G'baena's Pirates by Rachel Clark Read Free Book Online Page B

her respect for this man who was becoming more important each moment.
    “Yes. I trust you and Del to keep me safe.”

    * * * *

    G’nkamalik, known as Kam by his shipmates, sat at his console, fuming. He’d warned the others that this was a very bad idea. Just because a vessel looked like a merchant ship from the outside it didn’t necessarily make it an easy target.
    Even with his empathic senses shielded, he could feel the fear and worry and anger from his shipmates. The best scenario they could hope for here would be to be handed over to the nearest planet’s authorities for punishment. The worst? Well, the worst he’d almost welcome. Since losing his twin brother, his once-privileged life had vanished. Not only did he have to deal with the death of the person he was closest to, but he’d also had to deal with his own sudden invisibility.
    He’d almost wished the invisible part was real. At least if no one could see him, the rejection of who he was and all that he’d been would have been easier to cope with. He glanced around the small ship and its ragtag crew. He’d given little thought to what happened to G’trobian males after they lost their brother. Now, he got to experience it firsthand, and it wasn’t pretty.
    “Can you sense anything?” The young man beside him sounded beyond terrified. He couldn’t be more than a teenager, but G’trobian law saw no need for age distinctions. Dead was dead, whether you were actually dead or not.
    Kam was about to answer with a curt negative reply but changed his mind at the last moment. What would it hurt to let the emotions in? It’s not like he could hurt any more than he already did. Slowly, he lowered the barrier in his mind.
    The first emotion to slip through was amusement, the second was concern, and the third was fear. It was the fear that puzzled him. They weren’t exactly a major threat sitting in a much larger ship’s cargo bay with their weapons disabled and a massive grappling hook wedged in their outer hull. In fact, it was safe to say that his ship and its hapless crew were pretty much fucked.
    Still puzzling over the emotions he could feel, Kam opened his senses further, widening and stretching them to people outside the cargo bay. He almost slammed them closed again when he sensed the woman heading towards them. Her energy felt familiar.
    “Kam, are you all right?” Kam glanced at the concern on his young shipmate’s face, but then closed his eyes and concentrated harder. How could the energy signature from another woman be so close to that of G’baena’s? He knew she was dead, had even attended her abshei ceremony, so how could he be sensing her energy and emotions now?
    “Something is wrong,” he said as he tried to decipher what his mind told him was impossible. “I can sense a G’trobian woman and… and…What the fuck is going on? I think I can sense twin males, as well. Either my senses are scrambled or…or…Is it possible that we are already dead?”
    “Is this how you pictured the garden of the goddess?” The pilot on this doomed misadventure seemed almost relaxed, his voice sounding amused.
    Kam laughed softly. “Guess not.”
    “If it helps, I can feel her, too. She seems different from other females. Stronger somehow.”
    Kam nodded. “I sense that, too. What about the twins? Any ideas on who would leave the planet with his twin?”
    “Only twins I know of are the Kings’ sons. What are the chances that we attacked a ship run by G’trobian royalty?”
    Kam laughed even harder, the ridiculousness of the situation seeming to rob him of control. “Oh, yeah, that would be just our luck—attack a military ship run by the sons of the Kings. How fucking great is that? We can all celebrate by being beheaded.”
    “Kam?” The soft voice came through the ship’s communications system, and for a brief moment, Kam really believed he was dead. Could this be a trick? There were species with far more powerful mind skills than