by Calista Skye
Neck still bowed, she made her way through the second hatch.
Beyond it there was indeed more room to move, but still dark. That was fine with her. It echoed the turn her life had just taken. There wasn't much light left in it anymore. The possibility for a space career was all that had any value in her life.
The floor was hard, but the wall was softer and the air seemed fresher and more pleasantly fragrant. She didn't care. Her throat was tightening even more. She allowed herself to let go. The tears flowed from her eyes, and the first sob racked through her.
- - -
She had only been there for a few minutes when she heard voices from outside. Probably only someone passing by in the corridor outside. She was able to reduce her crying to only the occasional sniffle.
The voices were getting closer, and then they seemed to be coming to a halt in the corridor right outside! These people, whoever they were, must have some business in the narrow space where she was sitting! She was not in the mood to be discovered and have to talk to anyone. She seriously didn't want to have to explain herself to someone else, certainly not to a superior. And pretty much everyone else on the station was her superior.
She crawled further into the darkness, found a rounded corner and sat down with her arms around her knees, trying to make herself small. The voices she was hearing kept coming closer. And they weren't speaking any language she'd ever heard before.
Uh-oh.
11
“Six hours to get home,” the prince said as he started to make his way from the station and into the ship. “I'll have to enjoy my freedom while I can, before the five days of interminable boredom. I suppose the time we spent having the language of this world implanted in our minds was totally wasted.”
The ship was just where they had left it, and it didn't look as if anyone had seen it. They hadn't bothered disguising the open hatches, because even if someone had entered the spaceship, they would not be able to fly it anyway.
“Maybe not,” Ev'Ax said. “Languages are often helpful for understanding a civilization. And now that we know it, it will always stay with us.”
“Well, take us home, Ber'Ain,” Ar'Ric ordered, sitting down heavily in the captain's seat a little further back in the cabin.
“Starting pre-flight checklist,” the pilot said.
Ev'ax sat down in the co-pilot's seat, buckled up and half turned to address the prince. “It's not a total loss, this trip. Now we know. That's valuable in itself. And if we ever feel like invading this system and adding it to the Empire, at least we can say we've had our boots on the ground here. Well, so to speak.”
The prince nodded absentmindedly. His friend's words didn't give him much consolation. He had invested a lot of hope in this trip. The alien planet that the station was orbiting came into view outside the cockpit as the little spaceship undocked from the huge station, and the cabin was suddenly brightly illuminated by the blue-white light reflected from the planet.
The prince felt his ears perk up by themselves as he heard a noise behind him. Something like a gasp?
He readied his muscles, then scrambled to his feet in a combat reflex that would take him out of the line of fire of any enemy hiding behind him.
“What is it?” Ev'ax said urgently, unbuckling his own seatbelt to come to his general's aid.
But the prince was frozen in place and didn't reply. Because all he could see was someone or something looking at him from behind the cargo console at the back of the cockpit. They were the largest eyes he had ever seen, huge and brown. And very afraid, if the prince was any judge of expressions, even though only the eyes were visible. And the hair, which was very long and dark. It was undoubtedly a female. She didn't seem dangerous, but her eyes were ringed with red, as if distressed.
The prince, who in spite of his young years had honed his instincts through both combat and life at the Imperial court, didn't get any threatening vibe from the creature. He motioned to Ev'ax to stay back and slowly took two steps toward the stowaway.
“Hello,” he said in the language that was common on this alien world and which he had learned on the way here, aided by advanced technology. “Come out from there, please.”
The female didn't reply, just seemed to tense even more and moved further away from him. Most of her was still hidden by the cargo console that she tried to keep between them. But what he could see of her made his heart jump. It certainly did look as if she had a real female shape...
He stretched out a hand as if wanting to help her get on her feet. She was just out of arm's reach, but the prince was now close enough to pounce on her if he had to. He had to get a hold of the stowaway right away, because it was dangerous to have unauthorized personnel running around in the cockpit in a spaceship in flight, not to mention this close to an installation. Again, he carefully tensed his muscles without making it obvious.
