by Lula Monk
Samantha sucked in a sharp breath. “Were you… trying to conceive back on Earth? Before you were taken?”
“Uh… no.” Clea laughed awkwardly. She didn’t want to delve into the myriad reasons she wanted no part of being a mother, not right now and definitely not with Samantha. The issue was too personal, too close to Clea’s heart, and she and the pregnant woman were tenuous acquaintances at best.
If the psycho wraps her hands around my throat once more, we are going to be less than that.
“No,” Clea said again, rubbing the knotted muscles at the back of her neck. All this stress was tearing down her body. “When I was unconscious, right after the auction, Ignis took me to the medical bay. That four-armed creature…”
“The Quadra,” Samantha offered helpfully.
“Yeah. That thing. When I awoke, he told Ignis that he’d given me a round of fertility hormones. Said it was part of Galactic Continuity’s new directive.”
Samantha gasped. “Are you sure that is what the alien said?”
“Crystal clear,” said Clea. “Ignis was pissed.”
Samantha nodded, not listening to Clea.
“You okay?”
The pregnant woman nodded again, chewing at her lower lip. “No one mentioned fertility treatments.”
“What’s the big deal?” Clea said, wrapping one of her braids around her finger. “That’s the whole point of this space station right? Fuck ‘em and breed ‘em?”
“It might be the ‘whole point’ of Galactic Continuity’s enterprise, but it is not my whole point.”
“Oh yeah? You sure were urging me to climbing into Ignis’s bed not two breaths ago.”
“To calm him, Clea. Not to get knocked up.” Samantha rubbed at her glowing red eyes. “If I could have it my way, no more Earth women would get pregnant.”
“And yet you seem so happy to be carrying the Glim’s kid.”
“Glimling,” corrected Samantha. “And that’s different.”
Clea scoffed. “Is that so?”
Samantha gave her a hard look. “Yes.”
Clea sat staring at the pregnant woman expectantly. “Well?”
“Well what?” Samantha snapped.
“Why is it different?”
“It’s different because I love him, okay?” Her voice had risen, almost to a scream. “I love Dredge. I wasn’t supposed to love him, but I fucked up and ended up loving him anyway.”
The thought of any human voluntarily and happily sleeping with their alien owners made Clea want to vomit.
“Don’t look at me like that,” said Samantha.
“Like what?”
“Like I’ve betrayed our entire race.”
“Well, from where I’m sitting, you kind of have.”
Samantha’s eyes widened. “How can you say that? I’m the only one who has stepped foot on this space station and tried to form an actionable plan.”
“So, what? You just waltz in here and decided you were going to change things, huh?”
“No,” Samantha said softly. “When I first arrived at the Hub, when Dredge first purchased me… I struggled with a lot of feelings.”
When Clea said nothing, the pregnant woman continued.
“At first, I contemplated suicide. Anything – and I do mean anything – sounded better than mating with Dredge in those first few days.”
The pregnant woman glanced up then, seeing the confused look on Clea’s face. “He had… you know…”
“What?”
“Well, he’s so tall, and…”
“You talk to that ten-foot bug like it’s a normal man. You’re obviously not scared of tall creatures.”
Samantha scoffed. “No. I am pretty damn scared of huge alien dicks, though.”
“Like huge huge or big?”
“Huge.”
Clea whistled. “And that’s the only reason you didn’t want to sleep with him?”
“Are you freaking insane?” Samantha rubbed at her face wearily. “I was covered in piss and blood. I was lightyears from home. I was terrified. When Dredge carried me away in the transport pod–”
“The what?”
“Don’t ask.”
Clea nodded.
“Anyway, I just knew Dredge was going to force himself on me. I mean, we’re sold as breeders and auctioned from a stage, for God’s sake. What other outcome could there have possibly been?”
“I know what you mean,” Clea said softly. “I thought the same.”
“The Ardan Commander hasn’t hurt you, has he?”
