Alien Pirate's Bride: A SciFi Alien Romance (Moon Company Brides Book 2) Page 3

  I can find nothing else besides this picture and all the fancy stolen junk. I clutch the picture to my chest. What if I make a threat? I put my pants back on and slip on my boots. I march out into the bowels of the pirate ship. I’m determined.

  A pirate jumps out at me. “Ha ha,” he says. “Look what we have here. It’s after meal.”

  “After meal?” I ask, stepping back.

  The pirate reaches out and grabs ahold of my arm. I hit him in the face with the picture. The picture slices through his skin. He groans. He grabs ahold of me with both hands. I slap and slap and slap.

  “What is going on here?” I hear the lead pirate say. “Let her go.”

  “She’s trying to escape, and she hit me with this.” The pirate spins me around by the wrists towards the other pirate. The picture is still in my hands.

  The lead pirate looks down at my hand. His expression turns sour. “You go through my things!” he shouts. His voice bounces against the walls of the ship. He snatches the picture out of my hand.

  “Who is it?” I ask. “Your girlfriend?”

  “Take her to the brig,” the lead pirate says. He looks disappointed.

  “No, no, not the brig. Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I just wanted to know something about you, so yes I went through your things, but I didn’t mean any harm.”

  “You’re a liar. Take her away.”

  “But I don’t even know your name!”

  “Bastian,” he says. “I don’t see what difference it makes to you.”

  The other pirate lifts me up and throws me over his shoulder. I kick and scream myself into exhaustion.

  When we get to the brig, the pirate does the teeth scanny-thingy and walks me into the dark place. It looks like a dungeon. Strange rags hang from the ceiling and chains stick to the walls. No gold in here, only dirt and rust.

  “Please don’t leave me in here,” I beg. “There are probably space rats in here.”

  The pirate laughs. “There are most certainly space rats in here. We pride ourselves on having some of the largest ones on board.”

  “No!” I scream.

  The pirate shakes his head as he chains me to the wall. “You have a very big mouth.”

  “And sharp teeth,” I say.

  “I would not bite me if I were you,” the pirate says.

  I’ll take his word for it. Besides, as much as I’d like to injure him, I wouldn’t like to taste his sweaty skin. It has a tinge of ash to it. I’m guessing it’s dirt.

  “Goodbye mouthy human,” the pirate says. “You did yourself no favors by finding that picture.”

  “Wait! What do you mean? Who is the picture of?”

  “That is not for me to say. Perhaps, if you live, you may be able to ask the Pirate King yourself.”

  “The Pirate King?”

  “Yes, Bastian Oli, the one who ordered you in here is the Pirate King on Havenu.”

  “This is not Havenu. It’s Teros and don’t you fucking forget it.”

  The pirate laughs, turns his back, and walks out of the brig, leaving me with chains, unidentified cloths, and space rats.

  6

  Freda

  When I wake up, I find that the dungeon the pirate Bastian Oli has me in is, never the less, as dungeony as it was before I fell asleep. I look down and screech. A space rat that’s the size of a medium sized dog skitters around on the floor with his hands up to its mouth.

  The space rat is by far the biggest one I’ve ever seen. Unlike the original rat from earth, space rats can jump. I crouch in the corner, hoping that maybe the space rat will just go away.

  The rat moves forward and jumps up on me. I punch it in its side. It cries and scurries off. It’s nothing but a big old baby. The rat must have had plenty to feed on before me. Thank the universe because had it been rabid with hunger, there would have been nothing I could do to stop it from attacking me until it killed me. Space rats are fast and vicious when the want to be.

  Whelp, so much for trying to schmooze over the Pirate King. He hates me now. Whoever was in that picture, she’s a soft spot with him. It seems the Pirate King has quite the soft spot, obviously not for me. I’m about to start crying my eyes out. This dungeon is a mess.

  I hear the door to the brig open. I hear the squish of boots, the rattling of chains. I look out and see that it is none other than Bastian Oli, my captor.

