I nodded. “At least we know that they’re coming after us. They won’t take us by surprise.”
“That’s not much of an advantage,” Raf said gravely. “Every single Athion ship in this sector is after us. No matter where we go, they’ll be hunting us.”
“Let’s have a look at where we are exactly. There may be some planets nearby that we could use to hide.” I held out a hand to Wren. “My Queen, do you want me to take you back to your room?”
She shook her head. “I want to know what’s going on. Sitting in my room will drive me crazy. But I would appreciate a new shirt.”
She had hers pulled up so it barely covered her breasts. It was still drenched in krudi juice. Zut. We should have thought of that right away.
“Take it off before more of the juice gets on your skin.”
“I don’t have anything to put on instead,” she protested. “And I’m not wearing anything underneath. It’s not like you gave me a bra.”
“What’s that?” Raf asked. “A braah?”
She looked at him incredulously. “You don’t know what a bra is? How do…did your females stop their boobs from bouncing up and down?”
“Do they do that?” I asked, curiosity making me stare at her chest. Sadly, I doubted I’d be able to ask her for a demonstration.
“There was no bouncing,” Raf supplied. “They were firm and hard, if I remember correctly. Not that I ever touched any but my mother’s teats when I was an infant.”
“Teats.” Wren chuckled. “That’s not what we call them. Unless we’re talking about cows, but anyway, I need a shirt. Or even a blanket, if a shirt is too much bother.”
“Too much-“ I growled and tore my own shirt over my head, handing it to her. “Nothing is too much bother for you, Queen Wren.”
She took the shirt and looked at it strangely. Had I done something wrong? Did human females not touch their males’ clothing? But then she grabbed it tighter and did a little nod.
“Turn around,” she said, surprising me with her firmness.
Raf whirled around and looked at the room. “Why? Is there a threat I don’t see?”
Wren laughed. Such a beautiful sound. “No, but I don’t want you to see me naked.”
“But we already have-“
“Do it,” I interrupted Raf. “Can’t you see it makes her uncomfortable?”
I turned and luckily, my friend did the same. I listened to the sound of her taking off her shirt and putting mine on. My cock twitched. She was wearing my shirt. My scent. Maybe I should accidentally pour something on her legs so that she’d have to take off her trousers and put on mine instead. I wanted her to smell like me. Be mine.
Raf shot me a knowing look. He could probably smell my arousal. “Careful,” he whispered under his breath. He was right. We’d come a long way with Wren. She no longer feared us, hopefully no longer saw us as monsters, but we still had to be cautious. One wrong step and we might destroy all the progress we’d made. I had to remember that she was fragile. She may act strong now, but I’d seen beneath the façade. She was still gathering the shards of her broken soul and it would take time until she was whole again.
“Done,” she chirped from behind us. “To the bridge?”
I exchanged another look with Raf. We were going to have our hands full with this one.
Rafaz
I took the captain’s chair and immediately checked the controls and sensors. No Athion ships. That was good, but it was only a matter of time. We needed a plan.
I pushed the map of our current position to the big screen so that Vuk and Wren could see it. The human was staring at everything open-mouthed. The questions practically shimmered in her eyes, but she stayed quiet, taking it all in.
In any other situation, I’d have explained everything to her, shown her the ship I was so proud of. I’d bought the Phoenix for cheap, broken and dirty, and spent many, many rotations sprucing it back to health. The engines were brand new, as were most of the controls here on the bridge. When we’d started our pirating career, most of the profit we made was used to improve the ship. Now, she was finally where I’d wanted it to be. My pride and joy. Wataz, the Phoenix. The English word suited her better, so I’d started using it instead of the Trad term.
“That glowing dot in the middle, that’s us,” I explained to Wren. “The blue dots are planets. The brighter the blue, the more likely it is that they’re habitable. The white dots are other ships, but as you can see, there aren’t many and they’re all far away. None of them registers as Athion.”
