“No, but I’m sure your mamma does.”
More laughs were exchanged as my escorts began to go up the ramp with their new friend. How dare they talk so flippantly about what they were doing!? These were real, actual people they would abducting only to drop them into a never-ending nightmare! How could they live with themselves?
I didn’t know. But what I was certain of was that I was going to rip every single limb from their body when I got free of this tightly sealed cage.
With my rage burning, my patience was wearing that much thinner, and I was practically vibrating as I waited to be freed. But, as the latch was flipped and fresh air began to flow in, I realized that I couldn’t outright attack them. They could kill me in less than a minute and then all of Jyra’s plans to save me would be for nothing.
So I stayed limp. It was the most unsatisfying feeling as their grubby hands hauled me up and tossed me over the larger human’s shoulder. I wanted to rip into them. Make them know what it was like to really hurt.
I guess I just had to wait for the perfect moment.
We walked along for several moments until I was suddenly pitched forward. The next thing I knew, I was landing flat on my back, driving all the air out of my lungs in a gasp.
I figure that could have woken me up if I really was passed out, so I opened my eyes and jerked upwards. I was on the grimy, rusted floor of another empty room with no windows. However, this one had no lights and I could feel other figures huddled around the edges of the area.
“W-w-where am I?” I sputtered, looking up to my captors.
“Your grave.” The moorieree spat, getting down into my face with their teeth bared. “Whoever you were before this moment is dead. Now you’re just property to be used as seen fit.”
“Funny,” I answered. “I’ve already died once.” I knew I shouldn’t. I knew it was foolhardy, but I couldn’t resist. I pulled my head back and slammed it forward right into the alien’s upturned nose.
My eyes crossed at the force of the blow, but I laughed nonetheless. I could hear the slaver cursing, but before my vision could straighten itself out, a punch landed on my chin and knocked me back.
“Idiotic little bitch!” The alien screamed.
“Careful there lady,” The human said, sounding much more amused than his partner. “Stock like her is worth her weight in credits. Go take your frustration out on an old sow that’s past her usefulness.”
“I think I might,” They hissed, before glaring daggers at me. “Consider yourself lucky, slave.”
And then the door slammed in my face and I was in darkness once again.
I guessed after all of my time running across the solar system to save Jyra, it was my turn to be a damsel in distress. At least I had a kickass Prince and Princess Charming. The glass was half full, I supposed.
Chapter Six: The Daring Rescue from the Jaws of the Dragon
It turns out you could learn a lot in a slaver’s brig. There were about a dozen or so of us gathered in the small space. Almost entirely half-kin, but there were two humans and a seirr as well. Apparently, we were the most popular of the slave breeds, with only very specific customers requesting krelach and nesr-roona. There was a bit of a demand for mooreiree, but they often proved too dangerous to keep in involuntary servitude. Not impossible, but enough to discourage many a peddler of flesh.
All of us were young too. After taking a thorough survey, we found that the oldest of us was twenty-seven. Perhaps even more ridiculous was that the eldest wasn’t the seirr. Known for living between a hundred to a hundred and fifty years, she was practically a child at twenty-one.
We were all incredibly thirsty, and hunger was starting to keep in with its particular bite. At least one night passed, and we all slept huddled together. I didn’t exactly have a timeline of Jyra’s rescue, but I imagined it was going to be nowhere near instantaneous. I just had to be patient and reserve my energy.
…but patience never really was my strong suit, so instead I organized a revolt. Just regular, every day revolutionary stuff.
We put together a mental list of all the slavers that had capture us and what we knew of them. Some of the captives had lengthy interactions, explaining how they had been cased over multiple days. Some had been snatched spontaneously, like me. We were less help with the list, but every contribution mattered.
I explained to them that Jyra was coming, and that she would most likely contact me when she needed to in order to tell us what to do next. I promised each and every one of them safe passage and that they would see their home again.
And I meant it.
Eventually, the door did swing open again, just to have a handful of rations thrown in and a few canisters of water. Instead of scrapping for them, as I sure they intended for us to do to keep all of us weak, we shared them as equally as we could. There was no ‘I have it worse’ competitions in our little rebellion. We were all equals that relied on each other.
Another day passed, and although I reached for Jyra to get some sort of estimate, I came up empty. In the very back of my head, buried deep under my childhood love for tomato soup and my mild phobia of crickets, I worried that she might not come at all. What if Genesis had chosen that moment to strike, absorbing my friends into some sort of final battle that I was missing out on?
Just when that tiny sliver of a sigh began to turn into an actual voice, our prison was rocked by a violent explosion, and deafening alarms began to go off.
“It’s her!” I cried, jumping to my feet. “Everyone, get up!”
The rest of my companions followed suit, some of us with more speed than others. My heart was racing with the thrill of being in the action again. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it.
“Ready yourselves, guys. It’s probably going to get a whole lot rockier.”
As if on cue, the ship rattled again and we bounced like popcorn in a movie theater machine. We regained our footing, and the alarms suddenly shut off, leaving us in an eerie silence.
We stood there, tense and ready for action. The quiet seemed to stretch on, then suddenly gunfire was thundering through the halls.
