Captured By Space Pirates

Kira pushed herself upright. The movement made the collar tighten. Not enough to choke her, but enough to warn her. A thin vibration crawled beneath her skin.

The guard tapped two fingers against the baton. “Try the chain again and the collar teaches you the first rule.”

“I have no interest in learning from you.”

“Everyone says that before the first lesson.”

He moved away as the skiff lurched hard to starboard. Crates slid across the deck. One struck the bars of a cage with a hollow boom, and a frightened voice cried out from inside.

Kira turned toward the sound.

A young male from some furred species crouched behind the bars, clutching his arm. A collar identical to hers glimmered at his throat. He met Kira’s eyes, then looked down quickly.

Not prisoners, she thought.

Cargo.

The realization settled more heavily than the chain.

She examined the restraint without touching it. Her wrists were locked in a single black cuff, smooth except for a narrow seam. The chain ran from the cuff to a floor ring between her knees. A tiny red light blinked beside the seam. The collar carried a matching light, synchronized with the cuff.

A slave-key system, perhaps. Her people had used similar devices in old military prisons, though never openly. The key would not be carried by the guard at the door. It would be somewhere on the command side of the ship, linked to the collar through a control grid.

Kira lowered her gaze before the guard could see her studying it.

“What is this vessel?” she asked.

“Skiff.”

“Whose?”

The guard’s grin widened. “You’ll hear his name soon enough.”

The hatch at the far end of the hold opened with a hydraulic groan. Two more pirates entered, dragging a prisoner between them. He was tall and insectile, his six limbs bound together by a web of glowing cable. One pirate shoved him toward an empty cage.

“Inspection corridor is ready,” said the taller guard. “Captain wants the new catch checked before we dock.”

The first guard straightened. “Already?”

“Captain Solen wants everything checked twice.”

The name moved through the hold like a draft.

Captain Solen.

Kira kept her face blank while the pirates unlocked the cage. The insectile prisoner stumbled inside. The door slammed. A blue line appeared across the bars, sealing it.

The first guard pointed at Kira. “That one goes next.”

Kira looked toward the hatch. Beyond it lay a narrow corridor lit by white inspection lamps. Three doors lined one side. The nearest bore a yellow warning symbol. A camera lens rotated above the frame.

If she reached that corridor, she might find a control panel. A manual release. A weapon. Anything.

The chain gave her less than a meter of movement.

The guard approached and crouched in front of her. “Stand.”

Kira remained seated.

His artificial eye narrowed. “I said stand.”

“I heard you.”

The baton came free with a soft electric crackle.

Kira’s muscles tightened. She had survived the ambush by pretending to be dead beneath the dust. She had survived waking because she had not panicked. Panic belonged to the body. Survival belonged to the mind.

She placed one hand on the deck and rose.

The chain dragged behind her, scraping over the metal. Her knees weakened, but she kept her balance. The guard seized the back of her collar and pulled her toward the hatch.

His glove smelled of machine oil and old blood.

Kira twisted sharply.

For one instant, the guard lost his grip. She drove her elbow backward, striking the seam beneath his ribs. Armor absorbed most of the blow, but he staggered. Kira lunged for the corridor.

The chain snapped tight.

The cuff cut into her wrists, stopping her so violently that her shoulder wrenched. She hit the deck on one knee. A warning tone shrilled from the collar.

The guard recovered and struck her with the baton.

White fire burst through her body.

Kira’s teeth clamped together. Her vision broke into blue fragments. She heard laughter, then boots, then the scrape of her own breath as the current faded.

“First lesson,” the guard said.

He hauled her upright by the chain.

Kira said nothing. Her hands trembled, but she forced them still. The corridor waited three steps away. Its lights were bright enough to show every seam in the walls, every camera, every lock.

The second guard stood beside a console. He pressed his palm to the panel, and the restraint on Kira’s wrists loosened by a fraction.

Not released. Adjusted.

The red light on the cuff changed to amber.

“Property designation?” he asked.

The first guard checked a slate. “Unregistered. Female. Voss-class physiology, maybe. Strong lungs, unusual blood chemistry. Captain marked her for direct hold.”

“Name?”

“Kira Voss.”

The second guard entered it. A tone chimed.

Across the collar, a strip of black glass flickered awake. Letters appeared in pale white:

KIRA VOSS CARGO - RESTRICTED COMMAND AUTHORITY: JAREK SOLEN

The words vanished almost immediately, but Kira had seen them.

Command authority.

Not ownership, she told herself.

The distinction felt thin enough to cut skin.

The second guard opened the inspection door. “Inside.”

Kira stepped across the threshold.

The room beyond was barely wider than her shoulders. Restraint brackets lined the walls. A drain ran down the center of the floor. Above it, a lens watched from behind reinforced glass.

The door began to close.

Kira moved before she could think better of it. She dropped her weight, hooked the chain around the base of the door, and pulled.