“How do you know where a ship is from?” she asked, staring at the map.
“Every vessel has a unique signature. They’re very hard to fake.”
“What’s yours? Do people know that you’re pirates when your ship shows up on their screen?”
Vuk chuckled. “He said it’s hard to fake, but not impossible. We can change ours to say whatever we want. We usually go for the same origin as the ship we’re planning to hijack.”
“Then why don’t you pretend to be Athion so that they can’t find us?” she asked.
“Good question,” he admitted. “If we were trying to fool just one ship, it would work, but we’ve got the entire Athion fleet hunting for us. Their combined sensors are too much for our chameleon circuit. If they spot us, they’ll know that it’s us.”
I went through the list of nearby planets. There was only one that was safe enough to land on. It was small and if anyone was living on it, the computer didn’t know about it. Problem was, if we took refuge on the planet and the Athions found us, we’d be sitting ducks. There would be no escape. By the time we took back into the air, they’d be waiting for us.
We might have more of a chance if we stayed in space. The Phoenix was fast and we might be able to throw them off if one of them spotted us. That depended on their vessel. I loved the Phoenix, but while she had been state of the art when it had been built, even with my modifications she was no longer the best.
I patted the chair’s armrest in apology. “You’re the best,” I muttered.
Wren turned to me. “What did you say?”
I wasn’t someone who was embarrassed easily.
“He was talking to the ship,” Vuk snickered before I could answer. “She’s his girlfriend.”
I growled at him, then slapped my hand on my mouth when I remembered that Wren didn’t react well to loud noises. She was fine though, grinning at me.
“Do you talk to her a lot?” she asked, mirth swinging in her voice.
I shot Vuk an evil stare. He was going to suffer for this.
A high-pitched beep had all of us turn to the screen. A red dot had appeared at the edge of the map. Zut.
“Vuk, sit down and take charge of weapons. Wren, take the seat over there and buckle up. That’s an Athion ship. They may not have detected us yet, so we need to move, fast. This might get bumpy.”
She sat down and fumbled with the belt until Vuk kneeled in front of her chair and helped her. I was a little jealous of him being so close to her, but there was no time to even think about that. We had to escape the Athions.
I pressed a button and liquid metal shot from the top of my chair, wrapping around me. The captain’s chair was the only one with this high-tech seat belt. I was tempted to put Wren in here instead, but her seat didn’t have access to the same controls. Hers was for navigation, but since we didn’t have any crew, we usually let the AI deal with that. Not today.
“Switching to manual,” I said while flicking a couple of switches. Ships could be hacked and Athions were good at that. They weren’t a warrior race like us, but they excelled at subterfuge and technology. It was good not to underestimate them.
“Where are we going?” Vuk asked.
“For now, in the opposite direction. Then we’ll see. Hopefully they’ve not noticed us yet. Our scanners are new and more advanced than those of most ships.”
“Let’s hope the Athions don’t have better tech,” Vuk muttered. “Yo
u alright, Queen?”
Wren nodded. “What are they going to do to us if they catch up with us?”
“To you, nothing. Hopefully,” I replied, my teeth clenched. “If they really believe we abducted you, then they’ll be on your side. You’d be safe with them. Except that they could give you back to those Athion kraktz that abused you. I don’t want to take that risk.” And I didn’t want her to leave us, but I didn’t say that aloud. “Us, they’ll kill. If they catch us, Vuk and I are dead.”
“What if we talk to them? We could tell them what Arri and Laki have done. They could take me back to Earth and let you go.”
Vuk sighed. “If only it were that simple. They wouldn’t believe us. They’d probably think we put you up to it to save our own lives. In their minds, they’re the good ones and we’re the bad guys. They’d never believe that we rescued you from their own kind.”
“You could put me in an escape pod,” Wren suggested quietly. “That way, they might focus on me and would let you go.”
