Sarden groaned. “Not Gallana! It’s run by the Gods’ damned Majorans.”
“I’m sorry I don’t have better news, Master.” Al sounded genuinely sorry, too. “I know that speed is of the essence. But once the panel is replaced we should be able to use the Hyperdrive to make up time and still get to Giedi Prime at the appointed hour.”
“We’ll be cutting it awfully Gods’ damned close though,” Sarden growled. “But I guess if that’s our only option, you’d better set a course to Gallana.”
“At once, Master.” Al glided away again.
“What’s wrong with going to, uh, Gallana?” I asked, thinking it sounded like a super-expensive and ritzy shopping mall.
“Besides the delay? The fucking Majorans. They have…strange ideas about their females.”
“What kinds of ideas?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Never mind. The point is, whenever you visit a Majoran base, you have to follow their rules. Of the twelve overlord races—the Twelve Peoples, we call them—that the Ancient Ones left behind, the Majorans are in ascendancy right now. So their empress rules our galaxy.”
“Huh?” I stared at him, my chocolate-éclair cheeseburger completely forgotten now. “Our galaxy has an empress?”
“Of course. Who do you think rules us all? Her throne is located on Femme One, on the edge of the super-massive black hole in the center of the galaxy.”
“Okay, wow. That’s a lot to take in,” I murmured.
“You’d know all this if you hadn’t been locked away by the Ancient Ones,” he remarked.
“But we’ve been searching for extraterrestrial life for years,” I protested. “We’ve been sending out signals and scanning the stars… How is it we never came across anything at all?”
He snorted. “With the primitive instruments you have? You couldn’t find a black kalk in the white sands of Quendor with Earthling tech.”
“Hey, that tech got us to our moon and back—more than once,” I said stiffly.
He snorted again. “Oh yes—the journey of a single light-second. A mighty achievement.”
“It was for us,” I pointed out. “Everyone has to start somewhere.”
“That’s the point—you’re just starting out. Which means you’re far, far behind even the more primitive peoples of the universe. Besides,” he added more kindly. “Your planet is located in an out-of-the-way arm of the galaxy. It’s not like you’re close to any of the major space hubs. You’re just a forgotten little world the Ancient Ones put off limits.” His face grew dark. “And if you’re lucky, you’ll stay that way. Although I doubt it now that the Commercians have sunk their blue claws into you.”
I thought of other girls just like me being sucked through their mirrors or toasters or spoons or any shiny, reflective surface in their house and winding up on Bambi’s ship, just as I had. Not just one or two—hundreds, thousands, millions maybe, depending on how popular Earth brides turned out to be with alien men. If the Alien Mate Index really took off, we could be looking at the end of the human race.
The thought made me sick and a cold finger of dread skittered down my spine. I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered.
Sarden frowned. “Are you chilly? Char’noth said you came from a very warm region of your planet. I’m…sorry I didn’t give you more protective clothing. Although you do look tempting in just my shirt.”
His golden eyes roamed over me, making me shiver for a different reason. For some reason while we’d been using the food-prep machine, I’d managed to forget how very huge and imposing and shirtless he was. Now, as he took a step closer, I was faced with the broad planes of his muscular chest and I could smell his scent again—that warm, spicy, campfire aroma that made my knees turn to jelly for some reason.
“I’m fine,” I lied, keeping my chin up and trying not to let him affect me. “Just…just trying to decide what to ask the food-sim to make next.”
“So you’re determined to try again?” Sarden sounded surprised.
“I told you—I’m not a quitter.” There was nothing I could do about the situation with Earth—not now. If I could ever get back there, maybe I could warn my home planet. Although I was pretty sure everyone would think I was just plain crazy if I tried. Still, I would have to get home first to test that theory and right now, plan A was all I had to get there. Reverse Stockholm, I reminded myself.
Looking at Sarden, I gave him what I hoped was a flirtatious smile.
