Harvesting Rue

by Candace Smith

  “I have a bet going with Ebby. I’m taking Hospitality.”

  “How much?” The Quarter’s Procurement Officer dismissed the thought that the commissioning warriors would waste time on such a fragile creature, and he was certain they would exchange her for a sturdier, reliable Alidan. There were several of the universal creatures always onboard.

  “Five.”

  “What did Ebby take?

  “Tradesmen.”

  “Shit, that would have been my first choice.” Rue felt the muscle in her arm squeezed. “If it weren’t for the light fur, I’d say Production. Hell, put me in for Royals. They like the colorful species.”

  “You got it. Where do you want her?” Garnell asked.

  “Put her in holding two until the other female comes in. We’re preparing a cage for them now.” That, in itself, had been a chore. Tripton had never housed one of the creatures before, and he had no idea what special requirements or restraints would be necessary. After seeing the pet, he decided to strip the cage.

  Rue was moved further down the hall and she felt the gurney turn a corner and stop. She was left alone to her terrified thoughts while the faint voices echoed down a hall.

  “Do you and Ebby get the other female?”

  “Yes, Ebby’s prepping her now.”

  “I hope she’s a little bigger. Sometimes I can’t figure the warriors out. They only get to commission once a century, and they waste it on this species?”

  “She had moisture at two and gripped at two and a half.”

  “No shit. When did she erupt?”

  “Five.”

  “Damn… and I picked Royals.”

  “Yeah, well I’m stuck with Hospitality. See ya’ in a few with the other one.”

  Rue fell into an exhaustive sleep, briefly hoping that when she woke up this would all be a nightmare. She did not want to think about the other poor girl they were working on.

  Chapter III

  Waking Up

  In her mind, Dawn was still crying hysterically while she was being silently moved down some hallway. The things that had been done to her were frightening and painful, and she still could not open her eyes or move.

  She was terrified and silently screaming for Danny to rescue her. Perhaps what was even more petrifying were the words echoing through her crazed thoughts that the choker was from outer space. As hard as she tried to convince herself she was safely ensconced in a government facility, she knew it was not true.

  “Is their cage ready?” The man asked.

  “Yes, put them in three thirty seven. I haven’t received the commission transport papers yet.”

  “Let me know if it’s the warriors from Lameria. They’re supposed to be Officers, and one is a Commander. I just want to make sure that our grapevine is still working,” Garnell said.

  “You got it.” Damn. Warriors made the jailer nervous enough, but the thought of preparing this weakling commissioned species for a Commander made him shudder.

  Dawn felt the gurney move again, and when it stopped she heard a different kind of whooshing sound than the other doors made. She was pushed through, and then the table tilted and she slid onto the floor. She heard the gurney move away.

  A little while later she heard another table moved in, and she thought she heard the sound of another person sliding next to her. The other gurney left and she heard the strange whooshing sound again. For a long time after that, there was only silence.

  Rue slowly felt movement returning to her limbs and it took a while for her eyes to adjust. The pins and needles feeling she had experienced in the bar seemed to dissipate in the same manner it had encroached on her.

  From her prone position, she studied the small room she was in until she was sure she was steady enough to sit up. With the exception of almost transparent bars that looked out onto a dimly lit hall, the room was made out of a solid brushed metal on all sides that looked like the same slightly odd composite as the choker around her throat. Rue looked down and saw she was now secured with matching cuffs on her ankles and wrists. She shook her head to clear it a little and, not sure if her legs could hold her yet, she crawled over to bars and reached out to pull herself up.

  The shock from the bars caused her to jerk her arm back, and she panted on all fours until she felt strong enough to stand. Rue swayed on her feet for a few moments before she turned to study the room further. There was another naked woman curled up on the floor and facing away from her, with her dark hair draped around her.

