“Yes, please do.”
The Aurelian takes the lead. I have to walk quickly to keep up with his long strides. I rub my bare arms as I walk, shivering. A glance down makes me realize they’re covered in goosebumps – but not from the cold.
No, my hard nipples and shivering skin are nothing to do with the cold temperature of this space vessel, and everything to do with the heat I’ve encountered while being on board it. Aelon has affected me deeply – to the point that my own body is betraying me. I don’t know whether to run away from him, or to run right back to his arms. This is all tearing me apart.
The Aurelian guard suddenly puts his hand out, pushing me lightly against the wall. It’s not a brute move, but a protective one. He steps in front of me, his hand gently moving down to the hilt of the Orb-Blade hanging at his waist.
Then I hear it – noise and movement that the guard’s super-sensitive hearing must have detected long before I could. From around the corner, another triad of Aurelians passes by.
The three Aurelians passing by stare me down, and I move instinctively behind the reassuring bulk of my guard. I’m realizing now this entire ship is hostile – not perhaps because of some intrinsic evil, but merely because of the nature of Aurelians, and the uncontrollable intensity of their mating frenzy.
I need to get Sawoot and Theme off The Instigator as fast as possible. It might have been safe before we arrived – but adding two women to the all-male manifest has turned it into a powder-keg.
I can see now why Aelon has a no-women rule aboard The Instigator. Though he’s given us free reign of the ship, I realize he’s letting me make the decision to stay as safe as possible. I realize now it’s going to be best for Sawoot and I – not to mention the Aurelians themselves – to stay out of the way of each other.
As much as I like freedom? I don’t want to test the restraint of these aliens. Kit and his triad might have earned their death sentence for attempting to rape Sawoot – but the grief in Aelon’s reaction suggests that each and every one of these Aurelians is balanced on the same knife-edge, and their honor and decency is all that prevents them from following Kit’s ill-fated example.
My guard takes me to a large set of doors. Garrick and the other alien of this protective triad are standing outside it like statues. They don’t move an inch as I approach – even as my own guard knocks at the door.
It hisses open. Inside are Sawoot and Theme, sitting across from each other and drinking tea like nothing untoward has happened. It’s such an incongruous sight that I almost laugh as I step inside.
As soon as I do, Sawoot presses a button on the table. The doors closing automatically behind me – sealing us not just from Garrick and the other Aurelian at the door, but also the alien who’d been escorting me.
The moment we’re finally alone, Sawoot breathes a sigh of relief.
She looks up at me. She’d been pale-faced and trembling when I’d last seen her. Now, she’s relaxed after her close call.
Theme stares down into his cup of tea as I enter. He’s too ashamed to make eye contact with me – perhaps because I’d taken his punishment for him in front of that cheering, jeering crowd. I can see the guilt on him – like in the eyes of a dog who knows he’s done something wrong.
Hand trembling, Theme puts down his teacup and tries to look at me – but eventually settles on looking past me, instead. He can’t even make eye-contact as he murmurs:
“Thank you… Thank you, Captain Tasha.”
“I just did what I had to do,” I tell him coolly. “To try and keep my crew safe.”
My crew.
I want to protect Sawoot and Theme – but I no longer feel any responsibility for Chris and his little gang of miners anymore. They served me for two years out of the three I’ve been captain of the Wayward Scythe. Men working jobs like that are normally transient, and only Chris and Felix have been constants throughout my entire tenure – but the other thing that was constant about him was his disrespect.
Chris could lead a mining crew well enough – and during those two years, I accepted his crude nature and the constant struggle for dominance. When you’re recruiting a crew of people willing to get their hands dirty in legal and not-so legal jobs, you can’t afford to be picky.
Or, at least, that’s what I’d told myself…
But now, I realize that the struggle for dominance was why I’d kept Chris on my crew. Having a man like Chris following my orders gave me validation – it convinced me that I was a good captain.
But that had been a lie.
Seeing Chris and his cronies laughing while I endured a humiliating punishment – one I’d taken for their sake – has shown me his true colors. I have to thank Aelon for that, I suppose. He showed me which contingent of my crew were rotten, and which was dependable. As much as I resent the alien Captain for what he did to me in that mess hall, I understand that it was a necessary evil.
Sawoot sips her tea.
“The tea is shit, by the way. This old ship has poor food replicators.” She sits back, completely relaxed. I don’t understand why she isn’t stressed. We’re being held captive on a tumultuous warship poised on the brink of mutiny, with a murderous captain at the helm who’d take the heads off his own men for crimes he himself is a heartbeat away from succumbing to himself.
He killed Kit and his triad without a second of hesitation. I know that triad had served loyally with Aelon for hundreds of years –
