by Stella Cassy
Either my friends and I had been abducted by aliens, or they were some sort of robot. No animal could mimic speech that well, except maybe a parrot, but even they couldn't hold full conversations.
They led me into a large room full of cages. My mouth dropped, and I clapped my hand over my nose. The smell was atrocious. I'd smelled it before, in the morgue. Death. The ripe smell of bodies. Somewhere in this room, something was dead and rotting.
I gagged, bending at the waist, only to get a zap to my ass for it. Swallowing the bile, I surged forward. I was being corralled toward an empty cage. "Where are my friends?" I asked desperately. "Where are they?" I all but screamed my questions.
"I'm here!" I heard Carrie's voice, then Anita's. My other friend, Sarah, shouted her presence as well.
"Where's Diane?" I yelled.
The furries zapped me several times, I assumed for speaking.
"I don't know," a pitiful voice replied. It sounded like Sarah. Diane never replied.
"What did you do with Diane?" I asked fiercely, far more confident than I felt. If she wasn't replying, it couldn't be for a good reason.
Another zap was my answer, propelling me toward a cage not even tall enough for me to stand up in. I put my hands on either side of the door, resisting as hard as I could. Eventually, they tired of my pitiful attempts and the voltage must've been upped. The next thing I knew, I was on my stomach, face down on the cold metal bars that lined the cage on all sides, twitching.
The cage moved, lifted into the air by... nothing discernable. I was floating. I tried to scream, but no sound came out of my mouth. Finally, I squeaked, then sucked in another deep breath. I still couldn't move my body. The cage was lifted high enough for one of the assholes to walk underneath and put a silver collar through the bars, maneuvering it around my neck and clasping it together with a click. I gasped as his words were suddenly in English and crystal clear.
"Shut up, slave. You have no rights here. Get used to it."
Slave. The word thrummed in my brain on repeat as the cage moved toward an open bay door. Outside the door, a dim day met me, but I barely noticed. All I saw were the cages that lined the bay, each containing one person. Some were women like me, but there were also men and other humanoid creatures of varying scariness. I saw scales and talons and feathers and what looked suspiciously like a cockroach.
My reality blurred as my body recovered from the voltage. The medical knowledge in my brain told me I was in shock, but the panic told me I was going to be raped and murdered. I was either kidnapped in an elaborate scheme to be sold as a sex slave to men far too rich, or I was about to be hunted like in a horror flick.
One worry I didn't have was that I was hallucinating.
This was real. I'd never had a dream even half as vivid as the reality around me. My mind cracked under the strain of the creatures in the cages surrounding me. I had no idea how much time passed as I lay on the hard bars. I felt the large vehicle the cages had been placed on begin to move, felt the wind flow over my body. Eventually, raindrops fell, reminding me I really wasn't wearing very much in the way of clothing. A black slip dress covered me—at least I hoped it covered my ass. I tried moving again to see if I could and found I was at least able to roll over.
Facing upward was worse, though, as it put my face in the direct path of the rain. I groaned and flopped on my side, reaching weakly to tug my short dress down.
At least I was covered.
I'd lost my heels somewhere along the way, so no shoes. Even if I'd had them, I couldn't have run far. Escape seemed impossible barefoot.
The gray sky tormented me. It hadn't been an hour since we'd been taken from the street outside our apartment building. It should be pitch black outside. How?
I looked in the cages nearest me. We'd been loaded with several feet between us, presumably, so we couldn't touch each other.
To my left, I was delighted to find Callie. It was a stroke of luck we'd been loaded together, as there had to be fifty cages on the platform. We were riding on a dusty road.
"Callie," I hissed. "Do you know where we are?"
She shook her head and crawled closer to the bars. "This isn't real, Leti."
"Oh, Cal, I think it is. Think about it. Have you ever dreamed this vividly?"
Her eyes widened as she stared at me. "You're right."
"What I don't understand," I whispered conspiratorially, "Is that we left the club less than an hour ago and it was what, two am? How is it daytime now? How far away are we?"
"Leti, we've been gone for nearly a week," she said sadly.
"What? How?" I didn't remember any time passing at all.
"We were in that room for a really long time. Don't you remember?"
The fog surrounding my brain cleared a bit, and the memories of the last several days rushed in. "I do remember," I said softly. "I wish I didn't."
"Well, brace yourself, slave," a cruel voice said from behind me. I turned as quickly as I could to see another small white asshole behind me. "The best is yet to come."
We sat on the truck for hours as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. One by one, the cages were removed from the truck. We watched in horror as our friends were taken away.
"It's got to be a slave auction," I whispered to Callie as our time neared.
Without warning, Callie's cage was lifted by an invisible force. Tears streaked down my face as I waved sadly at her, broken-hearted for what she was about to face and dreading my own turn.
By the time my cage lifted into the air and floated around the side of a crudely built building, the tears flowed freely. I pressed myself against the back of the cage, overwhelmed as the scene in front of me unfolded. An enormous crowd roared in front of me. Creatures of all shapes and sizes, all colors and builds faced me and cheered. It was a madhouse, absolutely the most terrifying thing I’d ever seen in my life.
