Living among the Stars (Sky Riders #2)

by Rebecca Lorino Pond

  She slowly unfolded her tired body from the confines of her warm blanket. The night air had a bite to it and instantly formed goose bumps on her bare arms. But, the pangs in her stomach were motivating her to get moving. Carefully, she crawled to the small doorway she had used to enter to under the porch. Listening for any nearby sounds, she poked her head just enough to get a look around. Everything appeared to be quiet.

  Ducking back under the porch for a quick prayer, Kelly then made the first move to slip out of her hideaway. She wanted to groan out load when she stood up fully as her muscles protested in being forced to move again. Her knee cracked when she took the first step, freezing her in the process. She jerked her head back and forth to see if anything or anyone had heard the audible sound. Thankfully, everything remained quiet.

  With her bare feet on the dirt ground, she crept forward cautiously. Her body was fully aware of her surroundings. Every sound and smell infiltrated her senses as she eased herself away from the building and out into a long alley. As she came across a doorway, she tested the door to find if it was unlocked. Everything so far was locked up tight, until she came a green door.

  A slight turn of the knob caused the door to pop open. She had no idea what kind of place she was entering, she just hoped it had food. Feeling of guilt washed through her as she stepped into the dark interior of the building. She knew it was wrong to be breaking and entering someone else’s property and the cop in her screamed at her to leave immediately, but her empty stomach was leading her on her mission. Maybe, once Kharis found her, she could come back and make restitution with the owner. Yes! That is exactly what I’ll do!

  Creeping through the darkened building, she opened and closed several cabinets and drawers. Most were filled with tools or papers, but no food. She left the first room and entered another, which in the darkness, appeared to be a kitchen. Her hopes lifted automatically as she began her search of the room. She struck gold when she across a pantry on the left side of the room near the window. It was filled with packaged foods, none of which she recognized. She didn’t have time to debt on which food item to try, so she just grabbed a handful of the precious items then turned to leave. On her way out, she ripped open one of the sealed foil packets and dumped some of the contents into her mouth. An explosion of flavors immediately made her mouth come alive. The small round pieces resembled peanuts but tasted more like salt, sugar, and potato chips. Two mouthfuls later, the packet was empty.

  She was just about to exit her chamber of gold when suddenly the door in front of her swung open and the light flipped on. To her horror, one of her kidnappers stood directly in front of her with an evil grin splitting his face in half.

  “Well, well, well. I seem to have found of interest….again!” Number two slowly the closed the distance between them. “Where have you been hiding my little money maker?”

  Kelly was stunned into silence. How in the hell had this idiot come across her? She was confident no one had been following her when she left her hide out, but here stood one of the men she had been running from.

  “You almost cost me a lot of money this morning, not showing up for your appointment.”

  “Go to hell,” she squeaked out finally. Her mind was running in circles trying to find her best escape route.

  “I might, but that’s not in question right now.” His hand shot out so quickly, it startled Kelly into dropping her precious cargo. “You won’t get away this time and you will be sold in the morning.” He jerked her arm until she was leaning up against the giant of a man.

  She tried to pull out of his grip, but it was futile. The man had a grip made of iron and it was crushing her arm. “Let go of me!”

  Number two walked to the door with her in tow. She desperately tried to plant her bare feet into the wooden floor to slow his forward motion. Unfortunately, he was entirely too strong for it to make any kind of a difference.

  “You better be happy that I found you. If the owner of that store had come across you, your fate would be much worse than just being sold.”

  Kelly heard every word Number two said. She knew she was taking a chance on being caught as a thief, but she had little choice in the matter. If she had sought out help from the local authorities, if there were any, there was no guarantee they would have helped her. On a moon that seemed so primitive, she doubted she would be any better off.

  Number two forcibly dragged her down a dark street. She continued to struggle the entire way, but got nowhere. What caught her off guard was the fact that they did stop at the hotel they had a room at, but, rather, continued on until they reached the ship. All her hopes of escaping again were completely dashed. There would be no way for her to escape the ship once they were sealed inside. The door would only open to the command of either Number two or Number one.

  Her heart sank a thousand miles when they entered the ship and her captor slammed her into the same chair she had originally been restrained in.

  “Let’s see if you can get away from us this time,” Number two said as he pulled out an obscene amount of rope from a compartment under another seat.

  Number one appeared from the front of the ship and glared down at her. “I can’t believe you found the bitch!” He sneered in her direction. “At least there is another sale tomorrow. We need to get rid of this one before her man comes looking for her.” He leaned down closer to her face. “This time you are staying put. It was my partner’s fault for falling asleep and letting you slip away, but that won’t happened this time.” He reached out to touch her cheek with his dirty fingers.

