“Yes, the entire cell block did. Everyone is pretty sick too. I got Venay to agree to feeding everyone but the troublemakers better food. The guys in our old cell block have to eat that chalky stuff for all of their meals until Venay changes his mind. I hope they settle down. Do you think they will? What have they said to you?” I sighed and realized I had a long road ahead of me with the stupid men.
I was all for fighting, but only when it made sense to do so. We would have to work together and find a way to break everyone out of the cells and then find a way to take over the ship. I doubted any of the humans could fly it back to Earth. We were going to have to find some aliens who sympathized with us.
“Come on, follow me to the mess hall where we can start preparing lunch for them. The replicators there are much bigger and can accommodate all of the, uh, guests? Geesh, what should we call them? I just can’t think of them as slaves or even as prisoners! This really sucks.” She motioned for me to follow.
“So far, it’s just you and me. I know a couple of the women have made some advances on the guards, but none have accepted yet.” Lisa’s face screwed up and I followed her out of her quarters.
As we walked to the mess hall, we chatted about some of the potential couples. “Do you think Sheila will have someone within the week?” I asked, really wanting to know if we could recruit her out to help us.
“I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t snag a guy in the next two days! That woman is like a cougar.” Lisa giggled. “Did you see the young guard she was eyeing right before the Commander came for you? He couldn’t have been more than 21, and she’s what, 35 or older?” Lisa asked.
We both laughed, and I realized that this was the first time I felt like I was going to be okay on this journey. Shoot, it was probably the first time I felt okay in a very long time.
We filled up two carts and took them to the other cell block. Lisa informed me that room was called the Beta Room. Our old room was the Alpha Room. Really imaginative names. But that’s aliens for you.
The men in there did seem a bit more docile, from a distance. We gave the women their lunches first, and then Lisa and I both pushed our carts to the men’s side, with Cazon trailing us the entire way. The way he was acting, it felt like he was my own personal bodyguard. He followed Lisa to the cell on the other side of the room and was talking to a guard there.
I stopped at the first cell and handed the guys their meal trays. One guy asked, “Is this for real? Are they giving us mac ‘n’ cheese today?” His eyes were wide, but his mouth was squished in disgust.
“Yes, I had to work with the Commander to get you this stuff, instead of the chalky jello stuff you’ve been eating. What’s wrong, you don’t like pasta?” I couldn’t imagine them complaining about getting real food. What was up with them?
“This stuff is for kids, not adults,” He huffed.
“Well, if you don’t like it, I’m sure someone else will eat it for you. But this is what you’re getting today.” I bristled at his ingratitude.
“And what are you getting?” He leered at me, and I felt disgusting with the way his eyes looked me over.
“None of your business. Now eat your lunch and shut up.” The sooner I got out of there, the better.
He dropped his meal tray and reached outside of the bars to grab my arm, “Oh, I think I know what I’m having, and you are going to be my ticket out of here. You’re her, aren’t you? The Commander’s mate, or whatever you’re calling yourself?” He was holding my arm very tightly, and it hurt. This was the other arm, now I was going to have matching bruises. Venay was going to be livid.
I looked at him with so much anger, I was surprised he didn’t burst into flames, “Let.Go.Of.Me.Now!” I growled at him.
He tried to pull me closer to him, but I pulled back.
“Or what, you’ll make me your personal slave?” He tried laughing, at least until I punched him in the throat. Then he let go of me and started coughing.
One of the guys in his cell said, “Serves you right, man. She’s one of us. So what if she is doing something to make her life better. At least she brought us something besides chalk for lunch.”
Another guy said, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you man.” And then they laughed at the guy on the floor.
“Hey, don’t mind him. He’s been in a foul mood since we all woke up in here. There’s nothing we can do until we land this stupid ship, right? So why make trouble now?” He shrugged his shoulders and took his meal to the other side of the cage.
He seemed to be a bit smarter. Fighting now would do no good. I hoped they would hold out until we landed.
Cazon made his way back to me and asked what happened. When I told him, he took out his Taser gun and shot the guy. Everyone who was near him, backed away quickly with their arms up. The guy I was talking to just a minute before said, “Hey now, we weren’t involved. I even told him he was stupid to do that.”
“Understand this, any man who lays a hand on the Commander’s mate will suffer the same, or worse! Now shut up and eat your lunch. You have Paris to thank for the change in menu. But don’t expect this again for a while. The Commander is going to be very upset about this.” Cazon put the taser back on his belt.
Cazon walked me to the next cell and every man after that looked at his plate and thanked me. None of them would look me in the eyes.
