chapter 15

I woke alone, my hands bound together and my feet the same. Sighing I realized I was still on the mattress in the middle of Icaan's room. Still a captive and still being taken toward the Frentin market. Where I would be officially registered as a new human slave and sold to the highest bidder.

It was almost enough to make a person feel sick. But the truth was I couldn't bring myself to think about it for too long. It just made me angry or likely to do something stupid in desperation.

So far it seemed like my plan to stay calm and get to know him might be working. He'd not responded amazingly well to my suggestion that being given a woman free to think and decide was far better than taking advantage of one seduced by the chemicals his body filled the air with, but he'd not responded badly either.

At first I didn't get up, but nature called and made me shuffle over to the bathroom. I was almost all the way there when I grew too frustrated to want to continue.

"I need to pee," I yelled as loudly as I could. Almost immediately my legs disconnected from each other, allowing me to walk the rest of the way to the bathroom.

Relieved and feeling a little calmer I sat and considered my option. For now my head felt clear, and I was pretty sure that it would stay that way even if I was close to Icaan. It was almost as if my body knew I'd spent a night with him, letting him take anything he wanted from me. I tried not to think about what that meant in other ways.

I didn't think I was falling for him, but he'd known exactly what to do with my body and I'd definitely enjoyed giving in to his demands. I still needed to find some way out of this mess, however. I didn't want to be sold. And my best bet still seemed to be for me to show Icaan my worth. So with that in mind I got to work tidying both myself up, and Icaan's room.

After putting the bed back the way it had been the first time I entered it, I made my way toward the ladder.

"Can I have my hands so I can come down?" I called again. For a moment nothing happened, and I wondered if I was going to be completely ignored. Eventually, my hands snapped open and I could make my way lower.

Wandering through to the cockpit, I found Icaan in the pilot's seat, steering us around a set of space debris. At first I thought it was some larger asteroids, but then I realized there were parts of machines and shiny metal panels of spacecraft he was also avoiding.

"Was there a battle here?" I asked.

"Yes. A long time ago now. But it's the shortest route and I want to get you to market as soon as possible," Icaan replied.

I bit down on the retort I wanted to make. I didn't want to be sold at the market, but it was clear now wasn't the time to start an argument. There was such a thing as picking a time and place to discuss something heated. While Icaan was flying us through masses of space debris wasn't the time to persuade him to keep me.

"Have you had breakfast?" I asked instead.

"Not yet. Feel free to grab yourself something. I'd love some water if you don't mind either."

"On it," I replied, more than a little grateful for the opportunity to be useful. Bringing him a drink when he was worried about something and couldn't get it himself was a perfect example of how I could be useful enough to persuade him to keep me.

I didn't just grab a drink for him, but fetched two bowls and tore open a couple of packets of dried porridge and re-hydrated them. The machine in his kitchen quickly heated both and then I added a little milk powder and another splash of water. Finally I went to his hydroponics set up and picked a few of the juiciest strawberries, cut them up and sprinkled the pieces on top.

With two drinks and two spoons I made my way back to the cockpit.

"Breakfast as well," I said. "Do you want me to fly us through some while you eat too?"

Icaan glanced my way when he finally had the opportunity before frowning.

"I only asked for a drink."

"I know, but you need to eat too. I can fly you know. This looks easy enough to avoid." As I said the words Icaan had to jerk the controls so hard to the right to avoid a moving hulk of metal that I almost toppled over, the inertial dampeners momentarily overcome.

"Well, mostly easy enough," I added. It was true that I thought I could handle it, but Icaan didn't respond as he dodged and weaved us even further through. I put down his cup in the holder on the side of his chair anyway and sat myself down in the other, eating and drinking my food while he seemed so reluctant to let me help him so he could also eat.

I scraped the bowl a little more noisily than I normally would have done to make a bit of a point before I sat back and sighed.

"All right, last chance to eat this while it's still hot. I can fly through this. Looks like it's even thinned a bit now." I held up the bowl as he very briefly looked my way again.

He sighed and nodded, but before he could get up or move, I simply leaned forward in the chair I was in and took the secondary controls, flicking them on and letting him transfer control to me.

The ship responded almost instantly and then he reached over and took the full bowl from my lap before also sitting back. As the next bit of debris came toward us I saw him flinch but I easily navigated us past it and kept going. The debris field was thicker than I'd have liked if I was being honest, but I concentrated and did my best.

"Oh my fleet stars, what is in this? This isn't just a porridge pack and some strawberries, which is a nice addition, but you should have asked first, slave." He growled the last word as if he was making a point.

"Slave?" I replied, not answering his question deliberately. It was the first time he'd called me that and it stung.

"You might as well get used to it. Keep your secrets if you want, however." He continued to eat, almost shoveling in the food.

"I've had to live off ration packs for most of my life. I've learned a trick or two." I stopped talking to concentrate as I flew the ship through gap after gap, finding a route through with a combination of radar information and ship responsiveness.

I heard a couple of scrapes as my ship being towed caught a bump or two, but nothing that would have damaged the hull and upset the pressure. At some point I became aware that Icaan had finished eating, but he continued to sit beside me and let me control his ship.

Given what he'd said the previous day about not letting a captive near the controls I was a little surprised, but I wasn't going to complain either. This was yet another chance for me to show off my uses and why he might want to keep me around. With any luck I could make him see that having someone else used to making do on a ship alone and getting the most out of life could increase both our chances of survival.

Selling me would get him a single burst of credits, but keeping me. I could keep the money flowing for the rest of our lives, perhaps even work with him to bring us both up a few rungs of the ladder of life.