Broken

by C. R. Jane

  I stiffened.

  "How long have I had the translator in?" I said, feeling a coldness start to creep over me. “What else have you implanted in me?”

  Corran had the sense to look a little ashamed at my question.

  "Since you came to us," he said quietly.

  "Where is it?" I asked.

  "Behind your right ear," Corran murmured, clearing his throat.

  I brushed my fingers along the skin behind my ear, but I couldn't feel anything laying underneath the surface. I was afraid to ask my next question.

  "Has anything else been put into my body without my permission?" I finally asked.

  Corran’s face fell blank. “Just something that allows me to track your body’s vitals better. It was put in when we were going to use you as the main specimen in my experiments. But now it just helps us to make sure that you’re healthy."

  I felt my annoying tears dripping again because with everything they did, I was losing control more and more. I was so sick of crying. "And where's that one?" I asked in a quivering voice.

  "That one is in your left arm," Corran said in a nonchalant voice.

  I brushed my hand over my arm, all the while knowing that I wouldn't be able to feel anything.

  “Anything else?" I asked coldly.

  Corran shook his head. "That's it.”

  "Is it even worth me asking that you get permission before you put things into my body from now on?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

  Corran sighed. "I can't promise you that. If you refuse to do something that we feel can help you, I can't say that we won't do it anyway. You belong to us. That means that we’re responsible for your health, your safety, and everything else that comes with that."

  In this moment, I truly felt exhausted. I had always assumed that they felt like I was their property. But the thought of them putting whatever they wanted into my body, it left me feeling desperate, and out of control. I took a few deep breaths, trying to tamp down my emotions that were threatening to spiral. That’s all I needed was to have a panic attack right before I met an entire alien race that hated me on principle.

  Derrial returned to the room at that moment. "I have to go meet with the Council and prepare them for you," he said.

  I couldn’t find the words to respond, so I just stared at the floor.

  Derrial sighed. "What's wrong with you now?” he muttered in an annoyed tone.

  "She's not very happy with some of the devices that have been using on her," Corran said calmly.

  Derrial barked out a laugh. "Unbelievable." He stalked back out of the room without another word.

  "You’re going to need to pull yourself together for this," Thane spoke sternly. "The Council would love to see you lose control and confirm all their thoughts about humans.”

  I wanted to respond that they were the reason I was feeling out of control in the first place, but it didn't even seem worth it.

  As we waited,Thane began to explain further what would happen when we walked off the ship. "As Corran said, you’re going to be marched through a line of Vepar. They’re going to say things, things to make you angry. You need to ignore them. Once we get through the line, you'll be taken to a new building where prisoners are kept. Derrial will have arranged for you to be in your own cell thanks to your status as part of Corran’s fertility experiments. The prisoners that will be in the cells next to you are very dangerous. Don't engage them, don't look at them, don't even acknowledge their presence." Thane pulled up my chin, forcing me to look at him. "You understand me?" he said in a serious voice.

  I nodded, fear churning in my gut at what I was about to face.

  "Hopefully Derrial will succeed in having you in different quarters quickly under the guise that Corran needs to start performing tests. It should only be a few hours that you have to stay there, but if you do have to spend the night, the same rules apply. One of us will try to be stationed in the jail if that happens." He tapped his ear, seeming to be listening to something, almost as if he had a phone hidden in there.

  "Derrial is ready for us." He looked at me, his penetrating green eyes seeming to see right through me. "You can't mess up with this," he said seriously. "If there ever was a time for you to listen to us, it’s now.”

  I just nodded, unable to utter actual words as I tried to pump myself up for what I was about to experience.

  "We need to change first," Thane suggested.

  I watched as he walked to a plastic tube that stretched from floor to ceiling on the side of the room. He stepped inside and pressed a button. I watched in amazement as his clothes changed right before my eyes without him even moving a muscle, fabric vacuumed off him, and new ones wrapped around him, seeming to sew shut right before my eyes. Thane’s usual outfit of jeans and a V-neck were gone. He now stood in what looked like a cross between an outfit you would see in a Star Wars film, and an outfit from a Victorian byopic. The entire outfit was made up of different shades of brown. He wore a tan silk blouse I’d seen on the cover of a Harlequin novel. The front was cut low, showing a great deal of his ridiculously perfect chest. On top of that was a darker brown fitted jacket and matching pants, so tight it had me gawking. Every muscle on his legs showed. I had never thought that breeches could look good on anyone, but like with a baseball uniform on a major leaguer, the pants managed to make his lower half look very tantalizing. Tall brown boots that resembled riding boots completed the look.

  Thane came to stand by me as Corran took his turn in the device. He pressed the button and his usual all-black outfit that looked similar to nursing scrubs, changed into a grey version of what Thane was wearing.

  I looked down at what I was dressed in. The guys had continued with their habit of wanting me in dresses. My current skater style dress was sure to stand out.

  "Am I going out in this?" I asked, finally finding my voice again. They scrutinized my outfit, Corran rubbing his chin. My body heated up as their eyes lazily made their way down my body. Thane looked over at Corran.

