by Flora Dare
We made it to the chutes and dropped between decks. The first mate was clearly angry that I'd kept up. Every time she caught a glimpse of me, I could practically hear her teeth grinding together. The stims were keeping us all on edge.
We almost made it to the cargo bay, and for a moment it felt like we were going to make it, get away. We were close enough that I could hear Sam getting people into escape pods.
I heard escape pods blowing out and as the first Reiver troops dropped from the ceiling between us and the cargo bay. We froze. They moved like cockroaches and looked like bugs. Panic threatened to take control, and I dropped into the meditative state Yastlama taught me.
My horror at whatever the Reivers really were was compounded when I realized they weren't giant insects, but each was a different species wrapped in bio-exoskeletons. Their faces were each frozen in a rictus of fear, screaming forever. Whatever they once were, now they were fierce, unstoppable fighters.
We dropped back and blasters exploded all around me, bouncing off their carapaces. Whatever their skeletons where made of, the blasters couldn't penetrate it. I watched how they moved as I pulled my swords off my back. They stood between me and my mate. They didn't stand a chance.
Chapter Nine
It's just like dancing. I heard Yastlama's voice echo in my head. It looked like the Reiver's exoskeleton had a thin attachment at the neck. I waltzed through the hallway, twisting away from their grabbing tendrils. The crowded conditions rendered their massive claws useless and blasters would take out friend and foe alike.
But the blades sliced through them like a hot knife through butter. The monoblades chacha'ed at their necks, separating the joint to their helmets, exposing their heads. It was surreal to realize they were not one species.
I could feel Sam getting closer to me, fighting. I forgot all fear, all exhaustion, anything but getting closer to him. I glanced behind me when I realized that Ardal was picking off each one with a perfect sniper round as their helmets popped off.
I felt invincible, until more spider-like creatures dropped from the ceiling behind me. They covered Mavit and Ardal and the rest of the group. A squirt of blood exploded from the center of the scrum as I fell upon it. A massive bladed tendril had gutted one of the men and it was about to slice Ardal in half.
I caught the tentacle in an x of my blades and slammed it against the wall. It shattered, and I flung it away from us. The Reivers suddenly skittered away as Sam led a group of fighters towards us. I had to be in his arms. I needed him, he was my everything in that moment. I stepped towards him as our eyes met and he ran to me. He swept me into his arms, we were both covered in gore, but didn't care.
We only had a heartbeat together, before the Reivers started pressing us again. Before we realized what was happening, a net dropped from above. The spiderlings had retreated, not in defeat but for a new plan. I tried to cut through the strands, but the stickiness trapped my blades.
We fought as long as we could, but they kept coming, an unending force, until they crowded us completely. We couldn't move, their dead bodies crushing ours past enduring.
A low hum moved through us. The very walls vibrated as the sound grew louder and louder. The last thing I remembered was the sound exploding and the room going white.
***
I woke up in a cage. No, not even a cage. I was pressed against a wall with bars trapping me. I couldn't move. I opened my eyes, and could only see darkness. All the adrenaline had drained out of me, and I felt all the weariness of the last few days crash over me.
Comfort flowed into me. It was Sam! He was nearby. He couldn't possibly know what he was doing, but it still buoyed my spirits. I reached out to him and just let the bond flow back and forth.
I didn't know if hours or days were passing by when my prison cracked open. The light blinded me until something covered my head and I was drug out by two beings. They had me firmly by the arms, and we walked endlessly. They didn't hurt me, and they kept me from tripping, but it was frightening.
They suddenly released me, and I lifted my hands to my face, freeing myself from the fabric bag they'd covered me with. I flinched against the light, which suddenly dimmed. I glanced around the room. It looked like a conference room, with a large table in the middle, surrounded by chairs. There was a carafe and glasses sitting on the table. I walked over, my thirst suddenly overpowering.
I poured the vitae and took a tentative sip. I sank into one of the chairs, realizing how badly I ached from standing in my cage. My mind reached out for Sam, wanting to badly to feel his warmth. To my shock, I could feel nothing. My heart beat wildly, I should have felt it if he died, not this nothing.
And then suddenly he was back and I slumped in relief. It was short-lived as the door opened. I stared at the dark hole. My throat was drier than ever and I started to shake. Would this be a Reiver? But in through the door walked a familiar face.
My father.
I scrambled out of the chair and stumbled backwards to the wall. He was dead. I saw Tlavi kill him myself.
The man who wore my father's face just stood there with a disappointed look on his face. He shook his head and said, "Really Thearaugqua, I would have expected you to have some manners, despite how disgraceful you are behaving."
He kept a calm demeanor, but he spat his next words at me. "Really? Bonding with a filthy human of all things. I'm rather put out that all my hard work of molding you into the model Madrelir female has been for naught. At least you aren't a whore yet, like your mother, spreading your legs for all comers."
