Jeannie just stared at him saying nothing.
The Doctor coughed.
"Okay, I guess I'll stop trying to be subtle and just make my case," the Pirate Chief said.
Jeannie nodded at him attentively.
The Doctor leaned back and sighed.
"All living organisms both compete and co-operate," the Pirate Chief said. "It's wise to recognize that and try to tell which they're doing in any given case. It is complicated by the fact that people can be doing both and they'll lie even to themselves about it. Okay?"
Jeannie just nodded. No surprise there any educated person, indeed any person of average intelligence that was paying any attention knew it to be true.
"People are hard wired to feel emotions that can be a useful shortcut in understanding who to trust and who not to," the Pirate Chief continued. "They can be a useful input to understanding and should not be ignored. Just the same they're a shortcut and not entirely reliable on that count. Moreover evolution works to the advantage of the group, of the population, not the individual and what's good for the group might not be good for you as an individual. So far so good?"
Jeanne still in her little girl called on the carpet, butter won't melt in my mouth, pose just nodded yet again.
The Pirate Chief snorted. "You need to examine your feelings in the light of cold logic and what's good for you. Be assured your father is doing that. I will risk a valuable source and tell you that I know the clan council has asked him to ignore policy. Yes, I know about the no ransom policy. I have from the beginning. They've asked him to pay your ransom because you're uniquely valuable to them. He's hesitating and has been delaying a reply. He's not too old to produce another heir."
Jeannie frowned quickly at this, then her face went blank.
"Ah, some genuine emotion," the Pirate Chief said. "You know I don't doubt he loves you and likely a great deal. You are, however, incredibly stubborn and independent minded, unproven and haven't demonstrated significant political or leadership skills so far. To the contrary I'm afraid. That is something myself and the Doctor can help you with you realize?"
Jeannie, cold faced, just tilted her head while staring intently at the Pirate Chief.
The Doctor was on the edge of his seat watching her in turn.
"It will also undermine his authority and lead to more kidnappings if he gives in and pays a ransom," the Pirate Chief says. "The Chang clan has the no ransom policy for good reason and objectively he's being wise not to break it without overriding non-personal reasons to do so."
"I can see that," Jeannie agreed in a bleak tone.
"What's good for the goose is good for the gander," the Pirate Chief said.
"Meaning?" Jeannie asked.
"Meaning that you need to start thinking of your own interests as an individual," the Pirate Chief said. "Not exclusively and you don't necessarily have to be at cross purposes to your family or clan, quite the contrary you should exploit the positive aspects of your birth as much as you can. You should also seek allies beyond those provided to you by birth though. Normally a young woman of your class would find such individuals while gaining their higher education. You should push to be sent to a university somewhere when you return home. You should also take advantage of the good will and contacts that I'm offering you."
"I don't remember any offer," Jeannie stated.
"Don't be obtuse," the Pirate Chief chided. "You must realize I've treated you with kid gloves. At considerable personal expense at that. I've done so in hopes of some reciprocal consideration down the pike. Surely you don't think pirates are given to disinterested generosity?"
"No the little I've seen for myself of pirates does not suggest they're given to generosity or that they're ever disinterested," Jeannie replied. Her body language was that of little girl performing for her teacher. "Perhaps your generosity hasn't been as great as you think. Perhaps if you want me to co-operate of my own free will you ought let me exercise that will freely. Maybe you should give me my freedom."
The Pirate Chief laughed. "Can't deny you've got chutzpahs," he said. "You've killed dozens of my people, destroyed my flagship, and drugged me personally. On the other hand you didn't hurt me or any of my people in your last escape attempt so I guess you're not totally lost to being reasonable."
"I'm always reasonable," Jeannie said. "I just might have my own definition of it."
