think it over for another few hours, but each hour I delay means that I have to burn the engines even longer. Fuck it. Let’s do it.
9
Catherine
It was fun for a while. Maybe for an hour? Just floating around in the cargo bay. I imagined I was flying. I reminded myself that only a few dozen people from my time had ever experienced this. Maybe a few hundred at most. But after a few hours, I realized I was just jumping back and forth from one end of a big grey garage to another.
I’m tired, but I can’t sleep like this. You’d think floating around would be perfect for sleeping, but it feels wrong. I keep feeling like I’m falling, and I jolt back awake.
Just when I don’t think I can take it anymore, the door opens again, and the pirate comes back through.
“All right,” he says. “Here are the rules. I’m going to bring you into the ship. You’re going to go straight into the room I take you to. You will not touch anything. You will not open your mouth--I don’t want your saliva contaminating anything--”
“You think I’m going to drool all over your ship?”
He ignores me, continuing as if I’d said nothing. “In my quarters there is a cryo chamber. You are going in there, and you are sleeping until--”
I’ve practiced enough over the last few hours to be able to hit a target in zero-G. I kick off the wall, as hard as I can, and I glide past him before he can catch me. I don’t hit the door, though. I hit the wall.
I crash against it, and it hurts much worse than I thought it would. I bounce off, pain rushing through my elbow, shoulder, and hip.
“Crap,” I hiss.
He grabs me. “Alright, I’ll shove you into the thing if you won’t cooperate.”
I scream and beg.
He finally relents and stops. His voice is coming out through some kind of microphone since his helmet is still on. I can hear his breath heavy through it. He sounds exhausted.
“Look,” he says. “I’m sorry for bullshitting you earlier. I did lie a lot. The thing is, I was probably only lying like...twenty-five percent?”
I laugh. How could I possibly have thought this guy was charming?
“The part about all the humans on that ship being spoken for. That was true. Like I said, they can’t technically buy you, but you’ll find yourself on some habitat full of rich Cygnians. Mostly old ones. And they won’t force you, not exactly, but within a year or so you’ll be pregnant.”
“And you are going to do what?”
“Well,” he says, “I’m going to sell you--”
I hit him, but he just blocks the hit with his wrist, then grabs mine. He shoots me that shit-eating smile he used to trick me back on the ship, right after he brutally murdered Jason.
“Catherine,” he says. “Hear me out. I’m going to sell you, but I get to pick who I sell you to. So rather than being stuck on a hab full of fat old bastards, I can sell you to...say...a dashing young prince? I’ll let you see who wants to buy you, and you can choose. It will be like a dating site.”
“They still have dating sites in the future?”
“It’s not the future anymore. It’s the present. Get yourself up to speed. And yes, but this will be a dating site full of rich guys. Ones who aren’t quite rich enough to work within the law. Those ones tend to be younger and less boring.”
I want to cry.
“You don’t actually have a choice,” he says. “Cooperate with me a bit, and you get some say in who you are sold to. Otherwise, I’ll just stuff you into the tube and sell you to whoever offers me the most money. Which will it be?”
“Let me stay awake for a while,” I say, “and I’ll cooperate.”
He sighs. It’s a heavy sigh, but I can tell he doesn’t have the energy to argue with me anymore.
“Fine,” he says. “We need to start the engines again now. I need to strap you into the cockpit. Don’t touch anything!”
He takes my hand, which surprises me. I feel my cheeks flush red again, which surprises me even more, and it pisses me off. This asshole is kidnapping and selling me. He’s not the dashing “freelancer” I first took him for. I shouldn’t feel anything for him. I tear my hand away.
“I don’t want to touch you, either,” he says. “But you can’t