NASTRAGULL: Pirates (12 page)

The elevator doors slammed shut, and Zuzack turned to stare at him with eyes that held not a sliver of humanity. The other pirates had the same look in their eyes as they approached the table, with looks of anticipation on their faces. They all stopped in front of a white circle that circumscribed the table, about one meter out. Each was holding a tool with a knife at one end, and a combined fork and spoon at the other.

The ship's medical officer stepped over the white line to the table, and leaned over to appraise him. "My recommendation, Captain, is that we each take only a small piece for now, and then put him on the grill. If you want him to be alive for as long as possible, we'll have to bring in the life support table."

"Let's do it, my dear Doctor, and let's see how long this Elite citizen will stay with us and entertain us," Zuzack replied, drooling. "But for now, let us have a little appetizer."

Doc yanked the block out of Jack's mouth; then, before he could say a word, she made a single professional slice with a laser scalpel, removing half of his tongue and cauterizing the wound in the process. As he howled, she tossed the piece of him to Zuzack, who swallowed it in one gulp. The other officers looked on jealously as she carefully eased her way around the table, making a perfect cut along the top of his skull. With a quick twist she removed the crown of his head and placed it front of Jack, with a chilling smile. She stepped back, revealing his brain, then made a quick slice across his meninges and peeled them back. The pirates oohed and awed in anticipation as Jack screamed.

Moving carefully, precisely, Doc carved off several thin slices of Jack's brain, and deposited them on a silver plate held by a slave, who looked on with a dull and empty expression; she herself had long since been pithed. The slave took the silver plate and walked around the table, so that the pirates could help themselves to one piece of brain each.

Jack's face had gone slack and he had pissed himself— whatever she had done had caused him to lose control of his bodily functions—but inside, he was all but insane with horror, disbelief and pain. A strange gurgling sound came from throat as he saw, from the corner of his eyes, a kind of metal cart slide into the room through a side door. There appeared to be several medical instruments attached to the sides—and on a shelf underneath was a brazier containing red-hot coals.

Jack was one of the lucky ones. What was left of his brain shut down when he saw that, and he didn't have to endure the horror any longer.

Chapter
6

Alec found himself back on the block, with only one of squad-mates with him. Andrew sat with his back towards Alec's, and hadn't said a word since the auction. 

"I take it you're jealous of some of our friends right about now," Alec whispered.

Andrew stirred. "What do you mean?"

"From what I've been hearing, you could be getting to know some of the male pirates more...
intimately
."

There was a long silence; then Andrew snapped, "To hell with you, Alec. I don't know what you're talking about."
             

Alec smiled humorlessly. "Or worse, some of the females."

"Fuck off."

"I don't know what the big deal is," Alex continued. "No one cares about crap like that anymore. So what if someone likes males, females or both?"

Andrew said angrily, "One day I'm going to be your superior officer, pal, and I'll make you eat those words."

"We all know you like males more than females, Andrew."

"You do, huh?" Andrew sounded surprised. "And when did you find out?"

"First time you opened your mouth."

Andrew snorted. "Go fly into a red sun, fool."

They were quiet for a while, then: "Did you hear Mat's scream?" wondered Andrew.

"Who could miss it? Did you see what they made some of the girls do?"

"No, I turned my head away. I don't care how much training we've received, there's a limit. I...I didn't really believe these pirates were as bad as they told us in Academy, but they’re worse."

"Yeah." Alec sighed. "Let's hope and pray that we can maintain our own dignity until our last breaths."

"Agreed, but coming from you...the way you've been behaving is a surprise," Andrew said slowly.

"It's called
acting,
nimrod. I've got a plan."

Alexa half-ran down the corridor, Nina following behind and cursing her for ruining her new coat. "You had to cut a piece off the little weasel's tail inside the elevator, didn't you?" she complained.

"I can let him rip out your tongue next time, girly," Alexa snapped, increasing her speed.

"Oh yeah, there
is
that." Nina lunged at Alexa and grabbed her shoulder, bringing them both to a halt. She blurted, "Look, Alexa, you're my best friend, and I have to say this: you shouldn't even be thinking what you're thinking."

Alexa glared at her. "And what am I thinking?"

Nina looked over her shoulder, making sure that no one could hear them. "That governor and his family could have been our ticket out of here, and now you want to become a full member of the Blood Order. Girl, I thought you loved that Silver Guard guy—and now you're going to eat him? What the hell is
wrong
with you?"             

Alexa looked at Nina, startled, and said quietly, "Good gods, you couldn't have gotten it more wrong if you'd tried." She shook her head, then turned and began running down the corridor towards an elevator bank. Once they were inside and the doors had slid shut, Nina looked sidelong at Alexa and said, "Y'know, I love to eat my boys too, but then I don't really mean
eat
eat, but eat as in..."

Alexa grabbed Nina by her coat collar and thrust her against the wall. Her face just inches from Nina's, she whispered hoarsely, "Wake
up,
Nina! Do you really think I'm going to
eat
him? I'm no cannibal. Even if we paid Zuzack he will never let us leave alive." She let go of her protégé and stepped back, glaring, and said in a low voice, "Trust me. The Silver Guard is our ticket out of here. Just please do your job, I beg of you."

"I hope you know what you're doing," Nina sighed, looking more doubtful than ever.

"I did when I freed you, didn't I, bitch?"

Nina stepped forward and hugged Alexa hard. When she disengaged, she said, "Okay, I trust you. You're the only family I ever had, after all. Now, hurry back to your quarters, and your "maid" will soon be there with your catch."

Alec was nodding off when he was rudely awakened by a sudden shower of cold water.

