Indentured (Book 2 of the Dana Halliday series)

FIRST LESSON. MAGIC VANILLA BEAN. PIRATES, AGAIN.

Liti knelt beside me. She enclosed my wrist in her long fingers, peered intently into my eyes, put her face so close to mine that I wanted to recoil at the intrusion. Then she rooted through a pouch she wore on a belt, both articles of soft leather. 

She held out a thin object, kind of like a flat, dried vanilla bean, then tore it in half. "Chew this. For the dizziness."

I thought about it, then twisted the thing in half again. It was a pod of some kind, with tiny seeds rattling inside, and tasted bitter as I chewed at it.

"First lesson, taphthli," I said, around a mouthful of the weird little seeds. "If you don't know anything about a species, use the smallest dose possible."

Liti made a frowny face, antennae lashing irritably. She couldn't understand me, of course. "Are you all right?" She glanced at the closed cell behind me, and shuddered. "That one...I don't like how he feels. Bad. Wrong."

The Earwig's monotone was jarring against the quiver of angry fear in her voice. The Fenn had no concept of rape; Richard Fischer's aura likely was as strange and unpalatable as the pod I was chewing.

I shrugged. My head was clearing, and I felt my heart simultaneously slowing and beating harder. "I'm fine. If we get a chance, I'll let you bite him for me. Thanks for the thing, it seems to be working."

From somewhere above, an eerie electronic wailing started up. It was less Red Alert on the Enterprise and more Twilight Zone, but I had no problem deciding it wasn't a herald of good news. I stood, giving the guards an inquiring look.

Both of them were gazing up at the ceiling, with expressions I uneasily labeled as nervous. They chattered at each other a little, then they each took a weapon from their belts. The smaller one's hand was trembling; thank goodness it had picked a club and not a firearm. That one went to the locked gate that protected the stairway.

"Oh, shit." I turned to Liti. "Come with me."

The Fenn girl followed me willingly enough. I went to the stairs, thinking of warnings not to use elevators in a burning building.

Now, there was an upsetting thought. Fire on a spaceship. Also, were there escape pods or lifeboats or something? If there was some sort of confusion, maybe I could liberate one.

I shivered and reached for the number pad on the gate. Yes, and go drifting through deep space, hoping to be picked up like Flynt had as an infant. What a fantastic plan.

The nervous Sturv made a halfhearted attempt to tell me not to leave, but I ignored it, and it didn't argue. Liti and I made our way up several short flights of stairs, as the sinister howling of the alarm continued. There were a few more unintelligible announcements over the intercom.

We had gotten about halfway to the floor with the Earther suite, when there was a tremendous, bone-shaking thud, as if the ship had hit an interstellar iceberg. The stairs seemed to drop half a foot, and I stumbled, screamed, then slid a few steps back down on my ass. The ship rocked back and forth, violently enough to slam me into the walls a few times and make me curse my broken face.

"What's happening?"

My trusty Earwig picked up Liti's words despite the general noise. I looked up. The Fenn was about ten steps above me, clinging to the railing with a death grip. All her claws were out, her antennae were pressed to her head, and her pupils had dilated to great round black holes.

I wrapped my arms round a stair and hung on, riding out another series of bumps without further injustice to my injuries. Oddly, although my heart was pounding with adrenaline, I didn't feel anywhere close to panic. Maybe it was Liti's magic vanilla bean.