Free Manifest by Viola Grace Page B

wasn’t standard issue on Makuada, but other female agents were now wearing them because climbing onto cargo was a lot easier if you didn’t have fabric that would snag.
    “We will need breathers for the next one. Kav-sku.” She called it out, and they headed to the gear shed to suit up. Methane breathers thought they could get away with a lot more because the agents wanted to leave. Mel was willing to dig through their ships until she found every anomaly that didn’t match the scan or her intuition.
    They checked the tanks and breathers for each other and forged to the airlock with the masks off. Before they entered, they did a final check and put the masks on, coms open. They had a job to do.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    Mel was exhausted and it was near the end of their shift, but she forged onto the final ship with her head high as if she had just begun to work.
    There was a lot more wrong on this ship than any of the other four seizures she had made. The guards were on alert, because she had warned them that something was off on the leisure craft and they trusted her judgement.
    She checked everything in the hold, opening it and putting a customs seal on it when she finished. The bulkheads were wrong. “There isn’t any equipment under this bulkhead. We need this down.”
    Mel took out her tools and the bolts and screws dropped to the deck. “Holy crap.”
    Three cold chambers were stacked in the space. Each had an occupant with hard golden skin. Two males and one female.
    “Arrest the captain and the owner. Alert medical and get battery packs in here. We have sleepers and I am not getting the feeling that it was voluntary.”
    Wikins nodded and made the calls. Kaylor helped her get the first container down using the mag lifts. The medical officers arrived, took in the situation and moved the technological sarcophagi out of the hold and into the base.
    She waited with the third chamber while the medics pushed the second one out.
    Wikins looked down. “Good call on the bulkhead.”
    “Thanks. What are they?”
    “They look like Adru-Skari. You are right; they probably are not here voluntarily. They don’t travel unless it is for marriage.”
    “Really?” She looked down at the young woman in the case, looking like a vaguely serpentine sleeping beauty with long cascades of glossy black hair. Someone had arranged her with care.
    “Yes, they have a few colonies and make sure to keep their bloodlines mixed within their species. It is exceptionally rare to see the males off their world.”
    “Right. Well, I will have a chat with the captain and the owner of the vessel. I will need an arrest crew and this ship sealed.”
    “Yes, Agent Geller. A good day’s work.” Wikins smiled.
    She nodded and smiled in return, but where his blue skin was glowing with triumph, she was completely flattened.
    Mel gathered her composure and smiled. “I just had an idea. Stall the investigation for an hour. I have to make a call.”
     
    One hour later, she had her answers and her day’s exertions were wearing on her nerves.
    She entered the room where the ship’s owner was being held, and she pointed at the chair. “Sit.”
    “I beg your pardon! I will have your badge! Makuada runs on its imposed duties and my company routes millions of credits through here on a yearly basis.” The man was ruby red and his skin was glossy. Orin-Srat was his species and his name was Urgus.
    “Sit!” She roared and showed her teeth, slamming her fist against the table. He sat.
    “You are being charged with kidnapping three citizens of the Adru-Skari. We know this because the female was on her way to her fiancé on another colony and his name is not Urgus. I have been provided with all communications between the two and it is confirmed that she, her brother and her father, are not guests of yours, but you have met them. You attended their home world this summer and proposed to the young lady. She turned you down and now she is here in