Sail My Oceans Read online

  Evernight Publishing

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2011 D. F. Krieger

  ISBN: 978-1-926950-57-0

  Cover Artist: LF Designs

  Editor: Marie Buttineau

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  For my mother, who is sailing the stars.

  For my critique partners, who told me exactly what I didn't want to hear.

  For my husband, who pushed me over the edge when I was afraid I'd fall.

  I am forever grateful to all of you.

  SAIL MY OCEANS

  D.F. Krieger

  Copyright © 2011

  Chapter One

  Lucy Verr smiled with grim satisfaction as her starship, Tartarus, shuddered and wobbled while it pulled into the pitiful excuse for a planet-side port. Dust, stirred up from her ship’s descent, swirled across the landscape as bouts of wind buffeted the metal hull.

  I need to get laid.

  The thought came unbidden and seemingly from nowhere. Lucy let her eyes rove the landscape, until she realized the thought was an echo of her environment. Her sex life, she mused, was undergoing a drought of its own, much like this planet.

  Somehow, the weather suited the city it cradled and ravaged. Dremes—the town for thieves, runaways, and pirates—a utopia for bad business, dirty deeds, and disappearing acts. It was an ideal place for someone like Lucy Verr. She happened to have low friends in high places on Dremes, and that often made her life very interesting.

  Lucy strode out of the brig and down the corridor, her fingers sliding along the metal banister of the catwalk. The metal was cool under her fingertips, allowing her to center her thoughts. Now was not the time to lament her sex life. She had a business deal to close, and perhaps, more business to conduct before heading off this dingy, two-bit planet.

  When she climbed down the stairs and into the cargo hold, she gave the signal for the doors to open. A solid metal door swung down from the bulk, landing with a thud that echoed loudly on the patch-work, wooden dock. The landscape was soon flooded by her crew as they carried cargo to the docks. She waited a moment, her eyes adjusting to the bright, unfiltered daylight. A few blinks and then she strode with confidence down the ramp and in to the midst of the activity.

  The warden of Dremes took a hesitant step forward , his hands ringing the edges of a ragged top hat. His coat, dirty at the elbows and threadbare at the seams, clung to his round frame, reminding Lucy of an insect getting ready to burst through its husk. He reached a greasy hand forward in tentative greeting. She narrowed her eyes in displeasure until he pulled his hand back, rubbing it against his trousers.

  “You did the job, Captain?” His voice shook as he eyed the cargo being unloaded.

  She waved a black gloved hand in a vague dismissive gesture. “Yes, of course I did. Warden, you need to have more faith in me. One settlement, properly ransacked, as per our accord. The cargo being unloaded is your twenty percent of the profit.” The warden’s gaze jerked back to her, his nostrils flaring. “We agreed on a forty, sixty split.”

  “Now, now, Warden, you benefited greatly from my actions,” she chided, her tone soft.. “As long as I keep plundering settlers that try to strike out on their own on this planet, your little city continues to grow. Without other cities here to compete, you’re the safest spot on Hope. The only spot that merchants can really come to. Your profits are unchecked; after all, you do reap taxes from every one of these shops and businesses, correct?” Lucy Verr paused, giving her words a moment to settle in.

  His gaze flicked back and forth between the captain and the hulking figure of her henchman. A minute passed, two. With a reluctant look, the warden gave a slow nod.

  “I believe that the profits for myself and my crew should reflect your gain directly. Such a quaint little town, but it had great potential to become something when it found that mineral deposit. Something that could have competed with your Dremes once they’d had a chance to grow. Since you will now gain from their loss, I think it’s only fair you remember those who helped you grow rich.” Lucy’s smile didn’t match the threat in her voice. “Don’t you agree?”

  Her crew, alerted by their captain’s tone, leveled hard stares on the sweating warden. The dock seemed encased in a silence so intense the very air vibrated. The warden swallowed, his adam’s apple bobbing almost comically in his throat, before his shoulders slumped forward in resignation. “I agree. Your offer is much more reasonable.”

  The crew relaxed and the air filled with sound again as they fell back into the routine of lugging cargo around. Lucy Verr let a soft smile flirt across her lips. “There’s a good man. Now that we have matters settled, let’s move on. Have you any merchandise for me to look over in your shop?”

  This was a song and dance they both knew well. She and the warden had a long standing partnership that had played out well for them over the years. His demeanor changed, as he displayed yellowed teeth in a broad smile. “Why yes, Captain, I do. If you’ll come with me, I can show you what I have right now.”

  They walked down the dock, through the rickety excuse for a control station, and out onto the crowded streets of the city. The roads here were made of dirt and traffic was either hovercraft, on foot, or the occasional horse cart. Styx and Chiron, Lucy’s notorious “escorts”, followed her and the warden like looming shadows.