"Wakey, wakey! Wake up, lover boy! Your new mistress and owner are waiting for you." When his eyes cleared, he saw a dark-haired woman standing in front of him. "I'm Nina, Alexa's buddy. Now, I'm gonna let you lose, okay? But let's be clear about this: if you give me any problems, I'll use this."             

She held up a wide silver collar, which she slid around Alec's neck in a single fluid movement. Once it was in place, she stepped back and pushed a button on a remote control. Alec jumped in his seat as a bolt of electricity jolted through him. He cursed under his breath, and Nina muttered, "Yes, yes, I know I'm a bitch."

Moving quickly, she injected Alec in his arms, legs, and back with a medical hypo, and suddenly, he felt very drowsy. Nina took the opportunity to hit the button to release him from the stocks, then gave a signal to a medical-andy in the background. The android moved forward and picked up Alec bodily, and held him up for a few moments until the drug began to wear off a bit. Once he was able to stand without any assistance. Nina made a gesture with her hand and Alec began to limp slowly forward, in agony from his sore, atrophied muscles. Nina escorted him toward an elevator seemingly made entirely out of glass.

While they walked, Alec tried to memorize as much of the ship as he possible could. He was already basically familiar with this type of ship from countless hours of military training—it was of a type used throughout the inhabited galaxy. When they reached the elevator, he leaned back against the glass wall and closed his eyes.

When the doors slid open again sometime later, they headed into a cargo hold filled with several large shuttles crated in storage. Nina shoved him along, and soon they reached a docking bay and got into a small capsule attached to a maglev rail on one wall. Alec looked around carefully, noting the presence of several dozen unmanned fighters hanging from the walls and ceiling; netted into various cargo niches were a number of smaller civilian space vehicles. Then the capsule doors shut, and they accelerated into motion.

Nina and Alec changed into another capsule several minutes later, and they moved forward, towards what Alec expected to be the bridge area. Alec looked at the woman sidelong, thinking,
It's like she's showing me the entire ship...what's that about?
When he tried to strike up a conversation, Nina just raised her left arm, showing him the remote control to his collar. He got the message and remained silent.

One thing Alec noticed about the ship was that she was filthy and stank; but nonetheless she ran smoothly, and there were even signs of order and organization here and there. They met very few people along the way, and Nina proceeded with a sort of arrogant confidence. Eventually, they came to an unmarked hatch that Nina keyed open with her handprint, and the first thing Alec noticed when he was prodded into the cabin beyond was that the foulness that pervaded the ship was gone here; instead, the air was perfumed with a delicate floral scent. His eyes widened. Nina noticed his reaction, and for the first time she smiled. "Female quarters," she explained, sounding a little cocky. She directed him to the last hatch on the right side of the corridor, just before a sealed blast door, and pressed a small button on the hatch frame.

Alexa glanced at her wrist computer as she hurried down the corridor; she now had less than an hour to get ready for her knight. She cursed Myra aloud for making her unexpectedly clean the filters on her fighter. "What does that big lizard know about engines?" she grumbled. She glanced at the comp again and picked up her pace.

When she breezed into her quarters a few minutes later, she looked around and let out a heavy sigh. It was pretty obvious that there was no way she could adequately prepare the place for a night of hot romance in less than an hour. Loot and other crap was stacked all over the place, from the comfortable L-shaped couch in the tiny living room to the little table in the galley cubby, and dirty clothing was scattered all over. Well, hell.

She rolled her eyes, and then she attacked her own mess. She tossed most of her belongings into one corner of the room, piling it higgledy-piggledy together in a small mountain of clothes, weapons, jewelry, and various equipment she'd liberated from the
Bright Star
and its unfortunate predecessors. Then she glared at it, hands on her hips. "That didn't help," she snarled, feeling a little thread of panic worming around in her stomach. She drummed her index finger on her lip, then suddenly yanked a large tapestry off the wall and covered the mess with it. That just left the ugly, scarred section of bulkhead that the tapestry had been covering. She'd forgotten about that blaster accident. Well, hell again. She fingered a button on her wrist comp, and a little cleaning android charged out of its alcove like a happy little puppy, whistling and singing. The android started trundling around, vacuuming up debris and dusting every surface it came across. A closer look at the andy made her realize that it, too, was filthy; she hadn't used it in a long time. She just rolled her eyes and gave up on the living room, deciding to head into the galley. It was separated from the living room by a hell-bead curtain.             

As she approached the curtain, the cleaning android zoomed in front of her and stopped to vacuum, causing her to stumble over it. She aimed a kicked at its backside, cursing; it reacted only with a happy little beep, then hurried away. Alexa remembered, now, why she hadn't used the little shit for a long time.

In the galley, she began preparing a substantial meal of mostly vegetarian dishes. When she checked the wine cabinet, to her dismay she found only three dismal bottles of red. About a dozen little sticky notes were posted on the inside wall of the cabinet. She took one note and read:
"Dear Lex, just borrowing a bottle, love Tara."
She removed a few more notes and read:
"Sis, in need for some nice wine, love Nina."
And so on. She noticed that most of the notes were from Nina.
You little horny-toad, you haven't been yourself since I introduced you to Zaxor...taking my best wine, you slut!
Sighing, she decided to make the best of things and went back to her meal preparations.

When she was done in the kitchen she hurried into her bedroom and started trying to pick up some of the mess, booting the clean-up android aside as she went. She glanced at the clock. Oh, dammit! She tore off her clothes, crashing to the deck, hard, when she got tangled up in the legs of her jumpsuit. She checked her teeth; everything there, thank goodness. She grinned, and crawled into the bathroom on her hands and knees.