[tent Warning: svery, no sex, sci-f

  Kaster forced himself to wake.

  Through the haze s, he made himself focus and slowly opened his eyes. With effort, he turned his head, noting his surroundings. He was not lying oodoc table or in a room on his ship. The mint green walls of the small room and the biomonitors hihat he was in a sick bay. It was not his though.

  He rolled to his side, and something tugged on his arm. Returning to his back, he tried to lift his arms but could not. One of them would not lift. The other… was a stump, ly sliced through his bicep. Looking down at his right arm, he was relieved to see it was still there but mao a handle on the side of the hospital bed he was in.

  Closing his eyes, he focused on his kidneys and liver, f his body to his drug-tainted blood. His tongue felt thid slow. He licked dry lips. He tinued fog on ing his system, making his ans fun at a much higher level than usual. Given enough time, he could flush the poisons out of his system. He just wasn’t sure how much time he had. He avoided overthinking the missing arm, instead breathing slowly, clearly, and ly.

  Still with eyes closed, still f his ans to work faster than intended, Kaster listehere was a thrum, the faint rumble of ehe hollow thrum of air pumped through enclosed rooms, and a faint hiss of fluids passing through pipes. He knew he was on a ship, er than his own.

  A door whisked open. Kaster saw a straanding in the doorway. The stranger looked shocked, gng out of the room and then looking back at Kaster.

  “Where am I?” Kaster asked, his throat hoarse and dry.

  The stranger was an older Human with dark hair going to salt. He wore a white tunic with a medical symbol. It wasn’t quite a uniform, but maybe something borrowed from a uniform.

  “You shouldn’t be up. You need rest.” The medic walked across the room and fumbled with a drawer. He passed a card key over the lod then pulled it opehdreo-gun and tinued rummaging through the drawer.

  Kaster couldn’t risk more drugs. He squeezed the fingers of his hand together, trying to make it as narroossible. He tugged on his arm, but the manacle would not yield. Aug firmed it was tight enough to prevent his wrist from passing through. Pressing his hand on the bed frame, he put pressure on the base of his thumb. He felt something pop and knew he’d disjointed his wrist. The drugs helped dull the pain.

  As the medic produced a vial of liquid and screwed it into the gun, Kaster slipped his hand through the manacle. He pressed the thumb against the rigid frame of the bed a it pop bato pce. Wing, he sat up.

  The medic advanced on Kaster, “Hey! Lie bad rex. I’ve got another dose for you. I just need you to…”

  As the medic approached, Kaster’s hand fshed out faster than could be seen, snatg the hypo gun out of the stranger’s hand. He leaned forward and shoved his stump at the medic, stopping him in his tracks.

  “No. No more drugs. I want your captain.”

  The medic blinked. He then tried to reach around Kaster for the hypo. Kaster gave him a shove with the stump, sending the medic stumbling backward.

  “Get your captain now, or I will beat you to death with nothing more than this stump.”

  Bag up, the mediodded aed the room quickly.

  Kaster forced himself off the bed. The cold floor chilled his bare feet. A quick self-examination revealed that Kaster only wore the loose-fitting harem pants he’d been in when he went to the temple. There was a dark stain on the left side, probably blood, when his arm was severed. He’d lost his arm… it was too soon to think about that. He forced it to the back of his mind.

  Gng around the room, Kaster saw nothing that would be an effective on. There was a rolling stool, the hospital gurney, and shelved ets. The only thing even close to an armament was the hypo, filled with what he assumed were ahetics. He sat oool, turo face the door, and tucked the hypo into the waist of his pants at the small of his back.

  He breathed, focused on his kidneys, aated the minutes away. With eaent, his thoughts became sharper and more focused, while his to even thicker with thirst.

  The door opened, and a tall, thick-skinned se strode in. Kaster looked up across his brow, his head too heavy to lift pletely. A Xuriant crossed the room, hooked the wheeled medical stool in one foot, and then sat on it quickly. He eyed Kaster through dark irises.

  Kaster couldn’t recall much about Xuriants, except that after ejacution, they would remain buried in their mating parto ensure another suitor did not repce their own potential progeny. Kaster thought it amusing that the only thing he could recall about his potential foe was a factoid read offhandedly by a snickering adolest. The Being’s demeanor told Kaster everything he o know. This was the captain of the ship he was now on. The bster strapped to his hip was also a sure-fire sign of authority.

