NASTRAGULL: Pirates (24 page)

This night, Alexa lay on her bed sobbing. Nina made an attempt to comfort her, but Alexa pushed her away.

Nina stood slowly, and looked down at her best friend and sister-in-arms, not knowing what to do. She looked around Alexa's suite, noticing that it remained in the same condition as it had been the night of the escape. The place was decorated with broken glass and furniture; bottles, inhalers and syringes were scattered across the deck, and that damned rope still dangled from the ceiling. She looked down at Alexa, who looked like a pale wreck. Her body was desperate for a good washing and some nutrition. "When was the last time you had something to eat?" she asked loudly.

She repeated herself twice, but there was no answer. Nina knelt beside the bed and stroked Alexa's clammy forehead. She whispered, "Sorry I've been away. Captain made me and a few others follow the runaways in our fighters."

For the first time, Alexa stop sobbing. With a faint glimmer of hope in her voice, she asked, "Did you bring him back?"

"'Fraid not. They were long gone by the time we took up the chase, and we lost them after they dived into a wormhole. Zuzack has launched hundreds of probes, scanning for their engine signature and transponders, listening for transmissions. We'll find them eventually."

Alexa buried her head in her pillow and started sobbing again.

"Hey! That's for the better. What do you think would happen if Zuzack got his hands on him? No matter how much he might be worth, Zuzack would have burned him alive."

Alexa kept on bawling and ignored Nina, who stood there scowling, hands on her hips. Finally, she made an exasperated noise, then grabbed Alexa by her ankles and pulled her off the bed. Alexa was taken by surprise at first, but as Nina continued hauling her toward the head, complaining of her stench, she woke from her pity party kicking and cursing. "Let me go, Gulldammit, or I'll tear you into little pieces! Get out and leave me be! You hear me, you cantankerous little harridan?"

"I hear you, all right, and thanks for the compliment—but you're getting a shower whether you like it or not. While you're getting cleaned up, I'll fix us some food. And later, if I can find a friggin' pitchfork, we'll start cleaning up around here.
Capice
?"

"I'll kapeesh you, you flyblown daughter of a diseased whore!" shouted Alexa angrily as she wiggled out of Nina's grasp. She tried to stand as Nina watched, smirking, but began to sway from lack of sleep and nutrition.

Nina saw her opportunity and jumped Alexa from behind. "I'll show you, you stubborn little princess!"

"Wait a...No! NO! Stop that, you bitch!" Alexa protested as Nina pushed her down on her back and pinned her with her knees.

"Who you calling bitch, bitch?" Nina snarled. "I'm not going to stand there and watch my best friend destroy herself over some damned slave. You hear me?"

"Get off me, tramp, or I'll have to pull rank!" Alexa threatened. By then, she'd pulled up out of her funk enough to recover some of her natural guile, and although Nina's weight made her gasp for air, she was able to wriggle away again, causing Nina to pitch backward and smack her head against the bulkhead. Alexa kicked herself free and started to crawl away.

The sudden silence from behind made Alexa turn and look at Nina, who lay there unmoving. "Oh, crap," she groaned. "Hey, Nina! Nina, are you okay?" Alexa crawled back toward her friend, and just as she reached out to check her pulse, Nina opened her eyes with a devilish grin on her face. She leaped up, bowling Alexa over, flipped her face down, and sat on her legs. Alexa was on her stomach, trying to crawl away, her eyes filled with something very like horror. She screamed at the top of her lungs and protested. "NO! No, not my feet! No, it's not fair, bit—"

Alexa broke into laugher as Nina dug her fingers into her soft, pale soles. Nina was grinning as she watched Alexa writhe in paroxysms of laughter, occasionally begging her to stop when she could catch her breath. But no, Nina continued. Alexa begun to cough between her bouts of laughter, and finally choked out, "Stop, stop, or I'm gonna pee myself!"

Nina looked over her shoulder at Alexa, and said silkily, "Will you stop behaving like a spoiled brat and come to your senses?"

"Bitch," Alexa spat in a futile demonstration of defiance.

