Bought by the Alien Warrior Elgan

by Eden Ember

  The elevator was worse: the guard pointed to two points on a side wall that my wrists were already being pulled towards.

  My stomach lurched. We were we going up?

  The elevator doors opened again, and I squinted into a setting sun to try to make sense of the view. We were high: very, very high. Despite it starting to get dark, could see an entire city and a market beyond from here. Lights from buildings and ships flickered far into the distance.

  They shoved me out of the elevator towards a small docking bay where a small craft waited, its six thrusters ambling, ready to force it out of the moon’s gravitational pull. I’d learned about this kind of craft from my time with Jules. It was an Elevator craft. I could even tell from the blue tinge from its plume that one of its fore-thrusters had at least one dirty jet. Maybe if I can show my limited knowledge of ship maintenance, they would find a use for me there, rather than what I expected they’d planned for me.

  My old master had threatened enough times to sell me to a whoremonger, so I was under no illusion of what this new master would expect from me.

  They forced something into my right ear.

  A thin, throaty voice spoke, translated by the new device in my ear. “My prize.”

  One guard punched me in the stomach, his words losing their sharpness as the soothing voice of the translator came into my ear. “Bow to your new master, you stupid bitch.”

  I stood upright, defiant.

  They might have bought my body, but they wouldn’t own my mind.

  The guard retrieved something from their pocket, his long, webbed fingers pressed at the buttons. The heavy restraints around my wrists thrummed with energy and forced themselves to the metal floor, pulling me down as they found their home.

  Fucker. I thought.

  But from the fresh angle, beyond the heat shimmer from the craft’s thrusters, I could see a ship ambling behind the elevator craft. I recognized it instantly as one a rover just like I had spent my first week working on. That was an Aaran ship!

  The new master laughed in delight, praising the guard for his initiative, but the words meant nothing to me, even as the polite voice from the translator removed their tone.

  None of that mattered, because even from this distance, I knew that the hidden ship meant one thing: my Elgan was here.

  And he was here for me!

  “You will stand, slave.” my translator said neutrally in my ear and I felt the magnetic pull from the wrist restraints loosen… they released even the ones around my ankles from their magnetic grip.

  I glanced to the winning bidder again. His face was beaming with delight, talking and gesturing. The new master barely took a breath, praising himself on having such an expert eye for finding a good slave. I was already trained - he could tell by how well I responded to the guard’s persuasion to bow - at least he didn’t have to use any more travel restraints… it was only a few steps to the elevator craft. Besides, restraints only bruised the skin and the damage would mean less money for him.

  “Come here, female.” he demanded.

  I shuffled, the heavy restraints may have lost their magnetic pull, but they were still heavy around my wrists.

  “See!” he laughed, “See how my slave does what she’s told!”

  Now was my chance. I stood, head bowed and shoulders rounded, my gaze fixed to the floor. I did my best to adopt the submissive stances that had were beaten into me for the better part of two decades, all the while priming my muscles and trying to fill my lungs with enough air so I’d be ready to make my break.

  Once the restraints were off, I’d run past the elevator craft and towards freedom. Elgan would see me. He’d help me escape.

  I stood where he’d commanded, hoping that my lowered gaze wouldn’t give away the fact that I was looking at the elevator craft and to the best path around it.

  The Aaran ship was still there. I could even picture Elgan inside it, waiting for the right moment to storm the transaction and rescue me. Or maybe he was already on the deck, hiding behind the craft. Perhaps he’d circled round and was behind us preparing to ambush them.

  A niggling thought came to me… wasn’t it strange that they hadn’t noticed an Aaran rover on their deck in the first place? Logic pulled holes in my plan.

  Then gravity pulled an even bigger one.

  They didn’t care about the rover because it was only hovering at the same altitude as the deck, the entire deck was barely large enough to hold the small elevator craft. The Aaran rover shimmered again, and I felt my stomach drop - that wasn’t because of a heat-shimmer from a craft, that was because the entire small deck was protected by an ion shield.

