Chapter 1

"The Rape of Ishtar"

"Drop your weapons and come on out with your hands up,"We've already taken the engine room." One of the pirates screamed.

"We have no choice," Captain Graham said, tossing out his weapon. "I'm coming out. Don't shoot me!"

Lieutenant Eva Wagner couldn't believe that Captain Graham would give up so easily. She didn't like the man at all. He was a complete sack of shit. A stubborn fool who was barely competent to pilot Ishtar, much less be in command but she had figured his "asshole-ishness" would also keep him from ever admitting defeat. Keeping under cover, Eva watched as he stood up from behind the console and raised his hands.

"Tell your crew to give it up," The pirate screamed from the door to the command deck.

Captain Graham looked down at Eva, then Dora, then Eddy. "Come on. Let's not keep this charade going any longer than necessary. Throw out them weapons and surrender. That's an order."

Eva could feel Gemma and Eddy's eyes on her, even though she couldn't bring herself to look at them. She was a lieutenant, he was a captain and her commanding officer, she had sworn an oath to follow his orders. With tears rolling down her face, she tossed her pistol out over the console and slowly stood up. Only once she was standing, arms raised, facing the scum pirates, could she look at the other two women.

Cadet pilot Eddy Kimura surrendered first. Eva smiled. She should have known Eddy would follow orders. Eddy was twenty-one years old, fresh out of the Academy and still believed that captains were always right. The young woman pushed her pistol, sliding it across the floor, then stood up.

Dora Moore wanted to fight on. She was a young ensign, desperate for her lieutenant's bars. Surrendering a ship was not the way to get promoted. She may have been willing to ignore Captain Graham's order to surrender but she respected Eva too much to ignore the implied order Eva was giving by going along with Captain Graham. Dora, raised her weapon up over the console and dropped it on the other side before standing up and raising her hands in surrender.

A half dozen pirates immediately rushed in, seizing the surrendered weapons and crew. While Eva, Dora and Eddy had their hands tied, Captain Graham was left free. Once they were secured, they were hustled to the center of the command deck facing the only way onto the command deck and made to kneel.

A moment later Master Sergeant Ayla Ben-David, Ishtar's security chief, and Corporal Christen Vera, Ishtar's weapons master, were led in. Both were naked and their hands tied. Sergeant Ben-David's left eye was swelled shut, there was signs her nose had been bleeding recently, she had a fat lip and her right breast was red and the nipple inflamed. Tears streaked Corporal Vera's cheeks but she showed no obvious signs of injury. The two women were led over and forced to kneel with the others.

More pirates came onto the command deck, some started taking the chairs at the various consoles around the command deck, while others guarded the captain and crew of Ishtar.

By the time the final two members of Ishtar's crew were led in, the command deck was nearly overflowing with pirates.

Like Ayla and Christen before them, Melissa Twelve and Gemma Shukla, Ishtar's android engineer and human cargo master, respectively, were also naked and their hands were tied securely behind their backs. Much to Eva's relief, neither showed signs of injury.

Once on her knees with the rest of the crew, Melissa turned to the captain. "My apologies, Captain Graham, the pirates were able to overwhelm Ms. Shukla and I in engineering before we were able to fortify our position."

Captain Graham, who had been pushed into the command chair, still wasn't restrained in any way but the pirates were making it obvious that he was well guarded, a mean looking pirate was stationed on either side of him with a machine gun pointed at the captain's mid-section.

When the door to command deck opened again, Eva gasped. Those on either side of her looked at her, then followed her line of sight. When their eyes came to rest on the pirate captain. Everyone knew who she was. No one knew her real name, she went simply by Kuro Neko, Japanese for Black Cat. Much to Eva, and her fellow crew mates surprise, the name was more apt than anyone had known previously.

Kuro Neko and her band of pirates had been terrorizing a small section of space known as The Barbary Zone for last three or four years. The area had gotten it's name because it seemed to attract pirate-types due to the fact that it was right along a major shipping corridor but colonized worlds and outposts in the area were rare and spread far apart, which left huge tracts of space almost completely empty of any kind of security. A nearby asteroid field gave the pirates cover while they waited to strike and gave them a hidey-hole if they found themselves out-witted, out-maneuvered or out-gunned. The long distances also ensured time for them to get clear before their victims could report them to the Space Rangers.

