Chapter 3
“Is that your gig now?”, asked Kucida. “Bounty hunting?”
Gamora shook her head. “It’s a favor for a friend.” She was going to find out as much as she could about the people chasing Peter before they showed up to attack. It would keep the crew safe. “Any word on who’s on the trail?”
“Scary crowd. Telos, Stunner Kime, Funu, Lipe and Kape, and rumor has it they even managed to hire Rocket and Groot.”
Gamora shook her head. “Not the last two.”
Groot was still on the ship and Rocket…was on a private job. But he wouldn’t do that. He wouldn't betray Peter for money.
Would he?
Gamora felt a sinking feeling in her stomach.
“You know something?”
“I know them.”
“Nice.” Kucida grinned. “If they’re ever looking for work, I could put a few jobs their way.”
“It would depend on the specifics.” They were willing to take any job that was moral and legal, and were a bit flexible on the second point. (Rocket wasn't inclined to be strict on the first point, unless the rest of the crew kept an eye on him.)
Just then, Gamora’s bracelet chirped. “I have a call.”
Drax’s face appeared. “It is Quill. He was captured by a bounty hunter while having dinner with that woman Aooo who kept embracing him enthusiastically.”
“I will be right there.” She looked at Kucida. “I have to go.”
—
“You lost him!” Gamora snapped at Aooo. “A Nova Corps Millenial who can’t fight a solitary bounty hunter?”
Aooo looked down. “He had a gun to Bee-Dur’s head before I realized what he was doing. I couldn’t make a move without putting Bee-Dur at risk. And then he dropped the stun grenade, and when I woke up, Bee-Dur was gone.”
Gamora swallowed down her rage. “His name is Peter. And we have to find him fast. Tell Denarian Dey we’re leaving. Can you at least do that?”
Aooo gave Gamora an angry look. “I will go with you. He was kidnapped on Xandar, which means Nova Corps has jurisdiction.”
“We don’t have time to let you slow us down.”
“I am a trained investigator. What are you trained in, except killing?”
Gamora fought back the urge to hit her. “It’s our ship. We’re not wasting time bringing you.”
“I have a right to commandeer a vehicle if there’s an urgent need to protect someone in danger, and right now, that’s very true.” Aooo drew a deep breath. “I’m not doing that, at least not yet. I’m asking you to cooperate. For Bee-Dur’s sake.”
“Fine,” said Gamora. “For Peter’s sake. But don’t get in my way.”
—
The bad news was Stunner Kine had a faster ship than they did.
Gamora cursed the controls as she laid out her course. She’d trained as a pilot, of course, and was perfectly competent, but competent was all she was.
Rocket flew the same way he built weapons, with an insane genius that was constantly on the verge of killing them all, but somehow ended up just lucky enough to let them do the impossible. If he’d been there, with them, Gamora was sure he’d have found a trick to catch up with Kine and get to Peter in time.
(Peter might have been able to overtake the ship. He didn’t seem to realize it, but he flew better than Gamora, at least on an M-ship. He’d been flying them for twenty years, and had learned a string of Ravager tricks to get the most out of the ship. Gamora had been rushed through a series of lessons, ensuring she could be an adequate pilot on all of the most common ship types. The lesson she’d received on how to overtake a faster ship had been “Find a faster ship, murder the crew, and claim it as your own.”)
—
“There is a signal,” said Mantis.
“Is it the ship?” Gamora asked.
“No. It is a distress signal. A life form who has been left on an asteroid in a space suit.”
“We don’t have time to waste.”
Aooo gave Gamora a shocked look. “If someone is stranded on an asteroid, they need help before their air runs out.”
“What if we lose Peter chasing after some stranger?”
“We’ve already lost track of Bee-Dur. Do you see any trace of the ship? We’re not going to leave some poor stranded spacer to die.”
“The person signaling has given their name,” said Mantis. “It is Stunner Kine.”
Gamora and Aooo exchanged looks.
“Fine,” said Gamora. “We’ll get him.”
—
“So glad you found me, girl,” said Kine to Mantis, as soon as he got his helmet off. “I thought I was…”
He looked at Gamora and swallowed hard. “Um, dead.”
“Not if you cooperate,” Gamora said.
“He wasn’t lying, then?”
“What?”
“Star Lord. The bounty. He told me that Gamora…the Gamora…well, you miss, were in love with him and would track down anyone who harmed him. I thought he was talking nonsense, the way many do when you grab them. But it was true, then?”
Gamora ignored the question. “Did you harm him?”
Kine put his hands up, all six eyes wide with his best attempt at innocence. “I swear, miss, only tied him up and stunned him. I run a clean operation, you know that. Bring them back alive.”