  Rue walked around to study the girl and she noted that the young woman was stunning. She had full lips and high cheekbones, and Rue’s eyes traveled the length of the girl’s tanned body, stopping at her full breasts, rising in the deep rhythm of sleep. Her mind flashed onto the yearlong affair she had had with Betts before her lover had decided to jump the track and date Gary. As much as Rue tried to downplay her feelings when they were around each other, she had never completely gotten over Betts. Rue had settled for being close friends just to remain a part of her life.

  The other side of herself that Rue had discovered was that she really wanted a man. Being the controlling side of a relationship with Betts had been wonderful, but in certain situations… like this one, for instance… it would be really nice to have a strong man to lean on. That was the reason that Rue had tried the relationship with Betts to begin with. Rue had never found a man with strength that equaled her own, and she refused to settle for a wimp.

  Rue looked down at the other prisoner and noticed they were both similarly proportioned. They were both tall, around five ten, and had ample breasts and long hair. As a result of the tests she had been subjected to, she began to form an uneasy idea of why they were taken. She sat down next to the girl, waiting for her to wake up. A few minutes later she saw her begin to move her limbs.

  Dawn became aware of someone sitting down beside her, but she could not focus and everything was blurry. “Your eyes will take a few minutes to adjust, so just take it easy,” she heard a woman say. “It takes a while to come around.” Rue held the girl’s trembling hand and rubbed her arm.

  Dawn was finally able to make out the shape of the woman, and slowly her features appeared. The woman said, “Just take it slow, and you’ll be able to sit up in a minute.”

  The pretty woman tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder, and for the first time Dawn realized that she was naked. Naked… As that thought hit home, she realized she did not have a stitch on either. Dawn struggled to sit up and she scrunched into the corner trying to cover herself. She looked around the small space, terrified.

  The woman held out her hand. “I’m Rue.”

  It took a minute for her to get it together enough to answer. “I’m Dawn. Where are we?”

  Rue frowned. “Near as I can figure, we’re on some kind of spaceship.”

  Under any other circumstances, Dawn would have laughed and shot off some smart reply. Not this time, though. No. Dawn looked around the small cell they were in and the translucent bars that formed the wall blocking the hall.

  Rue saw her look over at them. “Don’t touch the bars. They’ll shock the shit out of you.”

  “Have you seen anyone? I mean other than us?” Dawn’s voice was quivering.

  “Nope, but there were people in the first room I was in.” Rue did not know if the woman had been subjected to the torture chamber, but judging by the way her face paled when she mentioned it, she figured that she had.

  Dawn looked down at her lap. “Do you think they’ll let us go now?” She was counting on the reports in the fad magazines about people saying they were abducted, tested, and released… so that they could have nightmares for the rest of their lives and have people think they were nuts. It sounded like a plan to her.

  Rue spoke softly. “I don’t think so. A lot of what I heard doesn’t make much sense, but I think I was tested to be sent to someone. They kept mentioning warriors.”

  Dawn’s eyes began to fill. “I’d hoped that was my i
magination.” She lowered her face and her dark hair shielded her. It was the first time she glimpsed her naked pussy, and for some reason that was what made it real to her. “Oh my god. What they did to me.”

  Rue scooted over to her and put an arm around her shoulders. They held each other and quietly cried. Both of them jumped when they heard the sound of one of the gurneys gliding down the hall, and they instinctively backed away. The two women held hands and trembled while they tried to curl into the back wall. The gurney stopped further up the hall, and then continued towards them.

  As the edge of the table came into view, the girls were shaking. It stopped in front of the bars and a man came around it. Except for being a little large, like a football player maybe, there was nothing unusual about him other than his eyes were a little weird. His irises seemed too big.

  “Mister, can you tell… Aaah!” Rue shrieked and she reached for the collar.

  “Rue, what’s… Owe.” The shock from the collar seemed to go through her neck and Dawn wanted to cry again. She was afraid to make a sound because she did not know what had triggered the current.

