Jaisen could hear nothing but his own panicked breathing through the rough cloth of the hood covering his head. His wrists were bound to the arms of a cold metal chair. He had been stripped and shivered in the cold room. He didn't know how long he had been there, or how long it had been since he was kidnapped from Vesta station, but it had been long enough that he had felt desperately thirsty and had soiled himself a few times. He'd liked to believe he didn't know what this was about, but he did. He knew exactly what this was about.

Something in the air changed; maybe there was an undercurrent of scent on the air that wasn't coming from his urine, or the greasy terror sweat that slicked his body. There it was, perfume, and expensive.

“Hello!” he bellowed. The hood was ripped from his head. His eyes stung and teared under the assault of intense white light blasting.

“Hello," a well modulated female responded.

“What the frek is going on? Where am I?" he demanded, struggling futilely against his bonds. He heard the rustle of fabric and could vaguely make out a dark figure moving in front of him.

“You know exactly ‘wha’s goin’ on’,” the voice purred, imitating his outer territory's accent perfectly. “You conspired with a wanted fugitive to commit insurance fraud, impede a federal investigation, and willfully removing a tracking device and concealing it on another ship. Should I go on?”

Jaisen went still. Sweat trickled down his dark skin as the muscles in his jawline twitched. He strained to see, but the intensity of the light was too much.

“You’ve been arrested before. You’re probably wondering why this experience is a little different.”

Jaisen shifted in his bonds. “You’re going to interrogate me.”

“Not just cute, but smart, too,” the woman sounded like she was smiling.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Someone was wrapping a cuff around his left ankle. Jaisen's eyes were adjusting, and he could barely make out that the figure was wearing a military, versus law enforcement, uniform. “Who are you?”

The figure cocked her head to the left for a moment, brushing her dirty blonde hair behind her ear. “I’m Captain Mareion Shepherd. I’m going to ask you some simple questions about Atticus Riordan. You will give me simple answers. Do you understand?” There was a gleeful coldness in the woman’s voice.

“Yes, perfectly. I’ll tell you anything you want to know about that bastard!”

“Excellent! Very Good, Jaisen. But just to make sure…" Captain Shepherd produced a small black device resembling some sort of remote control from her pocket. "...I have your full attention," Shepherd's thumb lovingly caressed the button before pushing it.

Current coursed through Jaisen's body. He went rigid, jaws clamped, eyes bulging in their sockets. Jaisen's world was a supernova of white light and pain. Shepherd held the button down for five sections, then ten sections, before finally releasing it. Jaisen slumped forward, heaving breath into his lungs. His entire body quivered and spasmed in the aftermath.

"Oh, frek!” He hoarsely whispered repeatedly.

“Oh, frek is right,” Shepherd calmly replied and pressed the button again.

He lost count of how many times she pressed the button. Sometimes they came rapid fire with a short duration and other times it went on so long he was certain he would die. He was shocked back to consciousness by a hard stream of ice cold water from a hose. A guard was hosing the terror sweat and excrement into a floor drain. He didn’t think to drink as the spray battered his face. The guard cut off the flow and dropped the nozzle to the floor.

"Why?" Jaisen panted, head hanging in defeat. He shivered as the ice cold water streamed from his body in rivulets.

"Why haven't I asked you any questions yet?" Shepherd asked, pacing around her victim, highly polished boots clicking hollowly on the floor tiles. "You'll just lie. You all do," she said, tapping the tell tale tattoo burned into his left temple. "You can't help it, it's your inferior fragger genes. You lie, cheat, steal, rape, and murder without cause or compunction."

Jaisen swallowed convulsively, fighting the dryness in his throat. ‘I won't ask for water, I won't give her the satisfaction,’ he thought. "We can't... all be born... lucky," he panted.

"I make my own luck," she replied. She stopped pacing and looked thoughtful. "It's getting late. We'll end this for now. Get him out of here."