The Kiss: An Anthology About Love and Other Close Encounters(130)

Giving up, Dylan put the data pad down and sat back. He needed more sleep, but most of all he wished he could reverse time. In his career he'd made a few mistakes and chalked them up to lessons learnt along the way, but this latest one left him feeling sour and unhappy. It wasn't even that buying a slave had cost him so many credits, but her betrayal had hurt. Trusting her and then finding she was deceitful and manipulative made him feel like someone had smeared slime on the essence of him.

A knock on his door disturbed him from his thoughts and a second later Beth and Varl walked in. They both looked at each other before Beth took the plunge to tell him whatever bothered them both.

“We think there's still more to this case with Auraylia.”

“I think I've had enough of dealing with her.”

“Yes, I kinda thought you might, but... I think I've found something important.”

Dylan sighed and motioned for the two of them to have a seat.

“I didn't remember it earlier but after our Thorian here said his bit about her not wanting to sleep, I remembered some strange behaviour of hers from before.”

“We know she's been behaving strangely for a while,” Dylan said, interrupting.

“Bear with me, Captain. I am going somewhere with this.” She put her hand up and gathered her thoughts. “A while back I explained how a person could override the lock on any door if they ranked higher than whoever locked it. At the time she seemed understandably curious about it but not long after I'd explained she asked what rank she held. When I told her she was on probation, she got a little funny and practically ran off.”

“Is that it?”

“I did some searching on the database. It seems every night since being on the ship she's gone to a small cargo hold on the bottom deck and locked it with herself inside, at least right up until I told her that wouldn't work to keep out anyone higher ranked. Since then we don't think she's slept.”

“So she is scared of sleeping unless she's alone?”

Beth nodded.

“I went to the cargo hold. There's a blanket there and one of her spare uniforms. She's been sleeping in there.” The Thorian grimaced. “I think what she told me was true, but it makes no sense for her to have denied it in front of you.”

Dylan thought over this information for a few seconds, wondering how they could confirm her odd behaviour, before he remembered that there would be video evidence. Grabbing his pad he used his Captain's access to pull up footage of the cargo hold Beth had mentioned.

With it on the desk in the midst of them, they sped up the footage and watched the first three days on the ship. Each night she did as Beth suggested, bringing the blanket on the first night and everything else on the second. Then, as suddenly as the behaviour began it stopped and she never visited the hold again.

“All right. She's definitely scared of sleeping. We need to find out why for sure.” Dylan gritted his teeth, cross with himself as much as her.

“I've got an idea, if you'll let me try it?” the Thorian said.





*


It didn't take long for Thomas to express an interest in the trial and the story the Thorian had told. She ignored the first three questions and sat on the bed with her back to him, but he didn't give up.

“Slave, I'm talking to you. Did some master really rape you?”

“No! It wouldn't be rape if it was a master, would it? And I'm not a slave, not anymore,” she snapped back. “If you don't mind, it's been a long day and I'd like to get some sleep.”

She curled up with her head against the wall and her back to him so he couldn't see her eyes were still open and prayed she could stay that way until someone else came to watch her. Thomas couldn't be awake all the time just like she couldn't. She hoped whoever relieved him would be someone she could trust, although she knew it wouldn't be the Thorian or the Captain.

If Thomas was planning anything, he decided not to act on it right away, and for an hour she was left to fight off sleep. A couple of times she drifted off, but the image of her uncle's face soon woke her again.

When she got up to pace once more Thomas raised his eyebrows but didn't ask any annoying questions. She only stopped when the Thorian burst into the room. He dismissed Thomas and settled into his usual position, leaning against the door post.

The anger in his face was only reinforced when he crossed his arms. She backed up and sat on the bunk, not knowing what to expect from him. After Dylan's final words she hadn't expected to see the Thorian again.

He continued to stare at her and her mind came up with reasons why he might be there, things he might intend to do with the anger he felt. She'd admitted in front of the crew that she'd taken advantage of his protective nature and it occurred to her that he might be there to teach her a lesson.

“I'm sorry,” she said, no longer able to cope with the silence.

“Don't... I forgave you once for lying to me and making me look the fool in front of the Captain, but a second time. You made me look a fool twice!”

“I've not lied.” She couldn't tear her eyes away from his face, watching for the first sign that he might do something to hurt her.

“Either the story you told me is a lie, or you lied during your trial.”

“I never said I lied, I just didn't answer when I was asked if it was a lie. The Captain assumed I was admitting it was a lie.”