Once we were out of that room, Cazon said, “For the next room, let Lisa feed the men. You stick to the women. I don’t want the Commander to take his anger out on me or any of the other guards if you get hurt.”
He looked at my arm, “Ouch, that looks like it will bruise. He is going to be very angry. Maybe I should just take you back to your room?”
“No, I’ll be fine. One stupid guy isn’t going to ruin my day. Besides, I want to see some of the women I’ve met so far. And you know, Sheila is in the other room, maybe we can spend some time chatting with her?” I raised my eyebrows up and down suggestively at him and giggled.
After Cazon walked in front of us, Lisa asked, “What’s that about?”
“I think he might like Sheila. He was asking me about her yesterday.” She gave me a knowing look, one more woman to add to our little group of couples. This was going to be fun … I hoped.
Chapter 10
Handing out lunches in the next room went much better than I thought it would. Lisa handled the men, who pretty much ignored her. Then she came over to help me pass out the nicer lunches to the women who all really appreciated it.
“Sheila, what do you think of Cazon?” I asked as I handed her the lunch tray.
“He’s pretty cute, but he doesn’t pay me much attention. He seems to follow you around a lot.” She narrowed her eyes at me.
“Yes, well, the Commander kinda got on him yesterday for allowing the men to talk to me so rudely. So, he’s taking the protection part a bit seriously.” I shrugged. “I barely made it in this room today. We were just next door with the other group of men,” I looked down at my feet, this was awkward. “They were rude to me as well, and one of them grabbed my other arm, it’s going to leave another bruise. Venay’s going to be really upset when he sees it. Anyway, I gave the guy what he deserved, but Cazon tasered him! It was pretty crazy.” I couldn’t help the chuckle that came out. Now that I was away from the guy, it did seem a bit wild.
“Seriously? That’s hot! Hmmm, I might have to try and get his attention when he comes back, without you.” She looked him over like a piece of meat in the grocery store. I swear she’s a man-eater. Something told me that no human man would be able to handle her, only an alien. I chuckled as I thought about poor Cazon. Sheila was going to eat him alive.
“Please do, Sheila. I hope you’re mated to him soon. It’ll be much more fun to have you outside the cages with Lisa and me for the rest of this trip.” I looked over to Natalie and wondered what she was going to do. One of the guys wanted her, but she didn’t seem ready to give up on her fiancé yet. I couldn’t blame her though.
Cazon
came over to us and smiled at Sheila, “Hi there, Sheila, is that pasta dish really something human women like?” He pointed his head toward the dish in her hands.
“Sure is, we call this comfort food. Always reminds me of when I was a kid and mom would make me mac ‘n’ cheese on rainy days. She would cut up hot dogs and put them in too. Time was so much simpler back then.” She sighed as she looked off into space remembering her childhood.
“Thank you for allowing this. All of us appreciate it, a lot.” Sheila smiled coyly at Cazon and tilted her head a bit to the side. He walked closer to her, and I took that as my cue to hand out the rest of the lunches.
They chatted for a while. Once Lisa and I were all done, we went over and spoke with Natalie.
“Hey, do you think we can put in order requests?” Natalie asked.
I nodded as I thought about it. “I don’t see why not. What do you want for dinner?”
“Could we have cheeseburgers and fries? I haven’t been allowed to have that for months. My fiancé said I needed to lose some weight before we got married. Guess I had gained a few pounds since college. He wanted the girl he met in college not an overweight, old lady.” She sighed and looked down at her skinny thighs.
“Um, Natalie, did he always say rude things like that to you? Cuz you are super skinny. Do you even have any meat on your bones?” I hated men who said things like that to their girlfriends. They had some issue with themselves, so they wanted to make everyone around them feel bad as well. Not cool!
“Only since I put on a couple of pounds. I was about five pounds lighter in college. It was probably because I walked a lot back then. Now I work in an office and sit all day. Well, I did, before this happened.” She looked around the room and spread her hands out to gesture where she was.
“What a tool!” Lisa blurted out. “No man should say stupid stuff like that to a woman. You are better off without him.”
“Hey, he loved me, and was always buying me presents. I didn’t hear much praise from him, but he was going to make a wonderful husband. He had it all planned out. We were getting married this summer, and then I would keep working for two years. After that I would get pregnant and quit my job when the baby was due. I would stay home and take care of the house and kids. We wanted four kids. Ben, that’s my fiancé, had a great job with a bank. He traveled more than I liked, but he would have provided for us so well.” She hung her head and a silent tear escaped her eye.
“Ok, we need to change the subject here. Cheeseburgers and fries for all tonight!” I cheered and threw up one hand for a high five with Lisa.
