Chapter 9: Running human

"What? Why?"

She'd half expected to be tortured. That he would demand she take off her clothes. But this was unbelievable.

He leaned his shoulder on the wall, looking like he planned to get comfortable. "I will observe you."

She leaned against the creepy wall and crossed her arms, mocking his stance. "I'm not a hamster."

She'd have liked to move away from the pulsing wall, but she didn't want him to know how much this strangely alive spaceship disturbed her. Or how much she feared him. It took every ounce of self-control she had to defy him and not to huddle in the corner of this grim little cell.

He stayed silent, staring straight ahead, and then said, "A small furry animal kept as pets by small humans. The analogy is acceptable."

Aurora was the youngest grand master ever appointed to the Phoenix Foundation. She wielded power. Politicians and royalty had been known to court her favor. And this creep tried to treat her like a hamster? She straightened and fixed him with a cold glare. "The analogy is not acceptable to me. You assured the president that I would be treated with courtesy."

A noise started deep in his chest and emerged from his mouth, the sound metallic and, at the same time, animalistic. Aurora wanted to step away, to promise anything, even to act like a hamster, but she couldn't move. He blinked once, and then he grabbed her, turned, and held her back pressed to the wall, her feet dangling off the floor. Again.

"I acquired you because I wish to study you. You are my human and will obey me." He leaned down until his face was so close to hers that his features blurred.

She leaned back to get away from him, and the creepy wall of this creepy cell tried to massage her neck.

He held her by the neck while he spoke right into her face, his vicious teeth gleaming bone white in the light shining from above them. "Now run. To. The wall."

Where he clasped her neck, chills tore through the upper layer of her skin, as if it acted independently to shake off the alien's hand. Aurora's heart bounced in her chest like a tennis ball. He could break her neck, or crush her skull with that large hand on one of the most vulnerable places on her body. This was it. Now she would find out what he planned to do with her.

"No." Aurora lifted her chin and straightened her spine. She wouldn't cower and plead with him. She'd meet her fate as bravely as she could manage and, in the process, find a way to save Earth. The part of her that believed she deserved to be punished thought maybe she'd set her own fate that day, that terrible fateful day she'd kept running without looking back. Maybe all that was left for her was to be destroyed on an alien ship.

The silence lengthened and thickened. It took every ounce of courage she had to hold that eerie gaze. She tried to shrug off his hand, to turn away, her blue and gold dress swirling with the angry motion. His hand tightened. She winced. "Let me go, you're hurting me."

Surprising enough, his grip didn't hurt her. She didn't know what to expect or how to act. The fear, that terrible fear she'd been running from since her time on the streets, dogged her footsteps like an unwanted acquaintance determined to hook up.

Balthazar released her and stepped back. Aurora had to lock her knees to keep from toppling over.

"You will be what I command." There was no give in him. How was she supposed to win his confidence? Get close enough to inject him with picos. "Run to the wall, human Aurora," he said, as if it was a reasonable request.

That deep masculine, but alien voice, coupled with the way the wall tried to massage her back, made her stomach churn.

Aurora stumbled away from him and the wall. Right now, she'd give anything for a large desk to put between them. "No. I. Won't."

She was tempted to do it, to run to the wall like a good little hamster, if only to put space between them. She was alone on a spaceship with a creature who'd lifted her off the ground as if she weighed nothing. But still, the small voice in her head shouted at her to be braver than this.

He stepped forward, heavy and threatening. "Run to the wall," he said again.

This time there was more than "or else" in his voice. This time, it said, "or die a horrible painful agonizing death."

She didn't know how she knew it, but she had this deep sense that he would respect her for standing her ground. Being nothing more than an entertaining pet hamster wouldn't help Earth. "No," she repeated. He came another step closer, and she added, "Couldn't we just talk and get to know each other?"

"Talk?" he said, as if the word had a taste that soured on his tongue. But at least he wasn't ordering her to run anymore.

"Yes, you know - " She moved away from the wall, forced her feet to step toward him. " - conversation. It's the thing that people do when they want to get to know each other."

He turned his head, his shoulders following with a smooth rotation, not human and, she suspected, not Tunrian either. "I prefer to see you run."

"Not that again." She shivered and clutched her arms around herself. It didn't help, even her teeth clicked together from the unpleasant cold.

"This room is set to the optimal temperature for a human. Why are you shivering?"

"I'm freezing." Aurora forced the words out through lips stiff from the cold.

Balthazar reached out, felt her cold cheek, and then touched the wall that surged to meet his hand. "I have adjusted the heat to a higher level for you," he said, as if he'd handed her a priceless gift.

"Thank you." Did he communicate with the ship's system with that touch? Their technology was so different she doubted she'd be able to gather any useful information, even with her eidetic memory.

The door opened, and two aliens carried in her bags. Aurora blew out her breath. Maybe Balthazar would leave her alone now, give her time to come to grips with the situation. From the moment the president's soldiers had invaded her office, she'd not been able to stop and think.

Compared to Balthazar, the two aliens were smaller, their shoulders not as broad. Balthazar's eyes showed more intelligence, more...humanity, for want of a better word. He touched another section of the wall, and it slid aside with a soft sucking sound. The alien soldiers dumped her bags inside the new space.

They didn't talk, but they made eye contact with Balthazar. Communicating with him on an internal frequency? They stacked the large suitcases at the bottom and then filled up the closet space to capacity. One of them touched the wall and the space closed. They left without even once glancing in her direction.

Balthazar turned to her. "You are now warmer and may proceed to run."