![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalThe room the pirates had placed her in was large, white and empty.
After her capture, Salli had been stunned and bound, waking up on the floor of a military skimmer surrounded by pirates. She’d reacted to this news by going into a full blown panic attack, after one of them had shown off her disconnected cybernetic eye to her. Eventually they’d tired of her screaming and crying and stunned her again. Then she’d woken up here, bound naked with plastic shipping ties to a metal folding chair, in the center of a large multipurpose room with a tiled floor that smelled of disuse, the bright florescent lights hanging from the bare ceiling hurting her remaining good eye.
“Do you know where you are, Lady Sallivera?” a voice asked.
Salli turned her head slightly, her forehead pounding in a post-stunner migraine, accompanied by a duller pain around her empty eye socket from where her cyber eye had been pried out. Well, it could be worse; at least the electronic nerves that had replaced her flesh and blood ones had cut out automatically instead of transmitting pain.
She saw a human woman standing to the left of her, holding a pre-packaged field ration, munching on the contents with a plastic fork. She looked to be in her fifties perhaps, with a thick black head pelt shot through with grey strands, drawn up in a high ponytail, and dark brown eyes, wearing filthy fatigue pants tucked into heavy combat boots, and an equally filthy sleeveless leather surcoat over a torn black t-shirt. Her skin looked strange, hanging in flaps from her arms and neck, as if her months in the wilderness had forced her to lose a precipitous amount of weight.
“If I were to guess, the main hall of your former base, Lady Margo,” Sallivera answered, enunciating her words precisely, each syllable making her head pound all the harder.
“Aw, you’re no fun,” Bloody Margo said. She sucked up the last of her meal and tossed the tray and fork onto the floor.
“I recognized your voice from when you spoke to me last. And if you were going to make a last stand, it would be logical to do so in a place you were familiar with.” Salli closed her eye, feeling her stomach churn and spasm. “Could you do me a great favor and find a bucket or waste bin and bring it over here? I think I’m going to vomit.”
Margo smiled sourly down at her, licking a bit of noodle stew off the corner of her mouth. “Nah.”
Salli tensed against her bonds, as she tried to lean forward before she hurled up sick over her stomach and lap, bile dripping off her chin and choking her nostrils, acid burning her throat. It was the mildest of mercies there wasn't much there to start with, since she hadn't been able to eat during the time Ali and her mixed commando team left the colony to eventually fall for Margo's diversion. She cough and spat to one side, the pressure on her head growing worse it seemed.
The pirate lord watched the display with what seemed to be mild interest, holding her nose as the smell wafted her way. For her part, Salli counted herself fortunate. Getting sick over herself was better than being dead. Better than many things, most of which her husband Kev had done to her. Odd though, to think of those two years of horror to be preparation for this moment.
She has a, haha, captive audience. And I know already that she likes to talk, likes to threaten. She's another bully like Kev was. She won't want to kill me if she can have me around to play with. The insight seemed like it ought to be useful. Salli tried to think through the pain of her headache, baring her teeth as she tried to concentrate.
“What's got you smiling?” Margo asked suspiciously.
“Just remembering something my late husband taught me,” Salli answered. She turned her head to one side and tried to wipe off the mess on her chin onto the fur of her bare shoulder. The room was cold, unheated. It reminded her of the hospital after... No, don't think about that, she reminded herself sharply.
“'Late' husband? What happened to him?”
“After it was discovered that you had been hired by Kev's mother to kidnap me, they both were found dead in their rooms in the psychiatric institution were they were being held, hanging by their bedsheets in a coordinated suicide. Very scandalous, especially given that they were supposed to be under close watch due to the ongoing investigation into the kidnapping incident.” Very convenient had been the muttering in some circles as well. Salli was 90% certain her sister-in-law wasn't to blame at least. Piracy had only been a hobby to her after all. While she was perfectly willingly to suspect Melanie of all manner of peculation, Salli wasn't willing to go so far as a double murder.
“Well damn. Guess I won't be picking up payment for that one,” Margo said in false affability. “That's what I get for jobbing, even if the money did look pretty good at the time.”
“Indeed.” She swallowed down a bit of bile. “Would you answer a question for me?”
“Maybe,” Margo replied, looking as if she was enjoying the show of Salli being bound, naked and bile stained in front of her.
“How did you survive? Everyone thought you were on your flagship when M-, the Red Vixen caught it on the ground and destroyed it.”
“I wasn't. I was actually in one of my skimmers, off to grab you and Ali-Kat after my fighter pilot forced you down. I was halfway there when I got the Relentless' distress call, so I diverted to one of my emergency hidey holes which I had put together in the years after Ali-Kat had cut and run on me. Stayed there for a month until I was certain that everyone was through picking through my base and started looking for the rest of my boys, to see who'd been sensible enough to scatter and go to ground. By that time you'd already started building your cute new city nearby, so I had to make sure I had enough muscle and firepower to mount an assault on it. Took a while.”
