Captain Emrah Jackson Ch. 28

This ongoing sci-fi series will contain non-consensual elements.

As my dreams gave way to reality, a sense of comfort greeted me. I was not bound and gagged anymore. I lay on a comfy mattress under soft clean sheets. My head was resting on a very comfortable pillow. There was light in the room, sunlight. and the air was warm and fragrant. The relaxed feeling I had didn't last long. It couldn't. My first instinct was to put my hand on my stomach. There it was, a small but present bump. The baby that Cody had unwillingly given me was still growing in me. Sakura hadn't lied about that.

As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw that I was in a large bed chamber. There was an open window and strong sunlight streamed in. This was no ship. I was on a planet.

Sakura had promised to deliver me back into slavery. There wasn't a collar around my neck.

I was naked under the brilliant white sheets. Tentatively I sat up. Where ever I was I needed an answer. I wasn't going to rush into anything though. I had to be smart.

Nothing was keeping me on the bed and I padded over to the window. Below me was space and far below I could make out treetops. It looked like a jungle canopy. I judged it to be about a thousand feet below me. The jungle spread out towards the horizon, and I saw no other structures. For the time being, all I needed to know was that a jump from this height would be lethal.

I looked around the rest of the room. All the drawers and cupboards were empty, and the only piece of clothing I could find was a simple white dress. I slipped it over my body and tried the door. To my surprise, it opened automatically. Then with a deep breath, I started to look for answers.

The walls were white and well-maintained. Some doors opened while others did not. There were empty bedrooms just like mine. It all felt like some luxury getaway than a prison. Where had Sakura brought me?

I entered what felt like a living area. The furniture was black and on a long couch, I saw a young woman.

"Hello, my name is Jerrel."

She looked to be about twenty years old. She had silky chestnut hair that was straight and smooth. The sunlight caught it in such a way that it seemed to glow. It was long too and cascaded over her shoulders. Jerrel was a slight girl. Slender arms and legs and not tall. Her face stood out against the sight of her body. She had large almond-shaped brown eyes that were soft and inviting. Her lips were plump and had an innocence to them.

She was not my captor, I knew that immediately. Her dress was similar to mine and her warm smile indicated only good intentions. She was a very attractive young woman, and my first guess was that she was a captive here like me.

"Where am I?" That was my first question.

"I don't know," was her reply. "Well, I know I am home, but I don't know the name of the planet."

"Who owns this place?"

"My mistress."

I nodded. I already had a feeling who she meant and it wasn't going to be Sakura.

"Vanya," I said.

She smiled and nodded.

Vanya owned the collector station where I had escaped from all that time ago. She was a sadistic woman who the last time I met had her guards brutalize me. I remembered how she had taken great pleasure in torturing me and using me for her twisted pleasure. Sakura had delivered me to the last person in the galaxy that I wanted to be a captive of.

I thought about asking the young girl if there was a way out of there, but my experience told me that there wasn't going to be. I hadn't woken up by accident, and my freedom was just an illusion.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"With her doctors at the moment, would you like me to take you to her?"

It was better to get it over with I thought, and agreed.

Her walk was dainty and I followed closely. She led me into another bedroom. This looked vastly different. Instead of the white aesthetics, it had darkly coloured wood-panelled walls and lavishly ornate furniture. The decorative aspects were all too familiar to me. There laying in the bed being attended to by two doctors was the woman I had hoped never to see again.

In the corners of the room were smartly dressed bodyguards. With help from the doctor, she sat up in bed and smiled at me thinly. She looked a lot more frail than the last time I had seen her. Her white hair seemed thinner, and her face more shrunken. There were medical devices attached to her as well. She looked very sick and nearing the end of her life.

"I see you have met Jerrel," she said, with a weak and croaky voice.

"Where am I?"

"You are safe, my dear," she said, softly.

I wasn't, I was far from that. I asked where Sakura was, and she told me she was around.

"Get it over with," I said, not wanting to delay things any further. "Tell me if I run I will be killed, tell me I have to behave."

She smiled deeper now and gestured Jerrel closer.

"You are experienced enough Emrah, we don't have to have that conversation. Needless to say, I have paid a lot of money for you."

