Her chest heaved and the tone of her voice let me know she was clearly angry. I stood full height, ram-rod straight. “You threaten me?” My eyes bored into hers, warning her to choose her words wisely.
“Threaten? What? No!” she said, incredulous. “I mean, I’ll escape if I have to, but I will help look for Amanda. You either let me go with you, or I’ll go by myself.”
I studied the female for a few standard seconds and then gave a curt nod. When I turned and headed toward the bridge, Susan followed me.
Amanda
Before we made it to the cave, a brunette woman scampered toward us, almost skipping. She looked to be in her late teens, maybe early twenties. With a smile on her face, she said, “Hi, Jane.” Her bright brown eyes slid to mine even though she still talked to Jane. “Who’s this?” she nodded toward me.
“I’m Amanda,” I said as I offered her my hand. Before she took it, I glanced down; dirt and grime colored my hand blackish. I whipped it away, “Sorry,” I said as I wiped it on my silver pant leg.
“No worries. We all know what it feels like to be dirty.” She grinned. “Don’t we, Jane?”
Jane scoffed, “That’s the understatement of the year. When the Tureis kidnapped me, I could barely stand to smell myself. I think the stench is etched forever in my nostrils.”
The brunette shook her head but kept her smile in place as she said, “Don’t mind Jane.” She nodded toward the cave entrance. “Come on. You can get cleaned up, and we’ll explain everything to you. By the way, I’m Clara.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Clara.”
Clara led the way inside; Jane brought up the rear. My mouth gaped slightly at the sight. The cavern was large with a warm glow of light making it easy to see. Many different aliens glanced my way, which made me slightly uncomfortable. Several looked humanoid, but very different. Hard ridges etched into their skin, odd-shaped heads, one even had three arms.
“Come on,” Clara said as she grabbed my arm and pulled me further inside. I hadn’t realized that I’d stopped walking and just stared rudely at the other species.
We stopped just short of a muscular man, one with the hard ridges on his forehead and wrapped around his bald head. His slightly bluish skin looked leathery as he stood with appraising amber eyes.
“Who have you brought to me, Clara?”
I didn’t understand what he said, but Clara smiled and answered the man. “Var, this is Amanda. She needs a translator.”
His eyes slid lazily to mine, and then back to Clara’s. “Very well.”
I felt uncomfortable, so I ignored the conversation and glanced around to get a better look. As primitive as the location was, the inside looked modern, futuristic compared to Earth standards.
Cushions lined the cave wall, but instead of resting on the floor, they just sort of floated. There wasn’t a source of light that brightened the cavern, at least none that I could find. Aliens, young and old, talked and laughed as though they’d known each other all their lives. But they were clearly different species.
“Amanda,” Clara said as she gripped my upper arm to gain my attention.
My eyes shot back to hers. “Huh?”
She smiled warmly, but I felt anything but warmth as I swallowed hard. Dread. Apprehension. Those were just a couple of the things that made my heart beat erratically.
“I said, Var is going to insert a translator. It goes right behind your ear.”
Jane walked up behind Clara and finished, “You will feel a little overwhelmed at first. That’s normal.” She smiled, and I knew she was trying to reassure me. But I was still nervous.
My tongue darted out to moisten my lips, and then I nodded. When Var pulled out the injector, my heart pounded with fear. I glanced from the injector to his face and noticed how his eyes softened.
“Have her lie down.” His voice sounded smooth, masculine, but I didn’t understand a word of it.
“He needs you to lie down before he injects the translator.” My fear-filled eyes shot to Jane as she led me to a floating cot.
“Don’t worry. I promise everything will be okay.”
Trust wasn’t something I gave freely. Growing up the way I did, I knew most people were mean, cruel even. But what choice did I have? I got lucky when I met Jane and Clara, but the odds of us getting back home were slim at best. I didn’t fool myself, and I needed to understand what the others said.
