The Price of Infamy Pt. 02

*

Sitting up on his lap, she rolled her shoulders and stretched out her neck, sighing as it popped gently before fumbling with the front of her suit. "What is the status?"

"We're dead in space." He answered, watching as she zipped up her flight suit, hiding her treasures from his gaze.

"Great...just what we needed. With our luck, we'll end up gravitating towards a star." She grouched and then groaned again as pain shot through her temple. "Shit...bad headache."

He let out a snort and nodded, "Tell me about it. I shot myself in the lip and almost lost my breakfast on you."

She wrinkled her nose at the thought, making him smile. "Glad you didn't. So..." She sighed, looking out into the darkness. "Any brilliant ideas?"

"You never like my ideas." He informed her and grinned at the look she slanted him. "I have so many of them too."

"I just bet you do." She grumbled and turned slightly in his lap, surprised at how comfortable she actually was. For a moment she just stared into his face and then reached for his eye patch.

Swiftly he caught her hand and pulled it back down away from his face. "Come on Fatima. You saw my breasts...it's the least you can do is show me your EYE."

"I can show you something else."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head, "Don't be a pig, Fatima. Come on...I just want a quick peak. Please? After all the crap you've put me through..."

*

"The crapI put you through!?" Fatima spoke incredulously. "Last time I remember it was you who got herself into trouble by prowling on my ship. You earned your fate yourself. I cannot be blamed for the subsequent events."

"Don't try to change the subject. I still want to see what's under the patch," Kyla interrupted him and tried to wiggle her hand from his grasp.

"There's nothing under the patch! It's there for a reason, you know," the young pirate tried reasoning but the woman's mind was made.

"Come on! Show me! Whatever you have there cannot be worse than all those bodies on the base, can it?"

Fatima's face tensed and his lips pressed into a thin line at the reminder of all his people in the HQ butchered like cattle. Hearing those words hurt but there was truth in them. Compared to the abattoir they had witnessed the small scar across his face was insignificant. It was all in shambles now, his criminal empire blown to pieces in one attack, almost ninety percent of his pirates dead. It was still hard to believe. What his father had worked so hard to create was destroyed in moments and he was no longer so strong without the base and its resources and available reinforcements. TheKraken and those who managed to escape the base intact were all that was left. Those aliens, whoever they were, had a very dangerous enemy in his person now. Reclaiming Eridani would have to wait.

"You can't do anything about that right now, you know, so you might as well turn your thoughts to something else," Kyla said as if reading his thoughts. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"I guess you're right. But it doesn't mean I can just put it behind me and forget all about it. I've lost my home and many men, women and aliens who served me. I cannot leave it like this, you know."

"Yeah well, you can go on plotting your bloody revenge once we're out of the fix you put us in. For now I still want you to see what's under the patch so stop changing the subject already!"

"Geez, Banana, with your attitude you should be a bounty hunter and not a maid. How dogged can such one small person be?" he joked and chuckled and Kyla used the moment when his guard was down to snatch the eye-patch and take it off his head. He sighed and turned his one good eye on her, the other only a hint of white under half-closed, damaged eyelid. "Well then... satisfied, Banana?"

*

She pursed her lips, studying his strong face. She was somehow happy to see that he hadn't been lying about his eye...she had already heard rumors that he wore it just for show and the thought had irritated her to no end. Now...she could see it was true. It wasn't hideously ugly, but she could see why he wore the patch. "Well, I'd be more satisfied if you didn't call me Banana." She said wryly and then smiled, "You're still a pretty boy...with or without the patch."

In the back of her mind she wondered if the bounty hunter comment was off handed or if he knew something. Not that it mattered now, she decided, her whole plan was ruined! BUT, her past was hers alone.

She grinned when he sputtered a bit at her comment and narrowed his gaze on her. "Pretty?! Boy!?"

A soft giggle actually escaped her mouth at his reaction. "You don't think?"

He huffed and snatched the patch from her hand with a grumble. She laughed again and poked him in the ribs, making him jump. She wobbled on his lap a second and grinned. "Ruggedly handsome then?"

He paused in his fusing with the patch and dropped it back down. "You know...since you find me so attractive, I know just the thing to take my mind off base for a time or two..." He said suggestively, sliding his arms around her body and pulling her closer, bending at the waist to recline her back. His face hovered over hers as he smiled.

"Is sex all you think about, Fatima?" She asked, her face still soft, but more serious than before.

