by Layla Stone
It should have caused her to panic a little, but instead, a warm spot in her chest bloomed. This was her life, and those stars would soon become her fast friends. She would know all the systems in Federation space and fly to and fro for the duration of her internship. Her mother and Jandy would love space. It felt so free. So wide-open.
Sasha’s first time in space and she would relish the moment while she could. Adjusting the ship’s heading, she turned off the boosters that allowed the vessel to leave the atmosphere at a natural pace. She enabled the lightspeed options, and they took off at interstellar speed.
Pax slapped the back of her seat. "Didn't know this ship could take off so smoothly. The last takeoff was horrifying."
Captain Rannn snorted. "Not my fault. Transporters are programmed to fly themselves. I am not going to apologize for not knowing this contraption's system was broken."
Wait. "How long have you been flying this ship?"
"Four days. Four very long days," Rannn said while pointedly looking at Pax.
"Hey, I’m a gem," Pax said.
Rannn tapped the navigation charts, scrolling through several four-dimensional sections of space. He stopped scanning and pointed at an area about another four days away. "Those are the astro fields. They’re scattered across the entire entrance to the Galrey system. We need to go through them if we plan to make Pegna within the next week. My Yunkin pilot is in critical condition, and he needs more medical treatment than we have on this ship."
Sasha nodded.
Beside her, Pax tapped the top of the pilot’s chair and exited the bridge.
Rannn flipped a switch to record the control panel. "How long can you fly until you need a break?"
Sasha had never flown for days. The longest flight was two hours. "I’ll let you know when I need a break."
Rannn slowly turned toward her and took her in. Blue eyes pierced her as if he could read her mind. "What’s your longest flight?"
"Two hours."
He cursed. "I'd kill for a Federation pilot right now." Moving to the exit, he said, "I'll be back in four hours to swap out so you can take a break. Then you'll be on for another six. I will cover the seat for five hours while you sleep. Then you report back. Confirmed?"
A work and sleep schedule made reality settle in deeper. She was indeed in the Federation now. Taking orders was something she would need to get used to.
"Confirmed, Captain."
"I'm going to send in Ansel, our medical officer. He will fit you with a cerebral blocker."
"I have no idea what you're referring to," she said.
"You don't have to. Just sit there and let Ansel do his job." Rannn paused as if waiting for her to question him further. She didn't. He turned on his heel and left.
Well. That went better than expected, Sasha thought. She wasn't in a cage headed for a Federation prison. Prison. She also wasn’t in Madame’s prison. She felt the guilt deep inside. She had to hurry and get Federation approved as a pilot and get her mom off that planet.
Sitting for the next four hours worrying about her mom and Jandy in addition to not being able to take a bathroom break or even stretch her legs was a test of willpower.
Still, Sasha was humming with energy and a suppressed smile. She was flying a Federation spaceship.
"Hello?" a soft male voice called from the entrance hallway to the bridge.
Sasha turned to see a slim male with chin-length, wavy hair. He pulled his hair from his face and wrapped it around an ear. He looked so normal. Humble even. Not anything like the egotistical Pax and the captain. She felt at ease with this guest. She smiled to put him at ease.
"I'm Ansel. Rannn asked me to give you a cerebral blocker."
"What is a cerebral blocker?" Considering she was from a planet that was in the business of selling just about anything, it was rare that she came across an object she had never heard of.
Ansel held up a flat, white, circular device. "This." While showing her the disc, she noticed his blueish purple nails. Numan. A frightening race of mad scientists. On her planet, she knew the Numans bought specimens to experiment on. Mostly livestock or males that were of no more use to Allure.
Her impression of Ansel went immediately from a male who looked shy and sweet to a mad scientist who created monsters in a secret laboratory.
Whatever the cerebral blocker did, she didn't want any part of it. Keeping the object in her sights, she asked, "And what does it do?"
"Keeps the Cerebral out of your head." He said the words absently. Sasha had difficulty understanding.
