by Lula Monk
She picked up a small blue fruit that vaguely resembled a blueberry. Hesitantly, she plopped it in her mouth. Her nose wrinkled in distaste, but right as she decided to spit the thing out and try a new fruit, the flavor in her mouth morphed into something resembling chocolate.
Oh my God. They had chocolate-tasting fruit in space.
She ate another and then another. Maybe the food would not be so bad. She hazarded a few tentative bites of the tamer looking items, leaving the strange hairy things alone in the bowl by themselves.
Grabbing another handful of the chocolatey blueberries – she was sure they had a name, but dammit, chocolate blueberries probably sounded much better than whatever Dredge would call them – she went to stand by the transparent wall again.
She put another berry in her mouth, savoring the flavor as she stared out at the stars.
There had to be some way out of here. There just had to be.
She’d watched Dredge leave earlier, the way he’d placed his hand on the wall and waited for it to illuminate. A portal had appeared. She looked down at her own palm, giving it some consideration.
No, there is no way just anyone could open the door. Complete lack of security there, and she imagined a company that specialized in kidnapping and pimping out women from other planets would place sat least a modicum of value on security.
A chill raced down her spine as she thought about the pile of Debra’s ashes in the hallway. Maybe Galactic Continuity actually didn’t worry too much about security . . . they seemed to have a pretty harsh punishment for attempted escapees.
Samantha chewed on her lower lip, thoughtfully.
Maybe not, though. Maybe they had heightened security in the part she and Dredge now occupied, the ‘breeding sector,’ he’d called it. Just thinking the words made her stomach want to heave.
Thinking the chocolatey berries would probably taste a lot worse coming back up, she returned the remaining fruits in her hand back to the table and then took a seat.
So, escape led to death when new humans first arrived, but what happened to humans who were combative or difficult after they were purchased?
Samantha felt like she knew the answer. Probably the same thing that happened back on Earth, when a man wanted a woman and she refused.
Dredge groaned in his sleep, and Samantha glared at him.
Sure, Dredge hadn’t raped her. He had even said she would be . . . What was the exact word had he used? . . . worshiped by him, as the future mother of his spawn. But that didn’t matter. No amount of kindness could make Samantha want to sleep with someone, with something, with whom she didn’t have any interest sleeping.
And having his little Glimlings? No thanks.
She considered his light for some time, the shimmering beams that created a glowing aura around his sleeping form. If she did succumb and let him put a Glimling in her, would the creature come out looking like her or him? Would it shine as he did now, or would it be dull and listless like her?
She shook her head. What the fuck did any of that matter? The only hypotheticals she needed to consider were how to get the hell out of here and back to Earth.
She stared at the metal wall Dredge had made a portal appear in earlier. Once more on quiet feet, Samantha padded over to the wall and placed her hand upon it. Nothing happened.
“Shit,” she whispered.
Dredge was tall, so maybe she wasn’t touching the right place? She shifted around, placing her hands at various heights and with alternating degrees of pressure. Still nothing.
“What are you doing?” asked a husky voice from the bed.
Samantha jumped. “Nothing! Just . . . looking.”
“Looking at what?” asked Dredge. “A means of escape?”
He was still lying in bed, but he propped his himself up on one elbow. “I have made your situation quite clear, Samantha. There will be no leaving this room for you. Not until my offspring is forming in your womb.”
Tears sprang to her eyes, but she blinked rapidly, banishing them. Now was not the time for moping. Now was the time for cunning, for action.
Now was the time to lie.
“I just wanted to see what there is to see,” she said. She kicked herself internally. ‘See what there is to see?’ The words sounded stupid to her own ears. No way Dredge would go for it.
“You mean you . . . wanted to explore the Hub?” he asked disbelievingly.
“Yes! The Hub! Never been to space, you know. Kind of curious as to what it’s all about.”
Dredge sat up, his glow beginning to dull, making his human form more distinct. “You will not like taking an excursion, I do not think.”
“Why not?”
Dredge stood, his manhood stiff with what Samantha hoped was the need to urinate. Morning wood.
“You will not like what you see, Earth woman. I am confident. Why expose yourself to things that will not bring you pleasure?”
Samantha looked away from Dredge’s nakedness. “There is plenty of that happening right now.”
Dredge cupped his hands over his penis. “Very well. Allow me to retrieve your pod, and we will take a small excursion. But only briefly.”
Samantha beamed at him. “Briefly is fine!”
Yes, briefly was great for a first outing. She prayed that leaving this room and getting a good view of the Hub, as Dredge had called it, would help her develop some kind of plan. At the very least, it would make her more aware of her surroundings.
As she stepped into the strange bubble pod once more, Samantha stilled the rapid beating of her heart. No time for panic. Not now. Now, she had to observe.
She had to watch.
She had to learn.
She would find a way to escape.
Chapter 8
Dredge
The Earth woman’s eagerness to leave the room and explore the Hub made Dredge wary. He remembered her futile efforts to obliterate him, to force his orbitals to rupture and to claw his flesh away in thin ribbons. She had failed, but she was a tenacious creature.