Gamora snatched a knife from Drax’s belt and swung it towards Kine’s eyes, stopping when it was just shy of Kine’s central eyeball. “Where is he?”
Kine began trembling. “I was taking him to Zilnor, when he was snatched!”
“Snatched?”
“Another bounty hunter. Poaching on my territory. I tried to protect Star Lord, but I was hopelessly out-gunned! He stole my bounty and my ship.”
“Who?” Gamora’s hand clenched tighter around the knife’s hilt.
“He goes by the name Rocket.”
—
“Subject 88P13?” Aooo asked.
“Do not call him that.” It was understood among the Guardians of the Galaxy that whatever happened, however ugly things got, no one would call him that. They could argue, insult each other, and get into all kinds of fights, but there were certain lines they would not cross. They could insult Drax and his obsession with avenging his family, but no one could utter a negative word about his wife and daughter. No matter how irritated anyone was with Peter, they would not harm or threaten his music. Gamora was never referred to as the daughter of Thanos. No one skipped out on their duty to ensure Groot was looked after. If they made a joke in front of Mantis that she didn’t understand, someone would take the time to explain it to her. And no one called Rocket Subject 89P13.
Aooo blinked in surprise. “Nova records…”
“Are wrong. His name is Rocket, and you will refer to him as such. Questions?”
“Why hasn’t he brought Bee-Dur back?”
“Peter. And I don’t know. I’ll ask that as soon as I find him.”
—
“Hey, Greenie, give me permission to board. I need weapons fast.”
Gamora tapped the com button. “Where is Peter?”
“That’s why I need the weapons. I’ll explain on board.”
—
Gamora glared down at Rocket. “Talk.”
Rocket was rapidly modifying mechanical components as he spoke. “Quill was grabbed by Zilnor.”
“You sold him!”
“Don’t worry, I’m planning to steal him back. That way we get Quill and a million units.”
With a cry of rage, Gamora grabbed Rocket by the throat and shoved him against the wall. “You sold him, you treacherous rodent!” If Peter was hurt...
A hand gently, but firmly touched Gamora’s shoulder. “I am Groot.”
“He betrayed Peter!”
“I am Groot?”
“I didn’t!” Rocket spat. “It wasn’t my idea! It was Quill’s!” He looked up at Groot.
“I am Groot.”
“Fine, he can explain.” Gamora set him down. “But lie to me, you vile little...trash panda, and Drax will be roasting you over a flame-pit for dinner.”
Rocket rubbed his throat and looked down. “I took the job, yeah. But only to screw over the client and make an easy ten thousand. But Zilnor sent escorts to pick up the bounty. I was ready to fight them, but Quill turned himself in. He’s…what do you call stupid, but like to save other people?”
“I am Groot.”
“Heroic, yeah. He’s stupidly heroic. You know him.”
Gamora sighed. She did.
—
Earlier
“You have no idea how screwed you are,” said Peter.
Kine frowned. “I don’t know what you think this is, but I can promise you, this is not sexual.”
“Sexual?”
“You kept offering to screw me? I mean I know your reputation, but...”
“No, I didn’t mean screw you as in...I meant like screw you! Like you’re screwed! Like the bad kind of screwed!”
Kine devoted all six eyes to giving Peter a confused stare.
“Like you made a mistake! A bad mistake, and you will regret it!”
“Oh.” Kine let out a bored sigh and turned back to the ship controls.
Peter thought frantically. Kine had put him in a restraint chair, so he couldn’t get his hand over to his pocket or his boot, where he kept his lock picks, let alone his weapon. The only chance he had was to talk his way out of it.
“You know Gamora?”
Kine paused and spared a couple of eyes to look at Peter.
“Yeah, that Gamora. Living weapon. Thanos’s favorite assassin. Could probably take you to pieces faster than you could blink.” Peter briefly wondered if it took longer to blink six eyes. “Well, we’re in love. She’s probably tracking you down right now. If you let me go, I’ll try to talk her into sparing your life. If you actually deliver me back to Xandar with an apology, there’s a ninety percent chance she’ll let you go.”
“Okay,” said Kine, “That was creative. Implausible, but creative.”
“How was that implausible?”
“Gamora? In love? With you?”
“Why couldn’t Gamora be in love with me?”
“You’re...”. Kine gestured a casual flipper. “Well, I don’t even know what you are, but you’re weird and goofy and you weren’t that hard to overpower, and now you’re trying to bluff your way out of the situation, which suggests you’re pretty weak. Why would one of the greatest warriors in the galaxy ever fall in love with you?”
“Hey, I saved the galaxy! Twice!”
