Samira

“Sami!” Thea shot up out of the booth to give me a crushing hug, which I returned as best as I could. She somehow felt even stronger than before, and even though she obviously wasn’t trying to hurt me, I was still finding it difficult to breathe.

“Thea, be careful, you’re strangling the poor girl,” the blonde with long hair chastised, which caused Thea to let go of me.

“So, these are the friends you were waiting for? I wasn’t sure because you said there were only supposed to be two of them,” Sanya asked from behind me and I nodded as I took a moment to catch my breath.

“Yeah, this is them. Thanks, Sanya.”

“Of course,” the satyr smiled towards the group at the table before pulling me a short distance away and speaking in a hushed tone. “Give me the signal if you feel uncomfortable, and I’ll go get Tals, alright? And don’t go anywhere with them unless you tell at least two people first. Actually, your implants still aren’t working, right? So, no going anywhere until you get them fixed.”

“Sanya, these are my friends. You don’t have to worry about them. I’ll be okay.”

Sanya chewed on her lip as she glanced back towards the table. “Alright, but I’m still going to slip something into whatever the short one orders. Nothing too dangerous, but I don’t want her trying anything, and she seems like the type.”

“Please don’t drug Thea,” I pleaded, and she reluctantly nodded.

“Fine, but I’m going to stay close just in case.”

“Thanks, Sanya.” I gave the satyr another hug before turning back towards the table.

“Is everything okay?” the captain asked.

“Everything is wonderful!” Sanya answered as I slid into the booth next to Thea. “Can I interest you in food, or drinks, or maybe a bit of entertainment?”

“That depends. Do you accept iron?” Thea asked, but before Sanya could respond, I interrupted.

“Just put it on my tab. I should have plenty left.”

“Sure! What can I get you then?”

Everybody put in their orders, and Sanya bounded off to the kitchen, finally leaving me to talk to Thea and the captain alone. Well, mostly alone.

“Are you three related to Thea?” The devils sitting across from me looked remarkably similar to her, just slightly older and probably more mature.

Thea nodded as she pointed to each of them. “Yep! That’s Aurora, and her twin Leila, then finally Suriel. They were stuck in Tartarus, and we helped them escape, so they agreed to help us find you. Aurora even fixed the bombs back on the ship.”

The short-haired one shrugged as she leaned back into the booth. “Except I wasn’t able to fix everything, so your engines are still rigged to explode. Which meant we had to fly all the way here on the shuttle.”

“What do you mean? How exactly were they rigged to explode?” The people who raided our ship weren’t on board for long, and they left in a rush. There was no way they had enough time to set up all the traps and then sabotage the engine.

“Your fuel lines were all twisted, then the power was routed through random sub-systems. If we powered the engines, then half the arsenal would’ve detonated and the shields would’ve fried anyone who survived the explosion.”

“That’s not sabotage. I re-routed the fuel lines to account for variable burn rates across the engines, and the power was routed that way to drain the lines faster. I needed them to be completely empty in order to work on the shields.”

“Wait, seriously? That’s suicide.” Aurora gave me an incredulous look, but I dismissed her.

“It’s not as bad as everyone thinks, it just takes a little more daily maintenance. Besides, it was better than spending an extra hour in an aether leviathan nest, and since the captain keeps insisting on going out on top of the ship every time we’re in real-space, we needed the shield upgrades.”

“I’ve only done it twice, that’s hardly every time,” the captain objected, and Aurora started laughing.

“Okay, that sounds like a story I need to hear.”

“I’ll tell you later,” Thea grinned before turning towards me. “But first, we should probably figure out where Softie is, and what the heck happened to you.”

“Right.” I took a moment to center myself before explaining. “Ithnaa came back to the ship a couple of days after you two left with Esme.”

“Ithnaa was the one behind it?” Thea stared at me wide eyed before turning towards the captain. “Wait, wasn’t she kidnapped too?”

“Maybe we should let Samira tell us what happened before jumping to conclusions?” The captain asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Fine, but if Ithnaa was the one who did this, then I’m going to be pissed.” Thea leaned back into the booth with her arms crossed. “Go ahead Sami, explain what happened.”

“Ithnaa wasn’t the one behind the attack. In fact, the only reason she was captured at all was because she was trying to protect us. She should’ve just teleported away, but she didn’t.”

“How were the hunters able to overpower her?” the captain asked.

“I don’t know what it was exactly, but they had some sort of magic-based weapon that I think was single-use. They said that they brought it to deal with you, captain.”

“Which only raises further questions.” The captain said with a tired sounding sigh. “Please, continue Samira.”

“Um, right, not long after she came back, maybe ten minutes, the ship was hit with some sort of specialty weapon designed to knock out a navigator. Ithnaa called it a synapse overload bomb, but I had never heard of it.”

“Bryce, do you know what that is?” Thea asked, and the captain frowned.

“No, but I can see how something like that would be useful. Thea, let’s keep the questions until the end. Just give Samira a chance to explain everything first.”

“Fair enough. Go ahead Sami, I’ll stop interrupting.”

I nodded to Thea before continuing. “The bomb knocked Sora out, then Ithnaa told me to take them and hide in the kitchen. I don’t know how long we were in there, but after Ithnaa nearly killed one of the hunters, they used the weapon. I heard them talking near the bar, so I hid Sora in the maintenance corridors behind the pantry and tried to get to the shuttle to escape. That’s where I ran into the one they called ‘doc’, and he was holding Sora’s core.”

I trailed off as Sanya arrived with our food. She set it down on the table, then gave me a concerned look. I did my best to smile up at her, but that didn't seem to help.

“Sanya, I promise I’m fine.” I wiped my eyes and my fingers came away wet, which caused me to laugh quietly to myself. “I guess it’s just kind of hard to talk about.”