Everyone knew her name, Kuro Neko, and what it translated to, but no one, to Eva's knowledge had actually said that Kuro Neko was a mutant.

The woman, and yes, she was obviously a woman, stood only about 1.6 meters tall and was slight of build with a face that looked, presumably, Japanese but with no hair to speak of on top of her head, instead, she had two small triangular ears set on either side of the top of her head and short black fur covering her head, neck and most of her visible skin with the exception of her hands. She wore a loose fitting white cotton blouse with the loose fitting long sleeves rolled up to her elbows. The blouse was unbuttoned but tied just below her ample breasts. Beneath the shirt she wore what looked to be a black leather skin-tight costume of some sort. It didn't go down her arms and had a deep V-cut in the neck line that showed off her fur-covered cleavage and went down beyond her navel. The cat suit covered her hips and continued down her legs but disappeared beneath a pair of blood red, thigh-high leather boots with six-inch stiletto heels. The thing that absolutely fascinated Eva about this woman was the tail. The woman had a cat's tail, Eva estimated it was almost as long as the woman was tall. It popped out of a hole in the leather cat suit just above the woman's ass crack and seemed to be flicking around happily behind the pirate captain.

Eva had heard of mutant humans being born more and more often as the human race moved further and further away from the home world, as they came across new races, new technologies, new forms of radiation and of course, new advances in medicine. She had heard of mad scientists doing really strange things to the human body and had even heard something about real magic being done by humans. She could only surmise that the woman now known as Kuro Neko had befallen some horrible fate to end up in this way. Of course, the woman was the captain of a notorious group of pirates, maybe she deserved exactly what she had gotten.

Eva had just gotten used to the idea of a woman that was half-human, half-cat when a man appeared in the door who Eva could only assume was part giant. The man stood very nearly two full meters tall and looked to be of Greek or Adriatic descent. His massive head was shaven, he had dark, nearly black eyes, a large crooked nose, fat full lips, large ears all on a very round face all placed on top of a massive muscle bulging body. Eva had no doubt that this was the largest man she had ever seen in her twenty-eight years of life.

Considering how large the man was, he wore very little. He had what appeared to be a leather collar strapped around his neck, he wore no shirt, showing off his muscles and broad chest, he had a gold hoop hanging from both nipples and wore a large brown, suede leather belt with numerous pockets and hooks, all of which seemed to be full at the moment. The two that Eva took immediate notice of were the pistol on his right hip and a huge machete hanging from his left him. He also wore a brown leather thong and calf-length black leather boots.

The man-giant followed Kuro Neko into the room and stayed just behind and to her left side. When she raised her arm and put her hand over her left shoulder, the man seemed to know what she wanted, pulled a black leather riding crop from the belt he wore and slapped it, efficiently into her hand. She gave him a smile and a nod of thanks then turned her attention to Captain Graham who had been watching all of this from his seat in command.

"Your name, please?" Kuro nearly hissed, pointing at Graham with the riding crop.

Captain Graham tried to stand up but the pirates on either side of him grabbed his shoulders and forced him back into the chair. Once he recovered from the sudden change of direction, he pulled his tunic down to cover his fat belly and cleared his throat before speaking. "I am Captain Reuben Graham, in command of the space truck, Ishtar, the queen of the Doyle Shipping lines."

He said it, Eva thought, with an amazing amount of pride and dignity, much more than she could have mustered. After all, since Captain Graham took command of Ishtar, slightly less than two weeks before, they'd had no fewer than three dozen mechanical issues, numerous micro-hull breaches from metal fatigue, once coming within an hour of completely evacuating all the oxygen from the ship into space, numerous control issues as the computers that ran the systems failed to communicate and/or properly control those systems and dozens of other issues from missing parts to the readouts over the med-beds being nothing more than a facade. Ishtar, by no means was the "queen of the Doyle Shipping Lines" as Graham had stated, in fact, Eva was pretty sure, it was a complete piece of junk. If there was a ship in worse condition, it wouldn't be space worthy and therefore couldn't be called a real spaceship.