He wasn't dead. I still couldn't wrap my head around the man in front of me. My heart pounded and my mouth went dry. Fear blossomed in my chest. I started shaking and slid down the wall into a tiny ball. The realization that he was going to hurt me again paralyzed me. In my mind's eye, I saw the pictures of what he'd done to the girls he'd taken in my place, what I knew he wanted to do to me now.
I grabbed a hold of the bond I had with Sam. I wanted his warmth while I slit my own throat. I wasn't going to be taken again. That golden warmth wrapped around me as I pressed my talon into the rapidly pulsing artery in my neck.
Stop.
I froze, I didn't understand. It was like Sam was whispering in my ear. All I could see was my father advancing on me, his hand on his belt buckle.
It's not real.
The whisper in my ear grew stronger and I embraced the bond. The room got brighter and brighter as I fell into Sam's voice. I blinked and went from the conference room to a dark room, pressed into the wall by several hands.
This time when I was released, I fell into a ball on the floor, surrounded by the crew who backed off when they saw my eyes open. Mavit help me sit up and I burst into confused tears.
She let me lean against her and she said, "They get into your head. Your deepest fears."
I looked up at her, her eyes were shadowed. I whispered, "It was so real. How did you get out?"
She shrugged, "It felt like a dream to me, very unreal. Seems like you were the most susceptible. The rest of the crew saw right through it." She patted my hand. "You scared the shit out of us when your talon popped out and you pressed it against your throat."
"Yeah, well, there are some things you take any escape rather than going through." I felt her nod.
Her hand squeezed mine and she said, "Yeah, I get it."
I finally looked around the room. There were only ten of us. "Is this all of us?"
Sam's voice came from behind me. "They divided us up. It's not looking good for us though."
I wanted to get up, run to him, and throw my arms around him.
Ardal came up to me and stared down at me for a long moment, finally extending her hand and helping me stand up. "Thanks for the save. The blades were a good idea."
"I wish it had been enough."
She laughed, harsh but amused. "Honey, there have never been survivors left behind. I've seen the vids of the bodies left. Mostly people get massacred. That we lived long
enough to worry what they are going to do with us? Kind of a miracle."
We all sat in silence. There wasn't anything we could do but wait, endlessly wait.
Every so often, a slot would open in the wall, and nutriloaf and vitae packs would tumble into the room. Based on our bellies, it seemed like they only fed us once a day.
I sat in the corner and watched the camaraderie of the group. Sam would wander through them. I felt like the outsider I was. Despite having fought with them and for them, I was still dangerous.
I started doing the warm-ups Yastlama had taught me. I didn't want to get weak as the days passed. Mavit and Ardal did them with me.
It had to be at least a week with boredom and hunger our only constants. We were fed enough to stay alive, but not much more.
Finally on the tenth day, the door opened. We sprang into action, pressing into the walls. A small robot rolled in and sat there while a flat voice said, "Follow it."
Chapter Ten
One of the men came forward and went to kick it out of the way, clearing the door, when a burst of light hit him from the little robot. He hit the ground, grey and smoky. Mavit reached out and touched him, and he disintegrated into ash under her hand. After that we fell in behind the little robot, careful not to touch it.
I whispered to Mavit, "Is this real?"
She said, "I think so. At least to me."
We entered a spacious room, with gear up against the wall. A being with a smaller exoskeleton greeted us.
"Welcome to the Reiver ship, Gooldets."
We all just stared at her. Chairs extended out of the walls and she gestured to us to sit. I was hesitant after the robot killed one of the men, but she pointed again and said, "Please, sit."
So we sat.
"You are a biologically interesting group, I must say. I am Dr. Blattodea." She wandered in front of each of us, making comments as she progressed around the room. She stopped in from of Mavit. "Oh yes, you are interesting, indeed. I think you might be part Madrelir and have latent bonding abilities. It will be interesting to see if I can bring them out of you."
Mavit shook her head. "But my parents..." she trailed off as the woman put an imperious hand up.
Dr. Blattodea said, "The universe has many secrets. Some of them involve a little DNA fiddling to experiment." She pressed a slender black device against Mavit's neck. "I just need to run some tests. Will only take a few moments."
She stopped in front of Sam and I. "Oh yes, a Madrelir and a Human. I am so very delighted to have an unfulfilled life bond to play with. I've never gotten to study the moment of fulfillment."
Sam twisted his head and her and said, "Life bond? What is that?"
She softly laughed. "Oh my, you little scamp!" She wagged a finger at me. "You didn't even tell him? He must be awfully confused. Your father would be so proud."
I just shook my head. How did she know anything of my father?