“How would you like to try another rare Earth delicacy? We call this one bacon and eggs.”
Sarden
The little Pure One never ceased to amaze me. She was determined to force the food-sim to get the food of her home world correct and she refused to stop trying.
She made me the Earth food called bacunandeggz—which consisted of long, crispy strips and fluffy, pale yellow chunks. But they tasted sweet, as the cheezburger had. Zoe said they had the flavor of pankakes which are apparently flat, spongy disks soaked in the sweet sap of a tree indigenous to Earth.
Rather than being discouraged by yet another failure, she was happy.
“I’m getting close,” she remarked, eating a bite of the crispy bacun. “At least these are all breakfast foods. And this pancake-tasting-bacon isn’t half bad.”
She tried several other things too but none of them came out the way she wanted. There was a thick piece of grilled meat which was supposed to be salty and tender but which Zoe said tasted like a sweet confection made of red berries and cake. Then she tried two slices of plain white Earth bread, much like the blue crust of my churn wrap, with a small amount of yellow Earth cheese melted between them. Again, it was supposed to be salty but Zoe said it tasted like something she called shauckolat pudding.
Though none of her Earth recipes came out to her satisfaction, she kept trying anyway. I don’t know why, but I stayed with her, tasting the strange Earth concoctions she coaxed from the food-sim and laughing with her as each came out worse than the last. We shared utensils and at one point, she asked me for a drink to wash the various tastes out of her mouth.
I got her a squeeze bulb of purified water but before giving it to her, I took a sip myself. Zoe didn’t hesitate to put her lips where mine had been—she took the water and drank it thankfully, apparently not bothered that her mouth had touched that which had also touched the mouth of a Vorn.
Watching her do that roused a powerful sensation in my chest—more powerful than I liked to admit. The Vorn are hated and feared through most of the universe and especially here in our home galaxy. We are considered an unclean species, especially by the fastidious Eloim. I could still remember the pain in my childhood of the other children refusing to touch me—washing their hands after even the slightest and most incidental contact. Only Sellah stood by me, refusing to act like the others. She never saw me as a half-breed or a Vorn—only as her beloved big brother, and nothing anyone said could shake her love or her loyalty.
I tried to push the thoughts of my lost sister away and thought of the days ahead instead. Stopping by Gallana to get a panel replaced was going to put a serious crimp in my schedule. And that was if I could find someone to fix the panel right away—a mechanic willing to deal with a male alone who didn’t have a female companion with him.
Just thinking of it made me grind my teeth. The damned Majorans are sexist and it irritates the piss out of me to have to deal with them. Not that I mind them worshiping their females—a male can worship any damn thing he chooses, as far as I’m concerned. But the fact that they make everyone conform to their ways or refuse to do business with them is damned irritating.
The other worry, besides our time constraints, was how I could pay for the new panel and the work to replace it. With the exception of a few hundred credits I had kept back for fuel, buying Zoe from the Commercians had me all tapped out. It looked like I would have to search a little harder for someone who wanted to buy the Assimilation medical equipment in the s
torage area of The Celesta.
But could I do all that and still get back to Giedi Prime and Tazaxx before the auction? I didn’t know. I sent a swift prayer to the Goddess of Mercy—hoping she’d hear me, despite what a bastard I am. And I tried to concentrate on Zoe instead.
It wasn’t hard—she had a bubbly personality that reminded me of Sellah, though she was more outgoing than my shy, bookish little sister. She kept talking and laughing, drawing me into conversation while she continued to work with the food-sim.
I wondered at her apparent ease around me. I was her captor—her kidnapper—and I had already told her I was trading her to Tazaxx. But she didn’t cry with fear or sulk or try to get away. She just kept giving me new things to eat and laughing at her failures.
