made it so unusual was that not only was I angry, but I was hurt, though it pained me even more to admit it, and I hadn’t thought I had enough feeling left in me to ever experience that again. It wasn’t the first time I’d felt that way, of course, but it had been many years, indeed, since I’d experienced that kind of pain. It reminded me of the way I’d felt the first time a man had singled me out for his attentions just so he could get closer to my beautiful, and otherwise unattainable, sister. Oh, yeah, just exactly like that….
I heard him take a step closer, his chains clinking together as he moved.
“I said , go away!” I warned through my tightly clenched teeth. I raised the remote and put my thumb on the star button. “Back off!”
I never looked up, but I heard him move away and when he was gone, I dropped my forehead into my hand as hot, unaccustomed tears coursed down my cheeks.
Damn, I thought miserably. I’m so unlikable, I can’t even get a stray cat to want to stay with me! I didn’t think it was asking too much of him to say thank you, either. You know, just a little, “Hey, by the way, Jack, thanks for buying me and letting me go.” Then again, perhaps it was. I mean, what did I know about him, really? Maybe his kind didn’t appreciate it when someone took pity on them. He’d been a soldier at one point, apparently—maybe it was a duty and honor sort of
thing. They all had their own little codes of behavior, and I suppose I could have unknowingly violated one of them when I set him free. It was also just possible that I hadn’t made my intentions entirely clear to him.
“Hey, Cat!” I called out as I wiped away my tears.
“Come back here!”
I heard the rattle of his restraints as he returned to the pilot’s console. He stopped about two meters away.
I didn’t look up. “My sister was kidnapped and I’ve been trying to find her for six years,” I said in a low voice. “Where she was taken, I cannot go alone, and I need your help. I will pay you for your services and when she is safe, I will pay you a substantial bonus and then our ways will part. You will be freed, for I have no use for a slave and consider slavery of any kind to be an affront to the dignity of all beings on all worlds. I will carve that in stone, if you like.”
“My last master promised me freedom after the battles were won,” he said flatly. “You see what comes of trusting someone who would purchase a slave.”
I spun my chair around to face him. “Well, isn’t that just ducky!” I spat out. “I’m sitting here trying to be sincere, and you’re comparing me to that asshole of a Cylopean! You are not—and I repeat, not!—scoring any brownie points here, Kittycat! I’m not the one who put your balls in a vice! I’m just the one sitting here trying to figure out how to get you loose from all that crap while you stand there and insult me!” I glared up at him with as much ire as he was directing back at me.
“Don’t you get it, you stupid feline? I’m one of the good guys!”
“You gave me no chance to agree to help you,” he said accusingly. “You left me behind.”
“What?” I demanded. “Is that why you’re acting so damned testy? You couldn’t have hollered after me? You had plenty of time to say something—I wasn’t walking that fast! You could have followed me, caught up with me, and offered to help. Really, you quiet, stoic types just get my goat! ‘You gave me no chance to agree to help you,’” I said, mimicking his tone. “You could have at least given me a fuckin’ thank you! I could have left you there without the remote and without any money, you know. Did you ever consider that? Huh? Answer me! Well, did you?”
To my surprise, he smiled. “You are like the women of my home world,” he said. “Fiery and very, very stubborn.”
“Ha! Look who’s talking about being stubborn! The pot’s calling the kettle black, if you ask me.” In response to his