Chapter Six
Two of the guards were overheard saying that it would take three days to get to their home planet. That wasn’t much time to formulate and carry out an escape. Still, they stayed on constant alert, watching, listening, and looking for any opportunity to escape from the ship because it was the consensus that once they got onto the planet’s surface, getting off would be more difficult, if not impossible.
It was during the morning meal on the day before they were due to arrive that they finalized their plans.
“We’ve been studying their routine and how they interact,” Teagan murmured, peeping up at Maggie briefly then returning her gaze to her plate as she tried not to make her briefing seem quite so obvious. “The color of their tunics designates their rank, class, or role.”
“Which is it?” someone hissed under her breath.
“We’re not entirely sure yet,” Teagan continued, without glancing up. “The red-shirted aliens are the same as the warriors from the planet. They are the biggest, strongest, and fastest. And obviously, have more authority than the others. They need to be avoided, at all costs.”
Maggie glanced over and met Rebecca’s gaze directly for a moment. After the first gathering, they had been separated into small groups for meals. She was the only one among their troupe who had firsthand knowledge of how strong and fast they truly were.
“What do we know about the others?” she asked her second in command.
“Green is some technical position, maybe the flight crew or something. The white shirts are the weakest link in the chain.” With that, Rebecca stopped. There was an audible grin in her voice when she concluded, “They are our targets.”
“Okay, but what about weapons?” Nala held up her fork. “Do we fight them with plastic utensils?”
“See that door over there?” Teagan nodded her head to the side. Instantly, heads began to twist around. “No,” she insisted in a harsh whisper, “don’t everyone look at once. They’ll suspect something is up.”
Maggie, who was facing the door, glanced around casually. “The one to the right of the galley entrance?” When Rebecca nodded, she probed further. “What’s inside?”
As Teagan answered, she leaned forward, acting like she was doing nothing more than reaching for the platter of green eggs—yes, green eggs! Like in the children’s story, the same one Maggie had insisted be read to her repeatedly when she was small until her poor mother almost cried from boredom.
A wave of homesickness washed over her at the memory. She had to force herself to refocus on their conversation. This plan had to work if they hoped to see their family, or Earth, for that matter, ever again.
“We’ve been watching the guards in red tunics access that door,” Teagan was saying. “They go in with nothing and come out with a weapons belt. We think they’re only stunners of some kind. Still, we can work with those.”
“And maybe, we’ll get lucky,” Nala put in, “and find something more powerful in there, too.”
“What makes you think they’re only stunners?” Maggie inquired.
“Who would carry hull-busting weapons onboard their own ship?”
“Aliens with nearly three hundred unhappy captives,” Maggie quipped.
The others looked at each other uncertainly, not having considered this.
Rebecca minimized her concern. “That’s why you’re the captain. But it’s likely they don’t see women as a threat since they could snap our bones and crush us to dust with barely an effort.”
“Not if we gang up on them,” Nala shot back.
Maggie laid her hand flat on the table, quietly asking for their silence. “Is this your best recommendation?” She waited for a nod from each of them. “Okay. We’ll go with it. Note the location of the weapons closet when we adjourn,” Maggie advised the others. “Now, lay it out for me in detail. What is your plan for the sensor over the door?”
“We’ll get a white shirt to cooperate,” Rebecca answered, her tone somewhat menacing.
Teagan shot her a concerned glance, before staring pointedly at Maggie. The lieutenant commander was taking the events on SperoMP13 hard, and it showed. She was a friend, but was an officer first and had a duty to the crew of the Odyssey. If her guilt over what happened was affecting her judgment, she would bear watching. Maggie nodded at Teagan, who quickly continued.
“The kitchen workers go inside, too. It appears to be a dry goods store as well.”
“A combination weapons cache and pantry, how convenient,” Nala drawled with a smile.
“So, we take hostages and then what?” Janie asked.
“We take back the Odyssey,” Rebecca declared with confidence, “after we knock out their communications and weapons systems, so they’re less likely to give chase.”
“Exactly how do we locate these systems on this hulk of a ship?” Maggie challenged. “And, more importantly, how do we find the rest of our crew?”
Rebecca and Teagan, the masterminds of this grand plan, shared an uneasy look, a moment later, speaking at once.
“Um, there’s the snag.”
“We haven’t quite figured that out yet.”
Several sets of wide eyes turned her way as Janie whispered, “Holy shit. We’re toast.”
“If we have stunners, we can do this,” Nala stated.
Maggie wasn’t feeling nearly as confident. In fact, dread sat like a rock in the pit of her stomach. What choice did they have, though? Be enslaved, or risk everything, even their lives, for their freedom. Her gaze swept through the small group of her officers who were gazing at her in anticipation, expecting her to lead them out of this.
“I’d feel better if we could alert the others,” Maggie murmured.
Teagan nodded as she spoke quietly. “I’d feel better if we could find Britta. She could wreak havoc with their communications.”
“They specifically kept us divided into small groups to prevent something like this,” Rebecca concluded. “At least we’ll have surprise on our side.”
