Chapter 3

3

- Maeve -

I make my voice sound growly, and the alien freezes for a short moment. Then he simply grabs the gun and me and drags me out of the cargo hold. I stick to the wall by some trick of the artificial gravity. The alien towers above me, and the blood freezes in my veins when I see that it's Arelion.

His yellow eyes shoot lightning as he grabs me by the robe and tosses me out of the small field of perpendicular gravity. He gives me enough sideways momentum to make me land on the couch with a muffled " oof" , raising a cloud of stale dust. As I scramble to get to my feet, he walks down the wall, comes over, and grabs me again, pulling my face up to his as my feet dangle in the air.

"I see now that the rumors are true," he growls with a lethal coldness in his deep voice. "Earthlings will take advantage of anyone."

I spot my fighting stick, stuck to the wall high up where I can't reach. "I don't know what you mean."

He squeezes me harder. "Are you sure you want me to explain?"

Shit. I knew breaking into some unknown spaceship and hiding could be dangerous, but if I knew this ship belonged to Arelion I would not have picked it. Because since I first saw him and noticed his unmistakable air of menace, I've known that he's perfectly capable of putting me in the airlock and flushing me into empty, airless space. Or just biting my head off, which right now seems more likely.

I try to speak, but his grip is so hard the fabric is restricting my airflow.

"Sir!" comes an urgent call from the floor. "I will explain!"

I glance down. Bari the robot puppy is looking up at us.

"Don't bother," Arelion growls and carries me easily over to the hatch, opening the inner door of the airlock. "I helped her against a gang of criminals, and the next thing I know, she's aiming a gun at me in my own ship."

I kick and writhe and try to scream, but it's like fighting a concrete pillar. I'd need a sledgehammer to make much of an impression on him.

"It's not a real gun!" Bari says urgently. "It's a memory metal fighting rod. It can't shoot! That's just a disguise!"

"She aimed a fake gun at me," Arelion replies coldly, dark wings tipped with pulsating, fiery red. "I'm not sure if that's better or worse."

"It's better!" Bari insists. "Kind sir, we didn't know it was your ship! If we knew, we would have stayed away!"

Arelion dumps me on the floor of the airlock and puts the heel of his boot on me to keep me down. If he now closes the inner hatch and hits the button to open the outer one, I'm dead.

"We would," I creak, clutching my throat.

"Would you really." His voice is flat and icy.

The inner hatch hisses shut, and I'm alone in pitch blackness in a space so tight there's just barely room for me. I scramble to my feet and search frantically for a control panel or a handhold or anything that might save me or at least give me something to do. Everything I touch is smooth and featureless. The outer hatch could open at any time.

A sore sob escapes me. Damn it. I was hoping I'd get further than this before the end?—

I jerk and whimper as there's another hiss.

But it's the inner hatch again.

Arelion gives me a withering look. "I was told that it's unwise to open an outer hatch when a ship is in hyperspace. And I suppose it might be true."

" I told him that," Bari says eagerly, small tail wagging. "It's true, too."

"Thanks," I manage as I take a quick step back into the ship.

Arelion is standing in the middle of the floor, dominating the whole space. "Save it. We won't be in hyperspace forever. It's common and legal practice to jettison stowaways. In most jurisdictions it's even required, and not doing so incurs a penalty. I think I've incurred enough trouble from you, yes?"

"We didn't know it was your ship," I tell him, voice still hoarse. "We really needed to get away from that station."

He brushes a speck of dust off his immaculate shoulder, his wings now back to their shimmery blue. "I agree that you did. One wonders what you were doing there in the first place. And how you gained access to my ship. Surely it wasn't this robotic fur ball? It goes against the robotic code to use it to open doors into other people's property."

"We were desperate," Bari says. "And I was never properly programmed."

"The Earth female also wasn't," Arelion scoffs. "Or she would know not to get into a fight with Krunku and to break into someone else's ship."

"Again, we didn't know it was yours," I tell him firmly. "If we'd known, we would have picked another one. It was just the closest. May I ask where you're going?"

Arelion chuckles. "You're a funny one. I just told you I intend to flush you out into space when I can safely open the hatch. And still you want to know where I'm going?"

"I think you're a better person than that," I say calmly, not sure at all but having to persuade him. "Meaningless murder seems like it would be beneath you."

The peacock man tilts his head to the side. "What could have possibly given you that impression?"

Damn. For all I know, he could be a mass murderer. He might get enjoyment from killing. "Just a hunch. Am I wrong?"

"It has no impact on this situation. Putting a stowaway out into space and certain death is what the law requires. It's meant to discourage that kind of thing. And so it would be neither murder nor meaningless."

"And you always follow the law?" I ask, starting to feel hope dwindle.