"I learned from the best, milady—"

Nina's amused rejoinder was interrupted by another voice. "Hey! What's going on here?" snapped Tara, as she looked down on a laughing Alexa and a giggling Nina. Both girls sobered up quickly when they saw that her hair was red. Tara was Hactan, and her mane changed color depending on her mood. At the moment, it was reddish shot with black streaks, the color for anger bordering on rage. They noticed belatedly that she wore battle fatigues.

Tara stood glaring at them for a moment before gesturing them forward into the head, where she turned on the shower. She shoved them both into the shower stall, where they were quickly soaked. They looked up at her like two wet puppies when Tara growled, "Now listen up, you two! What do you think—!" Her harangue broke off with a shriek as, with matching evil smiles, Alexa and Nina grabbed Tara and pulled her into the shower stall. A sputtering Tara tried to talk some sense into them, but she didn't do a very good job. Soon her laughter filled the suite, too, as the three of them began attacking each other as the water poured down. Finally, Tara managed to catch her breath and shouted out the second worse word that could be heard on any ship: "Mutiny!"

By then, Nina was straddling Tara's chest, while Alexa was about to pull off one of her boots. They stopped and glanced at each other. Nina cried back, "I'll give you mutiny, you little..."

As she felt Alexa pull off her sock, preparing to attack her delicate sole, Tara used the last of her breath to shout, "Mutiny! For real! I'm not joking, idiots!"

Nina shot Alexa a puzzled look. Alexa stood and turned off the shower, dropping Tara's boot and a sock on the wet tile. Tara struggled to her feet, complaining bitterly about two crazy little girls who were in desperate need of a spanking. Nina and Alexa helped steady her as she slipped on the soaked deck.

"What do you mean, mutiny?" Alexa demanded.

"Hmmph." Tara wrung water from her mane, which had   faded to a washed-out pink. "If you hadn't been locked up in here feeling sorry for yourself, you'd know what's going on." Alexa had the grace to look embarrassed, and Tara continued. "While the rest of us were out scanning space for your darling, that old hag Myra made known her plans to take over the ship...finally."

The girls moved into the living room, still soaked, and Tara cursed as she tried to pull on her wet boot, falling on her well-padded derriere in the process. A moment later they were joined by the rest of the gang, who filed in quietly. The Twins from Hell, Mohama and Miska, were there, with their long, serpentine tails coiled together as usual. Both were dressed for battle, with a number of weapons visible about their persons; who knew how many weren't. With them was young Kirra, a lovely black-skinned Oman whose tight dreadlocks fell down to her shoulders. There were tiny blades braided into the ends of the dreads. She was dressed in a flat black outfit the same color as her skin, and her toned body all but dripped weapons, although there were various bags and pouches in evidence, too. Blonde Zicci stood beside her, an Oman with a slight admixture of Herrier that gave her bronze skin and an exotic beauty that was quite different from Kirra's. Unlike most women on the ship, she eschewed dreadlocks and instead wore her long curly hair in two pigtails, obviously going for that "innocent little pirate" look. She was dressed in a long-sleeved brown tunic and loose trousers that de-emphasized her voluptuous figure, her wide feet thrust into combat boots. Most of her weapons were concealed under her tunic, except for a large magma rifle hanging from her shoulder. She too was wearing several bags and packs. Both Kirra and Zicci looked puzzled at the sight of their three soggy compatriots as they enter the living room.

Tara sat down on the couch, tossing her wet sock away. She pulled on her boot without it, cursing again as water poured out. Then she looked up at Alexa. "Let's get right to business. Because Myra doesn't trust you, Alexa, and because there's this rumor that you're getting ready to join Zuzack's clan permanently, she sent us to find out if you're with her or not."

Alexa looked at Nina and then back to their armed and bedecked friends. "You must be joking. I was buying time, that's all, just—"

"Don't worry," Kirra purred, "we know you'd never join that monster...right?"