“Just lie down,” Clara smiled, “I promise, everything will be okay.” I smiled at her. Did she know she mimicked Jane’s reassurance?
I slowly sat down on the cot, testing it with my weight. I kept expecting it to crash to the floor. Not that I was heavy, but I didn’t know how it floated.
Jane noticed my apprehension and smiled. “I don’t understand it myself. Var tried to explain it to me once and then gave up. He talked about gravitational constants and gravitational potential energy.” She threw her hands in the air. “I didn’t understand any of it.”
A smile teased Var’s lips as he listened to Jane try and explain. I stretched out on the cot, still half expecting it to slam down on the floor with my 125 pounds. It didn’t, thank God.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Var bring the injector toward my head. My breath hitched, my frantic heart beat wildly, and I wanted to bolt from the cot. Instead, I stayed frozen in place. The last thing I wanted to do was flinch and have him miss his mark.
When he injected the translator, a loud noise roared inside my head. It felt like someone was squeezing my head in a vice, and the pressure became unbearable. I blacked out.
“She’s out.” Jane said before facing Var. Clara and I are supposed to go on a supply run. We volunteered before we found Amanda. Can you keep an eye on her for me?”
“I can.”
Jane smiled at her friend. “Okay, thanks. I’ll go gather supplies and try to be back when she wakes up. I don’t think she’ll appreciate it if we just leave without saying anything.”
Sometime later, my eyes popped open and the first thing I saw was Var’s smiling face. “Feel better?” he asked.
I blinked a couple of times and then sat up on the cot. “Yes, I think so. How long was I out?” I gave him a wary look. “Where are Jane and Clara?”
“They will be here any moment.”
Just as Var spoke, they walked up behind him. “About two hours. Feeling better?”
“I am. Thanks, Jane.”
“Come, we’ll show you around.” Clara grabbed my hand and nudged me toward a group of aliens standing near the entrance.
One of the aliens slowly turned in our direction and pierced me with flaming red eyes. “Don’t pay any attention to Gara’s eyes. She’s really nice.”
I hoped my face didn’t show the unbridled fear that made my hands tremble. Small delicate horns curled around her head. An elongated nose and mouth showed sharp teeth when she smiled. Her body had some sort of tan scales instead of skin. She was scary, beautiful, and strange to look at. I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
Gara’s appraising eyes scanned my body before meeting my eyes. “Gara, this is Amanda. She’s new here.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Amanda.” Gara inclined her head slightly. I guess nobody really shakes hands. Not knowing what to say, I just nodded back to her.
“Come on, Amanda.” Clara started pulling me to another group.
“Clara, give the girl a break. She just got here,” Jane said, chastising her. “Don’t you remember what it was like?”
Clara shrugged. “Not really.”
“Of course, you don’t. Nothing scared you.”
Clara glanced around the cave looking at everyone there. I wanted to run and hide when I felt all eyes trained on me. I was the newbie here.
“I can’t help it. I’m not like you, Jane.”
“I know.” Jane smiled at her friend. “Why don’t you go grab the satchel while I talk to Amanda?”
Clara’s eyes slid back and forth, looking at both Jane and me before she
huffed, “Fine. See ya later, Amanda.” She scampered off, leaving Jane and me alone.
“I love her to pieces, but she’s young with grand ideas about things.”
I grinned. “Like how everyone should automatically get along?”
“Exactly!” Jane laughed before it died down to a sigh. “Everyone here is nice, but some are really dangerous if they are provoked. The problem is that you never know what will provoke someone. It could be a look, something you say, sometimes they think they deserve more respect. But what is respect in their culture?”
I nodded. It made sense. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your story?”
Jane didn’t readily answer. She glanced around the room before her eyes landed on me. “I don’t really have one.”
“That’s bullshit. Everyone has a story.”
One side of her mouth tipped upward. “Okay, fine.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I married the love of my life when I was twenty. A year later, we had a beautiful little girl. She and my husband were my world, and then one day, a drunk driver killed them. Mallory was one at the time.”
