by Flora Dare
"Oh, other than your first mate's pleasure."
The other woman flushed and glanced up at the corner of the room. Her voice dropped to almost inaudible levels. "Well, she's not winning the hearts and minds of the crew with this treatment. You're a civvie and a prisoner. You should never have been in Cap's quarters and it never would have happened if she hadn't fucked with the environment."
As she parted the fabric at my back, she broke off her words and hissed under her breath. "This is unacceptable. Sorry, I need to expose all of your back, is that okay?"
I liked that she asked and was willing to do just about anything to make the pain lessen. My hunger sated, the pain was rapidly commanding my attention. I nodded, and she quickly exposed my back. She sprayed my back with the soothing spray which reduced the worst of the pain.
"Wish I had more advanced stuff. Nanos would have this handled in a few minutes, but we have very little of that tech out here." She gently touched my back, and I jerked at the unexpected pain deeper within me. "That's not good. Guessing that last round of whipping hurt something deeper. Dammed idiots. Here's what I'm gonna do. Pain shot. Quickheal shot. Newskin patches. But you're still going to scar."
She was very matter of fact, and I just acquiesced to her. I found myself falling into a bit of a depression as she shot me full of everything and started applying the patches to my back. I realized it was about the scaring.
It was sinking in that even if I was rescued right this second, I would be marked by this for the rest of my life. Literal marks running down my back. Even after I healed, if Sam saw me, he'd see the ugly scarring.
When she finished she looked at my teary face and said, "Let me give you a little something. You really need to rest." She looked around the room and frowned at the thin mattress in the center of the room. "You aren't giving me any grief, this room is bullshit."
She pressed a few tiles on the wall, and a bed slid out of wall. "Don't be a jerk, or I'll have to take everything away and neither of us wants that." She prepared another shot and injected me. "Now get to bed."
It was glorious to feel no pain and give into the waves of exhaustion that followed the shot, and I was out before my head hit the pillow.
Chapter Seven
After a good night's sleep, I woke up naturally. I sat up and saw that someone had left me a meal tray. The pain shot had long since worn off, and I staggered to the food, collapsing on the bench. I lifted the lid and it was clear Mavit had arranged this. This was no nutriloaf, but real food. I dug in with my spoon, devouring it. I was scraping the sides of the bowl when the door slid open.
I flinched away, terrified it was the First Mate, ready to attack again. But it was Sam and Mavit. She was smiling, Sam was not. He stood at the door, arms crossed as Mavit walked over to me.
She smiled when she saw my cleaned bowl. She said, "Ignore the Captain. He's in a mood this morning." She pulled her medkit out. "Got another pain shot for you. Should carry you through the day."
Relief flooded my body as the pain fled.
"Thank you, Mavit. I really appreciate your care." I didn't mean to insult Sam, but I heard a growl from him. Still, under his care I'd been hurt very badly.
Sam stepped around Mavit and gestured for me to stand up. He activated my slave cuffs and said, "Please come with me. It's time we talked more."
I nodded and meekly followed him down the hallway to an interrogation room. We sat sitting across from each other. I just looked at him, waiting for him to take the lead.
"You have a lot to answer for. I was enraged to discover your father died years ago."
I stared into his eyes, he was so angry. His jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth as hard as he could.
"Please, tell me what he did to you. I don't know."
"Your father harvested my family when he came to earth. My father fought until your father beat him into unconsciousness. Then he raped my mother to death in front of my father, before finally snapping his neck."
The air stuck in my throat. I couldn't say that I was surprised. Something was warped and broken in my father, but I'd never thought he would kill for pleasure. The only thing he loved was the idea of continuing the pure family bloodline.
I wanted to say I was sorry, but as I opened my mouth Sam moved violently towards me. "Don't say a fucking word. I want to feel your blood run down my body, knowing that I've destroyed his only daughter."
I pressed my lips tight and looked down.
"You know he made my sister and I watch. Then, he took her away with him. I don't know what happened to her after he died. The only reason you are still alive and not being sent home in chunks is because you have access to the family records. You can tell me where he took her."
I looked up at him and nodded. I thought about how frantic my brother must be, not knowing if I was safe. What my father had done to Sam. Even without the bond, I would have helped him.
"I will do that. Can you get me to a com?" I couldn't bring back his family, but I could try and give him some closure. I didn't have the heart to tell him that, given what I'd been finding out about my father, the likelihood that she survived was slim.
He set a terminal in front of me and said, "If you try and leave a trail, I will kill you, do you understand?"
"Yes, completely. But you know they will see me accessing? They might have blocked me."
"They don't know where you are yet. They will soon enough. Get to work."
