by J. M. Page
“What is this place?” Mara asked, her palms flat against the window. She’d never seen anything quite like it. Other ships — mostly much smaller than the Affliction — docked around the base, each attached by a bridge of sorts holding it in place.
“Nexus-5, mostly for refueling and repairs, but there’s a small market inside, too,” Torak said, right behind her.
Mara’s head snapped around, her hair whipping about her face as she turned to meet his chest head-on, her nose nearly pressed into him.
She tilted her head back to meet his gaze, her heart hammering, a smile spreading across her face. Mara could feel his warmth seeping into her even though they didn’t touch and she desperately wanted to lean into him, to press herself against him and relive the previous night.
Instead, she nodded. “It’s kind of crazy looking,” she said.
Torak chuckled, the rumbling vibrations making his chest brush against hers. They were so close; Mara looked around at the rest of the crew milling about, but none of them paid her much attention. “It’s a bit of a patchwork, yes, but the only station around for quite some distance. They do great business out here, don’t let appearances fool you. The owner of this place could probably buy half the Queen’s fleet.”
“Hey, Mara,” Delta called from the other side of the flight deck, waving her over.
Mara offered Torak an apologetic smile. “Duty calls, I’m afraid.”
He nodded without a word and she hurried over to Delta’s side.
“What’s up?” she asked, still grinning from the brief encounter with Torak. They hadn’t even said anything out of the ordinary, but it was the way he spoke to her. The way his shimmering yellow eyes bored into her and made her insides turn to jelly. The way he could make her feel so warm and safe without even touching her…
Oh nova, those seemed like dangerous thoughts. She tried to push them away, but they kept bobbing to the surface.
“I’m sure you want to explore the base, but I have a quick job for you first,” Delta said, ignoring the way Mara’s gaze flickered over toward the Captain.
“Sure, no problem,” Mara answered. She was here to work, after all.
“Go down to the pod bay and double-check all of these numbers. We’re trading a few of them up, and need to make sure they’re the right ones. Workers from the base might try to take them off your hands, but don’t let any go until you double-check the numbers, okay?”
Mara took the tablet Delta offered her and scrolled through the list, nodding. “Sounds easy enough,” she said.
Delta gave her a nod and a smile. “It’s nothing exciting, but it should be fast enough to give you time to explore before we finish refueling.”
“I appreciate it,” Mara said, her chest swelling with gratitude. Delta didn’t have to give her the easy and fast jobs. She could give her something more time-consuming or challenging and ruin any hope Mara had of checking out Nexus-5. But Delta wasn’t like that, she tried to be helpful when she had an idea how to be.
Mara was glad for a friend like her, even if they’d gotten off to a rocky start.
“Who knows,” Delta said, her smile turning mischievous. “Maybe the Captain will join you on your excursion.”
Mara’s face instantly warmed and she knew that there was no hiding how much the thought pleased her. Instead of babbling an excuse or rebuttal, she just darted off out of the flight deck, toward the pod bay, tablet in hand.
Maybe he would join her. He could explain the different areas and teach her about the types of people that came here…
It sounded wonderful. But first, she needed to do her job.
When Mara arrived in the pod bay, it was completely empty. The bay door was wide open to the bridge that connected them to the base, but no workers had yet appeared. Maybe she could get a jump on them and forego any potential confrontations.
She set to work, quickly checking numbers off her list and moving the correct pods toward the bay doors. By the time she was halfway through the list, workers trailed in and out in a steady stream. She obviously didn’t recognize any of them, but Delta mentioned that they’d be there so she wasn’t concerned about their presence.
She watched her cache of checked pods dwindling and tried to work faster, hoping she wasn’t running out of time. How long did a refuel take, anyway?
At the second to last pod, Mara leaned into the pod to find the right number and heard something behind her. She frowned, stepping out and looking around, but didn’t see anything.
“Hello?” she called into the echoing pod bay.
No answer.
Her brows furrowed together, but eventually Mara shrugged and went back to the bubble-shaped pod.
“XK45… No, where was I?” she muttered, having to start all over again. She grumbled to herself — weird noises were just making her waste time.
As she finished the number, she heard another sound. Sure that it was footsteps near her, Mara stepped out of the pod and looked around again, her frown much more earnest this time.
“Delta? Is that you?” she asked, hoping it was just a practical joke.
Still, even as she hoped, cold fingers of dread tip-toed up her spine.
“Torak?” she tried, her voice quivering.
There was no response.
With a heavy sigh, Mara started to pull the checked pod toward the bay door. She was just imagining things, surely.
She made it only a handful of steps when hands reached from the darkness and pulled her in. Before she could scream, one covered her mouth. Panic flooded her bloodstream in an instant and Mara struggled to get free as the person dragged her into the pod she’d been tending.
