by Zara Zenia
Lezin frowned. He turned to stare at Terrex with his arm still wrapped protectively around Bella's waist. "Fine. Just know that I will be keeping an eye on you both. One step out of place and I will kill you both. Understand me?"
Terrex nodded.
Bella nodded too and glanced nervously up at Terrex. She liked how being in his arms felt, which confused her. She'd never felt like this before. Like she belonged to him.
"May I make a suggestion?" Terrex asked.
"What could you possible have to say?" Melody asked in exasperation.
"The Yebrax. They aren't giving up, merely going to recruit more for their gang. They will be back." Terrex met Melody's gaze and then looked at Rayhan and Lezin, who he figured were the two in charge of security. "I suggest that we leave this area as fast as possible and keep men on the outer guns. I would be happy to man one myself, seeing as your crew is so small."
Rayhan and Lezin shared a silent communication, and then nodded. "Very well, your assistance will be appreciated."
"First, let us get our fallen taken care off and then unload the dead Yebraxians," Dev suggested.
"We'll prepare Caldar and Minphir," Lezin replied, gesturing to himself and Mabav.
"Where do you want the Yebraxians? I will get them there," Terrex offered.
"I will assist you." Rayhan nodded. "We'll strip them of their weapons and then dump them out of the airlock in the hull."
Terrex turned to Bella. "Will you be all right?" His hands held her arms loosely as he studied her face.
Bella smiled and it warmed his heart. "Yes, go ahead."
He caressed her cheek for a moment, smiling down at her, feeling wonder at the warmth in his heart for her. He kissed her forehead and then moved to the stairs with Rayhan close on his heels.
"How about some dinner, chick?" Jodie asked. "I'm starving."
Bella nodded, her eyes following Terrex for a moment. She glanced at Melody and Devron who were embracing. It looked like an intimate moment and she didn't want to intrude, so she smiled at Jodie and followed her to the galley, but before they got in the door, Bella recalled the other women. "Oh, I told the other girls that I would let them know when it was safe to come out."
Jodie sighed. "All right, let's go do that. They're probably scared to death down there."
Bella agreed. She and Jodie returned to the stairs, but this time there was nobody around, Dev and Melody must have returned to the command deck and the others were doing as they were tasked. They went down to the rooms and knocked on the women's doors.
"It's okay, you can come out now, the pirates are gone."
Doors slid open and the group of girls, looking pale and frightened emerged.
"Are y-you s-sure?" one asked.
"Yes, for the moment we are safe. That isn't to say we won't be attacked again, but for now we're okay," Jodie assured them.
"We're headed to the galley to eat. Would you like to join us?" Bella asked.
The group collectively huddled together closer, like they were one mind. "No, we're still to frightened to eat. Is… is there a way that we can share a room?" the blonde asked. Bella couldn't remember her name.
"Cammie," the red-head that Bella remembered was named Cheryl said softly next to her.
"Cammie, I will see what we can do, maybe once some of the men are done with what they are doing, we can move some furniture around and fit you two to a room," Jodie commented.
The women nodded and then turned and went into one of the rooms.
Bella sighed. "I'm glad I didn't get that full cocktail of Canian drugs. They're like sheep."
"They're just scared, but you're right about the drugs part. It does change you." Jodie eyed her as they headed back up the stairs.
"What?" Bella glared at the older woman.
"I don't know. I just wondered how you've gotten so close to Terrex for him to act all protective of you." She arched a brow.
"What are you talking about?" Bella said, choosing a lynix sandwich. It was similar to chicken but came from a bird on Cania.
"Nevermind, forget I brought it up." Jodie smiled as she pushed the button for her order.
Bella grabbed a bottled water and then put it back, after earlier, she wanted something with a bit of caffeine, so she grabbed a Coke. "Okay, so he kissed me, and I liked it. Doesn't make me an Omega. Just makes me a woman, right? I mean come on, the dude is gorgeous."
