“This Lakmi woman. Did she really kill someone?”
Janie shuddered visibly on the word killed, raising anxious eyes to his. A rich green, like verdant meadows in time of Great Sun. A rare colour much prized on his home world and one of the reasons Madame Lakmi rose to such heights that she earned her freedom from the harem.
His own eyes were pale as ice shards, the dominant colour in the northern provinces.
Without the chip he was slowly losing the benefit of enhanced vision, the eyes that glowed to sharpen focus in dim light. Kelskar stilled, distracted by a distant clanging of metal doors. His hearing had dulled to mediocre normality alarmingly quickly since the chip died. Two sets of feet approached the door to the outer cell area. He should have heard them coming from the other side of the ship.
“Tell me.” Janie’s fists clenched the bars. “I need...” She noticed him pause and tip his head towards the door. Her gaze flickered to the corridor outside the barred cages, back to him.
“Did you hear something?”
“No. Scream.” How did he explain to her that Lakmi, the Corporation had bought her screams along with everything else? The more docile, the better chance they had of staying together.
“No scream, Janie. No scream.”
“I’m not a screamer.” She stiffened, a study of indignation in her set features.
“Good.” He moved away, something tugging inside of him at the way her hand lifted as if to keep him with her. Better to remain impassive until he learned more of their fate, the likely choice of the Corporation being a pairing and a time of bonding followed by the inevitable challenge. A male made to fight all comers for his woman was a sure ratings winner.
“You heard something? What?”
“Hunters. Door. No scream, Janie Roberts.”
The other scenario, one he didn’t really want to contemplate, was Ra Duare. Crudely put, a mêlée of a chase with females as the prize. Screaming Earth women were particularly prized for The Chase.
“Have they come to let us go? Or at least bring us some food.”
“No.” He didn’t know whether to bless or curse her denial that this was nothing more serious than a jest. It made the transition easier for now, but all the more shocking when they arrived on Prison Moon One. Nothing he said would prepare her for that.
“Let me speak,” he said and raised a hand to warn her to be still, praying she’d show a meek face and not the feisty woman being revealed to him in these small flashes of bravado. Blend, douse the spark and they’d make it through this. Let him build a wall of his body and spirit and please, Janie, just hide behind me.
The door whirred and juddered sideways on creaky tracks. The muzzle of a weapon poked through the widening opening along with the stench of the sour grease secreted by the Parathi hunters’ skin. A dead giveaway to an experienced felon on the run, the Parathi were usually more careful about masking than this. They obviously saw no challenge in the taking of this Earth woman.
Before he could stop her, Janie threw herself at the barred cage door, spitting fury from every pore. For a single breath Kelskar stood in awe of the solar flare unleashed in so small a female. Then his insides dropped. By Jopra himself, why did women never behave as expected?
“What’s going on? I demand you release me right now. This has gone far enough.” Grasping the bars she tried to shake them and then kicked out with a bare foot. Kelskar recognised the panic driving her and that she no longer saw him or his frantic attempts to communicate with face and gesture that she should be still.
“Bastards, you’ve had your fun.”
“Janie, no.” Speaking risked losing his advantage and handing the Corporation fuel for the scenarios they would concoct when this fresh meat was fed to slavering audiences. Beauty and the beast, Calero and her Akar. Doestese who took on the gods of the underworld itself to rescue his love from eternal damnation.
Subscribers loved a good story to spice up their daily dose of violence and sex.
The weapon-toting hunter he recognised from the taking. The other stood shorter and squatter in stature and considerably better dressed, a web-screen dangling at his belt. Still a Parathi, though likely the brains of the operation by the shrewd appraising eyes that missed nothing.
The heavy Class V hand weapon, grasped so steady by the leering hunter’s fingers at least stopped Janie’s tirade. He thanked Jopra for that. Slowly, she unfolded her fingers from the bars and shot him a glance that asked a thousand questions.
Good girl, now step away.
