He slipped the handle of his weapon from the scabbard at his waist and flicked the lock open.
“My ship’s name is the Wanderer,” Egara said.
Everything changed from that point.
Piggy’s eyes boggled in their tiny sockets.
He hesitated, his grip losing strength on the handle he’d popped free.
The platform did not stop but Draw turned his head to one side as if the ship name interested him.
The dozen piggy creature nearby raised their trotters to their goggles, twisted them, and squinted hard at Egara to get a better look at him.
Even the guards armed with the crossbow plasma weapons exchanged a wary glance.
The one with his weapon trained on me immediately took aim at Egara instead.
“Stop,” Draw said. “Take me back.”
The slaves turned the platform back around to face us.
Draw leaned forward in his chair and braced his elbows on his knees.
“If what you say is true, then that would make you…”
“Captain Egara Oskeileb,” Egara said.
Draw leaned back in his chair and pinched his lips between his fingers.
“But you still have no ship, no crew,” he said.
“My ship and crew are where I told you. And they still belong to me.”
“But you cannot call them.”
“Give me access to your communication equipment and I will. I will be at your command and will carry out any mission you wish.”
Draw thought carefully about the offer before throwing back his head and barking a laugh.
“Do you take me for a fool?” he said. “If the warden discovers I agreed to your terms and aided escaped prisoners he would destroy me.”
“Then give me back my shuttlecraft and they will never know I was here.”
I peered up at Egara with new eyes.
His name carried meaning with these people.
I wondered how much Egara had held back about himself.
I wondered why he hadn’t told me who he was.
Draw threw up his flabby arms.
“I can’t take the risk,” he said. “No. This is not a good trade. You will understand, I’m sure, as an individual of your… caliber.”
Egara seemed taken aback by Draw’s decision.
I glanced at the handles of the shivs held restrained and safe beneath Egara’s belt.
With the pigs crowding around and reaching with itchy trigger-happy fingertips for their weapons, it was only a matter of time before a fight broke out.
As fast as Egara was, even he couldn’t hope to defeat them all.
I moved first.
“Wait,” I said. “Wait, your Excellency.”
I bowed as low as I could.
My legs quivered due to the effort from earlier in the day.
“I offer myself to you,” I said, the words turning sour even as they formed in my mouth. “As a sweetener for the deal. Give us the shuttlecraft and I will spend the night with you.”
“Agatha…” Egara said.
I blocked him out and took another step forward.
Piggy moved to stop me but a glance at his master, who pinched his fat lips between his flabby fingers and nodded.
Piggy stepped to one side and let me pass.
Egara growled and attempted to follow me.
I turned back on him and threw out an arm.
“Don’t touch me,” I said. “I am no longer your property. Tonight, I am his.”
I put all my love and fear for his safety into my expression.
He alone knew me well enough to understand why I was doing this.
“Please,” he said. “Don’t.”
I couldn’t bear to hear those words from him.
I turned on my heel and approached the platform.
The slaves formed steps and I climbed up them.
I looked up at Draw, who wore a snarl of excitement.
A shiver of disgust crawled across mine.
I lowered my hand to his sweaty leg and gently massaged it.
I tried to ignore the varicose veins.
“One night,” I said, “and I will give you everything you ever dreamed of.”
Draw’s eyes bored into mine and his lip curled into a grin of satisfaction.
Not least because of the effect my deal had on Egara.
“Very well,” he said.
I wasn’t sure if I was pleased or not with his decision but for better or worse, the deal had been made.
Draw pulled me into his lap and felt at my chest as his platform turned and carried us toward the cigar-shaped building.
I couldn’t bring myself to look Egara in the eye but before we disappeared inside, I glanced back over my shoulder at him.
Piggy shoved him toward the external hatch.
Egara stood dumbly watching and refused to leave until I had disappeared from sight.
Maybe he was waiting for a miracle, something to stop this event from taking place.
I found myself wishing for the same thing.
Draw placed a hand on my thigh and I forced a smile on my face as he turned his head toward me.
As he leaned forward to kiss me, one of his huge fat slabs of man breast entered the space between us, preventing us from kissing.
Still, he leaned forward, shut his eyes, and opened his mouth with his tongue lolling out.
He expected me to climb over that mound of flesh to reach him.
I kept the curl of disgust off my face, though it turned my insides raw to do so.
I avoided his mouth and pecked him on the cheek, my lips coming away tasting of salty sweat.
As I pulled back, he latched a hand around my arm and yanked me closer.
He slammed his tongue in my mouth.
It was long and irritated my tonsils.
He pulled back and licked my cheek and brow.
Where I had been repulsed by the taste of his sweat, he reveled in the taste of mine.
He smacked his lips.
He glanced over his flabby shoulder back at Egara, who was now being forced into the main hangar.
“You can’t hurt him,” I said.
“He will only be hurt if he struggles. Or if you do not please me.”
He leered at me, an open challenge.
I glared back at him and he seemed pleased at what he saw.
His slaves carried us up one flight of stairs and then another.
The stairs were ludicrously wide, built to cater to Draw’s platform.
The throne leaned backward as the slaves took us up one flight after another.
I dreaded to think what would happen if the slaves were to