“Unless they think it’s us escaping in there and not you,” I growled, the thought of putting Wren in danger making me tenser than I’d ever been. “No, it’s not an option. We won’t risk it. As much as it hurts me to say this, we need to run until we come up with a better plan. Vuk, strap in.”
My friend finally left Wren’s side and sat down in front of the weapons panel. The Phoenix wasn’t a battleship, but we had enough to both defend ourselves and present a threat when we hijacked other vessels. Unless this Athion ship was a battle cruiser, we’d be able to match their firepower. That was the last resort though. We had Wren on board and I didn’t want to risk her safety.
I increased our speed. The familiar weight of the propulsion pressed me into my chair.
“Time to show them how fast this bird can fly.”
“Raf!”
Vuk pointed at the screen at the same time as I spotted the second red dot. Much closer than the other one. Zut. How had they escaped our sensors?
I changed course, but to avoid both ships, I had to fly a lot closer to the first one than I’d planned.
I pushed the Phoenix to the highest speed she could safely maintain. She responded with a rumbling protest. We wouldn’t be able to fly at this speed for very long. She was great at fast chases but didn’t have the power to keep at this for more than thirty clicks or so.
“Weapons primed,” Vuk announced, his voice calm. This wasn’t the first time we’d been in a fight, but we’d never had such precious cargo on board. If something happened to Vuk or me, it was regrettable, but so be it. Wren though…that was unthinkable.
“They’re hailing us.”
I wasn’t surprised. They wanted to make sure that Wren really was on board.
“Wait,” the human suddenly said. “I have an idea.”
Chapter 15
Wren
The gun was cold against the side of my head. I didn’t have to pretend that I was scared. I was shaking all over, until Vuk took my hand. On screen, only our upper bodies were visible so the Athions wouldn’t see him comforting me. They’d only see a human being threatened at gunpoint. Hopefully that would make them back off.
“Ready?” Raf asked.
I gave him a smile, imagining that I was brave. I’d got through a lot in the past few days. I could do this.
Vuk tightened his grip of the gun and nodded. Let the play begin.
Raf did something on his console and the screen changed from the map to the picture of two Athions. I cringed, memories flooding me. They looked so similar to Laki and Arri and even though I knew it wasn’t them, I had a hard time fighting the fear threatening to overwhelm me.
Vuk gripped my hand tighter. I would have run if he didn’t have his hand around mine. His face was a mask though, none of the kindness left that he’d shown me. Even though I knew him a little by now, I saw nothing but the monster in his expression. One of the monsters who’d invaded Planet Earth.
“Back off or we’ll dispose of her,” Raf said in a cold, dead voice. I didn’t have to fake the shiver running over my skin.
The Athions seemed to look straight at me, even though they were far away in another spaceship.
“Have they hurt you, female?” one of them asked in a melodious voice that would have made my insides melt in any other situation. He was a darker shade of blue than most Athions I’d seen before, with high cheekbones and a chiselled jaw.
“No,” I stuttered. I wanted to tell him that I had been hurt, not by the Trads but by Athions, but that wasn’t part of the plan.
“Good. That might spare them the torture we had planned.” He looked at Raf. “Hand her over and we’ll give you a quick death.”
Vuk laughed. “Who’s holding the gun to the head here? You’re not in charge, blue devil.”
The Athion grimaced. “You’re in no position to make demands. You’re outnumbered and there are more Athion ships on the way. Let her go before you make this worse for you.”
“I don’t think so,” Vuk growled and shifted the gun a little so that it was touching my temple. A kiss of metal. “Retreat or I’ll blow her pretty brains out.”
Behind our backs, he squeezed my hand in reassurance, as if to confirm that he was lying. Of course I knew that. I did, right? It had been my plan to do this. But feeling the gun against my head made it seem like a terrible idea.
“Please, don’t make them kill me,” I whimpered. Wow, I was a great actor. The tremor in my voice wasn’t acted though. That was very real.