He gives me a long, searching look. "You're wearing a lot of clothing. That, at least, is wise on a station like Pranst if you want to be unaccosted. Why don't you reveal to me what you wanted to hide from the lowlifes there?"

"Take off your clothes, Maeve," Bari helpfully translates.

"I got that, thank you," I mutter, thinking fast. How badly do I want to live? If that guy expects me to be his sex toy in exchange for not killing me, then that's a deal I'm not going to take. Not wanting to live like a slave is the whole reason I'm in space in the first place.

But I guess I can see how far it goes. He probably won't like my body type anyway.

I unwind the gray robes and the long strips of fabric, bundling them up. Underneath I've got on a pine green military-style jumpsuit with many pockets and straps. It's figure-hugging, but not particularly sexy. Not on me, anyway.

Arelion takes his time running his penetrating gaze up and down me, pausing at my middle and my chest. "Very female indeed," he growls. "Yes, hiding that from the inhabitants of Pranst Station was a good idea. I'm only surprised you escaped at all."

I glance at the airlock. "It seems I ‘escaped' to a more dangerous place. Arelion, I'm sure nobody knows we're aboard here. Nobody saw us, and so nobody knows that you have stowaways. I request that we be set off at your nearest convenience."

"Your Interspeech is suspiciously good," Arelion says, ignoring my request. "Your clothing, your advanced fighting stick, the fact that you were alone on the station... It all points to you being a particularly sneaky Earthling, so sneaky that they have sent you to space for some particular purpose."

"I don't think that getting into an argument with those creepy aliens counts as being sneaky." I glance around the ship. This is some kind of living room, with a couch and a table and shelves and such. It has a spartan, clean look and is not what I would expect on a luxury yacht. It could be a specialized ship of some kind, like a tug or a cargo ship or something.

I'm surprised that the whole room isn't filled with mirrors and silky cushions and velvet furniture, the way I'd think an alien peacock would love. There's a door that I think leads to the cockpit, another door that I hope is some kind of restroom, and that's about it. Inside, the ship is nowhere near as big as it looked from the outside.

"Captain Arelion," Bari says from the floor. "What my friend means is that we're terribly sorry to have put you in this situation and to have encroached on your privacy. Now, what if we were to pay for our passage? That way, we're no longer stowaways, but legitimate passengers."

Arelion raises one perfect eyebrow so suggestively I almost blush. "How would you pay, Earthling?"

"With credits," I tell him quickly, furiously searching through my pockets and wishing I'd thought about this myself. "I have about a hundred."

"A hundred credits for passage to where I'm going would seem remarkably cheap," Arelion says.

"Then set us off in the nearest place," I suggest, locating two credit crystals. "We will find passage from there." I try to sound confident, but I honestly don't know what I'll do from here. I really should have met that contact on the station, but things were getting so wild that I saw no other option than escaping in any way possible.

Arelion points to the airlock. "We're already in hyperspace. I can't change course."

"You'd rather kill us than take the hundred?"

Arelion stretches, touching the ceiling with his fingertips. "There are cameras in here. I can see everything you do. At the first sign of treachery, I will take the ship out of hyperspace and airlock you on the spot. I know about you Earthlings and your devious ways." He turns and saunters off.

Only the astonishing sight of his rear in his silver pants stops me from running after him and trying to knock him out with the stick. The terms ‘pert', ‘round' and ‘are you kidding me' were clearly invented only to describe him as seen from behind.

A door hisses open and lets him through, then closes with a thunk and an electronic beep that's so forbidding it must have been specifically designed to make everyone know that it's locked.

"I can't believe this guy," I mutter. "Won't even answer my question. And why does he think I'm devious?"

Bari sits down and licks one of her legs. "It is a rumor that the Bululg have set out to keep other species from trusting and helping Earthlings. Earth has a Resistance movement that has been very effective, and the Bululg want to stop it."

I walk over to the couch and plop down. "Is it working?"

"Stopping the Resistance doesn't look like it has worked, if my news sources are right. The rumor about deviousness… well, what do you think?"

I get back to my feet, having too much stress hormones in my bloodstream to sit for long. "If Arelion thinks I'm devious, it must have worked."

Bari looks up at the stick that's still stuck to the wall. "I'm sorry I picked this ship. I just knew that I could easily open the hatch."

I sigh. "It's all right. You couldn't know it was his. How do we get out of this?"

Bari jumps up on the couch. "There's no escape pods, no emergency exit of any kind. We tried hiding in the cargo hold, and he found us right away. Getting out may be a challenge."

I rub my butt where it hit the wall inside the cargo hold when the ship did some hard maneuvers after it had just taken off. "I'm fine with not going back into that cargo space. Can we at least get my stick down?"

"No," Bari says simply. "It's too high up. That gravity discontinuity can't be easily turned off."

I think about it. "But you can open that door, right? The one where Arelion went?"