He didn’t dare speak aloud or show emotion in body and face. The shorter hunter unclipped his web-screen and held it aloft, taking each of their images in turn. Janie had frozen in place, at last recognising the danger.
“So.” The shorter hunter turned his back on her, addressing him from the safety of the corridor. “You surrendered yourself, Gladiator Kelskar. I want to know why, when that was not a part of the original plan.”
Janie frowned at the incomprehensible sibilants sliding from the hunter’s tongue. Without benefit of the translation module she would remain mercifully ignorant of the words. She had realised that he understood the hunter’s every word and was watching him closely, and not without suspicion.
Did the hunters know his chip had stopped working? The hunter’s arrogant, swaggering tone spoke of a man expecting to be answered with truth by a cipher incapable of question and chipped to obey.
Why disappoint the man?
“I believe Madame Lakmi engineered it so with my master. My orders were to disable my shield and sacrifice. Leaving me at large would have caused a...complication.”
“You think I’m buying that story?” The hunter consulted his web-screen, whistling through long yellow teeth. “She paid good coin for you. Don’t see her flipping off that kind of investment so lightly.”
Don’t speak, Janie. Don’t speak. Would she recognise his clumsy dissembling? Know that her role was to hold her peace and let him talk them out of this if he could? Like fighting with a rusty, disused blade, too long without the cut and thrust of stimulating argument and conversation had dulled his brain. Janie edged to the rear of the cage, watching with wary eyes, the flame of her outburst extinguished.
That’s right, just stay there and let me handle this.
“Why would Madame Lakmi hand you over to us?” The hunter tapped his view screen, his dark eyes focussed to slits in his face. Rivers of greasy sweat ran zigzags over his puffy cheeks, his belt barely contained his stomach paunch. But the gleam and glitter adorning the creature’s stubby fingers, the gemstones set in the over large teeth, marked him as the leader of the operation. More flash than substance though. Kelskar noted the mediocre quality of the gems, the poor repair of the creature’s teeth and garments. Heard the ship’s engines wheezing painfully towards their destination.
Their current load would be a valuable and necessary haul.
“It’s not for me to know a woman’s flittering mind.” The weapon would likely be set to stun, to disable in the event of escape and not kill. Kelskar noted the rock solid stance, the gun held at shoulder level by the subordinate. If fortune did give them a break, the hunter would not miss.
“You’re trying to be amusing?” The chief hunter searched his face, unconvinced. “I smell a big wet turd and it aint one of mine. What’s going on here? She’s sending someone after us crying thief? Insurance scam?”
Janie’s gaze flicked from him to the hunter, following the sound of the exchange but not the meaning, thank Jopra. She’d been asking that question since her kidnap.
“Why ask me? I merely obey orders.”
“Do you now.” The hunter’s hand moved in a blurring arc, a command move Kelskar recognised too late. The lackey pumped the weapon twice and fired. A heartbeat later Janie’s scream pierced the air and the dirty wall slammed into his back.
“No.” Protect the chip. Don’t scream, Janie, don’t scream. The charge hit again, the energy wave pinning him to the wall
and worse, sparking the chip to life.
“Orders. Obey orders.” His legs, his arms jerked and twitched, a confusion of images flooded his roaring brain.
“Stop, you’re hurting him.” Janie’s plea faded to a dim whisper.
No, don’t defend me. That’s what they want to see. How could he let her know that? Too brave for her own good this Earth woman.
“Stop it. Stop hurting him.”
The semblance of a smile twisted the hunter’s mouth. “Interesting.” He flicked the command. “Shock him again.”
“Just obeying orders.” Kelskar barely forced the words past his lips.
Stunners disabled a man, rendering muscle and bone weak as a newborn youngling for how long? A day cycle, more? Mustering every iota of strength left to him, Kelskar pushed against the spinning floor and staggered upright. If he could get his arm through the bars, one lunge, and seize the creature’s throat...