  She jerked her head away from his touch. It made her skin crawl when he touched her. “Get your hands off me!”

  Number one stood back up and ordered Number two, “Shut her up. I don’t want to hear another word out of her.”

  Number two quickly shoved a waded up piece of material into her mouth when she went to answer back. She attempted to spit it back out but failed when he placed his hand over her mouth to prevent that from happening. Number one handed him a length of torn material which he secured around her mouth, keeping the ball of nasty tasting cloth in her mouth.

  After the two men had finished securing her to the seat, they went to sit in the front of the ship. She tried to jerk the ropes loose by frantically rocking her body. The ropes didn’t budge.

  Knowing now that she was trapped, the burn of tears began to build in her eyes. She had sealed her fate by leaving her hideout. Now, her life was in more danger than ever before and there was no way for her change that fact.

  Chapter 18

  “My lord?”

  A voice pulled Zol’tsa out of his dreamless sleep. “What?” he said groggily.

  “We need to stop soon for repairs,” the voice answered over the intercom.

  “What? Get to the point!” He sat up in his bed then swung his legs over the side. The female he had taken from Earth was sound asleep next him.

  “The main engine has a leak that the mechanic cannot fix while we fly. The engine needs to be shut off completely in order for him to repair the valve.”

  He rubbed his hands over his face then said, “How long?”

  “He said no more than ten to twelve hours are needed,” the voice said.

  “What’s the closest place to land?” This wasn’t something he wanted to deal with right now. He was anxious to get to Napra and off load his new residents. They were becoming a bit rowdy according to the guards and most wanted off the ship sooner. The last thing he needed was a full fledge mutiny on his hands.

  “We are coming up on Zama, a trading moon.”

  “Fine, land there.” He switched off the intercom before the vice could respond. He needed a shower in order to get his mind fully awake. He stood up beside his bed, stretching his hands up towards the ceiling. A sigh came from behind him causing him to turn around. The female was deeply asleep and unaware of his movements. So be it. He had given her a rough ride numerous times before they both fell in an exhausted sleep. The firs
t time he took her, she had been an unwilling participant. He had taken her rough and hard and knew that he had hurt her in the process, but in his mind it was unavoidable. He needed to break her and get her to understand that this was her life now. He was her master, owner, mate, or whatever one wanted to call it. It wasn’t until the third time that she started to become compliant and stopped fighting him.

  After her breaking point, he took the time to explain to her what was to be expected of her as his mate. His primary requirement for her was to produce as many children as she could. He needed to get his population growth started soon. Of course, the number of sols he had just acquired on Earth would help tremendously, there was always the risk of some of those souls leaving. In his meeting, he had with his new people he had also informed them that reproduction was a high priority. Food was his next agenda, but for the time being he had enough of Ruehar’s money to buy food for the entire population for some time yet.

  He also explained that he already had a gathering of what was left of the men of Lephus building the structures they were to live. Each couple would be given a shelter to make their own, whether they expanded it or left it as is was totally up to them. As well as, each plot was directed to start their own food plot. It taken them a couple of years to make a comeback, but he was determined to do so.

  After he had finished his shower, he headed to the bridge of his ship. He found they were already in orbit around the blue moon and the mechanic had already departed the ship in order to obtain the supplies he needed to fix their problem. Dawn was just coming over the horizon of the moon and it lead him to another idea. Perhaps, he could purchase some slave labor since this place was a known trader’s moon. There were always slaves available at this type of stop.

  “Prepare a shuttle for me. I want to go down to the surface,” he announced to the young soldier sitting at the controls of the ship.

  “Yes, sir!”

  An hour later he was walking down the street that had much to be desired. The place was a dump! Not that all trader stops were great, this one was the worst one he had ever visited. The buildings were made out of wooden instead of stone or metal, which lasted a hell of a lot longer. With the type of environment the small moon offered, the residents would have to continuously replace the aged and weathered wood. When he left Napra, he gave explicit instructions that all structures were to be built out of the natural stone or rock that covered the moon. It was a lot more plentiful, for one thing, rather than use up the trees. He wasn’t about to ravage his new dominion, unlike his predecessor.

  He continued down the road until he came across what looked like an auction house. It was still early yet, but a small crowd had already gathered out in front of a dilapidated building. He ventured up to the nearest person.

  “Is there to be a slave sale?”

  The one-eyed giant turned to see who had spoken to him. “Yes, and a mighty good one. There're some excellent species to auction from what I hear.”

  “When does it start?”

  “In about ten minutes. The trader is just about ready to start. He’s just recording a last minute slave.”

  Zol’tsa nodded then walked away. This was his opportunity to snap up some quick labor and, if they were good enough, he might even keep them around to extend his population.