"Sure. He's pretty cute. And I bet a good kisser," Jodie commented as she grabbed a soda for herself.
"Maybe," Bella said with a giggle, her cheeks turning pink as she recalled the passionate kiss they'd shared.
19
Over the next few days, if Terrex wasn't up in the gunnery manning one of the outer guns, he was on the command deck keeping an eye on the video screens watching for other Yebraxian ships. Between those two things he was kept pretty busy and had earned his place on the crew. The others were glad to have him there now.
Terrex was happy too. He felt as though he'd found his place in this life. He'd not felt this well about himself since before what he'd once thought of as Elenix's betrayal. Not that she'd had a choice. He had assumed she had, assumed she chose to be gifted to his brother, rather than himself, but maybe, just maybe it hadn't been a choice. Maybe like the Omegas on this ship, she'd been drugged into compliance. He knew Bella hadn't been completely turned, she was compatible, but not… cowed was the only word he could think of when he met those other women. Bella was by no means meek and malleable.
Thoughts of Bella brought a smile to his face. He looked forward to each evening when they shared a meal together, or she took time to show him some of her pictures on the gadget she called a camera. She'd captured some amazing things on that machine. Images that induced anger, or angst, or wonder… some of the ones she'd taken of the various planets and stars were truly breathtaking.
He was headed to meet her in the galley and found that his heart was happy when saw her eyes light up at his appearance. "Hello, beautiful. What delicious concoction are we eating this evening?" he asked.
Bella grinned. "Pizza."
"Hmmm, and what is this pizza?"
"Bread, with a spaghetti like sauce, melted cheese, and various toppings. This one has mushrooms, hamburger and tomatoes."
"Sounds interesting, I shall try that as well."
Bella pushed the buttons and a moment later, plates appeared with triangular slices of pizza. She handed a plate to Terrex and then grabbed a Coke for herself and one for him. He'd had the fizzy drink once before and had enjoyed it.
After they sat down, he took a bite, the pizza was warm, and the cheese was melted and stretched as he pulled the slice from his mouth. Bella giggled and took a bite of her own. She pulled the pizza away, holding the toppings in place with her fingers. He mimicked her movements, which worked better to keep the toppings on the pizza and not sliding off the crust and hanging down his chin.
"It is very good, this pizza."
"You should try deep-dish Chicago style with the works, so good," she said and then pressed her lips together and set her pizza down. There was a sad look on her face.
"What is wrong, beautiful Bella?" Terrex asked, setting his pizza down and looking at her. He reached out and stroked her cheek.
"I was just thinking. I'll never be able to show you Chicago style pizza. You won't be able to visit me on Earth." Her voice was soft and wistful.
"You're still planning on returning?" he asked, his voice gruff as he felt his heart skid to a stop. He didn't want her to go.
Bella shrugged and toyed with her soda can. "I'm human. I belong on Earth."
Terrex swallowed down the pain her words brought to his heart. "I suppose that's true. You had a life before you were stolen from your home."
Bella nodded and pushed her plate away. Suddenly she wasn't so hungry. The thought of going back to Earth wasn't so appealing now, but what else was she to do? She couldn't just stay here on this ship forever, being a space pirate. Sh
e wasn't like Melody or Jodie… at least, she hadn't been. She frowned as she recalled fighting the Yebraxians and how she'd been a part of the battle, even though she hadn't been able to do much, and she'd relied on Terrex to kill those that had made it to the medbay floor. Still, she'd held her own and hadn't cowered when she'd been caught, she'd acted, she'd been part of the action instead of on the sidelines taking pictures where she'd always thought she belonged.
Now she was just confused.
"What's wrong?"
Bella smiled up at him, but it was a sad smile and didn't quite reach her eyes. "Nothing, just thinking about everything."
Terrex nodded. It pained him to think that she wanted to leave him, but he wanted her to be happy, it meant more to him that she was out there in the world doing what she loved rather than being forced into mating with him or some other Canian. The thought of that terrified him. He couldn't let that happen.