He was confident this excursion was an excuse to gather intelligence on their surroundings with the end goal being formulating a plan of escape.
He waved his hand across the pod, sealing her in.
Samantha’s eyes widened, and she began banging and screaming on the walls of the pod, her fists forcing the membrane to flex outwards. Dredge opened a small portal near the top, no larger than his hand, and asked, “Do you have need of something before we begin?”
“Can you leave this little, um, window thing open? I would like to be able to be heard when we go out.”
“No one will help you if you scream,” Dredge warned. He had not meant the words to sound menacing, only informative.
He saw the Earth woman’s esophagus bob. She was gulping. That showed she was afraid.
“I’m not going to try to scream for help,” she promised.
“Then why do you need a portal through which to speak?”
“To speak to you, of course. What if I have questions?”
“You can save them until we return to our room.”
“But it will be the first time I’m seeing any of the things I’ll seeing on the other side of that door. What if I have so many questions that I forget some of them before we get back?”
Dredge frowned at her, his eyes scrutinizing her cranium. “Are you sure you do not suffer from inferior intelligence? You should be able to archive and retrieve pertinent questions.”
Samantha rolled her eyes. More sarcasm, he noted. “I do not have anything wrong with my brain, Dredge. There are just going to be a lot of things, new things, that I will want to ask you about. Please?”
She stared at him beseechingly, her eyes large and liquid.
“Please?” she repeated.
Dredge’s heart felt oddly in his chest at seeing the look in the Earth woman’s eyes. The guidebook had said this was an inexplicable emotional response, but to what emotion Dredge could not possibly guess. He fel
t nothing when he looked in the Earth woman’s eyes, only mild irritation.
“Very well,” he said. “I will leave this portal open for communication, but upon hearing your first scream, I will close it and return promptly to our rooms. Is that understood?”
Samantha nodded
With that, Dredge pressed his palm to the wall and waited for the indicator to turn green. When he assessed Samantha with his peripheral vision, he noticed that she stared intently at his hand, as though studying the method by which he caused the portal to appear. Displeasing.
Dredge grunted. The portal appeared and opened before them, and they set out.
The corridor outside their room was quiet, and they traveled it alone. As soon as they emerged into to the central walkway, however, more creatures appeared. Most were going about their business, using the various facilities the Hub had to offer, but Dredge was pleased to see that a few Ceph were among the members of the crowd, their blast guns prominently displayed on their backs.
Good. Perhaps such a sight would detract the Earth woman from any plans.
He smiled and looked at her face through the small portal in the pod. He was pleased to see that she had shrank back against the far side of the pod, her eyes wide and somewhat frightened.
Yes. Perhaps this excursion would turn out to be a marvelous idea, for it would rid all thoughts of leaving him from her mind. Terror is a tool. Not the best tool or the most humane, but an effective one.
“What's that?” she asked.
Dredge frowned, staring at the hand she had thrust through the portal. Curiosity was not a good sign. He followed the direction of her arm and her pointing finger. She seemed to be indicating the gateway to the Transportation and Administration Sector. Another ill sign.
“That is nothing.”
“Oh, come on, Dredge. Look at all the peop– the things headed that way. It must be something. Take me there.”
“No. You have no need for the docks.”
Curses! He had not meant to reveal their name, for their name conveyed their purposed.
“Docks as in ships? Like spaceships?”
“There are no other kind in space, Samantha,” he said, deflecting.
“So, there are spaceships that way?”
“I would like to show you something,” Dredge said, suddenly turning in the opposite direction.
Samantha protested, but he simply lifted his hand and shut the portal. He needed a moment to collect his thoughts, for they were swirling around his mind like rays from a solar storm.
No.
He did not want the Earth woman – his Earth woman – to know anything about the docks. This had been an unwise choice, a foolish endeavor indeed to have indulged in the woman’s wishes. If he had any sense at all, he would return to their rooms immediately.
But that would be suspicious, wouldn’t it? Not suspicious. Untrustworthy.
Samantha had asked him, no begged him, for an excursion, and he had acquiesced. To go back on his word now would be to show her that he was untrustworthy. Such a thing would only serve to widen the divide between them, and Dredge desperately needed that divide to close so fully that her body would be pressed against his and he could finally plant a Glimling within her.
Resigned, he saw the signs for the hydroponic chambers. There was a potential idea.
As he turned sharply to follow the sign to the hydroponics wing, he coughed. His heart froze in his chest, an odd sensation for a being who is not accustomed to having such an organ. He stared down at his palm and thank fully saw no life fluid. Of course not, his mind whispered, the oral expulsion of life fluid comes later, when it is too late.
Dredge shook the thought from his head. Impossible. He’d had Brillar’s last remaining healer give him a thorough physical and luminescent assessment before departing for the Hub. He was fine. The healer had confirmed.
They reached the hydroponic chamber, and Dredge brushed his hand over the side of the pod, creating another small hole. Samantha pressed her face through it, asking, “Where are we?”
“Hydroponics.”