“They’re not going to kill you,” the second Athion said. His chest was broad, his body one large tree trunk. His head was shaved in a strange pattern that reminded me of Celtic knots. Was that a smirk playing around his cerulean lips? “You’re the only thing that keeps them alive. If you weren’t there, we’d have already blasted them into atoms.”
“Then what’s stopping us from flying away?” Raf asked coldly. “If you’re not going to attack our ship, then maybe we should just run.”
“That would be unwise.” The darker Athion glared at the Trads. “We’re going to follow you wherever you go. Not just these two ships, but every other Athion vessel in the vicinity. Eventually, you’re going to have to stop somewhere for supplies. That’s when we’ll kill you and rescue the human.”
“By then she may long be dead,” Raf countered. Ice was blazing in his voice. “Retreat now before she’s only a fleck of dirt on our floor.”
Seriously? He was being a little too dramatic. We were at an impasse and there seemed no way out of it.
I forced a few tears into my eyes and looked at the Athions with as much fear as I could muster. “Please, they mean what they say,” I whimpered. “They’re going to kill me if you don’t leave. Please, I don’t want to die.”
Their expressions softened immediately. “We’re going to get you out of there, I promise,” the big Athion said. “They’ll never hurt you again.”
Urgh, they really didn’t want to leave us alone. I thought this might work, but I was starting to realise that they wouldn’t back off.
A loud beeping sounded from Raf’s console behind me. Vuk whirled around at the same time as the screen went black.
“What’s going on?” I yelled as more alarms started.
“Asteroid field.” Vuk let the gun drop and grabbed me around the waist. “Back to your chair. Now.”
He strapped me in again and hurried over to his own, while Raf was pressing buttons while cursing under his breath.
“You should have switched back to automatic controls,” Vuk grunted accusingly. “We’re too fast to evade this.”
“Well, I was a little occupied talking to some crazy Athions,” Raf shot back. “Hold tight. This is going to get very bumpy.”
I gripped the armrests of my chair. The screen was now showing the space before us. Stars everywhere, but dark shadows in front of us hid patches of them. Those had to be the asteroids.
“You need to break!” Vuk shouted as the ship sw
erved to the right. The belt cut into my waist as I clung to the chair.
“No, we have to use this to our advantage. I can do this. Phoenix can handle a few asteroids.”
The ship bumped from side to side as Raf was trying to evade the asteroids. My stomach lurched. The Phoenix might be able to handle this, but I wasn’t so sure about myself.
“This is crazy. Get us out of here!” Panic swung in Vuk’s voice. I stared at him, fear gripping my heart. If he was scared, that was a very bad sign. I wished he’d hold my hand again, but he was too far away.
I stared at the screen; at the rocks we were hurtling through. Raf was whirling the Phoenix through what looked like an avalanche of asteroids, but it was pure luck that we hadn’t hit one yet. He was good but there was no way we’d get through here unscathed.
“They’re following us,” Vuk reported, looking at a display in the side of his chair. “Those idiots.”
“Both?” Raf asked without taking his eyes off his controls.
“Yes, bo-“ Vuk sucked in a sharp breath. “One of them just disappeared off the grid.”
“Zut. Check for life signs.”
“None. I can see space debris showing up on the scanner though. They’re gone.”
“Zutting idiots,” Raf cursed. “Let’s hope that will make the others turn back.”
“They’re dead?” I barely dared to ask.
Vuk nodded grimly. “The other Athion ship, not the one we talked to. Those are still following us.”
Dead. People were dead because they’d flown into the asteroid field, just like us. A trickle of cold sweat ran down my spine. I felt guilty. I could have tried to persuade the Trads to give me to the Athions. But then Vuk and Raf would likely be dead now too. This was a game that had no winners. Especially because there was still a ship following us. The only way we’d get rid of them was if they also crashed, just like their comrades. I hated myself for thinking that. I didn’t want anyone to get killed. I just wanted to be free.
Stolen By Them: Page 8