I cleared my throat. “What now?”
Kili didn’t respond. That coward. And to think that I’d slept with him, had stroked his cock, had enjoyed it… How could I have been so wrong about him? I’d always thought of myself as a good judge of character, yet I’d failed.
“It’s going to be three days until they reach us,” I said tonelessly. “The connection was too patchy to send them a message. That means we’re on our own until they arrive. Three days to survive on an asteroid with two Trads and a human female.” I reached over the table and gripped his arm. Finally, he looked at me, but his eyes were devoid of any emotion. “I need to know I can trust you not to do something stupid. Laird, we’re in enough trouble already. If I lock you in your room for the duration of our stay here, will you comply?”
He blinked; the only sign that he’d heard me.
I sighed. This was ridiculous. I shouldn’t have to have this conversation with Kili.
“Do you at least regret what happened?”
A flicker of anger lit up his eyes. His expression stayed blank, but at least he’d shown some kind of reaction.
“Talk to me. We need to find a solution and while I wish I were the one in charge, I’m not.”
Kili pulled his arm from my grasp and typed into his data pad. I watched him in confusion, but he didn’t seem inclined to explain what he was doing. Laird, give me strength.
“I’ve given you full command of the ship,” he muttered after several minutes. “You’re acting captain now while I’m indisposed.”
I stared at him. “That’s possible?”
He nodded sadly. “A protocol meant for when the captain is grievously injured or ill. You now have control. You outrank me. Lock me in my room if you want. Or the holding cells. I don’t care.”
His shoulders slumped in defeat. I’d never seen him this weak. Kili was a fighter who rose to every challenge. Now he was giving up. I both hated it and was glad that I didn’t have to force him to submit.
I looked him straight in the eye. “Tell me, honestly. Do you still mean the Trads any harm?”
Kili slowly shook his head. “No. I’ve seen how the female acts around them. She trusts the Trads and it would hurt her if something were to happen to them. Her wellbeing is the priority.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, a harsh and cold sound. “That thought comes a little late. You shot her.”
“By accident,” he snapped. Finally, some of his usual strength was shining through. “I would never have harmed her. Never. You know better than to think that.”
“Do I?” I threw back at him. “I thought I knew you, but even if you didn’t intend to hurt the female, you did try to kill an unarmed man. A prisoner. That’s against all our principles.” I rubbed the back of my neck where all the tension was starting to hurt. “You broke the rules. You did something terrible, and I can’t just forgive you for that.”
“I’m not asking for your forgiveness. How can I do that when I will never be able to forgive myself?”
He buried his face in his hands. It hurt to see him like that. I was tempted to reach out again, but I didn’t.
He got up,, his head bowed, his posture resigned. “I’ll go to my room where I’ll stay until our rescuers arrive. You don’t need to bring me food. I’ll be alright with water from the bathroom.”
He left the room without another word, leaving me feeling strangely guilty.
Suddenly, my data pad vibrated, almost making me jump. Laird, I really was on edge.
The screen was showing strange symbols, racing across it, flickering dangerously. That had never happened before. The symbols were almost too fast to see, but I recognised a few of them. Trad writing. I got up, my chair falling over, and ran from the room.
Even though I had no idea what the symbols said, I knew that they weren't supposed to be there. That could only mean one thing. The Trads were hacking our ship.
Chapter 7
Wren
Bang. Bang.
I was pressed against a hard, warm wall. It pulled me closer with every banging sound.
Despite the noise, I felt safe. I yawned and blinked open my eyes. The wall was wearing a shirt.
"Zut, they woke her."
Not a wall. Vuk.
I yawned again, my mind slowly clearing.
"What's going on?" I muttered. Drool was running down my chin and onto Vuk's shirt. Oops. I'd drooled on an alien. Not my finest moment.
"Don't worry, they won't get in. I've turned their own ship against them." Raf appeared in my line of vision, grinning happily. I returned his smile and his eyes lit up even more.
"What did you do?" I asked, nudging Vuk to let me turn around. Grudgingly, he let me move until I was sitting on the mattress with him curled around my lower back.
Raf shrugged. "Hacked their ship. Their firewalls were totally out of date. Easy to get in. I've locked them out of most of their controls. Like the doors. This little door will only open for me."
The banging from the other side underlined his words.
I rubbed my eyes, still a little sleepy. "Is that easy to do? Hacking an entire ship?"
"No," Vuk grumbled from behind me. "But Raf is good at that sort of thing. He's written some AI programs that can sneak into a ship's interface and open certain virtual doors for him. That's how I understand it, anyway."
Raf rolled his eyes. "It's a lot more complicated than that, but yes, if it helps, imagine it like opening doors. I use those programs a lot when we hijack a ship. It helps preserve life when I can keep their crew locked in their own rooms or fiddle with the life support system to lower the oxygen so much that they fall unconscious but don't die. Makes it easier for us to loot the ship."
"Can you do it from your own vessel or do you have to be on board?" I asked, intrigued. When thinking of them as pirates, I'd imagined them seizing a ship guns blazing and wearing pirate hats while screaming and making ridiculous threats. It seemed I was completely wrong about that.
