ALLEX

The stowaway ended up on the futon. I laid on the floor on a pile of blankets. She turned off the light, and we rested in the darkness. Judging by the sound of her breathing, she wasn’t going to fall asleep anytime soon. My head ached so badly that I wasn’t sure I would be able to sleep at all.

My mind wouldn’t stop replaying the sight of her naked body, which seemed to be burned into my retina. She had full, perky breasts with dark nipples. Her waist narrowed until it swelled into wide hips perfect for bearing children. We needed babies to save our race.

Remembering the triangle of dark hair between her legs made me hard. I couldn’t control my mind. I imagined what it would be like to spread her legs...

I stopped myself. I needed to think about something else. A criminal was not the woman for me. I didn’t even want to fool around with the sort of person who would stowaway on a starship.

The bulge in my pants betrayed my feelings, but I was determined to think with my brain, not my dick. I wasn’t going to be swayed by my cock. I had a feeling it wouldn’t lead me anywhere I wanted to go.

On the other hand, lust was burning in me to the point where I wondered if I would need to go into the darkness of the heating pipes and take care of myself if I wanted to sleep at all.

The girl was annoying and kept blaming me for things which were clearly her fault. I hadn’t run into her — she was the one who hadn’t been looking. It wasn’t my fault my head was practically caved in after she hit me with a pipe.

In her defense, however, it might have been wise of her to attack me — if she thought I was a pirate.

I rolled onto my side, pulling the blankets tightly around me to stop the shivering. It was warm down here during the day, but at night, the temperature of the ship was deliberately dropped to mimic a planet’s daily weather pattern. It was pretty cold now. I didn’t know how she had survived for months by herself.

Anders and I only used this place to get away from Father when we were in trouble (and Anders was usually the one in trouble). We never slept down here; the futon was for sitting, not sleeping. We made sure to go home the same day. Even if we got lost, we always found our way home in time for dinner.

The girl had to stay here all the time and couldn’t leave. She wanted to know if I was going to reveal her existence. Would I? I wasn’t sure.

If she was breaking an intergalactic law, wasn’t turning her in the right thing to do? Things shouldn’t be this complicated.

So why did it feel like I would be making a mistake?

Her voice spoke into the darkness. “If you’re cold, you can have one of my blankets. I don’t need them all. Trust me, it’s hard to sleep when you’re shivering.”

Had she been too cold to fall asleep before? Before I could answer her, I felt a blanket hit my chest. Was this how thieves usually acted?

My brothers had driven manners into me. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, Allex.”

I pulled the blanket over me, and it was enough to let me start getting warm. I was comfortably drowsy in a few minutes. As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered how she knew my name.

I fell into a deep sleep, upset by the realization that I hadn’t bothered to ask for her name.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I only saw darkness. I was completely disoriented and didn’t know where I was.

The first thing I remembered was the woman. The pretty one. The sexy one.

The annoying one.

I heard the door shut and realized she was leaving. I must have awakened when she moved around in the small space. I wondered what she was doing. It felt like it was too early to wake up.

The pirates weren’t going to let me take my time. I had fallen asleep in my clothes, and I was quickly out the door trailing her. When I came out into the dimly-lit heating pipes, it was much easier for me to see.

I could make out a shadow moving through the pipes and decided to follow it. I was curious and wanted to ensure she wasn’t trying to run away. She was a criminal, after all. No matter how nice she was to offer a blanket, she should face justice.

After I caught up with her, I hung back far enough so she wouldn’t notice me. She was heading to the storerooms. She stopped and put some things into a backpack. The next place on her list was the washroom one level up. She emerged with a full pail of water and made her way back down using the emergency stairs.

I didn’t see anyone else around. The pirates were probably restricting people’s movement on the ship. Even if they weren’t, I didn’t know what the regular traffic was down at this level.

When I was confident she was heading back, I used the bathroom myself before returning. I was careful to call out before I entered the room; I didn’t want her hitting me again. I reached a hand up and touched the huge bump on the head she’d given me. It still felt tender. I hoped she hadn’t done any permanent harm. I hadn’t noticed any behavior indicating brain damage, aside from my illogical attraction to her.

I crawled through the door.

“Where were you, Allex?” The girl was sitting on the futon with a package of dried food and a bottle of water next to her.

“I went out to stretch my legs.” I didn’t want to admit I had been following her.

“Well, I hope you feel better. These are for you.” She handed over some food and water to me, which she had prepared for me in addition to hers.

She had surprised me again. “Thank you.” I took her offering and sat on my makeshift bed. We ate in silence. Occasionally, I would catch her looking at me and remembered something. “Somehow you know who I am, but I don’t even know your name.”

“I remember from the testing center. The blonde woman called you Allex.”

I nodded. Was she avoiding telling me her name? I lifted my eyebrows when she looked at me again.

“It’s Priya.” She sounded reluctant to say it.

I nodded. “Priya. It suits you.”

It was her turn to look surprised. “Was she your girlfriend?” The question made me look up. I was trying to dig the last piece of dried fruit out of the packaging. She wanted to make it sound casual, but I could tell she was interested. It took me a minute to realize who she meant.

“You must be talking about Jayne?” I blanched at the thought of her being my girlfriend. “Not quite. She’s my brother’s wife, and mother of his twins. He’d murder me if we were fooling around.”

