“Victoria jerked awake slumped in a chair. A vicious bolt of pain stabbed through her temples. She shut her eyes and groaned. Her delicate navigational implants did not appreciate the power-surges caused by stunners. She leaned forward in a futile attempt to relieve the agony in her skull, and jerked to a halt. Her wrists were fastened to the arms of the chair. Please tell me this is a bad dream...

She winced past the pain in her skull and eased back into the chair to sit upright. Her officer's coat had been removed and her ceremonial sword was missing. She felt disturbing naked without them. She looked up. Ah, shit...

Less than six feet in front of her, Captain Ravnos sat comfortably in a red velvet chair with one booted leg extended over a cushioned hassock. His cape and long coat were gone showing the sleeveless brocaded waistcoat and black lace of his cravat knotted around his high-collared silk shirt. He'd propped his elbows on the arms of his chair and folded his fingers together across his lap in an attitude of amused patience, though he lacked even the hint of a smile.

From the look of things, she sat in the middle of his public appointment chamber. Expensive rugs covered the deck and a real wood table sat by his chair. His desk wasn't in front of her, so it had to be behind her, but she was in far too much agony to turn her head that far to see. However, she could see through the broad window to her left. They were still docked in the spaceport. Let's not panic yet. Maybe this isn't what it looks like...

"Are you in pain?" Ravnos inquired politely.

"Yes, sir," she replied respectfully and slowly twisted her wrists, testing the cuff's strength. A quick glanced showed that they were designed with heavy-weapon cyborgs in mind. Regardless of her physical augmentations, she was not going to be able to break them. Damn it, damn it, damn it!

She saw him flick a finger and sensed movement to her immediate right.

A crewman with a hypodermic in his hand knelt at her side.

"Whoa hey!" She jolted away nearly dislocating her shoulder because of the cuffs holding her fast to the chair.

Ravnos snorted. "Relax, it's for the headache."

She eyed the needle with extreme doubt. "Isn't an injection a little archaic?"

"We are somewhat backwards out here past the Imperial rim," Ravnos said dryly.

The crewman rolled up her white cotton shirtsleeve and stabbed her bare forearm.

Victoria hissed and turned away. She hated needles. She looked around for her sword, but didn't see it or her officer's coat. "Where's my coat?"

"You won't be needing it." Ravnos dropped his foot on the rug and leaned forward. "Your new uniform is in your quarters. You will begin your duties as senior Nav-Pilot as soon as you have dressed."

Bloody Fate and damnation... Victoria winced. This was exactly what it looked like -- a kidnapping. Bitter betrayal burned in her stomach. And I really liked him too... She glared at him with all the fury in her throbbing temples. "With all due respect sir, you've kidnapped me. I do not owe you duty."

"The original term for taking on unsuspecting crewmen is 'pressed'." Ravnos's expression chilled to bitter winter. "And you will serve to the best of your abilities, or you will be disciplined."

Victoria bared her teeth in a feral grin. "Then you better space me now..."

"Great Mother," a voice drawled with amusement. "What have you brought home this time Captain?"

Victoria looked sharply to her right.

A tall slender man wearing an ankle-length Captain’s coat with an awful lot of silver braid lounged in the doorway. His skin was moon-pale with frost-white hair pulled back into a long straight tail exposing gracefully pointed ears. His heart of flame blue eyes roved over her tight breeches then focused on her breasts straining against the buttons of her white officer's shirt. A lethal smile graced his full lips. "Whatever it is, I approve."

Victoria couldn't stop staring. What the hell is a skeldhi doing on this ship? They hate humans!

Ravnos tilted his head toward her. "First Lieutenant Victoria Stark, this is my Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Seht…”

Executive Officer? Victoria looked from the very human ship’s Captain to the decidedly not-human, if not anti-human, second in command.

“Commander Seht,” Ravnos continued, “this is our new senior navigations pilot."

"Senior navigations pilot?" The skeldhi Executive Officer stalked in with poisonous grace and circled Victoria. He looked over at Ravnos. "What did you do with our last Nav-Pilot?"

Ravnos's ice gray eyes focused on Victoria. "Our current Nav-Pilot shoved a sword through his throat."

Victoria ground her teeth. "My sword wasn't the only blade shoved through him. I distinctly remember yours sticking out of his chest, Captain."

The skeldhi raised a silver brow. "Spirited, I like that." He knelt in front of her planting his elbows on her knees to support his pointed chin.

Victoria stared, stunned. This close up the skeldhi was breathtaking. His blue gaze seemed deep enough to drown in and his mouth looked...kissable. She shook her head. What am I thinking?

Seht smiled and one of his hands brushed her thigh. "I see, by the cuffs, that you haven't changed your method of procuring officers."

Victoria stiffened. "What?"

