KUVO BANE
When I saw Andrene standing there completely topless with her fingers shoved into the waistline of her pants, something took over me. I wasn't even myself; it was like I was hypnotized. Her breasts were perfect. Her nipples were rosy and hard, begging for me to suck on them. I was in complete shock by her turn of behavior. It was suspicious that she would suddenly be so inviting to me, but in that moment, I wasn't exactly thinking with my head, at least not the head on top of my shoulders. As I watched her seductively peel off her pants, I was lost in lust. I didn't want anything else and couldn't think of anything else other than being inside of her, and I needed to do it or lose my mind.
So when we were rudely interrupted, I was filled with anger. Who the fuck would be trying to board a peaceful Earth ship on a mission of negotiations? We weren't in an army ship, even though we were armed, so there would be no reason for it to be a target. There would be no reason for anyone other than the king to know that we were coming. But most of all, I was filled with anger because they interrupted me before I could sample of the sweet warm and wetness of Andrene, before I could push myself inside of her. It pissed me off.
Now in my capsule, I quickly dressed and grabbed my blaster gun and pushed various weapons into holsters on my thighs and boots. Then, I moved into the hallway.
"What the hell?” Pilot Winfrey said, looking at me.
"Go to the flight deck and mayday our position to both Earth and to Mooreah, if you can reach it. Go do it now. We might have just seconds before they board us and take us prisoner,” I said to the pilot. His eyes were wide and he quickly ran to the flight deck. Copilot Simon looked at me with fear in his eyes as he grabbed a blaster off of the wall.
"Who is boarding us?” he asked.
"I don't know. My guess would be pirates, but that is just a guess. Get into position facing the gateway,” I said as I moved to the side of the ship and looked out the porthole. I could see a very large gray ship that was docked onto ours.
"I don't recognize the ship. It is not a Drackonian ship. It is not an Earth ship,” I said out loud.
"Then what the hell?” Simon said. I stood beside him with my blaster aimed toward the gateway as it opened. On the other side stood twenty human males, with four Drackon warriors. It shocked me to see them together, working together. And I knew exactly what this was. They were criminals for hire. This was the only time that you saw human and Drackon working together like this in such a brash way. They had been paid to do something, but I did not know what that something was. It could be as simple as to scour space and commandeer ships like pirates and sell them and whatever cargo they contained, including selling the people into slavery.
"Who are you?” I shouted at them.
"Lower your weapons, or all of you will die. You are greatly outnumbered," a Drackon warrior said. I knew who was in charge now. It was this Drackonian.
"How do I know that you are not going to kill us anyway? I'd rather kill some of you in the process,” I shouted back.
"A Drackon… you are a Drackon. I was not expecting a Drackon to be in charge of an Earth ship. That is something refreshing and new,” he said with a wicked laugh.
"I was not expected to be boarded by a Drackon with humans at his side. Tell me what you want. Tell me who sent you,” I said glaring at him as the villain gave me a mocking smile and laughed uproariously.
Pew! Their blaster gun went off, hitting copilot Simon in the leg. He crumbled to the ground. And I aimed directly at the leader.
"That is just a warning shot. I will kill all of you unless you put your gun down and slide it to me,” he said to me.
"I have you in my aim; why don't I just take you out now?” I said angrily.
"Do so if you will. My second will just take my place and they will continue to raid your ship," he said smiling.
"Drop your gun, Kuvo Bane!” I heard Andrene's voice say from behind me. I bit my lip in anger. Would she ever listen to me? I told her to stay hidden until I came for her. She was putting this all in jeopardy and making it harder for me to fight them. Now she was in harm’s way.
"Andrene, get back in your capsule,” I said to her. Then she stopped in front of my gun in the middle of the range of gunfire. My mouth fell open at her stupidity.
"Drop your gun, Kuvo Bane. Let them raid the ship. No one should die. Simon is already hurt. He needs medical attention now,” she said in a panic.
"You should do what your boss says,” the Drackon warrior said to me, laughing. The rest of his men laughed with him. I hated all of them and wanted to take them all out but I knew that I couldn't. I could not risk Andrene getting hurt in crossfire. I could not risk her getting hurt in a space battle, even though it was my responsibility to make sure she was not captured.
