Release

by V. J. Chambers

  “You’re in a stolen space ship,” continued Miss Gilit. “The minute they figure out I’m gone, they’ll track it. It’s fitted with a tracking monitor, you know, and—”

  “Is it?” said Keirth. “Thanks for telling me that, sweetheart. They keep it in the usual place?”

  Her face had gone white as she realized her mistake.

  Keirth unstrapped himself and headed for the back of the bridge. He reached above the doorway and yanked the material covering the wall away. Inside, just where they always were, was a hunk of plastic, wires, and blinking lights. Tracking monitor. Keirth ripped it down, dropped it on the floor, and ground it under his foot. It made a crunching noise.

  “It doesn’t matter!” said Miss Gilit. “They’ll find you anyway. You’ve kidnapped the daughter of a duke, and you killed a man in the docking bay. You’re a kidnapper and murderer. They’re going to find you, and they’re going to sentence you to death.”

  “I had my blaster set to stun,” he muttered. “Besides, I saw the other servants drag him out of the docking bay. I’m sure he’s fine. I don’t want to kill anyone except Risciter.” Miss Gilit was starting to get on his nerves. Maybe he should tie her up and gag her. That should keep her quiet.

  “And why would you want to do that?” said Miss Gilit. “The Duke of Risciter is a good man.”

  Keirth sat back down in the pilot’s seat next to her. “He’s the furthest thing from a good man there is, sweetheart. But considering the kind of people you come from, I wouldn’t expect you to understand that.” He cradled his head with his hands. “Now, we’ll be in Ossile before you know it. So why don’t you just shut your pretty little mouth and stop worrying about whether or not I get caught? You and I will be parting ways very soon. And then you can tell all your little high society friends about the time you were kidnapped by a murderer. Imagine how impressed they’ll be.”

  She folded her arms over her chest. “You won’t get away with it.”

  “Shut. Your. Mouth.” He smiled nastily at her. “Or I’ll stuff something inside it.”

  She paled again. She didn’t speak.

  * * *

  Ariana’s heart was thudding in her chest as she sat next to the man. She wasn’t sure what he’d been doing on the console when they’d taken off. She’d seen Risciter’s ship disappear into hyperspace, but the man who’d captured her didn’t seem too upset about that, so she had to believe that Risciter wasn’t safe yet. This man planned to drop her off on the planet Ossile, but then he would probably go after Risciter. And he’d said that he planned to kill him. Risciter was her future husband. She couldn’t let this man hurt Risciter. She had to do something.

  She knew what their destination was, and that could prove to be a valuable tool against her kidnapper. If she could get word to the authorities in Ossile, they could stop him from pursuing Risciter. And she could get her ship back as well. The tracking device on the ship was destroyed, but she did have her comm. Communication in hyperspace wasn’t optimal, of course. Her comm had a limited hypercomm capacity, but it was only good for sending text, not voice or video, and one message out was going to kill her battery.

  She was going to have to think very carefully about who the best person to alert might be. The first person she thought of was Aunt Tildy. If she’d awoken by now and found Ariana missing, she was probably worried. But Ariana vetoed the idea, because Aunt Tildy might not actually be awake yet. She had no idea how hung over Aunt Tildy actually was. Aunt Tildy might be too slow to react. It would probably be best, instead, to contact someone on the planet Ossile, perhaps the authorities directly. Yes, that was definitely the best idea. Once she was safe, the man in jail, and her ship safely docked, she’d have plenty of time to contact her family and assure them she was okay.

  Now the only problem was trying to figure out how she was going to send this message without the man seeing her. He’d stop her if he knew what she was up to. But she couldn’t simply march off and demand privacy. Well. She could, but he’d follow her, and she wouldn’t put it past this man to use force against her. She eyed him. He was very strong. She could see that he had wide shoulders, and when he moved his arms, she could see his muscles swell and contract under his clothes. He could hurt her very badly if he wanted. She didn’t want to take that chance.

  So how was she going to get to be alone?

  She stood up. “I have to visit the facilities on the ship.”

