Pirate Captive.
1503 Words
know you're awake."
I moaned. My side hurt. A lot. I'd never feltpain like it.
"Are you hurting, you little b***h?" The voicehissed at me.
Opening my eyes was hard, but I managed,eventually. Blinking in the light, a picture slowly coalesced.
I was looking up. There was a silhouette ofsomeone leaning directly over me. With the bright light behind him,it took me a moment or two to see clearly.
And it wasn't a him at all. It was a woman. Shewas pretty, in a cat-like, vicious killer kind of way. Her face wasslim, with an olive complexion and narrow, exotic eyes. Black hairwas braided in an elaborate pattern around her head. Her mouth, setunderneath a slim nose, was set into a sneer.
Some kind of red star was tattooed onto her cheek.
"You little b***h!" she said. "You killedmost of my landing party!"
I couldn't think of a suitable response, so I justraised my eyebrows.
Someone else entered the room.
"Red!"
The woman jerked back. I managed to turn my headand take in the scene.
I was in some kind of medical facility. Actually,facility may have been a bit of a generous description. It was aroom. A fairly small one. Still, the walls were white, and theplace was clean. Cupboards and shelves lined the far wall, and Icould see medical looking bottles and instruments here and there.
"Captain!" The woman was speaking. "She'sjust come around sir."
I focussed on my new friends.
The woman was wearing a red spacesuit. Ah! Irecognised it, her. She was the one that shot me. Typical, it tookanother female to bring me down. I guess I'd missed her after all.
Then I saw the captain. Another man, but not likethe ones I'd seen before.
I opened my eyes wide as he approached. This wasnot what I was expecting! Well, okay, I don't really knowwhat I was expecting, I hadn't ever mulled over what space piratecaptains looked like, but whatever I would have thought, it wasn'tthis.
He was slim, tall, but not too tall, and...elegant. There was no other word for it.
His black hair was long, longer than mine, andflowed over the padded shoulders of his knee-length, green jacket. Under that he wore a white shirt, which was unbuttoned at the top,revealing a shapely neck with several gold and silver necklaceshanging around it.
His face was similar to the Red woman's, maybe ashade lighter, and he looked down at me with eyes brimming withintelligence. Some instinct told me that this was not aperson to underestimate.
A delicate eyebrow rose as he took my form in.
"Her?" he asked. "This schoolgirl killedsix of my men? How can that be? The robot only shot one! And youtoo?"
The woman, Red, turned to look at me, anuncomfortable look on her face. Only then did I see two marks on herspacesuit, over her heart. Ha! I had hit her!
"The men were careless," she said, glaring atme.
"Mmmm," the captain said, rubbing his chin,which was covered with a carefully cultivated goatee. "Confirmyour name for me please little girl," he said, addressing me forthe first time.
"I'm not a little girl," I spat.
"Answer the captain b***h!" Red chimed in.
I glared at her, and the captain for a moment, butthen years of manners kicked in. "Alice," I said.
"Alice sir!" snarled Red.
I gave her a Look through narrowed eyes.
"Ho ho!" the captain said, evidently amused. "We've a wild one here."
He ran his hand up my arm, and I tried to jerkback, only then discovering that I was strapped down.
"Very nice," he said, as he ran his hand overmy breasts, gently squeezing me. My breathing sped up, even at thattiny thing, even here. Luckily he seemed not to notice.
"Very nice indeed. This is going to be a goodpayday."
"Sir, some of the men..."
"The men will do what I say," the captainsnapped, and I really saw him for the first time. A primal, ruthlesspredator, camouflaged beneath a dandy exterior. No wonder he wascaptain. I resolved again to be extra careful dealing with him.
His hand stroked my body gently, moving lower, andthen he seemed to realise what he was doing and stopped, withdrew andwhirled around.
"Make sure she's healed well, and notmistreated, you hear? No damaging the goods, we've worked hard forthis one."
"Aye sir," Red said.
"Good. Carry on." He gave me one last,unreadable, look, and strode out of the room, leaving Red to snarl atme.