Chapter Ten
Mara
What was happening? Who was this? Her heart slammed against her ribcage with every frantic beat. She grabbed at the hand covering her mouth, trying to pull it away, but her abductor’s grip was strong.
“Shh, calm down,” he said as the pod door closed.
Mara whirled around, eyes wide, her anger fuming. “Dad?! What are you doing here?”
Her father was the last person Mara ever expected to see on this ship. She didn’t know how he’d found them, how he’d gotten so far from home, or what he thought he was doing. She just knew she was beyond infuriated with him.
He wrapped her in a hug, taking the tablet from her as he did. “I’m here to take you home, where you belong,” he said, sounding tired.
“Home?” Home, as in that frozen asteroid they lived on? That wasn’t home. That was a place to live. She frowned, thinking about leaving behind Delta and Eddi, Sande and Torak…
Her heart ached at that last one. How could she leave him when things were starting to go so well? When he seemed to want to help her figure out her past?
“Yes, of course. Don’t you want to go home?” he asked, his face a mask of hurt and confusion.
Did she? Mara didn’t answer right away. She knew she should want to go home with her father. She should want to get away from the ship and crew that took her against her will and made her work for her keep.
But she didn’t.
The realization hit her like a punch to the stomach. She didn’t want to leave Torak. Or give up on the chance at finding her home. Her real home.
But how in the world was she going to tell her father that when he looked at her so expectantly? It would crush him to think his daughter would rather be with pirates than him.
She sighed, her stomach filled with buzzing nervousness. “Dad, I think I should fulfill my obligations here. They’re not treating me poorly. The Captain’s a fair man,” she said, hearing the wistful note in her own voice as she spoke about Torak.
Dad didn’t miss it either. He narrowed his eyes, his face going plum with fury. “You don’t know what you’re saying. They’ve brainwashed you. I’ll get you home and you’ll see it’s for the best,” he said, tapping instructions into the tablet to control the pod.
Mara felt the pod lift, hovering from the
main ship and she knew her father was going to kidnap her whether she liked it or not.
Think, think. There has to be a way out of this.
“Dad, he’s going to come looking for me. If he finds out you took me, that’s only going to make things worse,” she said, not knowing if it was true. Maybe Torak wouldn’t miss her at all. The thought felt like a hot knife going through her.
A pain started in Mara’s head. Had started the moment her father’s hand clamped over her mouth. It was a dull pain at first, just a nagging throb, but now it morphed into full-blown agony, turning her vision into white spots as everything around her spun out of control.
“Mara? Mara!” Dad called to her, but Mara couldn’t speak. She couldn’t latch on to any of the thoughts that flitted through her mind at warp-speed.
She felt so dizzy. It was too much stress was all. Dad was making her freak out and her body responded in kind.
“Pixel, look at me, sweetheart,” Dad said, brushing stray hair from her forehead.
Mara blinked a few times, her vision clearing, and realized that her father cradled her in his arms. Had she fainted? Her face felt clammy and damp with sweat.
“You’re so pale,” he said, worry making his voice tight. “We definitely need to get you home. All this travel isn’t good for you.”
Mara wanted to argue, but the words wouldn’t come. Her tongue felt so heavy, her mouth glued shut no matter how hard she tried to prise it open. The pod drifted off, away from the Affliction, away from the life she was starting to grow accustomed to, and the people she was starting to love being around.
Yet Mara couldn’t say anything. Her head pulsed and screamed and all she could do was lean back against her father as he stroked her hair, whispering gentle reassurances.
She must have fallen asleep, because when she woke again, they were on the base, people of all races and origins walking purposefully from one place to another. Mara blinked, trying to clear the haze of confusion from her mind.
“D-dad?” she rasped.
He came into view, leaning over her, his expression taut with anxiety. “Oh good! You’re awake. They’re going to start boarding any minute now.”
“Boarding?” she managed, still hopelessly confused. What happened to her? She’d never fainted like that, or felt a pain quite like that.
Memories started to filter in and her brain pieced together the events leading up to this particular moment.
“Dad, you have to take me back, you have to—”
“There he is, the thief!” someone bellowed across the base.
Mara lifted her still-pounding head to look and saw him — Torak, his head held high, his shoulders stiff, marching toward them, surrounded by armed guards on all sides.
Dad tried to rouse her, to get her to move so they could run, but Mara was frozen in place. Paralyzed by the relief of seeing Torak again. She thought she even felt a smile make its way to her lips.
Guards in all black closed around them. Three grabbed her father, hauling him up to his feet.
“You don’t understand!” he cried. “She needs to be home with me! She’s in danger with him,” he pleaded.