I couldn’t help watching the way she moved—this close to her, the hidden spectrum of colors erupted across my vision, showing me her true beauty despite the inhibitor she wore. Her pale skin with its many dots of light pigment seemed to glow in the dim illumination of the food-prep area. Her hair was a long, silky tangle of auburn curls and her curves—those sweet, generous curves I’d admired so much when she’d first been brought aboard the Commercians’ base—were barely covered by the thin black temp-shirt I’d given her to wear.
I knew it was wrong but I couldn’t help wishing I could taste the merchandise, just a little, before I sent her on her way. If I kissed her or touched her it would likely be the last such contact she’d ever receive.
That was because Tazaxx was a Gord—a species sexually incompatible with the descendants of the Ancient Ones. He kept his “special collection” in a zoo-like exhibit area—for display purposes only. Zoe would be put into a beautifully built case with all the luxuries her heart could desire and there she would spend her days, behind a force-field, being lovely and innocent for Tazaxx and his friends to admire.
It was where I hoped and prayed Sellah was now. Knowing that Tazaxx didn’t physically abuse or sexually violate those in his “special collection” was the only thing that kept me sane. I imagined my little sister in that gilt cage, behind the force-field, and then I pictured Zoe there, in her place.
I didn’t like either image.
So though my palms itched to caress Zoe’s curves and cup her full breasts…though I wondered more than once what her soft pink lips would taste like, I kept my hands to myself. I am, as I said before, no rapist. No matter how much she tempted me, I was determined to trade her to Tazaxx untouched.
But I couldn’t help watching her—she shone so brightly in the dimness of my ship. Like a star I had stolen from the heavens, though I had no right to do it.
Zoe
I don’t know how long we spent trying to get the food-sim to make anything decent to eat—it might have been a couple of hours. I do know the level of green Nutrient Slime in the gold pot had gone down considerably by the time I finally gave up.
By that time I had made bacon and eggs that tasted like pancakes and syrup, a t-bone steak that tasted like strawberry shortcake, a grilled cheese sandwich that tasted like chocolate pudding, and too many other things to count.
The closest I got to something edible was the pancake flavored bacon, but mostly because you eat those two things together a lot anyway. At last, I had to stop. I was determined to try again after Al worked on the program some more, but I was afraid I would make myself sick if I ate any more mixed up food.
Sarden didn’t seem bothered by the strange taste and texture combinations. He gamely tried everything I made, even the awful banana cream pie that tasted like sauerkraut.
I noticed he kept watching me as we worked and he got quiet once or twice but I counted it as a victory anyway. We were getting to be friends—well, sort of. And it’s a hell of a lot harder to trade your friends to some oily alien salesman than it is to trade away some girl you don’t even know.
Reverse Stockholm—I was sure it was working. Pretty sure, anyway. And I tried not to notice how those glowing gold eyes watching me made me feel. How when his fingers brushed my skin, even by accident, it sent shivers down my spine and made my nipples turn into tight little points.
Friendly or not, he was still the enemy. I might pretend to like him but that was all it was, I told myself sternly—just pretend. All an act to get him to care about me too much to trade me. And hopefully enough to get him to take me back to Earth.
At least we had this layover in the spaceport to look forward to. It would give us more time to spend together—more time for Sarden to get to know me. Maybe I should go even further and try to make him fall in love with me?
Maybe I should try to seduce him.
The thought made me shiver all over. Sarden was huge and I hadn’t been with anybody since I broke up with my ex almost a year ago. He’d probably split me in half if I tried something like that.
I tried to push the extremely scary thoughts to the back of my mind but the longer I was with him and the more I smelled his warm, spicy scent, the harder it got to do. I was almost relieved when he finally told me I should get some sleep.
“Being transported as you were is a very tiring process. You probably need to rest,” he told me as he walked me to the door of my room.
“All right.” I stopped beside the door and looked up at him, wondering what was going on behind those golden alien eyes. “I’m looking forward to trying out the floating hoverbed. We don’t have anything like that on Earth.”