"Ha!' Kuro shouted. She gave one of the guards beside the captain a small nod.

The guard stepped directly behind Captain Graham, put his gun to the captain's head and before Eva could react, fired two rounds into the captain's brain. The bullets didn't exit the captain's skull, they just crashed around inside causing ever more damage. Without a single sound, Captain Reuben Graham slumped forward in his chair and died.

Without a second thought, Kuro Neko turned to the seven women kneeling on the deck. She looked them over, one by one. Eddy and Christen. both screaming in terror, began to cry.

"I can't help but notice," Kuro said while signaling, with one hand, to the large man behind her, to remove Captain Graham from his chair. "that all of you are women and you three," she said pointing at Eva, Eddy and Dora "aren't as naked as the others."

The large man grabbed Captain Graham by the back collar of his blouse and casually dumped the dead man onto the deck. Kuro Neko casually stepped up onto the captain's ass, then carefully settled herself down in the command chair. The large man kicked Captain Graham in the ribs and elbow a number of times to get him out of the way as Kuro Neko turned the command chair to face her seven female prisoners.

"Who is the senior officer left alive?" Kuro asked.

Eva looked at the body of Captain Graham. His eyes were still open and staring at her. Eva forced herself to look away and looked up at the even scarier sight of the half-cat pirate captain. "That would be me," Eva said, without moving. "Lieutenant Eva Wagner, first officer and reserve pilot for the Ishtar."

"Lieutenant Wagner, I have boarded many ships in my career as a professional scoundrel,"

"You mean pirate!" Ayla screamed.

A nearby pirate didn't even wait for Kuro's order, he just grabbed a handful of Ayla's hair, threw her to the floor, face first, then kicked her in the stomach. With her hands still tied behind her back, Ayla had no way to protect her face from the metal floor. When Ayla rolled onto her side, now, thankfully, unconscious, Eva could see that her nose was broken and bleeding profusely.

"A pirate is a criminal. I am not a criminal, my dear," Kuro said, speaking to the unconscious security chief. "I am merely misunderstood. I had a bad childhood." She wiped an eye as if crying. "I am professional scoundrel and I do not want to hear that nasty little 'P' word again. If I hear that word again, while still on this ship, someone just might die!" She glared at each of the conscious prisoners.

Kuro's glare turned to a smile instantly and she turned back to Eva. "Now, why don't you tell me, why is it, that this piece-of-crap ship has an entirely female crew?"

Eva forced her eyes from the unconscious Ayla and turned back to the cat woman in front of her. Kuro turned slightly to the side and threw her right leg over the arm of the command chair and sank down into the chair, getting much more comfortable than Eva had ever seen anyone do previously. Eva took a deep calming breath, wet her lips with her tongue and considered her words carefully before speaking.

"Lunn Doyle, the man who owns and runs Doyle Space Lines is a sexist pig who doesn't believe women belong on space ships except as passengers. He thinks a woman in the crew is bad luck. Under Andromedan equality laws though, he is required to hire a women for every so many men in his employ. Unwilling to put his ships and male crews at risk, he simply hired an entire crew of women, gave us this disaster of a ship and then sent us on, what I'm sure, is the most dangerous run he could find."

"Right through the Barbary Territories," Kuro said, finishing the thought. "My guess would be, he's hoping you all don't come back. I would guess, that before he let you leave the ground, he took out a huge insurance policy on this ship and whatever cargo you are carrying fully expecting you to never return. He's probably expecting a windfall insurance payout, three or four times what this piece of trash ship is actually worth."

"What's his story?" Kuro asked, kicking Captain Graham.

"I guess he drew the short straw," Eva said with a shrug.

Eva had no idea why Captain Graham had been assigned as the captain of Ishtar. From what she had seen during their time together, Captain Graham held many of the same opinions of women as Mr. Doyle did. In her opinion, the two should have gotten along fabulously. Eva had not been at the company long enough though to know whether the two men had some sort of falling out.

"Oh well," Kuro said. "Not a deal breaker. Now, why is it, that these three," Kuro said pointing once again at Eva, Dora and Eddy "are not naked? I like my prisoners naked!"