12
Emily drew away from the young man as he kept coming closer. She still hadn't been able to process what was happening, except that she appeared to be in some sort of spaceship that was moving away from Tellus Station. And that one of the crewmen had discovered her and was about to try to grab her.
She had heard him speaking a strange language, but he was clearly human and not one of the many exotic aliens she had seen on the station many times. A part of her mind registered that he was an unusually attractive man, with a muscular frame and a very handsome face.
She wasn't sure what to do. She had no chance of dodging that guy and go back where she'd come from, but she also didn't want to become a prisoner of any kind. After the day she's had, she was in no mood to be docile and submissive.
The man was getting closer, and she had to do something. She let one hand drop to her utility belt, and the first thing it encountered was the blue plastic bottle of all-purpose cleaning spray that she always carried around to remove any smears or stains she'd encounter at the station. She pulled it out of the belt and pointed it at the young man.
“Don't come any closer or I'll... umm... shoot!” She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and scowled at the man in a way she hoped was threatening and made her seem dangerous. The transparent plastic bottle of blue liquid shook as she grabbed it with both hands and held it out like a gun, her arms straight, aiming right between the young man's unreasonably clear, blue eyes.
“It's okay,” he said in his weirdly sexy accent. “But you have to sit down so that you're not hurt when we accelerate.”
Probably everything about him would be sexy, the same part of her mind commented. She seriously didn't know what to do, but here they were, three men and her. And no one else knew that she was there. If these guys just abducted her, no one would know. The man in front of her didn't give her any kind of creepy vibe, and the thing he said did make sense, but still... no. She'd had enough of being pushed around by others. And today, of all days...
“No, I think you can sit back down,” she demanded, channeling all her anger and frustration into her voice.
The man in front of her looked quickly at the pilot, who was saying something that sounded urgent. And in no language Emily had every heard before.
A short and intense conversation broke out between the three men. Then the young man in front of her moved as fast as a snake, took one long step towards her and grabbed her by the shoulders. She squealed and barely had time to give him a squirt from the spray bottle before he had her in a firm grip that kept her immobile but didn't feel too uncomfortable. In fact, feeling the hard muscles and strength of this ridiculously hot young male felt pretty good, but Emily was still not in a mood to give in to anyone.
“Let go of me, you big brute!” she yelled, kicking and screaming and trying to bring her spray bottle to bear again. The lemon scent from the cleaning liquid spread through the air in the cockpit, and Emily saw that the man holding her kept blinking and squinting, and there was something wet on his face.
He hissed something very alien sounding, and before Emily knew it, a
nother man had left his seat and was helping his friend hold her tightly, clearly making sure not to cause her any pain or discomfort. Their firm but still sort of caring manner put her slightly at ease, but she still kept writhing and kicking and trying to bite them.
It was actually not a bad thing to be able to work off some of the anger and frustration in a way that was this physical. She was not afraid, for some reason. Maybe her life wasn't worth getting anxious over, even when being abducted in a spaceship.
But it was an uneven struggle, and soon the two men had such a good grip on her that she could only growl and hiss and try to bite them. Her bottle of cleaning liquid had fallen to the floor, and her arms were immobilized.
They were somehow able to hold her still and drag her over to a seat, strap her into a very secure harness and then get into their own seats. The spaceship accelerated fast now, and Emily felt some strange shocks go through the whole ship, and there were sparks of light as if someone was shooting at them.
Then the acceleration picked up a lot and she was pressed back into her seat so hard that she had to use conscious force to keep her lungs breathing. Then there was a strange effect, as the rest of the cockpit seemed to draw away from her as if she was looking at it through a narrow tunnel that was quickly pulling away from her.
At least I got him with the spray, she thought. And then she remembered no more.
