“I’ve just alerted my grouping that I need help. They will come.”
“Do they have a shuttle?”
He snorted. “No, but they’ll get one. Veslors are loyal. Whatever it takes, they will come.”
Oddly, that comforted her.
Chapter Two
The humans had stopped their panicked bickering for the most part. Gnaw ignored them, instead focusing on soft, metallic scraping noises. It sounded like something was repeatedly rubbing against the back of the shuttle, just behind them. He couldn’t think of the cause, though.
He braced his feet wider on the floor, closed his eyes against the darkness, and concentrated.
They were moving. It was hard to detect but his senses were that good.
With one arm, he reached up, placing his palm on the wall behind his head, and stretched his fingers wide. It confirmed his conclusion. He could feel a slight vibration, metal scraping, and—
“Um, Gnaw?”
The low female voice on his side distracted him, and he reached down, finding the female’s hand still resting on his thigh. He gave her hand a gentle pat. “It will be fine.”
“It’s getting colder in here, isn’t it?”
He debated on lying but that wasn’t his way. “Yes. Life support is down.”
“Are we going to freeze to death before we run out of air?”
“No.” That was also the truth. Their air would run out before the temperatures dropped low enough to cause death if a rescue shuttle didn’t arrive soon.
“Thanks.”
She sounded relieved, obviously unaware of the immediate danger they were in. He excused her ignorance, since she’d admitted it was her first time leaving her planet.
He calculated they probably had twenty minutes of good air quality left, at best. Then it would thin enough that they’d lose consciousness long before the cold grew uncomfortable.
He released the female and tapped on his wrist coms to tell his grouping to hurry, but the signal was gone.
He scowled. How was that possible? It shouldn’t be. Even with the power on the shuttle down, he wasn’t far enough from his grouping not to be able to reach them. They’d tested it when he’d been on the planet buying his grouping new clothing. They all hated the materials that were available on Defcon Red.
They’d believed it would be a short job, working for the fleet, but it had stretched into months…and now they had been asked to remain for another mission coming up soon.
He didn’t like the options his mind came up with for why the signal wasn’t there.
He closed his eyes and tried to use the implant inside his head. It was very faint, but the link remained active. He had no extra power source to draw from to amplify the signal with the shuttle down.
The connection grew fainter as the seconds passed.
His eyes snapped open and a growl tore from his throat.
The little female next to him startled, her hand on his thigh tightening. “Are you alright?”
“Either we’re moving farther away from Defcon Red, or they are leaving us.”
“What?” She sounded stunned and fearful.
“What is that you’re saying?” It was the annoying human male who had put himself in charge.
Gnaw sealed his lips, his mind going over any reasons why Defcon Red would be farther away from them. And if the large vessel wasn’t traveling away, it had to mean the shuttle was. Had something happened that had sent the shuttle floating deeper into space in the opposite direction of the fleet vessel? Defcon Red should be following, if that were the case, coming after them.
“Gnaw?” The female pressed her smaller body against his side.
“Quiet, Darla. I am thinking,” he whispered.
Something loudly bumped the shuttle.
“It’s the rescue!” a female shouted from across the cabin.
Gravity was brutally returned less than a minute later. Someone hit the floor inside the shuttle hard. The power didn’t come back on—but then a loud boom came from the roof.
Gnaw reached for his safety belt, unbuckled it, and shook off Darla’s hand as he stood. He grabbed the hidden dagger he kept sheathed in his pants.
Something was seriously wrong. Danger! His instincts were screaming at him. He never ignored them.
Suddenly, metal screeched from above and part of the ceiling was ripped open.
Bright lights blinded Gnaw. He threw up his other hand just as something dropped inside the shuttle. He blinked, his eyesight adjusting, and a snarl tore from his throat.
It was some type of canister device.
He turned, throwing his body toward the female who’d been kind to him, as well as her sister. He tried to shield them both with his body as a loud pop sounded and thick white gas poured inside the shuttle.
Screams and shouts filled the transport. He held his breath but his skin tingled.
Fuck. It isn’t just a lung irritant.
The screaming stopped. The two females he continued to shield went limp under him.
Gnaw turned his head and watched as two aliens dropped inside the shuttle where the roof used to be. Unfortunately, they were a race he recognized on sight.
The Elth had elongated upper bodies, with tentacles under their bellies that acted as arms and legs.
They met his gaze—all three eyes on each of their long faces flashed with fear.
He now understood why the aliens had stolen their shuttle and kidnapped them. The Elth liked to perform medical experiments on other races, turning them into docile slaves when they were finished.
Gnaw wasn’t going down without a fight. He’d kill them all.
The humans were unconscious and hopefully unhurt. He didn’t have time to check on them. His first priority was killing the threat.
Their weaknesses were their heads and bellies.
In one movement, he rose to his full height and lunged at the closest Elth, unleashing his claws. Without pause, he slashed the alien across the midsection. White goo gushed out and the Elth fell to the floor.
Gnaw turned on another, his lungs burning for air, but he didn’t breathe. The gas was still present, a light fog visible inside the shuttle.
He stabbed the second one in the rounded top of the head with his dagger and slashed at its stomach with his clawed hand. It used at least five tentacles to shove him away, but it was too late. It dropped, dying quickly.
He shut his eyes and let his rage take hold, his body transforming into battle mode. The dagger clattered to the shuttle floor as he released it.
He leapt through the ripped-open ceiling and landed on the roof on four paws.
More of the aliens waited in the shuttle bay of whatever ship they’d been brought to. There were over a dozen—clearly surprised to see him. He evaluated his attack plan even as he wiggled out of the torn clothing still attached to his body.
Once free, he sprang off the roof of the shuttle. When he landed in their docking bay, his body almost buckled, his body betraying him, but he refused to pass out. His rage helped him push the weakness back. He was also able to suck in fresh air to fill his lungs.
He attacked the closest Elth, pounced on it and tore it open with his claws. It cried out in pain but quickly stilled under him. He went for another one, listening as his translator interpreted their language.
“Take it down!” one of them shrieked.
“Throw more canisters,” another screeched.