Pirate Stars by Andrew van Aardvark

Author:Andrew van Aardvark [Aardvark, Andrew van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Space Opera, Military Science Fiction
Publisher: NapoleonSims Publishing
Published: 2020-06-18T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

Jeannie seemed to be making a habit of waking up with a headache. This one had to be the worst ever.

At least she was in a dark room and it was quiet. Being alone with her pain wasn't enjoyable but it could have easily been worse. Then she remembered what had happened.

She'd been betrayed. She'd beaten all the odds, jumped over every ingenious and carefully thought out hurdle the Pirate Chief had placed in her way. She'd been ready to take off and escape, but Sheena had sold her out.

She couldn't trust anyone. Worse the Pirate Chief and his assortment of pets were going to be watching her more closely than ever. There was no way he was going to let Jeannie trick him into revealing all his plans and codes again. That ship had sailed. She'd blown her best chance, maybe her last one.

Deep inside somewhere that felt far far away she could feel anger and despair fighting over her soul. She wanted to cry and she had no tears left. She wanted to puke and she was empty. She wanted to end herself but couldn't raise the energy.

She lay like that for how long she didn't know. Eventually for no particular reason she started sobbing. She did that for some while before slowing, running down like a battery gone dead. She lay numbly for a period and then started to notice she was bone tired, bruised and all her muscles ached. She had given her best and done so despite being drugged and not having had enough sleep. Her only mistake had been trusting her best friend and dedicated guard.

It occurred to her that her whole sorry performance was likely being watched. It angered her. The anger was warm. She hadn't realized how cold she'd felt. The anger felt like the ember of a fire that she needed to save herself from a cold storm. She nursed that ember of anger, until she felt like she could think again.

It hurt but she remembered what Sheena had said at the end. "They don't need me to be able to pretend to be who I used to be," she'd said. It was chilling. Taken at face value it meant nobody in the pirate's hands could even trust themselves, that their motivations, emotions, and their thinking could be adjusted to whatever the pirates wanted. She wondered about memories could they adjust even those, she vaguely remembered hearing or reading somewhere that emotions influenced memory. She'd been too quick to dismiss the creepy Doctor as a quack.

Okay, that was one action point. Take the creepy Doctor seriously. Try to figure out what he could and couldn't do. Could he be encouraged to talk? Most men could be turned into babbling fountains by an attractive young woman who wanted to make the effort. The Doctor was not most men, but it was worth trying.

The Pirate Chief had to be something of a lost cause, she'd tricked him into underestimating her twice, she didn't think he'd make the same mistake three times.

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