Alexei Iskakov, Bounty Hunter Ch. 02

Zarina couldn't stay asleep. She had tried, but the cage was cramped and having her hands cuffed behind her was far from comfortable. She tried to count her blessings. It was chilly in here, but far warmer than the hold. She was cramped and uncomfortable in the cage, but it was far from the pain and stress of how she was bound earlier. Eating the cubes of tofu without the use of her hands and having to suck on the nozzle of the water bottle was humiliating, but at least it didn't taste awful, and no one was watching. Except, well, the security camera.

'Oh, god. That creep must be watching from his bunk.' she thought.

She pushed the food bowl to the side with her head and rolled off her stomach onto her side, back to the security camera. This was a little more comfortable. She gave the cuffs a tug. The heroines in the Californian and Tamil dramas she watched as a kid always managed to get out of these sort of situations. She'd fantasized about being a captured spy or resistance fighter, bravely defying interrogation, but this was far less glamorous. Nearly nude, cold, and eating out of a dog bowl in a cage, with no idea of where she was or how she got there, she shivered, and curled up into a ball, passing into a fitful, teary slumber.

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"Wake up Master, we're about to exit hyperspace." Tamerlan's computer stated, calmly as ever, but at several times its normal volume "Approaching Mazu gate"

"Ugh... fuck." Alexei rolled over and sat up. He had overslept. Not bothering to dress, he grabbed his thermos of mate and stumbled out to his cockpit. Sofiya was asleep herself, or doing her best to pretend to be. He had a couple minutes, might as well wake her up so she didn't get hurt on the return to normal space-time. He emptied her water bottle and poured some of the hot mate in, then reached into the cage to jostle her. Apparently she was fully passed out. He grabbed the cleaning hose and gave her a blast of the cold water.

The girl screamed, what Alexei assumed to be cursing in whatever language she was speaking.

"Wakey-wakey princess." She glared, indignantly, at him. Alexei chuckled and gave her another quick spray. "Be good and I'll turn the heat on. And hold on tight."

He leapt over to his cockpit. Less than twenty seconds left till return to normal spacetime... He felt the shudder and bucking of the ship begin. As soon as they left hyperspace, he was able to reign it in.

"I told you to hold on." he swiveled around, half expecting a bloody, crying mess. The defiant glower that awaited him took him aback a bit. "So you can listen."

He pulled up the draft of the listing he had made for Sofiya on his comm. His finger hung over the submit button for a moment. She would bring in a lot of money, enough to fix the warp drive for sure. And he didn't need an extra mouth to feed on the ship... but... Well, he couldn't sell her without getting her cleaned up and giving her a medical checkup. He closed the app without submitting the listing.

The ship was approaching Mazu, a water covered world infamous for its pirates' bazaar. The floating market was a place you could buy and sell anything from human flesh to military grade weapons and illegal nanotech. Unlike other such dens of iniquity, the Da Xing Pirates ran a tight ship, it wasn't a place you'd be robbed or assaulted. It also was one of the few places outside the more decadent parts of the core that you could lead a half naked girl around on a leash and not get weird looks. Alexei switched back to manual control, guiding Tamerlan down to the surface.

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Zarina watched the completely blue planet come into view. Where the hell was she? While the man was distracted by flying his ship, she reluctantly sucked on the water bottle nozzle. The hot beverage inside was soothing. The ship landed, and Iskakov approached the cage, opening it. She recoiled as best she could from his hand, but the man just laughed and dragged her out by the collar, forcing her to her feet. She tried not to meet his gaze, bowing her head, but Iskakov brushed her hair back and lifted her chin with a firm hand on her neck. He stared at her for a moment, and she did her best to keep a brave face. He was handsome, in a roguish kind of way, with long black hair and a bit of face scruff. She couldn't help but be a little aroused by the situation. Judging by the smile cracking on his lips, he noticed, and she could feel her face flush with embarrassment.

The man pulled a thick leather blindfold out of his jacket pocket. Zarina shook her head, trying to avoid it, only to feel the sting of his palm on her cheek again. Powerless, she tearfully let him secure the blindfold, and was plunged into darkness.

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One he blindfolded Sofiya, Alexei grabbed a bit-gag. It was his personal favorite, with a nice, thick bit and a full harness.

"C'mon, open up." he pressed it to Sofiya's mouth, but she stubbornly clamped it shut. "You just don't want to make this easy, do you?"

He grabbed her left nipple, and gave it a sharp twist. She cried out in pain, and he pushed the bit between her teeth. "Lucky for you..." he started latching the straps behind her head, "I like a good challenge."