13
“Damn, she's out,” the prince said. “Can't you go slower, dammit? She's not a veteran shocktrooper, you know. She can't take that kind of acceleration!”
“Sorry,” Ber'Ain said. “But I had no choice. They were shooting at us, and this is not a military ship. The shields and armor are just laughably weak. I'm actually surprised we survived.”
“Which begs the question,” the prince said icily, “why they were shooting at us in the first place. I thought you said we'd pass undetected!”
“We were undetected by their ordinary scanners and sensors, without a doubt,” Ev'ax broke in, defending the pilot. “Except they probably have a primitive sensor system in place to detect space debris, so it can fire projectiles at a dangerous object to divert it. It's likely to be an automatic system that goes off many times a day whenever it detects something unknown. Completely routine. Just bad luck that we were hit.”
“Bad luck that almost killed all of us, including our guest,” the prince said, not placated. “We're on the verge of acting dishonorably towards this woman. Risking her life and then accelerating so hard she loses consciousness... She has every reason to be angry. Our only excuse is that we acted from necessity.”
Ev'ax turned in his seat and stared at the unconscious woman, secure in her seat. His advanced medic training told him that she was fine there for a little while until they could safely free her from the harness. “Ar'Ric,” he said, “have you looked at that woman? I mean, really looked at her?”
The cabin was in half-darkness again, now that the huge light source that was the alien planet lay behind them. The Prince took a good look at the woman. Her baggy clothing and disheveled hair had camouflaged her shape and features, but now that he was studying her closely...
He felt his spirit rise, and it was as if the rest of the universe ceased to exist for a moment. Were those dimples on her face? Such round, soft cheeks... And the shape of her... The drab suit she wore was baggy, but didn't it bulge enticingly in exactly the right places? He gently reached over and brushed the long hair away from her face. “Oh my stars,” he said softly. “She's... she's spectacular!”
“That's what I thought,” Ev'ax agreed. “She's plainly a human woman from the station. I recognize that unflattering apparel from the people I saw there. And she seems to have a real body underneath it, too.”
The prince stared, mesmerized by the most female creature he'd ever seen. The way her breathing made her chest rise and fall... Her soft, feminine hands, half-hidden by the long sleeves of the horrendously shapeless suit she wore... He felt a familiar swelling in his crotch and forced himself to look away from her.
“No,” he said, mainly to himself. “We will not be ogling this unconscious and defenseless woman. Our behavior is disgraceful! Ber'Ain, will you be performing any more violent maneuvers?”
“No, sir,” the pilot said. “We have frame shifted to hyperspace. It's safe to wake her up, from my point of view.”
“Very well,” the prince said, unsnapped his harness and stood up. “Ev'ax, you're a top level medic. Help me bring her around.”
“She will not be happy,” Ev'ax said. “We've practically kidnapped her from her station. And we're well on the way to Atrexu space by now. We probably have to take her back. She will demand it.”
“Of course we'll take her back,” Ber'Ain said. “I'll turn us around right now. It will cost a lot of fuel, but it's simply not safe to go home with an unknown and non-quarantined alien on board.”
“You will do no such thing,” the prince snapped. “Just keep our current course, and we'll allow her to speak for herself when she's able.” He didn't want to think about losing this woman so soon after having found her.
“Sir,” Ber'Ain said firmly, “again I suggest we return her to the station she came from. She's not here voluntarily, and she is an alien. It's against regulations to keep her on board.”
“You just keep your course and your suggestions,” the prince commanded. The thought of taking the young woman back seemed abhorrent to him. “We know nothing about her. Why was she even inside our ship? All we know is that she's a gallant and spirited fighter. She even hit me with a burst from her weapon, right in the face. Where is that weapon?”
Ev'ax checked the female's vital signs and the prince gingerly picked up the spray bottle from the deck where she had dropped it.