  A loud banging on wood reverted his attention back to the old building. Lost in his thoughts, he found that several more people had joined the already waiting crowd. He surveyed the crowd and thought about his chances of gaining some slaves a cheap price. Most of the people standing around him didn’t appear to have much money. He smiled inwardly at the thought of buying the whole lot of slaves that were about to brought out.

  “May I have your attention,” a blue skinned creature announced.

  Must be a Perkler, her thought to himself. The Perkler’s were a well-known race that specialized in slave trading. They didn’t go out and find slaves then turn around and sell them, rather, they setup slave markets on as many trading posts as they could and waited for the slaves to come to them. They typically charged an exorbitant commission, but the slave traders didn’t seem to mind.

  “Today I have fourteen cases that need to find a new home. Two are rather exotic creatures and one is human.”

  Zol’tsa’s attention instantly snapped to full alertness. A human! It would be fantastic to gain ownership of a human, male or female. A human would definitely be a welcome addition to his collection of humans.

  “We are going to bring them all out at once to let you get a good look at the ones you might be interested in. Remember,” The Perkler paused and its four eyes roamed over the gathered crowd, “a winning bid is a commitment to purchase. If the winning bid fails to pay, the price will be extracted one way or the other. Now, let’s move on to the sale. Please bring the slaves out.”

  Zol’tsa turned his in the same direction the alien was pointing one of its four arms. One by one the slaves for the auction were lead out of a thick wooden door and onto the crumbling porch. He waited patiently for the human to come out on the porch and when she did, he was struck dumb for a moment.

  It was the bitch who had succeeded in getting him arrested by the Qeterans! It was because of her that he had to flee for his life and hideout on his parents’ planet until things died down enough for him to return to Lephus. But, now…now he had a chance to purchase the bitch and use her as he pleased. He wouldn’t use her as a sex slave, no, that disgusted him instead he would work her until she dropped dead from exhaustion.

  The first slave was up on the block. The bidding started at ten credits and rose quickly to thirty-five. He waited to nearly the last pound of the gavel to toss in his own bid which caused the crowd to erupt in groans of anger.

  “Fifty credits,” he yelled into the air. All eyes turned to face him including those of the last bidder.

  “I have fifty credits, do I have fifty-one?” The announcer asked the crowd.

  Zol’tsa smiled when he saw the shake of the heads of the people surrounding the porch. When no further bid came forth, the announcer hit the gavel on the wooden railing.

  “Sold for fifty credits! Next!”

  The same procedure was followed time and again as each slave was positioned on the block. Six more of the auctions he won only because those slaves he let slid by appeared to be in poor health and wouldn’t serve him any purpose. Groans came from the crowd each and every time he won which in turn gave him the momentum to keep going. In between his losing auctions, he called up to his ship in order to have another shuttle come down and retrieve his purchases. At last, the human female came up on the block. The group went still as she faced them waiting to hear her fate.

  He reveled in the fear he saw written all over her face. This was probably going to cost him a hefty sum, but she would be well worth the price. The opening bid started at fifty credits which stunned the crowd. It grew steadily higher as the bidding continued. Four people at the current moment were fighting to score the winning bid. He waited again until the gavel was about to strike for the third time before he announced a proposal that he knew no one would be able to contend with.

  “One hundred-forty two credits going…”

  “Three hundred credits!”

  He stood his place with his legs braced apart and his arms folded across his chest. He smiled when every head in the surrounding area whipped in his direction. The last bidder was the unhappiest of them and preceded to let his anger known by emitting a loud, teeth bared growl at him.

  “You have won enough. Let someone else have the human,” a female voice cried from an unseen location.

  “I am well within my rights to bid on the human,” he retorted. “There is nothing in the rules that says I cannot win more than one slave. So, shut the fuck up!”

  The crowd hissed at his harsh words to the female. He was surprised by the crowd reaction to his response, but he didn’t care. The people who lived or visited Zama must have some code of ethics if they were o
ffended by his choice of words.

  The announcer broke up the small argument by saying, “Sir, for your sake, I hope you have the credits to settle up. If not, the crowd will be waiting for you when you come out. This way, please.” The alien waved two of its arms in the direction of the door that lead to the interior of the building.

  As he approached the porch, he looked to the female. Her face was priceless as she stared back at him with her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide open, not to mention she looked extremely pale. She remembered who he was! Excellent!

  ******

  Kelly was shocked beyond belief. When she first saw the man who had kidnapped her and her friends back on Qetera she thought she would lose the meager contents of her stomach. There was no way possible he had been able to track her to this God for shaken place! No way, no how! She was here by accident for crying out loud. If that stupid fight hadn’t occurred back on the planet where her kidnappers had come across her, she wouldn’t even be in this predicament.