Page 35 of Journey to the Forbidden Zone
“No!” The word cracked like a whip. Sark recoiled. “The decision’s made. We take her home. End of discussion. Sark, report to the bridge and start calculating a course. Now.”
For a long moment, no one spoke. The silence stretched, thick with Sark’s ragged breathing and the ever-present groan of the ship’s straining engines. But at last, Sark’s shoulders sagged.
“Yes, Captain,” he said.
He trudged to the hatch like a man being led to execution. Carmen bit her lip not to shake her head at him. Where was her smug, affable pilot? What ghost was haunting him?
“Captain, if I may make a suggestion,” Norvik said.
Carmen threw him a warning glare. This was not up for debate.
“What is it?” she growled.
“Since Mila’s home world is in the Forbidden Zone, the required data on stellar coordinates is incomplete. Simply put, none of us has been there, and there are no astrogation charts available. Mila’s assistance would likely make Sark’s task easier.”
The Sensoori paused at the hatch, looking back as though he might get a last-minute reprieve. Carmen grunted. As usual, Norvik’s logic was sound. She nodded curtly.
“Fine. Mila, accompany Sark to the bridge. Give him everything he needs.” Her gaze finally landed fully on the XenX woman. “Coordinates, cultural protocols for hailing, anything that gets us in and out faster.”
Mila rose smoothly from her chair. The movement was liquid, drawing Carmen’s eye despite herself. That damned scent seemed to intensify for a heartbeat. Mila walked towards Carmen, stopping an arm’s length away. Her green eyes, level with Carmen’s, held an unsettling calm.
“Captain Díaz,” Mila said, her voice soft, melodic, yet carrying perfectly in the tense room. “I appreciate your conviction. Your desire to grant me freedom is unexpected. And noble.” She paused, her gaze unwavering. “But it is unnecessary. And potentially catastrophic for you and your crew.”
Carmen stiffened. Unnecessary? Catastrophic? The sheer wrongness of the words struck her like a slap to the face.
“What are you talking about?”
“My purpose is service,” Mila stated simply, as if explaining the most basic fact of existence. “My disposition, as I stated, is yours to determine. Selling me fulfills that purpose. It provides the capital your vessel and crew desperately require. It resolves your debts, your fines. It grants you security. Survival. To risk all this, to hazard your lives and this ship on a near-impossible journey into forbidden space to return me to a life I chose to leave is foolish.”
For a moment, Carmen was shocked. How could she know about the debts and the fines? And then it dawned on her with icy certainty that Sark and Norvik had filled her in. How convenient that the sex slave was begging to aid them, offering herself as the solution to her problems.
She cast a furious gaze at the two of them. Sark wilted immediately, unable to even look at her. Norvik blinked impassively – as if to say Carmen should have expected this. She’d never felt more disgust for people under her command, not even Corso when he was second mate back onThe Buccaneer.
A white-hot fury ignited in Carmen’s chest. The image flashed – Maltese’s greasy smirk, Corso’s sneer, the vulnerable curve of Mila’s back as she’d followed Zed, Sark no doubt laying it on thick as he revealed their predicament. Hearing this calm, intelligent woman reduce herself to a commodity, a solution to be liquidated, was obscene. And the fact that the men on her shiphad tried to convince her to sell herself for their benefit made Carmen want to scream.
“A life you chose?” Carmen said, her voice low, dangerous.
She took a step closer, invading Mila’s space, forcing the taller woman to look down slightly. The musky scent was overwhelming now, cloying, mixing with the sharp tang of Carmen’s own anger.
“You call starving in a debtor’s camp while the Kovoids feast achoice? You call selling yourself to some richpendejoso your family doesn’t end up breaking rocks until they die achoice?” She spat the word. “That’s not choice, Mila. That’s desperation wearing anegligée!”
Mila didn’t flinch. Her green eyes held Carmen’s, clear and unwavering.
“It was the only viable option available to secure my family’s future. A future free from fear, from want. I embraced the path of Harimi willingly, Captain. It is an honored role. My service is my purpose. Selling me achieves that purposeandsaves your crew. It is the optimal solution. The logical one.”
“Logic?” Carmen laughed, a harsh, brittle sound. “This isn’t about fucking logic! This is about you standing there, calm as vacuum, telling me you’re just ... justproperty! Disposable cargo! That your whole worth is wrapped up in what some rich bastard is willing to pay to own you!”
Her voice rose, raw with an emotion she couldn’t name – frustration, outrage, a fierce, protective ache that surprised her.
“You aremorethan that, Mila! Do you hear me? You’re smart. You’re capable. You walked onto my ship, lit a fire in my tactical officer, and scared the shit out of Sark just by existing, and you did it without breaking a sweat!” She gestured wildly, encompassing Mila’s striped form. “Look at you! You’re a force of nature trapped in a cage you built yourself! You deserve more than being some pervert’s prize! You deserve tochoose! Reallychoose! Not because the alternative is watching your family suffer, but because youwantsomething! For yourself!”
The words poured out, hot and furious. Carmen was breathing hard, her chest tight. She hadn’t planned to say any of that. It felt like something ripped from deep inside, a truth she hadn’t fully acknowledged until this moment, facing Mila’s serene acceptance of her own erasure.
“And the fact that these twomen– Theseniños!– tried to talk you into bondage, tried to influence youbehind my back, is proof everyone here has a lot to learn about a woman’s worth.
“Because it sure as shit ain’t two hundred thousand credits!”
The silence that followed was absolute, thick with shock. Sark stared, mouth agape. Norvik remained impassive, but his head tilted slightly, as if recalculating. And Mila just looked at her. Her green eyes had widened, just a fraction. The calm mask hadn’t cracked, but something flickered deep within those emerald depths. Surprise? Confusion? A crack in the serene certainty?