by Lisa Lace
Everything felt sparse and spartan, but for a prisoner’s quarters, it wasn’t bad.
“Stay here. Troxeo will be in to see you later.” She turned to go out the door.
“Wait a second,” Katie said, curiosity overtaking her. “What’s your name?”
The woman considered her for a moment. “Chixo.” She left and closed the door behind her. She didn’t ask Katie’s name.
Chapter Ten
Troxeo scowled at the tray of food in his hands. He was supposed to be the captain of this ship. He felt like a servant. A servant to an animal, no less. But the Earthling would have to eat if she was going to make the trip back to Oretoz alive. Since he was on his way to her room anyway, it was only sensible that he be the one to feed her.
It had taken him a while to decide what he was going to give her to eat in the first place. He had studied Earth extensively, but most of his time had been spent learning about mechanical and engineering issues, such as the blueprint for the spaceship taking the mail-order brides to Bonaan or information about their weapons systems.
He hadn’t bothered to figure out what these creatures liked to eat. He looked at the tray in his hands and wondered if she would recognize anything on it.
One thing he was certain she wouldn’t know was the bright blue bottle of epobaka extract. He had put it on the tray, and then back in the cabinet, and then back on the tray several times before finally deciding to bring it. He had seen it used in the interrogation process many times and had been forced to take the serum himself occasionally. Usually, it was restricted to more critical missions than this one. And Commander Reck had never asked him to question the prisoner, merely to bring her to him.
It was a little risky bending the rules this much, but Troxeo was too curious not to.
He pressed his finger against the pad next to the door, and it opened silently. He expected to find her staring out the window or lying listlessly on the bed. That’s what most prisoners did if they were lucky enough to get a regular room on his ship and not end up in a cell.
He had asked Chixo why she was bothering to treat her nicely. His shipmate had only shrugged with a little smile on her face and told him it seemed like the thing to do. Chixo was a soldier, but she could still be too soft.
When Troxeo peered into the room, he didn’t see the prisoner on the bed or by the window. He looked around the chamber, trying to suppress a small burst of panic rising inside him. She couldn’t have escaped, and if she had, where would she go? Would she prefer the deadly vacuum of space to being his prisoner? Soon enough he spotted her, at the side of the door, prying at a ventilation hatch with her weak human fingers.
“Stop!” Troxeo commanded, using the same voice he used when training new soldiers back on Oretoz.
The human jumped up immediately. Apparently she had not seen him enter. She pulled her hands to her chest and pressed back against the wall, staring up at him with huge blue eyes. She shook visibly.
“Don’t waste your energy, human. There will be no escape from my ship.” Troxeo gestured with his head to the table by the window. “Sit down. Take a rest.”
The woman moved slowly, as though she was having problems making her muscles work properly when she was afraid of him. It made him smile internally at the thought of his power, but he didn’t let the smile reach his face.
He hoped his appreciation of her new attire didn’t show either. The bodysuit Chixo gave the human hugged every curve as she moved to the table, revealing a fuller figure than he realized when she was wearing her clothes from Earth. Katie never turned her back or took her eyes off him as she moved across the room. She acted like an animal backed into the corner of a cage. She sat in one of the chairs and waited silently, her back curled in fear.
Troxeo crossed the room and set the tray in front of her before taking the chair on the other side of the table. He planted his elbows on the table and watched her carefully. She was still trembling and stared at him instead of digging into her food.
“Aren’t you hungry?” He was surprised to hear an undertone of anger in his voice. Why did this female affect him like this? He had no real reason to be angry. She had tried to escape, but he knew her feeble attempts would never get her off the ship. Other than the single incident, she had been a cooperative prisoner. He thought his mission had been a success.
The human looked down at her food and back up at him, but didn’t respond.
“You must eat,” he insisted. “Otherwise, you’ll never survive the trip. And starvation isn’t a fun way to die if that’s what you’re thinking about.”
Katie nodded, her hair fluttering around her shoulders. She reached toward the tray and pinched off a small bite of a bread roll. He watched carefully as she put it in her mouth, entranced by the movement of her lips as they closed around it. Her eyes flicked to him again as she reached for a small, round piece of fruit and slipped it into her mouth.
Was this creature trying to seduce him?
She exclaimed as she bit into it, sitting up in her chair. “Oh! It’s a grape!”
He hadn’t heard her speak yet, and her voice was surprisingly musical. Unlike the rasping voices of the women on Oretoz, it was a sweet sound. He didn’t know what to expect, but it matched the desire he felt for her body.
“No,” he corrected her. “It’s a slopra.”
She picked up another and looked like she was ready to argue with him, but as her eyes met his she seemed to shrink back down into the chair. “Okay.”
Troxeo reached across the table and pushed the bottle of epobaka juice closer to the human. It was the same color as her bright blue eyes, the ones that seemed to stare right into his soul. “Make sure you drink. Space travel will dehydrate you quickly. You don’t want to end up in sick bay.”
She picked up the bottle and took a tentative sip, pressing her shiny pink lips against the rim of the bottle. He watched her throat bob as she swallowed it. The tip of her tongue emerged to nip a stray droplet from the corner of her mouth, and he once again felt a stirring between his legs.