Salli suspected the pirate was leaving quite a bit out of that succinct tale. Judging from Margo's grotty and thin appearance, surviving in the wilderness hadn't been easy for her.
“I see. Congratulations on a well planned operation,” Salli said. “We were caught completely by surprise.”
Margo favored her with an ironic bow. “Why thank you, Lady Sallivera. You'll be glad to know you're making an excellent hostage so far. I've even managed to secure a sweet ride out of here, which should be landing shortly.”
“How nice.” Salli paused, swallowed again, and then said, “You're going to kill me, aren't you?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because hauling around a hostage is inconvenient. But mostly because I want to see the look on that little slit Ali-Kat's face when I cut your throat right in front of her.” Margo smiled repellently down at her. After a moment she went on. “Oh, come on. Not even going to beg a little bit?”
“I don't think there's much point really,” Salli said. “Though if you'll permit, I will ask one more question of you.”
“Be my guest.”
“Who hurt you?”
Margo blinked in surprise, her affable smile fading. “What do you mean?”
Salli stared at her with her one good eye. “No child is born cruel, it's a learned trait. I know why I'm the way I am, my husband beat the behavior patterns into me, and I've been trying to work around them ever since. I have a fair idea while Alinadar is like the way she is, growing up with first you and then the Red Vixen as role models, as owners. She's has an idea of what is right behavior in a civilized society, but it's like a foreign language to her, something with rules that don't quite jibe with her experiences.
“You though, you delight in being cruel. Someone had to teach how to be cruel to you, how to use it as a defense. Who made you so scared and frightened, that the only way you could make yourself feel safe was to make sure everyone was more scared of you?”
Margo was silent for a moment after Salli had finished, glaring at her, her jaw grinding. Then without warning she spun around and kicked hard, the heel of her combat boot landing directly on Salli's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of the noblevixen as her chair toppled backwards and the back of her head bounced off the tiled floor. Then Margo was standing over her, boot grinding down on Salli's chest as she desperately tried to regain her breath.
“Listen you prissy little noble lady slit,” the pirate snarled. “Don't you fucking dare try throw some amateur psychoanalysis at me. I'm the way I am because that's the way I choose to be. Your opinion doesn't mean shit, because you're going to be fucking dead.”
TBC
* * *
NOTE: I don''t actually know who did in Countess Highglider and Kev. Melanie isn't that vicious and Ali was off planet with Salli at that time. Which leaves Rolas I'll admit...
After her capture, Salli had been stunned and bound, waking up on the floor of a military skimmer surrounded by pirates. She’d reacted to this news by going into a full blown panic attack, after one of them had shown off her disconnected cybernetic eye to her. Eventually they’d tired of her screaming and crying and stunned her again. Then she’d woken up here, bound naked with plastic shipping ties to a metal folding chair, in the center of a large multipurpose room with a tiled floor that smelled of disuse, the bright florescent lights hanging from the bare ceiling hurting her remaining good eye.
“Do you know where you are, Lady Sallivera?” a voice asked.
Salli turned her head slightly, her forehead pounding in a post-stunner migraine, accompanied by a duller pain around her empty eye socket from where her cyber eye had been pried out. Well, it could be worse; at least the electronic nerves that had replaced her flesh and blood ones had cut out automatically instead of transmitting pain.
She saw a human woman standing to the left of her, holding a pre-packaged field ration, munching on the contents with a plastic fork. She looked to be in her fifties perhaps, with a thick black head pelt shot through with grey strands, drawn up in a high ponytail, and dark brown eyes, wearing filthy fatigue pants tucked into heavy combat boots, and an equally filthy sleeveless leather surcoat over a torn black t-shirt. Her skin looked strange, hanging in flaps from her arms and neck, as if her months in the wilderness had forced her to lose a precipitous amount of weight.
“If I were to guess, the main hall of your former base, Lady Margo,” Sallivera answered, enunciating her words precisely, each syllable making her head pound all the harder.
“Aw, you’re no fun,” Bloody Margo said. She sucked up the last of her meal and tossed the tray and fork onto the floor.
“I recognized your voice from when you spoke to me last. And if you were going to make a last stand, it would be logical to do so in a place you were familiar with.” Salli closed her eye, feeling her stomach churn and spasm. “Could you do me a great favor and find a bucket or waste bin and bring it over here? I think I’m going to vomit.”
Margo smiled sourly down at her, licking a bit of noodle stew off the corner of her mouth. “Nah.”
Salli tensed against her bonds, as she tried to lean forward before she hurled up sick over her stomach and lap, bile dripping off her chin and choking her nostrils, acid burning her throat. It was the mildest of mercies there wasn't much there to start with, since she hadn't been able to eat during the time Ali and her mixed commando team left the colony to eventually fall for Margo's diversion. She cough and spat to one side, the pressure on her head growing worse it seemed.
The pirate lord watched the display with what seemed to be mild interest, holding her nose as the smell wafted her way. For her part, Salli counted herself fortunate. Getting sick over herself was better than being dead. Better than many things, most of which her husband Kev had done to her. Odd though, to think of those two years of horror to be preparation for this moment.
