Two obese pirates came through the docking tube, both wearing respirators. I guessed they thought I’d put a hole in docking tube and try to kill them. Hadn’t they worked out I was here to get my mother?
Thorn’s suit was gone and mine was hanging up next to the airlock. Standing there impatiently, I waited until they noticed me. My pulse was beating fast, but I stood my ground as they bounded towards me. Thorn needed time to hide.
The fattest one darted behind me, grabbed me by anchoring my arms and holding me against his flabby belly.
‘Watch it, you creep,’ I protested.
The other pirate rocked from side to side, grinning. I thought he looked like a drunken sailor until his slap stung my cheek.
‘Where’s your ship?’ he spoke like a bear, all teeth and gravel.
His body odour hit next and his bad breath. I gagged and then breathed through my mouth. ‘I sent it away after I boarded.’
Heavens! I had never smelled anything so gross before. I could bottle it for subversive warfare. I tried to block the smell but my hands were restrained.
Another slap, this once caused a tooth to cut into my lip.
‘Liar. No way you came on your own. We’ll find your friends and we’ll fry them.’
My face burned from the impact of his meaty hand. I shook my head to clear it, giving myself time to think. ‘I’m a Gayens. We don’t have any friends. I came in a single person vessel with auto-pilot. I’m not stupid.’
His gaze narrowed and he leaned in closer giving me a healthy waft of foulness. If he smelled this bad, I wasn’t looking forward to being on his ship.
‘You look stupid to me.’ His gaze centred over my shoulder. ‘You got the scanner, Bub?’
Bub? My eyebrow rose. That mountain of quivering flesh was called Bub? Rae was right. Pirates did have funny names. The smelly one grabbed my face, sticking his fingers into my jaw to open my mouth. He stabbed the swab in, shoving my face back with his whole hand over my face. I fell back against the pirate behind me, wrenching my shoulders at the same time. He hadn’t loosened his hold on me. The smelly pirate was going to pay for that insult. The scanner beeped.
‘Yep, it’s a match.’ He slapped his comms badge on his shoulder. ‘Is the docking tube secure?’
There was a muffle of static and a low, scratchy voice. I saw the receiver in his ear. He nodded. ‘Come on, bring her.’
Quickly changing hold, Bub lifted me off my feet, wrapping his huge slabs of meat under my breasts and bounded out of the cabin.
As I was carried horizontally through the docking tube, I panicked. All the things that could go wrong flashed through my mind. They could blow up the ship with Thorn on it. They could kill me. They could disfigure me, which was even scarier. What if my mother wasn’t where they were taking me? What if they’d been killed?
I started screaming for all it was worth.
‘Shut it,’ Bub said and jiggled me until my ribs hurt.
The other hatch opened and we climbed in. The atmosphere equalised and the tube began to retract. Gravity winked a bit and my stomach felt ready to erupt as Bub put me on my feet.
Smelly pirate grunted. ‘Bring her to the main conference room.’
‘Sure, Pit.’
‘Move it!’ Bub shoved me from behind and I stumbled forward. An alarm sounded above our heads.
‘What’s that?’ I asked, not moving after I recovered from the vicious shove from Bub.
‘Shut up,’ Pit said as he checked the controls on the bulkhead. He talked into his comms unit. ‘Just a malfunction with the docking tube retraction. I’ll sort it.’
Bub held me by the arm. As he was taller, I just dangled there. ‘It happens all the time. Just extend and retract again. That will flush out the airlock.’
Pit nodded. ‘Whatever. Get her to the conference room. I’ll deal with this.’
Bub swung me around in front of him and shoved. I managed to grab the handrails to stop me falling and then I stepped carefully along the companionway. I had no choice but to cooperate.
The design of the ship was alien to me. The corridors were low and narrow with steel mesh underfoot instead of smooth ferrofoam. Through the grating I could see we were walking above a hold, where crates were stacked and strapped to the hull. It looked like some kind of trading vessel.
How did it overpower Mother’s Scout Class ship? She had high-grade, technically illegal weapons. If she surrendered without a fight then there must have been a mole, a turncoat who betrayed her. I discounted squeaky clean Alwin Anton, so that left someone else — the other senior director travelling with them, perhaps.
Bub was none too gentle when he pushed me through the final hatch. My head clipped the table and I dropped. My head spun and I thought I’d bitten my tongue. I was too stunned to move.
‘Be careful with the merchandise, Bub Rugby.’
A hand lifted me and plonked me in a chair. I cradled my aching head, feeling sticky blood in my hair from the cut. I looked around the room and dark blurry shapes stood there. I blinked, desperate to get my eyes to focus.
My stomach lurched but I managed to open my mouth and say, ‘Who are you? Where’s my mother? Where are Rae and Al?’
The sounds I made resembled speech but not the clipped delivery I was hoping for, more like a drunken slur. I rubbed my head again and it didn’t help.
A wave of dizziness hit me and I lowered my head into the cradle of my arms. I was going to throw up.
‘Put her with the others?’
‘Are you sure you want to do that?’
‘She’s a teenager — a spoiled one at that. There’s nothing she can do.’
There was something familiar about one of the voices. I stood up and pointed to where the voice came from. The dark form wavered and blurred in my vision.
‘You’ll regret this. I’m going to rip out your…your…’
A black wave of nothing swamped me and I collapsed with a thunk onto the table.