“All right. She's definitely scared of sleeping. We need to find out why for sure.” Dylan gritted his teeth, cross with himself as much as her.
“I've got an idea, if you'll let me try it?” the Thorian said.
*
It didn't take long for Thomas to express an interest in the trial and the story the Thorian had told. She ignored the first three questions and sat on the bed with her back to him, but he didn't give up.
“Slave, I'm talking to you. Did some master really rape you?”
“No! It wouldn't be rape if it was a master, would it? And I'm not a slave, not anymore,” she snapped back. “If you don't mind, it's been a long day and I'd like to get some sleep.”
She curled up with her head against the wall and her back to him so he couldn't see her eyes were still open and prayed she could stay that way until someone else came to watch her. Thomas couldn't be awake all the time just like she couldn't. She hoped whoever relieved him would be someone she could trust, although she knew it wouldn't be the Thorian or the Captain.
If Thomas was planning anything, he decided not to act on it right away, and for an hour she was left to fight off sleep. A couple of times she drifted off, but the image of her uncle's face soon woke her again.
When she got up to pace once more Thomas raised his eyebrows but didn't ask any annoying questions. She only stopped when the Thorian burst into the room. He dismissed Thomas and settled into his usual position, leaning against the door post.
The anger in his face was only reinforced when he crossed his arms. She backed up and sat on the bunk, not knowing what to expect from him. After Dylan's final words she hadn't expected to see the Thorian again.
He continued to stare at her and her mind came up with reasons why he might be there, things he might intend to do with the anger he felt. She'd admitted in front of the crew that she'd taken advantage of his protective nature and it occurred to her that he might be there to teach her a lesson.
“I'm sorry,” she said, no longer able to cope with the silence.
“Don't... I forgave you once for lying to me and making me look the fool in front of the Captain, but a second time. You made me look a fool twice!”
“I've not lied.” She couldn't tear her eyes away from his face, watching for the first sign that he might do something to hurt her.
“Either the story you told me is a lie, or you lied during your trial.”
“I never said I lied, I just didn't answer when I was asked if it was a lie. The Captain assumed I was admitting it was a lie.”
“That's the same as lying!” He rushed forward towards the bars and slammed his fists into the door, making it rattle. She shrank back against the far wall and tucked her legs underneath her. “You've done nothing but lie, since the moment you got on this ship. You either lied to me to get me to protect you or you lied in trial.”
“I couldn't let the crew think it was true.”
“Bullshit!”
“Didn't you see their reaction? Whenever I have told someone what happened to me, they've always reacted in one of two ways. Either like you, as I said in the trial, with the desire to protect me, or like the rest of the crew, with the intention of using that information to get what they wanted. If I'd let them think it was true and gone back to work, at least two men on this ship would have taken the opportunity to do exactly what my uncle did. Finding out I'd been weak once, just makes people see me as weak now, and unlike you, and maybe Dylan, they'd have taken advantage of that. I never lied!”
The Thorian growled and shook the door again, but it only made her angrier herself.
“And on top of that they knew I'd gone to the Captain's bed, like a slave does for a master. They'd have treated me like a slave and I'd have been unable to stop it.”
“This crew would never do something like that. Dylan wouldn't have allowed it.”
“They've already been doing it... I've been invited to be their slave because I must miss the warmth of a master's bed. I've been told I'd be the first to enter a combat zone because I'm an expendable slave, and many more things. I've already been leered at and touched, and propositioned by men who think I'd be willing because they think I must want to be treated that way.”
“If what you are saying is true, there's no way you'd have gone to the Captain's bed. Someone so scared of what men might do to her doesn't offer herself up like that.”
She shook her head at his anger. Explaining herself was draining and she didn't think she wanted to do it.
“And you lied to me about wanting to talk to him. You intended no such thing.”
“I thought you were encouraging me to go to him.”
“I was... to talk!” he yelled and once more the cell door rattled. It wouldn't take many more shoves from the extra strong Thorian.
“You told me to give him something he could work with. I thought you were agreeing with the idea I'd had.”
“You seriously thought it was a good idea to try and seduce the Captain?”
“Yes!” She stood up, determined to make him see why she'd acted the way she had even if nothing could be done about it now. “I had two choices. I could offer myself up to a man I respected and gain his protection as well as a safe place to sleep, or I could continue to trial, which had two possible outcomes, be pardoned and then used by the crew who found out my secret, or dismissed and abandoned on a planet with nothing, where I'm likely to have to sleep with men I don't want to just to survive. I was trying to choose the man I had to give my body to. Can you really blame me for that choice?”