  “You’re the captain?” Kaster said more than asked.

  “That I am.”

  “Why was I moved off my ship?”

  “An old friend called in a favor, asked that you be taken a pce for healing.” The Xuriant o the stump, “I’ve arranged for a rept for that.”

  There was an edge of tension in Xuriant’s voice. He was being civil, but his right hand lingered oh so close to the holstered bster. He wao use it badly. Kaster already khis versation would end in bloodshed. He pyed it as cool as possible. “And my crew?”

  “The sve, you mean?” The Xuriant said. Kaster uood that in Federated Space, svery was illegal. The Xuriant captain was expining without saying so, and he knew more than Kaster might think he did.

  “Her name is K’rra.” Kaster slurred, his dry tongue couldn’t trill the R’s correctly.

  “Don’t worry about her. I’ve been taking good care of her.” The captain’s hand twitched a millimeter closer to his sidearm.

  Kaster looked the captain in the eye. A moment passed, then he said, “She is what she is.”

  The Xuriant rexed. He’d tested Kaster and tried to goad him to violence. He puffed his chest, cluding that Kaster wasn’t man enough to defend his property. “Aye, that she is. And I’d like to buy the girl.”

  “She’s not for sale.”

  The captain ughed and threw his arms out, “My price you haven’t even heard yet. Are you so sure she is just… what she is? Me thinks maybe she is more than that now, no?”

  Kaster felt his heartbeat qui. His refusal had ted that this versation would only have oe, violence. “She was a gift from my patron.”

  “I see… so the girl does have seal value to you then?”

  “It would be an insult to Hol Vydon if I gave…”

  The Xuriant ughed heartily, cutting off Kaster’s thoughts. “Stop, please, you joke. Vydon is a businessman. His feelings sold many cycles of many suns ago. He asked me for a favor, but it is unpaid. My services, too, e with a price.”

  “She is not for sale.”

  The Xuriant leaned in and sneered. “You are crippled, alone, helpless. You could hear my price, but you’d rather die for this sve girl?”

  Kaster gave the captain a cold look, then nodded, “What makes you think it’ll be me?”

  *****

  Pag in the fines of the padded room, K’rra jumped when she heard the bster shot. The sound itself was muted, dampened by dozens of walls and the running maery of a starship. She knew what it meant though, and rushed to the door. She smmed the trols, but the door would not yield, leaving her alone in the padded captain's room, now an impromptu cell.

  She pressed ao the door but heard nothing unusual. After long moments that dragged agonizingly slow, she forced herself away from the door and began pag again. Mier, a ctter of metal oal. She went to the dain but heard nothing else. She went back to pag.

  There were indistinguishable shouts and yells and more bster fire. Kaster was alive. If only for a moment. She raced to the door, pressing her face to it and willing him to enter. She imagined him striding in, cocky, stupid with youth, and all too sure of himself. He’d sweep her up on one arm and carry her back to his ship, where they’d make their escape. She tightened every muscle iummy around this wish and begged it to e true. Instead, there was more yelling, munshots, and more ctter of metal oal.

  She pushed herself away from the door a third time and moved to the ter of the room. What happened out there would not ge what she was, a sve. She forced herself down to her knees, spread her legs, and pced her hands palm up on the open thighs. A ess desded, but it was short-lived. Every time she heard screaming or bster fire, she tensed up, ruining the calm her sve position gave her. With her eyes winced shut, she begged that whatever master cimed her would find her worth keeping.

  Her hands trembled ohighs as she willed her mind bnk. The universe was cruel and had never delivered on her wants. She wao be more successful in school but had always been itom pertiles. She’d wao follow in her parent’s footsteps. Instead of academia, she’d been railroaded into the Federated Navy. She wao be able to serve one reciated her skills aion, instead, she’d been traded away like a bauble. She angrily forced her mind clear of hope.

  The door opened. She winced her eyes, keeping them closed for fear the universe would steal everything away again.

  “There you are…” Kaster croaked.

  Through a painful haze of tears, K’rra leaped up and rushed him. He leaned weak and in pain against the doorframe, uo stop her as she drove into him. They crashed, arms aangled onto the floor of the hallway. His arms ed around her as she op of him, stealing any breath he had away with her sm mouth. She pressed her chest to his, wanting to bee one flesh with him.

