His Fire Maiden - Michelle M. Pillow Page 0,19
what she faced. There was no telling what manner of creature her crewmen had smuggled on. Gentling her voice, she stepped lightly. “Easy there.” The banging stopped. “There you go. What’s in there making all that noise? Huh?” She fingered the latch but then drew her hand back. Without a shipping label or any idea of what she’d be unleashing, she couldn’t just blindly open the box—no matter how curious she was to see inside. Moving to peer into a dark breathing hole, she whispered, “I just need to find out what you are before I let you free.”
She saw movement and leaned closer.
“I am Salebinaben Johobik en Dehauberkelsain en Thoraxian en Yyrtolzx Devekin, and you will release me immediately,” a gruff male voice answered.
The last thing Violette expected was to get an actual answer. A man? Someone on her crew abducted a man?
“Ah, I, ah,” she stammered, trying to reason what was happening on her vessel. Some captain she was. Apparently, they were in the kidnapping business, and she didn’t even know it. “What are you doing on this ship? Are you a stowaway?” She couldn’t help the hopeful note to her voice. Sure, that was it. A person sneaked on and accidentally latched themselves inside a crate…with a manual iron lock on the outside of the box…in the back cargo hold of a secured ship…on a special dock reserved for Federation…oh, blasted nova. This was bad.
“Let me out,” he demanded. The man clearly was used to being obeyed. The tone of his voice filled her with a strange mix of pleasure and aggravation.
She ignored the command. “What are you doing on my ship?”
“You tell me,” he snapped. “It’s not like I put myself in a shipping container.”
“Shouldn’t you try to at least sweet talk your way out of that box? You’re in no position to make demands.” She leaned over, trying to see him. All she could detect was blackness.
His answer was a grave, humorless laugh.
“How did you come to be on this ship?” she enunciated each word.
He hit the inside of the box, making her jump back a little. Her heart pounded. Calmer than before, he said, “Send me your captain. I want to talk to whoever is in charge. You obviously have no authority here.”
“I am the captain,” Violette answered, straightening. “I have complete authority here.”
“Do you?” he mocked. “Then how is it I am on your ship, and you have no idea why or how I’ve come to be here. Clearly, you do not have complete authority over this vessel because one of your crew is going about abducting people on your watch without your knowledge. You may have the honorary title of captain, but you are a figurehead and not in charge. Send me whoever has the authority to make decisions.”
“Honorary?” she gasped. No one ever dared to talk to her like that. Even when she was little, the soldiers had shown her the respect due both her family name and her father’s position within the Federation Military.
“What’s wrong, Spacecake, did I hurt your feelings?”
“Spacecake?” she repeated, her tone growing hard in her anger. “Listen here my caged semikin, you are in no position to throw around insults. At my word you’ll be left in that box to decompose!”
“So you kill innocent people to prove your rank? With such ethics, I must be on a Federation ship.” He paused before laughing. “Did you just call me a semikin?”
“You are—”
His laughter grew louder.
“You—” she tried again.
“Semikin,” he repeated, louder. He didn’t sound so threatening when he laughed.
Unsure why she made the decision, she said, “Give me a moment. I’m going to get you out of there and then we’ll figure out how you came to be delivered to my ship by mistake.” The smart thing would have been to question her crew. “We don’t take prisoners, and you hardly seem like cargo.”
“Hardly,” he repeated dryly.
“I don’t suppose it will be necessary to threaten you with what will happen to you should you try anything. We’re out in deep space. I have no problem catapulting you into oblivion.”
“Understood.”
“What manner of creature are you?” Violette hesitated. Some aliens considered what she’d just asked a complete violation of etiquette.
“Humanoid,” he answered curtly. She believed him. He sounded humanoid and spoke the well-known Old Star language.
Why was she hesitating? She was the captain. She had good instincts. This was her ship. She could defend herself if needed. Reaching between two boxes to where a laser was kept hidden, she