[D]He watched in horror as the girl walked up to the nightmare.

  Watched as she pointed at them.

  How had there not been a massacre?

  How had no one even reacted to a monster like that running loose?

  “Talking person.”

  “Know. Heard.”

  It took all his experience in the military to not shut down as the deepest natural voice he had ever heard came from the walking weapon. War-beasts were dull things that endlessly spread and destroyed everything in their path. They were a pnet killing weapon of st resort. The cost to breed them and then clear the pnet afterwards was so high it would bankrupt most nations in the gaxy. Most of that cost came from making sure the things that were destroyed were the right things as well. To be found with a War-beast outside of strictly controlled areas was a gactic level crime, it could see an entire nation expelled from the council and blockaded.

  The only thing that stopped a War-beast hoard from overrunning the gaxy was the fact that they were dumb beasts. No better than most animals. So long as no technology was left in their path, they would never leave the pnet they were deployed on. They were cunning enough to be a problem, but not smart enough to overrun orbital ships.

  He had even seen them deployed once. That was all it had taken. He was selected to oversee a test on a pirate vessel. They had sent three War-beasts, with specialty measures, testing their viability as a boarding strike. He didn’t know exactly how things ended up, as once the pirates were all dead the War-beasts found and mostly disabled their ability to monitor things. The test was beled an abject failure and the ship was vaporized with a drive wake.

  It was deemed the least risky option.

  From what he had seen, he didn’t think they had needed three.

  The nightmare in front of him was not only the rgest War-beast he had ever seen, being so close to the military specified upper limit that he swore it was over, it was smart enough to talk. No one, not the most aggressive council members, not the most savage generals, not even the Humans, thought a War-beast deployment was a sane thing to do.

  Now someone had made one rger and smarter than the military’s worst weapon.

  … And they let it loose on a civilian station.

  He had to find a way off this station. He had no idea who was after him anymore, but if they were willing to go this far rather than just destroy the station, he needed to be constantly on the move.

  All he had to do was avoid the living weapon that was crouched right in front of him.

  “When I distract it, find a ship and steal it. This station is doomed.”

  As he whispered to Christy, he passed her the data card. He didn’t have high hopes of getting out of this.

  “Wait, nothing has happened yet. It’s better to distrac—”

  He didn’t bother to finish listening. She didn’t understand. No one outside the special forces would understand. Some people may have heard stories, but only the select few had seen what a War-beast could actually do, and that information was heavily cssified for a good reason.

  His heart beat faster as he dashed towards the beast. He hoped Christy would take the hint. He was sure the beast would take a few minutes to finish with him. He didn’t expect to live that long, but if he riled the beast, it would attack his corpse rather than chase.

  He hoped.

  He could see the first few movements. The beast cocked its head as he drew near. He would use his nails to inflict a wound on the inner thigh and then quickly change direction to –

  He felt a heavy weight on his back, as his face pressed against the ground.

  ‘Wha?!?’

  “Important?”

  “I don’t know. The Crova said not to mind him. We can just ignore him I think.”

  As he listened to the voices above him, his mind desperately tried to make sense of the situation.

  How did he end up on the floor? He didn’t even remember hitting the beast!

  ‘Canireans are the most agile, how did I not even see anything?!!’

  If he had caused damage, he should be dead. Did he not even manage to hurt the thing?

  “Please don’t hurt him!”

  His ears swiveled at Christy’s voice.

  ‘Why didn’t she run!’

  He tried to say as much, but he couldn’t get enough air to form the words. The weight on his chest was heavy enough to be a problem.

  “We will do anything you ask, just please let him go!”

  “Fast talk. Small things. Pup, follow.”

  It took his mind a moment to realize that it was the beast talking. Probably the ck of air getting to him. When the weight lifted, he desperately gasped in as much as he could in preparation to spring up. As he tensed for the motion, he felt the world stop making sense. It felt as if he was flying. Gravity pulling him down but the world refusing to listen.

  As his eyes refocused and his mind caught up, he found himself crushed in the beast’s grip.

  “Why small thing heavy? Too much small thing.”

  He heard more deep grumbling from above him as he did his best to assess the situation. Trying to struggle so he could free his hands. It seemed like they were headed into the docking tunnel for a ship. He couldn’t allow that. Couldn’t put Christy in a situation where she had to choose him or the mission.

  ‘Why can’t I break free!?’

  Nothing he tried broke the creature’s grip or allowed him the smallest bit of freedom. All he could do was listen to the clicking footsteps clearly belonging to Christy and watch as the light faded away. He had to shake his head several times to make sure he wasn’t still losing air.

  "Why is it so dark?"

  “Your eyes will get used to it. Eventually. It took a while for me.”

  “That doesn’t help me see now. Is it just a straight path?”

  It seemed that Christy was having just as much trouble with the light. The shocking realization that the young Canirean had adapted just made things worse. Their race could see in low light, but it took prolonged exposure. Very prolonged exposure. Getting locked in the dark long enough for their bodies to submit to the environment and change was a grueling experience. An Alpha could speed the process, but it still wasn’t pleasant being without a sense for that long.

  When they made it into the ship proper and neared what he expected was a command room, based on the many blinking colors coming from the doorway, he smelled something that set everything he had on alert and shrunk his tail fur down to nothing. He could even feel his instincts screaming to quietly leave.

  It smelled like an apex from a savage world.

  “Run!”

  He finally got enough air to give commands after the beast dropped him in front of the door.

