by Lisa Lace
“I suggest you get up,” said a voice above her.
Katie cracked open a dry eyelid to see the stout form of Commander Reck. He loomed over her, fists on his hips and wooly eyebrows pressed together in consternation. She didn’t have the energy to be afraid of him any longer. She pulled herself to a sitting position and gestured at the floor in front of her. “Please, make yourself comfortable. It’s so sweet of you to visit. Would you like something to drink?”
Katie wasted her sarcasm. “I’ll stand,” Reck said as he sneered at her. “I’ve come to ask you a few questions. First of all, what do you know about Earth’s plans for invading other planets?”
She looked up at him with bleary eyes. “I work for a finance company. I used to, at least. If you’d like to ask me about their interest rates on personal loans, I’d be happy to help you learn all about it. But I don’t work for the government or the military. No one has invited me to sit in on any of the EarthGov assemblies, so I don’t know anything about plans for invasion. Maybe we will and maybe we won’t. Either way, I never thought it would affect me until Troxeo took me from my ship.”
Reck stroked his chin with his thumb and forefinger and paced around the cage. Fortunately, the smelly bucket had been removed at some point by a guard whose job Katie didn’t envy. “Tell me about your general knowledge, then. What does Earth know about Oretoz?”
Katie sighed. They were only on the second question, and the interrogation was already getting old. “Nothing, as far as I know. I had never heard of the place until Troxeo mentioned it.”
“Really?” he fired back. “You were on your way to Bonaan, so apparently humans have perfected interstellar travel.”
“Discovering Bonaan was an accident. There are plenty of planets with life in the universe. Do you think you’re a special snowflake? No one on Earth knows about you, and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t care.” And nobody knows I’m here, she thought. Maybe starving to death was a better idea than she realized.
“What about your weapons technology? What arms do you have prepared in the event of intergalactic war?” Commander Reck was standing across the cage from her with his hands behind his back.
“Intergalactic war?” Katie thought she might be able to pinch herself and wake up at a science fiction convention. “I don’t know. I keep telling you, I don’t know anything about this stuff. If you wanted someone who knows things, you should have told Troxeo to grab a military strategist and leave me the hell alone.”
Reck’s brows drew closer together, his dark eyes intense beneath them. “I have ways of making you talk, and they are ways I am not ashamed to use. A few rounds of electricity might spark your memory.”
“Do me a favor and make sure you crank it all the way up to the setting where it fries me, okay?” Katie smirked in spite of herself. She would never have spoken to someone like that before. Apparently being in space had changed her. That or the knowledge that she would die soon no matter what happened here.
“Your insolence and hostility will get you nowhere, Earthling.” He stood over her, looking menacing.
“Yeah, because cooperation has gotten me into the penthouse of the Hilton,” she muttered. “I’m just an average person who gets up and goes to work every morning. I lead a very boring life. I can’t tell you what I don’t know. Do you want me to start making stuff up?”
Reck considered her for a moment before speaking. “We have found that people often know more than they realize. We have mind control specialists that are highly trained in retrieving such information. Unfortunately, it is a risky process for the patient. Sometimes the rest of the mind is left completely useless.” Katie had a horrified look on her face.
“If I allow you to take a tour of this floor, you will have the opportunity to see several victims of this process. They can’t speak or hear at all any longer. They shit where they sleep. They are mere shells of their former selves.” He took a step closer to her. All she could see as she looked up at him was the paunch of his belly and his cruel face. “I hear it’s quite painful.”
Katie wasn’t sure anything compared to the pain of being ripped away from her homeland. But she wasn’t going to tell Reck that.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” the commander continued, “and I expect you to have come up with better answers.” A guard swung open the cage door for him. He moved swiftly through and marched off into the distance.
Katie lay on the floor and closed her eyes, tears dripping silently from her face. For the first time since she had boarded the spaceship to Bonaan, she thought about Ben. It was his cheating ass that had inspired her to leave Earth in the first place. If she ever made it back home, she was going to kick him straight in the balls. Then she thought about her mother, whose face had looked concerned as they said their goodbyes at the spaceport. Katie hoped she would have the chance someday to tell her she was right. Her thoughts strayed to strange flashes of her past and her possible future as she fell asleep.
When she awoke, another familiar face stared down at her from the other side of the bars. It was small and pointy, with pale skin and a mane of spiked hair that stood out around it. Katie was looking from nearly the same vantage point she had seen Chixo before, only at that time no bars had been between them.
The alien woman shook her head. “You and those giant breasts of yours. I still say you ought to let me get them fixed for you.”
“No, thank you.” Katie rolled over and crossed her arms over her ample chest. The floor of her cell was cold as well as hard, and her joints and limbs were stiff from sleeping on it.
“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that. I have something to tell you.”
Katie rolled over to glare at Chixo, but she didn’t remove her arms from her breasts. “What do you want?”
“I have a message for you from Arkhan.” Chixo licked her lips, looking for the right words to say. “He’s trying to get you out of here. He’s on guard duty for this building tomorrow, and he thinks he can pull it off.” Her words were barely above a whisper, but she had every ounce of Katie’s attention.
