I lost track of time, only aware of the bladder that felt like it would burst, the ache in my throat and the endless darkness.
Now and then I heard a noise somewhere else in the ship and I grew hopeful that my captor would reappear but then I was left in the dark even longer.
I'd given up trying to find a way out, kicking and flailing had been hard with my wrists and feet clamped together. Fear still engulfed me and threatened to send me into a screaming mess again.
Suddenly light flooded the compartment making me blink and suddenly shy away. After being in the dark it only made things worse.
"Right, you've got one chance to head to the toilet and use it. Try and do anything stupid and I won't bother in future, got it?"
I tried to nod, but I wasn't sure I managed it or was even looking in exactly the right direction.
"Get up then."
Eager, I tried to obey, suddenly finding my wrists would come apart and then my ankles a moment later. I didn't quite trust myself to get up, but I moved to the light intending to look at least a little compliant, still blinking and squinting against the bright lights.
I forgot that the space I was in wasn't on the same level of the floor, and put my hand and weight down into nothing before falling to the floor below. Landing on my shoulder' pain shot through me and I whimpered. The sound of my own voice made me pause for a moment.
A moment later he sighed and then reached under my arms to haul me to my feet. I shuddered and blinked some more, finally finding I could open them just a little and not have it hurt so much.
The Frentin came blurrily into view looking less than pleased to be having to hold me up.
"Come on, find your feet and get moving, I've not got all night."
Night. That gave me some marker of time passing. It couldn't have been too long. And it made me hope that I wasn't going to be shut up for the whole night.
Now that I could see a little better I tried to look for the bathroom or any kind of room where I could relieve myself, the need now feeling even more relentless since he'd mentioned it and my mind had expected the relief.
While I looked around he sighed again and pointed towards a small door to the left. I stumbled toward it, not focusing on anything else but getting there.
It opened as I got closer and admitted me into a small metal room. There was a small toilet stall on the far wall and I shuffled towards it, almost tripping on the door lip behind me.
I was vaguely aware of hearing the door behind me hiss shut before I wrestled with my suit and then plonked myself down.
The relief was immediate and instantly helped calm me and clear my head. Now was my moment. I had to work out how to get out of this situation, but I was fairly sure I didn't want it to lead to me being stuck in that hole without getting to wee. Clearly he was willing to go through with that threat to deny it.
If I was going to get away from this Frentin I was going to need to be much more clever than anyone else he'd abducted.
Getting up off the toilet I moved to wash my hands and tried to think. I knew I didn't have long. Firstly, I needed to get him not to put me back. And that meant I needed to appeal to some kind of softer side in him or get him to trust me a little.
Taking a deep breath, I rubbed my wet hands on my trousers and moved towards the door again. It opened with another swish. At least it was a well looked after ship in some ways.
"Thank you," I said as soon as I was on the other side of it. My voice was hoarse despite the lack of noise my screaming had produced so I didn't try to say anything more but see what he did next.
"I prefer it if I don't have to clean up puddles of wee and worse when I'm done with a sale, but I also don't like to have trouble with you humans either. Now, the guy who told me where you'd be said you were one of the more sensible women to take the job he offered. Are you going to be sensible from now on?"
"I guess I'll try if it means I can keep using the toilet," I replied.
This earned me a dry chuckle.
"I do have a request if you'll hear it, though."
"I'll listen if you keep it short, but I'm likely to say no."
"I get claustrophobic," I replied. "Please don't put me back in that small space."
He frowned immediately and opened his mouth.
"Or leave it open, or tie me to something in here. Anything. I'll cooperate, but, please. I can't bear it in such a small dark place."
For a moment he looked to be studying me. No doubt trying to work out if I was telling the truth, and I knew, in his position I wouldn't believe me. Who would? I was a woman alone on one of the smallest space worthy vessels out there and I'd just declared I was claustrophobic. It was something people had teased me for in the past, and I'd even found it a little funny.
But it wasn't funny now. Not when it meant he was highly likely to shove me back.
"I'm not going to even dignify that lie with a reply," he said eventually. "Now are you going to get inside on your own and with a little dignity or do I have to shove you in kicking and screaming again?"
I exhaled, trying to keep my body from shaking as I looked at the hole. There was no part of me that wanted to go back in the dark, but I had to find some way to get him to let his guard down. Could I make him believe me?
"Go on," he said a moment later, moving to the side but also closer. It was clear if I took much longer he was going to help again, and I had a feeling that would be even more scary.
"Please," I said again, unable to stop myself. Despite my pleading words I took a step closer. I shook more and more as I grew even closer until I was a shivering wreck standing right in front of the room. I paused.
Looking back over my shoulder I tried to see if he would have any mercy, but his arms were crossed and he frowned. He looked tired, but I couldn't be sure.
It appeared I had no choice. Turning back to the small room, I tried to climb up inside and make myself smaller. I was shaking so badly I almost missed a hand hold and had to clamp on tight to the edge of the doorway to keep myself from going over.
More steadily I slid into the space, hearing my captor step closer behind me. I turned, fear already making my heart race and my thoughts jumble in my head.
"Can I at least have a light or something?" I asked as he put his hand out and tried to push me further back.
I whimpered, his hand stronger than me by a long way. He leaned in closer and immediately I got a lungful of his intoxicating scent. Heat flushed through me, desire almost instantly replacing fear.
Get a grip, girl. You can't let the small of one alien make you do something stupid.
He came even closer, however, and I found myself not disliking the lack of distance. As he noticed me staring at him, trying really hard not to imagine how it would feel to kiss his full lips and run my hands across the muscular arms and chest he sported, he paused.
