Pirate Captive.

"I know you're awake."

I moaned. My side hurt. A lot. I'd never felt pain like it.

"Are you hurting, you little bitch?" The voice hissed at me.

Opening my eyes was hard, but I managed, eventually. Blinking in the light, a picture slowly coalesced.

I was looking up. There was a silhouette of someone leaning directly over me. With the bright light behind him, it took me a moment or two to see clearly.

And it wasn't a him at all. It was a woman. She was pretty, in a cat-like, vicious killer kind of way. Her face was slim, with an olive complexion and narrow, exotic eyes. Black hair was braided in an elaborate pattern around her head. Her mouth, set underneath a slim nose, was set into a sneer.

Some kind of red star was tattooed onto her cheek.

"You little bitch!" she said. "I'm going to make you hurt."

I couldn't think of a suitable response, so I just raised my eyebrows.

Someone else entered the room.

"Red!"

The woman jerked back. I managed to turn my head and take in the scene.

I was in some kind of medical facility. Actually, facility may have been a bit of a generous description. It was a room. A fairly small one. Still, the walls were white, and the place was clean. Cupboards and shelves lined the far wall, and I could see medical looking bottles and instruments here and there.

"Captain!" The woman was speaking. "She's just come around sir."

I focussed on my new friends.

The woman was wearing a red spacesuit. Ah! I recognised it, her. She was the one that shot me. Typical, it took another female to bring me down. I guess I'd missed her after all.

Then I saw the captain. Another man, but not like the ones I'd seen before.

I opened my eyes wide as he approached. This was not what I was expecting! Well, okay, I don't really know what I was expecting, I hadn't ever mulled over what space pirate captains looked like, but whatever I would have thought, it wasn't this.

He was slim, tall, but not too tall, and... elegant. There was no other word for it.

His black hair was long, longer than mine, and flowed over the padded shoulders of his knee-length, green jacket. Under that he wore a white shirt, which was unbuttoned at the top, revealing a shapely neck with several gold and silver necklaces hanging around it.

His face was similar to the Red woman's, maybe a shade lighter, and he looked down at me with eyes brimming with intelligence. Some instinct told me that this was not a person to underestimate.

A delicate eyebrow rose as he took my form in.

"Her?" he asked. "This schoolgirl killed six of my men? How can that be? The robot only shot one! And you too?"

The woman, Red, turned to look at me, an uncomfortable look on her face. Only then did I see two marks on her spacesuit, over her heart. Ha! I had hit her!

"The men were careless," she said, glaring at me.

"Mmmm," the captain said, rubbing his chin, which was covered with a carefully cultivated goatee. "What's your name little girl?" he asked, addressing me for the first time.

"I'm not a little girl," I said.

"Answer the captain bitch!" Red chimed in.

I glared at her, and the captain for a moment, but then years of manners kicked in. "Alice," I said.

"Alice sir!" snarled Red.

I gave her a Look through narrowed eyes.

"Ho ho!" the captain said, evidently amused. "We've a wild one here."

He ran his hand up my arm, and I tried to jerk back, only then discovering that I was strapped down.

"Very nice," he said, as he ran his hand over my breasts, gently squeezing me. My breathing sped up, even at that tiny thing, even here. Luckily he seemed not to notice.

"Very nice indeed. This is going to be a good payday."

"Sir, some of the men..."

"The men will do what I say," the captain snapped, and I really saw him for the first time. A primal, ruthless predator, camouflaged beneath a dandy exterior. No wonder he was captain. I resolved again to be extra careful dealing with him.

His hand stroked my body gently, moving lower, and then he seemed to realise what he was doing and stopped, withdrew and whirled around.

"Make sure she's healed well, and not mistreated, you hear? No damaging the goods, we've worked hard for this one."

"Aye sir," Red said.

"Good. Carry on." He gave me one last, unreadable, look, and strode out of the room, leaving Red to snarl at me.