"Do you guarantee not to harm her? I need your word as a Drackon,” I said to the villain.
"Oh, she has my word,” he said with a smile. I lowered my gun onto the floor and kicked it over to him. Andrene went to Simon's side to help him.
"Chain them and take them on to our ship. Search the ship for any valuables,” the Drackon said as his men went into action. I sneered and let out a growl as my arms were put behind me in chains. Pilot Winfrey was brought to the front from the flight deck in chains. He nodded at me. He was letting me know that he had made the emergency signal and beacon call. I nodded to him in return. We were all put in chains, except for Andrene. Then we were taken on to their ship. I didn't like being separated from her. Who knew what these scoundrels would do to her.
"Rubla Von, where do we put the girl?" one of the Drackon said to the villain I had been talking to.
"Put her in my quarters,” he responded with a laugh. I struggled to get out of my chains, but they pulled them tighter. He laughed at my response. As I was escorted to the prison cells aboard the ship, I remembered the name, Rubla Von. I knew who he was. He was an outlaw that used to cause many problems on the outposts of Sala. Then he disappeared after an issue for his arrest. They had lost track of him, most likely on the outlaw planet of the Riolb. He had not been heard of since, at least not in my circles in the special squadrons. But by the looks of it, he was busy making a name for himself as a criminal mastermind. Rubla Von was very dangerous, and now we were his prisoners.
"Where are you taking us?” I sneered at the guard that threw me into a prison cell and locked it behind me.
"Wouldn't you like to know,” he said, laughing at me before leaving the prison hallway.
I filled with anger; not only had we been caught, but we had been caught by one of the worst criminals in the galaxy. But mostly I was angry with myself. I had failed. I had failed my duty and responsibility to not put Ambassador Representative Novan into harm’s way. It only happened because I had allowed myself to become distracted. She had seduced me and distracted me with her body. I don't even remember hearing sirens go off to let us know that a ship was near.
Even on auto pilot, the sound should have penetrated the ship. It was strange that it had not. It was something that would have to be manually shut off. I grew suspicious. The only one that could've done so was Pilot Winfrey. Now I wondered if he was on our side or on Rubla Von’s side. Had he even made the emergency call?
I glared at him as he was put into the cell next to me. Even if he had done so, I was still a failure. I was a failure to recognize sabotage on my own team; that was the worst. I had failed my responsibilities as a hired special security detail. I was a failure. Simon was not with us in the cells. I assumed it was because he had been shot. I could only hope that they were giving him the treatment he needed. But I was mostly worried about Andrene. She was in a ship full of human males and Drackon males; it was not a good place for someone that looks like her to be.
I could feel the ship moving; they had no doubt locked in the Cosmo and were taking it with them. It would get a good price on Riolb. Not to mention the weaponry that was inside of the artillery. I was lucky that they did not search me, because they would have found many gadgets, knives, and hidden weapons on me. It was essential to the escape plan that I was slowly forming in my mind.
"Did you have anything to do with this?” I asked Pilot Winfrey once the guards left us alone. He looked at me with his mouth wide-open.
"How could you say such a thing? I am a pilot. I am in trusted with the safety of my crew and passengers. Do you not think I feel like a failure right now?” he shouted.
"Then why did a siren not pierce the ship when these bandits came into radar range?” I asked him quietly.
"I asked myself the same question. When I made the emergency call, I checked. The radar warning system had been manually turned off.”
"Did you forget to set it?” I asked him.
He looked at me with great offense about his skills as a pilot. He shook his head from side to side, no.
"Simon then? Any reason to question his loyalty?” I asked.
"Simon has been my copilot for many years and on many missions; he would give his life for me and for his crew. It is impossible,” he said to me.
"Something is wrong,” I mumbled to myself.
"What about you, Drackon? You are an outsider. The leader of these pirate bandits is also Drackon. How do I know that you are not in league with him? It is very suspicious that you should suddenly come to the embassy only a day or two before this and now you are here, captured by a Drackon. With a very high valued prize that you happen to be personally guarding. It reeks to me,” he said in anger.