"Onboard," Raf explained. "I can do basic things from a distance but to fully take control I need to be on the ship and get access to their hardware." He pointed at a hole in the wall that showed a bunch of cables running behind it.
The banging had stopped for a moment, but now it resumed, louder and sharper somehow. The Athions had to be using more than just their hands now. Something metal, maybe, that's what it sounded like.
Raf chuckled. "They won't get in. Unless they use explosives, but they'd be too scared to hurt you."
Thank goodness for that. I wasn't in the mood to be injured any further. Now that I focused on it, my back still hurt, a deep ache that didn't feel like it would go away anytime soon. That bastard Athion. I hope he'd get punished for shooting me.
"Are you in pain?" Raf asked with a worried frown.
Immediately, Vuk's arms shot around my waist and pulled me closer, as if he was trying to protect me. Sweet, but he was touching my wound which only made me cringe even more.
"I'm okay," I replied bravely.
“Don’t lie to me,” he said and reached out to stroke my cheek. The urge to flinch was strong but I fought against it. I didn’t want him to think I was scared of him. Because I wasn’t. Not anymore. Being hunted by Athions, crashing, getting hurt, it had formed a strange bond between us.
I supposed it made sense. Tragedy often pulled people together.
“Shall we take you to the med bay?” Vuk asked full of concern. “Raf can lock the Athions into their rooms, so we’ll be undisturbed.”
“I’m fine,” I insisted. “Just don’t touch my back.”
Vuk rolled away from me, taking his warmth with him. A shiver ran over my skin. I was still wearing the same clothes I’d worn when the Athion shot me. They’d ripped open the back of my shirt to access the wound, which meant a cold draft now cooled my lower back.
“I didn’t say to stop touching me completely,” I complained. Goosebumps raised on my arms, both from the cold and from what I realised I’d ju
st said.
“You want me to touch you?” Vuk asked, his voice hoarse. “Are you sure?”
“Did they give you a brain transplant?” Raf muttered. “Are you no longer scared of us?”
His eyes roamed my body as if he was seeing me for the first time.
“I didn’t mean lots of touching,” I backtracked. “But you don’t need to keep your distance from me just because I got injured. I’m cold and you’re warm. That’s a good reason for touching, right?”
By now, my cheeks were flushed with embarrassment. We were talking about a topic I’d never discussed before. I’d never even been with a man. I was too young when the invasion happened and after, it was too dangerous. Trads could disguise themselves as humans, gorgeous, alluring human men, who had some kind of magical pulling power. I’d even heard of lesbians being impregnated by Trads, unable to withstand their pheromones despite not being into men.
Vuk shuffled forward until he was curled around me again. I leaned back, grateful for his warmth. His touch made me feel safe.
“Why aren’t you using your pheromones on me?” I blurted, to fill the silence.
Raf looked at me in confusion. “Why would we? We don’t want to mate with you.” He cleared his throat. “Not like that, anyway. We only use them when we’re hunting. For unwilling prey.”
I shuddered. Prey, that’s what we were. For the Trads, women were just living, walking incubators. Not for all, I corrected myself. Vuk and Raf were different.
“When we first heard of what our kind was doing to the females on Earth, we vowed never to do that to anyone,” Vuk whispered and put a hand on my shoulder. He squeezed gently, then moved to the back of my neck, kneading away the tension. Oh my goodness. That felt amazing.
“The pheromones are meant to ready a female to receive our egg,” Raf explained. “Trad females are very…tight, so if we want to mate, they help to relax them. The effect on humans is much stronger, though. It puts the females in a trance, taking away their free will. We’d never do that. Not to you, not to anyone.”
Vuk’s tail curled around my legs, its tip tickling the back of my knee. I giggled and pulled my legs up, away from his tail.
“Did I hurt you?” he asked, concern and confusion lacing his words.
I laughed again. “No, it tickles.”
Raf wiggled his eyebrows. “Tickles? What’s that?”
I stopped laughing and looked at him quizzingly. "Seriously? You don't know what tickles are?"
"Ticks are small animals that bite and suck blood, but I doubt you'd be laughing if you had those on you. So no, I don't know. Maybe it's a word not in our dictionary. Describe what it is and we might realise what you mean."
I grinned devilishly. "There's a much better way than describing it. How about I show you?"
I turned around until I faced Vuk, who was curled up on the mattress, his tail still on my knee. He looked massive on the small bed. I wouldn't be surprised if it would collapse underneath his weight.
"Lift your arms," I ordered.
He frowned but did as I asked, exposing his armpits. For the best effect, I should have asked him to take his shirt off, but that wasn't a good idea. I was okay with them touching me occasionally now, but I didn't think I'd be able to be around naked aliens quite yet.
"And now?" he asked, looking comically with his arms in the air.
"Now I tickle you."
I reached out and curled my fingers, tickling his right armpit. He didn't even flinch. No reaction at all.
"Is that some kind of special massage?" Raf asked from behind me.
I groaned. "Nothing? This doesn't make you laugh?"
Vuk snorted. "I'm about to laugh because this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever done. Do you humans do this a lot?"
