AI Era: [REDUX] The Captain's Commander

I kept a wary eye out for another human being as I cautiously returned to the Fortuna. Between the FastFreight, which should be gone by now, and the mysterious Vox ship, which may have just been a scout, I was really conflicted about whether I wanted company or not in this creepiness. No one approached me as I entered the Fortuna, high on adrenaline. Sealing the hatch behind me, I openly limped to my tiny two-person bridge. The sound didn't echo quite right as I stepped across the metallic flooring, but I assumed that was the crate as I set it down under the control board. Staring at the Fortuna's controls, I hesitated. The Waystop AI was running on minimal functionality. Was there a way to test it?

"Don't tell Waystop's AI you're leaving," warned a male voice behind me. I jerked and spun around, snatching my plasmagun from over the control board. The speaker wore a light green uniform emblazoned with 'FastFreight'. And he was grinning at catching me by surprise.

"PAL," I prompted. There was nothing, no response. He opened his mouth to say something else, but I hovered my finger over the manual comm button. He closed his mouth and stopped grinning. "Why is Waystop's AI a problem?" I asked him, wondering how he got past PAL.

"You have to trust us, Captain," he responded as two other men looked around him, revealing themselves in the narrow passageway off the bridge. One of them was the Grade 5 Vox Tech Specialist I saw earlier. Son of a bitch! I narrowed my eyes at him. I wanted to charge my plasmagun and order them off my spacecraft, but I hesitated. I needed more information.

All of my subterfuge was blown to hell. There was no Vox scout. Just FastFreight, which could not possibly be its name. When I marched up to the pirates, if they were pirates or under the command of Vox, they knew immediately I was targeting them. "Did the AI kill everyone?"

The FastFreight Trespassing Leader nodded.

I tested the air for getting him and his buddies off the Fortuna. Pretending to be in their organization, I bluffed, "I'm a tad surprised you picked here. I was sent to ask how the raiding mission had gone."

He rolled his eyes, a classic Vox gesture, and assumed their you're-under-arrest posture. "So here's what's going to happen," he leisurely commanded, "Give me your weapon. You're coming with me, and Captain Wero's going to have a little chat with you."

Vox. They were all Vox. I jumped into so much danger, it was almost orgasmic. Wero could only be one Captain Thadeus Wero. Most people didn't know the name. Especially me; I shouldn't know the infamous Vox officer either. His whole history flashed before my eyes as I weighed that agreeing to whatever was going on with these men he'd sent might just be the only way to survive. And there was no way he was a pirate. Which meant from his perspective, I looked like a smuggler at best. Which meant he was going to imprison me. Whereas proving I wasn't would get me imprisoned for different reasons. Fan-fucking-tastic. I considered running and seeing if one of the Waystop spaceship husks was salvageable. Captain Control was going to make me pay for that scene I created.

As Wero's three crew members squeezed in to trap me on the Fortuna's two person bridge, I inhaled in an intense sigh and put the plasmagun back on the control board. I thought about elbowing the leader of this committee, but I couldn't run until there was a better opening. The leader signaled silently to the non-Vox-uniformed crew member, who walked ahead off the bridge, I trailed him when his next gesture was at me, and then the leader followed behind me. It was a human sandwich that wasn't great for my taking off. And on top of that I had the bad knee thanks to the real damn pirates.

As we left the Fortuna, two more members of FastFreight/Vox crew were outside ready to board it. I stopped to look at their equipment non-plussed. It was labeled 'Grade 2'. "What's that?" I asked my captor.

"I'm not going to lie," he replied. And that was it. Nice. Then he ordered, "Keep walking, Captain. Please. We don't have a lot of time left." I expected him to roughly push me forward, but his deference and respect of my space was very unusual. Vox military included. Despite their obvious sense of urgency, they kept to my slower pace, too.

When we returned across the catwalk to the FastFreight, I stumbled slightly in surprise. Captain Control was standing across the airlock door himself watching my approach. A shiver cascaded down my back. Wero. How did I not recognize him? I almost did, but it was too late. FastFreight uniform aside, he was a Vox officer. The attitude was all there. And now I had gained his complete, undivided attention. Which was a really inconvenient time to discover I had an inner Wero-fanclub.