  He raised his eyebrows questioningly.

  “The bathroom,” she said.

  He shook his head. “Hold it. We’ll be in Ossile in twenty minutes.”

  Oh. Wonderful. She summoned her best pitiful voice. The man might not be made completely of stone, after all. Perhaps he would pity her. “I can’t.”

  He laughed. “Well, I guess you’re going to have an embarrassing arrival in Ossile, then.”

  He was made of stone. How dare he be so horrible? He was forcing her to soil herself. She was aghast. Of course, there was the matter that she didn’t actually have to go to the bathroom, but that was beside the point. “Why are you so completely cruel? Do you enjoy making me suffer?”

  The man looked at her. He sighed. “All right, all right. But I’m following you and waiting outside the door so you don’t try anything.”

  “What could I possibly try?” she said. “You’re an ogre of a man. I wouldn’t stand a chance against you.”

  He escorted her to the restroom off the bridge. She took great pleasure in slamming the door in his face.

  Once inside, she whipped out her comm and switched it to hypercomm mode. Emergency numbers for every planet in the Evon Sector were programmed into her comm, so she selected the emergency number for Ossile and carefully composed her message. “I, Miss Ariana Gilit, daughter of the Duke of Wendo, have been captured. A man has stolen my ship and plans to arrive at Ossile in less than twenty minutes. Please save me!” She hit send.

  Sure enough, the minute the message went through, the battery on her comm completely drained, and the comm switched off. She shoved it back in her pocket, flushed the toilet for good measure, and exited the bathroom.

  The man was leaning against the wall outside. “Took you long enough.”

  “I have a shy bladder,” she retorted. “It’s not easy when I know you’re outside listening.”

  He laughed. “Well, I hope you feel relieved.”

  She’d feel relieved when they got to Ossile, and the man was locked up.

  The rest of the trip to Ossile was uneventful. Since the man didn’t want her to speak, and since she had nothing to say to scum like him anyway, she simply sat still and stared forward, hoping her message had gone through and that the authorities on Ossile would be waiting for them.

  She was gratified when they emerged out of hyperspace to the sound of a message over the ship’s comm system. “This is the Ossile Department of Police. We’re responding to a distress signal indicating a stolen ship will be entering this system with a kidnapped member of the nobility on board. Please identify yourself and prepare for scanning.”

  The man turned away from the console, glowering. “You couldn’t hold it, could you?” He shook his head. “How could I be so stupid? What did you do, send them a message on your comm?”

  So, he’d figured it out. It didn’t matter. They’d have him in custody in no time. Ariana tilted her chin up. “I can’t let you hurt Risciter.”

  “Give me the comm,” said the man.

  “It’s completely out of batteries. I had to use it in hypercomm mode.”

  “Then you won’t mind giving it to me.”

  “What does it matter? They’ve found you. Now they’re going to arrest you.”

  He smirked. “Oh, we’ll see about that, sweetheart. Now are you going to give it to me, or am I going to have to take it from you by force?”

  Well, it didn’t have any batteries, so she couldn’t use it anymore. She handed it over, shrinking from him. He couldn’t really get away from the Ossile
Police, could he?

  The ships’s comm system blared again. “Identify yourself.”

  The man snatched her comm from her and stuffed it in his pocket. He didn’t respond to the police, but instead began punching something into the console.

  “Unidentified ship,” said the comm system, “we are detecting you are preparing to jump to hyperspace. We are activating a tractor beam until we have successfully determined your identity and business in the Ossile system.”

  Immediately, the ship began to tremble. Ariana looked around. She’d never been in a tractor beam before. Now, they were tethered to the Ossile Police, right? They couldn’t leave?

  “Damn, damn, damn.” The man began punching at the console furiously. “A tractor beam?” He glared at her. “I was going to let you go. I stopped here only to make sure that you would be comfortable. This has nothing to do with you.”

  “Risciter is practically my fiancé,” she said. “If you’re trying to kill him, then it has something to do with me.” The ship was still shaking.

