“It’ll get better,” he promised. “I’m very stressed as well. I want to reach the jump point and see what the Hallons are doing. I really do think they’ll be impressed with the other girls. Once I trade the girls, it may completely change our relationship with the Hallons for the better. It may put our race into a favorable position. I need this mission to go well.”
He continued to reveal his fears about the future and told me about his past. I settled to listen, glad for an opportunity to understand him better. I did want us on a level to get on. I wanted there to be a connect between the person who gave me gifts and tried to the personality inside. To understand he wasn’t just some monster, but someone worth knowing. Even if I wasn’t sure about this whole relationship thing, at least I could… try to do something.
His father, King Juri, had sent him out on the ship to carry out different diplomacy missions. King Juri wanted his son to visit jump spots and different planets, collecting resources that would be valuable to the Athim race.
“I’m glad he did, because I have you,” he admitted. The first sliver of something that made me pause. That sounded awfully like an admittance of affection, love, whatever. But how could we be? We had never done anything noteworthy together. “But I want to conquer more. I want to stop the Hallons from running all over the universe. I want to find a habitable planet and colonize it. Could you imagine if you and I had our own planet? Don’t get me wrong, Athim is a great planet, but I’ve always wanted to have my own and get away from my father.”
I understood this more than he realized. Spending the last several years in the White House, I often wanted to escape and be on my own. Now I was, but not in the ways I had dreamed of, prior to the trade. But getting away from a restrictive father? I got that.
“That would be cool,” I said, but noticed the word had thrown him for a loop. My lips curved upward. “Cool. It’s like ‘nice’ or ‘fun’, it’s a good word.”
He was reassured by my explanation and smiled at me. I had to admit, his smile did have a calming effect on me. His teeth were blinding white and perfect.
“I have some business to attend to before bed.” He rose from the table. “Will you be OK on your own for a bit?”
I nodded, secretly pleased that I would have some alone time. Getting alone time was rare, but when I had it, I cherished it. It gave me time to mediate, which helped alleviate some of the stress I had encountered in the past week. It didn’t completely calm me down, but it had helped.
I expected him to turn around and head for the door, but he walked to my side of the table. He leaned down and awkwardly kissed my forehead.
“I will see you soon,” he said, walking away before I could respond. The door sealed shut behind him, leaving me alone in the dining room. I sat there for a few minutes, pondering what had just happened. My heart beat faster, and there was still a dampness clinging where he touched his lips with my skin.
It was the first intimate moment that we had shared. Despite being awkward, I liked it and yearned for more. I felt conflicted that I liked the physical contact with him. While my mind tried to push Modric away, my body opened itself up to the situation, evident from the chills coursing through it.
I half-way floated to my room, thinking of Modric and that lingering kiss. I hoped his business didn’t take too long. I wanted to lay next to him in bed. Maybe now that he had kissed my forehead, he would try more. Or maybe he needed an extra push.
I walked into the empty bedroom and headed straight for my closet. Although Modric had magically acquired proper pajamas for me, I ignored those clothes and I went straight for the lingerie drawer. I wanted to look good for him. I wanted him to try more.
I fingered a white see-through teddy with matching thigh-highs and a garter belt. White. Virginal. The imagery floated through my head, and I took several deep breaths, wondering.
Should I?
I went into the bathroom and slowly undressed myself in front of the mirror, pretending I was putting on a show for Modric. I wanted to see if I’d like the image, or if I’d shrink away from the illusion. Either the chill of the bathroom or the excitement in my belly caused my nipples to harden. I cupped my round breasts as I closed my eyes. I slid my fingers upward and twisted a nipple in between each one. In my mind, Modric stood behind me, his hands replacing mine. I could imagine his breath on my neck as his other hand traveled down to my flat stomach. While I wasn’t here voluntarily, I might as well make the most of it. It could have been worse. I could have been completely turned off by Modric. He could have taken me instantly. But he didn’t. Such patience for a prince. Someone who undoubtedly wouldn’t be used to defiance. I read and saw plenty of examples of men who would rather choke themselves to death on their own pride, who felt like they had a right to the women around them. But not Modric. Yes… I could get into this.
The ship jolted, snapping me back into reality. While we had hit turbulence in the past, it never felt like this. It was more jarring and violent than before. The initial jolt was followed by a steady shaking. A few seconds passed, and the shaking subsided.
I shook my head, cursing the turbulence for ruining my fantasy. I put the lingerie on and exited the bathroom. Unlike prior nights, I kept my hair down and my makeup on.
I walked towards the bed, and the bedroom door opened. I spun around, surprised to see Natira standing there. We both looked at each other in shock. She looked at me from head to toe, an involuntary spark flickering in her eyes, before speaking. I was uncomfortably reminded she found women attractive.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, trying to cover myself with my arms.
“You look great, Freya, but grab a robe,” she frantically commanded. “There’s an emergency and we have got to go… now!”
Chapter 7
I followed Natira’s commands and bolted towards the closet. I grabbed a white robe, hastily tying it around my nearly naked body.
“Get some shoes, too!” she called from the bedroom. The ship jolted again.
