by Lisa Lace
He liked being in control.
The ship quickly burned through the atmospheric barrier, allowing the great city of Metzan to coalesce before him. The capital city of the entire planet, Metzan was a bustling metropolis that seemed to grow every day. Troxeo guided his ship to the Oretoz Capital Fortress in the center of the city. From above it looked enormous, but one could only truly appreciate the unusual size of the building from the ground. Troxeo had stood at the foot of the Fortress many times, staring up at it, soaring into the slate-blue sky, glimmering and slick like glass.
The bottom of the ship gently touched the ground, and Troxeo decelerated the engines, guiding the ship onto its landing pad. He shut down the dashboard with a flick of his finger and turned to Arkhan in the seat next to him. “I’ll get the prisoner.”
“Are you sure?” his cousin asked. “I’m happy to do it if you like.”
“No, thank you.” Troxeo bit off his words through tight lips. The mission was his, and he wasn’t about to let Arkhan take credit for it by being the person to escort the human into headquarters. Nothing could change whose name was on the mission documentation, but the image of Arkhan leading the first human on Oretoz into the capital would be an effective piece of propaganda.
He left the bridge and followed the looping corridor around to the prisoner’s room. When he slid open the door, he found Katie staring out the window, her arms wrapped around herself as she shivered. She looked tiny and frail as she turned to him. “What are you going to do to me now?” she asked in a shaking voice.
Troxeo felt a moment of sympathy for her, but he mentally brushed it aside. He had to remember his responsibilities. “I’m taking you to Commander Reck. Then I will resume my other duties, and my time with you will be over.” He grabbed Katie’s arm and started to lead her out of the room. His entire hand fit comfortably around her bicep.
“I hope he’s nicer than you,” she muttered as she tripped over herself on the way to the door.
He smiled down at her. In her eyes, he could see the terror his grin inflicted. “Commander Reck? Nicer than me? You’re in for a surprise, Earthling.”
Chixo and Arkhan were waiting for him at the bottom of a small ramp that had opened at the back of the ship, allowing them to disembark. His cousin was smiling and looked relaxed, but concern clouded Chixo’s face. He didn’t bother asking her what her problem was. Troxeo knew it was likely related to the same troubles he was having. It didn’t matter, anyway. There was nothing he could do about it.
As they moved toward the large gate leading out of the shipyard with the human stumbling and trembling next to him like a frightened animal, Troxeo noticed a noise he hadn’t expected. It was coming from the other side of the high wall that surrounded the ships, and it seemed to grow louder as they approached the gate. He perked up his ears. It wasn’t the whine of an engine or the controlled and precise shouts of soldiers drilling. It was cacophonous, a noise built of chaos and perhaps anger.
The gates swung open to reveal more Oretoz than Troxeo had ever seen in one spot before. The crowd even eclipsed the gathering for the election of the current Master Ruler, and that mob of people only got so big because they were commanded to come. The courtyard in front of the building was fenced off, and there were more men on guard duty than normal.
Soldiers formed a double line of security leading away from the gate and toward the Capital Fortress, guarding Katie’s path in case someone who had come to see the human managed to slip past the fence with a weapon. Someone shouted for her to go back to her planet. Others called for her blood. The people at the edges threatened to push past the lines of military, either because they were angry or because the irritated Oretoz at the back of the crowd mindlessly shoved them forward. Troxeo wrapped his hand around Katie’s arm protectively, but he didn’t hurry. He couldn’t let anyone see he was intimidated.
The small party finally reached another set of gates. These were three times as tall as Troxeo and heavy enough to require five men to pull them open. The howl of the crowd outside subsided as the gates closed behind them. They were now safely in the entryway of the Fortress.
“Troxeo ar Trepniss to see Commander Reck, in the company of Arkhan ar Trepniss, Chixo Velina, and one human.”
The guard on duty visibly blanched at the mention of the Earthling, but he quickly recovered with a bow and a murmur. “One moment, sir.” He scrambled out of the entryway and disappeared through a small door.
“We seem to be making quite a commotion,” Arkhan remarked.
“Shut up.”
“Why are there all those people out there?” Katie seemed to get smaller the longer she was on Oretoz. She stared up with giant eyes at everything around her.
When Troxeo didn’t answer, Chixo spoke up. “It has to be because of you. They’ve never seen a human before.”
“They don’t seem curious. They sounded angry.” Katie’s voice was nearly a whisper now. “I didn’t do anything to them.”
The guard reappeared, looking more composed and stopping any of them from replying to the girl. “You should proceed to the personal quarters of Commander Reck.”
With a nod, Troxeo and his party headed for one of the elevating pods on the other side of the entryway. Katie was so reticent to move that Troxeo practically had to drag her across the smooth marble floor. After they had entered a pod, they were dumped out onto the one hundred and third floor within moments.
Looking down at Katie, Troxeo stopped before approaching the large silver door that led to the Commander’s quarters. “Pull yourself together,” he whispered in her ear. “If you think the ride was scary, then you are not going to like Commander Reck at all. Like any of us, he will sense weakness and pounce on it. I suggest you find some strength.”
