Interrupting her thoughts, the male with the tip of a wing tattooed on his face said something to her that she didn’t understand. When she looked at him without replying, he repeated the words again.
“I don’t understand you.” She shook her head. The males turned to look at each other. The same male leaned in closer to her and repeated himself again. This time a lot slower than the first.
“Are you serious?” she added, irritated.
“I don’t think she can understand me,” Rasha said.
“And if you ask her again, she still won’t be able to understand you.”
“At least I am attempting to communicate with her. All you do is stand gawking.”
Taio rounded on Rasha. “I do not gawk! Ship said it couldn’t determine her dialect. It would be pointless to try to engage her in some type of conversation. I’m not the one who insists on asking her the same question over and over, even after it is apparent that she does not understand.”
Without warning, the female grabbed the side of the healing tank and propelled herself out, planting a foot firmly in his stomach before landing on the floor.
Caught off guard, Taio let out a grunt and doubled over as the wind was forced from his lungs. After landing, she quickly scanned the room.
Rasha reached out and tried to grab her arm. Maneuvering away from him, the female sidestepped out of his reach and ran to the other side of the healing tank.
Assured with the distance that she had put between herself and them, she again scanned the room.
“Calm down. We are not going to harm you.” Rasha raised his arms in the air.
“Great Ancients! What are you doing?”
He had known Rasha all of his life. Rasha’s father had been one of his father’s diplomats and Rasha had been a constant figure in their palace. Never had he seen Rasha throw up his hands in surrender.
“Can’t you see that I am trying to get her to calm down? She fears us.”
“We are not the ones who jumped out of the healing tank and attacked her.”
Rasha waved his hand in the air dismissively. “Having this female kick at you would hardly be considered an attack.”
Rasha turned to the female. “We will not hurt you.” He raised his hands again, ignoring Taio.
She was short, but he hadn’t expected a grown female to be as short as she was, standing just below his armpit. Every time she turned side to side in a frantic motion, her firm breasts swayed and jiggled with movement.
Great Ancients.
If she didn’t stop moving, his pants would burst open. She turned in a tight little circle, taking in the full view of the room. Taio got a good view of her backside for the very first time. Her butt, just like her breasts, was high, round and voluptuous. A small groan escaped his lips.
When she turned back to face them, her breasts swayed from the abrupt stop and continued to sway for a little longer.
“Awww…” he murmured. He was going to spill his seed right here in the healing bay.
Her hands flew back up to cover herself. Rasha looked over at Taio. Then down at the bulge that was straining against Taio’s pants.
“You are not going to tell me you are in the least bit interested in that small female.” Rasha’s eyebrows rose.
“And of course you are going to stand there and tell me that the naked female before us is not at all appealing to you?”
“She is the size of a child!” Rasha said, his voice rising. “You had plans to give her to one of the families who work in the kitchens as a gift for their loyal service.”
“It’s now clear, as evidenced by those gorgeous breasts swaying in front of us, that she is not a child.” Taio waved a hand at Eva. “And if she keeps swaying about that way, I am going to burst through my pants,” Taio mumbled. He couldn’t help it if his cock had a mind of its own.
“Try not to jump on her while I find her some clothes.” Rasha walked to the closet.
Eva and Taio were left facing each other. He thought if he willed hard enough, maybe one of her breasts would pop out from under the arm that currently blocked his view.
She pressed her arm harder across her chest and lifted her head defiantly under his heavy gaze.
Taio crossed his arms over his chest. They seemed to be at a standstill before Rasha came back to his side.
“We don’t have anything that will fit her. All I could find was a meditation shirt. It should still be long enough to cover her up.” Rasha held up the shirt, inspecting it.
“This is for you to put on.” Rasha held it over his head and pretended he was putting it on. After he was finished with his instruction, he tossed it on the healing tank, closer to her side so she could easily grab it.
She reached down and grabbed the shirt and swiftly put it over her head.
“Ra-sh-a.” He elongated his name and pointed to his chest.
“Ra-sh-a,” she replied, mimicking his pronunciation.
The shirt enveloped her, hanging down to her calves. The sleeves were so long she had to roll them up so she could have some use of her hands.
“Ta-io.” Rasha pointed to Taio’s chest.
“Ta-io.” She mimicked his pronunciation.
“Ee-va.” She pointed to herself.
“Ee-va,” Rasha repeated.
They both turned toward Taio, waiting for him to say her name, but he just stood watching her with his arms across his chest. He didn’t need to know her name for what he had planned for her. When he gave no indication of trying to say her name, she rolled her eyes and looked away. He smiled. She was feisty. He was finding that he liked his females feisty.
“I have news on the visitor called Ee-va,” Ship announced over the vessel’s intercom system.
Clearly startled, she struck a defensive stance and looked around the room for the source of the voice. Immediately seeing her distress, Rasha began to make soothing sounds, trying to calm her down. Taio was officially disgusted with his friend and fellow warrior’s sudden decline.