I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I grabbed the first pair of sneakers that I could find and put them on. As I shut the light in the closet, the ship lurched forward, causing the insides of my closet to tumble down. I lost my balance and fell, hitting my head on the table that held all my jewelry. Pain radiated through my skull, and I lay there, dazed.
The ship continued to shake. It was like an earthquake, but one that didn’t want to stop. I finally worked myself off the floor and back out into the bedroom.
Natira nervously tapped her foot on the floor. I’d never seen her look like this before. As I got closer to her, the lights began to flick on and off rapidly.
“What the hell’s going on?” I asked, wiping the blood from my forehead. Alarm sliced through me when I saw the blood on my fingers. How bad was I bleeding?
“We need to get to safety,” she replied. “I’ll explain when we get there, but this is not a good place for us to stay.”
As she said that, a large picture frame fell off the wall and shattered onto the floor below. We ran out of the room and down the hallway to the command room.
We entered the room, securing the door behind us. Modric had his back towards me, but I could tell from the way he stood that he was tense. Natira scooted me towards the edge of the room where Nellie was sitting on the floor. Natira pointed down the ground, instructing me to sit. As soon as I did, she rushed back out, desperately looking for the remaining three girls.
“What’s happening?” I asked, pulling my robe tighter. The room was cold, and I shivered. Nellie looked at my outfit but said nothing on it. She filled me in on what had happened in the past several minutes.
“I was getting ready to go to my room,” she explained. “Natira accompanied me. We heard shouting coming from the command room and the ship began to shake. Natira pulled me in here and Modric filled her in on what was happening.”
“Well, what’s happening?” I asked, voice now tinged with irritation. The shak
ing didn’t subside, and the fearful voice inside said that the ship was failing, somehow.
“Someone’s attacking us,” she said. “They are not sure why or who, but they aren’t stopping. It’s bad, Freya. I think they can shoot us out of the stars.”
The seriousness of the situation suddenly hit me. It wasn’t turbulence or a ship malfunction. It was war.
I remembered how war felt. That oppressive terror and uncertainty. Despite Natira’s orders, I stood up, wanting to see what was happening. Modric had kicked the pilot out of the chair and was now driving the ship. I was pleasantly surprised and even slightly turned on that he was capable of flying the large ship – though if my father had done something similar to any of the staff back in the White House, I doubted he’d be any more skilled than them.
“We got one!” he yelled triumphantly, raising his fist in the air.
Natira returned to the room with Rachelle, Brenda, and Kelly. The girls sat down next to Nellie and me. We sat crouched, covering our heads with our hands. It reminded me of the tornado drills that we had to do at school in Michigan when I was younger.
The battle still raged on despite our ship taking down one of theirs. I deducted from all of the chatter that there was more than one enemy ship, but I was unsure of how many there actually were.
“It’s a short distance from here to the escape pods,” Natira said over the talk of the Athim working on their ship. “So in case it looks like our shielding fails, we’ll herd you off.”
The shaking didn’t stop, and every time our ship got hit, we would lurch forward. The ship rocked back and forth so much that Kelly threw up in a recycling bin. I tried to paid attention to the chatter, to what was happening through the viewing ports, but visibility was awful. It seemed most of the visibility came from the scanners. Little red dots on the radars, attacking from miles away. I counted three. Four against one was terrible odds for a spaceship. They could just hammer that one ship until it ran out of ammunition and shielding. I prayed silently for the dots to vanish, then decided I couldn’t watch, and wandered back to the women.
After what seemed like hours, the shaking stopped. It was eerily quiet. Modric announced that the three remaining ships had disappeared. We had managed to out-run them, despite severe damage to the structure of the ship.
“This isn’t good,” Natira muttered under her breath. Modric paced the length of the command room, also muttering under his breath. Unlike Natira, he was speaking his Athim language, so I couldn’t understand exactly what he said, though I caught snippets. I just knew that we were in a lot of trouble.
Chapter 8
After I returned to the room, I started to pick up the mess left behind. Natira said the maid would do it in the morning, but I had to occupy my mind. I was on a damaged spaceship, limping through the universe. Nobody knew who had attacked them, but speculation seemed to be on the Hallon. Which meant that the tribute mission Modric was on might be in jeopardy, or at worst, useless.
I cursed myself for not learning more about the mechanics of the ship. Modric had asked if I was interested in learning more about it, but I stupidly told him no. Natira tried to make the situation better, but Modric was the only person right now who could calm my fears. Meaning when he was gone, that left the fears free to manifest. However, there was no telling when he would return to our room.
Once the room was back to normal, I retreated to the bathroom and washed my face. Although it was only a little more than an hour ago, the time I spent in here fantasizing about Modric seemed like a lifetime ago. I took my lingerie off, carefully folding it and putting it away. Perhaps my plan would work another day. I was back to a plain t-shirt and yoga pants. Sex was no longer an option.
I climbed into bed and felt a little queasy. As I adjusted under the covers, Modric opened the door. He closed the door behind him and made his way over to the bed. He squinted, looking at the cut on my forehead.
“Freya, what happened to your head?” he asked. With all of the commotion in the command room, he had failed to notice the now bulging bruise on my forehead.
