With the ship back on the path mapped out for it again there wasn't much for me to do but watch the radars and sit back in the secondary seat of the cockpit. My hands were pinned to the arms of the chair for now, but I could still be useful and keep an eye on some of the systems.
We were on an impressive, but older ship. In its time it had been one of the fastest cargo runners known to those in space and it was clear that Icaan knew how to fly her. His brother had good taste, but it was clearly in need of some maintenance.
I tried not to do anything that my captor might find irritating like drumming my fingers, or hum, but after a while the silence started to bother me. When I was on my own ship alone silence was something I sort of accepted. It didn't feel strange because I didn't expect anything different, but while sitting next to someone it was bizarre.
Briefly wondering if Icaan felt similar I considered something I might be able to get away with saying or asking. He'd asked me for silence but I was pretty sure it had only been so I wouldn't argue with him further. Was there a subject we could talk about without arguing.
"Is the market you're heading to the one I think it is?" I asked a moment later. He whipped his head around my way as if he might tell me off, but I held his gaze and tried to look calm and unchallenging.
"It's the main one, if that's what you mean. On Nisacara."
"I've heard lots about it. Does it really cover the entire planet?"
"Mostly. Although the planet isn't as large as some we inhabit so it's not quite so impressive. And it's broken up into sectors with high speed shuttles in between them. You want one kind of item, you go to one area and you have lots of choices."
"And if you want a human slave you go to another," I replied, before wanting to mentally smack myself. I just couldn't keep the snark at home.
"Yup, and that's broken down into several different areas too. Men, Women, kids, families, other aliens that we've enslaved."
"Wow..." I replied, blown away by how big this sounded. "And you've been there before?"
"Many times. I take it you haven't?"
"No. I heard it was pretty unsafe for a woman alone."
"Yeah, you heard right. You can hire a guard to escort you. or several, but you need to have a decent budget or you're just as likely to be sold by the slaver masquerading as a guard and have him pocket the credits for both."
"Right, so it's as lawless as I was warned about."
"Entirely. How else do you think I'll get enough credits for you? You're not an official slave and I'll need someone to handle your paperwork. That requires an awful lot of set up. They'll pay well enough for you, though."
I sighed again, unable to help myself. Once again we'd got back to the topic of my slavery. Was that where all our conversations would lead."
"You should find that once you're a slave you'll actually get to see some of these places though."
"I will?"
"Yeah. You're not stupid. You know how to cooperate when there's a benefit to you and most slave owners aren't tyrants. If you want some freedoms you can earn them."
I forced back the retort pointing out that I'd had freedoms, but he'd had a point. If I'd wanted to go certain places I hadn't been able to. Not alone. But I wouldn't be entirely free under his example either. It would just be trading one set of freedoms for another, and only if I was lucky enough to be bought by someone who could be reasoned with.
Even I knew that there was a subset of even the kindest alien race that were complete asshats. Every family had one and every species. It seemed to be just how the universe worked.
"Do you have somewhere you'd like to go if money wasn't an issue?" I asked, thinking it was a good question to hopefully get him talking about something happier.
"Yes, there's a small planet off the main quadrant. It's run by a small company as some kind of holiday resort, but they're not owned by someone intent on squeezing every last credit of profit out of the planet. Most of it is still wild. A little dangerous for non Frentin, but because of that it's quieter than most places and you can sign a waiver and go off into the wilderness."
"Get some alone time in nature."
"Yeah, that. And more. There's proper wildlife. And you can live off the land. There's slightly tamer versions for those who want half the experience. Some well marked trails for those who want to see good views and not risk getting lost, and crates of supplies at regular intervals."
"Literally a holiday where you can be as alone and self sufficient as you want to and no more or less. That sounds amazing. I bet it costs a fortune though."
"Not a fortune, but more than a simple resort holiday because they've not got the economy of scale like the places that pack in villas across every mile of coastline and around every natural attraction they can make or create demand for."
"I'll have to take your word for it. I've never been on any kind of holiday," I replied, only realizing how bleak and not happy that sounded once I said it. I'd never minded, but I'd had strange reactions to mentioning it in the past. And even now Icaan stared at me for a moment.
"No holidays? Not ever?"
"Nope. I was an orphan. Grew up in a girls home that was basically little more than a business that hired out young girls as slave labor. When I was old enough to get out of there, I collected what meager wages I was meant to have earned for all my years hard work and then I left. I worked as a market runner for a couple of years and slept rough to save up for my first ship."
"Market runner can be a tough gig."
"Aye. People expect a lot and want to pay very little, but it was a job and I quickly worked out who to respond to when they made a request for my services."
"Good. Should help you make sure your buyer is someone who'll actually take care of you," he replied, nodding as if that assuaged some of his guilt as well.
"You know, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't remind me every five seconds that you intend to sell me. I was trying to talk about nicer subjects."
He whipped his head to look at me again, his eyebrows coming together.
"I get it. You're not used to company. Especially amicable company, but you seem to be preoccupied with making money. There's more to life you know."
"Sounds like you've spent most of your life just trying to make money too," he shot back, clearly more than a little angry. "And I thought I told you I wanted you silent."
"You did, but then I asked you a question about something else and you genuinely appeared to appreciate talking about something different. Forgive me for not wanting to give up on my life or spend the next nine days silently contemplating how best to murder you."
I growled, knowing I shouldn't have snapped but sick of everything. Thanks to the current situation I felt constantly on edge and it was clear my Frentin captive didn't have any clue how fortunate he was. He clearly had far more money than I'd ever had. He'd been given his first ship, and despite having a single mistake put him on a tougher course, he was smuggling women.
