Page 17 of Tortured

She plops into the other seat and fumbles with her belt. A beam of bright light hits the broad side of the ship and it shimmies and shudders.

“Tractor beam attempting to attach, Commander. If you wish to hyper-jump…now would be the time.”

“Really, computer. I wouldn’t have guessed that,” I snarl.

I holler at Lacey. “Hold on!” Slamming the lever up, the ship jerks and shakes, fighting to pull away from the beam. My hand tightens on the piece of metal as I struggle to keep the pressure on.

From his right, Koehn heard Lacey scream. I see her fingers clench on the thick arms of the seat.

With one last jerk, the ship jumps and we’re out of range of whoever took the chance when she knocked me out to take the ship.

“Who were they?”

“Most likely pirates of some sort.”

“Pirates? In space?”

“Why did you do that?” I growl.

“Do what?” she stutters, her vrecking glorious eyes guarded, water sparkling on her cheeks and eyes. It’s drying but it’s there. It always seems to be there. It’s a mystery to me and I don’t like it.

“Knock me out.”

“Oh that.” She waves one hand around in a way that I think is supposed to have some kind of meaning along with the smile on her face but honestly I don’t know what it is. And I’m not amused.

“Instinct and training I guess. You said you weren’t going to take me back to Earth. I want to go home. I need to go home.”

I let her slide down my body and grunt. “I can’t. It’s against the Writ of the Council.”

“What does that mean?”

“We can’t return kidnap victims to undeveloped planets. Earth is undeveloped.”

“Well, that’s just lovely. What a great life I’ll have! Let’s recap, shall we? First, I’m kidnapped by Carvallian slave traders and beaten and threatened, imprisoned. Second, I’m about to be sold to alien dirt to be used as for what I can only assume would be brutal sex and breeding. Third, I’m rescued by more alien males and I don’t know what you want from me but I know that you’re imprisoning me, all of us as well.”

Anger boils up in me and I push her to the wall. “You think that I’m like those Carvallian slugs? You think I’m just out for sex, maybe, little female.” I loom over her but she doesn’t back down, continues to glare at me. Even though her eyes are sad, she glares at me. I don’t understand.

She pushes past me and stalks back to the control board.

“You have just told me that we can’t go home. So how does that make you any better than them?”

I grit my teeth and my jaw pops. “Earth is an undeveloped planet. That means that we can’t return kidnap victims. The risk to anyone participating of exposure is too great.”

She stands tall and crosses her arms over her chest, her pretty eyes on mine, narrowed. “What exactly are you trying to say? Undeveloped how?”

“Your people are so backwards you don’t even have the ability to recognize that you are not alone in the galaxy. You are so arrogant that you think that the only sentient beings in the galaxies are your people.” Her jaw drops.

“I don’t think we’re all like backwards hill-folks. And as to the rest of that, I didn’t ask to be kidnapped!” Water wells up in her eyes. But I can tell that she’s not going to let them fall. She’s too pissed. And proud.

For one second, I feel sorry for what I said, even if it’s true. Then I tighten my lips. “I didn’t kidnap you.” Then something she said pops back in my head and I stare at her, confused.

“What do you mean training?”

“Huh.” Her eyes slide away and she studies the console, her hands sliding over buttons and knobs. I’m not sure what she’s thinking right now but I don’t trust it.

“I asked you a question, little one.”

“Yeah. That would be Alex’s training.”

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