“What information do you have on her?” Taio asked.
“Ee-va is from a planet called Earth. It is in a very distant galaxy from ours,” replied Ship.
“How did she get to this galaxy?” Taio asked.
“The Loconuist colonized Earth and started to transport the Earthlings off their home planet to other galaxies. They are in the process of stripping the planet. Since the colonization, the Loconuist have made a substantial amount of wealth with the sale of the planet’s natural resources and inhabitants. Earth is the only inhabitable planet in its solar system. Since this is the case, there are billions of inhabitants on the planet alone,” Ship said.
The Loconuist were relentless in their pursuit to find worlds that were not as advanced. They often went to other worlds under the false pretense of trade. Once they gained the trust of the people, they then infiltrated and took over the world’s governing body, taking control and wiping out the entire planet and inhabitants. Sometimes they left the inhabitants on the planet to slave for them or whatever was needed.
Since slaves were in high demand these past cycles, he could see why they had begun to sell Earth’s inhabitants. The Loconuist could sell the weaker inhabitants and still keep plenty on the planet to mine and farm as needed.
“What else could you find out about her?” Taio asked.
“I cannot tell you anything more specific about her. I am still trying to find a dialect that is a match, or at least a close match to hers. If you could get her to talk more, it would help me to complete that task.”
“What about her age?” Taio asked.
“Her age according to a bone scan is marked as thirty-four Earth cycles. Earth rotations and cycles are faster than ours. She is twenty-two birth cycles on our own world.”
Just as Ship was finishing the last sentence, Jor’Dan entered the room. Eva didn’t waste any time before bolting toward Jor’Dan and the open door.
Taio reached out for her. “Don’t let her pass!”
Chapter Five
A millisecond was all she allowed to look at her pursuer before turning back to focus on the exit.
She could only assume the giant was telling his friend to stop her. Her mind concentrated only on an escape. She had no clue where she was going. Hell, she didn’t even know where she was. The details could all be worked out later.
She launched herself feet first toward the man standing in the doorway. Her right hip hit the ground and she slid, breezing between his legs.
Cleared and outside the room, Eva sprang to her feet and took off down the corridor as fast as she could, her bare feet hitting the cold floor, each step smacking hard as she ran. She needed to get away; the thought repeated on a loop in her head. She ran frantically as the heavy footsteps of her pursuers followed behind her.
Down the corridor she ran, her right hand extended out to the wall, searching for an automatic door. On the Loconuist spacecraft, the doors opened by some kind of sensor-detecting movement. She prayed these doors might operate on the same principle.
A door opened as she passed it. She wasn’t surprised but prayed a silent thank you. Taking one good look behind her and not seeing her pursuers in sight, she ducked inside the dark room.
The darkened room immediately brightened, her entrance causing the automatic lights to activate. With a swoosh, the door slid closed behind her. Turning in a full circle, she eyed her surroundings. The medium-sized room held crates of various sizes. Good enough place as any to hide.
She took off to a far corner. Satisfied that the room would serve her purpose for now, she dropped to a sitting position, grabbed her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them tightly.
As sweat dripped from her brow and her body shook, she waited for two things to happen. The first, for the motion-sensor lights to go off. The second, for the giants to come through the door and get her. Crap.
Finally, the footsteps and shouts of her pursuers came from the corridor beyond the door and they were getting closer. Her forehead pressed painfully to her knees, breath ragged, she waited.
The sensor lights blinked off, leaving the room pitch black.
She held her breath. The footsteps were now just beyond the door. Her captors were close enough for her to hear them talking in harsh, deep voices. Not knowing what was said only added to her anxiety.
She imagined every sentence they spoke as “Catch the woman so we can all take turns raping her”. I’ll kill them first. Against her will, her body began to tremble harder. She waited for the inevitable.
Her recapture.
The blood pumped loudly through her head, rushing through her brain and ears, the wait was almost unbearable.
Be calm.
She needed to be in control, no matter what happened next. She concentrated on her breathing, imagining the slow, deep breaths of air circulating through her lungs first and then to her body. Within minutes she calmed. Her eyes slowly opened. Staying perfectly still, she strained her ears, trying to locate any other noise beside her own.
Silence. She let out a deep breath.
Eva sat as still as she could. Although calmer, her breathing had not returned to normal. Her chest burned with pain. Her eyes were fixed on the door. She had escaped. But where was she?
“Ally, where are you?” she whispered. “I can’t get to you if I don’t know where you are. Hell, when you tell me where you are, tell me where I am, so I can go to where you are and then we can both go somewhere away from here.”
“That phrase does not make sense,” a disembodied voice interjected.
Eva jumped up, her movement causing the lights to click back on. Her eyes darted around the room. She was alone. “Who are you?” She spun, looking for the source. It was the same voice from earlier.
“My name is Ship. Why is your head jerking? Shall I call for help?”
“No!” she yelled. “No,” she said again, catching herself and dropping her voice back down to a whisper. “Wait. How is it possible that I can understand you?”