“It’s a recipe for disaster,” Janie muttered.
“Have you got a better idea?” Rebecca challenged her, but without heat. She was genuinely hoping for suggestions. Janie, the skeptic, shook her head. “It’s the best we have, Mags.”
“When?” Maggie, resigned to the only plan on the table, directed this to Teagan, who seemed to be the master strategist of the group.
“At the midday meal, when the two guards change shifts. We’re left in here with green and white shirts for about two minutes. That’s enough time to access the closet, get armed, and be ready to take them out when the new guards return.”
Maggie considered everything for a moment, looking at each of her crew one by one. After a nod of affirmation from each one, except Janie who merely shrugged, she made her decision. “Okay, let’s do this and take back our freedom and our ship.”
***
“You should have seen them huddled up during the morning meal. Glancing slyly around when they thought no one was watching, whispering, arguing sometimes then acting as innocent as babes if one of us so much as moved. I’m telling you, Commander, they’re planning something.”
“I’m not disagreeing,” Roth assured Ucen, one of his warrior guards. “This is an intelligent and well-trained group of females, and their captain is very determined. It would be a mistake to underestimate any of them.”
He gave Allon his orders. “Double the guard, and put the crew on notice that if something does arise, I don’t want them hurt. The Princep will have my head if even a single hair is ruffled.”
After he dismissed them, Roth leaned back in his desk chair. A vivid image of the captain’s determined blue eyes, usually flashing with indignation, invaded his consciousness. And he couldn’t keep from wanting to see them glimmering with arousal instead.
He closed his eyes as his baser instincts took hold, as they often did when ruminating about anything involving the pretty captain. It had been that way since the first moment he saw her, and felt the shock waves of his visceral response to her allure. During the day, he managed to keep thoughts of her at bay, but at night, she filled his dreams.
The image of her beautiful face haunted him as it angled up to his, framed by the wispy, blonde tendrils that often escaped that annoying knot at her nape. What he wouldn’t do to remove the constraining tie and sink his fingers into the thick, shiny mass, allowing it to tumble in soft waves around her shoulders. As he did so, the generous curves of her rosy lips would part in surprise, and the tip of her pink tongue would slip out to wet the sudden dryness caused by the rapid breathing his closeness spurred.
When he took her in his arms and kissed her, her closeness incited spurred him on, too, desire for her lengthening of his cock in his too-tight pants as his impossible daydreams were doing to him now. He shifted, to give himself some ease. It was futile. He wanted her, badly.
With a sigh, he pushed to his feet. He agreed with Ucen; they were up to something. Her spirit wouldn’t allow her to be taken without a fight. When the dust settled, he would have no choice except to follow through on his promise. If she carried out a rebellion as they suspected, she would be guilty of mutiny, an offense subject to the harshest of punishments.
“Little captain,” he mused aloud. “For your sake, I hope you remember I’ve warned you twice not to push me.”
It wasn’t the meting out of the discipline that he objected to, it was the tears she had shed in the med-bay when she’d been afraid, and he’d wanted only to gather her close and protect her. With the way she stirred his warrior instincts, as well as his desire as a man, he knew he would have to steel himself against going easy on the beautiful little rebel.
***
As soon as the door shut behind the guards, they moved. Word had spread in their small group, and everyone had an assignment. A dozen rushed the dining room white shirts, taking them on, three on one. Another twelve took their places at the doors, half at the kitchen entrance and the other six at the door to the outside corridor, blocking them bodily.
After surrounding a white shirt as he left the galley, Rebecca and two others boosted him on their shoulders, while another forced his hand up to the sensor and activated it. When the door slid open, Maggie led Teagan, Nala, and Janie inside.
“Jackpot,” Nala murmured as she went directly to a shelf holding what looked like a version of their own standard issue photon blaster. She picked one up and palmed it, flipping it side to side. “These translators are fucking awesome! I can read the alien markings.” She began passing them out. “The top button with the ‘s’ on the right sets it to stun. Both buttons depressed set it to full power, so be careful.”
Maggie took hers and three more to arm the others. “Let’s go.”
They had sixteen stunners in all, not as many as they’d hoped, but they had set the wheels in motion, and there wasn’t any other choice except to proceed. Half of them hurried the white shirts into the kitchen at gunpoint, while the rest of them prepared for the bigger threat.
Flanking the doors, they waited, counting the seconds down. It was the longest quarter minute of Maggie’s entire life. When the entrance to the main corridor finally slid open and a warrior entered, he took two steps inside and stopped short. A second man following close behind, slammed into his back. The whirr and crackle of stunners firing obliterated his soft curse. They went rigid, jerked for a few moments before going down with a solid thud, their combined weight—about five hundred fifty pounds by a conservative estimate—shook the floor beneath them as they landed.
“Holy shit,” Janie murmured. “It worked.”
“Get the hostages,” Maggie ordered. “We need a green shirt up front to lead the way.”
As the team shuffled their prisoners out of the kitchen, Rebecca and Teagan flanked one of the green shirts and moved him up front.
