Saved (Alien Space Pirates 3) (SciFi Romance)

by Mara Frost

  My back stiffens as my upper lip curls in open disgust. The hate I have for him is pure and hot.

  “So? What are you going to do with me?”

  This gets an almost giddy laugh out of him. “Oh, little human! The question is what am I not going to do with you! So so so many things! I’ve only had the pleasure of being entertained by a human once before, but that was so long ago and the human wasn’t mine! But now that I have one of my own? Oh, the fun that you and I will have.”

  I bite down hard, fighting the urge to spit obscenities at him. I have no idea what he means by “fun”, but my overactive imagination is taking me to places that I really don’t want to go. Like weird sex/food places…where I’m the center of attention for both things.

  Unfortunately for me, he is apparently on a tangent and continues.

  “Oh, the parties! The parties that we will go to and I can just show you off to everyone! Oh, Admiral O’dak is going to be so jealous! We’re going to be the center of attention, you and I! I mean, of course, I will let some of my closest friends play with you, but mostly you’ll just be for show.”

  Parties? Maybe this isn’t going to be too bad? I mean, I generally hate parties, but they’re so much better than the alternative.

  “And then of course, there will be the fun that I’ll have with you personally.” A wicked smile creases his face as he eyes me up and down eagerly again. Well, never mind what I just thought then.

  “I heard that human females are quite pleasant during coitus and –“

  “Nah! Not really,” I interrupt. “Pretty boring and bland actually. Have you ever heard of a starfish? It’s a five pointed sea creature that just lies around and does nothing…that’s pretty much how human women are in bed. We just…lay there. Soooo boring really.”

  “Oh no, no! That’s fine! I heard that human women are warm and wet…on the inside.”

  At this I just stare blankly at him. What am I supposed to say to that?! And what the Hell do his females have on the inside? Sandpaper and teeth? I hope so.

  I’m not even going to ask. I don’t want to know.

  “Uhm…”

  But he continues. “I’m going to make sure that I’m going to have so much fun with you, little female. Considering how much time and money I’ve invested in you, I think I only deserve it.”

  “Fun is overrated,” I mumble, but he doesn’t hear me over his own excitement. In fact, it doesn’t even look like that he notices that I’m here. He’s just in his own little word jabbering on about all the awful “fun things that we’re going to do”.

  “And then of course once our fun has run its course, then we’re going to have a huge dinner party where you will be the main event!”

  My mouth dries and my eyes shoot up. “Main event?” I echo.

  Noticing my reaction, the evil general smiles. “Oh yes. After the trouble you’ve put me through, do you really think that wouldn’t be your fate in the end? Oh no no, dear, you will be eaten. Perhaps if Dakhar didn’t double-cross me or if he didn’t incapacitate six of my men while trying to save you, then maybe I would have kept you as an entertaining pet after our fun ran its course, but now? Now, I’m going to find an expert chef who specializes in exotic foods and I’m going to make sure he prepares the most delightful meal out of you.”

  My lip trembles uncontrollably. Well, there you go – my worst fear realized. Awesome. I press my back further onto the wall, but it does no good since I’m already smashed against it. Maybe if I push hard enough, I can puncture a hole and get sucked out into space? A quick and horrible death in space would be infinitely better than being with this asshole a minute longer.

  General Fatty laughs at my clear discomfort at the news.

  “You’re disgusting.”

  I try to spit at him, but it falls short by several pathetic feet. Unfortunately, he’s too far away and my spitting ability is just too lacking for it to actually land anywhere close to him, but he gets the message.

  In fact, it only makes him laugh harder.

  “Good. That’s the sort of thing that I like.”

  Oh great, he’s a freak too. Wonderful.

  The short alien looks at me with a glint in his eye and then looks around. The look on his face makes me immediately nervous. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but I already know that I don’t like it.

  “Captain,” he yells out to no one at all. Nervous and stressed, I jump at the sound.

  “Yes, sir?” a voice replies through a computer comm. somewhere in the room.