“Andi!” Jyra popped into view and I could see the cockpit of an attack vessel behind her.
“Jyra!” I cried right back. Everyone else in the brig gave me a bit of an odd look and I realized that I had forgotten to tell them exactly how I spoke to my friend that was rescuing us.
Good job on the not looking crazy front. I just had to hope this didn’t make them lose all trust in me.
“Several of our pilots are distracting the vessel so we could board. We are now somewhere near the underbelly of the ship near mechanical, and are fighting our way up. Some of the slavers might come to use you as human shields. It’s a common enough tactic to ward off rescue.”
“No problem. We can handle that.”
“They might just try to kill you outright. Better dead cargo than cargo that can identify you in a Council case.”
“Good to know.”
“Who are you talking to?”
Gee, how did I explain that I was an interdimensional being born from an invasive creature of light that had a hard on for colonizing and a righteous complex? That seemed a little too complex for the moment so I settled on what I hoped was a believable lie. “Another agent.”
“Agent?”
I nodded sternly. “Sorry I haven’t been entirely upfront with you, but I’m an undercover Councilman who was investigating what we thought might be a slave ring at the lower part of the station. I’ve got an implant in my actual canal that allows me to talk with my partner. When I was captured, instead of swinging in and saving the day, we thought it better I allow myself to be carted off so that we could find where all of you were being held.”
“I guess we’re lucky then,” The seirr mmused, giving her shoulders a shrug. “Best way to be rescued is to hang around someone who actually matters to society.”
“Hey,” I corrected. “We all matter here.” I took a bre
ath to assess the situation. I had to switch from my character of hopeful revolutionary to highly trained government agent. I prayed all those improv games in college would pay off. “Now, they’re going to come here for us in a few minutes, either to use us as human shields, or kill us all off. We’re not going to give them the chance to make a decision. You, Manchella, Vryskki, Domina, go on either side of the door. Michayl, Krell, Saoirse and Dina I want you to lay in a line across the floor right about here. The rest of us, let’s press ourselves against the back wall like we’re terrified little bunnies about to be cornered by a wolf.”
“Really?” One of them questioned. “You think we stand a chance?”
“We don’t just stand a chance,” I said with all the determination I could muster. “We’re going to win.”
Footsteps thundered down the hall and we all jolted. “Into positions, everyone! Those of you at the door, press yourself as flat as you can against the wall and do not attack until everyone in the group steps fully into the room.”
They scattered as I had asked them to and I couldn’t help but hold my breath as we heard them come to the door. Despite everything I had been through up until this point, despite all the monsters I had beaten or outrun, I had never felt quite as powerless as I did in this moment. I had been spoiled by all those abilities, and I so very desperately wanted them back.
But they weren’t exactly available on delivery and the door’s latch was lifting, so it was time to do or die. And hopefully not the die part. I had already done that once this lifetime and that was my limit for a while.
The door swung open with a bang, narrowly missing Manchella, and then three slavers rushed in.
They were armed with large guns, which was less than fortunate, but just as I hoped, they trained their lights onto us huddled forms at the opposite side of the room. That was the dangerous thing about leaving your pray in the dark while you wandered around in the light; we adapted to the darkness, they didn’t.
“Now!”
The four lunged at the men, two of them being outright tackled and the third pushed backwards. The three slavers stumbled, and their feet caught on the captives lying across the floor, sending all of them tumbling. We didn’t need a cry to know to surge them, the thirteen of us pinning them to the floor, punching, kicking and biting whatever was available to us.
I had thought there would be more of a struggle, but it was amazing what a group of desperate people could do hen finally given a chance for justice. Those guards never stood a chance.
When it was over, we all stood in a circle around the bodies. I would like to say that they were alive to see justice served by a jury of their peers, but none of the three were going to anywhere other than a Council morgue.
We heard rushing footsteps nearing again, and turned as one to attack. But instead of a slaver, it was Janix who slid into the doorway with gun drawn.
“Andi!” He cried, grin big enough to illuminate an entire ship.
“Stand down!” I said, holding up my hands to the rest of the captives. “This is an all-”
I was cut off, but that was because Janix had rushed forward, throwing his arms around my upper torso to pull me down into a heated kiss.
I melted into the touch, so much of the anxiety and fear that had been holding back dissipating into the ether. When we parted, he let out a happy cry and swung me about.
“I would say that either you’re more than allies, or Councilmen have a very intense employee bond.”
“Councilmen?”
“Yes.” I said somewhat forcefully. “We’re on an undercover mission to bust a slave ring. And you’re our-”
“Demolition man.” He said with a suave smile. “Now if you ladies, gents, and other fair folk would follow me, we have a transport ready to take you home.”
“Yessir!” Domina said with a little salute.
“Sir, huh.” His eyes narrowed at me. “How come you never call me sir.”
“Because you haven’t earned it.” I shot back. “Now, can we get on with the rescuing?”
“Right, of course. This way.”
We followed him out. Elsewhere we could hear more sounds of a firefight, but it seemed that it had been taken far from us. Still, that didn’t mean we didn’t shake a leg as we dashed towards our freedom, none of us relaxing until we were sprinting into the open doors of a cargo vessel.