I understood much of what they're yelling, somehow. I'd been able to understand my captors since they'd put the crude metal collar on me. It must have had some sort of advanced language filter on it. It made no sense.
That sort of shit was only on tv shows. Not real life.
Yet this was real life, I was sure of it. There was no way my imagination was creative enough to dream this torture up. I’d researched all manner of hallucinogenic drugs in my studies and nothing compared to this.
An auctioneer stepped forward. "We've got a delectable prize here. Preliminary scans show she's a breeder, though further testing is necessary to be sure."
A breeder? What in ever-loving hell was I going to do? That could only mean one thing.
"I'll start the bid at a hundred credits."
Everything went really fast then, and some languages flew past I still couldn't understand, though the auctioneer obviously did. He negotiated furiously with several creatures up front, but in the end someone in the back of the crowd won.
It was over in minutes. An enormous orange beast stepped forward. He had a huge belly and what looked like slime covering his whole body. His many eyes were trained on me. "It's my lucky solar," he rasped.
That was all I could take. My stomach lurched, and all the blood rushed from my head. I knew I was going to pass out. I'd passed out one time before, in medical school, the first time I had to cut open a cadaver.
It had gotten easier, but I recognized the signs, so I sat down until the lights went out.
The first thing to penetrate my black mind was cold. My fingers and toes cramped and tingled. Soon I realized I was curled up on a hard surface, goosebumps covering my skin. I wasn't cold enough to put me in danger, but I was definitely cold enough to make me intensely uncomfortable.
I cracked my eyes open, hoping the events of the last several days had indeed been a nightmare, though I was sure they weren't. If they had been, I would've been waking up in my bed, covered in a thick purple comforter with my fan on in the corner.
No such luck. There was no fan in the corner, and definitely no comforter
. I was on a brown table, made of some sort of wood, in the middle of a room full of tables and chairs.
From my vantage point, I could see a connected kitchen, but it was closed off by a black metal gate. I looked around slowly, moving as little as possible. If someone was in the room with me, I didn't want them to know I was awake until I knew what my situation was.
When I heard no noise for several minutes, I risked moving my legs. They were cramping from being in the same position for so long.
Nobody grabbed me or yelled out, so I sat up, my long black hair falling down around my shoulders. I fought a moan as my unused muscles rejected movement after so long. When had I passed out? The last thing I remembered was the huge, slimy orange alien coming for me.
Ugh, gross.
I was still in my party dress, still no shoes. I needed to eat in the worst way. Hunger clawed at my insides, almost doubling me over. If I didn't eat and drink something soon I would grow too weak to have any hope of defending myself against the disgusting aliens.
Inspecting the gate proved fruitless. It was locked into the wall on both sides, bolts going into the metal of the wall and no discernable way to open it without tools. There had to be a way to get in, but I didn't know what it was.
If there was food there, I couldn't get to it.
The sound of a door closing alerted me to the fact that someone had been in there with me. At least, they'd opened the door. A small bar and a packet sat on the floor just inside the door. I rushed over and studied them.
The bar looked like a super-condensed granola bar, similar to the ones the other aliens had fed me. The other bars had very little taste, so I broke a piece off and crammed it into my mouth, then nearly spat it back out. It tasted like snot.
Forcing my jaw to work, I managed to choke it down. The packet was a small pouch of water, similar to the ones I'd seen before, so I ripped it open and swallowed the contents. I felt much better having both in my stomach, but I didn't know if I could eat the rest of the bar.
Turned out I could. I waited as long as I could but had no way to count the passage of time. It felt like days but probably was just hours. Eventually, I held my breath and tried to swallow a small piece of the bar whole. I managed to break off a piece about the size of a pain pill. I'd swallowed those whole and without water plenty as a teen, surely I could do it with the snot-food.
It went down dry and scratchy, nearly choking me to death, but I got it down. Once again I waited as long as I could, then forced another piece down. This went on for what I guesstimated was three days, that small bar of food sustaining me. It must've been packed with nutrients because I never weakened or felt like I was being starved. If I'd been able to eat it all at once I probably would've felt as full as if I'd eaten a full holiday meal back home.
3
Illion
Staring at the folder did me no good, except for increasing my anticipation and nervous energy.
The Hielsrane were only one family line of many from the home planet of Thirren, but aside from the Royal family, we were the largest and most influential. Some might argue that we were more influential than the Royal family itself, especially considering there were many Hielsrane married into the royal line.
When the time came to save our planet, our honor dictated that the Hielsrane family be instrumental in not only the battle to remove the Pax invasion but in the rebuilding effort.
I'd earned my participation in the rebuilding missions with my knack for predicting the Pax's moves on the battlefield. I didn’t find my way onto the elements missions by being born into wealth like Rethryn. If I became as respected as my uncle Lehar, it would be by my own merits, not by buying my way onto a team.
The dossier sat on the table in front of me as the crew prepared us for takeoff. They shot me furtive glances, occasionally thumping their caudals. “Get us off the ground, and I can find out what we’re going after and where to,” I exclaimed.
