Page 8 of Keeping Freya (Warriors of Arracate #3)

Freya

T ’Rak strides toward the control panel.

“What are you doing?!” I shout out in horror, flinging myself between him and the controls. He gives me an impatient look.

“Move female,” he grumbles. “I need to answer that.”

I snarl at him, refusing to move an inch. “Think again, buttercup. Why the hell would you want to answer that incoming call?”

He stares me dead in the eye.

“It’s not your crew, because the scans show no other ships and they would have made themself known. Actually, every sane person would have made himself known. So this message is coming from someone who is actively hiding themself. That does not sound very friendly to me.”

He keeps staring me down, and just when I feel like I’m losing my sanity, he opens his mouth. “Someone could be in trouble,” he grunts. “We Arracate help others who are in trouble. ”

Then his face softens the slightest bit. “You do not have to fear trouble if that is what this message brings. I will keep you safe. I will protect you.”

“I am perfectly capable of protecting myself, thank you very much!” I respond, but he goes back to ignoring me and gently shoves me aside. I’m fuming. I open my mouth to give him a piece of my mind, but I can’t find any words. So, I just open and close my mouth like a fish.

“You… You…” I have much more to say to this condescending asshole, but I get interrupted by a metallic voice coming through our communications link when he accepts the incoming message.

The message is hardly audible and keeps getting interrupted by buzzing. Still, it goes something like this: Please help us - we are stranded - engine troubles - not enough supplies - and then a jumble of numbers which I assume are coordinates.

The message keeps repeating itself, and we listen in silence. Finally, T’Rak curses, and I sigh.

“We have to check it out.” T’Rak grunts before walking to his chair and pushing all kinds of buttons. I wait till he’s done before I approach him again. I am still very mad.

“You can’t just dismiss me like that.” I sit down in the other captain’s chair. T’Rak grunts, so I continue. “It’s not fair. I have a say in things as well, and I can’t just rely on you to kiss and make everything better!”

“Kiss?” he asks as he turns to look at me.

I feel a blush forming on my cheeks. “It’s just an Earth saying.”

“What would this ‘kiss’ entail?”

I arch an eyebrow. This man is giving me a whiplash. Is he flirting with me?

I huff. “None of your concern, because I can assure you there won’t be any kissing in your feature. Now, if you would please be so kind as to consult with me before you make decisions that will affect both of us, that would be very much appreciated.”

I don’t wait for an answer, but get up and go to the back of the room to grab something to eat and drink. I eat my noodles in the chair beside his, purposely annoying him by slurping loudly, but he doesn’t budge. I won’t either.

I sit up when a vast meteor belt comes into view. I perch on the edge of my seat. I haven’t experienced this kind of freedom since my ordeal in space began. Although I know it’s just a bunch of rocks, some of them actually look like small planets, and the vastness takes my breath away.

T’Rak has drawn up a holographic image of the belt, and I see that the signal is coming from inside one of the bigger asteroids.

“We will fly to that one.” He points at an asteroid to the left of the one originating the signal. “I will do a close-range scan to see if it is safe to investigate the signal.”

I nod because that seems like a good idea. I catch myself feeling grateful that he includes me in his thoughts, but I shove that feeling down quickly. I shouldn’t be feeling grateful for things he should do in the first place.

We hover behind an asteroid while T’Rak performs his scans.

I can’t stop my foot from tapping on the floor, which gets me an annoyed glare, but I can’t help it.

Anxiety is churning in my stomach. Whoever sent the distress signal might need our help, but I still don’t feel good about it.

I consider myself lucky. Did I escape the abuse?

Nope, but it could have been so much worse.

I think I made it out extremely well considering the circumstances.

It helps that I was able to kill my tormentors, and even though I know that’s not a very sane approach—it helped me to take back what they took.

Deep down, I know that my current anger and how I’m holding on to returning to Earth is me avoiding facing my problems, but I’m good with that.

I’ve always been a mentally stable person, and my iron will and natural snarkiness are holding me together right now.

Too bad for T’Rak, he’s on the receiving end of all my deflection, but that’s not my problem. He just has to ‘suck it up’.

The sound of the rumbling engine gets me out of my musings. I give T’Rak a pointed look. “Thanks for the heads-up.” But he only grunts in response.

We are both tense as we approach the asteroid.

I thought it was big when we approached it, but this close, I feel insignificant.

The dark presence of this big space rock has an ominous feel.

It just floats there, with no gravity or pull.

There’s a dark gaping hole that looks like a tunnel, and T’Rak pilots the ship right at it.

“Are we going in there?” My throat suddenly feels dry.

“We should have a visual of the vessel very soon,” T’Rak says, and even though I don’t want to, I take one step closer to him. He fumbles with the buttons on his armrests, turning on a giant headlight. I feel a lot more comfortable entering the tunnel now that we can actually see where we’re going.

The tunnel almost immediately starts narrowing. We’re nearly at a point where we can't go any further when we see the other ship.

I know I’m not the most experienced when it comes to spaceships, but even I can see that this vessel looks like a bunch of crap.

“How is that even functioning?” I wonder out loud.

“It does not,” T’Rak deadpans, making me giggle involuntarily. We stare at each other for one heartbeat, unsure of what’s passing between us .

A beeping sound breaks the moment, making T’Rak return to his scans immediately.

“The scans are blocked somehow; we should expect trouble.”

Briskly, he rises and stalks out of the room. I scramble behind him.

“What are you doing? Where are we going?”

“We are not going anywhere,” he clips. “I will go on that ship to see if there is anything left to save. You will stay here, hide, and not let yourself be seen.”

“No.” I keep my voice calm, all the while I’m practically running beside him.

“You must be kept safe, so you will stay here.”

“No. I will not be safe here without you. What if there’s another ship? What if they ambush you? You are not safe going onto that ship alone. So, I’m not safe staying here alone.”

He stops in his tracks, and I almost topple over my own feet in my effort to stand still as well. I turn around to face him.

“You’re not my master, you don’t get to decide what I should or shouldn’t do.” I straighten my spine. “You are taking me with you, or I’m not telling you shit when we get to Tekrov.”

He is fuming with anger now. “You use what I want most to get what you want?”

“YOU DON’T LISTEN TO ME!” Tears spring into my eyes as I yell at him. I try to wipe them away, but suddenly he steps into my personal space, his whole demeanour changing.

“I am sorry,” he says, gently wiping my tears. His shoulders sag a bit.

I step back and raise my chin. “I want a gun.”

He gives me a feral smile. “That can be arranged.”