Page 2 of Keeping Freya (Warriors of Arracate #3)

Freya

D aphne slaps me in my face. “Don’t you dare check out Freya!” she shouts. I look up at her, astonished.

“Ouch.” I touch my cheek.

“Feeling better?” she responds as she cocks an eyebrow.

Grinning, I grab her hand and hoist myself up.

“Yeah, thanks.” We look at each other in silence, and then we start laughing.

And not just a quick little laugh, we are full-on belly laughing.

We can’t stop either. Every time one of us looks at the other, we start again, just like a bunch of teenagers.

“So… if you guys are done, there are lights blinking and there’s still another ship out there,” Brittney says dryly. I clear my throat and wipe my tears.

She is right; there are lots of lights blinking, a red one looks very urgent, and I walk towards the control panel. It seems like what you see in one of those Star Wars movies, everybody back home always raved about. There are no symbols either, and I curse.

“Did any of you happen to learn how to read alien script, or pick up on alien tech before we were brought here?”

“Well, no, but uhm maybe you can try voice control?” Crys suggests.

“Voice control?” These girls might be onto something.

“Yes, voice control!” Brittney adds. “It’s how in one of my alien romance novels the heroine figured out the cave they were in was actually a spaceship!”

“They write romance novels about fucking aliens?”

“Yes! Exactly!” Crys and Brittney exclaim in unison, and I roll my eyes.

“I can’t with you people, I did not mean it the way it sounded. I have done enough alien fucking to last me a lifetime, thank you very much.” They all respond with giggles, and I turn back to the panel.

“How did they activate the voice control?”

“In the book, they just talk to the ship.” Brittney steps forward. “Computer, activate voice control.”

Gurgleded sounds come from around us, and we look at each other in shock. It actually works?

“Computer, switch language to English,” Crys says as she steps forward.

“Default language: Earth English, lingua franca of Planet 98372903. Species: humans. Location unknown.” A metallic-sounding voice says. Shit.

Everybody is momentarily speechless, then Brittney starts jumping up and down. Crys joins her immediately. “IT WORKED!” They shout in unison.

“Yes, okay, one point in favor of the Alien Fuckers, now I’m gonna figure out how to kill some more fucking aliens.” I turn towards the panel, the red light still blinking insistently .

“Computer, what does the red light that’s blinking on the control panel mean?”

“You are being hailed by the C84679 Cruiser next to you.” I snort, as if I’m going to answer that.

“Computer, can you point our weapons at the C84679 cruiser?”

“Weapons aimed.”

“Computer, please load weapons.”

“Weapons loaded.”

“Computer.” I begin with a pause for good measure. “Please answer the call.”

A screen pops up, and one of those ugly aliens appears on the screen. This one is adorned in jewelry, and instead of making him more appealing, the ornaments enhance his ugliness. He immediately starts screaming when the call comes through.

“HOW DARE YOU KEEP YOUR HIGH COMMANDER WAITING! WHAT COULD YOU HAVE POSSIBLY BEEN DOING THAT IS KEEPING YOU? WE NEED TO MOVE TO GET INTO HYPERSPACE”

“Well, I suggest you do that yourself, and you might want to do it quickly.”

“WHO ARE YOU!” he keeps yelling.

I raise an eyebrow. “Did nobody teach you that yelling is impolite? Since you don’t seem like a very reasonable man, I’m only going to say this once.

We have taken over the ship; your whatever you call them are dead, and we have the weapons aimed and loaded at your vessel.

” He visibly pales, and I continue. “I see I have your attention now. Leave us alone. Just go and leave us the fuck alone. I will count to 5; we will start shooting if you’re not gone.

One, Two-” Before I can continue, the connection is cut off, and I see their engines powering up.

The light gets so bright I close my eyes, and they're gone when I open them again. Poof. Like they weren’t there in the first place.

I turn around and I grin at the girls. “We did it! WE FUCKING DID IT!!”

We didn’t really think this far ahead, so it takes us a while to figure out what to do next.

Everybody has different ideas and different backgrounds.

Anna and Daphne just got here, fresh from the boat as they say, and they’re as hellbent on going home as I am.

Jodie has been in space the longest, while Brittney and Crys’s experience is somewhat limited.

We don’t go into detail, but we’ve all been fortunate.

