by Leslie Chase
Certainly Captain Falbad preferred to go down swinging. He stepped out from cover to advance on the pirate leader, and I made a quick calculation of the odds.
It didn’t look good for Falbad.
He was a tall man but spindly, with four long arms and a blade in each hand. I wouldn’t want to fight him but compared to the pirate he looked like a twig ready to snap. The massive bulk of the blue-skinned raider combined with his grim expression promised a bad end for anyone who opposed him.
Before they met, something small and fast launched from the pirate’s shoulder. A tiny birdlike drone circled the room looking down, and it seemed to focus on me. I stared up at it, watching mechanical wings beat and hold it in place, wondering what deadly tricks it concealed.
That almost made me miss the fight.
Falbad’s blade flicked out fast, almost too fast to follow. The pirate’s sword blocked, thrust, was parried in turn. The graceful exchange that followed drove Falbad back, back, his four arms frantically hacking at the pirate’s defenses. Other crew rushed forward, clashing with the pirate gang, but my attention stayed riveted on the fight between the captains.
The blue-skinned raider blocked some of Falbad’s attacks, dodged others. His movements were graceful, precise, measured. A deadly dance, each move flowing into the next, until he drove Falbad against the console I hid behind. The captain stumbled, tried to twist aside, and failed. For just a moment he was open, and that moment was all the pirate needed to drive a thrust through his chest.
Falbad gasped, gurgled, and slumped to the floor. I bit down on the inside of my cheek, hard enough to taste blood, pain drowning out the urge to shriek.
Crying would only make me look weak, and that was the last thing I wanted right now.
Other fights still raged as crew and pirates fought for control of the bridge, but Falbad’s defeat sucked the resistance out of his crew. All around the bridge, weapons fell to the deck as crewmen surrendered.
I didn’t blame them. Resisting this attack would just get them killed, and they were no match for the pirates. The drone circled the bridge once, twice, before settling back on the pirate captain’s shoulder. At rest, it looked like a clockwork bird made of bronze and glass, and its head swiveled to watch the crew as they disarmed.
He strode forward, moving like a tiger. All careful, controlled grace and menace. He glared at the Jester’s crew and spoke.
“I am Captain Arrax of the Atreon’s Revenge,” he said, deep voice filling the bridge. “Cooperate and you won’t be harmed. We are after your cargo, not your lives.”
Arrax? I blinked, then swallowed. Impossible. But the name brought the Celestial Mates file back into my mind, and I stared at the pirate captain. Take the mining supervisor I’d been sent to meet, add a few years, give him a beard and a grim expression. Yes. It was him. Arrax vo’Kinto Belvic had become a pirate.
I clamped my mouth shut to stop myself doing something stupid like telling him why I was here. A pirate, Marcie. That means he’s a killer, a bandit, and a thief, as bad as the Antarans you’re running from. I repeated that to myself as the pirates shoved the crew against a wall, searching their pockets quickly and efficiently. Any weapon or anything of value went into a pile.
Two of the crew dragged the captain over to the wall, and I saw that he was still breathing. That made sense, but it wasn’t entirely a relief. If the pirates were slavers, killing their victims would cost them money.
Captain Arrax’s bird drone looked in my direction and squawked something. He turned to face me and those big, intense eyes met mine. Strange, alien eyes, golden swirls like galaxies staring at me. The power of his gaze felt like a punch, rocking me backward. There was a fire burning in him, something deep inside that lit his soul on fire.
What the hell, Marcie? You can’t look into his soul. I tried to keep my perspective, but it was difficult with those golden eyes looking into me. I had the disturbing impression he saw equally deeply into me, and I wondered what he thought he saw there.
He held my gaze for an eternity before looking away. The drone kept staring in my direction even as he gave commands to his crew, and I bit my lip wondering what that meant. Coming to the attention of this man might not be a good thing.
But the way he’d looked at me? I shivered. No one had ever looked at me with that intensity before. The closest I’d come was in my dreams, thinking about a movie star crush and how, if we ever met, he’d meet my eye.