"Oh, he grabbed me the same way." A long nail traced a path along the inner seam of her breeches. "It's a habit of his." His smile deepened.

She took a sharp breath and jerked her leg away. His touch was doing odd things to her already disturbed insides. "I can't serve, I'm a code-certified Imperial Officer..."

The skeldhi snorted. "Not for long." He rose gracefully to his feet and strode toward the Ravnos.

Ravnos tilted his head toward her. "We're negotiating her terms of service now."

Victoria jerked at her cuffs. Negotiating my ass... At least her head didn't hurt so much. Whatever was in that needle, worked fast.

Ravnos focused on his Executive Officer. "Did you need something?"

The skeldhi abruptly straightened and his expression lost its humor. "No sir. I'm off duty at the moment. I thought I'd drop by offer my support with your new acquisition."

Victoria focused on the Executive Officer in astonishment. Was that fear? As a skeldhi he was biologically far stronger and faster than the average human, however his body language spoke volumes about years of hand-to-hand fight training in addition to subtle augmentation. Technically, he should be able to twist even a heavy-weapons marine into a scrap. What did he have to be afraid of?

"I see...” Ravnos nodded. “Very well then, you're welcome to remain."

"Thank you sir." The skeldhi let out a soft breath.

Ravnos turned back to Victoria. "I need you to fly this ship for a three day mission. At the end of that time, if your orders have come through, I'll return you to port and you can leave. If your orders have not come through, you will remain until they do. You will of course, be paid for your services."

Victoria shook her head. "If I serve on your ship for even one flight, I will be court-marshaled by the Empire as soon as I get back."

Ravnos snorted. "This is not the Empire, we do not keep those kinds of records. Trust me, no one will know you served on this ship."

Victoria grit her teeth. Just what she needed, blackmail material. "You will."

Seht winced and took a subtle step back.

Ravnos lunged to his feet with his sword naked in his fist so fast, that even with her enhanced eyesight she hadn't seen him draw it. "Do you doubt my honor?" His eyes blazed with frigid unholy violence. He looked like a dark avenging angel about to strike.

Oh, that's why the skeldhi was impressed. Victoria swallowed and dropped her gaze. She couldn't look at his far too beautiful and far too frightening face. "No sir, I do not." If she'd said anything else, she had absolutely no doubt that he would kill her right where she sat.

Ravnos nodded. "Good." The violence in his expression retreated as though it had never been there. He sheathed the sword and sat. "I already have your messages flagged at the station. As soon as your orders arrive, you will be returned."

Victoria stiffened her spine. "And if they arrive tomorrow?"

His expression chilled. "Three days Nav-Pilot Stark."

Victoria chewed on her bottom lip and shifted uncomfortably. Sometime during that last exchange, her panties had gotten annoyingly moist. What the hell had brought that reaction on? She sighed in disgust. "I don't have much of a choice do I?"

Ravnos raised his brow and amusement flashed fleetingly though his expression like summer lightning. "No, you do not." He rose from his chair with an elegant grace, and walked over to tower over her chair. His boots didn't make a sound. He drew the sword from his waist scabbard.

Victoria barely stopped herself from flinching back.

"I want your sworn word as an officer that you will serve me to the best of your abilities until you are returned."

He wants my oath? Victoria clenched her fists impotently. Damn him! Of all things, she had not expected a direct challenge to her honor. He was a mercenary. No one expected him to keep his promises. As an Imperial officer, if she swore fealty, she would be honor bound to keep it.

"Nav-Pilot Stark?" His soft voice traced an icy finger down her spine. The naked blade tapped the side of his boot.

There was nothing she could do. She could swear, and try not to betray the Empire or die. "I will serve."

"Excellent." He knelt at her side and released her wrists then stepped away. "Kneel and swear."

Victoria rubbed her wrists and stood with as much grace as she could muster. She dropped to one knee before his feet, placed one hand flat on the deck and bowed her head.

"Chin up."

Victoria looked up and the edged tip of his sword touched her throat. She took a shallow breath and stared at Ravnos in unconcealed alarm. Her panties dampened further.

An unholy smile curled his lips, and his eyes gleamed with heat. "Swear."

"I Victoria Stark, solemnly swear on my honor to serve..." She took a tiny breath, and her voice tightened to an embarrassing squeak. "I don't know your full name or the name of your ship, sir."

"Captain Arslan Laslo Ravnos of the ship, Hellsbreath," he said softly. "From the beginning, please."

Victoria decided against nodding. Warmth trickled into cravat knotted around her collar. She was pretty sure that it was blood from being nicked by his blade. However, her real concern was that the moisture in her panties seemed to be soaking through her trousers. What the hell is going on with my body? She hoped to Fate he wouldn't look lower and see her humiliating excitement.