Clea trailed the top of one finger over her lower lip, the memory of Ignis’s kiss hot in her mind.
“No,” she said at last. “He hasn’t.”
“Good. That was part of the initiative.”
“So how did you come to love Dredge? I just can’t wrap my mind around it… like, he was nice to you. Which is great and all. But love doesn’t come out of nice.”
Samantha thought for a moment. “I don’t know the exact moment it happened, honestly. I went from loathing Dredge to feeling pity for him to…”
“So, you just pity him, huh? That makes a lot more sense.”
“No,” Samantha said sharply. “I do love him. I’m not saying the love wasn’t born out of the pity, though. His story is so tragic, and he feels the loss of his people so acutely. It is evident in every word he says. Everything he does. But what hurts my heart so much, what pushes me into his arms time and time again, is the knowledge that Dredge would be just as kind and sweet and gentle if the Glims hadn’t all succumbed to the disease.”
“He’s here though. Buying another person isn’t a kind thing to do.”
“And Dredge would agree with you,” Samantha said rubbing her crimson eyes. “But he was desperate. So few female Glims remain on Brillar, and his species is so reduced in number… He is the ruler of his planet, and I can understand his need to preserve their society. But it took me a long time to come to terms with that.”
Clea squinted at Samantha. Not too long, apparently. “How long have you been in the Hub? A few months?”
Samantha’s cheeks heated with blood. “A little less than a month.”
“A month,” repeated Clea, stunned. “That is not nearly enough time to cope with being a product. With being little more than an unpaid whore.”
“If you are lucky,” Samantha said, her tone clipped, “you will come to feel the same.”
“I highly doubt that.”
Samantha shrugged. “Have it your way. Go to his bed reluctantly, begrudgingly… however you want to do it.” The pregnant woman leaned forward, her glowing eyes shining intensely. “But you will go to bed with him.”
“I know you are hot shit amongst we breeders, the highest of the lows, but that doesn’t mean you are in any position to order me around.”
Samantha sneered. “It is such a simple thing. Why are you so hesitant to do this? It will help us all.” Her face fell, her energy draining. She sat back down. “Don’t you want to get back home? Back to Earth?”
Clea slammed her palm into the tabletop, making the legs rattle against the stone floor. Her nostrils flared, her breaths coming in great, bracing gulps. “That is the only thing I want.”
“Well, you aren’t acting like it’s the only thing you want!” said Samantha. “You are acting like a petulant child.”
“No, I’m not.” Clea scoffed. He is such an angry creature, and he knows nothing – and I mean nothing – about mating with a human.” Her breath wavered. “And there are his flames…”
“Talk to him,” urged Samantha. “Get to know him. Fearing him isn’t going to help matters at all.”
“I’m not afraid of him.”
“Bullshit. Anytime you mention the Ardan or his flames, you practically cower.”
“I do not.”
For a moment, Clea panicked. All this time, she’d thought she’d been hiding her terror of Ignis and his alienness from everyone, putting on a brave front so the warrior wouldn
’t know how much she was afraid of him. So he wouldn’t be able to use it against her.
She thought back to their interactions. The few they’d actually had.
She’d put on a front when he bought her. Pretended to be fearless, brave. But she wasn’t. She was scared shitless, and the knowledge that she was in this insane situation pissed her off. And the anger urged her to react. To flee.
And despite seeing her weakness, Ignis had chased after her. Had fought off the Cephalopod guards who were trying to obliterate her with blasts from their phase guns. She searched her mind further, pulling at the fragments of memory after Ignis had caught her, stopping her attempt to escape.
But his intention hadn’t been to stop her from fleeing, had it?
As soon as he wrapped his arms around her, he’d held her close. Tight. Blocking her blows and pinning her to his chest. And he’d not even wanted to contain her for his own sake. His own interests.
He’d done it to protect her.