  “How far are we from the Naro Quadrant?”

  “5 Parsecs, sir.”

  “Perfect. That gives me just enough time.”

  His excited eyes fall back onto me as I bite my lower lip in apprehension. Enough time? Enough time for what? Please don’t get any ideas. Please don’t get any ideas, I repeat in my head.

  “I think I might want to have a bit of fun and finish what I started before we were so rudely interrupted,” he says casually while walking towards my cell.

  Shit fuck. He got an idea. This isn’t happening now. I watch as he gets closer and closer and my stomach drops like a lead brick. I look around desperately in the tiny cell, trying to find something that I could use as a weapon against him, but I see nothing. Nothing!

  “Tsk tsk, don’t look so frightened, little human. This is going to be fun!” the General says excitedly while a guard inputs the code to lower the invisible shield to my cell.

  Hugging the wall, I walk to the far corner of the cell. “Fun for whom?” I ask, my voice trembling.

  “Well, me of course, but if you’re lucky you might enjoy yourself too.” He shrugs. “But that’s not my concern.”

  He walks into the cell and eyes me like a wild animal. “Now, just sit still and don’t do anything too rash. I would advise against trying to fight as my guards will have no problem intervening if necessary.”

  At this I glance at the two Imperial guards, their face shields up, and see a look of indifference on their face. As if they don’t really care about what is about to happen or what messy work they would have to do to keep their boss happy.

  “This is wrong,” I yell out, pointlessly trying to distract the little vile man and delay things.

  “I decide what’s right and wrong, my dear,” he replies with a lecherous grin. He begins to unbutton his coat and then takes another step towards me. I’m in full panic mode now.

  “No! Stay ba-“

  I’m not able to finish my sentence though. My scream is cut off by my sudden impact with the floor and the hard surface of the wall against my head. And then I see stars - pretty little twinkling stars. Why are there stars in the ship? Aren’t they supposed to be outside of the ship?

  I blink several times and shake my head slowly, trying to clear the stars and fog out of my head. I glance up and see the General and his men on the floor as well.

  “What was that! Report!” the little man yells while cradling his head.

  “Commander, we’re being fired on!”

  “Fired on!? Who’s firing on us!” he barks back as he gets back onto his feet.

  Another hit and he falls back onto the floor again. I just lean against the wall and try to brace myself.

  “Two rogue ships, sir. One is a free ship cruiser and the other is a live ship.”

  My ears perk up and it’s like water was thrown on my face. Suddenly alert, I stand up while my heart drums in my chest. A live ship? It couldn’t be…

  “A free ship cruiser and a live ship?” the little man repeats, trying to make sense of the attack. And then there’s another blast and everyone is thrown to the ground.

  “Sir, we have a transmission. Permission to open lines?”

  “YES! Open the damn lines!” the General yells back as he attempts to stand back up.

  “Good to see you again, General Xuraan!”

  I practically jump out of my own skin at the sound of the familiar voice. I can’t see the visual transmission,
but I can hear it and I’d recognize the cockiness in that voice anywhere.

  “Vorak!! You scheming, double-crossing bastard! What’s the meaning of this!”

  My heart almost swells at the sound of Vorak’s laughter. I never thought I would be so happy to see him! Well, sort of see him through the communicator at least.

  “General, you wound me. And I believe the correct term is ‘business man’ not ‘bastard’, your High Lordship.”

  “What are you doing! Why are you firing on us!? We had a deal!”

  “Ah yes, that deal. You see, it appears I was able to secure a far better deal and they were able to offer me something that I couldn’t refuse.”

  The General’s little chubby alien face starts to contort and change color from both anger and confusion.

  “What are you talking about! Cease the attack this instant!” he yells back, spit spraying from his mouth. It pretty much looks like he’s about to have a heart attack.

  I step a little closer to get a better view of the visual and an unexpected surge of happiness sweeps through me as I actually see the pompous grey alien on the visual communicator.

