Honor Among Thieves (The Honors #1)(71)

“Hey, easy,” I said to cover my trembling. “Those don’t grow back. I made your ship angry when I stunned you?”

That made sense. Nadim would be pissed at the way this dude knocked me around too.

Pure alien sounds—the translation matrix failed again. To me, it seemed like they—somehow, the intruder had settled down to they in my head—didn’t have any more experience with humans than I did aliens. Which was maybe why they’d tried to take my head off over a simple question, even if I did swear at them. With a wonky translation, maybe it had sounded like a threat of violence? I had no idea what they were trying to say now.

Something hit Nadim hard enough to send us tumbling. Gravity disappeared, and we slammed around like dice in a cup. The alien wrapped their many limbs around metal braces and grabbed me too, holding me as Nadim spun and twisted. The other Leviathan must have rammed Nadim again, this time from the other side.

You asshole, I wanted to scream, but I was too occupied trying not to bash my head against the console. Tentacle Alien had a good grip on me, but whiplash was a bitch, and I could feel new marks where Nadim was hurt in the dark, throbbing stars erupting on my skin.

The spin slowed and stabilized, and gravity melted back in. My weight sagged toward the floor, and Tenty—I had to call them something—gently lowered me down. The filaments were waving in agitation around their helmet.

It said something, maybe a good-bye, flared tentacles at me, and then raced toward the docking bay while I tried to get myself together. I’d done exactly what Nadim had been afraid I’d do: I’d shot the first alien I saw. And what had we gotten out of that? I had a fresh set of bruises, and so did Nadim.

And he still wasn’t awake.

But Tenty had said something, I realized. Something important. They mentioned a white dwarf. At least the shitty translation gave us that much, even if it had failed in every other conceivable way.

The console was still reporting that we had an unauthorized intruder on board. I slapped at controls until it shut off, along with the droning alarm. I tracked Tenty’s progress on the console screen; they went straight back to the docking bay, no detours. I watched the alien Hopper swoop out, and as soon as it was gone, I hit the lock button and sank to my knees against the hub wall. Delayed shakes. My head hurt. My back and right arm ached where I’d hit the wall.

What in the blazing hell had just happened?

“Bea?”

“Here,” she said faintly, tiptoeing to my side. “Are you okay? I thought—”

“Whatever you thought, it’s probably worse,” I said. “What’s happening out there now?” It was easier to ask than to haul my exhausted body upright to look.

“The other Leviathan—it attacked us, didn’t it?”

“Sure felt that way.”

“It’s circling us. I don’t like this, Z.”

Nadim was helpless. This other ship could kill him in his weakened state.

“Bea, can you pilot?” I asked.

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not really.”

“Then chart a course to the nearest white dwarf star and get us out of here!”

I put my head in my hands, and after a moment I felt the rush of acceleration; she’d really punched the speed. I couldn’t blame her.

A few minutes later, I felt well enough to get up and leaned in to check the console, not wanting to distract her. “Damn. They’re following? No, they’re breaking off.”

“I’ve found a nearby white dwarf. At top speed, it won’t take long. We’re okay. We’ll be okay.”

Sure. The lights were dimmer now. It felt cooler in the room, and I shivered. Bea’s assurances had to be a litany of wishful thinking. I crawled over to the seat nearest to the console and shut my eyes. When I did, nausea came back with a vengeance. If the alien had meant to kill me, I’d be meat paste on the wall, so I counted my blessings. I was a mess of bruises, damaged hands, and phantom pain from the beating Nadim took. I guessed I could call it a win.

Whatever the hell had just happened, I hoped it was worth it.

It was exactly half a day until we detected the white dwarf star’s radiation. I put it on audio for Bea, and together, we listened to the starsong. A strange, eerie chorus, full of rising and falling hums and hisses, clicks and ticks. An alien choir singing in keys humanity had never imagined, but there was something organized and beautiful about it too. It felt more vibrant than the atonal hiss we’d heard coming off the red giant. This seemed . . . younger, somehow. More vital.

“Well,” I said, “it doesn’t have much of a hook, but maybe we can jazz it up with some samba beats.”

“That isn’t funny.” Beatriz was holding my still-healing hand—which, to be fair, EMITU had done a fabulous job of repairing. The caulk was mostly absorbed now, and the swelling had gone down. “What if that thing had killed you?”

I had been trying not to think about that, or what the consequences might be for making unauthorized first contact. I did my best. My best had ended up violent, and I had to think hard about that for the future. Fear and action, back in the Zone, had been a survival trait. But here? Maybe I had to learn a whole new set of rules and instincts.

“It didn’t,” I said. “I admit, that encounter could’ve gone better, but I’m pretty sure nobody picked me for my diplomatic skills. Maybe next time, you do the talking. I’ll be the badass in the background.”