  He shot her a withering look. “You want to marry that asshole? You’re not too bright, are you?” He hit several buttons on the console. The shaking grew more intense.

  “Shut up,” she said.

  “That ought to do it.” He put in a few more numbers. The shaking stopped.

  “What did you do?” Ariana was horrified, and a little scared. She was safe, right? He couldn’t get away from the police, could he?

  “I disengaged the tractor beam,” he said. “I’m not getting captured on Ossile.”

  No!

  “Disengaging the tractor beam has been taken as failure to cooperate,” said the ship’s comm. “You are now classified as evading arrest and measures will be taken—”

  “Oh, shut up,” said the man, flipping off the ship’s comm. He hit some keys on the console, and Ariana recognized the familiar whir of the hyperdrive warming up.

  “No,” she said out loud. “You can’t just get away.”

  “Watch me, sweetheart.”

  Ariana got up out of her seat and flung her body onto the man’s back. She began scratching at his face as hard as she could.

  The man yelled and tried to shake her off.

  Ariana clung harder, digging her nails in.

  The man reached back and ripped one of her arms away from his face. He yanked her off his back as easily as if she were an annoying child. Putting her in front of him, he seized her by the shoulders and propelled her back into her seat. She was pleased to see that his face was bleeding.

  She was less pleased to see that he was really mad.

  He let go of her for a second, and she cowered, cringing against the blow she was sure was coming.

  But instead he wrapped the seat belt around her shoulders. It was tight. He wound the belt around her seat two more times, binding her torso to the seat and her arms against her sides. Then he fastened the belt on the back of the seat, out of her reach.

  Swearing, he returned to the console.

  The ship started to shake again. Good! They must have them back in the tractor beam.

  The man made two strokes on the console and the shaking stopped. He was going to get away.

  The man kept typing on the console and the hyperdrive whirred to life. He was going to jump to hyperspace and get away from the police. And he was taking her with him!

  Chapter Three

  Ariana was crying. She didn’t mean to cry, not exactly, but everything was pretty much horrible now. She hadn’t been able to get the man arrested. She hadn’t been able to save Risciter. And to make matters worse, now she was tied up and on the ship with this murderer and thief. She had no idea where they were going. She was terrified. She had no idea what to do now.

  They were in hyperspace again. The man was hunched over the console. Blood was streaming down his face from the places she’d gouged him with her fingernails. And she was trying to cry as quietly as she could.

  “Stop crying,” said the man, annoyed.

  She couldn’t. She didn’t say anything.

  “This is all your fault, anyway. I was trying to get rid of you. I was trying to drop you off someplace nice, where you’d be well taken care of. You had to screw it up by trying to call the police. Trust me, I don’t want you here any more than you want to be here.”

  That wasn’t exactly comforting.

  “Seriously, sweetheart. Can you stop the waterworks, already?”

  “Don’t call me sweetheart.” Ariana hiccupped, but being angry at the man made it a little easier to stop her tears.

  “What do you want me to call you?”

  “You can call me Miss Gilit. That’s my name.”

  The man sneered at her. “That’s right. Miss Ariana Gilit, daughter of the Duke of Wendo. I’ve seen pictures of you on the nets. I knew Risciter was courting you. Why a woman who could have any man in the galaxy would be wasting your time on Risciter is beyond me.”

  Ariana sat up primly in her seat as best she could through the belts that bound her. “It’s a very good match. My father thinks so.”

  The man rolled his eyes. “Right. A good match.”

  “It is,” said Ariana. “And anyway, I don’t see how it’s any of your business.” She sniffled. She was still frightened, but telling this man off made her feel a bit more in control of herself. “What are you going to do with me?” She hoped he wasn’t going to kill her. She was probably in the way of his plans now, and maybe he’d simply point a blaster at her and... She shuddered.

  The man stroked his chin. “Well, I have no idea. The ship’s headed out of the Evon Sector to the planet Risciter was heading to. It’s a colony planet. It’s not like the places you’re used to, but there will be a town, and they’ll have a public comm you can use to contact your family. I guess I’ll just let you go there.”