"So now what?"

"Very impatient, I like that, an admirable quality. Attractive. I have a simple offer for you. One that you will be unable to refuse."

"Go on," I said, coolly.

"I want you to be my companion."

It took me a few seconds to register what she had said. "I don't understand," I replied.

One of the doctors tried to put an oxygen mask on her face, but she batted it away.

"Emrah I want you, not as a slave, but as my partner, someone to share the remaining years of my life with."

"You can't be serious," I said.

"Oh, but I am, very serious. I have lived a long life, Emrah Jackson. You know how rare it is to find someone that intrigues me anymore."

This was too strange, I thought. Nothing about this made any sense to me. This woman dealt in slaves and now she was asking me to be her lover.

"What if I refuse?"

She smiled and told me I won't.

"There are many things that I can give you Emrah. Things you want. I could start by calling off the attack on the Siren's Kiss."

Sakura had told me she had sold its location to pirate hunters. If Vanya was being serious then I could hardly afford to miss this opportunity.

"Call it off, and I might consider your offer."

"Very well," she said and nodded to one of her guards. He took out a comms pad and left the room. "Explore the rest of my home, it's a big decision, and I want you to make the right one."

She whispered something to Jerrel who then came over to me. As I left I saw Vanya taking the oxygen mask.

"Is she dying?" I asked Jerrel, once we were out in the corridor.

She nodded and there was a sadness in her eyes.

As we walked back towards the living room I asked her why she wanted me to be her companion if she was going to be dead soon.

"I don't ask those sorts of questions," she said, vaguely. Then told me Vanya wanted me to go into one of the bedrooms.

"What's in there?"

She shrugged and told me it was something I wanted.

I did as she asked, out of curiosity more than anything. Nothing would change my mind.

**********

Sakura was waiting for me when I arrived. She didn't see me enter. She couldn't, her face was buried in the pillows. Thick restraints held her face down and spread-eagled to the bed. Just like me when I awoke there wasn't a stitch of clothing on her. As I walked closer I saw that a rubber ball gag was in her mouth. As much as I disliked this woman, the sight of seeing her like this didn't fill me with any sort of joy. It was sickening.

On a table next to the bed were various instruments. A knife, a long wooded cane, and some sex toys. Is this what Vanya was gifting me, an opportunity to torture this woman?

Suddenly she jerked on the bed as she became aware of my presence. She looked at me with wide eyes and made a muffled moan. I thought about how she had attacked Roki, and how she treated me on the shuttle. It wasn't going to be enough to make me hurt her. I had killed men on Ferrin that had wronged me, but there had been a purpose behind that. This would have just been cold-blooded revenge.

Then I wondered if this was not some kind of warning too. Perhaps this would be my fate if I refused Vanya's request.

I picked up the knife and began cutting the restraints free. As soon as she was able, she sat up and drew her legs close to her. She pulled the gag from her mouth and stared silently at me. She looked shocked and a little frightened.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Her eyes were fixed on the knife in my hand. All her confidence and intimidation had been drained out of her. She even covered her bare breasts with her arm.

"Are you going to kill me?" she asked, with a trembling voice.

I wanted to say yes, just to scare her, to give her a taste of her own medicine. This was Vanya's game though, and I didn't want to play it.

"You deserve it, but I'm not a killer."

She didn't look like she believed me.

"I was only following orders," she said, softly.

I doubted that, but staying here was getting me nowhere.

**********

The next few days passed slowly. I saw no more of Jerrel or Vanya. Food was delivered automatically and I was left to my own devices. I wasn't sure I believed her about my ship. It could have just been a story. Deep down I wanted to believe, believe that Roki was safe somewhere.

I explored more of my new home. It was two levels but I still couldn't figure out how we were so high about the surface. Not every door was open to me, and sometimes doors that had once let me through now were closed. Vanya's room was one of them, but I got the feeling that she wasn't in there anymore. It was all very open to the outside, with windows and balconies. We were so high up though, and I saw no way of climbing further up the building.

Another few days went by and I finally had company again. It was Jerrel. She was almost skipping as she came into the living area. There was a new vitality to her that I had not seen before.