  “Vorak!” I yell out. Unintentionally calling attention to myself, I immediately snap my mouth shut and cover my mouth as the General shoots ete daggers at me. It’s probably for the best that I have my mouth covered, that way he can’t see the wide toothy grin on my face.

  “Well, hello there, little human. Glad to see that you’re so happy to see me,” the space pirate replies with a quick wink in my direction.

  Happy? That’s the understatement of the year.

  He then adds, “Dani, I would hold on to something.”

  “Huh? What?”

  Another blast hits and it sends us all on our asses again. At this point General Xuraan isn’t doing too well. Being attacked apparently isn’t too good for his delicate constitution.

  “Vorak!! I promise you that once I get my hands on you, I will rip you limb by limb! And then –“

  “Commander!” a voice from the bridge interrupts.

  “What!“ he barks back at the invisible voice, his face now full of rage.

  “We’ve been boarded.”

  “What –“

  Just then the bay doors open and a flood of light spills into the room. It takes my eyes a second to adjust to the light that’s spilling in, but I can see general shapes. And I would recognize that big giant shape anywhere.

  “Dakhar…” I whisper. This can’t be real. I blink several times as I begin to shake. This can’t be real. He’s dead.

  My lips part slightly as I watch the figure walk through the door. I hold my breath as he gets deeper into the room and steps into my field of vision. I see his face.

  “Dakhar?” I whisper again, but this time with a little more force. The figure scans the room and his dark violet eyes quickly land on me. I blink again and then stare at the man who looks like Dakhar.

  Is it possible for there to be another giant blue Terminator-looking alien who looks just like Dakhar? And who has a live ship? And is just passing by and decides to randomly board an Imperial ship?

  Meh? At this point I’d probably believe anything.

  Time seems to stand still as I stare up at the giant man walking towards me. Like a dream, he’s moving in slow motion until he’s standing right in front of me. And then I’m jarred awake when I hear him yelling at me.

  “Dani! Dani!”

  “Huh? What?”

  “Are you alright?”

  “Uhm…yeah.” I blink several times. “D-Dakhar?”

  He just nods once. And then grunts as he lifts me to my feet. As I stand up I gaze over his shoulder and see two guards running towards him. I guess there’s no time to dwell on the fact that he’s back from the dead or that he might be an alien Jesus or something.

  “Dakhar! Behind you!”

  Without missing a beat, he turns around and faces the two men running towards him. He lifts his blaster and slams the butt of it down on one of the men’s head, instantly knocking him out, and then punches the other guard to the ground.

  The dazed guard struggles to get to his feet, but Dakhar apparently is having none of that. He pushes the guard back to the ground and growls, “Stay down.” Noticing that he’s outmatched, the man complies.

  “Dakhar,” a voice says behind us.

  We both look and find the angry General staring at us with an angrier-than-shit look on his face.

  “Xuraan,” he says dryly.

  “You.” He points at Dakhar accusingly. “You are dead.”

  “Apparently not enough.”

  “That stupid pirate. That’s the last time I trust fucking pirates!” the little alien screams. I flinch unintentionally by the surprising power of the sound. Despite his size, I forgot that he was also an alien who might have abilities or “tricks” that I wasn’t even aware of. Suddenly realizing this, I step a little closer to Big Blue.

  “That’s what I would suggest,” he replies, his voice still even and cool.

  “And you! YOU! You and I had a deal and you double-crossed me! You assaulted Imperial soldiers! You commandeered an Imperial ship! You will be executed for this! No one in the Order will be able to protect you now, Dakhar! No one!”

  As if completely uninterested in anything else that Xuraan has to say, Big Blue simply rolls his eyes and raises his blaster and without skipping a beat shoots.

  I hiccup back a startled cry and stare wide-eyed at the General lying on the floor while Big Blue has the most self-satisfied smirk on his face.

  And then the fat High Lord begins to scream bloody murder. Because he wasn’t dead or anything – Big Blue only shot him in the leg. But he was definitely very very pissed.