A moment later he chuckled.
"Humans. You're all the same. So easily seduced. I'll make you a deal. You want to sleep somewhere other than this little box, I get to have some fun with you?"
Instantly I shook my head. There was no way I was trading my body for a better place to sleep each night.
The Frentin didn't give me another chance to speak or move. He pulled back and slammed the door, once more plunging me into darkness.
At some point I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to an alarming amount of banging reverberating through the hull of the ship. Now and then it was punctuated by a yell or the clatter of something. It was clear the room I was in wasn't particularly sound proof.I felt a little calmer than I had been inside the box before I'd gone to sleep, but I wouldn't say I felt at ease. It was still a dark box on a Frnetin's ship.Not long after I was awake enough getting back to sleep wouldn't be easy the noises stopped. A moment later the ship powered up again and I could only assume we were on our way somewhere.My stomach rumbled as I tried to work out how long it must have been since I'd eaten. I had the beginning of a headache as well and I suspected I was a little dehydrated. For a moment I sat in silence, trying to work out what my
As I sat there and finished my food I listened for sounds of whatever had triggered the alarm. There could have been a lot of reasons and I wasn't sure if this was an opportunity to escape or not. One thing was sure, I wasn't going to waste good food or an opportunity to drink while I had it.I ate faster, wolfing down what was left and then quickly got myself another drink and chugged that down too. It wasn't the most ladylike behavior but I had no audience so I wasn't going to worry.The moment I'd finished drinking I hurried out into the hallway and looked for the cockpit. Padding as quietly as I could I made my way closer. Alarms weren't blaring any more but I could hear him pushing buttons and swearing as he clearly tried to sort out some kind of problem.I couldn't see exactly what was wrong but it was clearly something importan
"Hand me that tool on the left," the Frentin said, reaching his hand out. "And don't even think about doing anything else with it."I frowned as I picked it up but placed it in his hand without complaint or hesitation. How had he known I'd been considering hitting him with it?Within a few more seconds he had the gralap matrix out and my ship was no longer functional. Before I could get up to head to his ship again, he started disconnecting another part."What are you doing?" I demanded."If I'm going to take one of the parts from your ship I may as well take a few more spare parts. They'll knock a good few k credits off the price I'll get for this with the matrix gone and these extra parts I'm now taking won't make any difference once I haggle.
As I heard footsteps coming back down the corridor toward me I knew I needed to think fast. Instead of moving to the side of the door where he'd be most likely not to see me, I found myself tucking the wrench into the toolbox and then putting the rest of the tools away as well.I sighed. It wasn't going to go well if I got it wrong, and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. He returned to find his tool kit mostly packed and me putting the panel back on the compartment."Running diagnostics but so far so good. It'll make a noise if things aren't okay. I reckon I owe you that promise now.""Food?" I asked, unable to hide my excitement. It was a strange thing to be excited about, but he seemed to understand and only nodded and smiled in response.I let him lead me back to the kitchen, all the while th
With the ship back on the path mapped out for it again there wasn't much for me to do but watch the radars and sit back in the secondary seat of the cockpit. My hands were pinned to the arms of the chair for now, but I could still be useful and keep an eye on some of the systems.We were on an impressive, but older ship. In its time it had been one of the fastest cargo runners known to those in space and it was clear that Icaan knew how to fly her. His brother had good taste, but it was clearly in need of some maintenance.I tried not to do anything that my captor might find irritating like drumming my fingers, or hum, but after a while the silence started to bother me. When I was on my own ship alone silence was something I sort of accepted. It didn't feel strange because I didn't expect anything different, but while sitting next to someone it was bizarre.
Despite the hostility between us, a little silence and some asteroids to make sure we avoided, took the edge of the atmosphere, especially when I could help him by spotting the house sized rocks on the radar and giving him plenty of warning to fly around them.At the speeds we were traveling compared to the flying rocks they were easy to avoid, but it was still useful having another pair of eyes to feed you information so you could focus on just one task. It was one of the reasons a lot of ships had multiple people on them. Teamwork was a genuine life saver."Right," he said when we were through the field and nothing but stars appeared to be ahead of us. "We're in a safer section of space. Now's a good time to get some sleep.""Oh," I replied, having almost forgotten I'd have to get back into the box at some point. I really didn't wan
It took an age to fall asleep, although I managed to keep more still. Icaan snored beside me long before I could even begin to sleep. Slowly the scent faded into the background and my senses calmed.I still felt a tight heat between my legs, but a little light relief from my own fingers helped ease some more of the tension. The thought of trying to give myself some action had occurred to me while he was awake, but I'd waited, stuck in a sort of sweet agony until he was definitely fast asleep.After that I'd felt relieved enough and exhausted enough to finally get some shuteye. It had worked for a few hours, but now I was awake again. And I didn't think it was morning yet.Icaan was still snoring beside me and I was in this strange torturous aroused state again. It was all I could do to keep still, and again, more than once I considere
Holding my breath, I stood in the bedroom, not sure what to do. Down the ladder I could hear voices. Whoever had attacked us had no boarded, and before I'd had a chance to get into the hole Icaan had wanted me to keep safe in.Now I wasn't sure what to do."Long time no see, Icaan," the unfamiliar voice said. "Doesn't look like this route has been too kind on you.""No, I can't say it has, so just hurry up and get on with whatever you're going to do and let me limp home to port somewhere."The newcomer laughed.It wasn't a happy laugh either. It was the kind of mocking laugh that someone who knows they have the upper hand and is enjoying inflicting pain uses. This was a pirate in every sense of the word.I frowned and reached in