She took a deeper breath and her voice steadied. "I Victoria Stark, solemnly swear on my honor to serve Captain Arslan Laslo Ravnos of the ship, Hellsbreath, with all due honor, loyalty and respect..."

"And obedience."

Victoria's temper flared and her teeth clenched. That was not part of the oath.

He raised his brow, daring her to omit his addition. The blade on her throat shifted.

This time, Victoria actually felt the burn of the blade's keen edge. She stubbornly kept her eyes on Ravnos's face, but that was definitely blood dripping down inside her shirt. Feels like he sliced right through my cravat.

"And obedience," she ground out. "Until death or the Captain shall relieve me of my duties. By the grace of Heaven and the glory..." She hesitated. She damn well couldn't say by the glory of the Empire. "And the glory of the Hellsbreath," she improvised. "May I serve with distinction."

"Very good." He removed the blade from her throat and stepped away.

Victoria stayed down on her knee. According to protocol, she had to remain in that position until her new Captain gave her leave to rise. She didn't even try to stop the blood dribbling down her breast and no doubt, staining her white shirt.

He tugged a handkerchief from his coat sleeve and wiped the tip of the blade. "As I mentioned earlier, your uniform has been set out in your quarters by your assigned petty officer. You will report to the bridge as soon as you are appropriately dressed."
"Yes, sir." Victoria flinched. The bridge! She did not want to antagonize a man with a naked blade in his hand, but the last thing she wanted was her full name announced on the bridge in front of over a dozen different people. "Pardon my frankness sir, but we cannot use my name."

Ravnos glanced at her briefly. "What's wrong with your name?"

"I am a well-known specialist in my field that's why as an officer, I'm code-certified. If even a whisper gets out that I served under you, I will end up in prison."

"Victoria Stark," mused Seht. "She has a valid point, even I've heard that name somewhere before."

Victoria looked over where the skeldhi leaned against the back of Ravnos's chair. She had completely forgotten about him even being there. She noted his interested expression and strongly suspected that her new Executive Officer was going to be a problem.

"I see." Ravnos sheathed his weapon then reached for a small bottle and a cloth set on the table by his chair. He poured some of the contents of the bottle onto the cloth. "You may rise."

Victoria rose to her feet and assumed a full attention stance, chin up, heels together and hands at her side.

Ravnos approached her with the damp cloth in hand. His fingers brushed her throat as he summarily unknotted her cravat. "A name,” he whispered. He dropped the stained cotton on the deck then unfastened the two top buttons of her shirt to spread her collar. "I'll keep the Victoria, but the Stark..."

"Victoria Stark, ah, yes..." The Executive Officer sighed dramatically then turned to gaze at Victoria with open amusement. "Captain, do you realize who you've grabbed?"

Ravnos daubed the wet cloth on her naked throat. "The Nav-Pilot of the Adamant."

Whatever was on the cloth smelled strongly of antiseptic, and burned like a son-of-a-bitch. Victoria clenched her fists but held perfectly still.

"Oh no, you've done much better than that." Seht strode with predatory poise to Ravnos's side. "This is the famous Victorious Star, notorious for sacrificing her Captains for their ships."

Victoria clenched her jaw. Where the hell had he heard that? Technically, she had lost the occasional Captain while saving the ship, but still...

"She's never lost a ship she's flown." Seht's voice dropped to a sensual whisper. "And never fully served a Captain she's had."

Ravnos's brows shot up. "Never?"

The skeldhi focused on Victoria and his eyes narrowed to a hungry blue gleam. "Our new Nav-Pilot is in possession of an unsullied, never been fucked, virgin ass."

"Really?" Ravnos turned to study Victoria with a calculating expression. "How interesting..." His cold eyes flared with sudden heat.

Victoria shot the Executive Officer a glare that promised bitter revenge.

The skeldhi smiled broadly, showing the over-long points of his incisors. "Oh, we are going to have so much fun disciplining this one."

Ravnos's mouth curved into a blood-curdling smile. "We'll call her Victoria Angel."

"Angel?" Seht nodded. "I like it. Very pretty, pristine and sweet."

Victoria's mouth fell open. "Angel?" Of all the insulting epithets...

Ravnos's expression turned frigid. "Are you questioning me?"

She flinched as though struck. "No sir."

"Good. You are dismissed, Senior Nav-Pilot Angel. Your petty officer is waiting outside the door to take you to your quarters."

Victoria turned smartly on her heel and marched toward the door. A glance to her right showed that she had been right, his desk had been behind her the whole time. It was huge, ornate and archaic. She had a sudden and disturbing image of being pressed facedown on that broad shining surface.

Victoria jerked her eyes back to the exit, and nearly pulled the handle from the door in her haste to get out of that office.

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