"Convenient," the Pirate Chief grumbled. "But I suppose men in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks." He grinned broadly at her as punctuation. "I could use that ransom your father is holding up, both for the money and the face involved. Still even if it isn't forthcoming if you can convince me you'll have an open mind regards future dealings I'll let you escape. If you can't I'll strip your mind of that independence you value so highly and send you to one of my brothels for sale as a specialty item. I'd rather not do that. Am I clear?"
"Crystal," Jeannie said, "but not only do I have my boundaries, you have to give me real choices if you want me to demonstrate real co-operation."
"Small ones, doled out slowly," the Pirate Chief replied. "Take it as a compliment of sorts. You've proven to be both tricky and extraordinarily dangerous. Still you are smart and as the Doctor says flexible, so I'm sure given the time you'll come around to giving us a fair break."
"Perhaps," Jeannie admitted. "Though I must admit I'm not at all sure of that."
"Your honesty is a good start, my dear," the Pirate Chief said. He took heart at the quick smile that elicited. The process of shifting her world view might be a slow one, of many tiny steps, but it had already begun.
* * *
Once again Jeannie hit the mat back first with a heavy thump that drove the breath out of her.
It made her happy.
She was generally happy these days. It was coming up to two weeks since her last escape attempt and she was finally settling in comfortably. She wasn't having those fits of unseemly megalomaniac anger that had led her to do so much damage earlier and to so little purpose.
Instead she was in a constant state of rather dreamy happiness though admittedly one tinged with a definite streak of melancholia. It was quite pleasant all in all.
She loved the Pirate Chief and liked his Doctor. She couldn't but regret her determination to kill them and the risk to her own life she'd be taking in the process.
Her immediate happiness was because she was successfully losing her current sparring match with Sheena. Overall she had no doubt it was because her beau the Pirate Chief and his pet quirky, not really creepy, Doctor had drugged her to the eyeballs. The one on one "re-education" sessions with the Doctor no doubt had made their contribution.
"You're slow," Sheena said extending Jeannie a hand.
"I'm weeks out of practice," Jeannie replied. "I suspect our hosts have me on tranquillizers that don't help." At least they thought they did. Jeannie had been living off of pilfered scraps of food, and the odd snack bought randomly in the market, living on snatches of water from bathroom taps and public fountains. She'd been surreptitiously trashing most of the food and drink supplied her. She could tell she hadn't avoided all of the drugs snuck into what she ate and she couldn't avoid the drugs directly administered by the Doctor, but just the same she was nowhere as drugged as they had to think. No where as slow as she wanted them to think she was.
"Excuses, excuses," Sheena said genially. "You think they didn't lock me up and went light on the drugs."
"Don't know, Sheena," Jeanne said. "Are you okay? They didn't go too hard on you because of what happened at the market that day did they?"
Backing off now that Jeannie was on her feet again Sheena grinned broadly. "Nah, it's been a paid vacation for me," she said. "I don't remember everything that happened, do you?"
"No, my memory of the whole thing is very spotty and episodic," Jeannie said. "Guess I learned secrets they wanted me to forget."
"Yeah, me too," Sheena said. "I think you did most of the heavy lifting. I think it went harder for y
ou because of it."
"Lesson in that, I guess," Jeannie allowed.
"For sure," Sheena agreed. She bowed and moved to attack Jeannie once more. The half dozen guards watching the bout smirked as Jeannie just barely evaded the attack.
The smirks suited Jeannie just fine. She hoped she wasn't faking too obviously. Sheena knew she could do much better even if the guards didn't. You would have thought they'd learned some respect.
"You're much more aggressive than you used to be," Jeannie said to Sheena while side stepping and skipping back from her.
"Yeah, the good Doctor's cures might have done me some good," Sheena said. "Ex-marine and all don't think I was lacking justified confidence, but maybe I second guessed myself too much. Maybe I was afraid to step outside the box, was a bit too stereotyped." She punctuated this observation with an advance and a flurry of blows aimed at Jeannie's head.