She has a, haha, captive audience. And I know already that she likes to talk, likes to threaten. She's another bully like Kev was. She won't want to kill me if she can have me around to play with. The insight seemed like it ought to be useful. Salli tried to think through the pain of her headache, baring her teeth as she tried to concentrate.
“What's got you smiling?” Margo asked suspiciously.
“Just remembering something my late husband taught me,” Salli answered. She turned her head to one side and tried to wipe off the mess on her chin onto the fur of her bare shoulder. The room was cold, unheated. It reminded her of the hospital after... No, don't think about that, she reminded herself sharply.
“'Late' husband? What happened to him?”
“After it was discovered that you had been hired by Kev's mother to kidnap me, they both were found dead in their rooms in the psychiatric institution were they were being held, hanging by their bedsheets in a coordinated suicide. Very scandalous, especially given that they were supposed to be under close watch due to the ongoing investigation into the kidnapping incident.” Very convenient had been the muttering in some circles as well. Salli was 90% certain her sister-in-law wasn't to blame at least. Piracy had only been a hobby to her after all. While she was perfectly willingly to suspect Melanie of all manner of peculation, Salli wasn't willing to go so far as a double murder.
“Well damn. Guess I won't be picking up payment for that one,” Margo said in false affability. “That's what I get for jobbing, even if the money did look pretty good at the time.”
“Indeed.” She swallowed down a bit of bile. “Would you answer a question for me?”
“Maybe,” Margo replied, looking as if she was enjoying the show of Salli being bound, naked and bile stained in front of her.
“How did you survive? Everyone thought you were on your flagship when M-, the Red Vixen caught it on the ground and destroyed it.”
“I wasn't. I was actually in one of my skimmers, off to grab you and Ali-Kat after my fighter pilot forced you down. I was halfway there when I got the Relentless' distress call, so I diverted to one of my emergency hidey holes which I had put together in the years after Ali-Kat had cut and run on me. Stayed there for a month until I was certain that everyone was through picking through my base and started looking for the rest of my boys, to see who'd been sensible enough to scatter and go to ground. By that time you'd already started building your cute new city nearby, so I had to make sure I had enough muscle and firepower to mount an assault on it. Took a while.”
Salli suspected the pirate was leaving quite a bit out of that succinct tale. Judging from Margo's grotty and thin appearance, surviving in the wilderness hadn't been easy for her.
“I see. Congratulations on a well planned operation,” Salli said. “We were caught completely by surprise.”
Margo favored her with an ironic bow. “Why thank you, Lady Sallivera. You'll be glad to know you're making an excellent hostage so far. I've even managed to secure a sweet ride out of here, which should be landing shortly.”
“How nice.” Salli paused, swallowed again, and then said, “You're going to kill me, aren't you?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because hauling around a hostage is inconvenient. But mostly because I want to see the look on that little slit Ali-Kat's face when I cut your throat right in front of her.” Margo smiled repellently down at her. After a moment she went on. “Oh, come on. Not even going to beg a little bit?”
“I don't think there's much point really,” Salli said. “Though if you'll permit, I will ask one more question of you.”
“Be my guest.”
“Who hurt you?”
Margo blinked in surprise, her affable smile fading. “What do you mean?”
Salli stared at her with her one good eye. “No child is born cruel, it's a learned trait. I know why I'm the way I am, my husband beat the behavior patterns into me, and I've been trying to work around them ever since. I have a fair idea while Alinadar is like the way she is, growing up with first you and then the Red Vixen as role models, as owners. She's has an idea of what is right behavior in a civilized society, but it's like a foreign language to her, something with rules that don't quite jibe with her experiences.
“You though, you delight in being cruel. Someone had to teach how to be cruel to you, how to use it as a defense. Who made you so scared and frightened, that the only way you could make yourself feel safe was to make sure everyone was more scared of you?”
Margo was silent for a moment after Salli had finished, glaring at her, her jaw grinding. Then without warning she spun around and kicked hard, the heel of her combat boot landing directly on Salli's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of the noblevixen as her chair toppled backwards and the back of her head bounced off the tiled floor. Then Margo was standing over her, boot grinding down on Salli's chest as she desperately tried to regain her breath.
“Listen you prissy little noble lady slit,” the pirate snarled. “Don't you fucking dare try throw some amateur psychoanalysis at me. I'm the way I am because that's the way I choose to be. Your opinion doesn't mean shit, because you're going to be fucking dead.”
TBC
* * *
NOTE: I don''t actually know who did in Countess Highglider and Kev. Melanie isn't that vicious and Ali was off planet with Salli at that time. Which leaves Rolas I'll admit...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-01-15 02:45 am (UTC)Besides if they were that unpleasant and unbalanced, Rolas and his family might simply be the most obvious names on a very long list of enemies.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-15 08:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-15 09:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-15 05:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-15 08:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-15 09:23 am (UTC)... Urgh. I thought of something.