I look back at Jade, but she moves away from the door. A female on the comm is laughing, which just makes Kaspar scowl and bang his fist against the wall.
I stagger over to the pod, peering down at it. Might as well take a look at what we've been trapped with.
It's a qura'aki, all right. I've never seen one in the flesh, just on a vid. She was a clone of this one, I think, or a sister to it. This female has bright red skin—indicative of her cloned nature—and pointed ears and the lilac hair indicative of her race. She's also sticking her tongue out and making faces at us from underneath the safety of her pod's glass.
"We've been outsmarted," I tell Lord Straik, and I can't help but feel a mixture of amusement with my dismay. It sucks, sure, but it was also pretty clever of Jade, and I want to tell her that. I hope I get the opportunity. Something tells me that Jade's the one in charge here. It was the way the little yellow-haired one looked to her, the way she had a subtle hint of authority in her voice as she spoke.
I liked it. I like her. Not since Shaalyn have I been interested in another female. Maybe my cock only stands up for females that betray me. Heh. Wouldn't surprise me one bit if that was the truth.
"Why is there a qura'aki on my family's ship?" Straik demands, then coughs again. "What the kef is going on?"
"You tell me," I say, and I have to lean on the pod to hold myself up. My legs aren't working, and there's a terrible taste in my mouth. I know this gas, I realize. It's one that some of the shadier cantinas use on bar fights…or in Sticks games. It knocks you out and makes you forget everything for the last day or so.
The realization is sharply disappointing. I don't want to forget Jade. I look down at the qura'aki female, even as my vision blurs and fades. They're supposed to be the most beautiful creatures in the galaxy, the most perfect. She definitely is beautiful, but I can't help but think that I'd rather have Jade.
Everything fades out.
JADE
I pace in the hall, waiting for the gas to take effect. I don't like how things are turning out, but I'm not sure what else to do.
"Quit worrying, Jade," Alice tells me as she adjusts her boobs in her tiny top. "They're all going down like lights, just as we planned." She bounds toward the window and peers in. "I see six…oh, no, seven down. Two more to go."
"And how many more are on the ship?" I worry, chewing on my lip as I pace. "We're not out of the woods yet." There's a lot to do and still so much that could go wrong. The gas is effective, sure, but does it wipe their memories enough that they won't be able to remember the Star? We'll turn off our distress signal for a few weeks, of course, to give them nothing to hang onto, but it's still dicey.
Once they're all down, we have to raid the other ship. That'll be make or break. By this time, they'll know we're up to no good and they'll be preparing for it. They'll come weapons blazing, and it won't matter that we're cute, helpless-looking human women. If we lose the upper hand, we're fucked.
"How many are down?" Ruth calls out over the ship's intercom.
"Nine," Alice yells. "Last one just went down." She knocks on the window and I move to her side, but no one's stirring in the room. They're all collapsed where they stood, though the red-skinned troops are all clustered at the door as if they tried to open it. Shirtless is passed out next to Helen's stasis pod, no doubt drawn in by her beauty. I try not to think about the fact that he took his shirt off and gave it to me. It's easy to be chivalrous when you think your dick's about to get wet, and most of the alien men we run into are nice enough…
Well, no, now I'm just making excuses. Most treat us like simpletons or fucktoys. I've had my tits grabbed a dozen times. I had one stick his finger in my mouth and demanded for me to suck on it. I've had my ass pinched, my face slapped, and I've been groped…but no one's ever gave me the shirt off their back so I could cover up.
"Airing out the room," Ruth calls. "Give me a minute and then you guys can go in."
I shake my head. "Those men can wait. They're out for now, so they don't pose a problem. We need to figure out who's still left on that ship and how we handle them." Once we know we're safe, we'll tie up the drugged men and send them away on an escape pod that's programmed to find the nearest station…which is weeks away, or so I'm told. It's our way of getting rid of the men without killing anyone. I don't know if they remember us at all, but no one ever comes back for seconds, so I'm confident our plan works.