  “Did they hurt you?” He asked through ched teeth.

  She held him tight, not wanting to let go. “I’m fine. I’m fine. You’re still alive… I feared…”

  “Not yet,” He choked, “But soon if we don’t leave.”

  Pulling back, K’rra saw Kaster’s bare torso, bruised, battered, and burned. His right arm and shoulder were bruised badly. His chest urple with bruises as well, with a patch h, burned skin along the left side. And his left arm was just as she’d st seen it. Beside him on the floor was a metal rod, a handhold for weightlesshat had been pulled off some wall, the end of it was covered in blood.

  “Stars! We o tend to these injuries.” K’rra said, trying to ease him back down to the floor.

  “No,” he demanded, “we o leave now. There are still hostile crew on this ship.”

  Tendrils of fear seeped up from the pit of K’rra’s stomach. All that noise, all that otion, and there were still hostiles on board? She looked up and down the hallway, afraid that beings with bsters would rush around the ers. She took Kaster by his arm and pulled, standing as she did so. He struggled but followed her up to his feet. He leaned heavily against the wall.

  Kaster pointed down to his makeshift on. K’rra bent, then lifted the handhold turned improvised club. She surre to him, noting that he was wearing nothing but the hakama pants he’d fought the furies in, while she wore nothing but the dried spunk the Xuriant had left on her during their tryst.

  Tug herself uhe stump of his arm, K’rra helped Kaster limp along the hallway. He seemed to know the yout of the pirate ship, guiding them down passageways with ation. After the sed turn, K’rra saw two bodies crumpled in the hallway. One moaned softly. The other seemed to be breathing, but there ool of blood colleg under his face. She turned her attention to Kaster, hoping he would not try to fight more pirates with her so close to him.

  They passed more bodies, and K’rra meant to look away. A dropped bster y within hand’s reach of one of the downed pirates.

  “Wait,” K’rra said as she pushed Kaster against a wall. Once his weight was off her, she swept up the bster only to cry out in agony and fall to her knees.

  “Leave it,” he said. “I don’t need a gun.”

  “But I use it. I was trained.”

  Kaster sidered this a moment then said, “Sve K’rra, your oris are lifted.”

  She uood in an instant. He’d removed the programming in the impnts, allowio pick up a orusted her enough to allow her to pick up something that could jeopardize his life. She wao throw her arms around him and kiss the life out of him. Instead, she honored his wishes and picked up the bster again.

  Using her as a crutch, they began traveling again. K’rra found it awkward to hold the bster in her left hand and he right to clutch her master. They hobbled along, passing more bodies, scorch marks in the hallway from missed shots, and at least one pirate who scrambled away, nursing a broken arm.

  When they reached the Outnder, she wao cry. They traversed the inftable umbilical as voices gathered deeper ihe pirate ship. Once aboard their vessel, K’rra hit the trols for the airlock, shutting their ship off from the other. She worked frantically at the door trols and released the umbilical, separating the two vessels.

  Kaster had attempted to move to the cockpit while she disehe ship, resulting in falling to his knees. He dropped the handhold and leaned against a bulkhead, watg K’rra work.

  “Lie down and rex, I’ll be ba a moment,” she told him as she went past.

  He tried to say something but slumped to the deck.

  On the cockpit, K’rra powered up the engines and eased the Outnder away from the pirates. There were some tense moments as the two ships moved away from each other. She wondered if they would fire on the smaller ship she and Kaster occupied. The distance grew more extensive, and ohe pirate ship was nothing more than a blip on a ser, she breathed a sigh of relief.

  Excitement and adventure were what she’d been promised joining the Federated Navy. She’d trade the gaxy away right now for a cozy couch, a warm b, and the safety of her home world.

  Wheuro the airlock, Kaster was lying on his side, fast asleep. K’rra tried pulling him up, but he was nearly twice her weight. She sidered slumping dowo him but went to his room aurned with pillows and bs. She tried tug the b around him as best as possible, then curled up against him and pulled his arm around her.

  “Lights, dim.” She told the ship. It responded by darkening the rooms.

  They were hurt, crippled, naked, and drifting through an unknown system. Knowing her master was safe, however let her rex into slumber. All these hurdles could be solved tomorrow.