by Corin Cain
Chris could lead a mining crew well enough – and during those two years, I accepted his crude nature and the constant struggle for dominance. When you’re recruiting a crew of people willing to get their hands dirty in legal and not-so legal jobs, you can’t afford to be picky.
Or, at least, that’s what I’d told myself…
But now, I realize that the struggle for dominance was why I’d kept Chris on my crew. Having a man like Chris following my orders gave me validation – it convinced me that I was a good captain.
But that had been a lie.
Seeing Chris and his cronies laughing while I endured a humiliating punishment – one I’d taken for their sake – has shown me his true colors. I have to thank Aelon for that, I suppose. He showed me which contingent of my crew were rotten, and which was dependable. As much as I resent the alien Captain for what he did to me in that mess hall, I understand that it was a necessary evil.
Sawoot sips her tea.
“The tea is shit, by the way. This old ship has poor food replicators.” She sits back, completely relaxed. I don’t understand why she isn’t stressed. We’re being held captive on a tumultuous warship poised on the brink of mutiny, with a murderous captain at the helm who’d take the heads off his own men for crimes he himself is a heartbeat away from succumbing to himself.
He killed Kit and his triad without a second of hesitation. I know that triad had served loyally with Aelon for hundreds of years – and yet he killed them as coldly and cleanly as if they were strangers.
He’s a captain who welcomes enemies to test him – who craves it.
Enemies like the Toads.
I shake my head. “Why are you so happy, Sawoot?”
“Because Theme just told me some very good news.”
I turn my attention to Theme. Now, he can finally meet my gaze. In fact, I can see excitement in his bright, brown eyes. It’s nice to be finally looking into eyes that aren’t slate-grey and laser focused on me. Captain Aelon has a way of making me feel like he knows every last one of my secrets, while remaining such a tangled enigma himself.
“This ship,” Theme tells me, “The Instigator. Aelon must have got it for cheap. It’s a discontinued class of warship – no longer in service in the Aurelian fleet.”
Sawoot pours me a cup of tea from the pot. I take it, sipping the steaming liquid, and make a face at the bitter taste. Sawoot shrugs. She did warn me it was bad.
I turn to theme. “Why was it discontinued?”
“That’s just it,” he explains. “There are critical vulnerabilities to this class of warship – if you can get to the control rooms.” His eyes flash. Whenever Theme talks computers or engineering – subjects in which he’s always the smartest in the room– he’s filled with an infectious enthusiasm.
“Those control rooms are only a thousand meters from this room,” he tells me. “If I can get into one alone for just four minutes, I could hack this ship’s systems. I’ll be able to remotely control all the doors of the ship – and that includes the loading bay doors.”
My eyes widen.
The loading bay – where the Wayward Scythe still sits.
“I could open us a path to the loading bay,” Theme grins, “and we can either take our ship, or – even better – steal one of those Reavers. It’ll take me time to hack into it, but I can do it – and we’ll have the time once the Aurelians are trapped.”
“Trapped? What do you mean trapped?”
Theme’s eyes flash.
“Trapped because I can control every door on this ship. I’ll open all the ones between us and the loading bay – and lock all the others.”
I whistle slowly. I have to hand it to Theme – I’m impressed.
Sawoot nudges me.
“If we want a quicker option, we can just steal the access cards for a Reaver from one of the Aurelians, so Theme won’t have to hack into its systems. That’ll cut the escape time by twenty minutes.”
Her eyebrows waggle up and down.
“Perhaps you can… ahem… distract Aelon and steal a set?”
My heart skips.
Distract.
I know exactly what Sawoot means by that, and so does Theme. In fact, Theme looks down, and his cheeks turn as red as my own.
“There’ll be no distracting of anyone,” I clarify.
Theme’s hand is shaking as he raises it, like he’s trying to be called on by the teacher in class. I roll my eyes. “You don’t need to raise your hand, Theme.”