  “Do you think it's better for her to stand out or look like she's trying to assimilate into the culture?" he asked.

  Corran thought for a moment. "Maybe she should change," he said. “It might help to make the differences less obvious."

  I wondered about his use of the word differences. From what I could tell, the Vepar looked just like humans, albeit perfectly formed godlike humans. What would make me stand out so much? The fact that I looked as plain as could be next to them? I didn't know that clothes were going to fix that.

  Thane walked me over to the cylinder. I experienced a brief moment of panic when I stepped in, my newly developed claustrophobia surfacing. Thane pressed a button and without me feeling anything, my clothes were replaced by a completely different outfit, down to my underthings. I was going to have to get Corran to explain how this device worked.

  I looked down at myself. My dress definitely looked old-fashioned. The gown fell down to the floor and was made of a beautiful cerulean blue fabric. A torture-like corset constricted my breathing, threatening to make me pass out from lack of oxygen. The front of the dress was cut low, displaying my ample cleavage. I didn't have a bra on anymore, but the top of the dress fit so tightly that my breasts couldn’t move even if they wanted to. The sleeves were long and form fitting. I lifted up the dress to examine my footwear. They looked like simple ballet slippers, slightly lighter blue than my dress.

  Although it felt like there was a lot of fabric to the dress, it was dreamily lightweight. All in all, I didn't hate the look.

  I lifted my head up and caught Corran and Thane gaping at me. It set my cheeks on fire the way they were studying me. My other dress had been much shorter than this one, but it had covered a lot more of my chest. Evidently they liked that about this one.

  "We should've kept her in the other outfit," Thane moaned.

  Corran nodded in agreement.

  Whatever communication device Thane had in his ear must have alerted him, because he
put his hand to it, seeming to be listening to something.

  "We're coming,” Thane said in an annoyed voice. He listened to whoever was on the other line, saying nothing in response. Thane then grabbed my arm, and we started walking out of the bridge, and through the never ending hallways.

  Chapter 5

  We stopped in front of a wall and Corran fastened my handcuffs again. I winced as the metal dug into my skin. I was scared to even walk for fear that it would trigger the spikes that Corran had mentioned. Hopefully they weren’t that sensitive.

  "Remember what we said," Thane said softly, a hint of trepidation in his voice for the first time. I looked up at him worried. He always seemed so confident. It didn’t seem like a good sign that he was beginning to freak out now.

  The wall dissolved in front of us, and I felt a cool breeze across my face for the first time in a month. Corran had explained earlier that scientists had been able to manipulate the environment to keep the temperature ideal for Veon’s citizens year-round. In places that they needed crops to grow the atoms in the atmosphere had been altered to produce wetter conditions, similar to the tropics. For the Vepar who worked in those types of climates, a sort of force field had been created that allowed personal ozones to be created keeping them cool and comfortable while they worked. I was amazed at how advanced the Vepar were compared to humans. The ability to manipulate nature had seemed impossible to me before Corran had explained it.

  Despite their admonition that I needed to keep my head down, I couldn’t help but try to get a look at the new world I found myself in before I was locked away, perhaps permanently.

  It was so colorful, and not what I expected.

  A simple observation, but I had never seen such a lush looking place before, especially considering the air felt perfectly cool, somewhere in the upper 60s or lower 70s.

  We were in a large grassy clearing that looked like it could fit a few dozen spacecrafts. Large mountains surrounded the clearing. There was a variety of tree species spanning the mountains in all different colors. I had never seen a purple tree before but here I was seeing hundreds of them. Flowers bloomed all over the clearing in every color imaginable. I felt like I had walked onto the set of Wizard of Oz. Everything was so bright and beautiful that it hurt my eyes. I couldn’t imagine the guys wanting to stay on Earth over this.

  Overhead, two suns hung in the sky, and Corran leaned close, whispering, “We have a binary star system. The suns revolve around each other as our planet circles them.”

  I’d never heard of a solar system having two suns before.

  As soon as I had that thought I spotted two lines of Vepar standing in front of a brown structure that had a roof that curled into the sky. My mouth dropped. I had never seen so many beautiful creatures in one place. I said creatures because they were human-like with legs and arms, but at the same time...they were distinctly alien.

  Once I got past their first flash of beauty, I noticed what set them apart. Some of them had horns... horns of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Some were short and pointy reminding me of ears, while others were curled like those mountain goats, the colors varying from creams to blues and blacks. Others had thin tails coming out of their rear ends that seemed to have pincers at the very end. I watched in amazement as a particularly attractive male picked something up on the ground that he had dropped with his tail. Others looked normal with the exception of their eye colors. I had never seen orange eyes before, let alone some of the other colors that caught my attention. All I could do was gape at them, the very opposite thing that Corran and Thane had told me to do.

  “What are you doing?” Thane growled.

  “It’s all so amazing,” I exclaimed, finally averting my eyes to the ground where they were supposed to be.

  Suddenly something struck me. If the Vepar here had all of these different characteristics, why didn’t my Vepar?

  Everyone on Earth said they used disguises to cover their real appearances…. And they were right.