My fingers flew over the inputs. I narrowed the search by rough date and galactic areas. Earth was outside the Foundation and had no rights. I was shocked by how many times my father went to Earth. Each time, he claimed a single family.
A family that mirrored my own.
My hands shook as I looked up at Sam.
He frowned. "What?"
"It's just...you weren't the only family. And each one...a mother, a father, an older son, a younger daughter."
"Jesus, was he a serial killer?"
An icy cold finger slithered down my back and I broke out into a cold sweat. The shaking got worse.
"I don't know what a serial killer is, but... the families he took, they looked like his. Do you understand?"
"That he destroyed families that looked like his?"
"I hope your sister is dead." I blurted it out, I couldn't stop myself.
Sam grabbed me and shook me. "You better pray she is alive and you can get her."
I shook my head. "You don't understand. If he's had her all these years?" I pulled away from him and pulled the rest of the files up. "I'm trying to figure out what happened to all the families. It's harder to track individuals. I don't know which one is your family."
I finally discovered hidden files attached to each shipment. The family code revealed them. I guess my father hadn't thought either of us would ever find them, or think to look.
My father was very methodical in his documentation. I retched when I opened them and quickly closed them before Sam came over. I shook my head at him. "Please, I know you have no reason to trust me, but do not make me show you this."
He looked deep into my eyes for an endless moment and I swam in them. Finally he slowly nodded at me. He was clearly unhappy about it but I was too grateful to care. My father recorded every horrifying thing he'd done and hadn't even bothered to truly hide it from us. It was all there.
A few swift keystrokes let me hijack those files, and I locked them behind a key only I had. I finally had proof beyond his attack on my mother about what he'd done all those years. I pulled up only the images he'd used to hunt the families down.
I needed Sam to identify them, but I wanted him to also have a different memory of them. To replace that last horrifying experience with them being happy as a family. I pulled up the ten pictures and turned the display to him.
"Are any of these your family?"
He glanced over them, until the color drained out of his face and he stood so still I thought he'd turned to stone. He reached a shaky hand out and touc
hed the screen.
"This. This is my family. I'd forgotten what we all looked like, before."
An almost savage joy rippled through me. I couldn't tell if it came from him or me, but I didn't care. I'd given him back something. He turned the screen back to me and I looked at the laughing family.
Knowing which ship had taken them, I traced what happened next.
"Sam, there is only record of one person continuing on to another ship. Was that you?"
He laughed, a cold harsh thing.
"Part of the very long story of how I came to be Captain of this ship is that right after my sister was taken away by your father, another man slipped into the room. Apparently, he disapproved of your father, but didn't have the power to stop him. However, he set it up so that your father thought I died and smuggled me off the ship. That record will be my sister."
I traced her movements through space, finally separating from my father. The date turned my mouth to ashes. He'd finally come to my mother after being away for so long.
I gasped when I saw the final notation.
"Oh Sam, I'm so sorry."
He grabbed my shoulder. "Where is she?" He was shouting and his fingers dug into my scales.
I grabbed his face. "Look at me. Pray she's dead."
He shook me, tears rolling down his face.
"Tell me."
"Reivers took that ship."
He collapsed sobbing against me. All I could do was rock him back and forth. We both knew what that meant. He was never going to find his sister again. Reivers left no survivors. There was no information about cargo, which is what she'd been considered. But Reivers had never left anyone alive. Just recordings of panicked crews screaming into the reaches of space that Reivers had found them.
We know what their ships sweeps looked like. A few very rare survivors who fled before the attack and got very lucky only said that the ships appeared suddenly and swept the zone. We had only ships logs to tell us what happened next.
I thought of that sweet little girl in the picture. First to be in my father's hands then the Reivers. Sam couldn't have expected his sister to still be alive, but there is a difference between having little hope and having none.
He suddenly stood, pushing me away. "You've served your usefulness."
My heart stopped. His eyes held no warmth for me. He towered over me, rage oozing out of him. He slowly wrapped his hand around my throat and squeezed. Not enough to hurt, not yet. He said, "You know, that's what he finally did to my mother. Squeezed the life out of her."
"I know." I whispered.
His eyes went wide. "What do you mean?"
"You were the last family he took, do you know that? At least that I could find. Because he finally got what he wanted."
"My sister."
I shook my head, fighting against his tightening grip. "No. It's what he finally did to my mother. What he wanted to do to me. It's why I said I hope your sister died." He dropped his hand, dawning horror on his face.
"Your father..."
"My brother saved me."
"Like I couldn't do for my sister."
"It was luck that he was in the position to stop him."
He flicked a switched and activated my captive bonds. He grabbed my arms and lifted me to my feet. "I'm taking you to your cell. I'm not thinking right."
