by Mara Frost
“Cease with your banging. You are being irksome. You will injure yourself.”
“Injure myself? For some reason I feel like my safety is the least of your concerns, ” I reply evenly as I stare him down, assessing him, never taking my eyes off of him.
He takes another step into the room towards me. I take a quick step back. No need to get too close to the giant alien linebacker.
“Actually, you are incorrect. Your safety is my highest priority.”
At this I pause and eye him skeptically. Okay, now that’s a little unexpected.
“Why is my safety your...highest priority? I feel that if you cared about my safety then you wouldn’t have kidnapped me in the first place.”
He keeps coming towards me and I keep walking backwards blindly going deeper into the room.
“Or perhaps it’s because I abducted you that your safety is my priority?” he counters.
I hit a wall.
No, literally, I walk into a wall and I have nowhere else to go.
He continues to walk towards me until he’s less than a foot away. My breath catches in my throat. He’s now hovering over me. I can smell his alien scent. It’s a mixture of spicy and earthy and something else that I can’t quite identify, but it’s almost sweet? Again, it’s not awful.
“Why?” I ask slowly.
He reaches over my head with one of his giant cannon arms and leans in until his alien face is only a few inches away from mine. Why is he leaning in so close? What’s happening? And why does he smell so good? And wow! His eyes aren’t actually black, they’re dark violet. I’m going to pee my pants.
I feel lightheaded. Did he just shoot me with another dart?
And then suddenly I’m on my ass.
“What the...?”
I glance down and see that I’m sitting on a bench that came of the wall, a bench that he’s currently strapping me to.
“Hey! What are you doing? Watch it, handsy!” I yell, trying to wiggle my way out of his grasp.
“I am securing you to the chair so you won’t do any damage to yourself or my quarters,” he replies matter of factly.
“I can see that,” I bark back as I yank and pull at the restraints that are attached to the bench.
“And to answer your question, your safety is my highest priority because I get more money for you if you’re whole and healthy.”
At this I stop short. Okay, stop. Rewind.
“I’m sorry, what?”
I couldn’t have heard what I think I just heard. I definitely did not just hear him say something about money and me.
“When it comes time to trade, I will get more money for you if you are unharmed,” he repeats calmly.
Okay, that’s what I thought I heard. Fuck being “less disagreeable”, things just got real.
“What the fuck!! What are you talking about? Trade!? You’re going to trade me for money?! Where? With who!? I don’t understand!” I scream.
I thrash around in my restraints and attempt to kick at him for good measure. Thoughts of being flown to the darkest corners of space only to be given to an even more terrifying alien flash through my mind. For some reason this truly terrifies me - more than being abducted by the blue Terminator.
I yank and pull and tug at the bench. I yell all sorts of obscenities at Big Blue and try to will him to just drop dead where he stands.
It doesn’t work though. Instead, he just stands there and silently watches me throw a hissy fit.
After several minutes of yelling and jerking around futilely, I give in to exhaustion and pause for a minute.
“Are you finished?” he asks ever so evenly.
“You’re an asshole,” I pant between labored breaths.
“I have to say, you humans are interesting with your insults. Do you all have such an abrasive mouth?”
Ignoring his attempts to change the subject, I continue on, “So you’re slave traders?”
“No.”
At this, I snort. “Could have fooled me.”
This unfazes him and he continues. “My business partner and I are businessmen. We are in the business of acquiring rare and hard to come by goods and we trade them to individuals who are willing to pay the highest price for said goods.”
“You’re smugglers.”
He shrugs. “If that’s what you want to call us.”
“Pirates.”
“I’ve never heard this term before, but it sounds correct.”
“Slave traders.”
“No.”
“Then what do you call what you’re doing to me and my friend? Also, where is my friend by the way?”
I don’t want to say that I forgot about her, but...I sort of forgot about her. What? I’ve been a bit preoccupied myself being abducted and locked in a room and all.
“She is well. She’s doing better than you at the moment,” he mumbles under his breath. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s a bit frustrated. Good. Not my problem.
“I want to see her.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
“What? Why not? I want to see her. I want to be with her!”
“Again, not possible. We will be separating shortly and your friend will be –“
Just then an odd beeping sound interrupts him before he can finish. He pauses for a moment and takes a breath in, like he needs to calm himself. He then turns around and walks to the ‘door’ and presses a button on the control panel and the door magically opens.
I really need to see which control he just pressed.
“Yes, what is it, Kaveth?” I hear him ask gruffly.
Curious, I lean over to the side and try to see around his giant body to see who...or what...is at the door.
I see the second alien that was with him on the space station leaning against the doorframe and looking a little flustered as well. He brushes his hand through his thick black hair and his brow is scrunched up.
“Can we trade females? I think mine is broken.”
My ears perk up and my eyebrows rise in alarm. Broken? Oh God, what happened to Jordan. What did they do to her...
My jerky captor shakes his head in a tired and confused way, like he doesn’t want to deal with anything else.
“Broken? What do you mean?”