The mechanism shrieked.

The guards shouted. The door shuddered against the chain, trapping it halfway. Kira wrapped both hands around the metal links and leaned back with everything she had.

For one breath, the skiff seemed to pause around her.

Then the collar activated.

This current was stronger.

Her arms locked. Her muscles seized so hard that her vision narrowed to a single bright point. The chain slipped from her fingers. The door tore free, crushing the links against the floor before the system released them.

Kira collapsed inside the room.

The taller guard swore. “You damaged the corridor lock.”

“Not badly,” said the other.

A new voice answered from the hatch.

“Badly enough.”

The pirates fell silent.

Kira lifted her head.

A man stood at the entrance without armor. He was lean, dark-haired, and dressed in a long coat made from panels of different pressure suits. A silver hook clasped the collar at his throat. His eyes were pale and steady, giving nothing away.

Captain Jarek Solen.

He looked first at the bent chain, then at Kira.

“Bring her out,” he said.

The guard with the baton hesitated. “Captain, the inspection - ”

“Bring her out.”

They dragged Kira into the corridor. Her shoulder burned. Her wrists had gone numb beneath the cuff. Solen stepped aside as though making room for a piece of machinery.

Up close, he carried no visible weapon. That made him more dangerous.

“You understand speech?” he asked.

Kira wiped blood from the corner of her mouth. “I understand enough.”

“Good. Then understand this. You are aboard the skiff Vagrant’s Mercy. My crew took you from the surface because you survived a weapons strike that killed everyone around you.”

“I was not yours to take.”

“No.” Solen glanced at the collar. “You belonged to the surface until we removed you from it. Now you belong to my manifest.”

The words struck harder than the baton.

Kira looked past him. The inspection corridor had a second hatch at its far end. Beyond its narrow window, stars burned in a long silver smear. The skiff was accelerating.

“Where are you taking us?”

“Somewhere profitable.”

“And if I refuse your orders?”

Solen’s gaze dropped to the cuff. “The ship answers before I do.”

The guard at the console shifted uneasily. “Captain, we can put her in the lower hold.”

“No.” Solen stepped closer. “She damaged a lock while half conscious. Keep her in the monitored row.”

“She’s unregistered cargo.”

“She is now restricted cargo.”

The black glass on Kira’s collar lit again. A new line appeared.

MONITORED - CAPTAIN’S ORDER.

The guard touched the console. A second chain extended from the wall and locked around Kira’s cuff. It pulled her arms behind her back, forcing her shoulders tight.

Kira hissed.

Solen watched her reaction. “That is the second rule.”

“Which is?”

“Do not make me repeat an order.”

He turned away.

Kira’s eyes followed the console instead. The guard had left his hand against the panel. Beneath his palm, three symbols pulsed in sequence: a key, a closed eye, and a hooked star. The key symbol flashed whenever the cuff changed tension.

A control command.

Not a full release, but close.

Kira shifted her wrist, feeling for the seam. The cuff’s inner edge pressed against a small ridge near her thumb. A mechanical latch. If she could reach it while the guard’s hand remained on the panel - The first guard pushed her toward the monitored row.

Kira stumbled deliberately.

Her cuff struck the console.

The key symbol flashed.

Every light in the corridor went red.

An alarm began to howl.

The guards cursed. One grabbed Kira by the throat and slammed her against the wall. The collar tightened until her breath became a thin rasp.

Solen spun back.

“What did you do?”

Kira stared at him through the red strobing light. Her fingers had closed around the ridge in the cuff. Beneath it, something had shifted. Not open. Not yet.

But the corridor door had unlocked.

Beyond it, the skiff’s inner passage stretched toward the command deck, sealed doors blinking awake one after another.

The alarm cut off.

For half a second, nobody moved.

Then Solen crossed the distance and seized Kira’s wrist. His grip was strong, precise. He found the ridge beneath her thumb and pressed it once.

The cuff tightened until her fingers went white.

“Clever,” he said softly.

Kira’s breath shook, but she kept her eyes on the open passage. “You should not leave your locks where prisoners can see them.”

Solen smiled without warmth. “You should not assume seeing is the same as understanding.”

He tapped the collar control at his wrist.

The secondary chain drew Kira backward. Her knees struck the deck. The monitored-row door opened behind her, revealing a narrow compartment with a metal bench, restraint rings, and a camera mounted directly overhead.

Solen shoved her inside.

The door sealed with three heavy bolts.

Through the glass, Kira watched him speak to the guards. She could not hear every word, but one reached her clearly.

“Double the watch. No one touches her restraints except me.”

The red light on her collar changed to a steady, unblinking crimson.

Kira sat on the bench, wrists bound behind her, and looked at the camera.

She had wanted only to stay alive long enough to understand the cage.

Now she understood one thing perfectly.

Captain Jarek Solen had noticed her.

End of chapter one. 7 more chapters and about 16,636 words in the full book.