I didn't hesitate to walk up to him on the ramp, our previous interaction just happened to be in my line of work. Not my biggest problem. But it was like passing through an invisible barrier as I approached within his reach. There was something about his bearing that made my heart beat harder and my eyes dilate when he stretched his arm towards me. He grasped my arm just above the elbow, but then his fingers splayed out. I was grasped like a prisoner but far more personal. I blushed despite myself, not knowing its meaning while feeling its intensity. Vox culture in communicating between the sexes had so many pitfalls, the instructors just said it didn't matter since we wouldn't be in company much. Guiding me onto his spaceship in this oddly formal way, I realized that so far, he's the only man who had touched me among the FastFreight's crew. My inner Wero-fanclub stared at him, interested.

"Android, lock my detainee," he ordered as I was guided into the FastFreight's cargo bay. The military android from before flashed a blue light over me. Then one of its appendages swung at me too fast to track. Attempting to jump out of its reach, I was already too late. It had attached a collar around my neck. Wero let me pull my arm away as I fingered its thin, metallic, curved texture.

"Your detainee," the android said in a coarse, mechanical voice, "Is female. Policy manual absent."

That was not a normal sentence generator. Concerned that the thing was broken, I looked at Wero. "Android, list prisoner permissions," I ordered.

"I have permission to detach their energy cables," it said. My adrenaline picked up another notch. Its AI was messed up.

Captain Wero shook his head, "List my detainee's permissions, android."

"Whatever security parameters are set by Captain Wero," it said. Then it added, "Captain Wero's detainee is a security protocol."

While this whole interaction went down, one of Wero's men disembarked the spacecraft as the others shut the airlock and left the cargo hold. I was soon alone with him.

"Status," a disembodied voice called over the speaker to the bay.

"Tech Specialist Sergio just got on board. Fortuna is green," another voice responded. I realized we were listening to the bridge comm chatter.

"Secure my detainee," Captain Wero said. The android's arms wrapped around me in a confining grip; it lifted me, sped to the edge of the cargo area, and spun bracing me against the bulkhead.

The bridge comm voice continued, "Open the landing airlocks." Wero grasped the handhold next to me as another disembodied voice reported, "Venting."

I frantically looked around for the emergency air canisters. The main cargo doors began to open, to open fucking space. I stared at Wero. He glanced at me as he flipped down the lid to a container attached to the wall next to him, the interior of which I couldn't see. "Are you trying to get us both killed?" I asked desperately. The adrenaline high from getting killed wasn't pleasant at all.

"Fortuna has not..." the Waystop AI began stating. The transmission continued as the same AI also stated, "FastFreight has not secured permission to leave." The two AI voices talked over each other in the combined comm chatter from the two spaceships.

I struggled to slip an arm free from the android's grip, pinning me against the spaceship's inner hull. Wisps of my hair blew violently around my face. Wero never took his eyes off me, and at this moment ran his fingers up from the collar over my neck to brush the wisps behind my ear. It tickled and I shivered as I stared at him. I was being tortured with tickling during my last breaths. Oddly appropriate, my senior officer would have said.

Wero was studying me absorbing every twitch, every breath. "We're losing air! Emergency!" yelled one of the crew's voices. I detected a hint of sarcasm in the screaming.

Lifting two air masks from the container on the wall, Captain Wero acted as if nothing was happening. "You're demoted, Smit. If that's your real name." He slipped on his mask. "That was a very illegal transaction you just made." He placed the second mask over my face and secured it. I inhaled gratefully and closed my eyes rather than look at him.

I was sweating with relief to see the mask. The whole situation was so crazy, I could almost believe Wero would get me killed this way. Concern about breathing my next breath addressed, I then became infuriated that he just took my line. Merchants were allowed to make informal arrests, but they had better come with damning evidence. It was my modus operandus for staying undercover.

I opened my eyes to see Wero signaling to the android. He was watching me closely, his brows lowered. Sound was tenuous as the android replied, "Your female detainee is safe."

My hair, which was long in font and short in back, was flattened. Most of the air in the cargo hold was gone. Vacuum is silent, leaving me with the sounds in my head. Without the air, I couldn't hear the whispers of Wero's breathing in his mask. I couldn't hear the comm chatter from the bridge over the speaker in here. I could hear the ringing in my ears that was always present and the movement of air in my body as I breathed. And I hurt; the pressure in my ears in the void was extremely uncomfortable.

