We went crashing to the floor in a pile of furs, the hold still tight on my neck. I dug my hands under the elbow wrapped around my neck and pushed up, trying to relieve the pressure while my feet scrabbled for purchase on the too-smooth floor.
“Eton,” I gurgled, “I don’t think…I’m…dinner.”
“No, but I’m also the garbage man,” Eton rasped in my ear, with far too much delight. “So we’re taking you out.”
We? Qole would never have agreed…would she have?
Arjan appeared in the periphery of my swimming vision, holding what looked like a large sack. “Is he still awake?”
Ah, we. I was as relieved as I could be, given the dire circumstances.
“Not for long,” Eton replied, and tightened his massive biceps further. It felt like gravity was altering around my throat.
In our scrabbling, we’d started to move around the floor, closer to the bunk. I snatched the wastebasket by the foot of the bed with my left hand and dunked it over Eton’s head. He swore and flinched in surprise. That lessened the pressure just enough. I heaved again, this time driving my shoulders over his and toward the ground. Now I was no longer being choked, just hugged to death.
I gasped. “Gentlemen, I really don’t think this is the best idea.” But they seemed uninterested in any alternatives I might have to offer. Arjan had industriously slipped the bag over my feet while I was dealing with Eton, and now he had a tight hold on both.
“Forget about knocking him out,” Arjan said. “I closed the other door in the hallway. No one will hear us taking him to the airlock.”
My eyes widened. Airlock. For the Unifier’s sake, not again. “The hell you won’t! Help! Help!”
I hoped my shouting might deter them from their mission, but no such luck. They were entirely unfazed as they bodily lifted me and carried me out of my quarters like baggage.
“Have you lost your minds?” I hissed. “What in the systems is possessing you? How is this going to help anything? Do you even know what happens if you open an airlock while traveling faster than light?”
“What we’re doing,” said Eton, “is making damn sure you don’t end up killing the captain.”
“I’m sorry,” Arjan said resolutely. “But Eton is right. You’re dangerous, and you already almost got us all killed once. Now you want to experiment on my sister? Whether she sees it or not, you need to go.”
I thrashed and kicked, but the bag around my legs and Arjan’s tight grip limited my options significantly. And Eton’s strength, in any other situation, would have been commendable. I had no idea where he was finding the energy to do this after our fight earlier. It felt like two metal bands were around my bare arms and chest, wound so tightly that I was growing dizzy from lack of breath. I didn’t even have a shirt as a buffer; I’d gone without since the furs were so warm.
Glorious. Escape from a destroyer full of enemies only to be killed by my erstwhile allies while I was half naked. I gave up the struggle for a moment and thought of something to say that might throw them off.
“So, Eton,” I panted. “Tell me. Why did you leave Dracorva?”
“Shut up.” Eton’s voice was a warning growl.
Arjan looked over his shoulder. “What is he talking about?”
“Nothing, except that your friend here was obviously trained in the Academy. Master Devrak Hansen teach you that choke hold? ‘Make a knife with your hand, put it behind the head.’ Still echoes in your mind, doesn’t it?”
“Shut up.” Eton’s voice lowered.
“What were you, commando? Did you get kicked out, or did you just desert because you couldn’t control your anger? Kill someone?”
“I said—” Eton let go and punched me in the stomach faster than I had anticipated. His fist drove me to the floor like a battering ram, knocking my head on the cold metal and the breath from my lungs. “Shut. UP.”
I wheezed, stars swimming in my vision. I had to fight back, but my energy had pretty much dried up. This was it. The end.
“Oh, damn.” Arjan stopped where he crouched, no longer hoisting the bag farther up my torso.
Groggily, I craned my head to see what he was staring at.
Qole was standing there, dressed in a tank top and pants almost identical to the ones that had been destroyed earlier. In some part of my abused skull, I thought they showed skin in all the right places. It was nice. And I was delirious.
She looked uncomprehending, shocked at the scene in front of her, and then her eyes started to fill with black. She didn’t even ask what they were doing.
“Let him go,” she said.
That sobered me right up. “Qole, it’s okay.”
Eton grabbed hold of the bag and yanked it up to my shoulders, and then he savagely drew the drawstring tight.
“It will be,” he said. “Qole, you just don’t understand how much danger you are in. It’s my job to protect you, and I refuse to fail at my job.” He grabbed my shoulders and nodded to Arjan. Arjan hesitated and then obviously steeled himself. He grabbed my feet and picked me up.
“Eton’s right,” he said. “This outsider is offering us riches for what we have, and you know as well as I do that always ends the same way for us on Alaxak.”
“Let him go,” Qole repeated and stepped closer. The air crackled around us and my skin crawled.
This wasn’t good. They hadn’t seen Qole fully in action like she had been on the destroyer, and none of us needed a repeat of that on the Kaitan. I still didn’t know how completely in control she really was when she…when she what? Seized Shadow? Became possessed by it? Was just exceptionally awesome at being really mad?
“Qole,” I said as calmly as I could. “It’s really okay. Let’s just talk this out, shall we? Maybe put me in a holding cell? Huh, guys? Compromise? Vote?”
Everyone ignored me. Arjan stood in front of his sister. “You know I’m right, Qole,” he said. “Please, let’s not destroy everything we have.”
Qole didn’t move. “You’ve just stooped to the same level you accused him of being on—acting behind my back, trying to control me, harming one of my crew. Now for the last time, let him go. Or so help me, by our ancestors, you both will never set foot on this ship again.”
“Enough of this nonsense.” Eton threw me across both shoulders like an overlarge, lumpy scarf and walked straight up to Qole. “You simply aren’t old enough to understand what you’re dealing with here.” He put a hand on her arm and pushed her aside.
Or tried to. Qole stayed rooted in the spot, completely against the laws of physics, given her and Eton’s relative mass. She looked up at him, grabbed my legs, and hauled me off his shoulders and onto the ground next to her as though I were made of straw.
Eton shook his head and headed for me, only to have Qole dig her palm into his chest and shove him staggering backward several feet. He stared at her in disbelief, as Arjan grabbed her arm and twisted it down. “Qole, calm down.”