The next morning, Serrano was enjoying the fruits of his imminent victory. He had total control over his gang on the Racine, as well as a plan to take over the ship that very evening. He even had power over their section’s supply room, ensuring that his men were armed with pulse pistols for the eventual takeover.

The best news about it all was that he didn’t have to worry about Hawthorne any longer. Serrano had anticipated that he would try to arm himself in order to stop the Dangallu plan and he’d struck first, taking over the room and having his men in place to neutralize Hawthorne before he could strike back.

Once Hawthorne was down, the hard part was done. All that remained was to put him in one of the secure cabins—a spartan dwelling that locked from the outside, meant to hold any criminal who got up to his old ways on the Racine.

By the time that anyone was able to release Hawthorne, the O’Neill cylinders would already be released and the Racine would be on its way to Dangallu.

But all of that now paled in comparison to the cherry on top of a perfect plan. That took the form of the blonde beauty that now sat in front of Serrano, her fierce green eyes staring daggers at him.

“I’m told your name is Jenna,” said Serrano, stroking her milky thigh. “Not that it matters much but you are one hell of a beauty, aren’t you?”

That was almost an understatement. Jenna looked gorgeous in her skin-tight colony suit—a modified space suit that covered the wearer from neck to toe. It was the outfit that nearly all of them wore on the Racine, and she filled hers out much better than anyone else.

But for now, that outfit had been removed. Jenna was just wearing a skimpy tank top and a little pair of panties. Her tits were threatening to burst out of that tank top and there wasn’t a man alive that wouldn’t appreciate the swell of her curves in such attire.

“Sorry about your man though,” sneered Serrano, which made her whimper in response. “No hard feelings, eh? He was just too much of a dickhead to be left alone. I gave him every chance to join my organization but he wanted to be a martyr. What a shame.”

At that point, Jenna tried to get out of the chair she was tied to. She didn’t have enough strength to move it entirely and the chair only buckled in the attempt.

Serrano used his hands to put his weight down on the chair, locking her in place.

“Oh, you wouldn’t want to do that,” he said, putting his face only inches from hers. “I have big plans for you. You’re going to be my number one girl now. And I expect you to please me with that body of yours twice daily at minimum. And I’m going to want every hole you’ve got, including that tight little rear end of yours.”

Her eyes narrowed. “So you like anal, is that right? Where’d you get that from? Were you someone’s bitch in prison before you got on this ship?”

So she was feisty too. Serrano actually started to laugh.

“I’m really going to enjoy breaking you in,” he said. “By the time I’m done with you, your asshole is going to be ruined and bloody, just like the rest of you. Trust me though, I’m a man of control. I know just when to stop the abuse so that you don’t go off the deep end. The end result? I’m going to be fucking you for a very long time, bitch.”

He saw the fight go out of her eyes, exactly what he wanted to see happen. She might resist hard the first time but she would be broken eventually.

Just like all the other women. Well, except for one.

Before Serrano could continue, there was a knock on his cabin. Three of his men entered, and it was obvious that two of them were holding up the third man, who was clutching at his stomach and moaning in pain.

“What are you doing in my cabin?” demanded Serrano. “Can’t you see I’m busy here?”

“We have a problem, boss,” said one of the men, pointing at the wounded man.

It was clear that the man had been wounded grievously. Blood was dripping from his stomach, and Serrano could almost see his intestines poking from the wound.

“What the fuck happened to him?”

“Incident with the ship’s security,” replied one of the men. “There was an . . . altercation with them on the lower levels after they tried to detain us.”

“Why would they detain you?” demanded Serrano. “What were you doing?”

“They had a list of our names,” replied the man. “I’m not sure how but they know. The ship’s crew knows what we’re doing.”

At that exact moment, the ship’s alarm systems began to blare. Serrano recognized this alarm, being the same one that blared once that doctor showed up dead.

It was the alarm concerning a genuine threat to the ship. And there was little doubt over who was now considered the main threat.

“Fuck!” raged Serrano, striking the man that had just been speaking. The powerful blow sent him crumbling to the floor, taking the wounded man with him.

“Get off your asses!” he yelled, watching them scurry up again. “We need to accelerate our timetable. The takeover begins right now! Go get every man and find Lido at once! Everyone assembles here as quickly as possible!”

All but the wounded man sprung into action. The man still on the floor clutched at Serrano’s feet.

“Please, give me something to dull the pain. This is killing me!” he whined.

Serrano kicked him to get the man off his feet, sending him flying across the room and crashing against the wall. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Jenna wince upon hearing the man’s cries of pain.

Serrano didn’t have time for weakness, especially not now when so much was on the line.

At least the rest of his gang was there quickly. There were fifteen of them overall, including Grant Lido, who was effectively his second-in-command.

“As you might notice from the alarms, we have a problem on our hands,” said Serrano. “It’s time to execute the plan. I have our pulse pistols in a box right by my bed. Everyone should grab one but don’t be stupid enough to fire it on the ship. Use it to bash someone’s skull in before you fire it, or we’ll never get to Dangallu. Any questions?”

The majority of the men shook their heads.

“Good, let’s get moving.”

Upon leaving Serrano’s cabin, the group promptly split up into two factions. Serrano would lead half of them to the ship’s bridge, taking it over so that Ross could set the course for Dangallu. The other half of the group was led by Lido, who would take over the main security hub before they had a chance to respond to the bridge takeover.

The two groups separated as they made their way into the inner part of the ship, with Serrano leading the way to the bridge. The alarm was still blaring as they moved, and they found that most of the ship was already quarantined in their cabins.

All except the essential crew and the security.

Those few unlucky individuals were beaten until they stopped resisting. Serrano’s orders were explicit in that regard—anyone who showed the slightest bit of resistance was to be neutralized in the quickest possible way.

