Sarah's Pirate

RACHEL CLARK

Copyright © 2009

Chapter One

“Come on, baby. Come on, baby. Come on, baby.”

Okay, so the fervently whispered mantra didn’t actually help her ship go faster, but at least it made her feel like it might. She glared at the red warning light as it flashed annoyingly in front of her. Yep, she knew the engines were being pushed, but seriously, considering the alternative, she'd rather be exploded into a bazillion little bits than suffer at the hands of the pirates currently pursuing her. The stories travelers shared crowded her mind and sent a horrified shiver down her spine.

“Sarah,” her only other crew member said in her strange sing-song voice. “They are jamming our long-range communications. We need to find somewhere to hide.”

Sarah glanced at the woman sitting beside her, trying hard not to roll her eyes in exasperation. G’ntriel had come highly recommended, but her ability to state the obvious had quickly started to grind on Sarah’s nerves. Of course they were jamming communications! They were bloody pirates!

Searching the star chart in front of her, Sarah quickly calculated the time they would need to reach the nearest nebular, and just as quickly discarded the desperate idea. It was too far away and every nebular held its own set of dangers, not the least of which may be more pirates. Their only hope seemed to be rescue, and considering how far they were from commercial shipping lanes, that seemed unlikely.

“The ship is gaining on us. We must find more speed.”

Sarah growled under her breath. Seriously, at the next port she was finding a new off-sider. G’ntriel’s musical voice had been so fascinating at first, almost like listening to someone speak the Earth language in song, but combined with the fact that they were running for their lives and the woman was still
singing
the obvious, Sarah almost hoped the pirates would catch them. At least then, she might get some peace.

She slammed her hand against the console in front of her, tying to kid herself that she was at least doing
something
.

“Sarah, the engines are failing.”

And the red flashing light didn't give me a clue?
Biting back the sarcastic retort, Sarah did the only thing she could think of—she cut all power.

The ship’s momentum meant that they drifted in space, no control over their direction, no way to defend themselves, but they would effectively be invisible to the pirate ship’s sensors. That’s assuming, of course, that these pirates didn’t have the ability to scan for life signs and, considering how expensive those parts were, she crossed her fingers and hoped that these pirates weren’t technologically superior.

“Sarah, are you aware that you have turned off life support?”

Oh, for fuck’s sake!
“Yes,” she whispered “breathe shallow. Be quiet.”

G’ntriel stilled, leaving Sarah to wonder how long a G’trobian could survive without oxygen. Probably something she should’ve checked before she left port.

Without power, she had no way of knowing where the pirate ship was, so they sat in the dark and waited. Sarah figured they had about two hours worth of oxygen for two humans before they needed to switch the power back on. Well
hopefully
switch it back on. After the way she’d shut down the engines, chances were the damn things were going to refuse to start anyway.

She tightened her seat belt as the artificial gravity failed and the weightlessness of space lifted her long auburn hair to swirl around her shoulders. The last thing she needed was to float away from the console and not be able to get back before she passed out from oxygen deprivation. She shivered as the cold also made itself known.

Damn, why on Earth did she take this assignment?

Because children on a little backwater planet called Heltor in the Flengorian system were dying and needed the medical supplies she carried.
Duh.

She was a sucker for a good sob story and so she’d taken this run, even though she’d known her chances of success were practically zero. Man, she’d be pissed if there weren’t suffering children.
Shit
, she thought, apologizing to whatever gods might be listening, that wasn’t actually the way she meant it. No kids dying would be a good thing, but she’d be awfully angry if she’d been conned. She patted
little darlin’
, making sure that her favorite piece of technology was still safely in its holster. It was set to stun, not kill, but her
little darlin’
had left quite a few bad guys with a hell of a headache.

Well, dying children or not, she wasn't going to do anyone any good if she froze to death. Ten more minutes and she’d start this hunk of junk and pray that the pirates had gone away.

The absolute dark was starting to get a little unnerving, as well. Not actually having a window in a spaceship had seemed like such a good safety idea until, of course, you were floating without power, without lights, without engines…
oh, fuck
…two more minutes and then she’d start this tin can.

Her fingers drifted towards the console just as something hit the outside of the ship and everything jolted sideways.
Shit
, the pirates had found them and were probably reeling her little ship into their cargo hold. No way in hell could this be a good thing! She gripped her seat tighter and tried to start her ship. Internal lights flickered as she worked to get essential systems back online. With the inertial dampeners off, they’d feel every twist and turn of their journey into the pirate ship. And, of course, if any speed was applied, they’d both be splatter on the wall. Absently, she wondered what color G’ntriel’s blood was. Would the woman be a pink stain beside Sarah? Or would she leave a different color behind as proof that she’d once existed?