"My apologies, Captain Neko," said one of the pirates, stepping forward. Eva recognized him as the pirate who had accepted Captain Graham's surrender. "We didn't have time..."

The shot rang out causing Eddy and Christen to both jump and scream again. The pirate stood there for a moment, staring at the captain with a huge red, bleeding hole in his middle. He then slowly fell onto his knees and finally fell face first onto the floor, dead, right beside Gemma. Gemma moved just a little closer to Melissa. Eva had no idea which of the fifty or so pirates on the command deck had shot the man but she knew it hadn't been Kuro or the large man who seemed to be Kuro's personal bodyguard, Eva had been watching them the entire time.

"As you may have guessed, I do not suffer fools, idiots or excuses. Untie their hands!" Kuro ordered.

Immediately three pirates moved in behind the three women and cut their hands free.

Kuro glared at the women, unwilling to accept nothing but complete obedience. "Strip! Now! Quickly!"

Eva, Dora and Eddy looked from the pirate captain to each other, then back in a matter of seconds.

Kuro was unwilling to wait, even that long. "Do so now! Or I will allow my men to do it for you."

Dora didn't need any further threats. She rose to her feet and pushed the straps of the skimpy little uniform Mr. Doyle had ordered them to wear at all times, except while in their cabin. If they were on Mr. Doyle's ship, they had to be wearing the skimpy little thing. If they made a stop-over, whether it was for rest and relaxation or to refuel, they had to keep their uniforms on if they were still going to work for Mr. Doyle. The women had discussed, privately amongst themselves and were in mortal fear of what would happen to them should the captain decide to make a stop at Bacchus, the pleasure planet. The women were pretty confident they would be gang raped almost the moment the stepped off the ship. Eva had even joked that Captain Graham would fire them all for being out of uniform once the crowd of men had ripped their clothes off.

A smile slowly grew across Captain Neko's face as the beautiful young ensign removed the blue and white skin tight bodysuit that Mr. Doyle called a uniform. That's pretty much all it was, a bodysuit with elbow length sleeves, a V-neck forcing the young women to show cleavage and a snap at the crotch. The captain had said the snap at the crotch was to aide in quick trips to the head, the running joke was that it was actually there to ease removal of the outfit when the rapes started. Mr. Doyle had then pinned a name tag to the left breast and a rank insignia on the shoulder, throw on a pair of white soft-soled shoes and it becomes a uniform ... according to Lunn Doyle anyway.

Seeing Dora following the orders of Captain Neko was enough for Eddy. She jumped up and she too was soon removing her uniform. Captain Neko's smile grew just a little wider.

Eva knew that this was a tough decision for Eddy. Eddy, unlike most who become merchant space farer's had led a sheltered life of money, stability and comfort. When she joined the Academy, it wasn't to escape her past it was because she really wanted to go into space and Mommy and Daddy wouldn't buy her her lieutenant's bar in the Fleet. It was Merchantman or stay home. Eddy didn't like being naked in front of her female crew mates, Eva couldn't imagine how the pretty young innocent virgin would take to being gang-raped by the pirates. Eva, closed her eyes and forced back the tears.

"You too," Captain Neko said, scowling at Eva.

Eva nodded and was roughly, rudely pulled to her feet by a pair of very strong male pirates.

"Get started, or I will let them help you," Captain Neko said with a smile. Eva could see in the cat woman's eyes that she wanted Eva to refuse.

Captain Neko wanted to watch, Eva realized. Only then did it dawn on Eva how horrible things were about to become. Eva had never doubted that the pirates would probably rape and kill them all, she had known that from the moment Captain Graham had surrendered to them, but now, they weren't going to be dragged off to separate quarters and claimed by one man after another. No. Not with Captain Neko around. She wanted to watch. Eva realized, they were being made to strip on the command deck because this would be the setting for their rape. It wouldn't be a rape as much as an orgy with the female crew of the Ishtar at the center of it all. They wouldn't be raped by one man after another, they would be raped by all the men, at the same time. It would be one massive gang rape. Fifty or more male pirates all enjoying just seven young women. And Captain Neko would be at the center of it all, the conductor, the instructor, telling all of them what to do next and watching the whole show from her comfortable command chair.