“You’ll kill him.” Janie’s screams trailed off into despair. The charge firing in his head found a pathway, streaked through neurons, resetting connections. Stealing his resistance and breathing life into his accursed chip.
Not now, please not now.
“Enough.” The chief hunter stroked his beard and clicked his teeth. Had he noticed the subtle slackening of muscles, the glimmering light in Kelskar’s eyes? Of course he had.
“Interesting.” The creature tapped the bars with his view screen, standing too close, obviously confident the beast had been tamed. “So what pays more? An Earth woman and free-thinking warrior, or the same and a hobbled beast who’ll obey any command, no matter how outrageous?” He turned to his colleague, who stood ready with another charge, grinning like a creature insane. “We’ll let the woman choose, shall we?”
“What’s he saying? Why is he looking at me? Kelskar, tell me what he said.”
Janie’s question barely pierced the numbing cloak muffling his thoughts. Pressed so hard against the back wall, she reeked of terror, called for his aid and for the second time in less than a solar day he couldn’t help her.
“Kelskar, tell me they didn’t hurt you.”
“Oh, fear not, sweet thing, we’ve just added a little spice to prime time. Get the translation module in her while I scan the male. This pair is going to blow the ratings out of the fricking water.”
“Sir, you wish me to shock him again?”
“No.” The chief hunter waved his view screen side to side, up and down. “No, I’m thinking viewers won’t want him too compliant. Obedience chip’s gone a bit wonky and I think we’ll leave it just like that. Make her scream again. I want to see what we got in Gladiator Kelskar.”
Kelskar lifted his head, searching for the voices. Were they in the room with him? They sounded far away, like creatures speaking on the bed of oceans.
Protect her. The chip flashed in and out, tearing his mind, his thoughts into rags.
Protect her. Obey. Don’t give them anything they can use. Obey.
Why was she screaming? What were they doing to her?
Metal against metal, cutting into his cheeks, fingers raw on the rough bars. He’d tear this demon haunted place apart to get to her, to make the screaming stop. When his arms and legs started working again, he’d protect her.
“Protect Janie,” Kelskar mumbled through uncooperative lips. If he had only one thought, one word left to him, it would be that.
They were hurting him. He couldn’t be that good an actor. Real blood streaked Kelskar’s face from the sandpapering, rusty bars, his metal cheek plates banged out a staccato beat. And that broken roar tearing from his throat? Janie jammed her hands over her ears to shut out the feral sound, torn between pity, outrage, and gut-twisting terror.
The gentle man she’d glimpsed beneath that metal shell had been replaced by an out of control beast who might be trying to help her. Might be about to tear her apart.
“Stop hurting him. Can’t you see he’s in agony?”
The pulse of white light streaming through the bars, sparking off the metal looked real enough. Kelskar would have come to her aid if he could.
Wouldn’t he? Not be lying jammed into the bars snarling like a frantic, injured bear.
What were they saying? The slurring S sounds, the grimaces sounded nothing like Kelskar’s tongue.
Shit, were they coming for her now they’d taken Kelskar out? Instinctively, Janie looked around for somewhere to run. Stupid girl, where would she go? The taller masked man pointed a round black disc at the cage lock. The door swung silently ajar.
No scream.
Kelskar told her not to scream but hell, the masked creature was fiddling with his belt. She couldn’t hold it back. Kelskar’s arms flailed uselessly through the bars, every scream of hers echoed in a roar of rage from him.
The thing was going to rape her and make Kelskar watch.
“Get it done. No fun if she can’t understand. We want you to know it all, don’t we, girl?”
The shorter man’s oily voice slid through the space between them, directed at the second man in the cage with her. To get past him, she’d have to lose the coat and battle his friend. Then beat down the solid sheet metal door, holding them here, in this corridor of human cages.
Stop screaming. Don’t show fear. The man’s greasy hand grasped her neck, lifting and stretching so she teetered on tiptoe.
They liked it when women screamed. She wouldn’t give them that.