Visions of Ignis’s flames engulfing her, wrapping around both their bodies and forming a protective shield. The feel of his chest rising and falling against her back in rapid succession, matching her own labored breaths as the flames reduced the oxygen in their safe area, causing Clea to pass out.
She thought of the way he’d reacted to the Quadra’s revelation that it had dosed Clea with fertility hormones. Ignis had been enraged. At the time, Clea had thought he was being an over-controlling asshole.
But maybe, just maybe, he was angry at the way the Quadra had treated Clea. Altering her body without her consent.
Maybe there was more beneath the Ardan’s surface than she’d given him credit for.
“Fine,” she said. “I will give him the benefit of my doubt.”
“Good!” said Samantha, sagging against the chair back.
“But hear me now: it is a narrow margin,” said Clea, gesturing with her hands, her finger and thumb a centimeter apart. “I still think he is a hot head. And an asshole. And I’m by no means thrilled at the idea of being someone’s property–”
“None of us are,” interjected Samantha.
Clea waved her hand dismissively, her brows creased deeply in irritation at the woman’s interruption. “But – and I cannot emphasis how heavy if a but this is – I will try.”
“That’s all I’m asking.”
“No, what you’re asking for is for me to happily get knocked up with a little flame baby.”
“Take it how you want to take it, Clea.” Samantha tapped her fingers on the metal tabletop, her eyes squinting and staring off at nothing. “I’ve already told you – I don’t want any more women getting pregnant on this station. The only thing I want,” she cut her eyes up, locking her gaze on Clea’s, “the only thing I need is for you to help with this plan.”
The women stared at one another for a long while, neither breaking the tension-filled stare.
“Why me?” Clea asked suddenly, her heart slamming in her chest. “Why am I so important in this?”
“You’re not,” Samantha said bluntly. “No more than any other woman on the Hub. We are all equally important in this endeavor. We all have a part to play. But–” she said pointedly, “of all the women on this station, you have the unique talent of knowing some form of defense.”
“Hapkido can also be used for offensive measures.”
It was Samantha’s turn to wave her hand dismissively. “I want the women to get safely to the Transport and Administration Sector when the time comes. I don’t need them fighting.”
Clea shrugged. “Alright.”
Samantha nodded. Then she asked, “Are you willing to train them all?”
“I would hardly call a walk around the Rim a training session… let alone trying to train someone stealthily, and only ever seeing the woman once.”
“Think about it though, Clea,” Samantha urged. She lifted her arm and tapped the face of the watch on her wrist. “It takes about two hours to walk the Rim. That is two hours to swap information and squeeze in plenty of practice in basic defensive maneuvers.”
And offensive maneuvers, Clea thought passionately. Protecting ourselves is the only thing that is going to make this plan work, and running and blocking aren’t protection. They’re avoidance.
Out loud, she said, “I will give it a shot.”
“Good,” Samantha said. “You’ll be surprised how eager so many of the women are to get things underway.”
The sight of the women from the Entertainment Sector chained to one another in sequined outfits flashed through Clea’s mind. “I can believe it.”
“Now,” Samantha said, her voice dropping low. “While we have the time and the opportunity, we need to put our heads together and solve a few things.”
Finally, something not relative to mating.
“What are you thinking?” asked Clea.
“Munitions.”
Clea frowned. “I thought you said you didn’t want us on the offensive.”
“Not all of us,” said Samantha. “A lot of these women… they’ve been through a lot. Even here in the Breeding Sector. If we put guns in their hands… I’m not confident they would have the ultimate goal in mind.”
“You think they would be so eager to take revenge that they would give up a chance to get back home?”
“I do,” Samantha said confidently. “There are few women I have spoken to who have voiced their desire to murder their owners. Or the many, many patrons who go to the Entertainment Sector. Most of the women may be weak, may be dead inside. But anger is a fire that burns brightly in even the darkest of minds. The coldest of hearts.”