  When they wandered past the red light district, her pace slowed while she eyed the signs of the vying businesses with extreme interest. Lucy chewed her lip and battled an inner war with her desires. She considered asking the boys to meet up with her at the warden’s office in an hour or so. Gods, she needed a good fucking, hard and to the point. She forbade herself from touching any of the crew, and there hadn’t been any slaves aboard recently to fulfill her pleasures. Well, not any that she wanted to touch at least. She might be a pirate, but a woman still needed standards.

  Seeing the warm red glow of the lights, and envisioning the faces of some of her favorite men who worked these streets, made her want to veer off course right that instant. She felt her panties grow wet with the idea, urging her to let her lust guide her. Instead, she squared her shoulders and paced onward. Business first, Lucy reminded herself. There would be plenty of time to indulge in a visit to those wonderful men when business with the warden was over.

  It wasn’t long before they entered the town center and headed straight for a room in the back. No one in Dremes cared what went on, but Lucy still insisted on some privacy for conducting their business. They waited while two officers went to fetch her potential merchandise.

  “I think you’ll like them,” the warden assured her, his tone confident. “I just got them in a couple of days ago, so they are still fresh.”

  Two men stumbled into the room with the guards close behind. They looked mid-twenties, their clothing dirty but up-scale. She made a mental note of markets she could hope to sell them to. Anything of heavy labor was out, and that cut down over half her markets right there. Oh, they looked healthy enough, and somewhat muscular, but held a softness to them that suggested they’d known only a life of luxury. Finding a market for them as a noble’s pet would be easy enough. She could sell them, but she wasn’t about to agree to whatever price the warden already had set in his head.

  “You think I can use
these?” She scowled, tossing her hair over her shoulder while she glared at the warden.

  He paled. “Captain, this is all we have. Everyone else is either misdemeanors who’ll be out in sixty days, or drunks sobering up. You know I can’t give you anyone who hasn’t been sentenced to life imprisonment, or death. It’s a risk that I’m even selling you these people at all.”

  She regarded the obese man, who smelled strongly of alcohol, and sighed. “You there,” she said to the blond of the two, “what is your name and profession?”

  The man, who had been watching the whole exchange with a thoughtful expression, virtually beamed at her. “I’m Julius, m’lady. I am—"

  The darker-haired male next to Julius elbowed him soundly in the gut, his face impassive while he stared ahead. The blond clutched his stomach, gasping. Captain Verr pursed her lips, pondering the situation. There were plenty of markets looking for soft handsome slaves like the two standing before her, but Lucy had a feeling there was a catch. From the dark-haired man’s reaction, they were obviously hiding something. They were probably the prized toys of some high and mighty duchess on a wealthy planet. A duchess who, when she found out Lucy Verr had her wayward toys, could fuck up Lucy’s future considerably.

  She motioned the warden over, wrapping an arm around his neck as she guided him from the room. She tried to ignore the rancid smell coming off him or think about the stains that were likely smudging her velvet jacket. When they left the room, she kicked the door closed, blocking them from sight and sound of anyone else.

  “Who are they?” Her voice warned him not to lie.

  He pulled away, his hands twisting at the rim of his top hat. “I’m not sure, Captain. They were turned in for the murder of two rich boys from Prodigus. They swear they didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Lucy tapped a finger impatiently against the holster on her thigh. Murderers she could handle, but those two men in there didn’t have the reek of a killer. She had been around enough cut throats and convicts in her life to weed out the ones that had a moral code versus the ones who killed for the pleasure of it.

  “What do their travel papers say?”

  The warden shrugged, looking more nervous by the minute. “They didn’t have any. They were turned in and booked as rogues.”

  That was believable, at least. A lot of rogues, to keep their identity secret, often did dirty jobs without their travel papers on hand. It was illegal, but often, so were the jobs. Still something about this just didn’t sit right with Lucy.

  “And how were these so-called killers apprehended, Warden?” Lucy’s voice was gentle, but her gaze searched him, daring him to lie to her.

  “Well, see, it’s like this,” he hesitated. “They were turned in by a fellow traveling with the men who were murdered. He paid me real nice to take them without too many questions. Said it was for the betterment of society and he’d call in a favor to their families to have Dremes goods put on the authorized trade routes. As payment, you see, for us taking the murderers into custody.”

  Lucy went still. “So you thought you’d turn a triple profit? Take the men and get paid for that, get your pat on the back from Prodigus, and then even more coin in your greedy hands by rotating those gentlemen to me? I suppose they’ll be going into your books as life incarceration by law?”

  When he nodded, she put on her best fake smile. “Well, Warden, it seems you’ve had quite a stroke of luck in finances these past couple of days. It’s nice to share such wealth among your friends and, after all the years we’ve been working together, I’d like to consider us friends. It would be very gentlemanly of you to say, give me a discount on those men in there.”

  The warden went red in the face, his hands balling into fists. “A-a-a discount?” he sputtered.

  Lucy lounged against the wall, her arms crossed, her face impassive. Her leg, which just so happened to have the holstered gun, cocked forward, calling the warden’s attention. She watched him eye that gun, weighing his options.