  “Did you come to beat me? Rape me?” I ask. “Bring it on. I have no weapon to fight back, only my teeth, my hands, my feet. I’ll die before I let you have me willingly.”

  “I have no interest in having you,” Bastian says. “Unless you want me.”

  “What? I don’t understand.”

  “Do you want me, Freda Chou?” he asks, stunning me.

  “No,” I say. I nearly choke on my own spit.

  “That picture meant a lot to me. It was in my private wares.”

  “I’m sorry, but I wanted off of this ship. I was trying to find something to kill you with.”

  Bastian laughs. “Is that so? So, you were going to try to kill me with a picture?”

  “Where do you keep your weapons?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

  He laughs again. “Somewhere you’d never find them.”

  “Are you going to keep me here forever?”

  “I will let you in on a secret.”

  I lean forward. “A secret? Tell me.”

  “We are going back to Protos.”

  “Protos? Why? Oh,” I say. “You’re going to sell me on the undermarket sex slave trade.”

  “No. I wouldn’t get much for you. It’d be a waste of your flesh.”

  My mouth falls open. That’s pretty insulting. “Why not?” I ask.

  “Well, for starters, you’re too pretty,” the Pirate says. He steps back and tips his chin down. He really does have the nicest jawline I’ve ever seen. His red skin is smooth looking. I wonder just how warm his face is to the touch.

  “Too pretty to be a sex slave, hmm. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard such a thing.”

  “And too small. The highest payers are the Mastivans. They are quite large as you know, and although they may be fine with the smaller size of the human female, you won’t make the cut. You would be much too small and much too delicate for them. You’re too short in a word, and your breasts aren’t big enough.”

  “My breasts are just fine,” I say, poking my chest out.

  “Nipples on ribcage, dear,” he says.

  I scoff. I can’t believe he said that. “I have at least a handful, okay?”

  He holds up his hand, examines it, then shakes his head. “No, I don’t think so. You wouldn’t fill up my hand, so you definitely wouldn’t fill up the hand of a Mastivan, and if I was going to sell someone on the undermarket, it would be to the Mastivans only. For, as I’ve said, they pay the best. I’d accept no less.”

  “So now that I know I’m too inadequate to be a sex slave, why don’t you tell me why you’re taking me to Protos.”

  “Ah, yes. I’m taking you to Protos because it’s my next stop. I have retrofit my new ship. It’s to be used to help with the exodus of my people to Mars.”

  I frown. “Your people’s exodus to Mars?”

  “Yes, that’s where the Haveners have been assigned initial integration.”

  “So you’re headed to Mars then?” I ask.

  “Yes,” Bastian says.

  “And you’re taking me to Mars?”

  “It’s the way.”

  “What do you keep me for?” I ask. “I do not want to go back to Mars. As a matter of fact, that’s the last place I want to go. I am a Moon Company Bride, you know? Someone has already reserved me. They’ll be expecting me soon at the Hall of Ceremonies to complete the vows. If I’m not there, they will come looking for me. My soon to be husband is rich and he has many resources. I am sure he will stop at nothing to find me.”

  “Is that so?” the pirate asks. He grins. I wish he wouldn’t. His grin is way too attractive.

&
nbsp; “It is so,” I say. “Believe me bucko, I’m a tier one bride, and they’re not going to just let a tier one bride disappear.”

  “So then I should be very afraid then. I’m shaking in my bones. How much are they paying for you?” Bastian the Pirate King asks.

  “A lot. Certainly more than you can afford,” I say.

  “Don’t be so sure,” Bastian says. He paces. “I will release you if you promise not to run. I need your help.”

  “My help,” I say, swallowing. “How could you possibly need my help?”

  “Your sister is Cleo Chou?”

  “Er, uh, yeah. Why?”

  “I need her help. I figure if I have you, she’d be willing to help me.”

  “I don’t understand,” I say.

  The pirate grins. “I’ll explain everything in time, but I need her to pay attention.”

  “She doesn’t even know you have me.”