“A most interesting sidearm,” he said, very carefully turning it over in his hands. “It has very colorful writing on the side, undoubtedly warning symbols because of its extreme lethality. It appears to fire some sort of blue liquid with a very sharp, but pleasant scent, which I can feel still lingers in the air. Yet I seem to be largely unharmed, though my eyes are sore.”
“The weapon probably has different power settings,” Ber'Ain suggested, checking the ship status. “And she hit you with the lowest setting. She didn't want to kill, just incapacitate. She must have misjudged your strength and given you less than it would take to bring you down. She's dangerous in the extreme, and she has already fired on a royal. Again I plead that we take her back to where she came from.”
“Or,” Ev'Ax said, busy with his medical equipment, “it was simply a symbolic act. She's likely an accomplished warrior and at all cost wanted to avoid harming us. So she used the lowest setting as both a warning and a demonstration that she could have killed you, but refrained. It would then be dishonorable of us to continue our actions. Doubtlessly she has the highest possible code of conduct and honor. And I fear now that she will hold us in contempt because we failed to cease our apprehension of her, necessary thought it was.”
“Such gallantry!” the prince marveled, deeply touched by the alien female's act. “If only our own women would display such spirit and honor, why, I would not need to go to other civilizations to find a wife.”
“Very noble behavior,” Ev'Ax agreed. He glanced up at the prince with a significant look in his eyes. “One might say, almost royal behavior...”
That same thought had already occurred to the prince. If indeed this woman was as he now thought and hoped, then there was every chance she was true wife material. Princess material. Queen material. Empress material... And in the night time, if her body was indeed as curvy as it looked...
He shook his head to clear his mind of idle daydreams, again feeling the pleasant but entirely inappropriate pressure in his crotch. This woman bewitched him, even when she was unconscious.
He carefully placed the alien weapon in a utility locker, out of reach of the alien female warrior. If she got hold of it again, with that fighting spirit of hers
, they'd all be in trouble.
“I gave her a stimulant,” Ev'Ax said. “And just a little bit of a mood enhancer, as is standard procedure in battlefield medicine.” He scratched his chin. “Also I think it's probably for the best, in view of her alien fighting skill and... umm... possible anger. Did you put her weapon somewhere safe? Okay, she's coming around.”
14
It was like rising to the surface from the bottom of a pool, seeing daylight above her. And then Emily was all there, sitting in a chair and held snugly by some sort of harness.
She took a moment getting her bearings. There were some men there. Two facing her, and one with his back to her, driving a bus. No... where was the steering wheel? What the hell was he driving, anyway? An airplane? There was a windshield in front of him, and everything outside was black. Except for some stars. Night time. Hm. A flight. At night. A flight at night! Those words went so well together she had to giggle.
One of the others seemed to be packing up some stuff into a bag. And the third guy...
She felt her jaw falling down to her chest, and her eyes widen. That was the most spectacular looking guy she'd ever seen. Chiseled face and big eyes and wavy hair and what the fuck, was that his body? He had shoulders like those pro wrestlers on TV, but he was much younger and slimmer than them! It was like he was just radiating handsome. No, that was not just your ordinary handsomeness – that was beauty right there. And he was looking right at her with a look on his face that was so worried she laughed out loud. But those eyes...
“Oh my fuck. You're the most sensational man I've ever seen,” she said honestly. It had to be said, it was just true, and the words ran out of her by themselves. “Are you from the admin section?”
She couldn't imagine anyone looking like that being anything other than a high-ranking official. “It's okay! I don't mind. Most of those are total jerkoffs. But not all of them, I'm sure. I wouldn't know because the only ones I met from there are just a-holes, you know? Especially that what's his face, Cadet Member. No, Beller. No, Meller! Such a total waste of space. You know, like, because there isn't that much space on the station. The space station! Space on the space station! Ha ha ha! But seriously, why are you staring at me like that? It's not that I mind! Don't stop! You have some gigantic eyes there, did you know that?”