  They had worked together for years. The warden had worked with her father too, back when the Tartarus still sailed under Bezeal Tartarus’ command. A pirate among pirates, Bezeal taught his daughter one very valuable skill: how to negotiate. He’d taken Lucy Verr to more meetings like this as a child than she could even attempt to count. Before his retirement, Bezeal often placed her as the lead negotiator to ensure she learned the craft well. It allowed her to easily set up a reputation amongst the contacts the Tartarus maintained to keep its banner flying.

  Lucy watched with cool disdain as the warden attempted to wrestle his temper under control. She was the best at what she did, and the most trustworthy. When she and a client came to an understanding, she never failed to deliver exactly as the terms stated. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t change the prices depending on the situation. Discovering the settlement she’d been sent to pillage earlier controlled a mineral deposit, merely shone a new light on available profit. Lucy never turned her nose up at the idea of gaining more money from a job. Not so long as the risk wasn’t too high, or the contact too shady. The warden, gods bless his little black heart, was greedy, but he wasn’t clever enough to be shady.

  “I was going to ask for fifty gold apiece, but since luck has been smiling at me, I’d settle for forty-three.” The warden smiled as if he thought the offer was very kind of him indeed.

  “Come now, Warden, I was thinking more thirty,” Lucy said. “They are, after all, murderers. That slims the market down considerably for me. Especially since it’s obvious they aren’t accustomed to hard labor. What lord or lady is going to want a killer as their new pretty pet?”

  His face hardened and his jaw clenched in stubborn protest. “You already increased your share on the earlier deal. Take thirty-eight, and call yourself further ahead than you should be.”

  She shook her head. “You're issued money by the government if you keep them in your ledger as alive. I know how this works. You get paid monthly for men you aren’t even up-keeping. I’ll give you thirty-five and keep our dirty little secret quiet so we might do business again.”

  He narrowed his eyes, contemplating, before sticking out his hand to seal the deal. Lucy pulled away from the wall and took it in a firm grip, hating the idea of getting her gloves dirty too. No words were spoken, nor needed. They opened the door and reentered the room. Styx, the bigger of her two crew members, handed her a sack of gold. She counted out the warden’s profits before dumping it into his greedy, waiting hands.

  “Come on boys.” She handed the money bag to Chiron. “Let’s get out of here and back into my beloved sea of stars. The land is starting to leave a bitter taste in my mouth.” She spared a moment of pity for herself that she wouldn’t be visiting the red light district after all. Then again, under some tight control, she might be able to have some fun with the new slaves. They certainly weren’t hard on the eyes. Maybe a visit to the red light district wouldn’t be needed after all.

  “Aye, Captain,” Styx and Chiron chorused.

  “Captain Lucy Verr?” The warden waited for her to pause before smiling at her. “Tell your old man I said hello, would you?”

  “Of course, Warden.”

  The shackles were removed from the prisoners before they were led outside. She took the time to look them over better, watching for any brands of ownership on the ankles, wrists, or back of the neck. The blond man, Julius, seemed to be the younger of the two. He wasn’t much taller than she; his body lithe and well-defined. The muscles didn’t bulge, but were present enough to indicate he was healthy and toned. She found herself wondering idly if he was experienced in bed. He seemed eager and friendly with a bright hazel gaze and a frequent smile.

  The dark haired man, whose name she had yet to learn, was far more brooding and silent. His chocolate eyes stared at her with a defiance that had her growing wet as she imagined forcing him to bend to her will. He was taller, his shoulders broad, and his muscles stood out in clear definition. He worked out, and often. She im
agined his body stretched out on her bed as she rode that stoic stare right off his face.

  She forced herself to refocus, knowing that the walk to the ship was when she needed to be at her most vigilant. This was when newly bought slaves often tried for their freedom. A laser pulse wound in the calf detracted from their selling value, but was often all she needed to remove escape plans from their heads. Styx and Chiron each positioned themselves behind one of the men, a gun held discreetly against the slave’s backs. It wasn’t hard to clear a path; the dreaded bitch-captain Lucy Verr was well known in this town. Not a soul dared question them, though it was mostly because no one cared.

  They got to the docks without a hitch, and Lucy reminded herself to sing praises to the stars that night for the good day she was having. The cargo from the ransacked settlement had already been unloaded, the docks were clear of her crew, and two of her men stood guard at the edge of the ships loading door. They gave her a respectful half-bow, something the crew created on its own that Lucy found quite endearing, and stepped to the side to allow her and her entourage aboard.

  “Are we pulling out, Captain?” Chiron’s voice, always soft and quiet, was at odds with his great size. His bulk dwarfed her small frame, and she often brought him along to help when things got rough. He was a lover, not a fighter, but most people didn’t get to know him well enough to discover that. He’d worked for her father and now was one of her two most trusted mates. Styx was, of course, the second.

  “Yes, it’s time to be off before our good luck runs dry. Styx, inform the crew. I want all our boys back aboard within the half hour.” She pulled off her gloves as they entered the bulk, letting her eyes rove over the cargo that remained.