  That made sense. I wondered how many slaves threw themselves to their deaths rather than face a life of servitude before they placed the shield there to begin with.

  My chance for freedom was within touching distance, but with an ion shield and a drop so high it would take long enough to fall to the ground that you’d have time to think about how bad it would hurt. My chance for freedom may as well have been a thousand systems away, for all the good it was.

  The new master signaled to the guards, who activated my ankle restraints, leaving me welded to the spot. They grabbed a wrist restraint each, pulling them away from me, before setting them down. When they returned, one held a Tyrvual knife to my throat as the other kneeled to remove the heavy ankle restraints.

  Things happened quickly. With the knife still to my throat, they rushed me to the elevator craft and bundled me into it quickly. The new master shouted at them to make sure not to damage me. He’d already paid for me and any damage would cost them.

  The elevator craft took off with a hiss. For the first time, I was thankful that my stomach was empty as the movement made me feel queasy. I wouldn’t please them to vomit. I swallowed by bile and held in the tears that wanted to spill as I thought of the rover I’d seen.

  Maybe I’d been mistaken? Maybe it wasn’t him after all.

  Maybe it was hope that had made me imagine that it was an Aaran vehicle.

  They stripped me and threw me into a sanitation chamber. The smell from the disinfecting process both somehow settled my stomach and gave me a slight headache which ultraviolet light didn’t help as it made everything glow. I recognized the fabric and cut that they expected me to wear as clothes, it was like what I’d worn all my life on Arenthia, a knee-length tunic with just two straps that tied at the shoulders. Once opened, the entire thing would fall to the ground, unless there was a belt.

  I searched.

  There was no belt for me. That would be too fucking helpful.

  I fastened my straps, knotting the fabric as tightly as I could with trembling hands.

  The first moment I was alone I tried and failed to rip the translator from my ear. From my reflection in the glass of the sanitation chamber’s walls, I could just about see it had completely attached itself to my ear now. Its tentacles wrapped over my lobe and I could feel its body nestled into my ear canal. Every time I tried to pull it free, it either scratched or bit me. I wasn’t sure which. I could only hope that when I’d get rid of it, my ear would still be there.

  I was exhausted, ravenous, nauseous by the time they ushered me to be presented to their captain. Now and then the translator moved in my ear. It was an uncomfortable and scratchy sensation. And all of that meant I was just about ready for a fight.

  “My prize.” the master’s words came into my ear through the translator. They were louder than before. The voice had changed: less neutral and more to match the depth and tone of his voice.

  “An excellent choice, sir.” His second said. The female stepped towards me, her tall pale, androgynous frame lithely walked towards me as she openly inspected my body. Her bony hands squeezed my ass firmly as she circled around me, she stepped closer and I could feel her body behind me. She raised my arms and felt them, making her way towards my body and grasped my breasts.

  “Firm,” she said, “Supple. Even if a bit…” she rele
ased my breasts to jiggle my ass. “Larger than our normal stock.” She stepped back again, to look at me from a fresh angle. “Then again, we don’t have a lot of Terrans in stock and never any that look like that.” She mused.

  I felt anger rise inside me.

  “And just what way do they look?” I spat, unable to hold my tongue any longer. I’d expected to an examination of some sort and up til then I’d been half relieved it was by a female. But if she had an issue, I was sure I knew exactly what it was, and I was more than ready to address it.

  Her nostrils flared, and the words came. “You do not speak to me.” She motioned to her subordinate, a younger female who was waiting to my left as she walked towards the exit.

  “Half rations, until her ass doesn’t have its own gravitational pull.”

  A lithe male who until now had been ignoring us stood up. He’d been sitting further away laughing with someone on his comms device. Now his interest was on me - his eyes surveyed me like prey.