  Rue felt a sensation like a magnet, and the collar seemed to pull her up. Terrified into silence, she looked at the man through the bars as Dawn also rose to her feet. The man held some kind of device in his hands and he was pushing buttons on it. She felt her hands swing forcibly to the back and the wrist cuffs glue themselves together, and then her feet were moving towards the bars while the collar pulled her forward.

  Dawn was mirroring her actions, and she let out a little sob and was shocked again. The man outside the bars remained expressionless. When they were in front of him, their ankles latched together and the bars disappeared.

  Rue was silently crying and she felt the front of the collar rise up towards the ceiling until her head had to drop back while she looked up. The man held a clear tube over her face. It looked to be about an inch in circumference and six inches long. She sobbed again and was shocked, and then the collar began to tighten around her neck and she began to struggle.

  At the first whimper she was shocked again, and when she screamed the tube was forced down her throat with about two inches sticking out of her mouth. A hose from the cart was coupled onto the end of the protruding tube in her throat and a creamy green liquid began flowing down into her stomach.

  The restraints held her immobile but she sensed Dawn receiving the same treatment. She heard her cry once, and then there was just the sound of them trying to swallow to keep from drowning.

  “I’m sorry to bother you while you’re feeding.”

  “No problem, Ebby. What’s up?”

  “The warriors will be here late tomorrow morning to collect their pets.”

  The man studied the unlikely species. “I can’t get them ready by then.” He ran his fingers through his short hair. “Ebby, they don’t even know how to feed themselves yet.”

  “The Visqua has to leave the quadrant tomorrow night. They understand they won’t be trained and that they’ll have to get the markings done on the ship. They’d just like them emptied and cleaned.”

  “I can handle that. Do they want them fed in the morning?”

  “No. Varpin says he read the species can propel food out of their stomach and he doesn’t want a mess in the shuttle.”

  “Okay, I’ll put them up first in the morning, then.”

  “Good night, Tripton.”

  “Night, Ebby.”

  Rue saw the green stuff finally stop flowing and her tube was removed. She could not put her head down until Dawn’s tube was out. The bars reappeared and their hands and ankles were freed.

  The man glared at them with his strange eyes. “If you propel your food on the floor, you’ll be licking it up,” he growled. He turned and headed back up the corridor with the cart.

  Rue and Dawn looked at each other’s tear streaked faces for a moment, and Rue was the one who finally risked it. “Dawn?” She forced a weak smile. “It’s okay to talk now.”

  Dawn let out a sob. Her stomach was rolling from the green goop and she worked to keep from vomiting. The aftertaste of what had been forced into her stomach was foul. “Oh god, we’ve got to get away from here.”

  “I’m open for suggestions. From what I understand, they intend to take us somewhere in the morning before we’re transferred to another ship that’s leaving the quadrant… whatever the hell that is. Maybe we can overpower him then?”

  “I don’t think so, Rue, not unless we can get these restraints off. I thought I was going to choke to death and there was no way I could get my ankles and wrists apart,” Dawn finished.

  Rue studied the cuffs, looking for some mechanism or lock to release them. Her fingers traveled around the choker again. “I worked on the collar with some friends all day long and we couldn’t get it off. Gary is a welder and said he had no idea what kind of metal it is.”

  Dawn’s fingers trailed along the ankle cuff. “I wish they’d tell us what they’ve taken us for.”

  Rue stood and paced around the small area, self-consciously covering her denuded pussy and managing to cover most of her breasts in the process. She let go and used both hands to reach far up on the walls. “Maybe there’s some kind of latch or panel.” Her hands continued to smooth the walls, carefully avoiding the bars. “Nothing,” she announced. “It seems this is just a big metal cage.”

  The lights in the cell dimmed, making the translucent bars glow like icicles. They cautiously approached them and tried to look down the hall. Their view was limited to the blank wall across from them, and they finally sat back against the wall. “Where are you from?” Rue asked.

  “North Carolina. I’ve been a waitress for the past couple of years and trying to save for college. You?” Dawn asked.