“But why?” Katie knew she should be grateful and going along with the flow instead of asking questions, but she couldn’t help herself. Chixo’s actions seemed odd. Katie sat up and moved closer to the woman. “Why would anyone rescue me now?”
Chixo shook her spiky head. “He said something about being under the impression that you were going to be an ambassador instead of a prisoner. And apparently Reck mentioned killing you if he isn’t satisfied with your interrogation tomorrow.”
“What about Troxeo?” Katie demanded. “Will he help me, too?”
Chixo gave a snort of laughter. “That one? No way. He’s into following the rules. He’d never do anything the commander told him not to.”
Katie felt her heart sink. Each of the cousins was terrifying in their own way, but she had hoped Troxeo would be the one to save her. He seemed more confident, more knowledgeable, and more likely to pull it off. She knew from experience how strong he was. “Oh. I was hoping...I don’t know what I was hoping.”
Chixo scanned the large room for guards. “Here’s the deal. I have a write-up authorizing Arkhan and me to take you to the research department for deeper scans. It’s a forgery, so I don’t know how far we’ll get with it. But the research department isn’t housed in this building. It’s a good excuse to get you out of here. I don’t think anyone will question us until we’re headed out to the shipyard. If we make it that far, we can probably run for our ship if we get caught. Enan will have the ship warmed up and ready to go. All you have to do is cooperate with us when we come to get you.”
It was strange to hear the outline of a devious plan from someone who seemed cold and scientific, but maybe Chixo was exactly the sort of person required for an escape like this. It was nice to hear Enan was involved. The engineer was strange, but he seemed like he had a good heart. He was a lot like most of the geeks she knew back on Earth. “Okay. I don’t have a lot o
f options. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do.”
“I’m serious about this,” Chixo warned. “Depending on who we run into and where we go, I may need you to act perfectly normal, or to pass out, or run like crazy, and I’ll need your immediate cooperation. You’re going to have to trust me. I know you aren’t a trained soldier, but you need to act like one.”
Katie nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
Chixo’s eyes swept over her nude body. “I have an energy capsule to give you, but you don’t have any place to conceal it right now. I’ll bring it to you when I come back. You’ll have to bite down on it right away.”
“I will do whatever I need to do. Thank you.”
The alien shook her head. “I wouldn’t thank me until we’re safely out of here. We might never escape. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” With a glance in both directions, Chixo turned and disappeared.
Chapter Fifteen
Commander Reck was drumming his fingers impatiently on his desk when Troxeo arrived. He was never a particularly pleasant person to look at since he was always scowling, but Troxeo could tell immediately that the older man wasn’t happy.
“Did you want to see me, sir?”
“No, I don’t want to,” the commander snapped, “but it seems I have to since the human you brought back is worthless.” He slapped a hand on the surface of his desk.
“Pardon me for asking, sir, but how? She seemed fine when I left her in her cell.” His stomach dropped at the idea that something might have happened to her. What could it have been? An overzealous guard? An Oretoz disease fatal to humans?
“The creature’s health is of no concern to me as long as she can answer my questions, but she doesn’t appear to want to cooperate.” He leaned forward on the desk. Reck steepled his fingers together and had a grim look on his face. “The Earthling, Troxeo, is useless to me. It’s the textbook definition of a failed mission.”
Troxeo felt several beads of sweat pop out on his forehead. He knew Reck could leave a terrible mark on his record. “With all due respect, sir, I brought you a human. You specified no other qualifications. If I remember correctly, you said you didn’t want a scientist or anyone high up in their chain of command.”
Reck’s left eye twitched in irritation. “I’m not in the mood to play games with the precise wording of your assignment. If you’re correct, then I changed my mind. This Earthling doesn’t know anything. I had imagined that the average human would have a general working knowledge of affairs on Earth, but this one pretends it knows nothing. Either it’s truly as stupid as it looks or it’s more stubborn than you are.”
Troxeo didn’t reply. He couldn’t; he didn’t know what to say. His orders were to bring back an average human, and he had certainly done that. Commander Reck was known for his unexpected moves and decisions. It made him a terrifying foe to face in a battle, and unfortunately a demanding superior officer as well.
He couldn’t tell if Katie was playing stupid or telling the truth. All her answers to his questions came under the influence of the epobaka juice. What she knew wasn’t as important as the information Reck desired.
The older soldier sighed and ran a hand through his shock of gray hair. “Look, Captain, I have my superiors breathing down my neck and demanding answers. We need to know if it’s worth it to invade Earth. The working theory from our strategists is that we can reap the natural resources available, and the humans won’t be smart enough or powerful enough to fight back effectively. I’m going to interview the prisoner again tomorrow, and I need results this time. You’re going to get them for me.”
“How do you expect me to do that, sir?” Troxeo asked, trying not to sound too impertinent. He could suggest they use the bright blue extract again, but he didn’t want Katie to mention that Troxeo had already administered a dose to her. Unauthorized use of a truth serum on an interplanetary prisoner would go on his record right alongside the large red 'Failed Mission' stamp that hovered above it in his mind.
