I awoke slowly with a light head and a headache. I slowly sat up from a very uncomfortable position, feeling like I had a mild hangover. Extremely confused, I was trying to remember the last thing that happened when I suddenly realized my shocking predicament.
I was not in my bed. Nor was I in any cabin. Nor was I wearing clothes! I was sitting in a cold, unadorned cell, one of the ones the female prisoners were kept in. I felt something heavy around my neck, and reaching up I could feel the cold metal of a collar. What the fuck was going on?! Why was I collared and naked in a cell?! Just as images of my scuffle with Charlie and the strange dark-skinned girl started to reappear in my mind, I heard a familiar voice.
"Glad to see you're awake." It was Julie.
I turned my head to see that standing outside of the bars was Julie, fully clothed, and wearing no collar. The whole scene was still so confusing I had to do a double-take and look around to confirm that yes, I was the naked collared one in the cell, and Julie was the one outside watching me.
I slowly stood on wobbly legs and grabbed onto the cell bars, looking out at her. "Julie, what's going on, where am I?!" I asked in a confused panic.
"It's okay Seth, it's over." she said with a strange, calming serenity. Despite the tone, my panic persisted.
"What's over? How did I get here? Would you please let me out?"
"Seth, calm down. We're safe now. We're free."
Neurons fired in my brain at a mile a minute. Prostitutes got on the ship, one of them drugged me, and I've now woken up naked in a cell with all the female prisoners released. Oh fuck.
"You're free! I'm wearing a collar in a cell! Please Julie, I would have freed you if I could, really, I'm sure you know that. Please, would you let me out?" I pleaded, feeling desperate. When I was on this ship I didn't think things could get much worse, but now being a prisoner to... someone did seem a lot worse.
"Seth, don't worry. The other prisoners and I talked to the, uh, 'band of fine working girls,' they're not going to hurt you. I also don't have the key so I can't let you out yet, but we're leaving soon, and you're coming too."
"Julie!" I said, grasping the bars even tighter. "Stop telling me to calm down. For the love of god, just explain to me what the fuck is exactly going on." I started to shiver, naked in this cold cell.
Julie then explained to me what happened. Those girls that boarded the ship were not actually any prostitutes, but an all-female band of pirates who called themselves the Solar Sisters. Apparently they knew about this ship somehow, convinced the captain to let them board, and then when the time was right they started drugging and knocking out just about every single man before sweeping up the rest. Afterward, they went around the ship and freed all the women. Now they were busy looting the ship for any valuables.
"Where are the other guys?" I asked. Julie looked down.
"You're the only one left. The Sisters were going to get rid of you too, but once they freed us half the girls in the block begged them not to hurt you and explained you're not like the rest."
"Oh..." I said. I felt touched in a strange way. I didn't have the most friends growing up, or girl friends, a bunch of women I barely knew and, if anything, had good reason to despise me, saving my life was a very pleasant surprise to hear.
"So... what's next?" I asked solemnly. Despite Julie's reassurances, I was still quite anxious about my fate.
"Next we wait for their captain to come back, she said she wanted to see you. Then, I think we're all getting on their ship and leaving."
"Leaving with me, right?"
"That's what they said."
"With clothes?"
Julie smirked. "It's funny how things turn around. Now you're the one naked in a cell and I'm watching you, and now I even got to save you."
I blushed a little. I was so focused on the crazy situation I barely thought about my nudity. I had seen Julie naked nearly everyday, and now I could see her eyes glancing up and down my body. I guess it was only fair in a cosmic sort of way, but I still wasn't used to someone just stare at me naked. Then I realized she was also probably watching me sleep naked. I blushed a little deeper and Julie looked at me and chuckled.
I hadn't heard a woman laugh in what felt like forever. In a way it was oddly refreshing, but given the context it just made me more embarrassed.
"Do you think you could find me some clothes before their captain comes?"
"Nope, sorry. They said if they're going to spare you, then, what was it, 'you've at least got to feel what you put these girls through.'"