  “She doesn’t now, but she will.”

  Bastian flashes his teeth beneath a scanner, and the door to the dungeon slides open. “Come to the deck. Let’s give your sister a call.”

  I’m beyond perplexed. But if I know Cleo, she’ll do nothing short of risking her life for me. I can’t let her do that. She has a baby now and a husband. I’m still young without attachments yet. There isn’t anyone who depends on me.

  “I refuse to get my sister involved,” I say. “For her safety.”

  Bastian the Pirate King laughs. “That’s noble, but I could force you.”

  “Don’t you think what you’re doing is bad enough? Find another way to use me. I’ll acquiesce, just please, leave my sister out of this. Only, you’ll have to let me comm her so that she’ll think that I’m okay, otherwise she will risk herself for me again. I can’t let that happen.”

  “Again?” Bastian asks.

  “Never mind.”

  It’s all I’ll say regarding things between my sister and me. Bastian the Pirate King doesn’t need to know the details of what happened with Zeid Furmi. “So, let me comm my sister, and I’ll help you with whatever it is your doing in any capacity you’d like,” I say.

  The pirate raises an eyebrow. “Well, it seems like a win-win for me. If you comm her and tell the truth, then I’ll be able to move forward with my plans as I’d intended. If you don’t, well, then I won’t have to deal with her and the law at all.” He shrugs, steps into the dungeon, and unties me.

  “Do you need help out of this hold?”

  “It should be called a dungeon. I mean it looks dungeony.”

  “Fine, do you need help out of this dungeon?”

  “No,” I say. I brush myself off. I walk out of the cell. “At least if we ever get desperate for food, you’ve got huge space rats, enough to feed everyone on this ship.”

  “That’s why we keep them aboard,” Bastian says with a grin.

  7

  Bastian

  I give Freda Chou access to a comms. My comms cannot be tracked. I have had special tech installed to prevent any tracing.

  It surprises me that Freda Chou does just as she said she was going to do.

  “Yes, I’m fine!” she yells as if her sister is hard of hearing. “I will turn right back around and go back. I know Celeste is upset. I will call her too and let her know that I’m okay.”

  Freda’s sister does not seem too happy about the news as I can hear her yelling through the comms. Lots of dirty human English words coming from that one. Freda clicks off the comm and spins around in the chair next to mine.

  “Now, are you going to tell me more about what it is you’re doing?”

  I frown, but I suppose I should tell her something. “I want to help some of my people get off of Havenu,” I say.

  Freda furrows her brow, kicks her leg up on the panel in front of her, but quickly removes it as she realizes that she might kill us all with the press of an area on the panel.

  “I don’t understand,” Freda says.

  “On my last visit home, I discovered that some of my people weren’t being given a passage on the Exodus ships,” I say.

  “I’ve heard about some troubles. Don’t know the details, but if your people are going to Mars, I’m not too surprised that there are problems.” Freda says.

  “Criminals, aren’t being given passage. This was brokered between the previous High King of Havenu and the Governor of Mars, but I’ve noticed that slowly, during preparations for the Exodus that lots of people were being imprisoned for the pettiest of crimes. I can’t prove it yet, but I believe the Governor is trying to get out of forking over the credits and the resources required for a fair Exodus of my people from Havenu.”

  Freda punches her hand. “You mean they’re locking up innocent people so that they won’t have to give them passage?”

  “Yes,” I say. “You’re quick. They’re trying to make it appear as if the pirating might have something to do with it. Pirates are only one particular class of Havener culture. Not everyone is a pirate, and even those that are, aren’t guaranteed to try to continue the pirating culture in Teros. A lot of Haveners just want to survive.”

  “That is bolshevik!”

  “Pardon?”

  “That’s messed up,” Freda says. She brushes her hair out of her face, gathers it up in her hands, and twists it up atop her head. I see the line of her cheeks better. Her cheeks are beautiful, and her neck is even lovelier with her hair up.

  “So why don’t you blow the whistle on the Governor?” Freda asks me.

