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“That’s what I thought. In that case, I’ll just keep doing my job so that we can depart in 15 minutes.”
He got up so abruptly that she nearly fell backward in the pilot seat. He loomed over her, clearly thinking of a way to not let her have the last word.
She kept her hands in her pockets and waited. If he thought he could intimidate her with his height, he was sorely mistaken. With her petite size, she was used to people towering over her.
Eventually, he caught her by the elbow and pulled her after him. “You will stand right beside me at all times while in the cargo hold,” he barked, leading her out of the cockpit like some prisoner.
She gave up on trying to free her elbow from his grip – he was too strong, and she had zero self-defense training to get away from his hold.
She had attended a single self-defense lesson in her 29 years of life, and the only thing she’d learned was that running from a fight was the best course of action. Particularly for someone like herself who was too uncoordinated to ever kick ass properly. Hence, she tended to rely on her quick feet and the belief that no one was stupid enough to hurt the most valuable person in space: the pilot. Her heavy wrench was her last resort.
“You will not ask questions about the cargo,” the Commander rattled on as he led her through the spacious ship. “Afterwards, you will not mention what you have seen there to anyone.” After a short pause, he added, “In fact, it’s best that you keep your mouth shut while we’re in the cargo hold.”
“Got it.”
She sighed inwardly. The military with their top-secret cargo… She was probably going to be transporting some classified weapons, in which case it was lifesaving to be ignorant. What questions would she ask, anyway?
Actually, there was one question she wanted to raise: why the hells couldn’t she have a normal client for this out-of-the-blue trip? Couldn’t the Universe give her an easy passenger when she was supposed to be enjoying a week off? Hadn’t her last job – a month-trip for food delicacies to Earth and back to the space station – been punishment enough?
Apparently not.
The moment the fortified doors to the cargo hold slid open before her, she realized things were shittier than expected.
Because the cargo was no fancy-pancy weapons. The cargo was a person. One definitely not from Earth.
And he was caged.
2
Like a Christmas Turkey
Miya stopped in her tracks, incapable of tearing her eyes off the alien in the big cage to the left of the doors.
She knew that the Commander, who had just released her from his grip, would not be pleased that she was simply standing there, gaping. She knew that extraterrestrials came in all forms and sizes, since she had grown up and was currently working in a diverse environment. Yet, she couldn’t stop staring at the ‘cargo’.
The alien was humanoid and definitely male. The tight orange prison jumpsuit didn’t leave much to the imagination in his seated position. He was broad-shouldered and muscular but more on the toned rather than the burly side. But his impressive physique was not what kept Miya’s attention.
It was his uniquely bronze skin. Every part of him not covered by the jumpsuit appeared to be shimmering in the artificial light inside the cargo hold. His hairless head, his arms and bare feet – every visible part of his flesh looked as though it had been sprinkled with specks of gold.
What species was he? What planet was he from?
“Get moving!” the Commander snapped right before his hand returned to Miya’s elbow, his hold strong enough to bruise. “Not. A. Word.”
The pain in her arm quickly helped Miya focus on the reason she had come here. She had a job to do, curious about the guy in the cage as she might be.
Sure, she had never seen his kind before, but it wasn’t like she knew all species of intelligent beings out there. Also, this wasn’t the first time she was transporting a prisoner. In short, there was nothing so amazing to see here, she should simply mind her own business.
Although… She had never seen a prisoner so tied up like a Christmas turkey. He was not just in a cage; he was kept seated and pressed to the back wall of the cage via a metal ring across his chest and magnetized cuffs around his wrists and ankles. He was also blindfolded, a black piece of cloth tied over his eyes.
And let’s not forget he was being escorted by a unit of ten soldiers. Two of them were currently guarding him inside the cargo hold with hands on their weapons.
“Commander,” the alien guards said almost simultaneously as Miya and her seething companion moved further into the cargo hold. Two sets of extraterrestrial eyes took her in before returning to the prisoner, as if he might escape while they were looking away.
The Commander barely nodded and kept going until he brought Miya to a stack of three huge boxes at the far end of the room.
“These are our food supplies,” he gestured at the propelium-made black containers. “That’s all the cargo we have aboard. Can wefinallytake off now?”
Miya took the containers in. They were kept in place by metal ropes in addition to the usual magnetic mechanism that ensured they were glued to the floor and each other. She eye-checked the hooks on the floor which the ropes went through. Everything looked well-tied.
