 both a sink and a toilet. He got to his feet, looking for his shoes quickly given the cold temperature of the floor. That and he quickly surmised that should he stub his toe anywhere in his quarters, he'd likely end up with a broken foot, for just about everything on the ship was made of steel.
Once he'd procured and donned his shoes, he stepped into the washroom and ran cold water over his face and head, using his hands to cup the water over him. Seeing as there was no towel, he used his blanket to wipe himself off.
He heard his stomach growl and at once he thought about getting something to eat. Towards the end of the bed, he noted a door on the wall adjacent to it. He got up and went to the door, turning the metal handle. The handle creaked loudly as he struggled to turn it, finally unlatching the door and revealing a tight corridor beyond.
He stepped out into the cooridor and a voice startled him.
"Your breakfast is in the galley, Mr. Zek. I will take you there," Zek turned to see a large muscular man who bore a compact SMG strapped around his right shoulder.
The man radioed someone using a headset with which he was equipped and then led Zek down the cooridor. Zek found it difficult to walk steadfastly as a result of the ship's chaotic motion. Regardless he pressed on, bouncing off of the walls as he did. Eventually the man led him into another cabin which Zek remembered as being where he'd had dinner the night before.
There at the same table at which he'd eaten, was a plate of breakfast for him. A few sausages and some hash browns, as Mr. Zek never ate eggs. He was amazed to see how much Steadman had learned about him.
"Thank you," Zek addressed the man who'd led him to his breakfast and then sat down and began to consume the food hastily.
It wasn't long before the movement of the boat caught up with him, and shortly after he'd devoured his breakfast, he found himself feeling dizzy and nauseous. He gulped down his water and upon feeling the contents of his stomach surge, he ran for the door outside.
The man with the SMG followed him as he struggled down the stairs, nearly falling down them for their run, and finding his way to the main deck. He then slung his head over the railing, looking out to the tumultuous ocean thirty feet beneath him. And then he vomited, launching the contents of his stomach into the ocean to feed the local fauna.
"Getting familiar with the sea, are we?" asked Steadman, who'd crept up on the two men, taking a place at the railing beside Zek.
"A little too much so, I'm afraid," Zek gagged again after he'd managed to get the words out.
"What better prison is there than the ocean to keep a man like yourself, one who fears water so much, at bay?" Steadman posed to Zek.
"I suppose I'll have to get used to it," Zek spat a glob of bile, wiping his lips with his hand.
"In much the same way you got used to your prison cell in La Moderna, don't you think?" asked Steadman.
"I was as much King, as I was a prisoner," Zek assured Steadman.
"Who's to say that you aren't still a King now? You certainly will be if we find the backup to your blackmail database at the location you shared with me last night," Steadman assured him.
"Why would I deceive you?" Zek asked him, lifting his head slightly.
"Why else? To buy time to figure out how to deal with me. I figure that you'd probably try to create a mutiny, attempting to buy my own men off of me with the lure of the promise of riches. How else does a snake tempt the hearts of men but through the wiles of greed? Then you'd dispose of me at sea, take the ship and acquire your backup database and setup in another part of the world, under your own terms," Steadman looked out across the magnificence towards the horizon.
"And if I've deceived you?" Zek asked lifting his head ever so slightly higher.
"Well, that would cost you then. I figure an arm or a leg would suffice.  The pain of having a limb surgically removed without anesthesia would be enough. You'd live. Recover, and I'd ask the same question of you again. Where are the blackmail database backup copies you've hidden? Then, depending upon where your commitments lay, you'd either be loyal to your database, or to your body parts. The one question you should ask yourself is, what happens when you run out of limbs?" Steadman spoke his words like poetry.
As Zek's eyes found the boundary between the horizon and the ocean, his stomach somersaulted again and a fresh stream of bile shot out from his mouth and nose into the ocean.
"Don't worry. You have all the power you need right now. The power to affect your own destiny. A week from now, will we be calling you Sire? Or will we be calling you Stubby?" Steadman patted Zek on his back, causing him to eject the last of the bile and air in his stomach out into the ocean.
Three nights had passed since she'd been liberated from an attempt to violently and sexually assault her. Ironic she thought, that such a thing would happen to her when she'd decided to give people another chance. It was irrelevant that her living and livelihood was based around sexual and physical aspects of her being. Just because she worked as a web cam girl, did not mean that she was expected to service the public in her own off-camera life. In fact, to her, the camera was a barrier of safety where she could sell fantasy from the safety of her own environment, all the while keeping a hidden profile in her off-camera life. She wasn't hurting anyone, nor was she imploring anyone else to hurt themselves. Yet, when she'd been implicated by association with a filmmaker who attempted to lure his adult actors into the world of prostitution, she'd been scalded by her own community, simply because they'd branded her as a having informed on said filmmaker. In other words, she'd chosen the sexual vocation that did not involve contact with her customers, as she was simply fulfilling her customers' visual fantasies. Why she'd been scalded over the fiasco went beyond all logic, for such people were in fact encouraging women to put themselves at risk by forcing them away from the cameras, and onto the street.
Despite her having been treated as a pariah since that situation, she'd continued her life honestly, maintaining her web camera business and online identity despite the pressure. Over the years it had weighed upon her heavily and had essentially isolated her locally from all but her customers and her online friends. She was an outcast simply for enjoying the greatest gift that any of us in life have ever received. None of us had to pay a thing for it either. We only had to take care of it. Our own body.
For years, these self righteous bigots had taken it upon themselves to cast out another woman simply because she'd chosen to live that way. Yet, the same people promoted putting women on the streets to sell themselves as sexual products for their customers. Putting women in situations where they'd be exposed to the risk of robbery. Violence and assault. Substance abuse. Sexually transmitted diseases. And all for what? If anyone could figure it out, she'd follow them for a lifetime.
Fortunately on that fateful night, three nights ago, another citizen had taken action to stop those three men. The ones who would have taken from her body, without her permission. He'd suddenly appeared out of nowhere, from atop of a highwalled cement fence. He jumped down and dispatched all three of them in seconds. From the moment he'd arrived, the situation had played out like an old karate or kung fu movie. He'd quickly and effortlessly stopped them before they could sexually assault her. He then made sure that she was alright, and then leapt over the twelve foot high fence like it was a track and field hurdle, then disappearing into the night.
She'd kept a close eye on the news from that point on. Looking to find any stories on the news that matched the situation, as she'd seen the Police cars arrive from a distance, where they cuffed and arrested the men. One night later, after she'd spent the evening working her camera, she went onto the MindSearch site, MindSpice's internet search engine technology and she searched for the terms "three men arrested" Parkdale OR Toronto. To her surprise, a news clip was returned in the first page of results. She'd quickly clicked on it and was taken to a local news and journalism site where the story was published.
The story claimed that the three men were wanted in connection with a string of rapes that had occurred in the same area, and in Mississauga over the last twelve years. Their mugshots were captioned in the story, and she immediately recognized their faces, all three. She shuddered upon seeing their faces again, feeling a sense of joy and gratefulness that they'd been brought before justice before they could harm another woman. She slept soundly that night for the first time in years, feeling like someone out there actually cared enough to make a difference. Even in the life of a web cam girl like herself.
The following day, her community stalkers punished her for reading that story online