Clea shuddered, thinking of Ignis. Samantha’s words could easily be applied to the Ardan. Is he so angry because he is… hurt?
Clea blinked, the thought stunning her for a moment.
She’d always assumed Ignis was full of rage and anger because of who he was. An alien created from fire was bound to be aggressive, right? But maybe not. Maybe he had some other reason for his fury.
I said I would give him the benefit of doubt.
She shook her head, drawing her focus back to the red-eyed pregnant woman. “Okay. So, no guns for the masses. But who would be your select few?”
“We’ll worry about that later,” said Samantha. “Me. You. A few others. But the details will come later. No point in planning who they’ll go to if we can’t lay hands on the weapons in the first place.”
“Understood.” Clea drew in a sharp breath, steadying herself. Relief had flooded through her body when Samantha said she would be one of the ones chosen to wield a weapon, and that realization both stunned and soothed her. But the woman with the glowing stomach was right; they needed to figure out how to get weapons in the first place, or Clea had no security net to fall back on when the time came.
“Do you have any leads?”
Samantha put one of her fingers in her mouth, chewing on the already stubbed nail. She shook her head, dejected. “None. But I am confident something will come along soon.”
“That is a strange thing to leave to confidence…”
“Yes, but I can’t really do anything but wait.”
Clea had nothing to say. Waiting until all the pieces of her little puzzle just fell into her lap seemed like a stupid idea to Clea, but who was she to judge? At least Samantha was concerned about getting everyone off the station. Though Clea hated to admit it, she had been thinking only of herself when she fled the auction stage. There had been no room in her mind or heart to think about the women at her back.
She straightened up in her chair.
Just because she panicked at first didn’t mean she would still focus only on herself. If the red-eyed woman had a plan – no matter how convoluted and disjointed – Clea was down.
But she’d be damned if she put her attention and heart into something half-assed.
‘Wait until something comes up’ my ass…
Clea didn’t quite know how yet, but she would find a way to disc
over where the Cephs kept their weapons. Better yet, she would find a way to break in and steal the required amount, when the time came. But she didn’t tell Samantha any of this.
“What else?” Clea asked.
Samantha had been staring off into space. Literally. The stars glittered just beyond the clear wall that made up one entire side of Ignis and Clea’s room.
“Hmm?” she asked, still chewing pensively at her nail.
“What else is in this plan of yours? Munitions and women who are aware and can fight. Well, defend themselves. But that can’t be it.”
“It’s not.”
Clea gave a short laugh, trying not to be frustrated with the pregnant woman.
Ignis isn’t the only one who needs to control his temper.
“So what else is there?”
Samantha clasped her hands in her lap, her shoulders slumping and face drooping, as if just thinking of all that still needed to be done fatigued her.
“We need to find someone who might be able to pilot one of the transport vessels.”
“I don’t think just one will hold everyone…” Clea thought back to the hundreds of women who had queued up for the long walk around the Rim.
“Fuck,” Samantha said with a groan, rubbing her face with both hands vigorously. “Okay. So, we find a few women who might be able to pilot a spaceship. Then we secure guns for those among us who we trust to fight and not seek revenge.”
Clea nodded her head as the woman spoke, more out of encouragement than agreement. The plan could be refined, that was obvious, but she wanted Samantha to keep talking. The pregnant woman had already gone over all of this before. Clea wanted to know what else she had already figured out.
“Then, when the Ceph guards line us up to go to one of the walks for the Rim, we make a break for it.”
Clea blinked at Samantha. “Are you serious?”
The woman nodded vigorously. “The guards always line the breeders up first, and the entertainers have to cross the core to come to our sector to queue up.”
“But–”
“If we time it just right,” Samantha interrupted, her words tumbling out of her mouth in a rapid jumble, “we can give the signal right when the women from the Entertainment Sector are crossing the core. That way, we can all have an equal distance to travel get to the Transportation and Administration Sector and board the ships.”