And I was no fool, people didn't smuggle anything that wasn't worth smuggling. He was going to get some decent credits for me if he got me to market. It was enough to make me feel sick.
Despite the hostility between us, a little silence and some asteroids to make sure we avoided, took the edge of the atmosphere, especially when I could help him by spotting the house sized rocks on the radar and giving him plenty of warning to fly around them.At the speeds we were traveling compared to the flying rocks they were easy to avoid, but it was still useful having another pair of eyes to feed you information so you could focus on just one task. It was one of the reasons a lot of ships had multiple people on them. Teamwork was a genuine life saver."Right," he said when we were through the field and nothing but stars appeared to be ahead of us. "We're in a safer section of space. Now's a good time to get some sleep.""Oh," I replied, having almost forgotten I'd have to get back into the box at some point. I really didn't wan
It took an age to fall asleep, although I managed to keep more still. Icaan snored beside me long before I could even begin to sleep. Slowly the scent faded into the background and my senses calmed.I still felt a tight heat between my legs, but a little light relief from my own fingers helped ease some more of the tension. The thought of trying to give myself some action had occurred to me while he was awake, but I'd waited, stuck in a sort of sweet agony until he was definitely fast asleep.After that I'd felt relieved enough and exhausted enough to finally get some shuteye. It had worked for a few hours, but now I was awake again. And I didn't think it was morning yet.Icaan was still snoring beside me and I was in this strange torturous aroused state again. It was all I could do to keep still, and again, more than once I considere
Holding my breath, I stood in the bedroom, not sure what to do. Down the ladder I could hear voices. Whoever had attacked us had no boarded, and before I'd had a chance to get into the hole Icaan had wanted me to keep safe in.Now I wasn't sure what to do."Long time no see, Icaan," the unfamiliar voice said. "Doesn't look like this route has been too kind on you.""No, I can't say it has, so just hurry up and get on with whatever you're going to do and let me limp home to port somewhere."The newcomer laughed.It wasn't a happy laugh either. It was the kind of mocking laugh that someone who knows they have the upper hand and is enjoying inflicting pain uses. This was a pirate in every sense of the word.I frowned and reached in
I waited for Icaan to explain. Why wasn't he taking a pirate to turn in when he was willing to take an innocent person like me for credits alone."Two reasons," he said as he walked to the cargo area of the ship. "One, I can control a lone woman easily."As I nodded, I had to fight not to react. It was a good reason. The Frentin pheromones did make my gender and race weak at the knees."And two, I already know he's amazing at escaping. If we took him with us he'd be attacking us in our sleep, or worse, while I'm doing a dump long before we reached any kind of harbour or port to turn him in."I sighed. It definitely sounded like these two had history."Finally, I really don't like having him around.""That's technically three rea
Icaan hauled me to my feet and pushed me away from the box."You don't seem to understand one very important fact. While you're here, the only reason you're not stuck in a box out of the way is because you're making yourself useful. Stop making yourself useful, or start making yourself a pain in my ass and I'll just put you back. Got it?"Slowly I nodded, but a ripple of rage washed through me I had to suppress. He just wasn't softening toward me at all."And you don't seem to understand," I replied, doing my best to keep my voice calm. "I don't want to be sold to a stranger, yes, and I won't stop trying to find a way to persuade you not to sell me, but equally, I have worth in other ways. There is more to human women than the price we can fetch. Can't you see that?""Of course. And I'm sure you're
Within seconds Icaan had pulled my shorts off and I was entirely exposed. He pushed my legs further open, a growl escaping him as he plunged his fingers deep into me first.I gasped, surprised by the sudden way he'd claimed me, but the sensation was more pleasure than anything else. He kept my hands pinned upwards for a moment and looked at my face as he thrust in and out of me a few times."You're tighter than I expected. This is going to be a lot for you to handle."My eyes went wide as he pulled his fingers out and used that hand to unzip his own spacesuit and free himself. I was immediately presented with the largest manhood I'd ever seen and it throbbed before me.Before I could consider changing my mind he brought it between my legs and pressed it against my opening. I whimpered instinctively,
Feeling full and grateful for all the food, I sat back and sighed.We'd eaten a mix of fresh vegetables and ration packs again, and it had been heavenly to eat some real food. I tried not to think about Icaan's words the last time he'd allowed me to have something from his hydroponics set up, but I wasn't doing very well.He'd made it clear I got to eat and drink the good stuff when he was pleased with my behavior. When I'd acted in his interests and not just my own. I was aware I'd gained him more cargo and planted some of the seeds for him, but I was also aware we'd just screwed, and it left me wondering which of the three activities had earned me the reward.A couple of times I'd considered asking, but I didn't want to buy into his system or give the impression I had. The truth was, a part of me already had, however.
Dreams of blue skies and a warm body to share it with filled my head, stirring my desire until the soft hand stroking my cheek broke through the imagined pleasure. I opened my eyes to see Icaan only a little way away from me, his hand cupping my cheek."Wake up sleepy head. We're docked on Antiga," he said but the words didn't entirely register. What did he mean we were on Antiga? We were on my home world and I'd just shown him my favourite place to sit and watch the ships take off.Almost instinctively I leaned up and kissed him, his scent keeping my mind half drowned in the romantic sweetness of the fading dream. He pulled back and chuckled."I take it they were pleasant dreams then. I must be having an affect on you again, but there will be plenty of time for us to have some more fun later. I've got to go make some trades. Do you w