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I don’t remember everything he said, I was too overwhelmed with panic to focus on his words, but I’m fairly certain he said he was sorry. At that moment, I thought he was apologizing for what he was about to do to me. I’ve heard that one before.“I’m sorry I have to punish you, but you’ve been a very bad girl.”I shudder. Those bastards even had the nerve to appear apologetic when saying it.
But the human didn’t say that. He said he was sorry for scaring me.
I rub my throbbing forehead. The pain residing there is getting impossible to ignore, just like the dryness in my throat. I should have at least taken the stupid water he’d brought for me. But what if it wasn’t water? What if he’d put something in it to knock me out?
Drugging me would be the smartest move for him. He wouldn’t have to chase me down. He could just play the good guy, give me the drink I so desperately craved then wait for me to pass out. Then he could easily take me to wherever these guys are keeping their slaves. I haven’t come across such a room while searching the ship yet, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. They were docked with a floating slave auction, after all. They were hardly there for sightseeing.
His attempt at being nice to me is what scares me the most. I’ve met a lot of masters in my years of being a slave to know there are two kinds.
The first are the brutes. They have a short temper, yell all the time and beat you to a pulp for the slightest mistake. Or beat you for no reason, just because they feel like it. Still, they are preferable to the second kind. The smart ones who rarely raise their voice, who smile and act all nice and friendly. The cruel ones.
These types won’t simply beat a person. They’ll figure out what that person is most afraid of and use it against them.
Scared of tight spaces? Get shoved into a small box for a week.
Can’t swim? Let’s see how long you last in this water tank with sides so smooth there’s no way to climb out. Not even when you claw at the surface so much you break all of your fingernails. You can just about push yourself off the bottom of the tank with the tips of your toes, but the reprieve only lasts a few seconds before the water closes over you again, getting into your nose and mouth and lungs and…
Fuck!
I punch the nearest wall, the pain from my bruised knuckles helping me return to the present. I’m not in that fucking tank anymore. I’m free, at least for a little while, before the crew of this ship comes after me.
The human from the storage room must be one of the cruel manipulator types. He’s pretending to be nice in order to find my weaknesses, so he can use them against me later. That’s the only logical explanation for his behavior. I think?
What else did he say? That I was safe? That nobody would hurt me? The mere thought of that is ridiculous and yet…he’d sounded sincere. Maybe he’s a good actor?
He did let me go, though. He promised not to come after me and he hasn’t. He’s known about me for more than a day but, as far as I can tell, the crew still hasn’t started hunting for me. Either he didn’t tell them about me or he convinced them to leave me alone. But why?
The continuous loop of questions buzzing through my mind are only making my headache worse. I’m dehydrated, exhausted, and…hallucinating?
I must be hallucinating, because there’s a huge insect staring at me. The situation feels so surreal that I don’t even scream. I just watch it. It’s watching me back, its mandibles clicking.
I stifle the hysterical laugh building up inside of me. I’ve imagined dying in dozens of different ways, but being eaten by a giant blue insect certainly wasn’t on the list.
The animal cocks its triangular head, letting out a quiet chirp. A few seconds later, two more creatures appear in my field of vision. They’re all blue, with many, many long gangly limbs, some of which end in sharp-looking pincers. They look about four or five feet tall. If I was standing, they’d reach somewhere around my chest but, as I’m currently curled up in a ball on the floor, they’re all looking down at me, seemingly as weirded out by my presence as I am by theirs.
They exchange clicks and chirps and must conclude that I’m relatively unimportant because they all turn away.
Stupefied, I watch them claw at a thick cable running along the ceiling. They don’t seem worried about getting electrocuted. The lights flicker as they separate one end of the cable with their sharp pincers. Without sparing me another look, they set off, dragging the severed end of the cable along. I stare off in their direction, mouth agape long after they’ve disappeared deeper into the underbelly of the ship.
Fuck me. Did that just happen or did I imagine it? Am I truly hallucinating from dehydration? I don’t feel like it, but do crazy people actually know when they’re crazy?
Fuck. I really need to get some more water. If I’m hallucinating bugs now, what will I see later?
Chapter 6
Nikolai
My heart is heavyas I approach the bridge, my mind still reeling from the look of absolute terror in the unknown female’s eyes. Yet, I can’t keep her a secret from the crew any longer. Well, I could easily but I’m not going to. I want them to accept me as a valued member of the crew and as such, trust simply cannot be built on secrets.
Captain Zarkan is a good man. He’s older than the rest of his former squad. Faelin told me that Zarkan was way past the age where he could have been promoted into a less dangerous position higher up in the UGC ranks, but he’d refused. Hewanted to be out here, helping people, not sitting behind a desk in a cozy office.
According to Faelin, Zarkan is wise and prudent, never prone to rash decisions. In other words, he’s nothing like my father. Still, my chest tightens as I approach the ready room on the bridge that he’s made into his office. How many times have I approached my father’s office like this, only to be scolded and kicked out?
The door is open and I can see Zarkan and D’Aakh, the ship’s technician, deep in discussion. “... failing,” D’Aakh says, his tone somber. “There must be a structural issue somewhere but I haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact location yet.”
“Are we in danger?” Zarkan asks, concerned.
“Not unless it gets worse. For now, the critical systems are running smoothly.”