Pushing
little darlin'
more firmly into its holster, Sarah glanced over to her companion. G’ntriel was sitting in her chair looking exactly the same as she had for the entire trip. No emotions played on her face, no body language to suggest that she was concerned or frightened, nothing. Surely, the woman knew the reputation of these pirates. It was really weird to be shitting bricks while her companion sat like a mannequin.

“G’ntriel?” she asked, tentatively, as the thought that she had no idea what a dead G’trobian looked like slipped into her head.

“Yes, Sarah?” she answered in her usual trilling voice.

“Oh, um, just checking,” she said lamely, as her eyes avoided the other woman and her hand reached to
little darlin'
for a reassuring pat.

Now that she had the inertial dampeners back online, they could no longer feel the ship’s movement. The external sensors she’d been able to start up showed only the forward view, which wasn't much help, since they seemed to be going backwards. She fiddled with a few more controls, glad to see that the environmental and life support systems had survived her desperate stunt. If she ever got out of this mess she wanted to be sure her ship, her baby, was going to get her back to a commercial port.

The view on the screen was almost peaceful until the outer doors of a massive ship entered the picture. Sarah’s blood pressure kicked up another notch as the doors closed behind her.

Sarah nearly jumped out of her seatbelt when she heard what she could only describe as a polite knock on the outer hull. The forward view screen showed several human men and quite a few humanoid males of various species milling around. All of them wore a type of uniform—dark coveralls, thick black boots that almost reached the knee, and long jackets that hung open at the front. She spied several weapons holsters filled with guns that she’d only ever seen carried by Earth’s military. Curiously, none of them had their weapons drawn.

The knock sounded again, louder, more insistent. She thought she heard a voice through the metal, but considering that her heart was beating louder than a drum in a brass band, it was quite possible that she’d imagined the whole thing.

“Sarah, they have a can opener.” G’ntriel’s voice sing-songed as casually as if she was ordering a coffee and not facing a dozen heavily armed pirates.

“Can opener?”
What the fuck?
“Oh,” she said, dismayed as they watched the men on the view screen move a large piece of equipment across the cargo bay.
That
sort of can opener—the type that pried open little ships like hers and sucked out the juicy center.

“Get ready,” Sarah told her strange companion. “I’m going to open the airlocks. I can’t let them rip apart the ship.”

Sarah felt relieved when G’ntriel nodded in agreement. She was absolutely certain that she couldn’t take anymore of her companion’s inappropriate cheerful singing without using
little darlin’
to help the other woman sleep a while.

Flipping the airlock switches, Sarah released her seatbelt and folded her arms so that her left elbow hid her right hand as it rested on
little darlin
’. Using a stun gun in this type of situation was probably suicidal, and she was far from that, but it made her feel better knowing that she had it in her hand.

The side cargo door opened slowly, the whirring noise smooth and even until it hit the deck with a loud thump. Unfortunately, it didn't stop. The door continued to open until it began to lever the little ship off the ground. Sarah scrambled for the console, hit the stop button, and reversed the controls until the small craft sat firmly on the deck once more.

“Er, sorry,” she called sheepishly to her unseen captors. “I thought I had that fixed last time I was in space port.”

The men who moved into the open doorway looked menacing, to say the least, and seemed much, much taller and broader in person.
Wow, they breed big pirates in this galaxy.
Sarah slid a quick look towards her companion before making eye contact with the guy closest to them.

“Ah…hi,” she said, trying for friendly but sounding just scared and pathetic instead. The big guy in the middle crooked a finger at them, grinning around broken yellowed teeth as he beckoned them forward.

G’ntriel rose gracefully from her seat and walked calmly towards the men, seemingly unconcerned if Sarah followed her or not. She walked straight over to the big guy, wrapped an elegant arm around his neck, and pulled his head down for a kiss. She laughed as the guy built like a mountain lifted her in the air and wrapped her legs around his waist as they enthusiastically made out.

Hmmm...was this a G’trobian greeting or did they actually know each other?
Sarah ground her teeth together as her agitation grew. She'd almost convinced herself that it was simply a strange G'trobian greeting custom when she heard the words—"Welcome home, baby."

Great I've been fucking conned
, Sarah thought angrily as
little darlin’
leaped into her hand and shot at the rejoicing couple. She had a brief moment to consider just how stupid a reaction that was before several stun shots hit her and she fell face-first onto the deck.