"Well, you'll have plenty of time to fill him in." She stood in front of us when suddenly the chairs wrapped around us, becoming cages that trapped us in place. "You will submit to the Reivers. My experiments will continue, but if you agree now, everything will be ever so much more pleasant."
Her exoskeleton parted, revealing cold dead eyes that surveyed each of us.
"No takers? I am unsurprised. You should know, most of the rest of the crew submitted by the end of the first day."
The chairs flipped back, laying us flat and stretching us out. Dr. Blattodea stood over me. "Oh yes, little Thea, I knew your father. He's the reason I know so very much about the life bond. It's a pity he died before he could share in my success."
I blinked back tears, I had no idea what to say.
"But this will really be a crowning moment for me, and it will hopefully bring about the last piece of the puzzle I need. It really is fitting it's you. And so humorous that it will be with a human! Your father would be appalled. I enjoy that."
She forced a gag into my mouth. "You will consummate your bond with your young man. I would prefer not to drug you, to have an untainted observation. Remember, you will be fully bonded, so if you don't allow me clean data, I will quite enjoy using your bond to torture both of you until you beg for death."
With that, my cage started moving, leaving the room and humming down the hallway. I had no sense of what was happening around me, until I entered another room. The cage turned back into a chair, twisting me with it. I was directly across from Sam, who stared at me accusingly.
Chapter Eleven
I looked around the room, avoiding his eyes. It was Spartan, but clean. A plump and welcoming bed was the only furniture. The chairs abruptly dumped us both on the floor and merged back into the walls.
Sam stood first and just towered over me. He finally reached a hand out to me and helped me to my feet. A wave of exhaustion crashed over me and I staggered. Sam guided me to the bed and I sat, sinking my head into my hands.
I said, "I suppose you'd like an explanation?"
He sat next to me, his voice softer than I expected. "It would be nice. But knowing there is something between us, I'm not surprised." He took one of my hands in his.
"You've heard of the Pogona?"
"It's like, sexual attraction on steroids."
I said, "Yes, something like that. It's both the drive to mate and a deep connection between two people. The stronger the bond, the more it develops, the more we can feel of the other person."
I was suddenly struck with realization. My mother and father had been bonded a long time, she would have felt, practically been in the same room with him as he ruined all those families, tortured and murdered them.
My whole life I feared and hated the bond because of what I'd seen what it had done to my mother. But it wasn't the bond itself that made her give up on anything but being a shadow. It was my father and what he was doing that drove her mad.
Sam said, "So that's why I was able to bring you out of their mind poison. Our connection."
I nodded at him. "Yes, I could hear you in my mind telling me it wasn't real."
"So what does she want us to do?"
I swallowed past the hard knot in my throat. "To consummate the bond?"
"Does that mean..." He trailed off in thought.
"Yes, it means to have sexual intercourse." I was trying to be clinical, to pretend that it wouldn't be so effortless, so easy to fall backwards into the bed with him. I stood up suddenly. "I would really rather not have to be forced into having sex with anyone. And we've been locked in a box for a week. I have not felt less sexy, ever."
He laughed and moved across the room from me. He banged on the walls and started shouting, "Hey, if you want us to fuck for data, you need to give us a real meal and maybe let us shower." He looked over at me. "Might as well get some grub out of this and you aren't the only one who would literally kill for a shower right now."
I smiled. Resisting him was going to be miserable, but the last thing I wanted to do was to help the Reivers in any way. I said, "I assume they can see and hear everything we're doing? Or not doing?"
A slot in the wall opened and a tray full of steaming food slid out. Sam laughed, "Yeah, I'd say so. Can we sit and eat?" With that, two benches slid out alongside the tray. He gestured to one of the seats with a flourish and said, "After you, of course."
I couldn't help it, the corners of my mouth lifted up and I sat down. He was so charming when he wanted to be.
We both fell onto the food, devouring it. The nutriloaf had given us basic nutrition, but it never filled the belly. It was only after we'd eaten every crumb that it occurred to me that the food might have been a trap. "Hey Sam."
"Yeah, Thea?"
"Think they just drugged us?"
A long silence passed and he just swore under his breath for a while. Finally he said, "Wait, if she did drug us, wouldn't that mess up her experiment?"
"Or she doesn't really care and was just getting us to let our guard down?"
As we mulled over
the possibility, a waterfall exploded out of the ceiling in the corner of the room. I couldn't help but giggle. Clearly our wishes for cleanliness had been heard, but probably mostly in a gambit to have us be naked together.
"Flip for it?" Sam was casual, but I could hear an edge to his voice.
"Ohhh, no coin on me." I kept my voice light and playful.
" Rochambeau?"
" Rochambeau? What the hell is that?"
He snorted at me. "I'll explain later. I'll go first, if you would be so kind as to look away?"
"Not a problem. I had a thought though." I sat on the edge of the bed, facing away from the waterfall.