"How…? Doesn't cerebral mean head?"
"Yes, and no. The cerebrum is an area of the brain, of course, so cerebral pertains to it, but the Cerebrals are also a race of beings that have telepathic and telekinetic abilities. "
Sasha's stomach churned. She was quickly realizing that she didn't know as much about the universe as she thought she did. She had never heard of a race called Cerebrals. "And that device is supposed to stop him from…what?"
"Using his telepathy against you."
A tingling chill ran down her spine. "Would I know if I was being used as a puppet?"
To her dismay, he shrugged. "Probably. But you wouldn't be able to do anything about it."
"Seriously? What is he doing on this ship?"
Ansel slowly ran his fingers through his hair. "Technically, he was abducted and then sold to an Angny chancellor. The Chancellor then turned him back into the Federation as a Luri. You know what that is, right?"
"Yes. Someone who was taken unlawfully. Federation law states that once rescued, the Luris will be returned to their home planet by Federation escort."
"Exactly. The problem is that Cerebrals are not legally allowed in Federation space, not to mention in a Federation vehicle. This situation has conflicting laws, and the captain has been instructed to report to Pegna Space Station and await further instruction while the Federation leaders decide on which law they will follow in this case." Ansel moved toward her with the blocker held securely in one hand.
"Wait. There’s a Cerebral on this ship?"
“I just said that.”
“And if his kind is not allowed, is he a prisoner?”
The Numan scratched the back of his neck. “Yes, and no.”
“He did nothing wrong.” She was assaulted with images of what Allure might do to her mom. Her mom had done nothing wrong either, and yet she was being punished for it. Sasha wouldn’t sit quietly and let that happen to someone else.
“Yes, but it’s not as if we’ve chained him to the brig and refused to feed him.”
Sasha wasn’t sure if that was meant to make her feel better. It didn’t, but knowing that the male wasn’t suffering helped a little.
She was not ready to have some device secured to her body, so she asked, "Where exactly are you putting that?"
"Behind your ear." He moved his hair out of the way and showed Sasha his blocker.
It looked unnatural, and Sasha did not like it at all, but she was also strongly against becoming a puppet. "No drilling into my skull, right?" She pictured horrifying images of a Numan in a white coat drilling down into her skull, laughing like a maniac.
"No. I don't even have that kind of equipment." The side of his lips twitched.
Was that a smile? Was this Numan trying to make a joke? Not. Funny. "Is it permanent? How easy will that thing come off?"
With a sigh, he answered, "No, it's not permanent, and it comes off easier than medical tape." His cold, slim fingers moved her hair slightly to the side.
Sasha gripped the guidance controls to keep from reaching back and slapping the male’s hands off her. While her logic dictated this had to be done, her emotions were focused on the small, uncomfortable contraption on her skin, and she loathed it.
Ansel moved back, letting go of her hair. "Let me know if it gets loose."
"Sure." Her tone lacked sincerity. The skin on her neck felt irr
itated, and she needed to itch it. As soon as the doc left, she was going to do just that.
Ansel hovered for a few minutes before saying, "Regardless of how much you dislike the blocker, it's keeping you safe. Remember that."
She would. She had to. There was no other reason she would allow something like it on her skin.
***
Sasha left the bridge on shaky legs. Hours and hours of inactivity did not come easily to her body, which was used to constant movement. She wandered the first hallways until she found the galley.
Pax walked in behind her, his steps slowing once he saw her. "Hungry?" he asked.
"Yes. Very." She looked around the Red Demon, looking for food and indirectly avoiding his eyes.
"Mmmm. About that, there isn’t much in the way of actual food here. More like a kind of slushy that you drink that has enough nutrients to keep you healthy, but it's not going to fill you up."
Her stomach rumbled in protest at the barbaric concept of a liquid diet.
Picking up a clean cup, she stood near the dispenser with hesitation and reluctantly pushed her container to the spout. She watched as a clay-brown slushy squirted out.