Even those dreams paled before this moment. My pulse raced and my body tingled. It wasn’t easy to remember that this was the bad guy. No wonder the Celestial Mates computer had picked him out for me!
Another pirate entered the bridge, this one a green-skinned female with a robot arm. An Antaran, I realized with a shock, though just because I was running from the Antaran mob didn’t make every Antaran my enemy.
A spike emerged from the back of her mechanical wrist and she stabbed it into a port on the ship’s computer without ceremony. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her lips moved silently. A few seconds later she smiled.
“I’m in,” she said, voice distant as though she was only half paying attention to the room. “Not much security here.”
She paused, frowned. “Captain, this isn’t a cartel ship. I can’t find any mention of their business.”
The pirate captain’s head whipped around, and he stalked across the bridge to her. “That makes no sense. Who the hell are they working for, then, and what are taking to Atreon?”
I swallowed and tried my best to vanish into the decking. Atreon was my destination, and the Celestial Mates Agency paid for the trip. The Jester was here because of me, and that made me the pirates’ target. But why?
Perhaps the Antaran mob had a longer reach than I’d expected, but even if they did, how had they gotten someone out here so quickly? It made no sense.
Calm. Breathe. It’ll be something in the cargo holds, I told myself. They’ll have a hold full of gems or, I don’t know, gold or something. Whatever Earth exports.
I tried to believe it, but that wasn’t easy.
Another pirate entered the bridge, swaggering up to the captain. Green-skinned, as tall and muscular as the captain but lacking any of his charm, wearing a sleeveless shirt that showed off muscular arms covered in scars and tattoos. His eyes, cold and dead like a shark’s, searched the room. When his gaze fell on me, I shivered and turned away. Where the captain’s gaze had a burning intensity, this man’s was cold and hard, seeing only value and nothing more. He reminded me of the Antarans I was running from a little too much.
His eyes lingered on me for a moment too long. Then the captain spoke, drawing his attention away.
“Well, Zarr? Report.”
“The holds are only half full,” the new pirate said. “Exotic alloys, data stores, and seeds. No slaves, no drugs, nothing interesting. We’re loading it across now. No casualties on our side, killed a couple of crew who were dumb enough to fight.”
A smug satisfaction filled his voice and I doubted he’d tried hard to avoid killing. The Jester’s bridge crew muttered and shared looks — the dead men had been their friends.
Even if they wanted to do something about it, this wasn’t the time or the place. Too many pirates watched them, and they shuffled nervously in place rather than risking restarting the fight.
I was glad. No one on the Jester’s crew had been friendly or kind but I didn’t want to see them die. And maybe, just maybe, the pirates would move on and let us get to our destination. As the seconds stretched into minutes, I found my hope growing.
It didn’t last. The woman plugged into the Joker’s computer looked up, her eyes flickering open and staring right at me. “There’s a couple of boxes of cargo headed for Atreon, Captain. Zarr’s men are already making sure they get them aboard the Revenge. And then there’s the human passenger. According to the log, she’s the reason they’re headed this way in the first place.”
Now everyone looked at me. The oth
er captives shrank away, leaving me in the center of an empty circle, and I cursed under my breath. No point blaming them, I wasn’t part of the crew, but I’d hoped for some protection.
Captain Arrax looked me up and down, his eyes examining me with a dreadful intensity that made me blush. I’d thought his gaze intense before, but now? Now it burned with a fire hot enough to melt steel.
I wanted to hide, but there was nowhere to go and I wouldn’t give the pirates the satisfaction of seeing me run. Instead I crossed my arms and did my best to glare back. Once, a colleague had told me I was intimidating, and I tried to channel that energy.
It would have been easier if I’d worn something more imposing than jeans and a cheap ‘Welcome to Earth’ tourist t-shirt.
He towered over me, close enough that I felt the warmth of his body. My cheeks heated and my pulse raced as I stood my ground, wondering what he’d do. A thousand scenarios played out in my mind’s eye.