I nodded to him and let him guide me back to the small room so I could mull over what I'd discovered.
Chapter Eight
Days slipped into each other, with Mavit bringing me meals and regular pain injections. I welcomed the sleep, it kept me from dwelling on Sam's skin against my scales and the unexpected strength in him when he lifted me. All my life I'd been the overly large female my father disapproved of. I wasn't lithe or delicate like my mother. But Sam had still lifted me like it was nothing.
I dreamed of him slipping into the cell, taking me over and over again. I woke up with his name on my lips and a dark shadow in the doorway. For a moment, my heart soared, he was here! But Mavit stepped through, banishing my dream. I slipped out of the bed and greeted her. Something was different, and I sniffed the air. I could smell Sam on her, she'd just seen him. But the acrid scent of fear oozed out of her pores.
"What's wrong?"
She looked startled and set the regular tray down. "How did you…? Oh, that's right, smells." She handed a package to me. "It's really fucking bad news and I'm trying to be cool, but I'm terrified."
I opened it, revealing an armored shipsuit. Confusion must have danced across my face. "Am I supposed to wear this?"
She sat down and stared at her hands for several long minutes. "I wasn't sure if I should do this, say anything, but yeah, put it on, now. Hurry."
I listened and stripped in record time. The fabric molded to every inch of me. My brother would have had an absolute fit to see me not only in pants but in gear that left nothing to the imagination. Yastlama would just laugh and give me another set of knives. He'd been the one to teach me in secret, just in case, he said.
I scarfed the waiting food down when she finally spoke. "So, Reivers, you know what they are?"
"Uh, yeah, boogeymen of the Known Universe. Swoop in, leave no survivors, disappear."
"Well, they are actively scanning this system. We're hiding, but they either know we are here or they are just hoping to get lucky. If they know, we're fucked. If they are just checking it out, we stand a good chance of getting away."
My blood ran ice cold, and I spit out my mouthful of food. No way could I finish eating. They were terrifying, and we didn't even know what they looked like. They blew their ships up rather than be taken captive.
"If they come...what do we do?"
Half her mouth crooked up into an almost smile. "We fight as best we can, before they murder us all. Or whatever they do with their captives."
"Are you going to leave me in here?" Stuck in this box, no weapons, no defense, waiting for the end to come.
She slapped her hand on the table suddenly. "No way. I'm not going to do that to you, to anybody. We all go down together."
I nodded at her. "I would rather go down fighting." A blaring klaxon echoed through the room. Seemed like Sam was going to find out what happened to his sister after all.
Mavit swore and jumped up. "That's the proximity alarm. Whatever is gonna happen, it’s happening now. Let's go." She grabbed my hand and pulled me after her into the hallway. "We're going to the security room on this deck, then heading to the cargo bay. Maybe we can get the fuck out of here before all hell breaks loose."
We collided with the First Mate in front of an open door. Beyond her, I could see people strapping on weapons. Her eyes narrowed to dark slits, and she growled at me. "The fuck is she doing here? I told you what to do."
Mavit squared off against her superior officer, half hissing. "What you wanted wasn't okay. We need everyone if we have any chance of surviving. You know what happens if we fail."
Ardal pointed a finger at me and snapped, "Fine, let's see if the pampered princess can keep up. If you make a peep, I will put a beam in the back of your head."
We walked into the room and Ardal headed to the depleted weapon rack, tossing the last of the blasters at Mavit. There was a rack full of blades, and a stunning set of long keris blades caught my eye. I pulled them down and tested their balance. Perfect. The armored suit had attachment points for the carriers, and I helped myself to a few other smaller blades for my hips and boots.
Ardal smirked at me. "Sorry, not enough blasters. Try not to bleed to death on those things."
I looked through her at the hallway and turned to Mavit. "Grab some blades too, we don't know what they are, and blades are good in tight spaces."
Mavit looked surprised and then grabbed a few. She said, "You seem like you know what you’re doing with the blades. You move like you've held them before."
I let my voice carry into the room. "Yeah, I'm pampered and all, but I still learned how to protect myself. And I like bladework, it's
like dancing."
Mavit smiled and then looked around the room. She shouted as we felt the deep bass of another ship rubbing against ours. "Line up, stims ready." She had a small medkit in her hand and pressed it against everyone’s arms, including mine. I shuddered as the chemicals flooded into my veins. The fog of the painkillers fled and I felt ready for anything.
We moved into the hallway, a steady jog eating up the miles to the emergency chutes. The whole ship vibrated around us. We didn't know exactly what was happening, but it was easy to imagine the ship being slowly peeled open. We'd all seen vids of the husks left behind.