I knew immediately when the FastFreight's engines kicked on. The bulkhead against my back vibrated violently. Through the open cargo bay doors, I could see Waystop Station, but we weren't going anywhere. The docking clamps hadn't released. As I shifted my gaze back to Wero, a cracking vibration shook the ship. Suddenly, I was pressed into the android's bulk. The clamps must have broken. I widened my eyes in alarm as Wero held on to the handhold. He could be thrown out the open doors into space if he lost his grip. His body was at an odd angle, drawing my eyes to his waist. He was fine; he attached a lanyard to his belt. I blinked in relief. He was still watching me, and when I met his gaze, he responded with a raised eyebrow. He's studying you. The cargo bay doors closed at that moment rapidly.

Then air refilled the hold, lessening the pain in my eardrums. I welcomed the sound of Wero's breathing. The enigmatic asshole was still safe. The bridge comm chatter resumed with the Waystop AI telling the Fortuna, "Captain Smit, this is Waystop Docking. Return the Fortuna immediately. Repair bots need to fix your hull..."

Wero pulled off his mask. Placing it over his arm, he played with the collar around my neck asking, "So how is it that you happen to arrive here of all places and have such interest in our cargo of all things?"

More sarcastic screaming transmitted to Waystop's AI until the bridge transmission cut off.

I shook my head in response to Wero's question and the insane dialogue I just heard between the FastFreight, the Fortuna, and Waystop's AI. I had to move very carefully with this man now that I was stuck with him. There wasn't much I could tell him without getting into deeper trouble. If I told him I was chasing pirates, he'd figure out I wasn't just a merchant. Which would land me in prison. If I told him I was a merchant, it was just that they pissed me off, he'd want to know about Salem Station. If I told him about Salem, he wouldn't believe me until he contacted the station's police. If the Salem police got an inquiry from Vox officials about me, they'd deliver a sketchy profile. Which would land me in prison. If he was in the military of just about any other system than Vox, I could have collaborated. I sighed. He had to figure out Salem on his own, without approaching the police, so seeding that inquiry was the only option.

"I want to know what you were expecting to find in Waystop space," he continued while pulling my mask off. He was gentle as he did it, making sure my hair was clear of the catches. Warmth spread through me with each incidental touch of his fingers.

Swallowing, I answered him without emotion in my voice, "Revenge." His eyes darkened and his brows lowered; he didn't like that response. And I could read it plainly in his facial expression: He's going to interfere. I knew it. I replied to the intent he was displaying, "Since you're going to detain me until you find your answers, I have to ask: what are you going to do if there's nothing else there?"

He assumed a neutral visage, realizing how good I was at interpreting his facial expressions. "Are we in your plans for revenge?" he asked.

I shook my head. "You're not who I was looking for." He sure looked guilty, until I knew they were Vox military in disguise. I wanted those fucking pirates, and the bastards probably got away while I got entangled in this disaster.

He studied me for another minute. Then he didn't worry about concealing his facial expressions. The door to the corridor opened, and he looked at it, then back at me. His pensive thoughtfulness communicated everything; he was bound and determined to find out everything about me. The threat of what would happen if he did set me to warm so deep in my womb, I even started to lubricate. I saw the Tech Specialist Grade 2 equipment being loaded on the Fortuna. He was going to probe my ship. And that probe was going to hit its top-of-the-line security underneath. Which was suspicious as hell, too. I also needed to distract him from that. Everything he touched was a potential mine to my getting out of this situation.

Thankfully he then stepped away from me and said, "Android, bring my detainee to the quarters we assigned her." His gaze dropped briefly below my chin, but not all the way to my collar. It looked like he was scanning my neck. I would wonder if he was thinking about throttling me, but the heat in his eyes wasn't from anger.

"How did we get away?" I asked as the android placed me back on my feet and snatched my arms with its appendages, setting me in front of it.

His eyes darkened with anger. "Someone fucked up the Waystop AI. It only releases a ship if it appears useless. Never ask it to leave. That sends the repair bots to fix you and your crew good."

Reminded of my thoughts to escape during the arrest, I came to a couple of conclusions. If it wasn't for my knee, I could have tried running back at the station to commandeer one of the busted ships. And gotten killed by the Waystop AI. I stared at Wero realizing that he saved the ass of someone he thinks is a criminal. My inner Wero-fanclub was impressed.

