The threat of the AI retaliating for their disobedience was the only reason Kamak was playing along. They had allowed him to hold his gun, just to make him shut up, as Tooley carried out the docking sequence.

  The Horuk ship had raised no protest as they transmitted docking coordinates, and continued to remain silent as the two ships drifted closer and eventually interlocked via the Wanderer’s docking tube. Tooley held her breath until the seal was confirmed.

  “Scanning,” Tooley said. Now that they were in physical conduct, she did a few much more detailed sweeps, just to be safe. “Weapons disarmed. No internal hazards detected...one life sign aboard.”

  “One?”

  “One,” Tooley repeated, after checking for a fourth time.

  “The Horuk usually travel in hordes,” Farsus said. “Curious.”

  “We’re learning all sorts of things,” Kamak said. “Like how we’re all about to die.”

  Doprel growled at him, and Kamak shut up again. The gun stayed aimed at the boarding tunnel, though, and no one protested that. Everyone else had a weapon on them, and hands drifted closer every time the tunnel made a noise. Corey palmed his stolen lightsaber and started to sweat even without activating the superhot blade. He had taken this blade from the Horuk, and he was starting to worry they might want it back.

  The boarding tunnel echoed with a dull thud as a door on the far side of it opened and shut. A drop of sweat ran down Kamak’s palm as he clenched his gun. Dull clicking noises shuffled up the tunnel, towards them. Nothing came into sight just yet.

  “Crew of Hard Luck Hermit.”

  A lifetime of trigger discipline only barely kept Kamak’s hand steady. The raspy, stilted voice was filtered through a translation chip, but Kamak still knew the sound of a Horuk voice.

  “Wild Card Wanderer,” Tooley corrected. Kamak tore his eyes away from the tunnel for just a second, to glare at her.

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  “Yes, that’s us,” Corey said. “Who are you?”

  “It is 846, of caste 1024,” the raspy voice said. “It comes unarmed, and fangs turned away, that you know its approach of peace. It asks that your welcome be the same. May 846 make approach?”

  Kamak licked dry lips, and his hand shook. Corey took the initiative.

  “You can approach,” Corey said. “But if you try anything, make any hostile motions, we are armed and ready to shoot.”

  “Your caution is understood and accepted,” 846 said. “846 approaches slow.”

  True to its word, 846 moved slowly. At first, Kamak could only see a few of the thin appendages that formed its grasping arms, but after a few steps, the circular core came into view, and slowly backed out of the boarding tunnel onto the cargo bay of the Wanderer. Kamak followed its movements every step of the way.

  Farsus kept his eyes locked on the Horuk, but for very different reasons. In spite of the high stakes, he did still retain his curiosity. He hadn’t had many opportunities to examine a living Horuk specimen that wasn’t actively trying to tear his throat out. Watching the hydraulic capillaries flow and flex beneath the Horuk’s carapace was fascinating, even as Farsus kept a hand near his gun. Those throat-ripping attempts hadn’t completely left his mind.

  “846 would turn and face directly,” 846 said. “Is it allowed?”

  “You’re allowed,” Corey said.

  The Horuk began to rotate, using the few dozen of its limbs that supported its circular core to spin in place in an unnerving fashion. Kamak’s lips twitched with disgust as 846’s mouth came into view, visibly full of razor-sharp teeth that could all too easily consume living flesh. The mouth was shut for now, and though it was difficult to tell exactly where it was looking, since it had sensory organs on each of its hundreds of limbs, Corey got the feeling it was focused on him. Or maybe just the lightsaber.

  “Alright, 846, you need to tell us why you’re here,” Corey said.

  “It is so. But first, query: You are the Corey Vash, yes?”

  “Yes, I am,” Corey said.

  “Then 846 supplicates before you,” 846 said. It held all of its hundreds of arms straight out, like an organic sunburst, and held the pose for several ticks.

  “Uh...Supplicate?”

  “Yes. To you it is loyal, and to you it is beheld.”

  Corey looked at the alien, still frozen in place, and then took a few quick glances at his friends. They were all just as clueless as he was.

  “You’re loyal to me? Why?”

  “Because you have achieved completion of ascension rites of the Ordered Count, and claimed the Heatrazor of the First One.”

  Corey took a quick glance at his lightsaber, and then back at 846. The pieces were starting to come together.

  “By ancient stricture, you, Corey Vash, are now One,” 846 said. “Leader of all Horuk.”