The captain motioned with her weapon, gesturing for the Zantharian to get inside.
He towered over her, staring down at her with a face like a dark nebula, ominous and black.
"You're making a mistake," he grumbled.
"I don't think so." She nudged him forward with the barrel of her pistol, almost fully assured that the major was lost somewhere on the ship and she was standing in front of the enemy. “If I am… you can do anything you want to me when we rectify this.”
Seemed like a good deal that any hot-blooded male wouldn’t be able to pass up. Besides, if he were a Zantharian, then she owed him something for being so harsh toward him. Another kiss seemed like a mutually beneficial payment.
With one more scathing look, Ontarii stepped into the airlock and turned to face her. “Remember your words, woman. Anything.”
She gave him a sultry look, being quite an ass herself now. “That’s right. Anything the major wants.”
She hit the button on the door and opened the window shade to peer inside at him.
He had turned his back to her, and behind him was the airlock hatch. With a few taps of the console buttons, Brook could open the hatch and let the emptiness of space inside.
Without environmental controls or gravity, the Zantharian would freeze while he suffocated to death, his body floating out to join his comrades.
The major turned toward her and seemed to be trying to say something. She gave the command to initiate two-way communication between the inside of the airlock and the corridor.
"What did you say?" she asked.
Ontarii frowned at her. "Are you going to space me? Are you that fucking hysterical?"
The captain flushed with anger. "Hysterical? Do you know the etymology of that word? It's from the Greek word meaning 'womb’. A mental disorder tied almost exclusively to women. Just another way to disenfranchise the female and discount her thoughts and actions."
The major laughed.He laughed!"You're lecturing me on sexism while threatening to kill me. You humans really are too much."
"From sexism to racism, huh? I guess I should have expected it. But honestly, I think you're just upset that a puny human female was able to box you in so efficiently."
His mouth flattened into a straight line.
"I'm not even sure you are a human female," he said, his eyes like black flames. "Your reluctance to submit to my test tells me that you have something to hide."
"I submitted to your test once before. Excuse me if I'm not eager to have a thousand volts shot through me again so soon."
"A convenient pretext," he shot back. "I'm supposed to take your word that you're not an enemy agent, but you won't take mine. Not quite fair, is it?"
"I don't care about fair," she fired back. "All I care about is protecting myself and my crew, and completing my mission."
"Bang up job you're doing so far."
Brook inhaled as if she'd been slapped. It was a cheap shot. One she hadn't expected from the major.
"You know what," he said, adopting a cruel smile. "Maybe I do believe you. Youarehuman, because, frankly, you aren't smart enough to be a Hareema agent. You're sloppy. You're weak. And, honestly, you verge on incompetent. Save your promises to give me what I want. I’ll get it as soon as I get off this fucking ship."
“And what would that be?”
“Freedom from your madness and a beautiful woman to fuck until I can’t stand.” He turned his back to her and crossed his arms over his massive chest.
His words ripped into her. Not moments before he’d held her in his arms, comforting her at the loss of her crewmember, and had kissed her more passionately than she ever remembered being kissed before.
And he'd saved her life.
But on the bridge he'd been tampering with the controls, then he'd tried to blast her with his energy weapon. It was a complete turnaround from his earlier actions.
Maybe this isn't the major. Maybe it is. Who the hell knows?
Ontarii was a prick, but he hadn't been intentionally cruel to her yet. This new asshole stabbed her left and right, his last blow about taking another woman to bed a bit more than she could handle. Perhaps it was only the newest of lust between them that made her want to know him more, but either way, his words had chilled her desire significantly.
There was a high possibility that he had been replaced, and it was the Hareema now who was goading her on, afraid for its life.
And it had good reason to be.
With the press of a couple buttons in the correct sequence, the large hatch doors before the creature would open, and it would have less than a minute before the harshness of space robbed it of life.
She didn't think even a block of jelly could withstand a vacuum.
Maybe it was time to find out.
