Season Notes: This is essentially a heavy nonconsent/dubious consent story set in space that’s as close to erotica as I come. If you are uncomfortable with noncon, explicit sex and/or rape, or fictional slavery, skip this story entirely. Violence.
On the bridge, Skullfire Aranya cursed silently to herself as she peered around into the common room. In their native environment, even the clumsiest of her people had some natural stealth. Under the humans’ yellow lights and against the dingy metal walls, the greatest of them had difficulty sneaking. In zero-G…
It had been pure luck that she’d been on the bridge when everything went to hell. But it was luck she was going to make use of.
Efe had still been in the break room when the hijackers came in. Actually, she’d fallen asleep while Moira was dealing with the captain. Like the captain and Moira, she’s woken up several feet above where she’d fallen asleep.
Unlike them, she’d been startled awake by the hijackers. The rest of the crew would never let her hear the end of her immediate, frightened shriek, but she was cunning enough to follow up on a good opening. Now she was a blubbering mess, cringing away every time the guns twitched, and inch by inch ‘swimming’ toward the hold-out gun stashed under the couch. One of these centuries, she thought, people would stop underestimating a pretty woman in tears. But for now, she got to have her freak out and kill them too.
Ezra was floating between the guns and Efe, using small swimming motions of his hands to keep himself in place. He liked to plan, Ezra did. He wasn’t a quick thinker like Efe or Zdenko. So, he thought long instead. When the hijacks rounded him up, he knew his role. He went right into belligerent mode. Get in their faces, get them on him. It came naturally to him, but the main point was it got the attention off the quick and cunning folks so they could unleash hell on whoever needed it. These assholes definitely needed it.
Ildar seemed to lean against the wall, arms crossed, watching. It was one of his parlor tricks, and right then, it was intimidating as hell. Anyone who could lean against a wall in zero-G and not go spinning off could fly rings around the average spacer.
He’d been on watch when a warning light went off, and he’d gone down to the engine room sure that it was the cooling system needing to be reset (again). They’d rounded him up and brought him here. He hadn’t given them a moment’s trouble, but they recognized his silent threat. What attention they had to spare from Ezra’s imitation berserker was centered on Ildar.
In the cargo hold, two more hijackers swept through the stacks, searching for any missing crew. A final hijacker guarded the engine room against any attempt to re-take it.
This was the scene, the moment of calm before chaos that Moira and Zdenko saw part of on Moira’s datapad. Zdenko wasn’t sure why the hijackers hadn’t checked the bridge or any of the crew cabins yet. They couldn’t have gotten this far and been that foolish.
But whatever the reason, it gave him and Skullfire an opportunity, and he was damn well going to use it.
Zdenko flung himself toward the door of the room, pausing only a moment to be sure of his handholds. “You hacked the cameras. What else you got?”
Moira fumbled, again, for the wall and data unit. “Ah… I think I figured out how to adjust the lights? I didn’t really try to dig deep; I didn’t need to and…”
“Fine. Blink the lights in here and on the bridge.”
Moira needed both hands, so she let go of the wall and let herself tumble, swallowing down nausea. It took her a few moments while Zdenko could only hope nothing in the crew area was changing. Then the lights started blinking.
One… two… thr–
Zdenko slammed the door open and got off two quick shots against the nearest hijacker. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Skullfire launch herself into the room. Chaos erupted and ended between one breath and the next.
When it was quiet again, Efe had the gun in her hand and held it on the remaining hijacker, who was pinned between Ezra and Aranya. Ildar was gone, already halfway down the corridor with a throwing knife in each hand. And, of course, the hijacker Zdenko shot was spiraling from the force of the darts, spewing blood and… other stuff.
Quiet, of course, was relative.
“Everyone okay?” Zdenko bellowed.
“Where the fuck did these assholes come from?” Ezra demanded.
Efe jammed her gun into her pocket and slammed out after Ildar, flashing a quick high sign at Zdenko as she went.
Skullfire tossed the remaining hijacker’s weapon to Zdenko, and Ezra used some of the cables he was never without to tie her up. The hijacker, wisely, kept her mouth shut. “There was nothing on the sensors until one of the engine lights started blinking. It was like they appeared out of nowhere.”
Another short one. Sorry folks, I wrote myself into a corner and family emergency is ongoing (though looking to resolve in the next week or so). Neither combat nor pantsing are my forte, put the two together and… Well, I’ll figure it out by next week. Promise.
Return to:
Meadowsweet (S1, E1)
Meadowsweet (S1, E9)
Continue to:
Meadowsweet (S1, E11)