"Emrah, my dear, what a pleasure to see you again," she said and ran up to me and gave me a big hug. I never assumed we had that sort of relationship, but patted her back anyway.

I asked her what was going on, but she dismissed the question with a wave of her hand.

"Don't you smell that?" she asked, as she breathed in heavily. "The smell from the jungle. So sweet."

"Maybe I got used to it," I said.

"I'm hungry," she said, with a giggle and almost danced over to the food dispenser and hit the buttons till she was served a helping of fruit. I watched with some curiosity as she devoured a peach. The juices ran heavily down her chin.

"Do you think I am pretty Emrah?"

"Sure, you are pretty."

She smiled widely and wiped the juices away with the back of her hand.

"Do you want to fuck me Emrah?"

I laughed a little and told her some other time.

"I want to take you somewhere I think you will enjoy."

I followed her into a hall and we stopped at a door I had never been through before. In front of it were two pairs of boots.

"Put these on," she said, with a smile.

"Where are we going?"

"The Jungle."

**********

With only our white dresses and boots we descended to the surface in a small lift. Something was odd about the whole situation, but I couldn't put my finger on it. All I could be sure of was that Vanya was behind all of this somehow. I asked Jerrel, but she was remaining tight-lipped for now.

"What are we going to do when we get to the surface?"

"Explore," she replied with a sly smile. "You like to explore don't you, Emrah?"

"I guess."

"Travelling through the galaxy, meeting new people, having new experiences. It keeps one young doesn't it."

Suddenly a cold shiver went up my spine, and all the hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention.

"Where is Vanya?" I asked solemnly.

Jerrel turned to me and bit her bottom lip with a smirk.

"You are Vanya, aren't you?"

"I wondered how long it would take you to figure it out, Emrah."

Had it not been the way she spoke I would never have guessed.

"Is it cosmetic surgery?" I asked.

"Oh no, Emrah, this is not plastic surgery, this is Jerrel's body. She was my clone, a perfect replica of me, even down to the brain. Then a quick transference, easy really."

I had heard about that type of procedure. It was all theoretically and completely banned in UEN territory. Not just because it would raise so many ethical issues, but because of how barbaric it would be. I had never heard of it working.

"I don't believe you," I said.

She smiled. "Anything is possible with the right amount of money."

"To get a clone to correctly match your brain waves, would be a one in a million chance. Even a genetic copy would."

She cut me off. "It was one in two hundred thousand, at least to get to Jerrel."

My mouth went dry at the mere thought of it. "You went through two hundred thousand clones?"

"More or less, at the zygote stage. Terminated before they drew breath."

"It must have taken.."

"A very long time indeed. If it was that easy I wouldn't have had to wait till I got so old."

"So how old are you then?"

"Very old Emrah, very old. When I was born on Earth, there were no orbital rings."

That meant she was at least over two centuries old. As I contemplated what I had just been told the elevator promptly came to a stop. A wall of hot humid air hit me as the doors opened. I got a good look at where I had been. The whole structure was hanging in the air. There were only the cables connecting the lift that reached the surface. I guessed it was anchored in orbit somehow.

"Come on Em rah, we have a lot to talk about."

*************

All I could do was follow Vanya through the jungle. The air was warm and life seemed to surround us. Incessant bird calls and clicks from insects filled my ears. I had no idea where I was going, but one thing I needed more than anything was answers.

"I could just kill you," I said as we stopped in a small clearing.

"You won't," she said. It wasn't just her appearance that was different, it was her whole attitude, she was more active and seemed to burn with new life and new energy.

"You couldn't kill Sakura, you won't kill me."

"I still remember what you did to me at the collector station."

She smiled softly. "You were a slave then, I didn't even know it was you Emrah. Do you accept my apology?"

I shook my head.

"What then? What will make you happy?"

"My freedom."

"You don't want freedom, you want love and excitement, like the rest of us. Be with me and you can have all that."

"Your delusional."

"So, I beat you, you were a pleasure slave as far as I knew. I treated you no differently than everybody else. Had I known you were the famous Captain Emrah Jackson, it would have been very different."