"It's better than nothing,” Pax said behind her. “Trust me. It's not bad, well it’s not that bad."
She took a quick sniff. It smelled repulsive, like old apples. But she was hungry, and it couldn’t taste that bad. Pax didn’t move as he watched her take a large swallow.
The sludge was awful. It tasted like a mixture of burlap rope and apples. Her whole body shook, wanting to spit it out, but the Red Demon was smirking. Her mind rejected the idea of swallowing the filth down. Her taste buds rejected the foulness, but her stomach thankfully allowed it.
She wasn’t going to be able to drink another drop. She peered down at it, "This can't be healthy. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the bahity now."
Pax chuckled. The warm tenor vibrating from his chest made her smile. His laugh was potent and contagious. After seconds of fighting it, she gave in and laughed, too.
The bahity. It was old slang used by Demons. She’d picked it up on Nexis while she cleaned the shops. It meant that a Demon had contracted a disease. Sasha was unsure what bahity actually did, but she knew that Demons thought it was hilarious.
Peering over at him, she saw a warm smile. She did that. They were cool. Being a slave, she’d had to learn how to stay on someone’s good side.
"So, what happened?" She pointed to his pants and his scarred upper body. Some Demons enjoyed telling war stories. “I’ve hardly seen any crewmembers around the cramped transporter, and the few I have seen are all banged up.”
A sobering emotion flitted across his eyes. His large, hulking shoulders shrugged. "Our Federation battle starship malfunctioned a little over a year ago near the desert Angny planet.”
Sasha knew that planet, it was in the neighboring solar system.
“After the crash, the remaining crew were gathered and forced to fight in the gladiator arenas. Most of the survivors died brutal deaths from battling in the underground and illegal pits. Within six months, Captain Rannn, Yon, myself….and Ansel were the only ones left of the original crew.”
An entire Federation ship full of people? Dead?
“This particular transporter we’re on,”—Pax pointed around the ceiling and scanners noting the old technology—“was called down to the planet because one of their males was looking for a payout for returning the Cerebral as a Luri.”
So the transporter wasn’t meant for them? She didn’t understand. “How did you escape?”
“We got out because one female refused to lose hope. She slipped us food, water, and medical supplies. At the end, she showed up with keys to our cages. We owe our lives to her and her brother. They broke us out, but we were also fortunate enough to walk out and find a Federation transport ship sitting at the docks.”
That wasn’t just luck. “That was fate.”
Pax shrugged. “The navigation system, as you saw, had malfunctioned. The artificial intelligence had tried rebooting the system. We walked on right as the system was coming back online. And even though the medical supplies on this ship were old and broken, there was one working medscope for Yon, who’s fighting for his life even as we speak.”
Sasha felt a splash on her hands and a few splatters land on her face as she dropped her slush drink. Her jaw gaped open. Ignoring the mess, she addressed the Demon. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I wouldn't have asked if I had any idea the answer was so sensitive." She could barely say the words. The horrors they all must have faced.
A slow smile curled up the corners of his lips. "Hundreds died around me in the most gruesome of ways, and it's your insensitivity that finally breaks my spirit?" He frowned and shook his head. "No, your questions won’t break me, little hellcat."
Wiping off her face and hands, she said, "But still. That's awful."
"It was, but I'm alive, and so are three of my crewmen. I'm taking that as a good thing and focusing on that."
Taking a towel, Sasha cleaned her mess as Pax drank his cup of slush, gave her a parting nod, and left the room. Done cleaning, she grabbed another cup and filled it with water to get the nasty taste out of her mouth. Exiting the galley, she scanned the empty hallways for a map directing her to where the crew cabins were located. She wanted to clean up and get on a Minky pad to send a message to Jandy. She needed an update.
Any bed at this point would do. She cursed herself for not asking Pax about her accommodations when she had the chance. She’d been a little distracted by his terrible story.