A tear rolled down Eva's cheek as she began removing her uniform. She had honestly considered resisting, giving Captain Neko the show she so wanted, in hopes of saving the others some of the misery but there was no saving them. Captain Graham had fucked them all over, even in death.

Once they were naked, their uniforms were scooped up and gone. They were then immediately forced back down onto their knees and their hands once again, tied behind their backs.

Eva allowed the pirate to retie her hands, then pulled herself up and glared at Captain Neko.

Neko noticed Eva's glare, she rolled out of her chair and strolled over, holding the riding crop in her right hand and smacking the palm of her left hand with the black leather riding crop.

"You don't approve?"

"Like you care!"

"You're right," Kuro Neko said. She bent down and put her face right in front of Eva's. "I don't care. I don't give one little iota. Not a wit. Live or die, fight or flight, I don't give a fuck. You know as well as I do that there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. My men have complete control of you, this ship and, my fleet, small as it might be, controls this entire sector of space." She smiled. "There is nothing you can do. You, and them," she said looking to her right at the other women, kneeling and bound. "Are completely helpless. Completely in my power. Don't you just love it?" She asked the last with a smile.

Eva forced herself not to respond to the bait. She knew Captain Neko wanted her to respond, to yell, to scream, to cry and Eva had to admit, she wanted to. She wanted grab the cat-bitch by her ears and slam her head against the metal interior walls until there was nothing but pulp left. That wasn't an option right now though. Eva just knelt there hoping and praying that the opportunity would present itself sometime before she died.

Not getting a response from Eva, Neko moved on down the line to Eddy. "And your name is?"

"Cadet Eddy Kimura, pilot trainee aboard the Doyle ship..."

"That's enough!" Kuro said, fully expecting Eddy to give her service number next.

Kuro passed by, moving in front of Dora next.

"Ensign Dora Moore," Dora volunteered as soon as Kuro moved in front of her. "Operations."

"Did I ask for your name, rank and position?" Kuro asked.

Dora's eyes went wide. Eva wanted to help the young woman but knew she couldn't do anything to stop what was coming. There were too many pirates carrying too many weapons and there were too few of them.

Kuro gave a quick hand signal to two pirates standing right behind Dora. The two men stepped forward, slinging their guns across their backs to keep them out of the way and out of Dora's reach. Each man grabbed one of Dora's arm and the two easily lifted the small young woman off the floor and set her on her feet.

Dora stood nearly a head taller than the pirate captain but this didn't seem to bother Kuro Neko at all. She used the riding crop to signal to the men what she wanted. Without a word, the men spun Dora around, one of them punched her, lightly, in the stomach to bend her over and held her there.

Kuro Neko stepped back, smiled and then brought the riding crop down, hard, on the back of Dora's long, skinny legs. Dora screamed, her knees buckled but the two male pirates supported her and kept her in position as Kuro Neko brought the riding crop down again, this time on Dora's bottom. Dora screamed again. Three more times, Kuro Neko hit Dora with the riding crop, switching each time between the back of Dora's thighs and her tiny little ass. When it was over, the two pirates now supporting her weight, didn't set her down gently, they simply let go. She stumbled forward for two steps then fell onto the cold, hard metal floor and cried.

"You will do as you are told," Kuro Neko said. "You will not do what you think you should do. You will simply do exactly what you are told. Follow my orders, to the letter, and we will get along just fine." She nodded to the same two pirates. They picked Dora up by her arms and one leg and returned her to her place in the line of prisoners. They didn't sit her there neatly, again, they just dropped her into her spot. Dora continued to cry.

Eva could see that Eddy wanted to lean over and comfort her friend but apparently, so could Kuro Neko. "Go ahead," the pirate captain said. "Console your friend and crew mate. But be warned, before you can say, 'It'll be okay, ' I'll have you lifted up, flipped around and in the same position she was in." Without a word or a look, Kuro handed the riding crop to the large man who was always close by. He took it, returned it to it's place on his wide brown leather built, then reached behind him and slapped another instrument into the pirate captain's hand, a large wooden paddle. The paddle had been painted black and a skull had been carved into it exposing the white paint beneath. "This will be your punishment though. It doesn't hurt as much though so we'll double the number. Ten instead of five. Still wanna comfort your friend?"

