The Kiss: An Anthology About Love and Other Close Encounters(132)
The Thorian's expression changed and softened and for a while neither of them spoke.
“You already know I couldn't hurt you.” He sat down in the nearby chair. “Get some sleep. I'll stay with you to make sure nothing happens.”
His kindness diffused the majority of the emotion in her and after sitting for a few minutes, trying to take in what had just happened, she found herself unable to fight off sleep any longer. Knowing she was safe with the Thorian her mind stopped showing her old memories and she drifted off, propped up against the back wall.
The Magic of Christmas
It took Dylan half an hour to think through all the information he'd just overheard. The Thorian had suggested Dylan observe and listen in on the conversation between him and Auraylia, and, although it was deceitful, he was glad he'd done it. Her fear had been evident as she'd shrunk back from Varl and told him of the crew's reaction to her being a slave. In light of the new information her actions finally made sense, but he needed more than her word for it. He needed someone in his own crew to give an indication she'd been treated like a slave.
When she'd revealed her reasons for getting into his bed, he hadn't been able to decide if he was embarrassed or flattered. She'd sought him for protection since the moment they'd met and so far he'd let her down and made the situation worse by being open with the rest of the crew. Until now he'd believed that being honest and forthright with everything was always better, but he'd put her in danger from people who wouldn't understand her actions.
Somehow he had to put it right for her.
After thinking for a few minutes, he opened a channel through to his officers and called them all to his quarters. As soon as they were seated, he started the video from the beginning.
Once they'd seen the footage of her conversation with the Thorian, he asked them for their opinions.
“Sounds like she's had a rough ride and doesn't trust anyone,” Beth said and clucked her tongue against her teeth. “We can't kick her out if all that's true.”
“I agree. As much trouble as she's caused, we can't just drop her off at the nearest planet to fend for herself. You let me, Trell and the Thorian join your crew in a slightly unconventional manner.” Kaiden folded his hands together like the matter was settled.
“It's not that simple. We had a trial and the whole crew witnessed. If the crew have abused her or made her frightened, we'll need more evidence than just her word.”
“She's your slave. Surely you can keep her either way?” Trell asked and then frowned “That sounded more innocent in my head.”
“In theory, I could keep her as a slave myself, but I've got no home on any planet, and I can't afford one. She'd be mine in records only, and the idea of keeping her as my personal slave...”
“It would be a strange possession for a Fleet Captain.” Beth finished his sentence.
He nodded and they went silent as he thought about what they could do to help her. Suddenly it came to him, he turned to the officers.
“We need every crew member to write a report on their observations of Auraylia and how the crew responded to having a slave on board? Have them to upload the information to the database for my eyes only. I want to see if they shed some light on her behaviour. Also, tell them it's to study the effectiveness of buying slaves as recruits for manual labour.”
“All right, that should help. We might even find ourselves able to get some of the not so savoury crew re-assigned. Shall we get on it now?” Doug got up, more eager to help than Dylan had expected.
“Yes, tell them I'd like the report as soon as possible.”
With nods and encouraging smiles they all hurried out to make his request happen. His officers appeared as sympathetic to her as he felt.
“Oh, before I go,” Beth said with her head around the door. “Are we doing a crew Christmas dinner tomorrow, or just the officers?”
“I'll think about it and let you know. I'd forgotten it was Christmas Eve.”
She grinned and shut the door behind her, leaving him alone with his emotions.
Dylan picked up his datapad to look over the ship reports and check on the repair bots' progress but every few minutes he found himself checking his inbox to look for messages from the crew. After an hour he gave up even pretending to work on other concerns and sat refreshing the screen at regular intervals.
As soon as the first account arrived he opened it and started reading. It wasn't as detailed as he'd hoped, but mentioned the talk of her being a slave causing arguments amongst some crew. Most of the crew thought she was still a slave, but owned by the Fleet, although a couple of engineers argued that she must have been set free. The woman who'd written it didn't appear to have interacted with Auraylia at all, but there were another two messages waiting for him as soon as he'd finished reading.
Dylan spent the next five hours reading crew logs of Auraylia and the crew's reaction to her. By the time he was half way through the reports he had four names of people who'd taken extra interest in her in ways that seemed unhealthy. Thomas, the officer in charge of Crime and Punishment and watching anyone in the brig, was mentioned as having made suggestive comments to her, which explained Auraylia's requests for someone else to have the key to her cell. The lower ranked of the two Bens aboard, was reported to have invited her into his bunk and frequently put his arm around her waist or shoulders. One report from another female suggested Auraylia had asked for the attention but most mentioned her looks of discomfort.