"I didn't put any of you through shit, I was trying to help!"
"I know, I tried to tell them that. But given that you were a guard on the ship they didn't seem very sympathetic... also there were a lot of other women you couldn't get around to helping, not that that's your fault, I mean you only were stationed in a few places, so not all of them vouched for you."
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath through my nose. "Julie, would you please just get me some clothes?"
"Sorry, but the Sisters are in charge now, and they said they wanted you naked, and I don't want to piss them off," she said dismissively, her hands on her hips. I sighed and sat back down in the cell, waiting in silence.
"Could I get some water?" I asked.
"Sure," she smiled and returned with a bottle for me.
"I was naked in a cell for a long time, I think you can survive for another hour or two," she said as I sipped from the bottle.
"Fair enough...." I said, resigned. My nerves were calmed and with the water my headache started to fade. After a few moments of silence with me sitting and Julie still standing beyond the bards, I noticed she was just watching me. Staring at me being naked.
"Do you mind?" I blushed. She chuckled again.
"Sorry, I just can't help but enjoy the sight. After having to deal with... this for so long, it's cathartic to see things turned around."
"Turned around on me? I was helping!"
"And I'm helping you now! And it's nothing personal, it's just, well, seeing almost any guy naked in a cage right now would do it, but you're the only one around."
"Ok, but I never leered at you like this."
"Oh bullshit. You did help us a lot, but I've caught you staring a lot of tits."
I blushed. She was right in; a guy being surrounded by naked women would stare a lot in almost any circumstance.... I didn't try to argue with her anymore, and really I owed her at this point, and I suppose it was only fair she got to see me naked for a few hours....
Some time passed and in our boredom we struck up conversation again.
"So, are you going back to being a hairstylist?" I asked.
"Maybe, or maybe I'll be a pirate. The Sisters offered us all to join."
"Really? You didn't mention that."
"Yeah, well we'll have to be on their ship for a while before we get to a safe planet for them to drop us off at, anyway, so they said if we like it on board those who want to stay can stay. And honestly, I think I'd rather be a pirate hairstylist than just some normal hairstylist."
Now it was my turn to chuckle. "Fair enough. It's not like they'd be dropping you off on your home planet anyway. If they're really pirates they're being charitable just not re-enslaving everyone. I doubt they're going to do a galactic taxi service for free."
"Yeah, they said as much, but they seem a lot cooler than normal pirates, I mean they're all women so," she shrugged.
"Oh so since they're female pirates they're cooler?" I countered facetiously. I was quite good at striking up friendly conversation even in strange circumstances like this.
"Well, I mean I've never heard of female pirates doing something like this," she said as she gestured around the entire cell block.
"Fair enough, guess I haven't heard of that either. Then again, I didn't even hear about this before I stepped foot on it.... Hey, wait, so if they're all-female pirates, I'm guessing they're just going to dump me on the first planet too, huh?"
"Uhhh.... yeah," she hesitated, "something like that. I think one of them mentioned a lifepod."
"A life pod?" My eyes widened. Life pods were, of course, last-resort measures. As such, travel was often slow and extremely uncomfortable, just meant to travel to a nearby safe location. But if we were traveling between stars, a lifepod trip might take weeks to the nearest planet, and it would be dangerous and might just leave me in a place as bad or worse than Canijar.
"Well they said they'd vote on what exactly they're going to do with you."
"Oh, great...." And just like that I was quite nervous about my future again.
About 15 more minutes passed, then I could hear the sound of multiple footsteps coming closer to us, echoing around the cell block. Julie looked over where it was coming from, and she must have seen who it was.
"Seth, but really, I can't understate this: thank you. This place was miserable, but you did everything you could to help us get by. So really, thank you, I mean that." she said to me.
I wasn't sure how to react. Honestly back on Canijar I was a bit of an asshole, so having someone thank me like this was a new experience. It made me feel warm inside.
"Oh, um, you're welcome.... I couldn't imagine having done anything else," I smiled.