"I have not made a friend here," Ithought.
~*~
I must have fallen asleep again, because the nextthing I knew someone was prodding my arm.
"Eh?" I said, jerking awake.
"Morning little miss sunshine," someone said. "Well, it's late afternoon, ship time, actually. Still."
I yawned, and tried to stretch, only to find thatI couldn't move. Then I remembered where I was. Opening my eyes, Isaw another figure looking down at me. It wasn't Red or the captainthough, but a large, fat bald man, in long rust coloured robes. Hehad an intricate design tattooed onto his scalp, which shifted andglistened with an animated life of its own. It was hypnotic, andgrabbed my attention for a second.
"I had it done on Chill Minor," he said,noticing my stare. "Worth every credit I'd say."
I lowered my gaze, to take in his face. It wasalso tattooed, although not so intricately, and these weren'tanimated. Underneath the ink a more kindly face looked down at me,with purple eyes that glistened with suppressed humour.
"Who are you?" I asked, rather more bluntlythan I had intended. I guess being in a gunfight and being takenprisoner had stunted my manners a little.
"I'm Sth," he replied. I noticed his voicewas quite high pitched for a man.
"Seth?"
"Sth," he corrected.
"Sth. Where were you when they were handing outvowels?" I asked. "What's going on?"
"You've been captured by pirates," he informedme. "Space pirates," he clarified.
"Yes, thank you," I said. Ah, there were mymanners. "I'd managed to figure that out already." Maybe somesarcasm too.
"You're lucky," he said.
"I don't feel it," I replied, jerking on myrestraints to make a point.
"Ah, yes, those. Well, if you promise to behaveyourself, the captain said I can let you out."
"I promise," I lied.
"Oh, you're a bad liar," he shot back. "Evenso, I shall let you out, simply because, well, where would you go? You're on a spaceship, with controls that wouldn't respond to yourcommand even if we left you alone in the computer core. And if yousomehow managed to kill everyone on board, and I hear that's morelikely than your appearance would suggest, then you'd end up floatingin space until you starved to death."
"Understood," I said, after a moment to takethis information in.
"Good." Sth started to unstrap my restraints. "Before you threaten and torture me, by the way, just know that I'mnot a member of the crew, unless you count a slave as crewmember. SoI can't help you either."
"You're a slave?" I shook the life back intomy hand as my right arm was released.
"Yes. And to answer your unspoken question,they trust me alone with your luscious little body because I'm nolonger a threat to you, in that way."
"I see." I didn't. I really had no idea whathe was talking about.
Sth finished unstrapping me, and I was eventuallyfree to sit upright. I did so, and promptly winced at the pain in myside.
"They've patched you up, good as new," heinformed me, but you need to take it easy for a day or so. You werelucky, nothing serious was hit, just a flesh wound.
"Well, it hurts," I said, slipping off thebunk. My jumpsuit zipper, which was on the front, was down ratherlow, and I quickly pulled it up, feeling exposed.
"You do have a really nice little body," Sthcommented, looking me over again. He sighed. "I only wish I coulddo something with it. Not that I would, the captain would throw meout of an airlock if I tried. You might not want to leave yourselfalone with any crewmembers though. They're a lusty lot, and you, mydear, are a sweet a thing as anyone could ask for. Temptation couldeasily overwhelm orders on this ship."
"What happened to my friend?" I asked,ignoring the lewd comments and changing the subject.
"I'm not allowed to give you any information I'mafraid deary."
"Is she all right?"
"Again, not allowed," was all he said, wagginga fat finger. "Now, do you want some food? I woke you up becauseit's dinner time, and if you miss that, you won't get anything untilbreakfast. Everyone eats together here."
I stood still for a moment, trying to adapt toeverything that was happening to me, but then I nodded. "Fine,"I said. Maybe I could start to think with something inside me.
"Very well then." He started to turn, butthen stopped and looked back at me. "I hope you're as bad assedas they say. This could be..." he looked up at the ceiling for asecond, searching for a word. "Noisy," he said,eventually.
We went to dinner.
- Writer
