Chapter 3: Time Does Not Heal All Wounds

Well, she had mouse trapped me. I had no choice to accept, but I swore to myself, if there was some kind of game being played, I’d drop them off on the first world I could and to hell with them. My voice was granite as I replied “I grant you the right of protection. But I want you to tell me now, and I mean RIGHT NOW, what’s going on. Why don’t you want to speak to your family?”

“Have you heard of House Iraske?”

I hadn’t heard much about them, but what I had heard wasn’t good, and I said so.

“Then you might understand. I was promised to House Iraske when I was four, to fulfill a deal that would eventually unite our families. Except the person I was promised to was fifty four years old.” Wait ... if she was promised when she was four, and he was 54 ... Then he’d be... “Yes, that’s right, he’d be almost 75 today. My family tried to deny me learning, deny me working because all I had to do was look pretty, and fuck an old man to death so my father could take over his operations, both legal and otherwise.”

That was ... in a universe were piracy and slavery was the norm in certain areas, was just about as bad as anything I had heard for a long time. She continued, looking down at her hands that were wringing themselves unconsciously “Luckily for myself, but unluckily for my Father, he died of natural causes before the marriage could happen, when I was 17. Somehow, this was my fault, and my sisters and I suffered under my Father’s silent but palpable disfavor. I thought about striking out on my own, but couldn’t find my way out. Then he changed. He offered to send me and my sisters to Troful, to take over a small part of our House’s business there. I felt like I was finally blossoming, and I could prove I was more than just a pretty face.”

“The ship’s crew was ... distant, but I thought that it was a legacy of my years of disfavor. I was ready, however. I had learned everything I could. All I needed was practical experience. I could support my sisters. I could live MY life, not as the life of some vapid little hanger-on valued more for her breasts then her brain. It was my first taste of freedom, and the first freedom to be stolen from me.”

The trip out was fine, until one day, two days out of Troful, when we had an “unscheduled” lifeboat drill. I remember the four of us gathering in our lifeboat, and wondering where the rest of the crew was, then there was a hissing sound, some kind of green smoke in the air, and then I fell down. When I woke up, I was gagged, with a hood over my head. I came to, to darkness ... and heard the crew’s captain talking to someone. “House Master Katain sends his regards”. There was a bit of chatter with the young dandy who piloted DEFENSTRATOR, and I remember him saying “I’ve done some evil things in my life, but man, your House Master takes the cake. Selling his own daughter into slavery, that’s some space-cold evil right there.”

“I remember being manhandled, and brought over to the pirate ship, still bound, gagged and hooded. I could hear other muffled voices, and I guess all four of us were transferred to the ship. The next thing I remember is DEFENSTRATOR’s captain informing the gunnery officer that once they were at a safe distance, they were to destroy the House Katain ship ... something about the best secret is the one you kill anyone who knows about it. I guess that’s the pirates’ way of making sure that no one would miss the ship or its crew.

Since then, the four of us had been kept with barely any food or water, and little or no clothing in the slave cage you found us in. The crew wanted to ... well ... they wanted to take us, but the captain said that the terms of their contract were very clear. We were not to be “despoiled” until they took us to ... wherever they were going. Something about it being part of the video they wanted to release. I remember his voice laughing, promising me that I should enjoy the few days of purity I had left. If I could have found a way to take our own lives, I think I would have. Then they found another ship. They laughed. They said “Man, not are they only GIVING THEM TO US, we’re taking another one. This’ll be a trip to remember.””

She smiled, and for once, the smile was that of a shark. “Of course, it was a trip to remember for them. A trip to hell, courtesy of you, Captain Alex.

So, while I cannot prove it yet, or at least I cannot prove it yet to the point a Federation court would believe me, my father apparently sold me into slavery to fulfill some twisted plan of his, and wanted to see me, my sisters and poor Heyanna defiled, degraded, and tortured to death. So, if my father finds out his plan has been spoiled, I’m afraid he’s going to take it out on anyone he can get his hands on, including you.”

“You’re right, Captain. Pledging myself, my sisters and my caretaker to you without me knowing who you are is a bad idea. I have nothing but bad ideas as options however. As you now know, there is a good chance that if you report my safety to my father, I will put myself in risk, my sisters in risk, and quite possibly, YOU in risk. I cannot have that. You seem to be a good person. I understand that you could have easily ripped my captor’s ship apart completely, but you took extra risk to try to keep people you had never met before alive. Most folks would have shrugged and if it wasn’t easy, moved along, sending authorities out to reclaim the ship and any people aboard. That’s a course of action which would have taken weeks and as such certainly would have led to our deaths.

You have welcomed us on your ship, offered to go out of your way to return us to safety, and granted the Right of Protection to a woman you hardly know. When I came up with this course of action, I realized that it quite possibly could end up with myself and even my sisters being used as sexual slaves. Or worse, killed out of hand. The Right of Protection is that absolute. It would be no better than the situation that we came from, and, in fact, would be a crueler Hell to taste freedom so briefly. But I had to have faith. A man who would risk harm for people they never met, put their life at risk to cut them out of a dying ship, and offer them their freedom without asking for a reward wouldn’t be the kind of man to abuse the Right of Protection. And I’m sorry that I am getting you in deeper to my problem, but you have saved me once, and I was just hoping...”

What she said made sense, mind you. She was asking A LOT of me. Under the Right, I could press her into slavery, use her cruelly in untold sexual and/or menial matters, and then quietly get rid of her when I tired of her. She had taken a humongous risk in making the request, on a few minutes audio contact. But if I was the type of person who would abuse that right, they wouldn’t have been in the situation they were in. They’d already be dead from lack of air, or blown apart just like the pirates on the bridge. She had put her faith in me, and I had to show that I was worthy of protecting them.