Kine’s rearmost flipper made a dismissive gesture. “See? That’s even more ridiculous! You have got to work on your plausibility.”
“Who do you think defeated Ronan the Accuser?”
“I heard it was Drax the Destroyer.”
“Drax? He...well, he was there, but I led the team! We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy!”
“You led a team with Drax the Destroyer against Ronan the Accuser?” Kine asked. “Was Gamora there?”
“As a matter of fact, she was.”
Kine snorted. “If you survive whatever this Zilnor wants with you, you could have a good career writing holo-fic.”
—
About four hours later, the lights on the ship went out. The engine was still running, but the interior had gone dark. Kine began frantically flipping switches. The lights didn’t come back on. The ship began to speed up, and move in a slow turn. Kine yanked frantically on the steering yoke, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Something wrong?” Peter asked.
“Someone else is running the controls.”
The coms flicked to life.
Music began playing. “As your bony fingers close around me, long and spindly death becomes me, heaven can you see what I see?”
Depeche Mode. Dream On. 2001.
Peter smiled.
“What is that?” Kime yelled. He flicked the com buttons.
“Attention, the idiot who stole my bounty. This is Rocket.”
Kime went silver with fear.
“I have control of your ship. Now we have two ways that this can go down, the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is I take your bounty and your ship. You get to wait in the nearest astroid. I’m feeling generous, so I’m giving you a suit and an emergency beacon. If you’re lucky, you might even make it out alive.”
There was a pause, and Kime went almost blindingly white.
“Now let me tell you about the hard way. First I take a knife...”
—
Five minutes and one short round of vomiting later, Kine was suited up and rushing to the coms. “I’m ready! I’m in the suit! I’ve got the ship piloted for the nearest asteroid! Please, I’m complying!”
There was a pause, and then Rocket spoke. “And the bounty?”
“Tied up on the bridge.”
Another pause, during which Kime stood at the bridge, twitchy and iridescent.
Peter was pretty sure Rocket was doing it on purpose.
And then finally, “That is acceptable. You land on the asteroid, you turn your back on the ship, and you wait exactly eight minutes before activating the beacon.”
Kime nodded frantically. “Yes, sir. On my way sir.”
He turned to Peter. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to leave you with him, but it’s you or me.”
Peter tried not to laugh.
—
No sooner did the ship door close behind Kime than Rocket popped out of a ceiling panel, laughing hysterically. “Did you see the look on his face? He was so scared! ‘Oh no, he might disembowel me! Better run away!’ D’ast weakling. Have fun on the dead asteroid, idiot!”
Peter smiled. “That was pretty impressive. If I didn’t know you, I’d have been scared, too.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’d never do that to you,” said Rocket. “You’re almost kind of a bit like a friend to me, or at least a pet. If I ever decide to take you out, it’ll be one clean shot. Bam! You won’t even feel it!” He gave a big friendly grin.
“...thanks?” Peter squirmed. “Can you untie me?”
“After we get out of here.” Rocket started the engines. “So, how’d you get grabbed by an amateur like Kime? I figured he’d think you’re even more stupid than you actually are, and you’d slip away. You know a couple of good tricks.”
From Rocket, that was practically a compliment. Peter stifled a smile. “I was having dinner with...an old friend. Kime came up behind. I didn’t even know there was a bounty on me.”
“Big one. A million units.” The ship took off.
“A million?” Peter whistled. “I can’t think of anyone I pissed off that much.”
“Some science jerk. He stole your blood when you were a kid, and apparently it’s worth a lot of money, so he wants you back so he can get more of it.” Rocket programmed a course.
“Zilnor?” Peter shook his head. “Man, I don’t hear anything about him for twenty-five years, and then suddenly he’s everywhere.”
Rocket turned back to Peter. “How many times did you get kidnapped as a child, anyway?”
“Not that many.” Peter thought. “Four. Wait, does it still count if you do it on purpose? In that case, seventeen. Yondu and I had this scheme where we’d convince everyone I was a prince of some obscure planet and after they kidnapped me I’d shut down their security system and we’d clean them out.”
“Good scam.” Rocket pulled out a knife larger than his arm. “Let me just get those ropes off. Whatever you do, Humie, don’t move.”
—
Rocket stood over the navigation computer, muttering.
“What’s wrong?” Peter asked. He’d just gotten back from raiding the ship’s first-aid supplies for skin-glue. (One continuous annoyance of outer space was that no one made cool dinosaur band-aids.)
“The computer screwed up the d’ast jumps! I was trying to backtrack so we could find Gamora, who’s probably following Kine’s ship to come rescue you.”
“She is?” Peter smiled.
