Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 Read Free

device, or even the violation of having two of the pirate soldiers busting into her quarters to drag her through the ship.  It was the fact that the Captain, stalwart defender of his crew and his ship, had given her up to Gideon Jax and his goons.  He’d given the Armsman the information that she was the only one who could get all of the restricted tech out of the replicators.  The fact that the Armsman had taken steps to secure her after that was almost immaterial.  Captain Eamonn’s betrayal hurt worse because she thought the man would have some more loyalty to a member of his crew.
                  Tamara leaned her head back against the bulkhead and closed her eyes, wishing desperately for this nightmare to end.  She shivered.  The guards had tossed her in here a while ago, wearing nothing but a t-shirt and underwear, none of her wounds had been treated.  She’d be lucky if she didn’t get sick or find out that her wounds had been infected due to lack of medical treatment. 
                  When her eyes began to burn and the tears flowed, Tamara couldn’t help herself.  She couldn’t stop it and was frankly beyond caring.  She choked and gagged, trying to keep her voice down, unwilling to let anyone witness her shame.  Sound carried quite well in the brig and she knew that there were others of the crew that had been locked away and certainly didn’t want any of the pirate bastards to mock her for a weakling.
                  Finally, the tears stopped and Tamara just stared at the bulkhead across the narrow cell, not really seeing anything, just simply sitting there and letting time pass by.
     
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                  Tamara sat up as the cell door unlatched and swung open.  Grunting, she pulled herself up to a standing position, facing the ones who came for her.  But no one entered.  A figure stood in the doorway, but didn’t enter.  Tamara blinked and her vision sharpened. 
                  “You,” she hissed.
                  A male voice chuckled.  “Me.  I see you remember.  I’m also glad to see that you are still showing a bit of spirit.  Though not too much, I hope?” he asked, holding up a remote in his right hand.  He pressed a control and the device attached to Tamara’s neck cut loose with a massive electric shock.  Her entire body tensed and pain exploded over every neuron.  A scream was forced out of her mouth and she collapsed to the bunk and then rolled off to the floor.  Jax, still holding the button down, stared at her for a long moment before releasing the control and stopping the shock.
                  Tamara’s limbs and extremities wouldn’t stop shaking.  Pulses of pain still shot out from all over, but the overwhelming horror had ended.  She had no voice, her throat was scraped raw again from the shrieks.  She lay there, quivering on the deck of the cell, her control completely gone.
                  “That was just to remind you of your station,” Gideon Jax told her.  “I don’t want to have to do that again, but let me assure you, I will.  I’ll give you another day to think about things, and then I’ll come back here and we’ll have a conversation about your future.  And I think I know how that conversation is going to go.  You’re going to be a good little worker and you’re going to be a very productive one.  Otherwise…”  He raised the remote, and tapped it lightly with his forefinger.  He hadn’t activated it again, but she flinched involuntarily.
                  He stepped back and someone else stepped up.  It was one of the stewards, Urru Aaraou, a young male zheen.  He was carrying a tray with a bowl and a cup on it.  At Jax’s direction, he took a step inside the cell and set the tray down on the floor just inside.  He hung his dark-violet carapaced head, his antennae drooped in shame.