For most of those people, that involved repeated blows to the head.

As they reached the ship’s bridge, they found that it was more reinforced than the last time it had been scouted out. There were six security guards altogether—almost all of whom were big and burly.

“Just like we planned,” grunted Serrano to the rest of them. He gestured for one of the bigger men to accompany him, and the two men put away their pistols and approached the guards casually.

“Stop and return to your cabins,” said the lead guard, looking at both men. “The ship is under lockdown right now. You do not belong here.”

“We don’t?” asked Serrano, putting on a polite smile as he kept walking. “We must have gotten lost. Can you point us back to Section 3?”

“Stop advancing right now!” said the guard, but that wasn’t enough to stop Serrano. The guards already looked to be pissing themselves as they looked at his size.

“But we can be friends, can’t we?” asked Serrano, stopping right next to the guard.

Before the guard could react, Serrano swung his fist as hard as he could, crashing against the man’s temple and knocking him unconscious from the start.

“Then again, maybe we’ll be enemies,” said Serrano as he started swinging at the next man.

The fight was over in a matter of thirty seconds. All six of the guards were dispatched easily, being no threat whatsoever to Serrano and his group.

“Let’s go!” yelled Serrano back to the rest of them. “Time to take over the bridge!”

They rushed into the central command station for the Racine, knocking out crew members as they went. Several of them tried to resist, most notably the captain of the vessel as well as two other officers.

Serrano was the one that personally destroyed the captain’s face, leaving it a bloody pulp of ruined flesh and killing the man after several moments. The other two officers were given similar treatment until there wasn’t a man left standing on the bridge that didn’t give total allegiance to Serrano.

At that moment, Serrano’s P-com rang out with one simple message from Lido.

“Security is under our control.”

Serrano’s mouth twisted into a cruel smile.

The Racine belonged to him.

“Ross, get over there and pilot this thing,” barked Serrano once all opposition had ceased. “Put in the course that we described. How soon can we be to Vesta?”

Ross looked at the navigation console and started to hit buttons on it. “By this calculation, we’ll be there in four days. I’m setting a new course for us to jettison the O’Neill cylinders and then proceed past the planet to the 51 Pegasi star, at which point we’ll slingshot around the star using the gravitational assist. We’ll then arrive at Dangallu in another . . . ten months and twenty-two days.”

“And without all those useless mouths to feed, we’ll be able to live off the return supplies for the skeleton crew while we’re transiting to Dangallu,” said Serrano with some excitement. “I love it when a plan comes together!”

“Speaking of plans, can we come up with one to turn off that damned alarm?” asked another member of the gang. “It’s giving me a splitting headache.”

Serrano inspected the bridge until he found the control override console and switched off the alarm. Within a second, the ship went quiet. He also noticed another button that brought a smile to his lips.

“It’s time for everyone to find out about the little change that we made,” as he switched on the ship’s intercom.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” said Serrano, hamming up his presentation. “This is your new Captain Lucius Serrano. There’s been a slight change in plans. Instead of turning back to Earth, the Racine will be only making a brief stop at Vesta before changing course to the Dangallu system. My men and I are in complete control of the ship, and the majority of the former crew members are now dead, including the captain.”

Serrano took a deep breath. “That feeling that you just received? That’s called fear. You fear what my intentions are, mostly because you didn’t expect this to happen. Well, it has, but you don’t need to be fearful. I’m still going to drop most of you off at Vesta when we arrive. Of course, you won’t get to take your supplies or your money. Those will stay on the Racine to nourish my crew on the journey to Dangallu, but at least you’ll have your lives still. That is, as long as you don’t interfere with my plans.”

Serrano had almost put the microphone down when he remembered something else. “One more thing. My men and I will be inspecting most of the companions that were given out a few days ago. We’ll be taking the most attractive of them with us to Dangallu. If you try to resist, we’ll beat your face into a bloody pulp and then we’ll all take turns raping your companion until she’s dead.” Serrano chuckled into the microphone and lightened the tone of his voice. “Thank you for flying Serrano Airlines, and I hope you had a pleasant journey.”

Serrano turned and grinned at his gang. “Now the fun really begins.”

*****

Alex came back to consciousness suddenly. His body ached, but it was his head that throbbed the most. Opening his eyes slowly, he looked around his surroundings to make sure that none of Serrano’s gang was nearby.

Thankfully, the only person he could see was Rick.

Alex pushed to his feet quickly to analyze his environment. He was in a cabin, of that much he was sure, but this didn’t look like the one he’d been assigned.

This was definitely empty and had nothing beyond very basic amenities. Looking at the door, Alex moved closer until his hand rested on the handle. He tried to yank it back.

But it didn’t even budge.

They were locked in here.

Alex went over to look at Rick, shaking his shoulder. “Rick, get up. Come on, I need you to get up.”

His former brother-in-law stirred slowly. “What the fuck happened to us?” he asked with his eyes still closed.

“We were ambushed,” said Alex. “And now we’re stuck in this room. Locked in is more accurate. And god knows what’s been going on while we’ve been in here?”

Rick stumbled to his feet slowly, but even he had to try the door, confirming that it was locked once more.

“I hate to even say it but it doesn’t look like we’re getting out of here anytime soon,” said Rick.

Alex didn’t want to admit that he was right. He suspected these cabins were for anyone who acted up too much on the ship, and that the door would only open once unlocked from the outside.

Until they could figure a way out, Serrano had a free hand to do with the Racine what he pleased.

Alex looked around for something—anything—that might help them get out. It was as his eyes fell on the bed that something sparked.

“I have an idea,” said Alex. “We’re getting the hell out of here.”