  Ariana swallowed. A colony planet? She’d grown up hearing horror stories about the barbarians outside the Evon Sector. But she guessed it was better than being held prisoner by this man, and she was glad he wasn’t going to kill her.

  The terror must have shown on her face, because the man said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what else to do. Maybe you should be glad I didn’t kick your ass out of the ship before I took off on Hallon. You’d be dead now, sucked into space.”

  Dead. She shrank into her seat. “Don’t kill me. Please. Mr.... I don’t know your name, but please don’t kill me.”

  The man looked even more annoyed. “My name’s Keirth. Keirth Transman. And I’m not going to kill you. I’m not a killer.”

  “You’re going to kill Risciter aren’t you?”

  “That’s different. Risciter...” Keirth sighed. “It’s not the same. He deserves it.”

  “He doesn’t deserve it. He’s done nothing wrong. He’s a good man. I know him.”

  Keirth shook his head. “No, see that’s the thing. You don’t know him. You don’t know a thing about him.” He got up and knelt behind her chair, unfastening the belts. “Now, if I untie you, are you going to start scratching my face up again?”

  “No,” she said quietly.

  He began unwinding the belts. “I’m sorry about all of this, okay? I thought I had a good plan. Apparently, I didn’t. It’s too late to back out now, so...” He pulled the belt completely off her body, freeing her. “I don’t make a practice of running around kidnapping women in the nobility. This isn’t... I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Ariana massaged her arms, glad to have them free.

  Keirth looked around the bridge. “Well, we’re going to be in hyperspace for about six hours. You got anything to eat on this boat?”

  * * *

  Though Miss Ariana Gilit knew where the kitchen was on the ship, she was a complete idiot about preparing any kind of food, so Keirth searched through the packets of dehydrated provisions and found some soup. He added water to it and put it in the heating unit to boil.

  Ariana sat at the table in the kitchen, fidgeting. “When we trave
l in the ship, usually the servants eat in the kitchen. I’ve always eaten in the dining room.”

  “Guess you’ll get the chance to see what it’s like to be a servant, then,” Keirth said. He didn’t know what to think this of this woman. One second, she was standing up to him, the next, she was sobbing. In between all that, she seemed like a spoiled, sheltered little girl. Which, Keirth supposed, she was. He’d spent a bit of his life working for the nobility in various capacities. When he’d discovered Risciter was planning to go back to Hallon for the summer season, Keirth had gotten a job driving the duke of Hallon’s speeder in an attempt to get close to Risciter.

  The night before last, he’d been able to finagle his way into driving Risciter home from a party. He’d tried to shoot Risciter then, but he’d been interrupted by some message from the butler where he was employed, telling him that someone was looking for him. Who would be looking for Keirth Transman? He was a nobody. He was a drifter. For seven years, he’d been driven by only one mission. To find the Duke of Risciter and kill him.

  Anyway, the whole thing had been botched at that moment. While he was distracted, Risciter had managed to get away.

  When Keirth found out Risciter was planning to leave the planet the next day, he’d pursued him immediately, intending to do it then. But that hadn’t gone very well either.

  It wasn’t enough to simply shoot Risciter. Keirth needed Risciter to understand why Keirth was doing it. He needed to look into Risciter’s eyes and have Risciter understand how vile he was. If he didn’t accomplish that, killing Risciter was meaningless.

  But once it was done, it would be the most meaningful thing that Keirth had done with his life. Risciter was untouchable, due to his noble status. He was a man who thought he could do whatever he wanted. The law might let Risciter get away with it, but Keirth wouldn’t.

  Of course, with the way things were going, it was probably going to be the only meaningful thing that Keirth had done with his life. This girl had seen him. She knew who he was. When he got rid of her, she’d undoubtedly have the authorities hunting him down right away. And they’d know where he was too. He’d have to take care of Risciter as quickly as he possibly could. Then, if they caught him, it wouldn’t matter anymore. Because Keirth would have done what he needed to do.