Free End of the Line by Bianca D'Arc Page A

time, he had to know hers was merely a patrol craft on a
regular route.
    “ Who is this? What is your
name, rank and gender?”
    He sounded mad now, for some reason
she couldn’t imagine. And why would he ask her gender? That seemed
odd in the extreme. But she’d play along. She’d be alone out here
for a long time—if he let her live after this encounter—and she was
going to have a lot of time before her air ran out with her own
thoughts. Might as well talk to someone while she had company, even
if he was a damned jit.
    “ Lieutenant Lisbet Duncan
of Earth. And I’m female, not that it should matter to you. I’m a
qualified pilot who graduated at the top of my class from pilot
training.”
    While there had always been a lot more
males drawn to military life than females, Lisbet wasn’t too much
of an oddity. Many women had the natural skills needed to fly
shuttles and other spacecraft. She was unique in that she’d
requested fighter duty. She liked shooting at things and would have
tried for a gunner position on one of the big battleships if she
hadn’t qualified as a pilot.
    “ Prepare for retrieval.”
The order was brusque and he sounded even angrier.
    “ Now just wait a darn
minute! What?”
    He didn’t answer, but a moment later
she saw two small craft launch from inside the battleship and head
straight for her. The bastards were going to pick up her pod. She
was going to be a prisoner of war.
    Dammit!
    Although… it was probably better than
dying alone in the vastness of space, she had to admit. At least if
they picked her up, she might have a chance to do some damage to
them before she died. She didn’t like the idea of possibly being
tortured, but she’d trained for it, like all the other pilots, and
thought she was mostly prepared. She didn’t know much that they
could get out of her. She wasn’t privy to any battle strategies or
troop deployment information. She only knew her current mission and
those she had been on previously. Not much of value to the jit’suku
empire.
    Sure enough, the two craft flanked her
and deployed some kind of netting that encompassed her pod. As soon
as she was secure, they flew back toward the cruiser. The ship was
even larger than she’d thought. It had the latest in jit
technology, from what she could see of its outboard arrays. This
was no battered old warhorse. This ship was battle ready and
gleaming, though she could see a few spots where repairs had been
made—after engagements with human forces, no doubt.
    The two patrol craft deposited her
inside a spotless hangar bay, bumping her only once as they set her
down. Their nets retracted and they parked on either side of her.
She waited patiently inside her pod, gathering what little
information she could. Her instruments told her the hangar bay was
pressurized with a breathable atmosphere and she saw big jit’suku
men working on various other craft parked nearby without breathing
gear.
    The hangar bay had a giant force field
at one end, keeping the air in. Nice. On most human battleships,
the hangar bays were kept at zero atmosphere. Pilots loaded into
the canopies above and were dropped down and secured to the
fuselages below via a small chamber that was sealed, then evacuated
of its precious air before opening to the hangar deck
below.
    The pilots who had caught her pod and
brought her here climbed out of their cockpits and moved closer to
investigate. One made the sign for her to pop her lid and she shook
her head, refusing. They went on like this for a few minutes,
arguing via sign language through the window until suddenly
everyone on the flight deck jumped to attention.
    At the far end of the long deck,
Lisbet could see a giant of a man—even among the very large
jit’suku warriors—coming toward her at a fast pace. He looked
absolutely furious. And handsome.
    Damn. Why did she have to notice how
handsome he was? She should be completely immune to men after what
she’d been through. But this