So far, this ship has been the worst part of our journeys, and believe me when I say, I have seen worse. Much worse.

We quickly decide we need to get to know the ship first, and try to find our way home later. I am named Captain, and Brittney quickly titles us Space Pirates, or Corsairs. I spend my time getting to know the ship's controls, and everybody has a job.

We fall into our positions naturally, so we have little to no adaptation issues.

Daphne is my back-up; we switch day and night shifts, and the other girls help out where their natural talents lie.

Every morning, we get together for our daily meeting to discuss any issues and progress with finding our way home.

It’s an easy rhythm and I actually quite enjoy it; we have sonic showers, semi-clean clothes, and enough supplies to last us a long time.

The only thing we haven’t figured out yet is fuel, but I guess we’ll get there quickly enough.

Right now, it’s morning. Daphne went to sleep a couple of hours ago, and I’m figuring out buttons and having the computer search for Earth, or the Milky Way, but so far. Nada.

“How’s it going?” Brittney asks as she walks in.

Frustrated, I turn around. “Still nothing, I don’t know where they brought us, but it must be so far away that we aren’t even in the vicinity of our solar system.”

“You’ll find it,” she says confidently. “In the meantime, we can just plunder our way through space like true corsairs.”

I laugh. Brittney is a hoot. “We definitely need more information about these parts of space to do that.”

She shrugs. “Can we ask the computer? Maybe it knows if there are ships nearby?”

It’s worth a shot. “Computer, are there any ships or space stations nearby?”

“Negative,” the ship responds.

“Well, at least we know we’re safe here?” Brittney says.

I agree. “Yeah, we’re lucky the voice control on this thing works so well.

Daphne could shut down the engines and delete the course pretty easily.

” We have been hovering in the same spot ever since, with our shields and cloaking up.

Thank God for the crazy romance chicks who think about these things.

I haven’t even finished my thoughts, when a sudden clank rumbles through the ship.

“What was that?” Panic laces Brittney’s voice.

“Computer, what was that sound?”

“Security Breach. Security Breach.”

Cursing, I push the emergency protocol button. “Emergency protocol activated. Voice control locked.” I curse some more. Daphne walks in, handing us a weapon. We each take a gun, hoping that the other girls remain in their rooms and hide.

“Computer, where is the security breach located?”

“Security breach in outer hall, Starboard side. ”

We run towards the hall, and through the windows, we see a ship hovering beside us, with metal claws attached to our ship.

“I thought the computer said there weren’t any other ships nearby!” Brittney shouts, nearing hysterics.

I grumble. “It did not. They must have used cloaking devices as well. And how can they see through our cloaks?”

“We have to shoot them,” Daphne says. I nod, but the computer starts blaring up again before I can respond.

“Security Breach. Security Breach. Port side.” Fuck, they are coming at us from both sides.

I turn to Daphne. “Go, take Brittney with you.” I can probably take them out quickly if I don’t have to consider others, and then I can hopefully join them on the other side of the ship.

I watch them run away, and a shiver courses through my body. I have the strangest feeling inside of me, and I rub my chest. Indigestion always has the worst timing.

The sizzling at the wall brings my attention back to it, not a moment too soon, because a piece of the wall flies inward and a giant alien enters the ship. But instead of reacting, I am frozen as we look at each other.

He is enormous, even bigger than our captors, and big black horns rise from his temples.

His black hair is long, almost reaching his knees, and it’s plaited together in one big braid.

His skin is dark gray, and I know this because he shows a lot of it.

He only wears leather pants and a leather harness, which exposes much of his chest.

I swallow as I stare at the muscles, bulging and enhanced with beautiful tattoos I can’t quite make out.

He’s carrying knives in both hands, and when I look at his face, I gasp.

He’s sporting an impressive frown and looking at me with big black eyes.

They lack any white, and it would be downright scary if it weren’t for the specs of light flying around in his eyes.

He is breathtakingly handsome, even with the huge scar that marks one side of his face.

It starts at the top of his head and goes all the way to his cheekbone.

Though the scar doesn’t make him ugly. If anything, it enhances his attraction and-

“Mate,” he croaks out in an awe-filled voice.

I step back; this is enough to jolt me out of the spell he had me under, and I raise my gun.

“Oh, hell no!”