Sierra blinked at the man in the olive green colored flightsuit. Was he real? He looked human! Part of her had the absurd inclination to run over and hug him simply for having familiar features. No pointed ears, no ethereal shimmering hair, no green skin or pointed teeth, just a tan, boyish, masculine human face with a bit a scruff and brown tousled hair like any of the men working the line by her father's store.
Sierra stilled herself, this could be a trap. Lord V could be testing her. She narrowed her eyes at the man, "who are you?" she asked suspicion thick in her sweet voice.
The man grimaced slightly and began with an apologetic tone, "I don't blame you for not trusting me, Sierra. Shevu knows what you've been through already, but we don't have much time. I need to get you out of here, before Lord fuckface returns."
Sierra cocked her head at that. The man rolled his eyes exasperated with himself, "I mean, Lord V, em, Lord V Titus Veer. Do you want to stay here with him?" the distressed questioning look in the man's golden brown eyes was full of worry.
Sierra looked down, "No, I . . . I do not wish to stay here" she said quietly. She still flinched again when he approached her swiftly until he stood before her causing her to clutch the pillow tighter.
"Do you have any clothes?" he asked running a hand through his hair and surveying the room with an almost comical attempt not to gawk at her.
Sierra shifted grabbing a sheet to wrap around herself and made her way past the man to the chest of drawers. She pulled out a pure white, silky nightshirt of Lord V's and threw it on. It seemed once she'd made the decision to trust the human stranger, a calculating calm came over her and her movements became both swift and careful.
She followed the man to the glow of the entrance door which still gaped open. She paused to run back over to the little nightstand and dig out her little, green apple. She padded back to him clasping her prize. The man gave her a puzzled expression, but then nodded and quickly led her out.
~
Lord V enjoyed looking at beautiful women. Though tomboyish, rough-around-the edges women weren't typically his type, he could tell that for Gerra Caspian some of it was put on in attempt to camouflage how truly alluring she could be. She oozed false bravado and deception. Her dimpled smile meant to disarm, but behind it hid a deeply intelligent, devious mind. He was inwardly highly amused at her spiel, though he retained his mask of dignified apathy.
"Ah, Miss Caspian, you've certainly piqued my interest. Let us go examine what you are offering." She didn't miss his pointed perusal of her own form despite the baggy clothes she wore and he saw a minute tightening of her features before she took on the role of slaver saleswoman once again.
"Certainly, my lord" she bit out a little too tartly. Lord V held back a smile.
When he and Caspian entered the cargo bay, Lord V paused peering at the man standing beside the cryopod. Something . . . there was something familiar about that man. He was momentarily distracted by the swaying hips of the Keplarian female as she strode with deliberate confidence across the shining gray floors.
Once they reached the cryopod, Lord V kept turning his gaze to the man who was studiously avoiding looking back at him. When Caspian unceremoniously swung open the cryopod revealing its empty contents, Lord V registered a microsecond of surprise, but was instantly on his guard, his Aphelion Order instincts kicking in.
Lord V blocked the Keplarian man's punch, and smoothly swung around attempting to land what would've been a deadly elbow to the ribs of the Caspian whore. The Keplarian female impressively danced away from him, her dark eyes glittering, her grin almost ugly.
Lord V turned back to his original assailant and through a series of disciplined, smooth movements grabbed the brown-hair man and artfully leg swept the scrappy amateur who was clearly no match for Lord V. The man hit the floor hard and Lord V was turning back to the impish female when a sweet voice he instantly recognized called to him.
"Master, don't hurt them. I'll come back." He jerked his gaze to the sound and saw his slave delicately standing on the ramp leading to the slaver scum's ship. Her sumptuous form draped in one of his pale nightshirts. She looked like a lost goddess he thought as the chilling puncture of a vantom shot buried itself into his neck.
~
As Jarok heaved the taller, Ingentian man into the cryopod and slammed the lid down, he winced grabbing his throbbing knee. "I say we stick a grenade in there with him and launch him" he growled.
Gerra smiled, "And have the whole Ingentian army after us? Besides, you know we haven't time. Nope, he's going to have a nice long nap in here until someone finds him or the two guards we drugged earlier. We're going to have to keep a very low profile for some time as it is" she frowned then shook herself. "You've got your girl, let's go." Gerra scowled at the perfect face of Lord V beneath the cryotube glass and flipped it off before swiftly approaching the human girl still trembling on the ramp.
"Come on kiddo," Gerra said walking past Sierra into the ship. "We've places to be."
Jarok limped up to the ramp and reached an arm out to the human, but instead of leaning on him, she placed herself under his shoulder so he could lean on her. Though it hurt his pride, with her help, they were able to stride more quickly up the ramp and into the control room of his stargalley.
