overthrew your own High Command for treason. Isn’t that right?”
My lips are pulled in a tight line. The Terulian isn’t wrong.
“So, I ask you again. Who are you, and why are you here?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Why not?”
“Your life would be in danger if you knew. In fact, you already endangered yourself by taking us in. It would be in your best interest to let us go and forget you ever saw us,” I growl.
The Terulian smiles at me, baring her many teeth. “I’m a cop on a station ruled by war criminals, as you put it. Let that sink in for a second. You don’t scare me, Zoran.”
My lips remain sealed.
“Fine,” Tsula sighs. She taps a button, and the screen on the wall lights up with images of wreckage floating through space. My blood runs cold when I recognize what I’m looking at.
The remains of the Eternity.
“I don’t know what happened out there, but I’m willing to bet my year’s pay you have something to do with it – and now you’re here, bringing that trouble to my station. I don’t like that,” she snarls. “We have plenty to worry about already. I don’t need this extra headache. Tell me who you are and why you’re here, or I’m hauling your ass to the first freighter off this dump, you got that?”
She drives a hard bargain – and my chips are down. If the blob’s venom hadn’t weakened my muscles, I could simply walk out, and there’s nothing Tsula could do to stop me, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.
“I think we should trust her,” Isa says to me. “She saved our lives.”
“We don’t know her,” I growl. “We don’t know who she works for.”
Isa rests her hand on my knee. “Do you trust me?”
“Of course.”
“Then trust me on this!”
If Vukota could see me now, he’d have a fit. Putting our lives in the hand of some Terulian? Laughable. However, I don’t seem to have any other options left. Oh, my shame is growing every minute we spend on this accursed station.
“Fine,” I growl, my jaw clenched. “Fine. My name is Drax. General Drax. Commander of that ship,” I say, nodding at the screen. “The Eternity .”
Tsula’s red, reptilian eyes grow wide. “You’re a Zoran general?”
“Yes,” I growl.
“I captured a Zoran freaking general?” she says, barely containing the giddiness in her voice.
“Do you want me to trust you or what?”
“I’m sorry,” she says, straightening her back. She grabs her drink, doing her best to appear professional. “Please continue.”
“We were ambushed by the Flaming Fang.”
Tsula nearly spits her drink out. “W-w-wait,” she stammers. “The Flaming Fang? Did that ?”
“Yes,” I growl, growing impatient. “And we’re here to found out how and why.”
“You’re absolutely sure?”
“Positive. I spoke with their leader. Silver fur, scar across his eye. Chain of teeth around his neck.”
She nods. “That sounds like Bokito alright.”
Tsula leans back in her chair, propping her boots up on her desk. She’s lost in thought for a moment as she disseminates the information I just handed her. Isa doesn’t say a word, watching our conversation with bated breath. I’m not planning on mentioning the mysterious message she received – it’s not pertinent to the matter at hand.
“So, are you going to make the call?” I ask. “Turn us in, get that promotion? Receive a gold star?”
“No,” Tsula says pensively, her head resting on her hands. “I don’t work for the Flaming Fang.”
“Who do you work for, then?”
“Technically the Emerald Eye pays my salary,” she says, “but I work for the people of Vortex Station, first and foremost. And if what you say is true… then that’s bad news for all of us.”
I nod, but Isa is looking terribly confused.
“What does any of that mean?” she asks.
“The Emerald Eye is another gang of warlords,” I answer. “Run by the Terulians.”
Tsula nods. “They wouldn’t call themselves a gang, but
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