"No, mostly as children. We tickle each other and laugh because it makes them laugh. My dad used to tickle me all over and I'd squeal and try to get away but he'd catch me and tickle the soles of my feet." I smiled at the memory, but it was tinged with sadness. My father was dead, along with the rest of my family. There would be no more being chased around the house.
I'd always imagined him doing the same to his grandchildren one day. But no, there would be none of those either. Not just because it wasn't safe to be with a man. Because I was in space, trapped, alone.
"You're sad," Raf stated. "Do you want to tickle me? I can laugh, if that makes you happy."
He was so adorable. I had a hard time not giggling again, despite the morbid thoughts in my mind.
"I'm alright," I said quietly. "Let's talk about something else. Where are the Athions? Are they still trying to get in?"
The banging had stopped a while ago.
Raf checked his communicator. "One is in his room, locked in. I didn't lock his door so the other Athion must have done that. The other is on the bridge, attempting to push me out of the system." He laughed. "Good luck with that. At least it will keep him busy."
My stomach chose that moment to growl. Immediately, the two guys were staring at me.
"You're hungry. You need to eat," Vuk said with a strange urgency in his voice. "You need food to recover from your injury. I keep forgetting that humans need a lot of sustenance."
He took his fantastic massaging hands off me. I leaned against him once more, annoyed that he'd stopped.
"Keep massaging me," I begged. "It feels so good."
"It does?" He sounded genuinely surprised. "I saw my father do that to my mother, but I didn't think it would be any good."
I snorted. "Vuk, you're the best masseuse in the entire galaxy. Now continue, please, before I decide that you're my dinner." I paused for a moment, trying to think what time it might be. "Is it dinner? Or breakfast? I've lost all track of time."
Raf looked at his wrist screen once again. "Lunch, actually. But I don't think it matters. We eat when we feel like it. Let's check what this ship has in its larders." He typed in a few commands, then grinned. "We're lucky. They must be high in the Athion hierarchy. Only the best food. I've locked the alien into the bridge so we can move around the ship undisturbed."
A shiver ran down my back. I didn't feel up to that. This room was different enough from the one they had kept me in, but remembering how similar the living area had been... I didn't want to have another breakdown.
Raf seemed to realise my predicament. He smiled at me. "I'll bring some food here. Let's have a nicpic."
"Picnic," I corrected. "And yes, that would be fun. Thank you."
He winked at me and started clearing the furniture from in front of the door. Now that he'd hacked the ship, we didn't need this barrier anymore. I grinned. He hacked the ship. Brilliant. I wondered how angry the Athions were about that. Fuming, most likely. Well, they deserved it. They'd made us crash, after all.
Vuk continued his massage and I moaned softly. I had found a piece of heaven in the most unlikely of places.
Chapter 8
Kili
I paced the room, back and forth, right to left, left to right. I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't feel like reading or watching the latest space opera. Not that we'd have any reception here. Kion had said that he hadn't even been able to get a good connection during his emergency call. Streaming entertainment was out of the question. What did I usually do in my free time?
I grimaced. I didn't have free time. I didn't allow myself to relax. I took my job seriously and I didn't let my own wishes and tiredness get in the way. They had raised me to be in command. My father had been a Custo, so had my uncles. It was in my blood.
And now I'd ruined it all. One rash decision, one impulsive moment. I was an idiot. Laird help me. I might end up imprisoned for life for this. No more flying across space. No more pretending to be a hero. Maybe I should run. Hijack a ship as soon as they picked us off this rock. I'd stopped countless pirates from doing that very thing. If they could do it, so could I. Most pirates were idiots. Not the ones we had on board though. They seemed to be very different. I still c
ouldn't believe the human female trusted them. They were Trads, for Laird's sake. No female should ever trust a Trad. These might be the universe's best actors, but eventually, she'd see that it had all been smoke and mirrors. They'd show their true selves at some point. And then it would be too late. We had to protect her from that. Kion and I. But I'd shot her and she'd never trust me now. It was down to Kion.
I sat on the floor, leaning against the cold edge of my bed. I didn't deserve sitting on that bed. I had to atone for my behaviour, my sins, but I didn't know how. I'd never been a religious person but now, I wish I was. Most Athions believed in the Laird, a benevolent God who forgave even the worst sins. I didn't have a clue about how you went about begging for forgiveness. But then, surely I should get the female to forgive me rather than some unseen being that may or may not exist.
I sighed deeply. Everything was so complicated. I'd never felt more out of my depth. There were no rules to follow for this situation. No guidance. The only thing I had done right was passing on the command to Kion. He was a better man than I was. He could be impulsive, but he was good at heart. He would never have tried to shoot the Trad.
A beep signalled an incoming message. With another sigh, I glanced at the data pad on my wrist. Kion. I didn't want to talk to him, but it could be important. If it had just been the two of us on the ship, I'd ignored him, but we had guests. I scoffed at that. I wasn't sure what to call them. They weren't exactly prisoners - I was more of a prisoner than they were - but they also weren't here by choice.
I smoothed my expression and pressed the call button. Kion's face appeared in the air above my wrist; a hologram that was realistic enough to almost make me sense his hot breath as he glared at me.
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