  “Derkhed,” he started, “Brother.” he walked towards the new master. “Yes, she is… voluptuous.” he licked his lips after he said the word, his forked tongue sent a shiver down my spine I refused to show. “But that is all part of her allure.”

  He walked towards me, turning me sidewards to them and smacking my ass, hard. I hated that I had no other option but to allow him to move me about like a rag doll.

  “You can’t deny it. A jiggle such as that is enticing.” He pushed between my shoulder blades, enough to force me to bend forwards slightly, before lifting my tunic to reveal my naked body beneath, smacking me again.

  “See, brother?” he said triumphantly, “Truly exotic!” He giggled to himself. “Try it yourself!”

  Derkhed walked towards me, his eyes roaming over my body differently to earlier. Before, I’d been something to purchase, something to profit from. The look he held now was one of desire. Hairs rose on the back of my neck, I didn’t like where this appraisal was going.

  And since I met Elgan, I vowed I would not allow another male to touch me.

  “I don’t know why the Aarans were so interested in this transaction.” confusion was in Derkhed’s voice. “We do not know them for dealing in flesh.”

  I stiffened as soon as I recognized the word Aaran, even before my translator had caught up to their words. Something that did not go unnoticed.

  “You have something to say, prize?” Derkhed took my chin in his grip. “You have information on the Aarans? Perhaps?”

  It was a chance. Derkhed had talked about the credits he’d earn from selling me. What did he care about who he sold me to?

  “An opportunity for you, Derkhed.” I said in my language. Derkhed released me from his grip and flicked the comms device on his wrist open, motioning for me to continue talking.

  I repeated myself. His comms device responded, translating my words into his language and then the translator in my ear echoed them back to me again.

  “They will buy me. A quick sale for you.” I smiled. “A good sale. Plenty of profit for your trouble.” I nodded to him.

  He shook his head. “No they won’t. I have three buyers already who will pay more to hire you for a week than I paid to buy you. Then there are a hundred others willing to do the same.”

  “The Aarans will pay whatever you want.” I begged. “Please, Derkhed.” I hated myself for the pleading. “They will pay you. Let them buy me.”

  Derkhed and his brother exchanged glances before bursting into laughter. “They have no use for whores!” his brother laughed. “They believe their god, Decators has fated-mates for them, or find a female who’ll fuck them for free until their fated comes along.” he looked me over, from the top of my head to my toes, then up again. “They don’t pay to own some wild Terran female and they don’t have one as a Mate.”

  He laughed. “And if they did, they wouldn’t have let her out of their ship, nevermind into some questionable skin auction on a shitty, forsaken moon like Coriogre.”

  “I was captured.” I countered.

  Derkhed smiled. “And I suppose whoever took you overpowered an Aaran warrior?”

  “It didn’t happen like that.” I said. “I was on my own when…”

  He cut me short.

  “Well then I know you are of no worth to them! They would never leave a female alone if they thought her to be of worth.” He paced, thinking before his next words.

  “I have heard the stories about how pleasurable it is for females to rut with them.” he shrugged, “And I’ve been curious about it myself. But make no mistake: whatever Aaran you have fucked, commit the pleasure to a distant memory to recall when you earn your keep.”

  “Please, Derkhed.” I took his hand to beg him. “Please, they’ll buy me. At least ask!”

  His expression changed, the mirth he found in mocking me gone, replaced with disgust as he snapped his hand away. He gave me a sharp thwack across the face, before another heated my other cheek.

  “You overstep. Prize.” His tone was domineering. “There will be no contact with whatever trap you think you can set for me.”

  “But…” I had to beg, I could already feel the low rumble of the ship’s engine shaking the floor. They’d be ready for speed soon, and ready to disappear from this quadrant, and away from my mate.

  Derkhed grabbed a fistful of my hair. “These curls, that pouty little mouth, that round ass…” he panted. “None of them mean you can dare to touch me. You spoke to me, I tolerated it. You begged, I told you to stop.” he twisted his hand, and I yelped from the sharp pain.

