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 captor might be doing, but I realized this wasn't going to get me anywhere. I had a feeling he'd entirely ignore me for ten days unless I could get him to engage with me and not treat me like something he could sell or screw.
It took several more minutes for me to work up the courage to get his attention.
I knocked on the door panel, hoping he'd be able to hear it. There was no response. Again, I waited for a while, trying to pluck up the courage to rap again. This time I thought I heard something but no one appeared.
The third knock was easier to bring myself to do, but I didn't just leave it at that.
"Are you there? Can you hear me?" I called, my voice sounding strange after not using it for so long.
There was no reply, so I repeated it for a fourth time. This time I heard the shuffle and approach of my captor.
"I don't like noise," I heard him call from the other wise. "Quiet down or I'll stick that thing on mute and reposition your bindings into a hogtie so awkward you'll wish you'd been as quiet as a space mouse during a deep clean."
"Please," I called back, worried this wouldn't work and was about to push him into his threat. "I'm hungry and dehydrated. It had already been a while since I'd eaten or drunk. I can't make it to the market without something."
A growl followed my words but I thought he came closer again.
"I'll get something myself if it's easier. Just point me towards the kitchen. You can go do whatever you were doing."
"And have you out of my sight. I'm not stupid, human."
I sighed, not sure if I should respond to that. He clearly wasn't stupid but I had to try something. And I was right about what I'd said. I couldn't live another nine days on his ship without food or water.
The door panel opening made me jump. The bright light made me blink and squint again, but it seemed more dim this time, as if he'd turned it down.
"Come on," he said. "Get your sorry ass up and out of there while I'm still feeling like bothering to take care of you."
I tried to shift closer to the edge again, aware of the drop this time. Slowly, I eased out, hoping he'd have at least a little patience. In the end he grabbed my arm and steered me down and through his bedroom.
The rest of the ship had a slightly less bright light and I could finally see where I was. With my eyes adjusting, he reached the steps again. Instead of demanding I go down them first, as I'd expected, he practically slid down them and then looked up at me.
"Well, are you coming then? Thought you were hungry and thirsty?"
I tried to hide the surprise at how much kinder he sounded by working my way down the ladder. At first my limbs protested, stiff after being cooped up so long. Eventually I managed to make my way down until I stood beside my captor.
"This way. And don't think about running-"
"Or you'll make a hogtied mess. I get it," I said interrupting him. "I just want a drink and some food."
He lifted an eyebrow, and studied me for a moment.
"I can say I want to escape too if that makes you feel better," I added. "But I'm not stupid either. While I'm wearing these things there's not a lot I can do, is there?"
"No. Doesn't stop most of the women I capture in our territory from trying." He led the way toward a small kitchen and dining area, and motioned for me to take a seat.
I slid across the padded bench to sit in the corner on one side and waited, gratefully for him to get a couple of plates and cups and dish up some breakfast, or possibly lunch, for both of us.
It was only ship rations. Packets of mixed foods that when eaten together provided what you needed, but they were cheap and I'd been surviving on them for months. Not that I could afford them all the time despite how little they cost.
They clattered and rattled as they hit the plates, before he filled the two cups up from a small water filter tank.
As soon as he came over to the table with them and put mine down in front of me I tucked in, downing most of the drink before I used my hands to shovel in most of the food.
"Frack, you were right when you said you were hungry," he said as he picked up the first chunk of his food, and took a bite out of it.
"It's been a while since I could afford some food. I had to top up the filters on the last run and a couple of ship parts broke. This run to chart some areas of space was meant to bring me in enough money to stock the ship for a whole month."
"Are you that down on your luck then?"
I nodded, not sure where this line of questioning had come from. It was me meant to be trying to soften him and here he was asking me stuff.
"I thought from the look of your ship that you were doing a little better for yourself. You take care of that thing."
"I'm pretty sure you called my ship a rust bucket."
"It can still be a rust bucket but be well taken care of," he shot back as I finished up the last of my drink.
Already I felt loads better, my stomach no longer wondering where my next meal was going to be from. I could have done with more drink, but I didn't want to disturb the Frentin in front of me if he was still eating so I focused on the rest of my food for a moment.
Before we could finish an alarm started blaring from somewhere else in the ship.
"Frack," he said, immediately getting to his feet and grabbing his plate as if he intended to run with it through to the cockpit. Part way up he paused and looked at me.
"Don't worry, I'll stay here and keep eating like a good girl. As long as I can get some more water."
He paused for a moment before nodding and waving at the tap on the water filter unit. And then he ran off, leaving me relatively free in his kitchen.
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
I waited for Icaan to explain. Why wasn't he taking a pirate to turn in when he was willing to take an innocent person like me for credits alone."Two reasons," he said as he walked to the cargo area of the ship. "One, I can control a lone woman easily."As I nodded, I had to fight not to react. It was a good reason. The Frentin pheromones did make my gender and race weak at the knees."And two, I already know he's amazing at escaping. If we took him with us he'd be attacking us in our sleep, or worse, while I'm doing a dump long before we reached any kind of harbour or port to turn him in."I sighed. It definitely sounded like these two had history."Finally, I really don't like having him around.""That's technically three rea