"Doesn't every man?" His warm breath fanned her face as his hands splayed over her back and kneaded sore muscles. Slowly he inched forward, wanting to capture her lips in a kiss, but as he descended, her hands came between them and clamped itself over his mouth.

"No offense, Fatima, but I'm not interested." Much...she thought. Her body was definitely tingling and his hands kneading her muscles made her purr internally, but she couldn't let him think he affected her that way. It would show a weakness that he could play on and she didn't need that! Pushing up against his chest, she decided to try something else. Wiggling in his lap, she got comfortable, then lounged back against his broad chest, pressing her face to his shoulder. "Hope you don't mind...I'm suddenly very tired..."

*

As Kyla nestled herself against him and made herself comfortable Fatima suddenly burst out laughing heartily and he had to hold her to him so she wouldn't fall from his lap. This gesture brought her closer to him and even two layers of their suits couldn't stop him from feeling her young, strong, warm body next to his. If the rest of her was a juicy as her breasts he was in for some hot fun once she warmed up to him.

"What?" Kyla asked, smiling lightly.

"You know, women usually say that to me after we're done playing with each other. Not before we even start. You're the real McCoy, I have to give you that," he chuckled.

"I'm not particularly eager to know the secrets of your bedchamber, captain. Nor the count of your... trophies," she spoke seriously but without changing position and without swatting his hand embracing her away.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a whore in every sense of the word," Fatima laughed again. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Kyla flush a bit so he ruffled her hair with his free hand. "I've been called worse, I'm a pirate and a devourer of maidens in this part of the galaxy."

"Well, I wouldn't say that this infamy is unfounded,captain."

"It's not like I'm doing this for sport or pleasure, you know," Fatima said bitterly.

"Oh, you could have fooled me! I saw all those hardly clad ladies going about the ship and preening in the lounge. They are all captives like myself and not part of your crew and I can think of only a few purposes such women could serve," Kyla continued and he would have to be a fool not to notice the truth in her words.

"I'm well aware what it must look like from the outside and I can't deny that what I'm doing brings harm to others. But it must be done, there is no other way," he sighed. "And it's not like I'm mistreating anyone. I think of them, and of you of course, as regular crew members."

"That's some twisted logic. I'm curious about your reasons for this masquerade," she said.

"Hey, my reasons are my own," Fatima's voice suddenly became colder. "I'm not asking about your past, am I?"

"That's just because you're only interested in my tush, Fatima. Admit it, it appeals to you to have your personal harem at so young an age. How old can you be anyway? Twenty-three? Twenty-five?"

"That's not true!" He protested vehemently. "It's just that..."I shouldn't get attached, he wanted to say but the words died in his throat. He realised that in Kyla's eyes he really must have been a whore who chased everything that wouldn't jump an airlock rather than sleep with him. "Nevermind, I don't want to continue this conversation. I thought you wanted to rest."

*

Kyla gazed at him a minute longer and then snuggled against him. It looked like she had hit a sore spot and subject. Normally she would have pursued it, pocked and prodded until the information came out...but in this cramped flight pod, she wasn't about to start something like that. At least not just yet. She was too tired and worn down.

"Very well, Fatima. You can keep your reasons or secrets, whatever they might be for now." She told him softly and closed her eyes with a small yawn.

He let out a little grunt, his body tense against hers. She didn't mind much...sleep didn't want to wait. Within seconds she was breathing evenly, her lips slightly parted and one slender hand resting against his chest. Fatima studied her relaxed form, enjoying the warm of her body against his and finding himself relaxing again. He marvelled at how fast she went to sleep, like a child without a care.

With a deep sigh, rubbed his good eye and ran a hand through his hair. Kyla mumbled as he shifted slightly and wiggled her bottom around until she got comfortable again and fell silent. Fatima found himself smiling down at her. Laying his head back against the hard seat behind him, he gazed out into the darkness around them, lost in thought as she slept against him.

Time past peacefully for a while, sleep beginning to catch up with the Captain himself when Kyla mumbled again. "Roger...." she seemed to be saying, grabbing his attention and making him wonder who in the hell was Roger?!

Her brow creased in a faint frown and the hand on his chest tightened. "Forward...roger that...evade, do not attack."

Her words became stronger as her scowl deepened and body tensed. "Do you read? Cadet...it's...direct order..."

Her hand suddenly tightened into a fist and pounded once into his chest, making him wince. He grabbed her hand to secure it before she bloodied his nose or bruised him up again, but found himself interested in what she was spilling out from her subconscious.

"Stupid macho..." she grumbled and sighed, tossing her head aside and shifting again.