  “By the time the Teron Juris investigates, it will likely be too late. Besides, the Governor always finds a way to get around accusations. I can’t afford to take the chance, so I’m taking matters into my own hands. I am the Pirate King after all. It’s my responsibility now that there is no such thing as High King anymore. At least amongst my pirating crew. They depend on me. Some of their kin are being kept from the exodus.”

  Freda lowers her head. “I will help in any way I can,” she says. She says it with such sincerity. I find it frightening, but charming that she’s willing to get so quickly involved in a cause that is not her own.

  I scratch my head and lean forward. “Even if I told you that I’d be willing to let you go, you’d help me?”

  “You’d be willing to let me go?” Freda asks. She raises her eyebrows up and down in a very strange way.

  I shrug. “I can put you in a pod now and send you home.”

  Her eyes light up. “But you’re going to Protos, to Havenu? I’ve never been to Protos before. Terons aren’t allowed to unless they’re with the exodus program.”

  This woman amazes me. She would go for the adventure over sparing herself the trouble. I smile. “Yes, we are going to Protos.”

  “I think I’d like to go,” she says. “Plus, my big sister always gets to be a hero. Maybe it’s about time that I put my big girl panties on and fight for good too.”

  I laugh. “I’m not sure I’d go that far with it.”

  She shrugs. “It was a try, but I’d be helping people, right?”

  I nod my head. I watch her as she grins. “Are you hungry?” I ask her.

  She rubs her belly. “Starved.”

  “I can get you something to eat,” I say.

  “What’s on the menu?”

  “Space rat.”

  She acts as if she’s going to vomit. I laugh. “Okay, something else then?”

  “Anything but space rat,” she says.

  I survey the area. The others are standing up. They’re asleep.

  “I have an idea,” I say.

  “What?”

  “Let’s go to the Teron ship and eat there.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Freda Chou says readjusting in her seat. “That would be like stealing.”

  “I’m the one who stole the ship. Not you.”

  “Still, right is right.”

  “Fine, as your kidnapper, I’m ordering that you follow me to the Teron ship. Besides, you’re one to talk. You stole my picture.”

>   “But if you let me go, I will no longer be you hostage to order around. And as far as your picture, well, I gave that back.”

  “Sure you gave it back, all right. If I let you go, then you’ll be gone.”

  “Could I stay voluntarily? Choosing to leave whenever I please?”

  I look down. I don’t know how to answer her question. “Yes,” I say finally. I swallow. I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s too late to take it back. I look into her eyes.

  She grins. “Come on Pirate King, let’s go eat. I can’t make you give the ship back I guess, besides. I’m guessing you stole it for a noble cause.”

  I lead Freda to the connector tube that I have set up between my ship and the Teron commercial ship. It is properly pressurized, and it has the proper breathing environment.

  Of course, when we get to the ship, it is practically empty except for a couple of my crew members, one to navigate, and one to ensure that the stealth technology continues to work. Freda Chou and I work our way to the food storage compartment.

  Freda Chou rifles through containers and pulls out food. I stand back and watch. I have no appetite for food. She looks up at me and grins. “What?” she asks.

  “Can I tell you something?”

  “Sure, tell me,” she says.

  “You’re very beautiful,” I confess.

  Her face turns immediately red. Not as red as mine of course, but red enough.

  “You’re not so bad yourself,” she says.

  She leans up against one of the closed storage drawers. The lighting here is dim. The corridor for the food compartment is small. She’s very close. I can smell her. She smells like Earth flowers. “Aren’t you afraid of getting caught by a Teron security firm? If they catch you, it will be certain death.”

  “No. I am never afraid of anything,” I say.

  Freda Chou opens a package and takes a bite out of a bar of some sort. She extends it out to me. “Lambbar,” she says. “It’s tasty.”

  I lean forward and take a bite. A piece of the bar crumbles at my lips. Freda Chou reaches out to help me keep it from falling. She plucks the falling piece back into my mouth. I suck her finger into my mouth. She giggles.