Jeannie danced back and around. None of the blows landed. "Maybe," Jeannie allowed breathing just a little heavily. "But don't kid yourself these pirates are altruists providing free psychological fixes out of the goodness of their hearts." She too attempted to use the distraction of her words to good effect. She threw a high kick back at Sheena. She made it just somewhat sloppy by her usual standards.
Sheena deflected the effort with ease sending Jeannie back in a tumble from which she recovered but with a small deliberate stumble.
"They've spent a lot of time on me, and more on you, the Pirate Chief and the Doctor both," Sheena said. "I figure they want to soften us up for our eventual return to wider society. The SDF campaign in this sector has got to have them looking to change their methods some. I'm guessing they want to start being more low key, more like regular business people, and are trying to find allies." She only attempted a few pro forma attacks during this little speech.
"I've been having trouble keeping track of time," Jeannie said.
Sheena just made a half hearted kick attack and stood back to raise her eyebrows.
"One of those little things that makes me a touch uneasy," Jeannie elaborated. "Somehow I can't configure the operating system or any of the apps on the terminal they give me access to give me the actual time and there are no clocks in my quarters. Odd don't you think?"
"They've never pretended that they're not playing with our minds," Sheena replied. "They've been quite open about that. Plus it complicates co-ordination of any other escape plan you might come up with. Just a sensible security precaution."
Jeannie answered that with a series of grunts as she launched into a flurry of attacks, some with her fists but mostly with her feet. She simply didn't have Sheena's size or the gender specific gift of extra upper body strength. She could hit hard with her fists, she could hit much harder, actual knock out blows, with her feet. She tried to keep her form and timing up to snuff without reaching her actual personal envelope of performance.
It was barely enough to keep her in the fight with Sheena. She lost her balance, landed flat on her back yet again, and barely managed to roll out of the way and regain her feet as Sheena lunged forward to pin her.
"Almost had you," Sheena said. "Do think our dear Doctor has helped me up my game."
Jeannie dearly wished she could talk openly with Sheena, co-ordinate plans with her, as it was with no actual privacy she couldn't reveal anything more to Sheena than her worst enemy. She also couldn't ask her any direct questions though she desperately needed more information.
"Maybe," Jeannie said. It would have been out character for her to have conceded the obvious fact. "You know I do think they feed me at the normal regular intervals," she continued trying to look for all the world as if she was changing the topic out of embarrassment. "Much of the afternoon goes to visits with the Doctor, and then usually some time before dinner with the Pirate Chief, always eat supper with him and have some time afterwards. You're right it is a lot of time."
"I've been seeing the Doctor most mornings," Sheena admitted. "Mostly very low key I don't think he's actually doing much, just keeping track of how I feel."
"Imagine he asks you about me too?" Jeannie asked.
"He does, though not much recently for obvious reasons," Sheena said. "You have to expect that. A lot of time between the two us."
Jeannie imagined Sheena would have pointed out that it strongly suggested the Pirate Chief and Doctor were thinking getting out of the pirate business and wanted Jeannie and Sheena's help only she didn't think it wise speculation to make in front of their current pirate minions. The pirate minions they were most likely thinking of abandoning and leaving high and dry.
"Wonder when the payback starts," Jeannie said.
"Well you'd better start getting your fighting skills up to par, or we'd better figure out how I can take it easy on you without being obvious," Sheena said. "Because we're supposed to give them and some guests a demonstration bout in a few days. Think you're supposed to dance or recite poetry or some such sissy nonsense before and after. A study in contrasts the Chief was saying. Damned man can get all foo-foo at times."
Jeannie couldn't help think that the new version of Sheena talked a lot more than the old one and was a lot more opinionated too. Also that she'd just told Jeannie about her best chance of taking out the Doctor and Pirate Chief. She contemplated with serenity the fact she couldn't tell if Sheena had done it deliberately or not.
"Interesting," Jeannie replied. "Very Interesting."