  “Wha? How?”

  He couldn’t even answer her.

  It was like staring at a mountain. What could he even do? He could only see an outline against the lights behind it, but even then he could tell.

  He was insignificant.

  His awareness faded to the sound of thunder.

  [?]“Run!”

  “Wha? How?”

  Her question was answered only by the rumble of machines and a slight thud.

  Crova dark vision was beyond terrible. She couldn’t see a thing. If it wasn’t for the girl behind her guiding her straight on an even path, she would have been falling all over herself. Being told to run only served to raise her heartrate.

  ‘What could he possibly see that was worse than that creature?’

  More rumbling followed that silence.

  “Pup. Follow. Bring that one.”

  Clearly the massive creature and the girl had no trouble seeing. She didn’t know why she had been brought to this spot only to then be brought to another spot. That didn’t make much sense.

  But then nothing about this made much sense.

  They eventually made it somewhere where the girl had to help her through a door. More machine sounds followed and a bit of silence. Then the lights came up and she saw Baylor crumpled against the wall.

  She rushed over to him and checked his breathing. He didn’t seem hurt, but she had never seen the man stop. Even when they were supposed to be sleeping, he was always tossing or checking things. She loved the man, but off was not something he was capable of.

  It worried her.

  “What happened to him? I will sit and listen but please don’t do anything else to him.”

  “Magic.”

  She looked at the creature in bewilderment. Had she heard that right?

  “Um, I think he just passed out. It happens. Also, he did all the things, don’t bme us.”

  ‘It happens?! Passing out doesn’t just happen!’

  She couldn’t argue the other points though. She had been scared when he grabbed her and pulled her back. When she saw the creature behind them, her knees had almost buckled. She had thought his pn was suicidal and was shocked again when he ignored her and ran at the creature. She had only seen him move that fast a few times, using the famed Canirean agility to its fullest, and it seemed he was in full form today.

  She didn’t see how he ended up on the floor. The creature clearly didn’t care for a famed anything.

  It also clearly didn’t care about the ws of physics either. The creature seemed thin. Tall but thin, built more for speed than for any kind of power. When it had picked up Baylor like he was a child, she had been stunned. The creature moving him around as if he weighed nothing and still walking at a pace that was hard to follow. Clearly some kind of advanced robot or technological wonder. Something of an impossibility.

  An impossibility that was set against them.

  They had been caught. Walked right into a trap so obvious they had seen it coming and second guessed themselves.

  She took a shaky breath and looked around. They seemed to be in some sort of meeting room. A table and chairs present. She could see an ultra-violet symbol for a possible panel, but she didn’t recognize the mark. She did her best to sit between her unconscious partner and the others in the room.

  “Alright, we can accept that bme. But we didn’t exactly want to come here either.”

  The girl didn’t seem to like that answer. Her brows coming down and her eyes less than pleased.

  “If you didn’t want to come, why did you come. I didn’t ask for him and you were the one that wanted to see the ship.”

  She took another shaky breath. This wasn’t looking good for her. Everything that had happened had thrown her off. She shouldn’t be having such a hard time with a young girl. She didn’t normally make a mistake that bad and she couldn't afford to make them here.

  ‘Clearly I am not in the right state of mind for a good negotiation. It might be best to go with bluntness instead. I am too rattled to try and out maneuver both of them.’

  “Fine. Everything is our fault. What do you want from us. We don’t have anything to give you, you know.”

  The girl clearly didn’t expect that. A mixture of surprise and confusion on her face as she looked at the creature.

  “Pup, bad talk. Not trade. Small things problem.”

  “Wha-! She said she was a negotiator. It isn’t my fault she is weird. I can’t do better if you don’t tell me the pn!”

  She looked back and forth between the two. Clearly the girl was not in charge.

  “Say, it might be better to just let your captain deal with me, right?”

  “Uh, captain? Do you mean Moose?”

  That seemed to get a reaction out of the creature. She wasn’t sure she wanted the creature to react, but it was good information.

  “No. No Moose for small thing problem. Find trade. Find talking person. No bad talk. No problem Moose.”

  It seemed like whomever this Moose was, she was unlikely to meet them without the permission of the creature. Something they didn’t appear to be getting anytime soon.

  “I found the talking person, it’s her!”

  As the girl pointed at her and the creature turned to follow the finger, she had a sinking feeling.

  “Problem person? Fine. Now find trade.”

  “What? How am I supposed to find a trade if I don’t know what I am trading?”

  The creature shrugged and seemed to not care about that detail.

  “Not Kitty problem. Talk talking person. Moose give orders.”

  This seemed to stump the girl.

  There was an entire dynamic here that she wasn’t seeing. She didn’t know if the creature belonged to this ‘Moose’ person or if that was what its handler was called, but it was clear that the hierarchy didn’t include these two. The girl was just a patsy or disposable pawn, while the creature was just muscle. They didn’t have any information to give.

  “Is this what I am supposed to trade?”

  Or maybe not. The girl had taken a paper out of her clothing. It was so odd that she was taken aback.

  ‘Only rich eccentrics use paper. Where did she get that?’

  The girl passed the paper to her and the creature seemed to have expectations now. As she looked down at the paper, wary of the creature’s sudden interest, she was confronted with what could only be a child’s list of metals. The letters were poorly written and the spelling was atrocious, but she could make out the intended meaning.

  Barely.

  ‘This is going to be a long negotiation’

  She sighed and settled in for what she expected to be the most painful negotiation of her life.