Eddy glared at the pirate captain but was smart enough not to speak or move.

"Coward!" Kuro growled then moved. She next stopped in front of Ishtar's security chief, Master Sergeant Ayla Ben-Davis. Ayla had apparently fought being captured and had been hit, a number of times, in the face. Male pirates had carried her from wherever her and Christen Vera had set up their first line defense against being boarded. They had been outnumbered and out-gunned almost immediately. Eva was surprised that Ayla had survived at all and was even more surprised that Christen had come back practically unharmed. She had expected both to die in combat.

Kuro Neko looked down at the still unconscious security chief, then started to move past her. Almost quicker than Eva could see, Kuro spun around though and kicked Ayla in the knee. Ayla curled up into a ball and screamed.

"Playing possum, are we?" Kuro growled and straddled the legs of the security chief.

With her hands tied, Ayla could neither sit herself up, nor grab her newly injured knee. She was forced to lay there, on her side and look up into the face of the pirate captain. The two women stared at each other for a long moment, then Kuro smiled. "I like you," She said. "You've got spirit. You think you can beat me, don't you?"

"I don't wanna beat you," Ayla said in barely a whisper. "I wanna fucking kill you."

Kuro Neko stared down at Ayla for a second then did the last thing any of the women expected. She burst out laughing. Not a fake laugh, a real laugh, a big laugh, a belly laugh, a real side-splitter as they were known. She laughed for a good two minutes before regaining her composure.

Kuro nodded. "I like you." She turned to the large man who always seemed to be right behind her. "Christos, take this young lady over there," Kuro said and pointed to the pilot and navigation consoles. "I want you to send some men to Tiamat and get the heavy chains. I want her chained down, on her stomach over the console."

"Yes Mistress," The huge man said with a slight bow. He then turned. "You, you," pointing at two random pirates. "Return to Tiamat and fetch the heavy chains. Bring them here, double time!"

"Yes sir," the two men shouted and immediately ran for the door.

All suddenly became clear to Eva. Christos was Kuro Neko's loyal, obedient slave and enforcer. The collar around his neck wasn't there to just look scary, it belonged to Kuro. It was the physical evidence that he was her property, her pet for lack of a better term. He could not be turned, could not be bought, could not be swayed. He was madly in love with the pirate captain and would not turn against her. He would kill for her or die for her. As sexual as Kuro seemed to be, Eva was sure she used sex as a means to control her crew. Christos was probably the other side. The sex was reward for a job well done. Christos was the punishment should one of the men screw up.

As Kuro moved on to stand in front of Christen, Christos came over, picked up Ayla. Ayla kicked and screamed as the huge man carried her across the deck, heavily armed pirates moved quickly from his path. He ignored Ayla's kicking, screaming and squirming. It didn't seem to bother him in the least.

"Gag her, please!" Kuro shouted, obviously becoming irritated with the noise level coming from Ayla.

Christos plopped Ayla down on the nav console and held her while another pirate produced an old handkerchief from a pocket and stuffed it into Ayla's mouth. Ayla gagged but Christos, nor the other pirate seemed to care. The pirate produced another handkerchief slid it between Ayla's teeth and tied it in among Ayla's long light brown hair. When Ayla's screams ended, the command deck seemed ominously quiet.

Kuro smiled at the sudden silence. "I love that effect. Now, who might you be?"

"Christen Vera, weapons master and tactical."

"Ah, so you're the one who fired those dinky little lasers at my ship, huh?"

"I was under orders," Christen stated in her own defense.

Kuro smiled down at her and moved on. Next in line was Melissa. Kuro spent a long moment just looking at the chief engineer. "You're an android."

"I am," Melissa stated with a nod of her head.

"Former sex bot?"

"Yes," Melissa said without concern.

"You can't harm another human being?"

"Only if I feel my life or the life of another is in danger and then, I may only use the minimum force necessary to preserve life."

"Excellent. So why haven't you protected your crew mates?"

"So far, I have not felt any of my crew mates were in mortal danger, except for the captain. By the time I knew his life was in peril, there was little I could do.