by Maia Starr
“God, it’s about time,” Samantha said once we saw the boardwalk. “Let’s go. I want to be set up before Donny comes.”
“I thought you were seeing Bill!”
“No, he’s kind of a lightweight. Donny’s a lot more mature.”
I raised my eyebrow but said nothing. Sam’s definition of mature and mine were clearly much different. But I couldn’t judge her. After all, everybody had different priorities, right?
“This is the perfect spot. Look, isn’t it a good thing we’re early?” Samantha exclaimed, beaming proudly out at the ocean.
“The party isn’t even going to start for another two hours,” I sighed, letting the heavy bags fall from my shoulder.
“So we can scope out some nice turf, then!”
“Right…”
Sam and I began to arrange our blankets and set up the umbrellas. Still, it all felt a bit ridiculous to me. The entire beach was deserted. I had never seen it so dead in my life. It was almost a little spooky.
I decided to preoccupy myself with lathering my body with strong sunscreen. If I was going to spend two joyless hours at the beach with my twin, I might as well avoid getting a sunburn.
“Fuck!” Samantha suddenly exclaimed. “It better not be about to rain.”
I frowned and looked up at her, surprised by the dark cloud that had suddenly formed in the sky.
“It’s supposed to be clear all day,” I said. “You know the Vellreq’s meteorological technology is always right.”
“Well, then what’s with the clouds?” Samantha asked, frowning.
“I don’t know…”
I squinted up into the sky, and my blood turned to ice.
“Sam…run.”
“What?”
“Run!”
I took off, and didn’t wait for my sister to follow.
“They spotted us!” a disjointed voice said from behind me. I groaned. The translation device I had bought online had been refurbished and was always giving me trouble. Everything anyone said in another language was translated far too slowly for my taste, and often I missed entire chunks of dialogue altogether. That’s what I got for being a cheapskate.
“Got you!”
I cried out in terror when a large, strong being grabbed my shoulders from behind and whipped me around so that I was suddenly facing the direction I had come from. I couldn’t see my captor, but an icy liquid was being injected into my neck. I searched the sprawling beach frantically for my sister, but to my dismay, it was empty.
“You’re going to have to come with me,” the voice said. And before I could reply, I sank into a deep sleep.
***
I woke up with a start, my lips and throat dry and my eyes straining to make out any images in the darkness of the room I was in. But it was impossible for my gaze to focus on anything because the space I found myself in was pitch black.
“What’s going on?” a panicked woman’s voice said from across the room. “I need to get to work.”
The room suddenly came alive with the murmurs of what sounded like a thousand women.
“Samantha!” I cried out. But the buzz of women’s voices deafened my calls for my sister, and all of us were suddenly drowned out by the blare of a speaker above our heads.
“Females of Earth,” the voice said.
I was involuntarily filled with warmth and closed my eyes to imagine what kind of being might have a voice like this. It was a calm, tranquil voice; the kind of voice I would have paid to listen to on an audiobook, with just the right amount of masculine timbre. Whoever he was sounded kind, although I knew I couldn’t trust my instincts about this. Kind beings didn’t kidnap hundreds of women without warning. My heart thudded when the voice began to speak again.
“Please remain calm. It has come to our attention that Earth is in danger. We are evacuating choice women for an opportunity to carry on the greatest qualities of your species. I am sorry for the inconvenience.”
I was pulled out of my strange infatuation with the voice by a seed of panic sprouting in my breast. Was that guy implying that Earth was going to be destroyed? Was it the Vellreq? I should have known! I was so close to the breakthrough in my investigation. Why had I let Sam talk me into going to the beach? I could be on Earth warning everybody right now!
Panic welled up in the room, and soon the women around me were shrieking and crying hysterically. It seemed the message had the opposite of its intended effect to keep us calm.
The speaker suddenly buzzed again, and the same voice returned. I was growing very fond of it despite myself. It had a pleasant lyrical quality that made me want to sing or fall asleep or something. I felt like I could listen to it all day.
“Females of Earth, please remain calm. We are doing our best to prevent disaster from befalling your planet. However, your cooperation will be required in efforts to repopulate the planet Jenal’k. With your compliance will come a greater effort to help humankind, despite the obvious dangers your race poses to the universe. Please understand that your journey to the planet Jenal’k and interaction with the Thressl’n race is a privilege, not a curse, and do your best to enjoy your stay.”
The voice was silent for a moment, before finally adding, “Thank you,” and clicking the speaker off.
“Who the hell thought it was a good idea to start contacting aliens again?” one woman exclaimed. “Look at where that curiosity got us. Can’t people just be happy with what we have? Stick to what we know? Curiosity killed the cat. And now it’s going to kill us, too.”
“They might not kill us,” another woman said hopefully. “They said they need us. That means they want us alive.”
“They need us to repopulate some barren planet!” another woman shouted. “Didn’t you hear what he said? We’re going to be bred like cattle! Don’t you people understand anything?”