“What is this?” she whispered.
Troxeo only hesitated for a moment. Everyone on his planet knew perfectly well what it was and what it did, but he was confident that the human would have no way of knowing that she was drinking a truth serum. “Epobaka juice. The people on my planet consider it a delicious drink.”
“It’s excellent.”
She nodded again, and Troxeo had to push his hands together to keep them from reaching across the table and grabbing her hair. Instead, he focused on his training. He and his fellow soldiers had been required to take the juice themselves. Troxeo was glad he had no secrets to worry about at the time. It was hard to remember anything said while under the juice’s influence.
He was beginning to realize he had a secret now that he didn’t want anyone else to know. Meanwhile, the female took another drink. It wouldn’t be long before she started divulging everything.
“Do you know our destination?” It was the classical beginning of the interrogation process, where he asked straightforward questions that didn’t have a dramatic impact on the subject. It was the fastest way to tell if the extract was taking hold.
“No. I mean, not really. Chixo mentioned a different planet. Oz, or Orbit, or something? I do feel a little like Dorothy.”
“Oretoz,” he corrected.
“That’s the one.”
Her shoulders sagged slightly. Troxeo could tell she was beginning to feel the effects of the epobaka. She was currently experiencing the involuntary relaxation of her muscles and a foggy feeling in her brain. Although she hadn’t said much yet, he doubted her speech would have been so comfortable around him without it.
“I was supposed to be going to Bonaan, though,” she continued as she popped another slopra in her mouth, “until you decided to change my plans for me.”
“You were going to be a mail-order bride.” He tried not to let his voice show his judgment on her. The idea was abs
urd. Why would any woman sell herself off, especially to a race as weak as the Bonaan?
“Yep. What a crazy idea. But I thought it was the right choice. The men from Bonaan seemed nice and calm.” She took another sip of the juice and looked up at him with pupils so dilated he couldn’t see her irises. “Not like you. You’re scary.”
Troxeo felt his chest start to puff out at the compliment. Though she hadn’t sounded like she was frightened when she said it, he knew it was the truth. The juice took away all inhibitions, including fear. He wished he had imbibed some himself. It would give him an excuse to make everything he imagined doing to her reality.
“I guess I can be intimidating to a human.”
“Oh, yeah,” she nodded. “I don’t think I’ve ever been paralyzed with fear before. Congratulations.”
“And what precisely is scary about me?”
The human picked up a piece of bread and rolled it around in her hands, examining every surface of it before ripping off a huge piece with her teeth. “I don’t know if they have mirrors on your planet or not. Have you ever looked at yourself? You’re huge, for one thing. And you have this hardness in your eyes like you’ve seen terrible things, but you try not to let them bother you. Maybe you don’t think or feel. You just act.”
She considered him as she swallowed a bite of bread, her head tilted to the side. “And you’ve got those giant muscles.” She set down the rest of the food and reached across the table, poking his arm with a finger. It felt soft and cold against his skin. She giggled. “I mean, you must work out a lot.”
Troxeo fought the urge to take the massive arms she seemed to like so much and wrap them around her. He desperately wanted to feel the softness of her body tight against him and to show her exactly how powerful his arms could be. But he remained in his seat. The interrogation was going off the rails.
“Does Earth have plans to invade Bonaan or any other planets?”
She gave a little snort of laughter. “Like I would know! I don’t even watch the news unless I have to. What about you? Are you planning on invading any planets soon? Or do you simply prefer to capture random Earthlings?” She giggled again.
His jaw tightened. If she hadn’t been drunk on the extract, he would have sworn that she knew more than she was letting on. Was this a human way of making conversation? It had to be. The epobaka was taking care of her inhibitions.
“Did you know your ship is spinning?” she asked suddenly, squinting her eyes and holding onto the table with both hands. “You might want to check with the pilot, or activate your stabilizers or something.”
Instead of correcting her, he got to his feet and came around the table. He picked her up, put one arm under her knees and the other around her shoulder, and carried her to the bed. It was impossible not to become aroused when he felt her warmth against his body. He laid her on the bed and pulled the blanket over her, even though he wanted to climb in next to her.
“Hey, big fella. My name’s Katie. What’s yours?” She giggled uncontrollably.
He watched her for a moment, feeling caught between the life on Oretoz he had always understood and a new life that might be completely different. He decided it didn’t matter if he answered her question. She wouldn’t remember when she woke up.
“Katie, my name is Troxeo.” He turned and left the room.
Chapter Eleven
Katie’s dreams were the most vivid she could remember having. First, she swiftly descended a twisted slide, feeling the centrifugal force pushing against her body as she corkscrewed further and further down. Next, she was on a roller coaster whose tracks seemed to be invisible. She felt every bump and gyration of the coaster cart she occupied. It tipped from side to side and up and down hills. It was the kind of thing that would have made her sick in real life.