"I can, but he's right. There are cameras in here, and he will see what we're doing long before we can get into the cockpit and surprise him. And even if we could…" Bari does a cute little puppy shrug.

"... he'd be too big and strong to overpower," I finish the thought. "I was hoping that a robot like you might have some secret fighting skill, but if you had, you probably wouldn't have let those aliens kick you around back there. What was the quarrel, anyway?"

"Oh, they just didn't like the looks of me. That's usually all it takes."

I examine all the walls and the sparse equipment of the spaceship. Nothing looks useful for me to get out of this situation. "What's your story?"

Bari lazily stretches one limb out to the side. "It's not considered polite to ask that of someone you just met in a shady space station, Maeve. Notice how I haven't interrogated you about why you were there."

I examine the control panel to the airlock. Maybe I can jam it and make it impossible to open the outer hatch. There's writing and symbols, but I have no idea what they mean. "Sorry. Just making conversation. You probably shouldn't have come with me."

"I probably shouldn't. But I couldn't help liking that you stood up for me against the goons. Decent people are hard to find in space, if you hadn't noticed."

I try several buttons on the airlock, but all I accomplish is making it beep. "Any idea how I can prevent Arelion from airlocking me?"

Bari curls up on the couch and lays her little head on her paws. "You mean jamming the controls? I could probably do it, but again, he is watching us right now. And while my grasp of organism psychology is not the firmest, using basic logic I conclude that he would stop us from fiddling too much with it. Ah, there. He's locked the panel."

The airlock gives off one last chiding beep, and the buttons stop responding to my touch.

The effects of the drugs in the energy bar are slowly wearing off, and I start to feel the first pangs of panic. "Damn. What do I do?"

"You may not need to do much," Bari says calmly. "I don't think he's actually going to kill you. I think he only wanted to scare you. Again, with the usual caveat about my grasp of organism thinking. You people often surprise me."

I plop down on the couch and consider eating another energy bar. But I've been advised against getting too many of those pharma products in me at one time, and I need to keep my thoughts somewhat straight.

I concentrate on gathering my wits. I've been trained in persuasion of aliens, and I have memorized a list of nine techniques to use in a tight spot. I've tried number two on the list, the ‘appeal to vanity' approach, when I suggested he's too decent to kill meaninglessly. I'm still not sure if that worked or not, but I'm leaning towards ‘not'.

And we tried number four, negotiation, by suggesting a mutually beneficial agreement where we pay him. I suppose I could offer more, the carnal approach that my instructors apologetically held up as a possibility for a female. I can't be sure Arelion would refuse me if I threw myself at him. But I seriously don't want to. Not just because it would be degrading and unpleasant, which I am mentally prepared for during this mission, but because it's him . I don't want it like that with him . With him, I'd want it to happen naturally?—

I frown. What the hell am I thinking?! Dreaming of being seduced by an alien who's threatening to kill me?

No, no. That won't fly. I have to try another way.

"Number one on the list," I mutter in English. "‘Appeal to curiosity'. Not that he seems all that curious, but it's worth a shot."

"Who are you talking to?" Bari asks, looking around.

"Sorry," I tell her. "I'm just thinking out loud."

"Well, don't. It's a sign of insanity in organics."

"That's number seven," I tell her in English. "Faking insanity to get out of a tight spot."

Bari's round little ears twitch. "Talking to yourself in another language doesn't change what I just said. Could you stop?"

I get up to pace back and forth, sending longing gazes up at my stick. It would improve my chances if I had it. Not by much, but I need every fraction of a chance. "I would appreciate any help to avoid being airlocked, Bari."

The robot puppy yawns, showing her small, white fangs. "Oh all right. If it looks like he's really going to kill you, I'll stop him."

I look over at the tiny, pink-furred puppy. She's about the size of a roll of paper towels, and with her over-the-top cuteness she reminds me of a battery-powered toy that yaps and walks. "You'll stop him?"

"I did the first time."

"Yeah, you told him that opening the outer hatch while in hyperspace would not be wise. Will that approach work if the ship is no longer in hyperspace?"

She licks her paw. "I don't know. I'll find a way. Oh, feel that? I think we're there."

The ship trembles for a moment, and the sound from the engines changes note.

"We're not in hyperspace anymore?" I ask, coldness settling in the pit of my stomach. I may have only minutes left to live.

Bari lazily gets to her paws. "It wasn't a long jump. We didn't travel all that far. It has to be another small space station. None of the big ones are this close."

The door from the cockpit hisses open, and Arelion strides in. "We're out of hyperspace. The outer hatch can now be opened with no danger."

I shrink away from the towering alien. He's a beautiful thing, reminding me of an avenging angel. An angel of death.

"Arelion," I rasp quickly," there's an Earth custom that might surprise you."