Jarok patted her arm and she released him so he could sit in the pilot's chair. Jarok pointed towards a seat further back and nearly lost himself in her wide, green eyes as he turned to tell her to strap herself in. Sierra nodded. A wave of relief passed through him that he finally had her back, but they weren't out of the woods yet, he told himself.
~
General Lilith Conroy glared at the view screen in front of her. She saw the tall, black robed figure bend down to pat the shiny hair of the smaller figure kneeling at his feet. Even at this vantage, one could see the kneeling human woman shudder at the Ingentian's touch.
"That sadistic prick," General Conroy muttered through clenched teeth. "How?" she demanded of the informant who brought her the images, but Conroy added before the man could answer, "How did he get his slimy hands on a human slave? Is she one of ours? How is he not bloated with poison as he deserves?"
The spy nodded respectfully to her questions. "Yes, general. It seems, unfortunately, she was purchased in Ingentian space."
Lilith Conroy sucked in a breath. "What the hell was any human in their right mind doing in those pasty, blood-sucker's sectors? Is she a kid from one of the off-worlders, a mutant?"
The spy shrugged smoothly. "Word is, mam, she is a complete anomaly. Her lifepod was found drifting near Janos sector by scavengers."
"How the hell would anything 'drift' that far out?" General Conroy asked rhetorically as she frowned casting a thoughtful gaze to the side. "Carry on," she urged returning her attention to the stoic informant who stood patiently before her desk, his hands clasped behind his back.
"Again, unfortunately, he purchased the girl legally according to the Lectide Treaty," the spy paused as the general harrumphed, but she waved a hand at him to continue. "She is venomless, though none of our people have yet to determine why."
General Conroy sighed, "I don't like it. Despite the poor woman being an anomaly, if this gets out to the general population, it will encourage our enemies, enrage our friends and stir up unrest in an already divided populace. Many factions would have us close ourselves completely off from the rest of the consortium as it is. The premier should know of this development."
The general tilted her blond head back and raised her perfectly arched brows, "Unless, we can take his little fucktoy out from under him" she mused, shaking her head in disgust at the thought of any human woman being at the mercy of that creature. Her eyes narrowed, "if we can free the woman, she may be able to clarify that Lord V did break our treaty so he can be brought to justice." The general's deep blue eyes shone with calculations. "Bring me Captain Bryant."
~
Once the smaller ship cleared the bay doors of Lord V's vessel and shot through the planet's atmosphere into space, Sierra felt both excitement and a release of pent up apprehension as she sat strapped into the human man's smaller space ship. She wasn't sure if she could trust her rescuers, but after only a couple days with her "master," visions had stretched before her of what her life would be like if she didn't escape the Ingentian's hold on her.
She was certain it would have been a life of sexual servitude and submission until he tired of her and did who knows what to her or worse threw her to another man like that red robed Ingentian. Sierra shivered. And, what would she have become? A plaintive puppy awaiting his next molestation? Would she eventually have curled up at his feet without a thought, calling herself "this slave" like that brainwashed Elanna?
Still, she was loathed to admit to herself that some part of her would always burn remembering her master's touches. His domination had touched something deep inside her. Sierra shook her head. There is more to life than sex she thought. Her eyes sought out the tousled curls of her male rescuer peeking above the pilot's chair. As if on cue, he turned, his warm eyes meeting hers, he gave her a heartbreakingly charming smile before his eyes clouded with an inexplicable sadness.
"It won't be long now, and we'll be out of Ingentian space," he informed her, his voice a bit gruff, but clearly meaning to comfort her. Sierra nodded.
"Thank you," Sierra replied sincerely. Oddly, her response seemed to pain the man for he looked down and then seemed to share a glance with the freckled lady before he settled back into his pilot's chair.
~
Lord V awoke with a start. Humans weren't the only ones to tinker with genetic modifications. He had made himself impervious to many substances. Some, like vantom, still affected him, but rapidly cycled through his circulatory system giving it a shortened half-life. He scowled up at the glass of the cryopod and tried tapping into its computer to open it. Of course, the thieves that had been able to waltz in through his security systems would have jammed the pod. He was going to have to have a talk with Security Chief Arron. For now, he tapped the comm at his wrist. This was going to be embarrassing, but necessary.
Once his men had cut him loose from the cryopod with torchguns, Lord V sprung from the pod his face a mask of restrained fury, his eyes dark. If his men had lost any respect for him when they found him trapped by slavers in his own cargo bay, they certainly gave him space now. His whole body seemed electrified with pent up rage and energy.