As terrible as the situation was, I found myself wondering what that alien skin would feel like. A traitorous part of me itched to reach up and touch his cheek, just to find out.
I stomped on that urge, hard. Just as hard as I resisted the opposite urge, the one that wanted to grab the pistol from his belt. Even if I somehow got hold of it, the rest of the pirates were right there. All I’d do was give them a funny story to tell aboard ship after they gunned me down.
“You’re coming with us,” Captain Arrax said, his deep voice like a physical impact. A tremor ran through me and I stood frozen as he reached for me. My instincts told me to run, but there was nowhere to go.
He reached out for me and my paralysis broke. Too late to escape, too late to do anything, I tried to pull away. Too slow, far too slow. He growled, grabbed me around the waist and, with one easy motion, threw me over his muscular shoulder. I could no more fight him than I could fly.
4
Arrax
The female squirmed in my arms, small fists beating against my back. Her blows were easy to ignore: she lacked the strength to harm me, especially through the toughened leather of my coat. Her wriggling was harder to dismiss, waking feelings in me that I found strange and troubling.
It had been years since anyone had made me feel anything like this, but the human was the most attractive female I’d ever seen, let alone held. Her futile struggles did nothing to change that. If anything, they accentuated it.
I tried to keep my mind on business, but it was an uphill struggle. Even my decision to take her with me worried me — did I want to unravel the mystery of her presence, or did I simply want her?
It didn’t matter. Whatever her reasons for coming to Kadran space were, I didn’t intend to let her go to Atreon station. Years of pirate life had hardened me, but not so much that I’d let someone walk into that fate.
“Back to the Revenge,” I barked at my crew, putting that question aside for now. “We have what we came for. Leave the rest of the cargo.”
Surprised looks greeted that announcement, but Raxa withdrew her data spike from the Jester’s systems and turned to go. The boarding party backed away, keeping our captives under close watch. Not that I expected any trouble from them — they were too happy about their good fortune to endanger it by restarting the fight.
“Captain, this ship is a prize,” Zarr said, putting a voice to my crew’s objections. “The cargo’s nice, sure, but the ransom for the ship and crew? We’ve all got a share of that.”
“You’ll get your drinking money, don’t worry,” I said, keeping the tone light and cursing him silently. This wasn’t the time or place to argue, but a glance at the boarding party told me I’d have to answer.
Once we left the Jester’s Last Laugh, the chance at a ransom was gone. If Zarr left the fight till later, there’d be no point. Which meant that I had to address this now, in front of everyone.
All the while carrying a wriggling bundle of human female and trying not to be distracted by her.
“These aren’t cartel people,” I told him, “and it’s not a corporate ship. It’s an independent trader. Not our business, not our target, and we’ve hurt them enough already.”
“Anyone trading in this part of space is fair game, Captain,” Zarr said, smiling in a way that looked almost friendly. The deceptive friendliness of someone who’d gladly plant a knife in my back. “They’re doing business with the cartel at the very least. I’m not saying we should hunt them down, but now we’ve boarded them? Come on, you’re leaving a fortune on the table here and we all deserve a share of it.”
I looked around, glancing at the exposed piping, the faded paintwork. To be fair, it was in better repair than the Atreon’s Revenge, but not by much. “This ship wasn’t worth much before we blew holes in its hull. No one’s getting rich ransoming it back, and these people are just hard-working men and women trying to get by — I’m not going to strand them out here. They’d end up in slave collars if they’re lucky.”
I met Zarr’s gaze, weighing him. Another little challenge to my authority in front of the crew, and another little shift in the dynamics. But he wouldn’t push it, not now. He didn’t care about the Jester or the prize money.
The hunger I saw in his eyes was for power, not wealth. Much more dangerous.
The moment lasted too long before he smiled and looked away. “You’re the boss, Captain. Just saying I don’t think my men will be too happy to give up a share in a ship just because it’s the wrong kind of ship, yeah?”