"I'm hardly famous."

"Au contra ire. Everybody knows about you my darling. Emrah Jackson, late of the UEN Calypso. Captured by pirates, sold into bondage, but then an escape, and along with Red Moon you crippled a breeder farm. Then you find yourself on Ferrin in the gladiator arena. No escape there, and you win your freedom by martial combat. Oh, and then the best bit, you join up with pirates. From freeing slaves to taking them hostage in a matter of years. As a pirate you excel. Your face was all over the news net. Infiltrated the Eden, and snatched some very high-value passengers. A bounty so big, few could afford to match it. Most people think your story is exaggerated or made up, but I know that not to be the case."

"What's your point?" I asked, simply.

"My point, my dear. Your next chapter could be so much greater. I have the funds to make your wickedest dreams come true. Instead of one ship, I could give you a fleet of them. Mould the galaxy to your will. Punish those who wrong you, and right all the injustices that you see. You can feel it can't you, all that power just waiting to be grasped. All I ask is that you do it by my side."

"Why me?" That was all I could say.

Suddenly she put her finger to her lips. "Shhh. They are here."

"Who?" I whispered, noticing a change in her attitude.

"The people that live in this jungle."

I could hear the bushes rustling. She was right there were people. Vanya had a look of nervous excitement on her face.

"We are about to get a lesson in humility," she said boldly, then turned and ran.

There was more movement out of the corner of my eye and my heart began to race. I wasn't sure what she meant but knew that I must follow her.

**********

I had only taken a few steps before I got my first glimpse of who she meant. There was a blur of movement as something was hurled at me. It was wooden and struck me on the shoulder. I shrugged off the pain and kept going. Vanya was a few feet ahead of me when someone jumped out of a bush and grabbed her. He wrapped his arms around her slim waist and hauled her high up into the air.

"Emrah," she squealed.

As I closed the distance. I could see the man was dressed like some sort of primitive. He was bare-chested with a loin cloth and feathers in his hair. I was almost in touching distance when something tripped me. I fell hard on the jungle floor. There was something wrapped around my ankles. It was a small length of rope with a ball at either end. I struggled to free myself and I could hear Vanya calling out. Another man appeared and I had no time to react as he pounced on me. More hands were on me now, and I was roughly flipped onto my stomach. Moments later my arms were pulled behind my back, and my hands were tied with rope. I couldn't see what was happening with Vanya but imagined it was much the same.

The men spoke in a language I didn't understand. I was hauled to my feet and got my first proper look at the men who had just taken us captive. There were about half a dozen of them. All with deeply tanned skin, and like the first had feathers in their matted and wild hair. Their clothes were similarly unorganised. Bare chests and loincloths. Were they ferals, I wondered.

Vanya was in front of me, and as I had imagined she was bound too. She gave me the answer and told me that these were indeed feral humans. The only time I had encountered these sorts of humans was in slave markets. The galaxy was a big and old place. It didn't take much for a civilization to collapse, and its inhabitants to revert to a more primitive lifestyle. Some colony ships never even got the chance to establish themselves before they found themselves living like animals. Had this planet been in UEN space, the population would quickly become reintegrated with the rest of society, but out here in the free systems they were left in peace. They were mostly viewed as a curiosity or exploited for cheap labour.

A length of rope was tied around my neck, and the same rope was then attached to Vanya's neck. They spoke quickly to one another in their strange language and started to move out. We were pulled along with them in a single file.

"What's going on?" I asked Vanya softly.

"I think we are their prisoners," she replied. Vanya lived on this planet, or at least above it. There was no chance she didn't know about the people on the surface. It all felt staged, but these men didn't feel like actors.

Our little group walked for what seemed like hours. The only respite we were given was for a water break. One of the men let me drink from what I could only describe as an animal bladder. I was thankful for the drink, even though the water tasted very brackish. As we walked I thought more about Vanya's offer. By my reckoning, she was over two hundred years old. That was long enough to make anyone bored with life. Was that the reason, I wondered? Was I just a new amusement for her to play with? I didn't doubt that her offer was genuine, but it wasn't one I could accept. As Berta had told me, I wasn't in this for the money.