"I've been thinking too."
"Oh?" Bella looked down at her hands. "What about?"
"How to get you back to Earth."
She blinked at him, confused. "What do you mean?"
"I know that Melody and Devron wanted to ransom me back to my father. To get the money needed to repair the hyperdrive. I'm going to help them."
20
“What are you talking about? How are you going to help them?" Bella was confused. Did he want to be rid of her? Was he tired of her flirting? Did he not enjoy her company as much as she enjoyed his?
"I'm going to give them what they need to contact my father. I doubt he'll pay, but on the off chance he will, well… I want you to be able to go back to Earth, if that is what you want, Bella. I don't want you to become like those other women."
"Oh." Bella's heart ached. He was doing this for her. Because it was what she wanted. And it was what she'd thought she'd wanted. But now she wasn't so sure. Now that she'd met him she wasn't so sure about anything anymore.
"I'd better get back to the gunnery before Rayhan sends in the troops," Terrex joked. "I'll see you later, yes?"
Bella nodded.
Terrex put his plate in the sink, kissed her cheek and then headed upstairs.
Instead of putting her plate in the sink, Bella found some plastic wrap and covered her pizza, then put it in the refrigerator. It wouldn't do to waste food on the ship. She would eat the rest later once she had her appetite back. Feeling listless she returned to her room.
A week later, Bella joined the others as they held a meeting. She sat silently, listening to what they had all been up to.
"A message has been sent to the Duke. We've had no reply though," Jodie explained.
"What was the message," Terrex asked.
Jodie picked up the printout and read, "To Duke Behlinn Mal, we have taken your son Terrex captive and will release him to your custody for the sum of eleven million galactic credits. When you are ready to comply with our demands you may make arrangements for his return at this address." Jodie read off the equivalent of an email address.
Terrex laughed. "Yeah, did I fail to mention that my father is a fucking asshole? He's not gonna answer you. Eleven million galactic credits is a new transport vehicle, he could easily afford it, but he will ignore a message like that and assume you will get tired of me and let me go on your own without him even lifting a finger."
"Do you have a better suggestion?" Naela asked.
"Right now? No. I know you need the money for the hyperdrive, so I wish I knew of a better way to get him to pay. I'd pay you myself if I still had my inheritance. Sadly enough, I squandered most of it on booze and gaming." Terrex looked down, ashamed of how he'd wasted his money. If he hadn't he could have helped them.
Bella put her hand on his arm, and he glanced at her. "Look at it this way, if you hadn't, you wouldn't have been on Axia and had to escape on the Freedom. You wouldn't have been here to help fight off the Yebraxians."
"I wouldn't have met you," he said softly.
Bella gave him a sad smile and nodded. "No, you wouldn't have."
"All right then, so where does that leave us?" Mabav asked.
"I hate to say it, but we are running low on medical supplies too," Sina put in. "I know it's not as important as the hyperdrive, but it could be, should we run into any more trouble."
Melody nodded.
"True, and if we can get the hyperdrive taken care of and we can get the women back to Earth, we can easily pick up a lot of what we need there, and we'll need food supplies as well. Feeding this many people is putting a strain on our stocks," Jodie replied.
"How bad is it?" Jorwon asked.
"The food? We're at about half of where we should be. It's not great. We may have to cut everyone back to two meals a day."
"We'll put it to a vote, all in favor of cutting to two meals a day?"
Everyone put up a hand. Nobody wanted to eat today, just to starve tomorrow.
"Done. Two meals, including the women." Melody looked at Jodie. "Will you inform them?"
"Sure, babe, I'll take care of it. They won't even come out of that room anymore. They're sleeping two to a bed, even though there is plenty of room for them each to have a bed if they split into two groups. They're lucky Bella and I have been remembering to bring them meals."
"Do we have any other issues that need to be discussed?" Melody asked.
"Not right now, we'll keep repairing as best we can. We really need those parts though," Gaddis added.