“We can move to a different table if you’d prefer to have this conversation without three strangers,” Thea’s brother, Suriel, offered, and I shook my head.

“That’s alright. I’m already past the worst of it, well, mostly.” I turned back towards Sanya, who hadn’t stopped with the look. “If you’re that worried about me, then you’re welcome to sit with us while I explain.”

“Actually, would you mind? Maybe you could give some context to parts of Samira’s story after she’s done?” the captain asked, and Sanya nodded.

“Sure, but house rules say you have to pay for my food.” Sanya grabbed a chair from a nearby table and set it on the open side of the booth. Then she reached over me to snatch a taco from Thea’s plate.

“Hey! I was going to eat that!”

Sanya stuck her tongue out at Thea, which caused the captain to chuckle. “It’s fine, Thea. You can have some of my salad.”

Everybody sitting at the table looked at the captain’s salad, which had absolutely no meat in it, then back up at her.

“Babe, I love you, but just no.” Thea then reached across the table to steal a chicken breast off of Aurora’s plate using a fork.

Which caused Aurora to growl and turn towards Leila, but any stealing was stopped short by a glare from her twin. So, she turned in the other direction and took a fistful of fries off of Suriel’s plate. Suriel didn’t seem all that upset and just continued to eat his fried fish with a fork.

The display made me chuckle and my mind went back to Sora, hoping that they were okay.

“Is everyone good now?” the captain asked, looking around wearily, and when nobody objected she turned her attention back to me. “Alright, Samira, whenever you’re ready.”

I took a moment to remember where I had left off, then I started back into the story. “Somehow, ‘doc’ managed to find where Sora’s core was, and got a hold of it before I could. He used it to capture me without too much of a fight.”

“You did the right thing, Samira.” The captain reassured me, and I nodded.

“It definitely didn’t feel good at the time, but looking back on the situation, there really were no good choices. I even tried to resist their interrogation, but they knew the answers either before they asked the questions, or immediately after. I still don’t know how they managed that.”

“They interrogated you?” Thea asked. She had stopped eating, and I could feel the heat rolling off her in waves.

“Sort of?” I frowned. “They didn’t hurt me. Their leader—her name was Anali—just asked me a bunch of questions. I didn’t say anything, but she somehow still knew all the answers, and from the way she was reacting, it seemed like she knew them immediately after asking, even when I didn’t say anything.”

“Did you see her cast any spells?” the captain asked. “There's magic that lets you read someone’s mind, and the half-elf who was holding you was able to counter my scrying. Which means they had some degree of magical talent.”

“That was probably Anali. She was the only half-elf I met. But no, I didn’t see her cast anything.”

“Then that’s just another mystery for us to solve,” the captain trailed off for a moment before continuing. “If I can connect a few dots here, this Anali figured out that we were teleporting back to the ship and left a series of traps for us, then because she somehow knew I could contact you with magic, she sedated the three of you so that I wouldn’t be able to get a message through.” I nodded, and she kept going. “Then that only leaves the question of why you ended up on a pirate’s ship instead of Mother’s compound, and how exactly you managed to escape.”

“Like you said, we were sedated for most of the flight here, so I don’t know why Anali sold us to Captain Leo instead of Mother. But as to how we escaped…” I wasn’t sure how much detail to go into, and I honestly wasn’t entirely sure how Sora turned the tables on the pirate captain, so I decided to keep it simple. “Well, Sora managed to kill their captain, then we convinced Krom, one of the crew, to help us get to the hangar and steal a ship. Once we got here, we found the Lost Lass. They’re protecting us and letting us stay in exchange for some basic maintenance jobs.”

Sanya snorted at that. “Sami fixed basically everything, and she did it in less than two days. Before she came along we barely had air conditioning. Now, we could even leave the station if we wanted. Could probably even survive in real space long enough to find a respectable place to dock. Not that we would. Most of us are here for a reason.”

“So, that just leaves the question of where the heck Softie is at.” Thea looked toward me expectantly and I let out a tired sigh.

“Krom was worried about staying on the station after what happened to his captain, so he found himself a new navigator and left as soon as he could. But before he did, he introduced Sora to someone he trusted who had a ship for sale. We would have waited for you to get here, but the seller was getting impatient and we didn’t know when you were going to show up.”

“Hopefully, that means we won’t have to fly back on the shuttle.” The captain said, and everybody at the table seemed relieved. “It also means we can focus our attention on the rather urgent problem in front of us. Sanya, do you know who this Anali is? Or possibly what a bounty hunter would do if they managed to get their hands on a syndicate lord?”

Sanya shook her head. “No idea, and no freaking clue. Kidnapping a syndicate lord has got to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, and trust me when I say that I’ve heard a lot of really dumb things. But just because I don’t know, doesn’t mean nobody does. I can ask around and get back to you.”

“I would appreciate that,” the captain said, before looking back at me. “Based on the timeline you laid out, these bounty hunters only have a few days head start on us. Would it be possible to catch up to them with the Fury if we assumed that they were going directly to Mother’s compound?”

I considered the question for a moment before shaking my head in defeat. “I don’t know. It depends on how quickly we can get back, and how fast they can move. Honestly? I don’t think it’s likely. Not if they’re going directly to Mother.”

“How long do you think we have?” Thea asked, and I shrugged.

“A week, two at most, but that’s assuming they don’t contact Mother and have her meet them halfway.”

The captain tapped on the table with her nails a few times before coming to some sort of conclusion. “Alright, in that case, we aren’t going to try to catch up to the bounty hunters. Instead, we’re going to spend the time we have here to learn as much about them as possible. If we can contact them, then maybe we can make a deal. If they refuse, then we might be confronting Mother sooner than we expected.”