She attempted to enter the first room she happened upon. The door didn't respond to her. The motion detector should have opened the sliding door. In her pocket, Sasha pulled out her utility tool. Setting down the cup, she used her tool to finagle the small double sensor and pop out the glass, opening the door within minutes.
With a victorious smile, she stepped into the dark room and noticed that the lights didn't activate. All sorts of things were malfunctioning on this ship.
"What a ten-ton hunk of junk." Again, unfolding her utility tool, she selected the lighting option. Instantly, the lights came up, and she saw, to her complete astonishment, a male with deep, marine blue eyes standing five feet away from her. A Federation cage separated him from the rest of the room.
This must be the Cerebral.
The male in the cage didn't move toward her, speak to her, or take his eyes off her. He was at least a half foot taller than she was and had olive skin and dark black hair. His mouth was wide with full lips a few shades darker than his skin tone.
Very handsome.
As she stood there, Sasha felt his otherworldliness. It was as if she were standing on top of a mountain with direct sunlight, looking at a creature that had lived his whole life in the cold, snowy shadows.
There was nothing in his appearance that caused her alarm. Not even the way he looked at her, taking her in.
She had never had anyone look at her the way he did. It was intense and left her feeling a bit vulnerable. Under her skin, she felt a tingling sensation. It spread through her like a net descending over her. She was captivated by the magnetic energy between them and how he seemed to own it, even though he was behind bars. Almost imperceptibly, he leaned forward.
Sucking in a quick breath, she took a large step back. "Makes sense why that door was locked."
She noticed that half the room was the cage, and the other half was very simply furnished with a large cot, Federation-colored bedding, a pillow, storage shelves, a large Minky screen, and a built-in bathroom.
A perfect little space. Too bad it was shared with a puppet master. The caged side had a large cot but no bedding and housed a built-in bathroom. The storage shelves and Minky screen had been removed, leaving outlines of where they once were on the metal walls.
Her eyes flitted back to the Cerebral. For the first time, she took in his powerful build and considered what
one of his race was capable of should he find a way to get free. What in the world was she doing? According to Ansel, this guy was dangerous. What if he had already messed with her mind by luring her into a false sense of security, making her feel as if she had nothing to fear from him. She worriedly tapped at the blocker beneath her ear. Was this thing even working? That was the problem, though. She couldn’t tell if those feelings were real or a fabrication. She hastily stepped back and made her way out of the room, taking the light with her and leaving him in the dark once again.
His unemotional blue eyes remained imprinted upon her mind as she picked up her cup, turned the corner, and looked for another room. The next room was also a double cot room. On one side lay a bandaged Yunkin with an active medscope hovering over him.
This must be the Yon Pax mentioned.
"The medscope is keeping him alive," Ansel said from the other bed. "I was able to get him stable, but some of his internal wounds need more than a medscope. The sooner we get to Pegna, the better."
"Can't we stop somewhere sooner?" Biting the lip of the cup, she felt awful for what the crew must have gone through. "Lotus Nexis should have something to help him."
Ansel set down his Minky pad next to his thigh. "I'm afraid not. Most outpost worlds don't have Numan technology. Only Federation stations do."
Numan technology? "The technology gained from torturing an immeasurable number of people? I mean, your race isn't known for being delicate with their specimens."
Ansel winced. "True, my race is voracious in their experimentations. The benefit is that they must report their findings to the Federation. Their science and station can be confiscated at any time. With that threat, they have moved to more humane ways of studying their specimens." His tone was even, and he expressed himself without any heightened emotion despite her rather rude accusation. He sat in a slumped position on his bed. His hair obstructed a clear view of his eyes, but she got the feeling that her words had struck a tender chord. She felt small and repugnant for throwing accusations at him, especially if he was a Federation doctor. He wasn't really a mad scientist. Pax and Rannn had jumped to conclusions about her, and she hated every second of being judged like that. She had no right to do the same.