"I can assure you it is not me.”
"Then that would only leave one other on the ship: the ambassador. I hardly doubt that she would know how to do such a thing, or why,” he said.
"Perhaps it was meddled with in the flight control at the embassy,” I said to him.
"Or flight control disabled it remotely," Pilot Winfrey said.
"They can do that?” I asked him.
"Yes, if we were still in range. I think we were before we all went to bed,” he said.
"Who at the embassy would plan such a thing like this?” I asked him.
"You would know more than I. I am not allowed in meetings in political briefings the way you were to guard the ambassador. I am a mere pilot doing my duty,” he said.
We sat there over the next twenty-four hours trying to figure something out, but nothing was definite. I knew that we would be landing somewhere soon, but I wasn't sure where. Then, the hallway door opened and Rubla Von walked in.
"Take him first,” he said, pointing to the pilot.
"Where are you taking me? I demand answers!” Pilot Winfrey shouted.
"Where are you taking him! Where have we landed?” I shouted, banging on the bars. The guards took the pilot out of his cell and out of my sight. Rubla Von came over to me with a smirk on his face.
"You really have no idea what's really going on here, do you? If you only knew, you would know that you are being played for a fool, Kuvo Bane."
"How do you know my name?" I glared at him.
"I know everything about each and every one of you. It was no mistake that your ship was my target. We weren't just lucky to come across your ship while scouting in space; this was all planned. But I have plans of my own as well, plans that are going to make me very, very rich,” Rubla Von laughed.
"You better not touch a hair on her head!” I shouted at him as I grabbed the bars, trying to reach through, trying to reach his face.
"Oh, I won't. I won't get paid if she is hurt; that is part of the deal,” he laughed again.
"What do you speak of? Tell me what is going on here! Or are you worried that telling me will give me too much information and I will be able to spoil your plans?” I said to him.
"No, it will be impossible for you to spoil my plans when you are dead,” he said with a smile.
"Rubla Von, we are coming into port,” a Drackon warrior said to him as he entered the door.
"Good, keep this one locked up until I send for him,” he said to the guard. Then he walked out. I was very angry and my frustration was distracting, but I couldn't let it get the better of me. I needed to focus. I needed to pay attention to every single detail. It would come in handy. It always did in situations like these. I could hear the ship slowing. It meant that we had entered an atmosphere of a planet. I counted the seconds until the ship jolted, meaning that it was on a hard surface. Judging by the long minutes that it took, we were on solid ground and not on some towering spaceport. The engines came to a stop. Then they were shut off. The loud humming was no longer in my ears, allowing the sounds of our environment to come to me.
I could hear distant music. I could hear the loud talking of various people, most importantly the haggling of vendors selling their wares. It was the sounds of a marketplace. I knew that on Mooreah, the landing ports were nowhere near a market. The king had always said a port near a market was too dangerous; he did not want faulty ships to fall on a marketplace. Therefore they were on the other side, on the outskirts of cities. The landing ports on Sala were all military, and there were no market places on Sala that were big enough to cause this amount of noise.
That left one planet that Rubla Von would land at, and the one that would make most sense. We had to be on Riolb. We were either in Mzech or in Cix. Both of these cities on the outlaw planet of Riolb had ports that were practically inside the market. In fact, there were no rules to landing, just as there are no rules to the entire planet. If someone wanted to land their ship on top of their house or inside the courtyard, they could. But the guard that came in to speak to Rubla Von specifically said the word port. This meant they were using an official landing port and not landing inside of someone's private space. This was all useful information. Once I was able to get free of this cell and grab Andrene, being able to run into a marketplace where we would get lost amongst the thousands was going to be very helpful in my escape plan.
But knowing exactly which city we were in would also help, because then I would know exactly where to take her. I knew that I did not have much time. If Rubla Von was going to hold Andrene for ransom or sell her at a slavery market, she would not be on the ship for very long. I opened the inside pocket of my boot and took out a gadget knife. There were many tools on it and I flipped them open quietly and carefully and went to work opening the lock of my cell. But I stopped as soon as I heard the door open.