“I have them!” Janix cried into his comm. “Initiating station side journey now! Everyone, pull out when you can.”
I couldn’t hear who was on the other end, but it seemed to be positive by his reaction. For the first time in too long, I followed him to the cockpit as we strapped in and the pilot -one of Angel’s men who I didn’t know- took off.
I turned to putty in my seat as we put distance between ourselves and the vessel that had been going to steal all of our lives. I could hear crying from the back and I couldn’t blame them. I almost wanted to sob myself, and they didn’t have the comfort of a reassuring kiss of one of their lovers first step out of the prison.
I watched through the window as another cargo ship closer to the belly of the slaver vessel took off. It was the one that held Jyra and whoever else who had been a part of the boarding part of the rescue crew, I assumed. Then the individual fighter ships pulled off, leaving the slaver vessel floating listlessly in space.
“So what happens to them now?”
“Once we’re far enough, we’ll put an anonymous tip in to the Councilman about their location. None of them will ever see the light of day again.”
“Good.” I let my head fall back against the seat and closed my eyes. I could finally rest.
“What happened to you, Andi? You were dead. We buried you.”
“It’s a long story,” I said with a sigh. “But I’m here now, and that’s what matters, right?”
“Of course, but how do I know it’s really you? I mean, I’m as happy you’re here as the next guy, but if there’s one thing I learned back on that facility it’s that our cloudy enemy can take your shape.”
“Jyra and I have visited each other like we used to do when we were children. Not even Genesis can do that.”
“Oh, well that’s a straightforward answer. I didn’t think it would be that easy.”
“For once, it is.”
He reached over and his fingers wrapped through mine. “I’m really happy you’re back. So happy that I’m probably going to cry about it when we’re alone and all this adrenaline wears off.”
“I think I could go for some waterworks myself.”
He nodded, and pulled my hand to his chest, where he held it against his heart. His skin was incredibly warm to the touch, as usual, and comforting against my fingertips. “Sounds perfect. You rest now. I’m sure Jyra’s going to want to have her own moment with you as soon as we get to the station.”
“How far out are we?”
“Just twelve hours. The slaver vessel had to travel a roundabout way to avoid several blockages.”
“Twelve hours?” I murmured. “That should be just enough time for a really good nap.”
*
We arrived right on time, stomachs rumbling but mouths much less dry. There had been enough ration packs on board for all of us to have a meal, but it wasn’t quite enough to make up for two days of living on a slice of bread or so. Thankfully, there was plenty of water available.
We set down on what looked like an abandoned dock, and multiple of Arq’s crew helped us off. We were escorted within before two pirates were assigned to each ex-captive to take them home.
I probably should have said goodbye to them, but I only had eyes for Jyra. As soon as I set foot onto the hard metal of the station, I started looking for the scientist.
It took me several moments of scanning before I spotted her coming off the ramp of the other vessel. Our eyes locked, and before my brain could even issue the order, my legs were running.
Breathlessly, we collided in a desperate embrace. Clutching at each other and
sobbing in earnest, we collapsed to our knees.
It was pure emotion, raw and visceral and aching.
“I thought I had lost you,” Jyra sobbed into my shoulder, her small frame shaking in my arms.
“Never.” I promised through my own tears. “I have a lot to explain to you, but you should know that no matter what happens, even death itself can’t actually separate us.”
“Good.” She said, just beginning to compose herself. “I have much to tell you as well. Perhaps we should get up, and take the transport Arq has prepared for us just beyond this hangar.”
“Yeah, I think I can manage that.”
I got to me feet, then helped Jyra to her feet before wiping the tears from her face. She stayed still a moment, before returning the favor for me. That was my scientist; always learning.
“Hey you two!” I turned to see Janix sauntering up to us, a wry grin on his face despite his watery eyes. “Am I to take it the sudden upright posture means y’all are ready to head out?”
“Yup.” I answered, offering my hand to him. “Let’s go.”
He looked from me, to Jyra and back before his fingers wrapped around my palm. “Let’s.”
Together the three of us walked out. The rest of the crew was still attending to things, but I thought it was pretty understood that we needed to head and find a little bit of respite in our quarters on Arq’s ship.
“Where’s Viys’k?” I asked as we walked towards what looked like some sci-fi version.
“She was in one of the fighter vessels. They’re flying directly back to the ship so we’ll meet her onboard. For now, however, we’ve got to take a quick trip through the center of the quadric station. The good thing is that Arq made sure that we had a ride that ensured privacy.”
“And that’s… that?” I asked, pointing to the relatively unimpressive vehicle.
“Hey, don’t knock it. This is the most popular methods celebrities use to travel incognito. I don’t want to think about the kind of credits she had to drop to get us this.”
“Well, spare no expense, I guess.”
Without any more snark, we all got onboard and made ourselves comfy. It was pretty nice, as ground transports went, but for some reason felt so low tech. Maybe I had been too spoiled by all the glittering lights and shining chrome.
The Return (Alternate Dimensions Book 5) Page 6