engines starting couldn’t be missed. Flint suddenly stopped to brace against a wall, tugging her none too gently against his side, tightening his hold. The ship moved, making them both sway a little on their feet, before he started walking again.

“What are you doing?” Her voice shook now. “Please take me back.”

“We have already released the shuttle and are leaving it behind. In a few minutes, when we are clear, we will do a long burn and head for our planet. It is already done and you will not be returning to your shuttle, Mirasia Carver.”

He walked her inside a shaft and stopped. Doors slid shut and then Mira moaned a little as a queasy feeling hit her stomach at the fast movement upward, making her realize it wasn’t a shaft after all but a lift.

The hand gripping hers tightened.

“No harm will come to you, so relax.” Flint’s voice was husky.

“Why did you take me? What are you going to do with me?”

He hesitated. “Right now I am needed in Control so we’ll discuss that later. You will be quiet until I tell you it is a good time to talk. Are my instructions clear?”

Her heart pounded with fear and adrenaline. “You’re not going to sell me to a pleasure house somewhere, are you?”

He chuckled. “Would you like me to?”

“No! It’s just that the general tried to kill me because he said if I were taken that’s where I’d end up.”

“I promise you that other men will not be ha**ng s*x with you.”

She blew out a breath of relief. “Thank you. I have a good job that will pay for my safe return since I’m a valued employee. You could ransom me for a lot of money.”

He ignored her suggestion. The lift stopped. “Be quiet until I tell you otherwise. Are my instructions clear? You do not speak or move in Control.”

“I understand.”

“Good.”

He walked out of the lift to turn down another corridor that ended in double doors that automatically slid open in front of them. Flint tugged her into a room behind him, stopping so suddenly just inside the doors that Mira slammed hard into his back. She hit hard enough to bounce off him. His tight hold on her kept her from falling on her ass. She steadied her balance on her feet.

When Flint released her hand she shoved at her blonde hair, pushing the long, curly strands out of her face. Mira stared up at Flint as he turned to face her, giving her an amused look. He studied her for a second before he pointed to the floor.

“Sit.”

She looked at the metal floor, clenching her teeth over being treated like a dog in training, but sat where he pointed. Flint was a large man with wide shoulders and muscular arms that revealed his strength. She knew that in a physical struggle she would be no match. She sat cross-legged and was thankful she wore pants. When Flint stepped away, she took in her surroundings and that’s when more surprise hit her.

Flint’s big body had blocked her view when they’d been standing but now she could see everything.

She was in a large control room that was twice the size of her shuttle’s interior. More than the four cyborgs she’d seen lived on the ship. She counted seven of them here, besides Flint. The three from the shuttle were not amongst them. So far, she’d seen eleven cyborgs .

She sensed their attention on her so she openly stared back at them, curious. All of them were massively built and tall, with an array of different eye and hair colors. Some kept their hair long to their shoulders, as Flint wore his, while one had no hair at all. One of them even had a thick braid of flaming red hair that hung down his back almost to the ass of his black pants. They all had skin tones in shades of metallic gray.

“Have they burst yet?” Flint asked.

The one with the long red braid shook his head. “No, Flint. They are just sitting there. Should we wait for them to leave to see if they need assistance?”

Flint hesitated. “They are far enough away from Earth that transmissions are unstable. We’ll wait to make sure they take off before we blast away.”

A gray-haired cyborg who looked no older than thirty nodded. “They have started their engines.”

“Bring it up,” Flint ordered.

The screen filled with a view of space showing, to Mira’s surprise, that they’d already put a lot of distance