Curious glances came from all around, but no one intervened. Torak stooped, holding his hand out to Mara and she slipped hers in without thought.
“Are you alright?” he asked, his voice tender and soft.
Mara’s head still felt full of mush, but she managed to nod slightly, even that tiny movement making her wince.
“Come on,” he said, helping her to her feet. “We’ll get you to your room and you can rest.” Torak’s voice was gentle and caring, but there was something else laced under the surface: rage. He looked at her father with all the contempt he could muster and Mara tried to find the words to defend him. He didn’t mean it. He was just dumb sometimes.
But the words wouldn’t come. Her mouth was still dry and her jaw refused to move.
“Stop! You don’t know what you’re doing,” her father raged in the background, guards forcing him to his knees as they restrained him.
Torak started to escort Mara back towards his ship, but she took two steps and stumbled forward, her vision tunneling again.
“...Must have drugged her,” she heard Torak say to someone else. Then his strong powerful arms lifted her, one cradling her neck, the other under her knees, and he carried her.
There was nothing for Mara to do at that point. She curled against his chest, the steady beat of his heart reassuring and comforting, and life faded to blackness once again.
When Mara woke again, she was onboard the Affliction. Even before she opened her eyes, she got the sense that she wasn’t alone, and once her eyes adjusted, she spotted Delta at her bedside.
“Hey there, buddy. You okay?”
Mara’s mouth was exceptionally dry, but she still managed to force out an answer. “Yeah. Think so. My dad?” she asked as Delta reached behind her for a glass of water.
Mara gulped it all down like she’d been stranded in a desert for a week. The water made her feel better, but drinking it so quickly left her queasy.
Delta didn’t answer her question straight away and that was enough to make Mara suspicious.
“You really had us worried there. No one knew what was wrong with you. I can’t believe he’d drug you to smuggle you off the ship. As if anyone could smuggle something from the galaxy’s most notorious smuggler,” Delta said with a note of derision. Mara wasn’t sure if she was trying to make her feel better or not. It wasn’t working.
“What happened to my dad, Delta?” she asked, more forcefully now.
Delta hesitated. “There was talk of sending him to the Queen, but I doubt the Captain thinks she’d look upon his claim favorably.”
Mara sat upright in bed now, her mind racing with the possibilities. They hadn’t turned him loose then. Where was he? Still on the ship? Jailed? Being tortured? Worse?
Her stomach turned, acid and bile rising in her throat.
“Where is he?” she asked.
Delta’s jaw dropped and she snapped it shut. “I don’t really think that—”
“Where?” Mara growled, surprised by herself. Her father made stupid choices, but he didn’t deserve to be punished for trying to save his daughter. Even if she didn’t want to be saved.
“In a holding cell we have in case of mutinous crew members. I don’t know what the Captain has planned for him,” Delta said, clearly annoyed with Mara’s persistence and lack of appreciation. She folded her arms as she stood.
“You know, I thought you’d be thankful that the whole ship dropped everything to find you. But you’re just worried about the man who lied to you and used you as a pawn and tried to control you.” Delta shook her head, looking so disappointed in Mara.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about. He’s my father! If anyone used me as a pawn it was your precious Captain.” The words were out before Mara could stop them. She wished she could take them back and shove them back where they belonged with her irrational hurt and fear, but as the saying went, you couldn’t uncollapse a star. The damage was done.
Delta’s expression turned to hurt. She looked like she wanted to say something, then thought better of it, just shaking her head in disbelief as she left Mara’s room in a huff.
“Delta, wait!” she called, but it was too late. That star was thoroughly collapsed and in its place was a black hole, sucking up all the joy and happiness Mara had found on this ship recently.
She sighed, disgusted with herself and her reaction, and swung her legs over the side of the cot. Regardless of what happened with Delta, she still needed to talk to Torak. To get him to release her father.
Hopefully, he’d be a little more reasonable about it all.
As she stalked through the corridors, Mara tried to think of what she’d say to Torak. How she’d clearly express her displeasure and calmly ask for her father’s release. She had to handle Torak more tactfully than she had Delta. And she had to hope that D
elta hadn’t said anything yet.
She headed to the flight deck, assuming the Captain would be there as he normally was. Upon arrival, Mara was surprised to find not only Torak, but at least a dozen other men, looking equally serious and grim, seated around a table she’d never seen before.
Normally, the Captain’s chair resided where the table now was. Before she entered the room, Mara heard gruff tones, something akin to an argument, but the moment she made an appearance, all discussion came to a screeching halt.
Torak looked up, met her eyes, and something fierce flickered there. Something that made her warm and cold all at once. He was obviously still seething, but looked pleasantly surprised to see her up and around.