  Green blood oozes out of the little man’s injured leg while he screams all sorts of colorful obscenities at us. “Dakhar!! You won’t get away this! You won’t make it outside this room. My men will arrest you and –“

  “Actually, I have this part of the ship sectioned off with a force field. In fact, your men won’t be able to tend to you until Maxaya is long gone and out of range.”

  The General stops screaming for a moment.

  “W-what? You can’t just leave me like this! I’m injured!”

  “I either leave you injured or I leave you dead. Which would you prefer?”

  The chubby alien’s face looks like it’s about to explode, but that gave Big Blue his answer. He grabs my hand and leads me out of the room as the General starts up his screaming again. We begin to run through the corridors and as Big Blue said earlier, we weren’t met with any resistance. Granted, there were a few unconscious men on the ground, but they weren’t causing us any trouble.

  “Why did you let him live?” I somehow manage to ask in between breaths while running.

  “It’s one thing to injure a High Lord of the Empire, but it’s an entirely different thing to kill one. Come, we need to hurry.”

  I try my best to keep up. “But isn’t assaulting him just as bad? Aren’t they still going to go after you?” I ask in between panted breaths.

  It’s amazing how quickly cardio goes out the window the second you stop running on a treadmill for a few weeks.

  “Xuraan can’t report any of this. He has nothing to report,” he yells back. “I didn’t kill any of his men, I didn’t kill an officer of the Empire and he would be revealing that he was trading in illegal goods – namely you. The little rat will just have to suck it up and lick his wounds quietly.”

  The news makes me feel slightly better. Admittedly, the idea that half the universe was going to be chasing him didn’t sit well with me.

  “He’s going to come after you, you know!”

  He looks back at me and smiles – a painfully sexy and evil smile. “I hope so.”

  If we weren’t running for our lives in an Imperial ship right now, I would have slammed him against a wall and climbed him like a tree. Instead we keep running and weave through the corridors until we make it to t
he shuttle bay.

  The second I see one of Maxaya’s shuttles docked to the ship, I almost sob from pure happiness. I never thought I was ever going to see her again, but I can deal with those feelings at a later time. Now, we need to go.

  We run onto the shuttle and disembark immediately. And I don’t relax. I don’t move. And I don’t breathe, at least not until we’re safe and sound in the holding area in Maxaya. But the second the shuttle bay doors open and I take my first step onto her, I feel like a wave of emotion sweep through me and I collapse to my knees. It might seem dramatic, but I just escaped from being someone’s sex toy/dinner not once but twice. That shit gets exhausting after a while.

  “Dani?” Dakhar runs to my side, his voice sounding slightly panicked. “What’s wrong? Did he do something to you? Dani?”

  I smile through the blurry tears that are burning my eyes. “No, no, I’m fine! I’m just…so tired…” My voice trails as I gaze up at him and my heart fills with happiness by how…not dead he is. “And happy to be back…”

  Almost as if Maxaya knows exactly what I need, I feel a tingling heat tremble beneath my hands and legs - as if Maxaya is sending me her version of a hug. I smile wider. “Hi Maxaya, it’s so good to see you.”

  This softens Big Blue’s hard and determined demeanor for about one micro-second, but then he’s all business again. “Come, we should get to the bridge.”

  “Maxaya! Get us out to the closest nebulous cloud! And send coordinates to Vorak’s ship.”

  ** ACKNOWLEDGED **

  I nod, swat at the tears that were threatening to surface and get back on my feet. “Lead the way.”

  We run through the familiar halls until we get to the bridge. We make it inside just in time for Maxaya to engage the hyper-drive, which sends me clumsily on my ass. I’m apparently still not quite used to the stomach-in-my-mouth sensation that hyper-drive brings. Honestly, if my response to zero gravity at the space station is any indication, I’m not sure if I’ll ever get used to that.

  I crawl to a chair and hike myself up while Big Blue takes control of the ship in the pilot’s seat. Once securely locked in, I ask, “What next?”

  “Now, we run.” He doesn’t remove his eyes from the controls.