“Well… I need a distraction, if I’m going to get into the systems,” he confesses. “I know this ship. I’ve studied the blueprints. I’ve got a… a hobby for old warships, especially ones that were in the great wars between the Toads and Aurelians.”
“This ship is that old?”
Theme nods enthusiastically.
I turn towards the door.
“You’ve got to get to the control room to access the controls, right? Which is going to be tough – what with those three lunks outside.”
Sawoot scowls. “Hey - they saved my life, or at least my ass. Don’t diss them.” Then, her eyes flash. “Ooh, now that I think about it, Garrick probably has a set of access cards for a Reaver.”
I shake my head wearily. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult them. I’m just under a lot of stress.”
My two friends turn to me for an explanation.
“I warned Aelon about the Toad attack,” I tell them. “The Captain said he wants the Toads to come. He’s known about it all along. He’s set up a trap for them – anti-air batteries in the mining camps.”
Sawoot nods sagely.
“Hmm. If the Toads aren’t expecting anti-air, they’ll be massacred. They’ll think they’re going to rip their way through hundreds of innocent miners, and instead they’re going to have themselves a new asshole ripped open.”
“Hundreds of new assholes,” Theme clarifies. “Aurelian anti-air batteries can fire 1,500 rounds a minute – 50mm depleted radium rounds with iron-filament casings.”
Sawoot holds up her fist – roughly the size of the hole a 50mm round can make in a ship’s hull.
“That’s a big asshole.”
She’s vulgar – but she has a point. Maybe there’s a method to Captain Aelon’s murderous madness.
“That’s beside the point,” I snap. “We need to find a way to get Theme past the three guards outside. Garrick and his triad feel a duty to you, Sawoot.”
She sighs, then smiles mischievously. “Okay, then – I suppose you can leave that to me. I’ll distract the Aurelians guarding us. I suppose I still need to show them my… appreciation for what they did for me.”
Theme blushes bright red. Sawoot has no shame.
She’s told me before she likes Aurelians, except for their personalities. Garrick and his triad don’t talk much, but their actions speak louder than words; so it looks like they’re the exception to the typical behavior of this haughty, arrogant species.
If she’s genuinely attracted to the triad right outside the doors… Well, then I don’t see any harm in her exploring that – especially if it’s going to get us off this ship alive…
…or maybe I’m just telling myself that, so I don’t feel guilty about basically pimping out my first officer.
I stand up and pace the room. It’s bigger than the cell Sawoot was in before – with a single bed, twice as large as a typical king-sized one, plus a sofa and the little table that Sawoot and Theme are sitting around while they sip on that bitter blend of tea.
A single bed…
I turn to Theme. “Were you planning on taking the couch?”
“No,” his eyes widen. “I’m in the next room over. These are guest rooms, Tasha – normally for dignitaries, although I doubt that brute Aelon has welcomed anyone of substance onto his ship in quite some time.”
I ignore his judgmental comment about Aelon – which might not be entirely unjustified. Nevertheless, Theme hasn’t seen the pain inside the Aurelian commander – t
he agony that lurks beneath his cocky, swaggering surface.
Instead, I focus on our plan.
“Good, good.” I clap my hands together. “Okay – so, if the Toads are coming, we’ve got at least a couple of days before they hit us. I have no reason to believe Aelon can’t handle himself, but I’d rather be as far away from The Instigator as possible when they hit it.”
I step up to one of the windows, gazing out across the vacuum of space. In the distance I can see the moon, with the edge of Tarrion peeking out from behind it. There are hundreds of thousands of miles between The Instigator and the surface of the moon, but because of the sheer scale of planets, it looks almost as if I could reach out and touch that silvery orb as it hangs in space.
My mind continues to plot.
“Okay – so it takes time to organize an attack, especially the type of attack the Toads are likely to run. This gives us space to plan.” I wheel around, back in the captain role that has always come to me so easily. “I’ll take the room across from this one. Tonight, we’ll just rest up.”