Katie nodded, her eyes looking terrified. For a moment, Troxeo felt protective and wanted to take her fear away. Her chest heaved when she took a deep breath, and he had to look at the floor to avoid distraction. When he glanced back at her, she was standing straighter than before. He only knew she was shaking because he was still holding onto her arm. Troxeo thought it would help her cause to be wearing the bodysuit. Surely even an older warrior like Reck could appreciate her curves.
The silver doors in front of them slid open, and the guards on the other side swiftly parted to make way for the small party. One of them pressed his finger against a keypad, which allowed them into the inner chamber. Commander Reck sat in a throne-like chair behind a desk, not bothering to get up for them as they entered.
Reck had always been old for as long as Troxeo could remember knowing him. He wore a crimson robe over his uniform. It was a symbol of status as well as practical. The Fortress was often chilly. His silver beard looked less majestic than it used to, his jaw line starting to sag. Reck’s dark eyes, however, still gazed out from under his hood with the utmost authority. The penetrating stare had helped him rise quickly through the ranks of the military.
“I understand you have completed your mission?” The question seemed redundant as Troxeo led the human up to the edge of the desk. Reck’s eyes glittered as he consumed the newcomer with his stare. “Interesting. The humans aren’t the same in pictures as they look in real life. It’s a bit mesmerizing. I trust that you had no problems retrieving the package?”
“No, sir. The execution was flawless, even if I do say so myself.” Troxeo stood at attention, staring out the window behind Reck’s shoulder. The city looked gray and blurry below them. He wondered idly if the crowd was still down there, banging on the fences and walls surrounding the Capital Fortress.
“Excellent. Chixo, Arkhan, I thank you for your assistance to Captain Troxeo. It’s time for you to return and assume your regular duties now, don’t you think?” He didn’t look at either of them as he spoke, studying the human instead.
“Sir, if I may speak freely.” Chixo took a step forward. “I would like to request that the human be transferred to the research department when you have finished with her
. I only had time and equipment to gather initial data on our trip here. I would like to perform several more tests at my leisure and with a full laboratory.”
Commander Reck slowly swiveled his head to look at her, his face looking hard. “I know how you like to cut things open, Sergeant Chixo. There may be enough time for you to do everything you want, depending on what happens here. For now, I said to go.” He waved her off with a gnarled hand.
“Yes, sir.” She and Arkhan left the room without a backward glance.
“Now that we’re alone, Troxeo, I have some unusual questions for you. Have you interrogated our prisoner yet?” Reck slowly stood from his chair and came around the desk. He was getting old, but his age had no effect on his stance, and he still had a soldier’s bearing. His shoulders looked wide under the black sleeveless shirt, though some of the muscles of his arms had lost their crispness and begun to look soft.
“No, sir.” Troxeo was glad that Reck was too focused on the human to catch his lie. His first instinct was to mislead his superior. It hadn’t been a successful interrogation, but he had certainly asked Katie questions. Troxeo knew he would be forced to repeat every word to Reck, even some memories he wanted to keep to himself, like how the Earthling had giggled and poked at his muscles.
The older soldier took a position behind the human and examined her from that angle, slowly looking up and down her ass. “That’s just as well because I have some very specific information I want to get from her. Do you think she has problems understanding our language?”
“She seems to speak Standard fluently, sir. There have been no communication issues.”
Reck’s gray eyebrows jumped up like surprised caterpillars as he continued his circle of the human. “That should make my job even easier. For now, I have appointments for the rest of the afternoon. Take the human to holding cell 406. You can return to your regular duties, but keep in mind that I may need your assistance in dealing with the Earthling. Don’t go far.” He sat down and began examining the paperwork on the desk in front of him as though Troxeo had left already.
“Yes, sir.” Troxeo turned from the large desk and pulled the human back out of the Commander’s chambers, moving her to a waiting pod. They zoomed to the bottom of the building and went to the underground levels. In the deepest chambers of the building, prisoners were held, guards conducted interrogations, and torturers punished uncooperative soldiers.
His unbidden hopes for the Earthling seemed to plummet along with the descent of the pod. She didn’t need to be as far down as cell 406. He knew it was terrible there. In the back of his mind, he had hoped she would be treated as an ambassador of sorts, still held under lock and key but treated respectably. In the farthest reaches of his imagination, he had a secret fantasy that Reck would fire a few questions at her, and everything would be over. He would allow Troxeo to dispose of the human as he liked. Troxeo would gladly whisk her back to his quarters and finally do what he had dreamed of since he locked eyes with her on the Earthling ship.
For the time being, Katie’s future was in room 406.
Chapter Fourteen
From the moment they landed on Oretoz, Katie had problems getting her legs to move. They seemed to have turned to liquid and become useless, along with her stomach. Troxeo had told her to be strong when they went in to see Commander Reck, and she had done her best. Katie could only remain standing because she wasn’t required to speak to him. Either she had done a decent job of being brave, or the older alien had been too busy to notice how badly her knees were shaking.
Any trace of bravery that she did have disappeared as Troxeo took her down to her cell. She had nearly begun to think of him as being on her side as he guarded her against the roaring crowds in the city and supported her outside of Commander Reck’s office. But she realized now that she couldn’t have any allies here. Not Arkhan, not Chixo, and certainly not Troxeo. He had been the one to take her in the first place, after all. She was doomed.