  “I should break every one of your bones as punishment for daring to talk back to me. Never mind your insolence in believing you had permission to put your foul hands on me.”

  “Let me punish her, brother.” The other male whispered, stepping closer, his forked tongue tasting the air between us.

  “No, you ruined the last one.” Derkhed said.

  “Please…” I whispered.

  This time a fist was my reward for speaking, and then another, and another, before it all went black.

  Later, I woke up in a small cell, my hands bound, tethered by an attachment tied around a rail the length of one wall so I could walk along a little section of my cell. A plate of food sat near enough to reach. Through everything else, even the blinding headache, my stomach gurgled in appreciation. I was starving enough not to care what the food was.

  I was about to put the first bite into my mouth when a thought made me pause.

  Derkhed and his brother seemed to think my shape and size would help them earn more from me. Well, fuck that. I’d starve myself before I do something that helps them.

  I grabbed the tray with both hands and as far as I could, I spilled the contents on the floor.

  Chapter Eight

  Elgan

  By the time we’d made our way to the auction, we were too late. We learned that without the black ring I could have bought my way into the auction with enough credits. At least having the ring saved that expense. I added up the credits everyone had loaned me, plus the ones I had with me… getting in would have cost half of the total alone.

  The bidding room was almost empty. They were trying to sell off an adolescent female Nath’ri now. She looked nothing like my Diamond, but that didn’t stop me picturing Diamond with the same expression of paralysing fear.

  I found a corner beside an older male. I asked him whether they had sold the Terran yet, but a Vehren traveller gave me a rueful smile. “You speak your words casually, Aaran, but we all know she was the best this skin merchant offered. Won’t see one like her again for another few years.” He sniffed, scratching at his tusk-like nose with his left hoof.

  “But if you’re still interested in her, I bet it’d be worth the price that Derkhed will charge. Won’t mean you’ll own her, but something’s better than nothing, eh?” He barked a toothless laugh. “Might have a little go on her myself before he leaves orbit!”

  I unclenched my fists and focused
on exhaling slowly. I would not to start a fight here. They had warned us on our arrival about fighting and I’d already stepped over two dead Kwoubus males just outside this very room that only proved the guard’s point. Besides, fighting was a wasteful use of my time right now.

  But the entire one hundred and seventeen suns in the Pelivuzal territory would all freeze over before I would let anyone touch my Diamond.

  “My guess is that Derkhed will be at one of the Elevator Craft points, collecting her now. Maybe you could watch… if seeing a pretty thing like that in restraints is your pleasure.” The Vehren continued, oblivious to the pit of rage brewing inside me from his comments. “He can’t charge you for that.”

  My chair fell over as I stood abruptly. My jaw protested at being clenched so hard. She wasn’t here, so it was time I left as well.

  There was a subtle vibration from my wrist: Gandrox. His message was curt. “Status report?”

  Xyru and Kefiz followed me out of the bidding room and we stepped over the dead males again. Their withering skin had already shrunk back, pulling their faces into even more contorted expressions. The auctioneer would have known their presence to be a good deterrent to other would-be fighters.

  I tapped my reply to Gandrox as I made my way back to the deck.

  “I reckon the Elevator Crafts are there.” Allegra pointed to three points higher on the great chimney stack.

  We’d all knew that was what they were, but out of respect, no one would point that out.

  We rose to the same altitude as the Elevator Craft, trying to stay far enough away to avoid detection.

  Then I saw her.

  But I also saw the look of hope in her eyes, even as she was on her hands and knees on the floor.

  I could see the hope in her eyes as she looked at the Elevator Craft. It was painful to see, because all I’d ever wanted was for her to look at me with the same hope. Sure, the ion shield they used made everything shimmer, but even at this distance, even through that shield, she wanted to be aboard that craft more than anything.