“You want to go to bed, little Pure One?” His voice was a soft, deep growl that seemed to send tingles all though me.
“I…you know what I mean,” I stammered, feeling my cheeks get hot.
“Yes, I know,” he murmured, brushing a strand of hair out of my eyes. “I just thought maybe you were interested to try the bed’s pleasure settings.”
I didn’t know what he meant by that but I shivered as his warm fingertips brushed my skin and then tried to pretend I hadn’t.
“I’m tired,” I said and it wasn’t a lie. Suddenly I felt as though all my energy was leaking away. It really had been a very long day—from getting staplers thrown at my head, to being dragged through the bathroom mirror into an alien space ship, to spending hours with Sarden trying to make food out of green slime. It was the longest and strangest day I’d ever had in my life and I was suddenly completely exhausted.
Being abducted by aliens really takes it out of a girl—out of me, anyway.
“Go to sleep then.” Sarden’s deep voice was almost a caress and I thought for a moment he was going to cup my cheek or stroke my hair. He raised his hand for a moment…but then he brought it back down to his side and clenched it tight instead.
“What about you?” I asked. “Are you, uh, going to bed too?”
He shook his head. “Not for a while. I have a lot to do before we reach Gallana.”
“The spaceport, right.” I nodded. “Um, do I get to go with you? I’ve never seen an alien spaceport before.”
“I don’t think so.” His face darkened. “You’d be a target there if anyone found out you were a Pure One. Especially if it was known you’re a La-ti-zal.”
“I still don’t understand that,” I complained. “What does it even mean?”
“That you’re special,” he murmured and this time he did lift his hand to cup my cheek.
I felt my heart pounding and my face getting warm under his touch. God he smelled good! And he was so close I could feel the heat from his big body radiating against my own. I wondered what it would be like to be cuddled up in his arms…to kiss those cruel but sensual-looking lips…
“Very special,” Sarden murmured again and he bent lower. Was he actually going to kiss me? Was I actually going to let him?
“Too…too special to trade, maybe?” I blurted, my stupid mouth talking without consulting my brain first. (This tends to happen to me a lot.)
At once, Sarden’s eyes went cold and he pulled back from me. He’d been leaning over so that we were almost eye-
to-eye but now he drew himself up to his full height and glared down at me.
“No,” he said coldly. “Not too special for that.”
“But…but I thought…” I shook my head, knowing I was making it worse but unable to stop my big fat mouth from saying things I knew it shouldn’t. “We had fun today,” I said. “I mean, we talked, we got to know each other, we made food out of slime…it was fun.”
“Very enjoyable,” he agreed but his face was still cold. “I’m sorry, Zoe, but no matter how much I enjoy your company or how beautiful you are, I’m still going to trade you. I have no choice.”
With that, he left me standing there, feeling like someone had just dumped a bucket of ice water over my head.
The big red jerk.
Chapter Seven
Zoe
I admit, I spent a couple of hours curled in a corner crying and poor-pitiful-me-ing after I got into my room that night. I had really thought I was making headway with Sarden—I thought he actually liked me. Hell, for a minute there when we were saying good night, I thought he did more than like me. I could still feel the heat of his big body radiating against mine, could still trace the line of warmth his hand had left on my cheek…
But it all meant nothing. He was determined to trade me no matter what and I was never going to get back home again. I was never going to have a cheeseburger that didn’t taste like chocolate éclair or a steak that didn’t taste like strawberry shortcake. There would be no more girl days with Charlotte and Leah, no more three-way bitch sessions on the phone, no more late night movie marathons. No more of a hundred thousand little things that had made up my life on Earth.
No more.
But a person can only cry so much. After a couple of hours when my eyes were all red and weepy and swollen, I finally took a deep breath and got hold of myself.
Back home, when I was miserable, I always took a hot shower and felt better afterwards. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option here. It was either get in the tank of purple liquid (no, no, and Hell no) or take a shower in the mister.
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