I turn to Sawoot with a mischievous grin.
“Tomorrow – if you’re still feeling up to it – you can distract the Aurelians, and Theme and I will sneak down into the control room. You said we’ll have full control of the doors and the loading bays?”
“Yes,” Theme nods. “Full control.”
The wheels keep turning in my head. This plan is highly risky, but it might just work…
…only, if it doesn’t work, it’s going to make the already sizzling powder keg of this ship explode right when Aelon has to prepare for the Toad assault.
Whatever happens, things on The Instigator will never be the same again. That’s why our plan is to be as far away from this outdated, discontinued warship as the Wayward Scythe or a stolen Reaver can take us.
“Perfect,” I clap my hands together. “We’ll shut every door that isn’t a pathway to the loading bay – and seal all of these marble-skinned bastards behind them.”
The plan is formulating in my head. Just like when I’d planned the heist which had netted us those twenty-six stolen Orbs – briefly at least – it’s almost euphoric to plot and scheme with such clarity.
I turn to my best friend.
“Sawoot – we’re going to open your door as well. I know you’ll have been busy distracting the Aurelians, but you’re going to have a very brief window to get out before I lock them in here behind you. If you can’t get a key to the Reavers, don’t risk it. You getting out safe is all that matters.”
I turn and scan the room, before ordering: “Show me how fast you can get from the bed to the door.”
“Who said we’re going to use the bed?”
Theme spits out his tea. He looks down at the sofa he’s on, blushing.
“Focus, Sawoot.”
She laughs and rises from the table, sprawling theatrically across the bed.
For a split second, the image of three Aurelians entangled with her flashes into my mind. The bed is big enough to fit all four of them together – with room to spare. It must have been designed with exactly that purpose in mind.
I can now see exactly what kind of welcome female dignitaries get when they board an Aurelian warship!
As distracting as that thought is, we need to focus. I lift my finger, signalling Sawoot. She darts out of the bed, sprinting to the door.
Theme perks up, checking his wristwatch. “Four seconds.”
I counted three, but he’s got a better sense of time than me.
“Not as good as my track and field days,” Sawoot pants, “but not bad.”
That cracks me up. Nobody I know got to experience track and field growing up. On my home world, such things were reserved for rich kids in their private gardens and luscious, green fields. Kids like me got the concrete jungle – and the only running we did was from gangs and muggers.
“Alright,” I nod, “we’ll give you ten seconds in case you need to… untangle yourself. Your job is to get out of the room before the doors close. That will separate you from Garrick’s triad. Then, we won’t have to deal with any Aurelians – not unless there are some who happened to be walking along the exact path we’ll be taking to the loading bay.”
“And the handful still in the loading bay, fixing up the damaged Reavers,” Theme reminds us.
Sawoot doesn’t look happy. “A handful of Aurelians is a lot to deal with – and I should know, because I’ll be coming fresh from exactly that.”
We laugh, but she’s right. That’s the critical flaw in our plan.
Theme stands, draining his cup of tea and setting it down a little too hard on the table. His hand is shaking. “I… I could vent the air from the loading bay.”
“No! We’re not killing innocents.”
He holds up his hands. “No! It’s not like that – no one will get hurt. I’ll open the bay just enough to start venting, then I’ll open one way out for them. They’ll have no choice but to rush out, thinking the loading bay is about to vent. Then, I’ll close the door behind them, re-engage the airlock field, and presto – no more Aurelians.”
I nod. “Smart – very smart.” Theme is pale, but my approval means everything to him. I can see how visibly nervous he is, his body trembling a little as we scheme. I step forward, placing my hand on his shoulder to steady him. He turns to me, and I look straight into his brown eyes.
“I believe in you, Theme. That’s why I hired you to be on my crew in the first place. We’re going to do this. Tomorrow is the last day we’re stuck on The Instigator. We won’t get away with the Orbs, but we’ll at least get out with our lives. That’s all that matters.”