“You don’t have a chance of succeeding,” the male warned. Not as tall as one of the warriors, he still towered over them all.
Maggie motioned him forward with her weapon. “We don’t need opinions, just directions. Take us to your docking bay and our ship, and no one will get hurt.”
He glared down at her, his brows gathered. “Woman. I didn’t offer an opinion; it was a fact. Our crew numbers two hundred and twenty, one hundred fifty of which are warriors, and believe me when I say, Rothke won’t tolerate an insurrection, particularly from females.”
“And exactly what is a Rothke?” Rebecca drawled.
“He is our commander. You’ve seen him, I’m sure. He’s the really big one in the red tunic who looks like he could snap a large tree in half with his hands. He is usually giving orders to the others, or ordering the destruction of an enemy ship. Not a warrior to be trifled with. If you have a Maker, pray fervently to him that you succeed, because I wouldn’t want to be you if you don’t.”
Impatiently, Rebecca shoved him to get him going. He barely moved. She lifted her weapon and with him watching, pressed both buttons on the grip.
“Know what that means?”
“Silly female. You set it to vaporize. I am Primarian, which means I am also trained. Because I am an engineer, not a warrior, doesn’t make me an idiot. Now let me ask you, are you insane? You miss with that, blow a hole in the hull, and we’re all dead.”
Rebecca turned to Nala for confirmation.
“How should I know?” their weapons guru answered. “This was the first time I fired one of these things.”
“We’re wasting time arguing,” Maggie cut in. “If he won’t cooperate, give his nuts a twist until he does.” She ignored his horrified expression. “Which way?”
When he hesitated, Rebecca’s hand moved to his thigh. “Left,” he yelped. “The space dock is to the left and down two levels.”
Maggie nodded and was out the door first, her crew and their Primarian hostages falling in line behind her.
They hadn’t gone twenty yards before they encountered two warriors. As predicted, surprise was on their side, and in the split second it took for them to react and go for their weapons, Nala and Janie fired. With the enemy incapacitated, they relieved them of their arms and moved on. After traveling twice the distance and engaging in two more encounters with the same outcome, an alarm went off.
“Shit,” Rebecca muttered, “so much for our surprise. We’re outnumbered badly and need more help. Where are the other females being housed?” she asked the man in green.
“I don’t know.”
“Guess. We’re staying in crew cabins, which way to those?”
“Back where we started. If you went right.”
“Take ten with you, Janie,” Maggie decided quickly, “and meet us at the Odyssey.”
“Yes, Captain.”
With four hostages in tow, three white and one green, they left, retracing the path they had just taken.
Surprisingly, despite the alarm blaring in their ears, as they continued, they found the hallways were clear, as was the lift. They squeezed four hostages and eight crew, including her, Rebecca, Nala, and Teagan, into the cramped space and held their breath as it descended two levels and opened. Still, no warriors awaited them as they exited.
“Where is everyone?” Teagan asked of no one in particular.
“Lying in wait,” Green Shirt didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Quiet,” Rebecca growled. “Which way now?”
“Left to the second corridor then right.”
They moved in that direction without talking, the obnoxious blare ringing in their ears too loud to be conducive for conversation. At the heavy double doors to the space dock, they peered through the windows and saw not a boarding sleeve leading to their ship as expected; instead, the entirety of the Odyssey hovered inside the cavernous dock.
“Crap on a cracker,” Janie murmured. “I knew this baby was big, but to fit our entire ship inside…”
“We could fit ten of your ships inside of the Dauntless,” the engineer commented. “Now are you ready to give up on this ridiculous plan?”
“I thought you said green shirts were service workers,” Rebecca inquired of Teagan. “He sounds an awful lot like those bossy warriors.”
“My name is Remus, not Green Shirt, and I’m Primarian, not a wimp.”
“Leave off,” Maggie snapped. “Open the door, Remus.”
“It’s your backside,” he cautioned with a shrug. “And I mean that literally.” He raised his hand and swiped it in front of the door lock. As soon as they slid open, suddenly, everything went pitch-black as every light in the section went out.
“Never say I didn’t forewarn you,” came Remus’s arrogant and slightly amused voice.
Chaos ensued, at least from her and her crew’s perspective.
Behind her, there were yelps and shrieks, and a second later she heard Rebecca and Nala cursing. She felt Remus, who was standing beside her, move an instant before strong hands curved around her shoulders.
“Little captain,” droned a velvety voice in her ear. “You are sorely testing my patience.”
After being spun around, her weapon removed from her grasp at the same time a hard shoulder pushed into her belly, Maggie was lifted high in the air.
Their plans foiled, and with the only chance of escape thwarted, Maggie screamed her frustration. When she drew in a breath to keep going, because it felt good and was something she could control, she heard his low chuckle.
Her anger and frustration leaked away. Fresh out of ideas, not that this one had been a good one or remotely viable, she went silent and hung limply in his hold. Exhausted and disheartened, and seeing nothing but a dismal future under the thumb of these giant barbarians, she resigned herself to being taken wherever the commander dictated and facing the consequences of her actions.