“She’s not yelling or making those awful noises that she made when we captured them, instead she’s making a different moaning noise and won’t stop. And she’s leaking. All over the place. And it’s making me very uncomfortable. I think she’s damaged. We probably won’t get much for her now.”
Alarm bells go off in my head. Oh God, what happened? ‘Leaking’ doesn’t sound good at all. My heart pounds in my chest as I visualize a grisly scene with Jordan bleeding out somewhere on the ship. Poor Jordan. She didn’t deserve this. What did they do to her?
“You bastards!!” I yell out.
They ignore me and continue on as if I’m not there.
“Have you damaged her?”
“No!” he replies back quickly. “I did nothing! Once I saw she was awake, I stopped by my quarters and her face started leaking profusely and now she won’t stop. And whenever I get close, it gets worse and her breathing becomes erratic.”
Oh. Her face is leaking? Alright then. I instantly relax. It’s just Jordan being Jordan.
Big Blue turns around and looks at me, as if expecting an answer from me.
“What?” I blurt out.
“What is the meaning of this? What is wrong with the other female? Is she self-destructing?”
At this I can’t help but smirk, I wish. Although, perhaps if they think she’s ‘damaged goods’ they’ll take her back to Earth? Maybe I’ll start ‘leaking’ as well then.
“Why does it matter? Besides, what would happen if something was wrong with her? Will you send her back to Earth?” I ask nonchalantly, silently praying that the answer is ‘send her back to Earth and ask for a refund’.
“No. We cannot allow an alien pathogen in the vessel and we
would have to dispose of her out the airlock.”
Alright, so that won’t work.
“She’s crying. She’s just crying,” I snap back quickly. “And maybe having an anxiety attack too.”
Satisfied, he turns back to the new visitor. “She is only crying and having an anxiety attack.” He then pauses and turns back to me, “What is this ‘crying’ and ‘anxiety attack’?”
“It’s not anything you heartless animals would know anything about, but don’t worry it’s not contagious and nothing is wrong with her. It just means she’s sad and she’s afraid...assholes. And the anxiety attack is her freaking out and losing a little bit of control,” I reply dryly. “It just means she has emotions.”
My captor stares at me for a second longer than I feel comfortable with and then replies, “Emotions are overrated, human.” He then turns his attention back to his partner.
Yeup, he’s definitely a Terminator.
His business partner seems relieved and satisfied to hear that his merchandise isn’t broken and makes a motion to leave, but before leaving he gazes into the room and sees me tied up and looking pissed. He smiles.
“I think I’m better off with the leaky female. It looks like you have your hands full.”
“My hands are fine. Go deal with the ‘leaky’ human,” he orders lowly.
His partner chuckles. “Okay, but if you need any help, I–“
The giant alien presses a button on the control panel and shuts the door before the other alien can complete his sentence.
Well, it’s good to see that he’s ray of sunshine to everyone and it’s not just limited to me.
“Your business partner, I take it?”
He nods once in acknowledgment.
I shrug. “He seems nice.”
This catches his attention immediately. He raises an eyebrow in slight surprise. I fight the urge to laugh. I think that’s the most emotion he ever displayed that wasn’t frustration or anger.
“You find him...nice?”
I shrug again. “I don’t know. I didn’t get a real good look at him since I’m, you know, tied up and all, but he seemed more laid back than you. More friendly - if it’s possible for alien criminals to be friendly.”
I’m so full of shit. I have no idea if the other guy is nice. Frankly, I don’t even care. I just care that it’s getting a rise out of the big alien in front of me. That’s all that matters.
“Kaveth doesn’t know when to shut his mouth.”
A name! They have names! An idea suddenly pops up in my head. It’s a far-fetched one, but it might work.
“K-kav..eth? Kaveth is his name? How about you? Do you have a name?” I ask, fighting to keep the anger and tension in my voice in check.
“I do,” he replies curtly, as if already bored with the conversation. I don’t give up so easily though.
“What is it then? I prefer not to say ‘hey you’ every time I want to yell at you for being a dick.”
He eyes me critically for a moment, as if assessing me. His eyes sweep across my body for a brief second and then quickly comes back to my face.
“My name is not important.”
Ah, well played, sir. And he’s right, his name isn’t that important, but I’m trying to build a rapport here, so he needs to work with me a little bit. I need him to see me as a living, breathing person. Good thing I don’t give up that easily.
“Well, that’s fine and all, but my name is Dani, well actually it’s Danielle. I was named after my great grandmother on my dad’s side. I never got to meet her, but apparently she was a little spitfire. She refused to marry and had a job, which was pretty huge back in her day. Anyway, everyone calls me Dani.” I pause for a moment, realizing how nervous I sound. I’m babbling.
“You can call me Dani if you want,” I add slowly. I look up at his stone-like face, hoping to find that a little bit of his hard exterior had been chipped away after hearing about my cute little heartwarming story.
Nothing. Not a lick of emotion. Just a blue emotionless face. Wonderful.
“I have no need to call you anything. We are finished with this conversation.”