“Ok, so this is how it will work now that I have granted Protection. I want you to work with me, not as Protector and Requester, but as equals. I am still the Captain of this ship, and have sole say in where we go or what contracts I take. Your sisters and caretaker will accompany us. If they wish, I will teach them shipboard skills, so they can assist. In all things regarding your recent problems, however, we work together. I believe your story, and I’m not sure why a man would go to such vile lengths, but someone who would do such a thing must be cut out like that we would do to a cancer, before it can further plague the universe. If you ever feel like you are not being treated as an equal under such measures, I want you to tell me to dissolve the Protection and treat you as the Lady you are. But do you know what my first question is?”

She smiled, and curtsied, which was rather fetching in her current state of undress. “What’s that, Alex?”

Indicating her nudity, I asked “Why the hell did you do ... this NAKED???”

“Well, while I had faith, I know that you are a man, with normal urges and it would be quite possible that I could ... sway your thinking.” She smirked prettily, and then blushed. “Err ... that is, I assumed that you would be...”

“Lady Melissa, you can assume that I find you quite beautiful, but please, PLEASE wrap yourself in a blanket. As you said, I am a man, with normal urges, and having a discussion with a lady like you in your current state is ... draining.”

“You do know that under the Right, you can demand my service, right?”

“Lady, I have never taken a woman without her consent, Right of Protection be dammed, and I never will! I wouldn’t dream of demanding unwanted favors from you!”

“Who says they’re unwanted?” Her voice held a bit of teasing on it and she stepped over towards my bed as if to provide those favors. Somehow, I resisted the urge to take her on the bed and ravish her right then and there, but Crystal chose that moment to chime on the intercom. “Captain, final scans of DEFENSTRATOR have found several caches of rare gems and other goods. Should I detail some drones to transfer the material over to MARY’S DREAM?”

Saved by the bell ... or in this case, the AI. Not that I was unwilling mind you, but ... there’s a time and place for everything, and boffing a new “slave” just hours after rescuing her from a fate worse than death (and then death itself), while her sisters and caretaker waited anxiously to find out if their guardian angel was a foul devil in disguise, was not the time nor the place.

“Lady Melissa, we will discuss this further tonight. Right now, I want you to go to your sisters and your caretaker, and let them know that I have granted Protection over them, that they are safe and we will take care of them, and that we will find out what’s going on. Ok?” I smiled, and reached for her to give her a comforting hug, which she half resisted for a second, and then the dam broke. She clung to me, breaking down in tears of relief and joy at the safety of her family, of herself, and that her prince in shining space armor hadn’t turned into an Utur Devilbat.

She smiled, a REAL smile, a happy smile, and a mischievous smile on her lips and she curtsied again, and I somehow stifled a groan at her athletic nudity. There was a twinkle in her eye as the smile ion her face turned her beauty into a shining radiance. “Your wish is my command, Captain Donovan, Sir Donovan, Alex, My Protector, My Captain...” She giggled like I imagined her sisters must and ducked as I threw a soft pillow at her, dodging her way to the doorway., and Before she left, she said “Yes, we will discuss this tonight, Alex. In your bed. With both of us in it.”

“Wait, who was the Protector and who was the Requester in this relationship?”

“You are my Protector, and I will give you your reward, Captain Alex. That’s your right as my Protector, and my duty and delight as your Requester. It’s not just for you ... I can’t think of anything better that would keep the dreams of these last two weeks away.”

I spent the rest of the ship’s day supervising the transfer of goods over from DEFENSTRATOR’s floating wreck, as well as trying to get every bit of information I could from its computers. It was a grim task, the pirates had apparently built up quite the library of trivids they had created with the various slaves they had captured. I left Crystal to catalog those monstrous videos because I couldn’t be sure that I wouldn’t just keep firing at the dead ship until it was nothing more than dust drifting through space.

I wish I hadn’t done such a great job in blowing up the bridge, as the security camera footage was pretty much unusable. I did manage to get a couple pieces of evidence that backstopped Melissa’s story (mainly, that she was to be untouched until they made it to Refuge, wherever THAT was ... but at that point, EVERYONE was invited to “join the party”.) I really, REALLY wish the footage had included them capturing Melissa. As it was, it would all be circumstantial. The word of a minor scion of a House against her House Master. “The poor thing was obviously overwrought and blames her family for her torture.”would be an argument that any half-decent lawyer could make, and I’m sure her father had a lot better than half-decent lawyers.

I wrote up my findings, and the evidence I had gathered, and I felt that long ago stirring of personal anger at the situation boiling in me. Honestly, if her father and or the pirates were in front of me at that moment, I would have gladly taken a neural shocker and jammed it to their flesh until it sizzled and smoked. That wasn’t good, a Captain needed to be able to be dispassionate and calculating when it came to these things, as space does NOT forgive mistakes made in haste.

I remember finishing the report, and tagged it for the House Donovan Council, to be sent the next time we made station. I tried to catch up with all the rest of the data work needed and found myself yawning. A little bit after that, Melissa showed up, (thankfully, in a grey approximation of a nightdress that Crystal had created for her ... I wasn’t in the mood after watching those videos earlier), and she led me to my cabin, and waited until I got in, and then slid in next to me. I tried to make a half-hearted protest, but she just put a finger to my lips, and whispered “Please protect me from my dreams, Captain. We’ll talk more when we’re both rested.”

Her dreams didn’t show up in the middle of the night ... they doubled up on me instead. It had been more than 2 months since the last nightmare. I guess I was due.

I felt the walls of the vent system closing in on me once again, as I desperately wriggled, trying to find safety, trying to find somewhere I could stop and breathe. Heard the shouts and the gunshots behind me. The tangy musk of fear assaulted my nose. Too long, too little sleep, but she was ... I could not let her down.