My hand flew to my mouth as tears filled my eyes. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry.”
Jane swallowed the lump in her throat, and I watched as she tried to get her emotions under control. “Ten years later, and I’d just started dating again. Finally getting my life back in order and for the last year, I was happy.”
“And then you were kidnapped?”
“And then I was kidnapped,” she confirmed. “So here I am. Trying to keep Clara out of trouble and learning how to navigate a new planet. What about you?”
We slowly walked over to the entrance of the cave. I looked out over the terrain before I focused on Jane. “There’s not much to say. My dad ran off when I was little. My mom stayed drunk all the time, and our apartment had a revolving door for men.” I rubbed my arms automatically as I thought about that time in my life. “Susan was the only good thing in my life.” I swallowed hard. Jane had just told me about losing her family, so… “As soon as I could, I left my mother and got away from that way of life. I couldn’t watch her whoring around with every man who wanted to…” I swallowed. “I’d saved up some money and had started community college when the aliens came.”
“I guess we’ve both had a hard life.”
“I guess so.”
Clara came bouncing toward us with her bubbly smile. I laughed before I noticed the packs strapped across her back. “Going somewhere?”
“Yeah, we volunteered to make a supply run.”
She stepped forward and handed me a plate of food and a container of water. “I brought you something to eat and drink.”
I accepted the plate and smiled. “Thanks. I’m starving. I stole some food, but it tasted awful. Since Cotton liked it so much, it was probably dog food.” I looked around, “Where is the little guy?”
“He’s back with his family.”
I tipped the container to my lips, swallowing some more water. “How come this tastes good and that stream I found had undrinkable water? Or whatever that liquid was.”
Clara smiled and raked her hair away from her face. “It depends on where the water is found. There are different minerals that can taint the water, while other streams are fine to drink.”
“Makes sense I guess.” I glanced around. “So what is this place? Why are there so many different aliens living in the cave?” I tugged on my pants. “And why does everyone wear these silver clothes?”
Jane grinned. “Var runs this place. It’s something like an unground network for kidnapped aliens. He rescues as many people as he can before or after they are sold at auction and gets them back home as soon as possible. Since nobody knows how to get us back to Earth, Clara and I help him out.”
My eyes slid to Var with a new outlook. “And these clothes?”
“The people on this planet have thicker skin that deflects radiation. At least that’s what Var said. These clothes are just a precaution because there are so many different aliens with different skin types. Some of them here don’t even have skin, they have hard shells to cover their bodies.”
I glanced around, looking at the other aliens with the new knowledge. They had all been kidnapped, just like Susan. “How long have you been here?”
Jane answered as we slowly walked back toward the cot, and Var. “I’ve been here about four months. Clara about two. A shuttle comes once a month, takes everyone home who wants to go. Except for us. No one knows where Earth is located.”
I only nodded. Everyone was nice, but I remained hesitant. “Okay, we need to head out,” Clara said in a chipper voice. I wondered if she was always that happy.
Var stood with his arms crossed. “Take Notia with you.”
“Sure thing, boss. Be back soon.” The two of them turned to leave, and in the distance, I saw a ginormous alien join them as they headed out. When I glanced back at Var, he stared at me with a serious expression.
“You are very cautious,” he said with knowing eyes.
“I have to be.”
“They kidnapped you, that would make anyone cautious.”
I relaxed a little when I grinned up at Var. “No one kidnapped me. I was stupid enough to get here all on my own.”
Var tilted his head and narrowed his amber eyes. “Please explain.” He sounded skeptical, and why wouldn’t he be? That sounded stupid to me when I said it aloud.
“They kidnapped my friend. I couldn’t let her go alone, so I sneaked onto the ship hoping to rescue her. I didn’t get the chance.” I shrugged, acting nonchalant.
He raised one eyebrow. “There was another?”