His men. The boarding crew he’d gathered, some of the deadliest fighters on the Revenge. Zarr’s pushing was going a little too far, but I nodded and moved on.
Next time we’re in a friendly port, Zarr can get a berth on some other ship, I told myself as I walked briskly to the nearest airlock. Better to see him on his way in port than to risk killing him and getting a reputation as a tyrant, as tempting as it was.
My crew had been busy, latching a tube from one ship to another, and that meant not having to trust the airshields. More importantly it meant I didn’t have to force my captive into an airshield to carry her aboard.
She squirmed in my arms as I carried her back to the Revenge, and I tried to ignore the feelings her movement woke in me. My body responded to her, blood pumping fast and strong, long-buried urges rising to the surface. The human excited me in a way that no female had since before I’d taken up the life of a pirate.
Which made me wary of her and whoever sent her. Was she a spy? Some kind of provocateur? A corporate agent, perhaps, designed to infiltrate my organization? Or was she what she appeared, an innocent blundering into the dangers of this part of space? A mystery, and one I intended to unravel.
Few travelers came to Kadran space. The cartel had too strong a grip on it, and anyone innocent wanted to leave.
The airlock cycled quickly. Beyond, we were back on my turf, the familiar deck of the Atreon’s Revenge echoing under my boots. Loose cabling coiled underfoot, the walls were stained with rust, the air had the faint odor of burned plastic: it needed maintenance even worse than the Jester’s Last Laugh did, but it was mine.
All around us crewmen hurried past, loading the looted cargo aboard. It had better contain something worthwhile. For all Zarr’s scheming, he had a point. The crew were already short on pay, and without a ship to ransom I needed to make up the money elsewhere. If I didn’t, I’d have real trouble on my hands. Zarr was a troublemaker, but he still had a point.
But that was a problem for later. Right now I had a more pressing concern — who was this female, and why was she headed to my old home?
The captain’s cabin was no more luxurious than the rest of the Revenge, but it did offer some privacy. On a ship this size, that was a precious commodity, and it gave me a space to ask her some questions.
Being alone with her also brought other things to mind and I tried to ignore the way my cock strained at my pants as the door slid shut behind me.
I dropped the struggling human onto a chair and she bounced immediatel
y to her feet, face dark with anger and hands balled into fists. Ready to fight, she glared up at me.
It was adorable.
“You keep your hands off me,” she shouted, glaring. “Or so help me, I’ll…”
Her voice trailed off as she realized just how unthreatening she looked. Compared to me she was tiny, and unarmed she stood no chance in a fight. Still she glowered, not backing down.
I admired her ferocity, if not her common sense.
“You are safe as long as you answer my questions,” I told her, leaning back against the door and giving her as much space as possible. “I have no intention of harming you.”
“Yeah?” She didn’t look convinced. “You just blew a hole in my ship, dragged me aboard yours, and threw me into your bedroom. Now you want me to believe I’m safe?”
“Yes.” I grinned at her anger. “I’ve no reason to lie, do I? You are in my power, and if I wished to hurt you I would.”
Her mouth opened, then closed as she failed to find an objection to that argument.
I took the chance to look at her properly. She’d traveled a long way from her homeworld — I’d never seen a human before, barely even heard of the species. I’d have remembered seeing one, if they were all as stunning as her. This time I wasn’t distracted by a fight or trying to focus on my work. I wasn’t seeing her through my drone’s senses, either — and in person, close up, she was even more attractive than I’d first thought.
Red hair, too long to be practical in space, framed a pretty face, pale skin now flushed with anger. Green eyes glared at me, defiant and angry rather than afraid. Full, red lips pressed together into an angry line — I wanted to see them smile or laugh, to see her happy rather than enraged.
Her curves filled out her strange, colorful clothing delightfully, and I itched to see more of her, to touch her skin. My lips tightened as I struggled for control, wondering what had come over me. She was my prisoner, and that meant I would treat her with respect and dignity.