyos
asked behind
him.
   

“I believe this so-called ‘junk’
we’re staking our lives on, comes with a pair of standard civilian-made guns.”

Brale
had
to smile at
Dyos’s
curse behind him. Seconds later,
the guns emerged from the front of the craft. The
Hadarian
crew began running for cover as
Dyos
open fired on
them. When the coast was clear,
Dyos
directed the
firepower to the cargo ship’s airlock, destroying the temporary tunnel
connecting it to the
Hadarian
battle cruiser.

Brale
glanced at the red warning flickering madly on his controls. The little craft
had held its own against the beating the
Hadarians
dished out with their laser guns, but it wouldn’t hold out long. He shoved the
panic rising inside him.
Think,
Brale
.
Spotting Farr’s sleek
Hadarian
cruiser right in front of him, he grinned.

He craned his neck backwards to
look at his mate. “This hovercraft would not last an hour in deep space. I
believe we need a new ship, and Lady Luck seems to favor us, because I can see
one unattended ship in front of us.”

“You’re proposing we steal a
Hadarian
battle cruiser?”
Dyos
asked incredulously.

Then he looked thoughtful. A
devious expression finally appeared on his handsome face. His
Hadarian
mate had come a long way from his stiff
Hadarian
roots,
Brale
mused with
pride.

“You sly bastard.
There are probably just one or two warriors left there.”

“Absolutely nothing we tough and
scarred bounty hunters can’t handle.”

“Farr’s probably going to have our
heads though. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s placed a bounty all across the
galaxy for our heads”

Brale
grinned. “We’ve been in worse places before, and besides he doesn’t have our
names or details.”

“Then by all means, let’s go steal
a
Hadarian
battle cruiser.”

****

“
Dyos
,
let us switch places,”
Brale
yelled loud enough that
Dyos
could hear him shouting from the ship’s bridge all the
way to its storage hold. A few lucky shots from a heavy assault plasma rifle
bounced off the ship’s hull, making it wobble slightly.

“Why? The platinum seals on the
merchandise are beyond damaged by those laser shots. Do you think the client
will still accept this? We’ll be lucky if he pays us half.”

“
Dyos
,
your damn
Hadarian
controls are beyond my
comprehension. Get over here,”
Brale
hollered back.

More damaging shots hammered into
the cruiser’s side. One of the lights on the console began to blink in warning.
Brale
began to seriously worry when two of Farr’s men
began to push something, a portable and armed plasma warhead, at their
direction. He knew from experience one hit from the missile could wipe out them
and their stolen ship.

“Fuck,
Dyos
.
They’re planning on blowing us up.”

“Just get us the hell out of here,
Brale
,” snapped
Dyos
from the
other end.

Brale
glanced at the console in front of him again with mounting frustration. Didn’t
Dyos
know by now he didn’t work well under stress?

Illegible
Hadarian
runes stared back at him the touch screen. He dispensed with trying to wrack
his brains with the
Hadarian
alphabet and began
banging randomly at the screen. For a few seconds nothing happened. From his
vid screen,
Brale
spied Farr shouting commands at the
two men positioning the weapon.

“Gods of
Cobrini
,
we are really going to die this time.”

After all the outrageous and
tale-worthy scrapes he and
Dyos
had managed to escape
from, was this how they were going to meet their end, exploded to tiny bits in
the middle of a heist?

Fuck
this.
Brale
furiously slammed at the screen
again. It made wailing noises as the ship wobbled from the onslaughts of hits.
Then the console’s screen blacked out.
Brale
swallowed.
Dyos
was going to kill him.

He heard
Dyos
cursing and fumbling his way to the bridge as the cruiser rocked and shifted.
Brale
felt like he was a character in one of those sappy
Terran
romantic movies he’d never admit to liking so much.

Time slowed.
Dyos
jogged up to him, muscles bunching under his sexy flight suit.
Dyos’s
golden skin looked good under the ship’s red
blinking lights. Emotion caught itself in
Brale’s
throat as their eyes met. “We had good times,
Dyos
.”

He closed his eyes and spread his
arms wide, readying himself for the moment
Dyos
would
fall into them. They’d then speak in soft and reverent tones, as they recalled
fond memories while time ran out.

They’d talk about the hundred of
runs they did all across the galaxy. The hiccups and the unexpected surprises
like the time they’d found a charming crystal lake on a dying planet, or the
time they unearthed an antique collection of
Terran
porn and sold it for thousands of space credits.
 

Brale
could even recall the moment they first met. On a blood-soaked
Hadarian
battlefield where
Dyos
had
put a blade to his throat and threatened to end his life.
Brale
could still remember how
Dyos’s
entire body had
frozen when he reached out to claim his lips instead. Then
Brale
went on to eventually claim
Dyos’s
entire body, heart
and soul until they were mated in every sense of the word.

Good
times.

What did the
Terran
hunk in those movies say? “
Dyos
, before death claims
us, I have something important to say to you. I love—”

Brale
became stunned when the ship suddenly hummed back to life. The overhead lights
in the cabin stopped blinking. The engines whirred, and the ship launched
itself into deep hyperspace.

Brale
crashed into his mate with a grunt. They both collapsed on the hard metal floor
of the bridge. On the screen, the transport ship was reduced to a mere speck of
dust.

“Get the hell off me, you big oaf,”
Dyos
muttered.

Brale
mutely did, still unable to believe how lucky they were both to still be alive.
He collapsed beside
Dyos
, shaking. “I thought we were
really done for back then.”