The violent motion of the pod made what was left of her stomach shoot up and out of her mouth during their descent. It was very similar to the elevators she knew back home, only smaller and rounder; she and the aliens had to squeeze tightly together if they all wanted to fit in the same one. Most things on Oretoz so far seemed to be like the pods: similar but not the same. The sky was blue, but it was more of a slate blue than the sky on Earth. It made the colors of the buildings and plants stand out more, like the brilliant hues that stood out just after a thunderstorm had cleared.
She had seen a good sampling of the people as they screamed at her and pounded against the fence, and they seemed to be much like Earthlings in that they had a variety of hair, eye, and skin colors. They were all slightly different shapes. The one thing they had in common that wasn’t similar to the humans she knew was that they all had perfect bodies. Every single one of the people in the crowd, either man or woman, was positively ripped with muscles. Katie doubted they knew anything about fast food, frozen dinners, or curling up on the couch in front of the television.
The pod stopped, and Troxeo guided her off it with a firm grip on her upper arm. She was certain she would have his fingers permanently imprinted on her skin by the time they finished. The new floor was crisp and bright. The floors and walls seemed to be made from something like sealed concrete, hard and glossy, but without any visible seams. The beams that came down from the ceiling were so bright that she couldn’t see any light fixtures.
The two guards waiting for them on the other side of the pod doors joined them as Troxeo guided her across the smooth floor. Katie’s feet were ready to give up and drag behind her as the big man led her to her doom. But she forced herself to continue moving one foot in front of the other. The Oretoz thought she was weak, and she didn’t want to prove them right. Katie felt like she was representing humanity.
When they stopped, the sign in front of her must have said 406 in the native language. She couldn’t read the gibberish printed on it. The sign hung on a rectangular cage in the middle of the room. The bars were white and narrowly spaced. There were even bars across the top even though she knew there would never be any hope of climbing out that way. It reminded Katie of a giant hamster cage, and she was the hamster. Troxeo led her in through the door.
“She has to be stripped, Captain,” one of the guards said. He licked his lips, and Troxeo jumped slightly.
Katie looked up at him, and her gaze locked onto his green eyes. There was something in there, a spark of emotion. She thought it was something more than a soldier doing his job. She had tried several times to write him off as an enemy, but she always changed her mind when she looked at him. Katie knew he was her captor, but she suspected that deep down there was more to him than what he showed on the surface.
Apparently he wasn’t going to let his depths show now. With his mouth set in a grim line, he stuck his fingers into the collar of her bodysuit. They were warm and hard as they touched her collar bone. He yanked down swiftly and split the suit in half, the slippery pieces of blue material falling away from her body. She wrapped her arms around herself, but it was no use. There was no place to hide in the cage, and she couldn’t possibly cover all the parts of her that she didn’t want anyone to see.
“Please,” she whimpered, looking up at her captor with uncertainty. “Please don’t do this to me, Troxeo.”
He said nothing. He dropped the scraps of fabric that remained in his fist and let them fall to the floor. The big man hesitated for a fraction of a second, just long enough to make her wonder what he was going to do next. His gaze lingered over her naked body, and she felt even more exposed than before. His green eyes burned with a fire behind them. She cringed, waiting for him to scoop her up and ravage her.
But he kept himself under control, turning and stepping out through the door of the cage. He never stopped and didn’t look back, marching on until she couldn’t see him anymore.
Katie fell to the floor of the cage in exhaustion. The skin on her back stung from
the hard surface. One of the guards shut and locked the door before marching away. Katie looked around, searching for any hope of rescue or escape. But the only things she could see were more cages. They were spread throughout the enormous room, twenty feet away from each other, stretching off into the distance. The cages closest to her were unoccupied, but she could see the shapes of other nude forms further away. Were they from Oretoz or were they other strangers taken from their far-away homes?
Her vision blurred as tears pooled up in her eyes and fell onto her cheeks. She was being held captive on an alien planet, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Someone slid a meal through a tiny opening in the bars near the floor. Katie’s stomach rumbled, but she considered ignoring the food. Perhaps it would be easier to starve to death and choose her fate herself. But she ate despite her reservations, gambling that she still had a faint hope of escape.
The guards had presented her with a platter that wasn’t nearly as appealing as the food Troxeo had brought her on the ship. The round balls of bread were hard and stale, the fruit had gone mushy, and the slab of meat had an odd sheen to it that made her stomach wretch. She assumed the drink was water, but it tasted bitter and stale.
The guards brought her a bucket shortly after they took away her food tray. She knew its purpose even before the stench of it hit her nostrils. It was embarrassing enough to be naked, but now she had to pee out in the open, in front of everyone? She was spared further embarrassment when the guards left her to her own devices, marching off to bring trays or offer buckets to more distant prisoners.
The door to her cage swung open. She didn’t know how long she had been waiting. There were no windows down here, and she hadn’t had a sense of time since she left Earth. There were no sunrises or sunsets to measure the passing hours, but she felt as though she had been lying on the hard floor for days.