“We placed a Universal Translator in your brain.” Eva’s hands immediately flew to her head. “Don’t worry. You were not harmed. It is standard procedure for all intelligent life forms who travel off-world to be equipped with a Universal Translator.”
“So I can understand what those men are saying to me now.”
“Because we were unfamiliar with your dialect, there may be some variations in translation, but it should translate effectively for the time being. You will be able to read other languages as well. I can adjust it remotely as I come to understand your language better.”
“You will not go into my head!” she said, her voice low and harsh, now more alarmed than ever.
“I told you before, no harm will come to you.”
Her eyes wandered around the room, still trying to figure out where the voice came from. “Who are you?” she asked again.
“I told you, my name is Ship.”
“I’m on a ship?”
“You are on a vessel. More precisely, you are on the Saia II. But to answer your previous question, my name is Ship.”
“Oh.” She paused for a minute to gather her thoughts. “Where is the ship taking me?”
“You are riding in the Saia II. It is more accurately referred to as a vessel.”
“I don’t get it. You said I was on a ship called the Saia II.”
“No. The vessel is called the Saia II. My name is Ship. I am the entity that sometimes inhabits this vessel.”
“And you said I didn’t make sense. Sheesh.”
“Do you need further explanation?”
“No, well, yes. Just explain the entity part.”
“I originate from beings that require an electric current to survive. We operate and control whatever the electric current is running through. We would not be visible to your eyes. We have been around since well before your time,” Ship explained.
“So right now you are in this ship, err, vessel and control it?”
“That is correct.”
“So what’s your name?”
“Ship.”
Chapter Six
“Wait a minute. The ship is the object you live in, not your name. I’m asking you your name. Not what objects you inhabit,” she said.
“My name is Ship. Cycles ago, I inhabited a small electrical toy vessel that Taio had as an infant. He named me Ship. I liked it and have used that name ever since.”
“Cycles?”
“Yes, you would recognize the meaning as year.”
“How long have I been here?”
“Two Sonis rotations.”
“Huh?”
“Days.”
“Oh. So, what was your name before Ship?” She relaxed back against the wall.
“My name was…”
A high-pitched squeak resonated throughout the room. Covering her ears with her hands did little to block out the shrieking noise.
“I am sorry if my name caused you pain. I will have to add that your ears are sensitive to high-pitched sounds to your information.”
“Don’t. Ever. Do. That. Again.” As her hearing slowly came back, she opened and closed her mouth and rocked her head from side to side.
“I made a note of it. It will not happen again.”
“Taio, he was one of the men chasing me. Who is he?” Eva held up her hand. “And if you can’t answer without making that God-awful noise, then please don’t answer.”
“Taio is himself. He does not have an entity inside him.”
“Right,” she said sarcastically. “I was asking who he was, as in…never mind.”
Ship fell silent for a minute.
“I misunderstood your question. Taio Xochis is the first King of Sonis, first son of King Xochis of Drazlan and Prince of Drazlan. He is the owner of Sonis Mercenary and Sonis Gold.”
Okay, so she had been sold to some type of royalty. Royalty whom she had assaulted, can’t forget about that.
“Are you his sl… I me
an, is he your mas…” She blew out a breath. “Do you belong to him?”
She had trouble trying to find the right words to ask. Somehow asking, “Are you a slave?” or “Are you owned by someone?” didn’t seem quite polite.
“No. I am my own. We are…friends is the word I believe your people would use.”
“So, did he buy me on that planet?”
“From what I was told, you were given to him by the Tresdonians.”
“I was given to him. As in free?” What the hell?
She couldn’t believe it. It’s not that she wanted to be sold into slavery, but to be given away. Well, that brought back some bad memories. Damn Tresdonians.
“You proved to be more trouble than you were worth.” Ship laughed, a deep rumble that filled the room. Apparently he amused himself.
“That’s not very funny. No one had the right to give me away,” she said, her voice a low whisper.
Her parents had given her up for adoption when she was two years old. Who gives up a two-year-old? Of course, she didn’t want to be sold and bought by anyone, but at least it proved she was worth something. Free, well, that was just…nothing.
A soft clinking sound in the distance brought her out of her downward emotional spiral. She grew quiet and strained her ears. The noises trailed off down the hallway before finally dying down completely. Only then did she turn her attention back to the entity. He wasn’t an immediate threat.
She decided to take her chances and keep asking questions. This was more information than she’d gotten from anyone about anything in the past three years.
“Can you please tell me where I am? You told me I’m on some type of vessel, but I really want to know where I am.” More importantly, how far away was she from Earth?
“You are in the Delta System.”
“Umm…and that is where exactly?”
“The Delta System is ten light cycles away from the Zaronna System. Both are located in the Torus Galaxy.”
“Hmm…I need you to be a bit more specific. I need information I can use.”
“That was information you could use,” Ship said, sounding a bit offended. “We are on our way to the Zaronna System.”
Dangerously Mine Page 3