“Water,” said the woman, nodding. But Dredge saw the confusion still evident on her face.
“It is the area of the Hub where planetary-based sustenance forms are grown.”
“Like with soil?”
“No. Observe,” commanded Dredge, walking to the entrance of the large chamber.
The chamber was not truly a chamber in the sense that is was not the typical cube shape. The hydroponics wing was a giant pyramid constructed of morphmetal. Its current appearance was transparent, more for aesthetics than function. There was no solar star near the Hub, not at present. The Hub moved around, for its operations broke several decrees set forth by the Intergalactic Council, and Galactic Continuity had no intention of bringing that fact to the attention of the Council.
Dredge was overcome with guilt at the thought, for breaking a decree of the Intergalactic Creed, the one his great-grand sire had signed on behalf of Brillar. Duty, he reminded himself. He did this thing out of duty.
At any rate, the plants within the hydroponic chamber did not need light from a solar star. Artificial light gave them all the illumination they required to activate the photosynthetic processes.
Dredge began explaining this part to Samantha as they toured the ground level of the chamber. “The Hub caters to a wide variety of clientele, all of whom have various nutritional needs. As a result, the Hub began orchestrating the growth of plants from planets across the universe, right here on the space station.”
She tore her gaze from the queer looking plants that surrounded them.
“The Hub is a space station?” Samantha asked. Her face fell.
Another ill sign. She seemed overcurious about the nature of the Hub. Best to distract her from that.
“Each of the plants in the hydroponics chamber still requires pollination of course. All things need to mate. To reproduce.” He gave Samantha a sharp look, which earned him another roll of her eyes.
“And the plants here are no different,” he continued. “Galactic Continuity has a solution for that need as well,” Dredge said gesturing to a green and purple fern they had just approached. He shook a frond and a dozen small scribs skittered away.
Samantha screamed
Dredge looked at her sharply. She clapped her hands over her mouth.
She lowered them after a moment.
“I’m sorry,” she said. "On Earth, we have a similar creature called a spider. They scare me.”
“You are afraid of such a small thing?” asked Dredge, extending his hand for a scrib to skitter onto. He held the tiny creature up to the portal for Samantha’s inspection.
“Get that thing away from my little window, Dredge. It might jump in!”
Dredge creased his brows. “Scribs do not jump. They skitter. Observe.”
He placed the scrib on the exterior of the pod and watched it crawl to the top.
“Close it!” squeaked Samantha.
“I thought you wanted the portal open, so we can converse,” said Dredge with a small grin.
“Well now I want it closed!”
“Very well.”
He moved his hand to seal the portal, but Samantha spoke. “And can we go somewhere else? This is cool and all, but I would rather be somewhere thousands of little spider-looking things are not.”
“Don’t be foolish, Samantha,” Dredge reprimanded, speaking through the now petit portal. “Do you see the size of this hydroponics chamber? There are millions of scribs, not thousands.” Dredge thought for a moment and then corrected himself. “In fact, I would dare say there might be billions.
Samantha sank to the bottom of the pod and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Great.”
Dredge smiled and sealed the pod, pleased with himself. He had read about the various venomous creatures on planet Earth and had found the arachnid species to be familiar. When he saw the signs for the hydroponic chamber, an idea had sparked. He was glad
his plan had born fruit, but he was gladder that the Earth woman had good survival instincts. She feared creatures who merely resembled venomous danger on her home planet. This was good; he wanted the life giver of his offspring to be conscientious of her personal safety.
Very good.
They exited the hydroponics chamber. He knew not where else to take Samantha, for there were many areas of the Hub that he did not wish to travel for one reason or another. The non-breeder wings were distasteful to him, and seeing such a thing could only bring fear and emotional pain to Samantha. Such was not the desired result of this excursion, so he excluded those possibilities.
Most other areas and sectors of the Hub were too crowded for such a prospect to be pleasing to Dredge, even if the Earth woman might find them to be entertaining.
Hmm. A decision must be made.
He considered taking her to the Entertainment Sector, but quickly disregarded that idea as well.
As he speculated on the best course of action, he noticed that Samantha was banging on the walls of the pod. He opened a portal. “What do you require?”
“Can . . . can we just return to the room? I’m . . . a bit overwhelmed, honestly.”
Another confused look passed across Dredge’s face. “We have scarcely seen anything yet, Samantha. I thought you wanted to explore the Hub.”
“I’ve seen quite enough, thank you.”
A smile pulled at his lips. “The scribs frighten you that much, huh?”
He’d only meant to tease the woman. The guidebook had called such actions ‘flirting,’ a pre-mating ritual that signaled to potential mates that the giver of the gesture was interested. Poor choice.
Samantha began to cry, her sobs soft and . . . Was that fear he registered?
“Yes,” she said. “I am frightened, but it’s not the scribs.”
“What is it then?”
“None of these things may seem odd to you,” said Samantha, her voice raising, “but I am not accustomed to seeing freaks and things from nightmares wondering around me while I’m trapped in a fucking plastic piece of shit bubble.” Her fists pounded against the walls of the pod for emphasis.