"I have not made a friend here," I thought.

~*~

I must have fallen asleep again, because the next thing I knew someone was prodding my arm.

"Eh?" I said, jerking awake.

"Morning little miss sunshine," someone said. "Well, it's later afternoon, ship time, actually. Still."

I yawned, and tried to stretch, only to find that I couldn't move. Then I remembered where I was. Opening my eyes, I saw another figure looking down at me. It wasn't Red or the captain though, but a large, fat bald man, in long rust coloured robes. He had an intricate design tattooed onto his scalp, which shifted and glistened with an animated life of its own. It was hypnotic, and grabbed my attention for a second.

"I had it done on Chill Minor," he said, noticing my stare. "Worth every credit I'd say."

I lowered my gaze, to take in his face. It was also tattooed, although not so intricately, and these weren't animated. Underneath the ink a more kindly face looked down at me, with purple eyes that glistened with suppressed humour.

"Who are you?" I asked, rather more bluntly than I had intended. I guess being in a gunfight and being taken prisoner had stunted my manners a little.

"I'm Sth," he replied. I noticed his voice was quite high pitched for a man.

"Seth?"

"Sth," he corrected.

"Sth. Where were you when they were handing out vowels?" I asked. "What's going on?"

"You've been captured by pirates," he informed me. "Space pirates," he clarified.

"Yes, thank you," I said. Ah, there were my manners. "I'd managed to figure that out already." Maybe some sarcasm too.

"You're lucky," he said.

"I don't feel it," I replied, jerking on my restraints to make a point.

"Ah, yes, those. Well, if you promise to behave yourself, the captain said I can let you out."

"I promise," I lied.

"Oh, you're a bad liar," he shot back. "Even so, I shall let you out, simply because, well, where would you go? You're on a spaceship, with controls that wouldn't respond to your command even if we left you alone in the computer core. And if you somehow managed to kill everyone on board, and I hear that's more likely than your appearance would suggest, then you'd end up floating in space until you starved to death."

"Understood," I said, after a moment to take this information in.

"Good." Sth started to unstrap my restraints. "Before you threaten and torture me, by the way, just know that I'm not a member of the crew, unless you count a slave as crewmember. So I can't help you either."

"You're a slave?" I shook the life back into my hand as my right arm was released.

"Yes. And to answer your unspoken question, they trust me alone with your luscious little body because I'm no longer a threat to you, in that way."

"I see." I didn't. I really had no idea what he was talking about.

Sth finished unstrapping me, and I was eventually free to sit upright. I did so, and promptly winced at the pain in my side.

"They've patched you up, good as new," he informed me, but you need to take it easy for a day or so. You were lucky, nothing serious was hit, just a flesh wound.

"Well, it hurts," I said, slipping off the bunk. My jumpsuit zipper, which was on the front, was down rather low, and I quickly pulled it up, feeling exposed.

"You do have a really nice little body," Sth commented, looking me over again. He sighed. "I only wish I could do something with it. Not that I would, the captain would throw me out of an airlock if I tried. You might not want to leave yourself alone with any crewmembers though. They're a lusty lot, and you, my dear, are a sweet a thing as anyone could ask for. Temptation could easily overwhelm orders on this ship."

"What happened to my friend?" I asked, ignoring the lewd comments and changing the subject.

"I'm not allowed to give you any information I'm afraid deary."

"Is she all right?"

"Again, not allowed," was all he said, wagging a fat finger. "Now, do you want some food? I woke you up because it's dinner time, and if you miss that, you won't get anything until breakfast. Everyone eats together here."

I stood still for a moment, trying to adapt to everything that was happening to me, but then I nodded. "Fine," I said. Maybe I could start to think with something inside me.

"Very well then." He started to turn, but then stopped and looked back at me. "I hope you're as bad assed as they say. This is going to be..." he looked up at the ceiling for a second, searching for a word. "Noisy," he said, eventually.

We went to dinner.