My crew buckled in, most of the work of lifting off done by the ship itself. They knew their positions, keeping a check on every electrical and mechanical facet of the ship. Finally, the computer’s smooth voice confirmed what I was sure I’d felt. “Captain, liftoff achieved.”
As soon as I confirmed it, I ripped the outer envelope of the information packet off with my claw.
Water. We were going after water. The active volcanoes gave us incredible fertility for farming, but at a terrible cost. The water was contaminated. Entire cities were razed to the ground, chemicals and debris further polluting the water.
I’d known water would be on the list of needed elements, no question of it. We’d filtered water for our immediate needs, but there wasn’t enough time to treat all the water we needed for our crops. There were so many aquatic planets, one of them would be willing to share or barter.
The papers indicated we were headed for Coovoo. My uncle Lehar had told me about the rebellion there, and I hoped they didn’t still hold a grudge.
The crew provided by the royal family knew what they were doing, and our trip was smooth at first.
A couple of rotations into our journey to Coovoo, we were all shocked to stumble across a broken-down freighter.
"Scans indicate a half dozen life forms on board," my lieutenant announced as we stared in shock at the ship on our screen. Our own vessel was too small to take the ship on, but we certainly intended to raid it and make a small profit from its contents. Everyone’s surprise turned quickly to cheer as we prepared to raid the vessel.
We only had six warriors on board, but I had no doubt we would be able to gain the upper hand quickly. We were Hielsrane after all. "Move, men," I shouted, spurring my crew into motion. We soon had the freighter held immobile in our tractor beam and drew it toward our slightly larger ship. While we couldn't bring it on board, we could get it close enough to board and remove anything of value.
"Four of the six life forms are waiting just inside the loading door to the freighter," my lieutenant reported. "They're going to attempt to ambush us.”
"Open their bay door and send a single droid in to take them out," I commanded.
"Yes, sir."
I watched on the screen as the door opened. A little robot scuttled across the bay from our ship to theirs. Lieutenant Chase switched on the camera on the back of the machine so we could watch the events unfold.
The tiny terror got off one shot before they realized he was there, killing one of the creatures, who we now saw were enormous and orange.
"Ugh," I muttered. "Blimburgs. Nasty creatures."
Chase nodded. "They're scavengers of the lowest honor."
“They don’t even train warriors,” I said in distaste. “They’ll be ridiculously easy to defeat.” Bottom feeders, every last one of them. They tended to land on a destitute planet once the real fighting had stopped and scavenge for leftover parts or food. They loved space wreckage. In a pinch, they could live off of the nutrients in dirt and soils. I wondered what they were doing in this part of the galaxy.
The droid scuttled too fast for any of the large creatures to get a shot off at it, and it managed to hit each of them once. Unfortunately, that only slowed them down. They were down, but not for long. I jumped up from my captain's chair and lead the charge. "For Thirren," I shouted, excited to be back in battle again. In the time it took us to reach the freighter, they were on their feet, considerably worse for wear.
My dragon screamed for release, but the Blimburg ship was too small to allow him out to play, so I held him back and swung my claws as I jumped into the hatch of the Blimburgs' ship. They had knives as if a small blade could pierce my hide on the worst day. I laughed as we fought, quickly overwhelming the slimy creatures. They didn’t dare fire their weapons in such close quarters.
We would have achieved our victory far sooner if not for the small quarters we had to spar in. Only Chase and I fit in the room with the smelly Blimburgs, but even so, we made quick work of them with only a few scratches to show for it. I’d been hop
ing for at least one scar to boast about back on Thirren.
"If you have any treasures on board, turn them over them immediately," I demanded of their captain.
He shook his head. "We just unloaded and were headed back out when our ship broke down." His head was bowed in submission. He had to have known he’d barely escaped with his life.
"Captain." One of my crew ran up from deep within the ship. "We subdued the remaining crew member, but there's something below you'll want to see."
"Take him to the holding cells," I said, pointing at the only Blimburg left alive. "He can go to the slave pits on Thirren." Returning with a slave was a boon. They were always a welcome addition to our workers, and he would end up better off than if any other principality had found him. Slaves on Thirren were treated better than on any other planet.
I peered around curiously as we walked to the lower level of the small vessel, but there was really nothing of note to see. "Search the ship thoroughly before we leave." The ship was comprised of a large cargo area, several cabins, a medibay, and the command center.
"Yes, sir."
He led me to the last door on the lowest level, revealing a prize far beyond anything I could’ve dreamed of. A raven-haired beauty in a slave collar stood in the back corner of the room. "A human!" I exclaimed. If I didn’t establish dominance, they might try to claim her for themselves. I would have to be hard and strong to demonstrate I knew how to deal with a pitiful human creature.
"Stand back, crew, I know how to deal with such a novelty." I walked proudly toward her. “Fear not, human. I know all about your kind.” I’d met my Uncle’s wife several times. She was hardly anything to fear.
4
Leti
After a few days – at least I was pretty sure it was a few days – a commotion overhead had me cowering. I’d never thought of myself as timid, but waking up on another ship had done me in. I backed myself into the corner of the room, making myself as small as I could.