As we awkwardly paraded to my prison cell, the android pushed me to keep up with Wero's pace. I tried to walk faster, but hiding the limp made me stumble. My knee just wasn't ready, and the other leg couldn't hold my weight long enough. Wero reflexively moved, grabbing me and holding me steady pressed against him. With one of his arms around my shoulders and the other in front around my waist, my inner fanclub sighed happily. He ordered, "Android stop. I'll take her." I inhaled shakily, reacting to his touch with my whole body lighting up. He also smelled good, masculine and seductive.

Sensing that my fanclub was going to leave me delirious until the prison door slammed, I admonished myself to stop getting so excited. Desperate to wake up to reality, I asked the question my fanclub wanted to ignore, "What about the Fortuna?"

He let me go reluctantly as his expression shifted from focused to distant. Tapping his comm, he showed me a report on its screen, "See? My newest acquisition got lose when we did; crew over there is fine. Nice very illegal plasma cannon, by the way."

My inner fanclub stopped cheering as we walked at my pace following his lead. The plasma cannon was one of those illegal things that everybody had if they worked in space long enough. A misdemeanor at best.

"It came in handy," he added. And that's why I had it. When we reached the first door in the crew section, the android opened it. There was a bunk and a private bath. Wero gestured to the open quarters. It wasn't a brig.

I hesitated stepping forward. The mental space in there felt very sticky. I already was fully aroused just from his touch. The brig carried familiar roles. An interrogation in the brig followed rules, rules I knew very well how to play by. His interrogating me in crew quarters, with decency, privacy, and privilege meant it was going to be impossible for me to conceal how he made me feel without his even trying to press me for information. "If the AI was going to make me a flashfrozen popsicle," I asked, as Wero corralled me towards the door, "Why didn't it do it sooner?" My feet stopped at the threshold. I could feel it. Captain Wero had had a taste of losing his titanium control, and he wanted more.

He unhelpfully wrapped his hands around my shoulders and pressed me in with his chest against my back, his pelvis and groin against my derrière. I was supposed to gasp and burst away into the room. I didn't. I tried to judge how bulky he was pressed into me as my pulse and breathing jumped with my attraction. "Hmm. Something to do with the fire that killed most of the crews in the station, I think," he answered as I slipped up again reacting to him.

The android followed us in. Wero released my shoulders and gestured to the bunk for me to sit. Just before following his direction, I looked at him over my shoulder. His expression was pleased at first; on catching my gaze, it switched to hungry. By the time I sat though, he was back to only looking focused.

"So 'Smit', I'm Captain Wero. Let's have our first real chat, shall we?" The android shut the door. And here was a new wrinkle on handling prisoners. Whenever someone was in the room with one, a witness was always required by treaty. Instead of a human, Wero was using an android. With a faulty AI. My inner fanclub was amused.

The ship's vibrations dampened to the usual smooth spacetravel. I assumed we were beyond the debris fields then. Again, I was struck with the miracle of the situation. Captain Wero saved me despite thinking I was some sort of criminal. My inner Wero-fanclub was sulking over losing the Fortuna but still impressed by his scruples. As we played the waiting game, an interrogation technique of getting targets who couldn't stand sitting in silence to start babbling secrets, I looked at the android and studied its reflective body for a bit. Then I studied the door to the main crew area. It was designed to lock from the inside, not the outside. I absolutely was not in a brig. Wero looked at me until I was done and eventually returned his gaze. He was studying me with his whole being. Why?

"Bounty hunting?" Wero asked finally.

I didn't have the documentation for that. It was a test, but it gave me an idea on how to deal with one of my thorny problems. "I won't say no to a reward," I answered. He might assume that a thankful government had given me the security on the Fortuna. Which the Grade 2 was currently working on deconstructing. The system installer had told me that it wasn't infallible, but would take one of those bastards a few weeks to get through. I needed to talk my way off this ship, if that was possible, quickly. I held open my hands, offering, "You saved my life. I'll return the favor. Drop me at the next station, and I'll forget ever seeing you." If he was the merchant he pretended to be, I would assume that he's very guilty of smuggling, which would come out if I got handed over to law enforcement. Depending on how he reacted, I may or may not demand the Fortuna back, too.