  “Do you have horns or a tail?” I asked. I’d never imagined that such features and strange eyes were something that I’d be attracted to. But seeing them on all of these beautiful Vepar had me thinking differently. It was so exotic...so exciting.

  Thane stared at me for a moment, seeming to be thinking over his answer before he spoke. “We’ll talk about it later,” he finally said gruffly. “Now keep your head down before we look even more suspicious.”

  Well that wasn’t a no, I thought somewhat excitedly. Then I finally remembered that I was supposed to be hating them, and I was about to walk through a line of Vepar that thought I was lower than the dirt at their feet.

  Fear started to stamp its way up my spine as we began to walk, tramping the wildflowers under our feet. I watched as they sprung up as we moved, none the worse for wear. Even their flowers were superior to the ones on Earth…

  The air thickened with hostility as we got closer and I shivered. The line consisted of all men, their glares skating all over my body, and I felt wrong and uncomfortable. I had never encountered such hatred before. Thane and Corran must have felt it too because they both inched imperceptibly closer. Thane gave a small nod to Corran, who took over holding my arm tightly. Thane fidgeted with his belt where he was keeping the silver stun gun that I had seen him use before. Did they think we were going to be attacked?

  I made the mistake of lifting my head when a large neon purple bug landed on my face. I put my head down again quickly, and blew a breath up my face to get it off my nose. A quick shake of my head and it flew away. But the damage had been done. I’d looked them in the face and seen them up close. The Vepar no longer looked beautiful. Their faces were scrinched in hatred and twisted with disgust. I couldn’t help but wonder what they had heard about humans to give them so many strong emotions.

  From what I understood, I was one of the first humans to ever be brought to Veon. At least on Earth we had reason to hate the Vepar. After all they had come over and taken control of everything. As far as I knew, the humans hadn’t done anything to Veon. In fact, the Vepar needed humans to keep their population going. It seemed a little ungrateful to me.

  “Vadiah,” one of the Vepar hissed at me. I didn’t need my language translator to understand that whatever he had said was not a good thing.

  Corran and Thane both stiffened next to me and I heard Thane give a growl that made the Vepar step back. I had been under the impression that all three of my Vepar were higher ups in the Veon society.

  My Vepar...why did I say that.

  More angry voices spat out hatred and curses as we walked through the line. Thane stiffened, his hands curled into fists, like he itched to shoot them all. I expected Thane and Corran to stand up for me, but I guess that would go against the impression they were trying to present me as their prisoner. I wondered what the Vepar would think if they knew that I had slept and made blood bonds with all three of them.

  The thought made me absurdly want to laugh. And then I wanted to cry again.

  Maybe I was going crazy.

  We finally made it through the line and were about to enter the building when I was hit in the back of my head with something sticky and horrible smelling. It slid through my hair, down my neck, and into the back of my pretty dress.

  It took a second and then my skin started to burn. I let out a small scream and started to claw at my neck and hair, which then made the skin on my hands start to burn as well.

  “It hurts,” I moaned, fear sticking to my ribs like tar.

  Corran cursed and started to drag me inside. I suddenly heard Thane’s gun go off.

  Bang. Bang.

  Despite the pain, I looked back and was shocked to see one of the Vepar lying dead on the ground, Thane standing over him with a ferocious look on his face.

  I wouldn't worry about any repercussions for Thane at that moment because the burning started to increase until I felt like I was being burned alive. Was I going to die?

  “What’s happening
to me?” I cried out as I stopped in my tracks, unable to move any longer due to the immense agony I was feeling. Corran picked me up in his arms, murmuring softly in my ear about how I was going to be alright, how they would never let anything hurt me again.

  He hauled me into a room that looked like Corran’s secret basement lab. Or at least I think it did. The pain was making everything seem distorted.

  Corran laid me face down on a table that was much softer than the other medical exam tables I’d encountered in my life. I sobbed as the burning continued to spread throughout my body. He picked up a knife and quickly slit the back of my dress open so that the fabric slid off of me.

  I stiffened when Corran sprinkled something wet all over my skin. Immediately my pain faded, replaced by a cooling sensation. Corran continued with the liquid for a few more minutes before stopping. His footsteps quickened around me, drawers shutting and closing. I was so exhausted from the pain that I didn’t even bother to open my eyes to look where he was going.

  A second later, his footsteps approached and he applied a soft gel all over the neck and shoulders under my dress. I moaned with how good the coolness felt.

  Corran stiffened at the noise, then cleared his throat. “How are you feeling?” he asked hoarsely.

  “Better,” I croaked, my voice faint from screaming so much. “What was that?”

  “A creature most similar to the barnacles you have in your oceans. Except ours contain one of the most toxic poisons on the planet.”

  “So I could have died?” I asked, starting to cry again at the memory of how much it had hurt.

  He was silent for a moment. “I never would have let that happen,” he said, rubbing in some more of the gel. "I'm so sorry this happened to you," Corran whispered softly, gently continuing to stroke my skin. There was such remorse in his voice, the kind that I rarely got from them after everything they had done to me. It did something to my insides.