Rocket gave Peter a dirty look. “Anyway, that idiot Kine has his route tracks all out of order. He sorted them by fuel consumption! Who does that? Long story short, we’re in Zilnor’s territory, and we need to get out fast.”
There was a polite ping on the ship’s coms.
“That’s probably Gamora.” Peter stepped forward to answer it.
Rocket put a paw up, then pressed the button. “Who is this?"
“Is this Kine?” Rocket let out a derisive snort. “It’s Kine’s ship. Well, it used to be Kine’s ship.”
“Ah.” There was a pause, and a light flashed through the ship. “Judging by your size, you’re Rocket, correct? And the being with you is the Star Lord.”
Rocket got a nervous look. “The Star Lord?”
“Don’t try to renegotiate terms. My scan was quite definitive. We agreed on a million units, so I expect you to fly him peacefully to my fortress and hand him over. I’ve sent some of my security force to escort you, to ensure such valuable cargo doesn’t get lost.”
Rocket glanced down at the short-range scanner. “I’m coming. I’m just surprised you want this loser. He doesn’t look impressive.”
“Hopefully, what he looks like to you is one million units.”
Rocket dropped the call and began frantically flipping switches.
Peter swallowed hard. “That doesn’t sound like good news.”
“Quill, hit the weapons locker. I know Kine was all about the stunners, but he has to have something lethal in here. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to take out one of the escorts, and the others will board us, trying to take you alive.”
Peter stepped over and checked the scanner. They were already surrounded. “Rocket, is this the kind of fight we get out of alive?”
“I hear yapping, when I should be hearing the sound of you bringing me large quantities of weapons.”
Peter squatted down and put a hand on Rocket’s shoulder. “Rocket. The truth. Can we fight our way out of this one?”
“Maybe,” said Rocket. He looked down. “Maybe one of us will make it out alive.”
“And if we play along and he grabs me? He’ll let you go?”
“Probably. He’s not trying to keep a secret. He told way too many bounty hunters to hide it. And it’s bad for his rep if I don’t come back. Plus, he knows Groot would come looking for me. But you...”
Peter bit his lip. “He’s not going to kill me, right? He wants my blood and it’s easier to keep getting if I’m alive?”
“No, he won’t kill you. He’ll do worse!”
“Worse?”
“He’s going to keep you in his frikkin lab and do things to you. You think I’d let anyone do that to you? You may be a pain in the ass, humie, but not enough for me to let you be some frikkin lab rat! No, we go down fighting.” He turned and reached for the ship’s guns.
Peter put out a hand on his arm. “Rocket, look at me.”
Rocket looked.
“This isn’t the same lab. It’s not like where you were. I’ll be fine.” He smiled. “I actually remember this guy from when I was a kid. He just wants blood samples. A couple of needle sticks. Nothing to worry about.”
Zilnor had been planning to sell Aooo in pieces, but Peter didn't think this was the best time to mention that. “So you play along, go get the rest of the crew, and you tear this place to bits. Everyone gets out alive. Well, all of us definitely get out alive.”
Rocket looked hesitant.
“Come on, it’s the smart play. Plus, we could use those million units for the ship.”
“What makes you think I’m sharing?” Rocket muttered. He looked up. “A couple of needle sticks? That’s all?”
“Yeah, nothing to worry about.”
“Okay.” Rocket turned. “I’m taking the ship in. And when we come and get you, let me know if...let me know how much that scumbag deserves to hurt.”
He steered the ship towards the central fortress.
—
Gamora stood down, breathing slowly. He hadn’t betrayed Peter. Peter was being stupidly noble and likely to get himself killed. She should have guessed. He would suddenly break out in heroic tendencies at the most inconvenient times.
She drew a deep breath. She needed to be as clear-headed as possible to bring Peter back. “Rocket,” she said. “I am sorry. That was wrong. I should not have attacked you like that.”
It was unfair, and also she wanted to ensure that Rocket wasn’t harboring a grudge when they went to get Peter. She wanted Zilnor and his base to receive Rocket’s full attention.
Rocket rubbed his throat. “You’re d’ast right it was! Next time, let me finish a frikkin sentence before you assume the worst.”
Gamora nodded. “I will trust you more next time.”
“And you and the humie hurry up and finish whatever frikkin mating ritual you’re doing so the rest of us don’t have to deal with your moods.”
“Rocket...”
“Just saying, if you two quit your mating dance and got on with things, you wouldn't be half as crazy. Anyway, what are we going to do about the lab? I vote we blow up everything.”
“First we need a plan to rescue Peter,” said Gamora. “We need to work strategically and discreetly, to ensure he’s not hurt.”
Rocket frowned.
“And then we blow up everything.”
Rocket grinned. “Oh, yeah.”