Finally, she ended up in the arms of a tall, scary alien. His muscles were so hard they could have been made of stone, and he hefted her easily. It made her feel tiny and unique and sexy. But the dream burst and left her with waves of nausea on the bunk in her room.
Katie blinked bleary eyes furiously as she tried to clear them. She knew the alien had been here and knew she had talked with him, but that was about it. Her stomach churned. She must have eaten, but she didn’t know what.
The room around her slowly stabilized. The bunk was surprisingly comfortable, and the blanket deliciously warm. She kicked it off her feet and analyzed her surroundings, hoping she had overlooked a way out.
She had already tried the ventilation hatch. Leaving through the window into space would be a terrible decision unless she was interested in a rapid death. She wasn’t ready to go that far yet. The door wasn’t programmed to work with her fingerprint, and she didn’t know the first thing about rewiring or hacking it. Everything was useless. She was useless.
As though someone read her mind, the door slid open, and the short woman from the sick bay entered the room. Katie searched around in her mind for the alien’s name. Chixo. She came to Katie’s bedside and rested a cool hand on her forehead. Katie was too exhausted to pull away.
“How are you feeling?” the alien woman asked. “None of us were sure how your body would tolerate Oretoz food.”
“I guess you made me into your guinea pig after all.”
Chixo’s eyebrows drew together. “I’ll have to look up these guinea pigs of yours. Troxeo did it, not me.”
Katie’s mind swam around again to figure out who the woman meant. The big male. She wasn’t sure which alien was more terrifying. Chixo was small, but she hadn’t hesitated to lay her alien hands on Katie. It was awkward to be with her when the woman had seen her naked.
Troxeo was a terror all his own. While Chixo’s interest in her body seemed to be purely scientific, Katie could easily recall the savage stares from Troxeo when he abducted her. When he looked at Katie, she felt like he was hunting something.
“He said you can come out of your room for a little while as long as you promise to behave. We have no qualms about locking you up again or even tranquilizing you.”
Searching for the basis of an argument, Katie found nothing. She could learn more about her captors if she moved around the ship. With luck, she could earn their trust and take advantage if an escape opportunity presented itself later down the road.
That was the kind of thing that happened in movies. But this was real life, and she would be lucky if she managed to get away alive, much less make it back to Earth. “All right,” she agreed solemnly. “Thank you.”
Chixo led her out of the room and down the corridor of wires and blinking lights once again. This time, she stayed on the right side. They entered a room that made the hallways look dull. The décor of the corridors continued inside this room.
Wires of varying thicknesses coiled across the floor like snakes, biting into circuit boards and portals. Katie had taken a computer class or two when she was in college, and she had seen plenty of sci-fi movies about hackers or computer geniuses. But nothing she had seen from a director’s imagination could compare to the array of electronics before her.
In the back of the room, buried behind a desk almost entirely surrounded by paper-thin monitors, she saw an alien male sitting in a chair. He was speaking rapidly and watching the results on the screens.
Chixo cleared her throat. “This is Enan, our tech expert. Enan, this is the human. You said you wanted to see her?”
Enan spat out a few more commands before rising laboriously from his seat. Though he was as tall as Troxeo, his flesh was flabby and soft. He wore clothing similar to the captain’s, but it didn’t fit him nearly as well. The black sleeveless shirt didn’t cover the drooping flab of his belly, and his arms oozed out of the sleeves. His drab olive pants seemed to barely contain the bottom half of his body. He looked at Katie with kind and curious eyes which were the same brilliant blue as the blinking lights around him.
“Ah, yes, yes. The Earthling. Tell me, what technology do you bring with you?”
Katie looked
down at her bodysuit, realizing for the first time that she possessed nothing. The only thing she brought with her when Troxeo took her from the ship was her clothing. Now Katie didn’t even have that. She normally had her phone at all times, but right now it was inside her purse and flying off to Bonaan without her. She hadn’t even worn a watch today.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I have anything at all,” she replied.
The tech blinked his bright eyes at her sadly, then began to inspect her carefully, hoping that she had overlooked something. He lifted her hair with a pudgy hand and checked the back of her neck. “You don’t even have a microchip implant? I thought humans were quite dependent on technology, even if everything you have is outdated.”
“We do. Most people are hardly ever without their phones, at least. But I don’t have any of it with me. I’m sorry.” She wasn’t entirely sure why she was apologizing. They were the fuckers who had abducted her without warning. For some reason, she couldn’t seem to help it. The alien looked disappointed.
“That’s all right. I’m a collector. Even if I didn’t learn anything from your phone, it would have been intriguing to see it.” He waddled to a panel behind his desk and slid it back, revealing a large array of gadgets and devices.
Katie had never seen most of the electronics before, but she did recognize several generations of cell phones from Earth. She felt a small thrill in her stomach at the sight of something familiar, even if they were only plastic rectangles. The thrill subsided when Katie realized she was far out of range, and they didn’t have any power.
Even though they were useless, she still wanted to hold one in her hand and have something else here from Earth with her.
Before she could ask where they came from, he slid the panel back into place, concealing the devices once again. “As I said, it’s not important. Your friend Chixo doesn’t approve of my hobby, anyway.”