I was quiet during the whole conversation, the journalist in me already taking notes of the high tensions and memorable phrases so that if the time came, I would be ready to share this unbelievable experience with others. I was introverted by nature as a way to observe others, which might explain my choice in career.
But if what this mysterious race of people was saying was true, then it was possible that there wouldn’t be many others left for me to share my experiences with. In fact, if my sister hadn’t been picked up by one of these ships, then I would lose the only family I had left and be alone on a foreign planet for the rest of my life.
“Samantha, you better be all right,” I whispered to myself. Sam and I had always thought that twin ESP was a made up thing, but at that moment, I would have given anything for it to be real. I squeezed my eyes closed and did my best to send messages to my sister and hope for something, anything, to hint to me that she was all right. It was worth a shot.
***
It was days before I was able to see anything, and every once in a while that strangely soothing voice would check in on us or calm us down when the women were panicking. Whenever we weren’t calm after the voice spoke to us, the room would fill with a dark fog and soon we would be unconscious.
I dreaded those times. Every alien movie I had ever seen showed that during times of helplessness was when the alien races did tests on the less suspecting. Being poked, prodded, and experimented on wasn’t really on my bucket list. I don’t think it was on anyone else’s either, because the other women trapped with me were surprisingly compliant. It could have been that our throats were too dry to waste energy protesting, despite the IV of fluids that was being fed into us. Who knew what else was in those bags?
“Females of Earth, we are about to arrive on the Planet Jenal’k. Please remain calm. You are the first humans ever to enter this planet. More ships with other females are on the way. Do your people proud and show the Thressl’n that not all humans are destructive creatures. I believe in you.”
My heart jolted, a combination of appreciation for the man doing the announcements and fear at the thought of leaving the comfort of
our dark captivity. At least on the ship, we knew what was going on for the most part. It was almost comforting, in a way, never to have to face our captors or accept reality. What was going to happen when that was taken away from us?
Turbulence suddenly shook the craft, and the women around me whimpered and cried out in fear. I squeezed my eyes closed, my twin center stage in my mind. She had always hated flying. Sam would be near hysteria right now. The turbulence lasted a long time, and then, abruptly, the craft became still.
Nothing happened for a few moments, and then the doorway hissed open, allowing a blinding stream of light to flow inside. After days in the darkness, the light was unwelcome and painful.
A shadow interfered with its beam, and a man stepped forward. I couldn’t see him fully because of the backlight, but already I knew that he was different. I had met a Vellreq before, but they were gruff and intimidating looking, with grating voices and cold eyes.
This man was the opposite. His skin was a dark teal, and his eyes seemed expressive and kind. I was shocked by how handsome he was, and somehow knew without knowing that he was the kind man who made the announcements.
“Females of Earth,” he said, his beautiful voice washing over us in person for the first time. My heart thumped hard in my chest as he stepped inside the dark room. “We have arrived.”
***
“Order!”
The handsome Thressl’n man had disappeared from the doorway and had been replaced by a much shorter, more impatient man with a deep frown on his face.
“We will release you one by one, and I expect full compliance! When you feel your restraints loosen, stand up beside your bed and wait to be summoned.”
Now that the little room was filled with light, I scanned the area for any sign of my sister. But it was still too hard to make anybody out, and I sighed in frustration.
“Single file lines, please! Do not push or shove each other, females. There are consequences on Jenal’k for bad behavior.”
The thought of being punished on another planet was chilling. What kind of punishments would be inflicted on us by a race who thought abducting women against their will was all right? I had feared my freedom many times, thinking I might be jailed for putting my nose where it didn’t belong throughout the course of my career. But even the thought of spending the rest of my life in a foreign country’s prison system was nothing like this terror.
It seemed best just to do as they told us, and I almost cried in relief when the restraints around my arms were released and I could stand from the uncomfortable bed I had been bound to for the past few days.
“Everybody’s doing great!” the comforting voice boomed above the chaos. I could vaguely make him out; he was standing behind the little man, who was really enjoying the process of rounding up humans like cattle, a wry expression on his face as he watched the hectic scene unfold.
“That’s it, through the corridor here and down the ramp. We will accommodate you in the camps.”
Word of a camp brought all the women to muttering. What kind of camps? What was going to happen to us? How were they going to expect us to pay our debt to Thressl’n society after oh so valiantly rescuing us from ourselves? We owed them nothing! What was going to happen next?
“Silence! Did you not hear that there will be punishments for non-compliance?” the little man exclaimed.
“Peace, Jenar’d; the Earth females are frightened. As you would be in such a situation.”
The kindness in the man’s voice warmed me. It was nice to know that, if nothing else, there was somebody like this to look out for us. But I had to get a hold of myself. There was no good to come in developing a crush on a man from an alien race responsible for my abduction.
The little man looked glumly at the ground.
“Apologies, Commander Wyl’es.”