Sawoot smiles. “What about Chris and his cronies? I used to have thing for Felix – before he was laughing at you taking his punishment.” She shakes her head. “You know, that lot always did kind of piss me off. I’m glad they showed their true colors before we risked our necks for them any further.”
“Chris and his little group are going to be Captain Aelon’s problem once we’re gone,” I nod. “Alright – are we all clear on the plan?”
My two crewmembers nod in unison.
“Good,” I grin. “Then, Theme, you go to your chambers. Sawoot – I need to talk to you.”
Theme says his goodnights quickly. He’s not comfortable being alone with us as it is, and I think he’s grateful for the opportunity to duck out.
Once he’s left, I gingerly sit down on the couch. Sawoot refills my cup as I try to find a way to sit that doesn’t hurt my still sore bottom. Even when I’m away from Aelon and his triad, I’m left feeling what they did to me.
It’s not what they did to my body that I’m worried about. Why can’t I stop thinking about him?
As if reading my mind, Sawoot sits down and says: “You want to talk about the captain, don’t you?”
I wince. “Yes. Well… I hate him… But there’s something about him, isn’t there?”
She laughs. “He’s got too much swagger for his own good. I don’t pretend Aurelians have no effect on me - that’s for prudes, and there are a lot of women who’d never admit their attraction. I think it’s because once you do, people automatically assume you’re going to run off and join a harem.”
“You think Aelon has a harem?”
She thinks carefully, her tongue pressing against the inside of her cheeks. Then, she shrugs.
“Maybe – but I don’t think so. He doesn’t seem like the type to spend more than a single night with the same woman. Can you imagine him sitting around, surrounded by dozens of them? He’s way too intense.” She sighs. “He’s a delicious cocky bastard, though, isn’t he?”
I snort. “Worse than any I’ve seen! Gods – those men who tried to rape you… I think he was friends with them.”
Sawoot looks down. “I’m trying not to think about that. It was bad enough living it – and it’s only thanks to Garrick that I’m still... unmolested.” She looks up – the smile gone from her face. “That fucker Kit
was a beast, and so was his triad. They’d have ripped me apart.”
Garrick. There’s something gallant about the name, which he certainly was.
My smile fades too.
“Sawoot – this might sound crazy, but I have the feeling that Aelon thinks I’m his Fated Mate.”
Her eyes widen.
“Exactly,” I nod. “That’s what’s been really bothering me. Like, what if… What if I am?”
Sawoot taps her fingers against the table as she thinks.
“Then, I’d say you’re lucky.”
“Lucky? Really?”
She nods. “Yeah, of course!”
She leans in closer.
“You know, some people claim the Bond can control your mind, but I don’t believe it. Remember my friend from the harem? She asked the Aurelians about the Bond once. The leader of that triad told her that all the Bond does is enhance any desires you already have.”
Her eyes flash mischievously.
“So, I’d ask you, Tasha – is there anything lurking inside you that you’re scared might awaken?”
I look down, suddenly embarrassed.
To be honest…
Oh, Gods… My cheeks burn with humiliation.
There was something about being completely powerless that had turned me on when Vinicus and Aelon had delivered that spanking, in front of the entire crew. I’m so used to being the decision maker – the leader. I’m used to being the one who has to make the split-second decisions that mean life or death to my crew.
When Vinicus first held me down across his lap, I’d realized how helpless I was. I felt truly powerless for one of the first times in years. When I’d kicked and fought to escape Captain Aelon’s grip and couldn’t get away… I’d realized I was completely in his control…
…and I’d liked it.
It was bad enough experiencing that contradiction naturally. I can’t even imagine how it would feel to have that particularly shameful desire enhanced and amplified by the power of the Bond.
I shudder. “The problem is, the Bond isn’t between one of them and their Fated Mate. Each triad are a package deal – you’re Bonded with one, you’re Bonded with all of them.”