“Yes, Susan.”
He shook his head and I could see the anger transform his face. “The auction wasn’t planned, or someone would’ve been there.”
“I don’t understand, how can you afford to buy everyone?”
He grinned, sinisterly. The glint in his eye scared me a little. “We don’t unless it is a low bid, and it’s only the females that will be used in the sex industry. Then we wait until someone else pays the price, and we steal the female one way or another.”
“You kill them?”
“Sometimes.” He shrugged as though it was no big deal. “Does that bother you?”
I glanced up at him and held his gaze as I said, “No, it doesn’t.”
He tilted his head, still holding my gaze. “You are very different than the other two humans.”
“How so?”
“Clara is always happy, Jane has a deep sadness, but you… you’ve seen bad things in your lifetime.”
I snorted. “You think?” It was a rhetorical question. An abandoning father, a drunken whore of a mother who cared more about the flavor of the week instead of her own daughter. Not to mention the shitty neighborhood I grew up in. Yeah, I’d seen my share of bad things.
He waved me over to a small pond in an adjacent cavern. It wasn’t nearly as big as the main room, but large enough for several people to bathe. “Would you like to talk about it?”
I snorted. Maybe he was a shrink on his planet. I glanced at the water and then back at him. He was nice enough, but I’d just met him. Looking longingly at the water, I mumbled, “No.”
“Very well, you can clean yourself there.”
My eyes shot to his. “I’m supposed to bathe with everyone else?”
His laugh was loud, boisterous. “You are like the other two humans. They also had problems adapting in the beginning.”
“Fine,” I said as I hastily yanked off the silver jumpsuit. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of explaining my aversion to being naked in front of people. I swallowed my pride and let humiliation reign in the guise of indifference. My heart pounded with trepidation, and I quickly stepped into the pond of water. To my surprise, it was warm. And magnificent.
The water washed over my skin, rinsing the dirt and odor away with each rake of my hand over bare skin. I tipped my head back before completely submerging
myself in the heavenly feel of a warm bath. It had been so long that I closed my eyes and let everything that had happened drift away. Just for a moment, I wanted to forget it all.
I swam to the far side, keeping my back to the rock wall. The water lapped at my chin as I watched the other aliens. One especially caught my eye. Her skin was green, smooth, maybe a shell. I couldn’t tell from that distance. There was no hair on her head, just a fine point that descended downward. She methodically poured water over her shoulders and arms in a feminine gesture.
She must have felt the weight of my gaze. Reptilian eyes locked with mine, neither of us looking away. She studied me just as I had studied her. Slowly, she inched her way over until she stood about three feet away.
“You are new here.” She smiled, showing gleaming yellow teeth. “I’m Pitrea.”
“Amanda.” I finally said after a moment of hesitation.
“Amanda,” she inclined her head, “you are safe here.” She studied me for a few more seconds and then said, “You are from the same planet as Jane and Clara.”
“Yes, I am.”
She smiled, “It’s amazing how one planet has so many different looking species. You are the same… but not.”
I shrugged. “I guess so.”
“Everyone has been so nice to me here, and I could only extend you the same courtesy.”
“Thank you.” She inclined her head and then started to tread away, her hands skimming the top of the water. Before I thought better of it, I blurted, “How did you get here?”
She looked over her shoulder and smiled. “A rival female from my home world kidnapped me and then sold me for a profit.” I watched as the viciousness glinted in her eye. “When I get back, she will regret the day she ever messed with me.”
I shivered at the thought of what would happen to the one who betrayed Pitrea. She looked like the type that would show no mercy.
I climbed out of the pond, the water dripping from my body, creating a puddle beneath me. I followed a few others as they walked through a small door. Warm air flowed from overhead and from the sides, drying me quickly where I stood. I grabbed one of the folded silver jumpsuits and hastily dressed.
Kavvan (The Azziarin Series Book 7) Page 5