“It is forgiven,” the taller man said kindly. He then turned his attention back to us. “Now if I may have your attention, you will follow me through the corridor and onto the planet Jenal’k. Here, we will take account of all Earth females and assign you to camps, where further instructions await you. Your cooperation is both highly advised and appreciated.”
It was strange how fluent these beings were in our tongue. Thankfully, I didn’t have to use my broken translator at all. Still, the way they delivered the words didn’t seem quite right. Like there was something missing in their grasp of the language. It just didn’t sound quite…human.
The crowd of women was escorted off the ship by the Commander and Jenar’d, and although I was burning with curiosity about the conditions on the planet Jenal’k, once my feet left the ship, a wave of terror swept through me.
And I wasn’t the only one. I could tell by the faces of my fellow Earthlings that this was probably one of the most horrifying and surreal experiences of their lives, and we were all sharing it. I doubted the Thressl’n men understood just how high tensions were. They were strolling beside us, chatting lightly in their native tongue. I caught bits and pieces of the conversation; it was frightfully dull. They clearly weren’t great friends.
The handsome Commander caught me glancing at them as I eavesdropped, and the electricity crackled between us. His eyes were so unlike human eyes; the colors were all wrong. They were a metallic gray color, hard in a way, as if he had seen and done things I couldn’t imagine. It scared me a little. And yet, I couldn’t help but be thrilled by his gaze.
“I’m not going in there!” the first woman in line shrieked. The slow pace of the line came to a halt as more and more women began shouting their protests as we neared an imposing group of cloth buildings.
Before I could even register what was happening, chaos unfolded all around me.
“Order!” Jenar’d exclaimed.
But it was futile. The women were stampeding, running in all directions and shouting. Welcome signs had been posted outside the huge tents, and they were quickly on the ground, tattered and stomped on by all manners of women’s shoes.
I knew I probably should have been afraid, or angry and rioting alongside them, but all I really wished, more than anything in the world, was that I had my camera.
The thought was suddenly brushed away when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw her.
“Sam!”
I whipped around and called her name again. We caught each other’s eye for a brief moment, and then once again, my twin was lost in the crowd and I was alone.
***
“You Earthlings are going to pay for the damages you caused!”
We were silent in our beds, all eyes on the Thressl’n woman who was marching down the rows of the dormitory-style layout of the first tent. Her skin was light blue, and her eyes were a hard metallic purple. She looked like she had never smiled a day in her life.
“You are going to be on extra work duty in the camp until you have learned your lesson. You may even be withheld from meeting eligible Thressl’n men. You’ll just be forced to live and work in the camps until you grow old and die!”
Her voice rose harshly, and we flinched. The idea of living in this cramped tent was less than appealing, though I don’t know why any of us would even want to meet eligible Thressl’n bachelors. The tents were huge and vast, but it still didn’t seem like a lot of room for a hundred women to coexist indefinitely.
Still, many of the women who had been with us initially had been separated from us. After the riot had been quelled by brute Thressl’n forces, several of us had been assigned to this camp, while others, after disappearing for hours and being searched for, were being returned to another camp further down the mountain upon discovery. Sam was in that camp.
Or she would be eventually, if she hadn’t been found yet. God, I hoped she was all right. I don’t know what I would do with myself on this strange planet if I didn’t have my sister with me.
“It may be acceptable to destroy property on your own planet, but you are guests here, and we expect you to behave with courtesy!”
The Thressl’n
woman left the tent on that note and was replaced by a much smaller, softer-seeming woman. Still, just like all the other Thressl’n, the woman was densely muscled and looked as if she could break us in half if she had any inclination to do so.
She bowed deeply at us and fixed a comforting smile on her face. I liked her more than the first woman immediately.
“Meal times will be every three to five rotations, depending on the day. Some holidays require more meal services than others, and you will be treated with the same honors as everybody else. It has recently come to our attention that constant access to water may make your kind less volatile, and a fountain will be installed in just a few moments. Please bear with the noise and try to get some rest. We have a long road ahead of us.”
She bowed deeply at us once again, and left us in the tent in silence.
Chapter 2
Chaz’z Wyl’es (Commander of the Fleet)
“Give me the status of the females,” I demanded into my communications device.
“We’re still missing one.”
“Just one?” I sighed. It would be difficult; the suns were beginning to set, leaving the planet in darkness. The Thressl’n had a unique handicap in the dark, as we primarily received our sustenance from the suns. Our eyes were good, but in the dark, if we weren’t wearing special glasses, then our field of vision would suffer. It made navigation in space difficult, but as Commander of the Fleet, I had been given a specialized surgery that improved my night vision.
“Just one.”
“Do you know what she looks like?” I asked.
“Human?” Jenar’d said incredulously. I glowered. Many of the Thressl’n liked to joke that all humans looked the same, but I had just discovered how untrue that could be.
My mind wandered back to the female I had locked eyes with during the march to the camps, and my hearts thudded. The fact was that I had never seen anybody so beautiful before. Thressl’n women had their own charm, it was true, but I had never wanted to settle down and mate with any of them.