A thick needle glinted in his fingers. He shook her and slobbered out words that might have been a command to be still. Vaguely, she remembered the box pressed to her temple on the tea room floor. The way she suddenly understood every word.
“Ahh!” Her eyes blurred with the sting of the needle pressing into a raw nerve, tears she couldn’t stop streamed cold tracks over her cheeks. Knifing pain, and all to the background baying of Kelskar beating himself to death on the bars. Her own ragged cries.
“Don’t hurt girl. Valuable merchandise.”
The cry jammed in Janie’s throat.
She heard what the masked man said. Understood with no help from a metal box pressed to her head. Bastard could speak some English after all.
“Said enough, Brol. Out. See what does with him.”
“You’re choking me.” The masked man had her clamped tight, the slits of his red eyes locked on hers. A warm trickle of blood slithered down her nape, tracked over her shoulder and collar bone. The blooded needle clinked on the metal floor. Had they drugged her? Agony from the stab, sick nausea from the choking hand, the stench of the thing’s skin, but no effects, yet.
“What did you do? Tell me what you did to me. To him.” Why couldn’t she get a hold of this freaking panic?
Kelskar, please stop yelling. I’m coming, please stop. She couldn’t think with this raging chaos, the racing thought that he needed to be whole to help her out of this and every blow on those bars might do him real damage.
“It’s done, Brol. Take coat, exit cage before he gets a grip. This be good.”
“Put in with him?”
“Eventually. Check overheads. Make sure working.”
Not an English speaking native. The police would find them and every remembered detail, the broken, staccato words, the Halloween masks, would put these sick bastards away.
Don’t lose it, Janie. Don’t lose it.
The hand on her neck slackened. The ground came up to meet her, cracking bone on metal. She pushed up on elbows and knees, gasping and dragging air into her lungs. Overheads? Did he mean cameras? Understanding didn’t make it any less frightening.
No energy to fight for the coat. Half-dragging her across the floor, the creature named Brol yanked it from her shoulders. Holding it open, he sniffed the hide and grunted at his boss.
“Too big for me, Brol. But anything in pockets. Mine.”
“I’ll freeze without the coat.” She needed it, Kelskar gave it to her. Didn’t they care if she froze to death? They went to all this trouble and they didn’t care if
she died on them?
Janie crawled to Kelskar, skin creeping at the neat spatter of his blood patterning the floor.
“Shh. Calm down, Kelskar. I’m okay. You’re okay.”
Oh heavens, she hoped that was true.
Could he hear her? Eyes, like polished mirrors reflected her terror. No, something told her she’d only caught a glimpse and the real terror was yet to come. They needed each other. She’d hold it together. She would.
“Kelskar.” She turned her back on the masked man, studying her like some animal in a zoo. “Kelskar, stop. You’re hurting yourself.”
“Reset accursed chip.” His head swayed from side to side, his clear luminous eyes strangely hypnotic in the stark white light. When had they turned up the lights? Arms flailing but without the fight and urgency of before. She grasped one, then the other, gripping hard, lurching to the side when he tried to shake her off.
“Kelskar, look at me.” Another crack of metal on metal. This close the domed helmet, the cheek plates, the slim metal column protecting his nose were too much a part of him. Sharp points of metal disappeared into dips at his jawbones, his temple. Like they’d been implanted to the bone. The room dimmed. Janie breathed through the lurch of nausea, the sharp ringing in her ears.
Why would anyone do this to themselves?
Or had it been done to him? A jagged, bloody slice of metal dangled loose from the skull cap, He’d been lucky not to drive that straight into his brain.
“Kelskar, I can’t hold you if you struggle. It’s Janie, remember? You gave me your hand. Wanted to comfort me? Well here it is, hold on.” Loosening one of his, she took a chance, ghosting her curved palm over his cheek. Calm now, his eyes followed her journey over the smooth plating, the stubble pricking his chin, with wary intent.
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