“One of the jolts made me fall into the jewelry table,” I explained.
“Are you OK?”
I nodded.
“I am,” I said. “At least physically. I’m scared, Modric. What’s going on out there?”
He sat down on the bed next to me. He looked extremely distraught. I knew our ship had taken some hits in the fight, but I wasn’t prepared for what came next.
“We’re in really bad shape,” Modric admitted. “I can’t tell the others because I don’t want to cause panic, but it’s not good.”
He went into detail about what had happened, though I’d already worked out the finer details. Four enemy fighter ships had attacked ours. He had assumed they were Hallon fighter ships. While he was able to destroy one of them, the other three continued to fire on our ship. While Modric was able to successfully flee from the ships, our ship’s shields were completely worn down. The batteries had been severely damaged, and a blasted airlock would need emergency repairs.
“What does all this mean?” I asked, biting my bottom lip nervously.
“I’m not sure,” he spoke softly. “I would love to come and lay with you, but I need to meet with the engineers as soon as possible. I just wanted to come in and check on you. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a long night for me.”
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked.
He stood up.
“No,” he said. “But I must warn you of something. We’ll be losing gravity rapidly. You may start to feel a little light-headed or sick to your stomach. Please just try to stay here in bed and get some sleep.”
He turned off the lights and left the room. I laid down in the dark, still feeling queasy. After the fight, I felt a sense of relief, but apparently, that was only temporary. A lot had happened in the past hour, leaving me frightened. Despite the situation we were in, my mind still drifted to earlier. Modric had finally shown affection. Although it was a small kiss, it had ignited a fire within me.
Hard to entertain the idea of an attraction when I knew how close we were to disaster. Just when I’d started entertaining the thought of developing our relationship further… and now this.
I’m not sure how, but I fell asleep quickly, not waking again until the morning. When I woke, Modric was sitting on the bed next to me.
“Hello,” he said. I wiped my eyes as I stretched.
“Good morning,” I replied. “Did you get some sleep last night?”
“No, I tried to lay down, but I couldn’t fall asleep. It’s OK, though. I took an energy boost shot, so I feel like I’ve slept for hours.”
This was the first time that I heard of this shot, but I was intrigued. I also knew that there were more important things to discuss.
“How’s the ship?” I asked, stifling a yawn.
He frowned.
“As bad as I expected, if not worse,” he admitted. “We need to find a planet to land on to assess the damage better. We can’t continue on the journey to the jump point.”
He went on to explain that the gravitational drive had been damaged. While the ship was capable of flying and getting through a jump point, the head pilot and engineers didn’t want to risk a jump point entry with a damaged gravitational drive.
“You don’t feel well this morning, correct?” Modric asked. Now that he mentioned it, I had still felt sick to my stomach. I nodded.
“Our microgravity is bad,” he said. “Some of the rooms have zero gravity. You can’t go in those rooms until our ship is better. You may feel sick until this is fixed. There is some effect on you, but for the Athim, is really bad.”
His English still lacked at times, but I wasn’t about to correct him in a time like this.
“Is very important that we land our ship as soon as possible,” he continued. “I fear that the longer we’re without gravity, you may become very sick. But, our ship can’t move fast. I know of a small planet we can l
and on, but it will take a few weeks to get there.”
“Is there anything I can help with?” I asked. He shook his head.
“Nothing yet. Maybe when we land on Arilia, that’s the next closest planet. I’m sorry if this is scaring you, but I need to be honest with you, Freya. As my wife, you need to know all the facts. If something happens to me, you need to tell the others what happened.”
“If something happens to you?”
He sighed.
“I have never been in this situation before. I have heard of others having their ships damaged like this and there is one of two outcomes. You either survive or you die. Some great Athim soldiers before me have died in similar situations. I will get very sick before you do. You may survive me.”
“Don’t talk like that, Modric!” I said, deeply upset by the declaration.
“Like I said, I don’t mean to scare you, Freya, but you need to be aware of the situation.”
Just then, Natira entered the room. Her usual glow had diminished. She looked sick as well.
“The other girls are quarantined,” she told Modric. “The team is working on flying the ship and repairing what they can while we’re in space...”
“Quarantined?” I interrupted Natira. She glared at Modric.
“I’m assuming Modric hasn’t told you yet,” she said. “Parts of the ship have zero gravity and you can get very, very ill if you go in those rooms. Unfortunately, the main hallway is at near zero gravity. We have all made the decision to quarantine the humans.”
“He did tell me about the lack of gravity, but he didn’t quite get to the quarantine part,” I said, shooting Modric a look.
“Well, until we land, you’re stuck in here,” she continued. “And since Modric is the highest rank on the ship, he needs to stay in here, too. He needs to be in good health when we land. As do I.” She gave a thoughtful purse of her lips.
I wasn’t sure how to feel. Being stuck in a room reminded me of my mother. My father had also quarantined her to a bedroom in the White House during her final few months of life. She hated it. She told me she wanted to spend time in the gardens, out in the sunshine and fresh air, but my father had vetoed that idea. He didn’t want anyone to see her in that condition.
Sold To The Athim Prince Page 5