  “I’m from Florida. I’ve lived there all my life, and I just bought out my partner’s half of our pool cleaning business.” Rue’s eyes began to fill as she thought of Betts and her other friends, even her crummy little apartment. “I wonder if they got the others?”

  “I was going to call in the morning and turn myself in,” Dawn admitted. “I guess I should have when they told us to.” Dawn’s tears were spilling at this point.

  “I don’t think that would have protected us. I tried to hold onto my friend and her arm slipped through my hands. Not like I let go. My hands literally passed right through her. When I came to in that first area, I thought maybe the government had gotten me or that I was in some kind of hospital.” Rue shuddered. “I realized that wasn’t what happened pretty quickly.”

  Their discussion was interrupted by the jailer’s growl. “Stupid species.”

  They looked up and saw the big man standing at the bars, and Dawn whimpered and leaned against Rue. Their collars began dragging them to the floor and they scrambled and sobbed, immediately getting shocked again.

  “Shut up and sleep. I don’t need to be explaining to the damn warriors why you aren’t rested when they show up.” He stormed away.

  Rue and Dawn realized they were not going to be able to speak any more, and their collars kept their faces on the floor. Rue managed to drag herself closer to Dawn and they held hands, trying to offer each other some comfort. Finally, boredom and exhaustion overtook them and they fell asleep.

  They awoke to their collars dragging them across the floor, and both of them scrambled to keep up and not be choked. They stopped with their heads an inch from the bars.

  “Not much to them, is there?” a man said. Rue stared at his boots, trying to keep silent and prevent herself from being shocked again. A few seconds later, the translucent bars disappeared.

  “Nope. They test pretty well, but that’s not going to make up for their inferior size. They’ll need the warriors to protect them… if they don’t end up killing them in that damn claiming ritual they insist on putting their commissions through.” It was the voice of what Rue thought of as their jailer. “Let’s get them to the cleaning station. Their owners will be here in an hour.”<
br />
  Owners? Oh, god, what’s happening? Rue felt hands lifting her onto a gurney. There was a pause, and she figured they were also putting Dawn onto one, and then they were moving down a hall. She looked into the line of cages along the hall and she realized the bars acted like a curtain and prevented her from seeing inside.

  They passed through a door into another metal room. It was much larger than the cell and she was pushed to the back wall. Rue thought she heard Dawn’s gurney behind hers.

  “We’re not feeding them?”

  “No. Apparently the species has the ability to propel food out of their stomachs,” the jailer answered in disgust. “The warriors have done quite a lot of research on them.”

  Rue felt fingers press down on her back until her bladder almost exploded from the pressure on her kidneys. As water flooded onto the metal table, she whimpered and got shocked into silent tears again. She began to thrash her legs, and the cuffs on her ankles and wrists immediately stretched to the sides of the table and secured her by the same invisible force she had experienced before.

  Fingers spread her bottom and she felt a hose breach her still sore anus as it entered her tunnel. Freezing water began to fill her bowels, and she struggled to expel it while her collar tightened threateningly.

  “Be still,” the jailer ordered.

  When she was finally able to force her muscles to stop rejecting the liquid, the collar loosened and she lay as still as she could while her abdomen swelled. The hose was removed and she strained to keep her bottom closed. “Expel it, dammit. God they’re stupid,” he muttered. Rue let the water out in a humiliating rush and cried quietly when the hose was pushed into her again.

  After the second flushing, she was declared clean. Next, they douched her and she clenched her bottom at the invasion. Her wrists and ankles were freed and she found herself being raised to her hands and knees on the table. She glanced at Dawn who looked as miserable and frightened as she was.

  Hoses sprayed water on them, and another hose misted them with some kind of soap that stung her eyes. They were rinsed, and then their gurneys were rolled to the middle of the room. The jailer pushed a button on the wall and air whooshed around them, drying all but her hair in less than a minute.