“Bring your weapons. You’re going to help me coax the information out of the creature, slowly and painfully. If it still doesn’t cooperate, then you will dispose of it.”
“Dispose of it, sir?” Was this what he had been waiting for? Could he brandish a knife at the woman for a little bit until Reck was tired of playing with her? When the show was over, he could throw her on his shoulder and take her home. His heart thudded a little at the hope, and one of his other organs responded as well.
“Yes, kill it.” Reck looked at Troxeo as though he had suddenly gone soft, and Troxeo thought he might be right. “I’m not going to spend the money to feed and guard the thing if it’s no use to me. But when it’s gone, I can send you back to get another one. Perhaps you’ll be able to find one that has more qualifications than a smart mouth.”
Troxeo gave a stiff nod. Kill the human? He searched for a way around the order, but he knew there was no escape. The commander would want to see the job done in front of him; he always enjoyed the spurt of fresh blood. There was no chance of starting a ruse. He wouldn’t have the opportunity to take her outside the prison, then steal her away.
He couldn’t refuse the order, either. The human was part of his mission, and he was responsible for her. If Reck told him to kill her, he would have to obey.
Commander Reck dismissed him with a flick of his hand.
That night, Troxeo sat in his quarters and sharpened his knives. He ran the sharpening stone carefully down the blades, honing them to the finest point he could manage. If he was required to do a horrible job, then he was going to do it correctly. If he refused, he could be demoted, shunned, or worse. What sort of future awaited if the army expelled him? A terrible one.
With every ring of the stone against metal, he loathed himself a little bit more.
What was happening to him? Just a few days ago, he had been a high-ranking officer with a perfect record. He had never faltered in the directives given by his commander, willing slaughtering or capturing the enemy with impunity. He’d never felt guilty about anything he had done before. There was no reason to as long as he was living the glorified life of a soldier.
But Katie was changing him. He could have done anything he liked to her on the way back to Oretoz. His commander wouldn’t have complained if he had pinned her to the bunk and buried himself deep inside her. His groin warmed at the thought. She could have fought and screamed, and nobody would have come to her rescue. She was his captive, not a high-born female warrior of Oretoz. He had every right to take advantage of her, and he certainly wanted to.
Why didn’t he?
Arkhan would have slapped him on the shoulder and asked for a turn. Even Chixo, with her slightly softer sentiments, wouldn’t have objected. If anything, she would have asked to watch.
Katie had looked up at him with her big blue eyes under a fringe of dark hair, breasts heaving in fear, and he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He pushed away the word that kept dancing at the back of his head: eleste. But a human couldn’t be his soulmate. While his fellow soldiers would have applauded him for raping a captive, they would not approve of a love match with an Earthling.
And when he had put her in that cage...He set his knives down, no longer able to concentrate on the sharpening process. Troxeo knew prisoners were stripped naked, and their captors had the right to do it themselves if they so chose. But he had hoped he wouldn’t have to be the one to do it to Katie. He wanted to turn on his heel and put the whole fiasco behind him, but the guard had insisted Troxeo assert his privilege and do it himself.
When he had wrapped his fingers in the collar of her bodysuit, he felt her warmth and fear. He was caught between her wishes and his reputation. With the guards looking at him, reputation had won. Even though he regretted his actions, he did not regret the results.
The bodysuit had fluttered to the floor, revealing the ripe deliciousness of Katie’s body. The Oretoz clothing had been flattering, but it was nothing compared to the glory underneath it. Her voluptuo
us breasts tapered to a tiny waist that expanded back out to her hips, hips which were the perfect size to wrap his hands around. It was hard not to stare, and even harder not to pin her to the floor of the cage and take her immediately. Again, the guards would not have minded. It was his right and his privilege, and they were probably down there right now wondering why he didn’t take advantage.
He rolled into his bunk and tried to get his mind focused on other things. He would never be able to sleep now. When he closed his eyes, he could see nothing but her naked, quaking body in front of him. His hard cock plagued him, yet he had no outlet for it. Troxeo supposed he could visit one of the clubs and find a woman interested in mating. It would take care of him physically, but it wasn’t what he needed. He longed for something more than fucking. He wanted a deeper connection, and he knew he would soon be ordered to kill the woman with whom he wanted to connect.
Chapter Sixteen
Katie hadn’t slept. Her mind was active and running at full speed, imagining all the possibilities Chixo and Arkhan might have for her rescue. She had seen little of the building she was currently in, and she knew nothing about its management. She couldn’t possibly be any help in planning, and yet she began taking note of the guards, trying to measure the time between their patrols and listening to what they said.
In the end, she had nothing helpful to contribute.
She worried they wouldn’t come. Just because Chixo said they were going to rescue her didn’t mean it would happen. They didn’t owe her anything. What if their plans were spoiled before they made it to Katie’s cell? What if someone realized the signed authorization to take Katie to the research department wasn’t real, and Chixo was imprisoned in a distant cage of her own? What if their plan was only partially successful and Katie ended up in the research department?