I catch my breath for a couple of seconds and I resume my search of the Valdari hostages, ignoring Mindscrew’s body as if it was just some trash someone dropped on the floor. He might have some useful gadgets on him but I don't have the time to loot him.

I ponder on the option of yelling in these dark corridors and hope the target’s answer, but, even with all this commotion I don't hear much from inside these cells. There are no windows, and the thick metallic doors don’t let much noise get through. Each one has a bioprint scanner, and the screens show that there are two inputs needed to unlock the doors. I then turn around, and glance again at Mindscrew… even trash has some uses, sometimes.

Deploying my wrist blade, which is still badly damaged as the blade looks like it rusted, I slice both his hands, which, due to the condition of the blade, takes a couple of whacks each to successfully remove. The other thing i’ll need is the eyes, but i manage with the also damaged fingers of my metal hand. It’s still working but it feels like i suddenly got arthritis. And as for why i take both, is because i don’t know if i’ll need left or right, and i’m sure i don’t want to come back and butcher.

When I stop at the first cell, I put his left hand on the scanner, and after a second the screen flashes green, and now on the screen it requests for a retina confirmation. I put his… I don't really know if it's the left or right eye on the screen, and a red screen flashes; when I try with the other eye, it flashes green again.

The door creaks as if it hasn’t been opened in a year, and when i see the inside, there’s just three decomposed bodies stacked on top of each other. The flesh is already dry, so they must’ve been here for some time. The sight makes me remember how these people are scum of the galaxy and there’s nothing to be lost if we wipe them out. I go and repeat this process several times, hurrying up as I hear the gunfire outside intensify. At least the rest of the cells were just empty.

At the seventh try, the door opens and I finally see a living being. A humanoid with blue skin, no facial hair and an oval shaped head, with holes in the top that exhale air. There’s two of them, and they look completely surprised to see me.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

I hold my hands up in the air, to show that I'm not going to hurt them, although I'm holding a severed hand in one and an eyeball in the other.

“Eh, sorry about that… I'm from the Stellar Union, Commander Zsofia, we’ll keep you safe” I said in my best attempt to produce a non-threatening tone of voice.

They recoil when I start speaking, and one of them, the more delicate and small looking one, looks at the other, and that one looks at me, and produces some sort of smile, as their mouths are too small to see and even with night vision I can't see that well. I signal them to follow me, and I go back and resume my search. I’m not heartless enough to abandon people, but I won't put my team at risk while I try to convince a foreign race to follow me. What are they by the way Hallie?

[They are Alari, from the Alari Union. Their blue skin indicates that they belong to the slave caste of their race]

What the hell? Slaves? In this time and age? What the fuck?

[The Alari Union is considered a pacifist civilization, with deep religious traditions that go back to their stone age. They are also possess the highest technomancer rate per person of all the known races at 0.018%]

While I hear Hallie’s explanation, I open another door and voilá, a group of nine furry looking humanoids greet me with a hiss. Their skin is totally covered in fur, each one of them with a different pattern and colors on it; their eyes have vertical pupils, and are actually quite small in height, the tallest one of them reaching about my shoulders, and i’m only a meter and eighty.

The closest one of these Valdari jumps at me with incredible speed, aiming his hand full of sharp claws at my face. I frown, and after I dodge his attack, I jab him in the face with my left hand. He drops instantly to the ground.

“Next one i’ll rip your heads off” I said, forgetting about appearing non-threatening “I’m from the Stellar Union here to rescue you, and we are in a hurry to move it!”

I say raising my voice, and they all understand immediately, and they come out of the cell, meeting with the blue dudes from before. They look at each other with some apprehension but, given the state they are in, with only rags covering them and all of them dirty as if they crawled through a septic hole, they end up just staring at me.

I ask one of the Valdari, who seems to be trying to carry the unconscious one.

“Hey, who is Van’hil Blackfang?”

He, or she, i don’t know, looks at me surprised, and then points at the one on the ground.

“You just broke his teeth” Said with a masculine and deep voice the one i asked.

So I just knocked out my main rescue target.

Well, shit.