He spun her around and reached down to unlock the cuffs, but held her hands behind her as he reached for the rope. Placing a loop of it behind her neck, he wound it around her shoulders and arms, tying it off at her wrists, then using the remaining rope to connect to the loop behind her, pulling her hands up her back. She groaned with the stress it put on her arms.

"It's not supposed to be comfortable, but if you're good while I take you to the doctor maybe I'll loosen you up a bit for the walk home." He clipped a sturdy leash to the collar, and opened the exit ramp. "Come on now, let's not make me late."

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Zarina struggled to keep up with the man dragging her along. He took large steps, and the shackles on her feet made it very difficult to walk quickly. She smelled sea air, and felt the sun on her skin for the first time in... How long even? It felt good, despite everything else happening to her. It took another voice to snap her out of her short revelry. Iskakov was talking to another man. She heard the hubbub of many more voices.

'Oh God... he's dragging me nude through a city!'

Her humiliation was only compounded when Iskakov gave her a firm slap on the ass, and turned her around. The other man gave what sounded like a word of approval, and Iskakov set off again. Zarina could feel the ground below her feet swaying gently. She just wanted this to end, but there was little she could do but follow the man, head hung in shame and drool from the gag dribbling down her chin, stumbling over the shackles as she was dragged along.

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"Doctor Mota! Comes Estar?" Alexei called out as he entered the slave clinic "I'm gonna need a check-up on this one!"

"Your Latine is still shit Alexei, have you even tried to study?" The doctor looked the girl over, "I see you've been busy though. What's the story on this one? Client didn't pay up?"

"Nah, I found her hiding in my ship. Can't understand a damn thing she says. I also need you to check her for any tracking chips or anything, and make sure she's caught up on shots." he transferred the doctor some credits "Be careful, she's a fighter."

"You aren't going to stay to keep an eye on her?"

"Nah, I got some shopping to do, see if I can't find a way to teach her a language I can actually speak. Might get her some clothes too." Alexei turned to leave. "Plus, I trust you doc."

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Zarina felt the gag being unlatched and pulled from her mouth. Next came the blindfold. Iskakov was nowhere to be seen. Instead she saw a kindly looking older man with a greying moustache and balding hair. Judging by the equipment and the general sterile feeling of the room, she was in some sort of doctor's office.

"Please! You need to help me! I've been-" the doctor put a finger to her lips and shook his head. It was clear by his expression, and the soothing-sounding words that came out of his mouth that he couldn't understand what she was saying any more than her captor. She looked nervously at the needle in his hand, and winced when he pricked her arm, collecting a droplet of blood that he put on a slide then fed into a slot in his tablet. After a few seconds his eyes grew wide, and he reached for a whole slew of syringes.

"Oh... No, please..." The doctor put a hand gently on her shoulder to reassure her, but she still squirmed when he took one of the syringes out. The doctor sighed and wrapped the blindfold around her head, but not nearly as tightly as Iskakov had. She knew what was coming, but did her best to stay still. She grimaced each time the alcohol was applied and a needle sunk into her skin, but let the doctor do his work. He talked to her in a calm, reassuring tone as he performed the procedure. He seemed like a nice man. Why was he alright with her being brought in bound and gagged like this?

The doctor patted her on the head, and removed the blindfold. He walked over to a small fridge and pulled out a can of some beverage, inserting a straw and into it and placing it on a tray at a height she could easily reach. She was wary of the drink, but was quite thirsty. Plus, her situation couldn't really get much worse, could it? She took a sip. Nice, cold green tea. She sighed in relief, and sipped it down greedily.

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Alexei returned to the office about an hour later. The girl was sitting on one of the chairs in the waiting area, still bound but with her head free. She gave him a sullen look as he came through the door.

"So Doctor, did she behave?"

"She gave me no trouble. Maybe you should be nicer to your toys, and they wouldn't cause you problems." Alexei chuckled at this, but before he could respond Doctor Mota looked over his glasses at him. "But I have more important things to tell you."

The doctor led him back into his office room, Alexei pulling Sofiya along. He picked up the tablet and showed it to him.

"Doc, I don't know what any of this means. Does she have a bomb implanted in her, or is she just behind on vaccinations?"

"No, no implants of any sort, but yes you could say she's behind on her shots. By around 2000 years."

"You're fucking with me right? Not even the richest weirdo in the core is that old." Alexei laughed again, this time nervously. "How..."

"I'm being straight with you here Alexei. Her genome shows no signs of interference, and is consistent with pre-diaspora humanity. And look at this," The doctor pointed to a set of indentations along the girls spine. "Those are from a primitive cryosleep capsule."

"You can't be saying what I think... That's not possible..."

"Unlikely, but possible. And in this case, certain. This girl is from Earth." the doctor lowered his voice a bit "You may have caught the most valuable stowaway in the galaxy."