I know I haven’t been a very agreeable hostage, but right now I’m really pissed. We have no language barriers, he understands me and I understand him – there’s no excuse for him being such a royal jerk. If he thinks I’m going to allow him to treat me like I’m some exotic product then he has another thing coming.
“I don’t know what you barbarians do where you’re from, but where I’m from we have names and we use those names when acknowledging each other. I think it’s the most basic courtesy you can afford me given that you just kidnapped me and doomed me to a horrible fate that my brain won’t even allow me to fully comprehend.”
He says nothing while I seethe in front of him. I can’t be sure, but I might even have steam coming out of my nose and ears. He just stands there, silent as always, looking constipated and angry. I want to scream. Nothing seems to faze him.
“Don’t struggle too much in your bindings, you will only tire yourself out or hurt yourself. I will be back later with food.” He turns and walks toward the door to leave, but then stops and adds, “human.”
“Garrrr!!!” I scream at him as he walks through the door and leaves.
I continue to scream even after the door has been long shut behind him.
***
Dani
I have no idea how much time has passed. Being in space kind of makes it hard to judge time passing. It certainly doesn’t help that the only thing that I can see out of the single window in the room are a bunch of stars streaking by faster than the speed of light.
Which is actually really freaking cool. But we have since stopped traveling at that speed for a while now, so I’m all turned around. Not that I would ever know which direction Earth was or anything.
While I sat strapped to the bench with nothing else to do but look at my surroundings, I was able to actually get a look of the room. It actually wasn’t all that strange looking. There was obviously a lot of alien tech with alien symbols everywhere, but it pretty much looked like a simple room with a few chairs, a table and an odd chamber with a door. Nothing too strange or scary looking.
The only thing that makes me think that a few hours must have passed is that my stomach is letting me know that it’s empty and hungry, which is actually a welcoming feeling. Since I’ve been on the station I’ve been in a constant state of retching or living in fear of retching so it was a little nice to have my stomach be calm and actually want food in it.
Score one for being kidnapped?
I sigh and look around. They probably have some sort of monitoring system, how else did he know that that I was banging at his door before? So he’s probably monitoring me now – which is a bit of a creepy thought, but whatever. I might as well try to use it to my advantage.
“Hey! Hello? I’m hungry! Didn’t you say that you were going to feed me? You know, food? Sustenance? Because spoiler alert – if humans don’t eat we die! I thought you wanted me to be in tip top shape so you could get lots and lots of money for me! Hello!”
I go on like this for a little bit longer. Just talking to no one in particular in the open room.
“Well there goes that idea,” I mumble to myself.
Just when I open my mouth to do another long monologue about how hungry I am and how important it was for them to feed me, the door/wall opens miraculously and there stands my giant kidnapper.
“There you are,” I say, pasting on the sweetest smile that I can muster.
He grunts in response and walks across the room towards a control panel on the wall. He says nothing.
“Hey, Big Blue, I’m hungry. Did you hear me? Didn’t you say that you would come back with some food?”
He taps at the invisible controls and I hear little chirping noises and he continues to act as if I’m not tied to a chair next to him.
“I don’t know how you aliens operate, but we humans need
food if you want us to survive,” I say dryly. Maybe I’ll just starve to death before he’s able to sell me for money? Hah, that would be sweet justice. I should totally do that.
Just then my stomach twists with a hunger pang and makes a loud noise in protest. Apparently my stomach doesn’t agree with me. Big Blue pauses briefly from what he’s doing and looks down at me questioningly. I can feel my cheeks turn a slight shade of pink as I glance up at him.
“What? I told you I was hungry,” I reply defensively.
He smirks and then goes back to what he’s doing, typing away at the controls quietly.
I sigh to myself and silently sit by and watch him do whatever it is that he’s doing. Fortunately, I don’t have to wait too long, a few short seconds later the strange chirping noise gets louder and then it becomes a pulsing noise and then I start having trouble believing my eyes. On the platform next to the panel a sandwich, or something that looks to be a sandwich, materializes on a plate.
Looking smug, he picks up the plate and hands it to me.
I blink several times, wondering if I’m hallucinating.
“Wh-what is that? What did you do?”
“It is nourishment for you. You said you were hungry.”
I blink again and stare.
“I am hungry. Is that a sandwich?”
I’m not sure why an alien knows what a sandwich is, but being that they’ve reached interstellar travel capability and can fly faster than the speed of light, I suppose I shouldn’t be too terribly surprised if they know what a Earth sandwich is.
“Yes.”
I cock my head to the side and scrunch my nose.
“Why is it green?”
He glances at me and then glances at the sandwich and then back at me again. “Did you not say you wanted food? Is this not a ‘sandwich’?” he asks, almost sounding defensive.
I look at it again, somehow torn between wanting to tell him that he failed miserably and actually not wanting to hurt his feelings since he seemed subtly proud of his “creation”.
“It...sort of is. You got the gist of it, but...it’s green. Sandwiches aren’t supposed to be completely green.”