“She’s your sister-in-law, then.” Priya was carefully cleaning up the remains of the meager meal and wouldn’t look at me.

Why did she care if Jayne was my girlfriend or not? I wondered for a second if she was interested in me. I shouldn’t care if this human was attracted to me or not. In fact, I didn’t want her to be interested in me. She was all kinds of trouble.

Today she was wearing some standard-issue clothing she must have scavenged. Black cargo pants and a T-shirt stretched tightly over her generous chest as if it was one size too small.

I tore my eyes away from her breasts before she noticed me staring. “I thought I would try to see some of these pirates and learn something about them. If I’m lucky, I might learn something that can help us get rid of them.”

“Why would you do that? And why weren’t you captured with the rest of the men?” It looked like the idea had just occurred to her.

Her question was a strange one. “Because I have to.” Priya had been reluctant to tell me her name as if I would somehow use it against her. Likewise, I didn’t want to tell her about the secret passageway. It was our only advantage and I couldn’t risk the information leaking. I thought quickly. “I was in a remote area of the ship. When I heard the pirates had boarded us, I rushed down here and hid once it was safe.”

“Sounds to me like you tried to save your ass. Why do you feel like you have to take down these pirates by yourself? Wait until someone else gets rid of them, like the police.”

I shook my head. “There isn’t much local law enforcement in this sector.” I had heard the speech from Anders plenty of times. “It was the primary justification for buying the new fighters. But they’re brand-new, and we weren’t ready to use them. We’re on our own.”

“How do you know all this?” She stared at me suspiciously.

I had probably said too much. “Let’s just say I have a lot of sources on this ship and leave it at that.” If she thought I was a jerk already, what would she think if she knew I was a prince?

“Why would you have special knowledge? Are you an official or something?”

“No, I’m not.” I tried to make it sound final.

She looked taken aback. “You don’t want to tell me because you don’t trust me. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t trust you either.”

Her words bothered me more than I cared to admit. “I’m not going to hurt you, Priya.” I noticed her black eyes, the likes of which I had never seen before on Auxem.

“I’m not afraid of you hurting me.” She paused. “Should I be?”

“You don’t want me to turn you in.”

“Of course I don’t. How would you feel if you were in my position?”

She had a point.

* * *

Priya wanted to come with me, but I wouldn’t let her. I told her the bloodthirsty pirates made it too dangerous, but that was only part of the reason. I didn’t want her to know how I planned to use the secret tunnels to spy on the pirates. We had a long, tense discussion about the merits of her accompanying me before I abruptly ended it and told her she wasn’t coming. She wasn’t happy, but she didn’t follow me.

It was an exhausting and stressful day. I returned without any useful knowledge except a sense we were in trouble. When I returned, I announced myself and crawled through the maintenance door.

“Welcome back.” Priya didn’t greet me with a smile. “What did you find out?”

I hadn’t been gone long, but the room seemed smaller and more cramped than I remembered. I didn’t like Priya living here. It was one thing to play in the place for a few hours as a child, but it was quite another to live alone in the tiny, dingy space as an adult.

She looked surprisingly happy to see me, which caught me off guard until I remembered I was the only person she had seen in a long time. If I had been alone for as long as she had, I would have been pleased with any company too.

“I only bring bad news.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“They separated the men and the women. The women are all in the First and Second wings. The men are in the Third and Fourth wings. Pirates are roaming everywhere on the ship.”

“How did you manage to figure this out without getting caught?”

I shrugged. I didn’t think I should share everything with Priya. “I ran into a pilot who is friends with one of my brothers. His name’s Jassan. Apparently, there’s a rumor that Anders left the ship. A fighter escaped right after the pirates took over, but no one knows for sure it was him.”

“Do you think it was?”

“It certainly sounds like something my brother might do. He’s a bit of a wild card.”

“But how could they have evaded the tractor beam? I thought everyone was stuck until the tractor beam is turned off.”

“He’s good with computers. He has talent, but all he’s done before is hack into places and annoy our father.”

“We’re not alone out here. Maybe there’s more hope than you think.” Her black eyes flashed a challenge at me.

“We might be lucky. That wasn’t the only thing Jassan said to me. They already killed one of us.”

“Are you joking?”

“Nope. The pirates would rather shoot first and ask questions later. They don’t need the men for anything. It doesn’t matter if we can answer them or not.”

“You shouldn’t go out there again.”

“It’s not dangerous for me, Priya.” The look on her face told me she didn’t believe me.

I had the irrational urge to tell her not to worry. I knew she hadn’t been worried about me. We were strangers. I didn’t know how to explain anything to her without telling her about the passageways, so I decided I shouldn’t tell her anything.

“I hope it’s not. You’re in time for dinner.” She gestured to a pile of dried food and water.

“It looks delicious. A five-star meal for people stuck in the basement of a starship.” A grin spread across my face. “I’m hungry, but I have something to show you first. You’ll have to follow me. It’s not here.”

“Is it a present? I don’t like surprises anymore.”

I wondered what she meant. “Don’t think of it a surprise. It’s something that will make your life better.”

“Is it safe to leave with the pirates on board?”

I nodded. “I promise nothing will happen to you.”

I knew she would have to trust me to leave the safe life she had built for herself. She studied my face for a long time with a worried look in her eyes.

She seemed to come to a decision and nodded. “Okay, Allex. Lead on.”