"Of course not. As I was saying—"

This time Alexa was interrupted by Zicci. "What side are you on?" the blonde woman demanded bluntly. For a moment, Alexa didn't understand; she sent a puzzled glance toward Nina, who stood by her side with a suspicious expression. For the first time, Alexa noticed several more bags and weapons on the floor. She knew they belonged to Nina.

"Are you here to take care of us?" asked Nina.

Tara joined the other girls. They all looked to Alexa for an answer while ignoring Nina. Jaw set, Alexa snarled, "The only side I'm on is my own, and that of my best friends. That happens to include Nina and you guys. Zuzack and Myra can get married and have a bunch of scaly little brats for all I care."

"And I'm hers...I mean, I'm with her. Alexa, that is," proclaimed Nina.

The assembled pirates released a collective sigh of relief that took most of the tension in the room with it. Alexa nodded sharply and stomped off toward her bedroom, where she began to get dressed in her fatigues. "There's no way that zarky lizard bitch could make it, especially since the Silver Guard prisoner escaped," she called toward the living room. "Zuzack has too many defense systems in place now."

Zicci replied, "Whatever. But we can all get out of here on one of the shuttles. Tara has prepped one for us, and..."

Zicci was cut off by Nina, who snapped, "Are you all brainburned? We can't take off in one off the shuttles. All the docking areas are locked down so that no one can leave."

"It worked for Alexa's slave," muttered Tara.

"I heard that. He wasn't my slave," Alexa answered.

Nina shook her head and continued. "And it especially won't work since Alexa's knight in shining armor took off. Zuzack has turned on the inner forceshields all over this old tin can."

"This is still our best chance," Kirra pointed out. "I'm sick and tired being locked up here, treated like a second-class citizen. I haven't left this ship in over eight years."

Alexa strode into the living room, strapping on a battle vest festooned with grenades and small weapons. "If we can get the shield down, then maybe we can get away—but we'll get blown to bits before we get a kilometer from the ship. The only way to avoid that is to take out the tracking systems for the missile launchers and the particle beam turrets, and to do that, we have to get into Zuzack quarters and hack into his personal computer files. No. I say we hide out and see which side wins, and then we decide what to do based on that."

Nina opened a cupboard and helped herself to some of the weapons and equipment inside, passing it on to the other women to pack. Meanwhile Alexa keyed open a secret compartment in the bulkhead, and took out a couple of bulging backpacks.

Tara said, sounding hesitant, said, "So you're saying we should hide out like cowards while the rest of the crew does all work?"

Alexa slammed the hidden door shut with a crash. "You tell me, Tara! Tell me what
any
of them has ever done for you, or for any of us, that didn't gain them something?"

Nina cut in, "All they've ever done is forced us to commit murder and all kinds of other heinous crimes while they use us for their perverted sex games. By the holy Gull
Itself, who
knows
what they have planned for us in the near future?"

"I doubt it will be much better around here with Myra as Captain," Alexa said, as she checked the charge magazine of her pistol. "And what will happened when Zuzack's brother hears of this? You all remember Horsa, don't you?"

They remembered, all right. When she spoke the name of the most feared pirate in the known universe, each of them reacted as if a corpse had run a chill finger down her spine.

"I know we've all planned to get away someday, and we will," Alexa continued. "I'm just not so sure that this is the right time. Let's stick together and ride out this storm as a team, and maybe the stars will smile upon our faith—and with some luck, we can get away from here in one piece." She looked to her friends for reply; but before anyone found their voice, she said in a low, deadly tone, "Right. What did Myra say you were supposed to do in case I warned Zuzack?"

All of them but Nina looked at the floor, refusing to meet Alexa's glare.

"That's what I thought," Alexa said.

Nina gritted her teeth and said spitefully, "I'm going to skin that fucking lizard alive."

"We would never hurt each other. We're family," Tara protested.

"I know." Alexa embraced all her friends in turn.

When she hugged Zicci, the blonde Amazon pulled away and asked, "Why are you all wet?"

Alexa, Nina, and Tara looked at each other; then, simultaneously, Alexa and Nina pointed to Tara and said, "She started it." Talking over Tara's protest, Alexa said, "So, when is this mutiny of Myra's supposed to start?"