"Noted." Melody nodded. "Terrex, do you have any ideas on how to get your father to comply?"
He shook his head. "Not right now. If you'd managed to grab Frennex instead of me, he'd have already paid. I'm not his favorite son."
"Well, give it some thought."
"I will," Terrex said with a nod.
21
"I have an idea." Bella's soft voice stopped everyone from getting up from the table.
"You do?" Terrex looked at her curiously.
Bella took a deep breath and expelled it. "It's kind of creepy, though."
"What is it?" Melody asked.
"Well, you know how on Earth we have a black market for—" Bella paused for a second because it actually turned her stomach to think about, "body parts?"
The Canian and Selithi around the table looked at her with horror. "Your people sell body parts? What do they do with them?" Sina asked before Jodie or Melody could answer.
"Well, various things, but mostly they are taken and sold so that wealthy people can live longer. Our hospitals have waiting lists for people needing new organs like hearts, livers, kidneys, etc. Some people don't like to wait and have the wealth to get what they want on what we call the black market, meaning they came by the body parts illegally."
"You mean they take parts from one human and put them into another?" Sina asked.
"Yes, we don't have things like the nanobots on our planet that can repair damage to organs."
"That is much more primitive than I imagined," Sina said softly.
"That is an intriguing idea though, threatening to sell Terrex's organs to say… the Yebraxians." Melody bit her lip, grinning.
Terrex shivered. "I happen to be attached to my organs, thank you very much. I don't want them eaten by any Yebraxians!"
Jodie laughed and rolled her eyes. "It's not for real, just a threat. Think your father might pay then?"
Terrex took a moment, but then nodded. "Yeah, that might just spur him into taking the threat seriously. Though… a video message might be more effective."
"A video?" Devron gave him a curious look.
"If I can trust Sina to put me back together… yes, some nice visuals to go along with the threat might get him to act a little more quickly."
"And we can set up some fake auctions for his organs," Bella suggested. "Maybe using a Yebraxian internet link?"
"No such thing here, chick, no internet. The universe does have a viral network used for news and research and each planet has their own sort of connected network for their own planets. Y
ebraxians included. We could create a fake one, and mimic one of their links. It could really work," Jodie agreed.
"It would be better to use a real Yebraxian site, my father will thoroughly check it out. We just have to make sure that we are the highest bidder on the site, that way we don't have anyone coming after us for scamming them."
They all stared at each other for a moment before Melody said, "So all in favor of this idea?"
Everyone raised their hands.
"Then that's what we'll do. We can use the feed in the medbay, that way Sina can monitor your vitals and make sure you aren't seriously harmed."
"Can we be disguised at Yebrax? Is there a way to do that?" Bella asked. "It would look more real and probably better that we aren't seen. We don't want his father to trace us, right?"
"True. What do you think?" Melody asked, looking at Lezin and Rayhan.
"We could, possibly use some of the security footage from the attack, manipulate it and scan it into the video, there is a good section where Terrex fought with one, where it looked as though the Yebraxian had the upper hand in the fight."
"He didn't." Terrex glared.
"He did until you kicked him in his balls!" Lezin laughed. "The guy dropped like a bag of brillex!"
"Brillex?" Bella asked Jodie who just shrugged.
"Well, to be fair, it was the second time he'd been kicked in the balls, Bella did it first," Rayhan said, laughing along.
"It was self-defense, he was planning to eat me, or so he implied," Bella muttered.
"You did excellent, chick," Jodie assured her and patted her hand.
"Okay, so we are all in agreement, right?" Melody asked.
Everyone nodded.
"Great. We'll get things set up in the medbay for tomorrow. Rayhan and Lezin, if you need help with the footage, let me know—"
"I can help with that, I think, I mean I've had to make adjustments to film and pictures before, blurring faces and stuff, I'm sure I can help make things look natural and real…" Bella trailed off, slightly unsure since this would be alien tech to her.