10: A Startling Performance
Be broken to be whole
Twist to be straight
Jeannie knew in her heart of hearts she ought to be worried. She wasn't. She was in her happy place and she didn't think it was something the Doctor and his drugs were responsible for.
She'd studied dance briefly, several months, not quite a year. That had been when she was just a young girl coming of age. She'd enjoyed it immensely, but it had always been a long shot that'd she'd be allowed to continue her studies. A long shot that had become an impossibility with her brother's death.
But here she was all by herself in front of a small audience, made up of the Pirate Chief, the Doctor, and some of the Pirate Chief's more prominent subordinates, ready to dance in a one woman show.
Just a couple of weeks after her second escape attempt which apparently had come close enough to success to justify tampering with her memories. She was fully aware it was the Pirate Chief's intention to demonstrate how throughly she'd been domesticated. He'd gone so far as to remove her slave collar.
As she stood in the hot spotlight on the low stage that had been set up she couldn't have cared less.
Even if in the unlikely event she lived to a ripe old age the next few tens of minutes would be some of the happiest of her life.
She would get to show her physical ability and grace in a demonstration of beauty and uplifting sensitive emotion. There would be drama, but no violence, and she'd end on a high note amidst applause.
Much better than being deadly, and finishing amongst gore and death.
Sadly that would come later. At some point she'd convert the follow on sparring match with Sheena to a full out direct assault on the Pirate Chief with nothing but her own body as a weapon.
If Sheena joined her as Jeannie hoped she would they could almost certainly add the Doctor to their score along with a few of the subordinates. There'd even be a faint chance of living through the exercise. Maybe they could even trade some hostages for a ride home. Not likely but a girl could dream couldn't she?
She began to move in the classic ballet solo of "The Nutcracker". It had seemed apropos to her.
As she twirled on her toes she kept her eyes open for a chance at attacking the Pirate Chief. She didn't expect one, but her father had long ago impressed upon her that apparent good luck was simply being attuned to and ready to act on opportunity. She really hoped she wouldn't get a chance during her dance she did want to hear that applause.
In the end luckily or unluckily no opportunity appeared and her dance ended in the a
pplause she had hoped for. It seemed genuine. There were surprised faces on the row of pirates before her and the Pirate Chief appeared truly gratified. Excellent.
Flexibility was all and good, but Jeannie liked it when matters went according to plan. She had had her few minutes of real happiness.
She hide it, well she thought, but she was more tired than she would have expected. A few days could not make up for being years of being out of practice.
She bowed happily, ostentatiously, and repeatedly, backing out of the spotlight.
The Pirate Chief stood up and faced the small audience without being so daring as to stand on the low stage with Jeannie. "Ladies and gentleman," he declaimed. "The next performance will demonstrate that our guest is not only beautiful and talented but also quite deadly." That elicited a few snorts.
Mostly good natured snorts as best as Jeannie could tell as she stripped off her ballerina's costume, tights, tu-tu and the not so comfortable shoes. Off to one side of the stage, not exactly in the shadows, but not in the spotlight either she was necessarily naked before her small audience for at least a short few tens of seconds.
The Pirate Chief was mostly facing the other way as he gave his small speech, but his guests and the Doctor could see her easily, as could the half dozen guards ringing the stage and Sheena.
Jeannie made a point of not rushing herself. She also made a point of reflecting upon her emotions. As best as she could remember she'd never been terribly body conscious.
It wasn't something she'd reflected upon a lot before, but Federation culture was deeply fractured, different stations and planets had widely varying cultural mores regarding the display of the female body. In the Al-Alhadeen system women walked about in mobile tents of heavy cloth and showed little or no skin, and that little belonged only to their faces or hands.
On the other hand spacers had little time or patience for modesty between people who lived in close quarters for months, even years. People from some high tech utopian foundations, especially those of the upper classes, looked at issues with casual nudity as a sign that an individual was a culturally illiterate hick.
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