“Sorry to break it to you, but the men don’t get anything but the standard fare tonight. I doubt the Commander will ever give them anything else, not after last night.” Cazon had come over to escort us out.
He put his hands on our back and ushered us out of the room. I looked back over my shoulder, “Natalie, all of the women will have cheeseburgers and fries tonight, I promise!”
After we left the room and turned the corner to head back toward Lisa’s room, I asked, “Cazon, you gonna take Sheila out on date and woo her? I think she’d love a date with you. Don’t you Lisa?”
“Oh yeah, she would say yes in a heartbeat!” Lisa giggled.
He laughed and said, “Yeah, yeah, make fun of me. I doubt she will be easy to convince that I am her mate.” He sighed loudly.
“Wait, you think she’s your real mate?” I asked.
“Yes, I felt the pull towards her. She is the one for me. I wish it was the same for humans, it would be so much easier.” He ran a hand through his hair, a gesture which made me think he might be nervous.
“Cazon, just ask her. I have a feeling she might be feeling that mating bond as well. She likes you. Just talk to her about it.” I smiled at him and hoped he would man up … or warrior up? Whatever they called themselves he needed to step up.
“Yeah, maybe I should. That way I would know for sure if she is interested or not.” He nodded while looking ahead.
“Why are you so nervous? You’re a big, handsome warrior. You should be very confident in yourself.” Lisa joined in on trying to encourage him.
“Most human women don’t like to mate with purebreds on my planet. So we usually have a hard time convincing them. Most of the purebreds who have wanted a female had to buy her, and then wait for her to fall in love with him. It isn’t a very good way to start off a relationship, but that is how most of us do it.” He stopped in front of Lisa’s door.
I asked, “Do you mind if I hang out with Lisa for the afternoon? She has some books and I would love to read them. Since Venay is working, it’s probably best Lisa and I stay together anyway.”
He shrugged, “I don’t see why not. Use the communicator on the wall to call for me or the Commander if you want to go back to your room before anyone comes for you. I have to get back to the holding cells.” He walked away after opening the door for us.
Once we were inside, we went and sat on Lisa’s couch. “Ok, so what are you thinking? Do you want to go through with your mating ritual with Rotna? Or do you want to find a way home?”
“Would you be upset if I said mating ritual?” She bit her lower lip and rubbed the back of her neck while watching me for my reaction.
“I wouldn’t be upset at all. You feel the call towards him, don’t you?” I sighed and wasn’t surprised.
“Yes, I do. My life back on Earth was fine, but this seems so much more exciting. Don’t you think?” Lisa’s eyes widened and her smile covered her entire face, it was so huge.
“Well, I haven’t slept or eaten this good in years. I could get used to this, although I’m going to wait and see what happens when we get to their home planet. For all we know, we could be their food source! You know, like that movie, Soylent Green?” I shivered thinking about how that movie used people as their food source and most didn’t even know it.
“Oh gross! I never saw that movie. Really? Cannibalism?” Her nose scrunched.
“Well, they didn’t really know it. People would die early, you could only live so long in that dystopian society, and then they would be taken to a processing center where they would be turned into food bars. No one really knew that it was happening, well until the main character figured it out and tried to expose them. It is really a great show about corporate greed and government corruption. But also gross.” I had to laugh in order to get rid of the heebie jeebies I was feeling at that point. My skin was crawling with what felt like a thousand ants.
Lisa didn’t seem to like it either, “You don’t think they are using us as food do you?”
“No, I don’t. I just have an overactive imagination and a penchant for old TV shows and movies. Sorry if I scared you. Have you ever watched Star Trek? The ones from the eighties?” I asked Lisa.
“Um, no. That was before my time. I have watched the new movies and really like Bones, the doctor. He’s hot!” She laughed and I joined her.
“Did you ever hear of a character named, ‘Worf’? Cuz Venay reminds me of him.” I chuckled a bit as I was mentally comparing Venay to Worf.
“Really? You think Venay might be a character from a TV show?” She sat back and eyed me like I was crazy.
“I have a Star Trek fetish, so sue me. I always loved Worf. He’s one of my favorite characters from all versions of Star Trek, TV and movie. He had a great sense of honor and duty and always tried to do the right thing. Just like Venay. Oh wow, is that why I’m into Venay?” I looked up at Lisa and narrowed my eyes and chewed on my lower lip while thinking about the similarities between the two men.
Does he remind me of Worf? They’re both very tall, handsome males. Both are part human and part alien, and so huge! When I was younger I used to fantasize what it might be like to date Worf, he was my TV boyfriend for a long time…
Lisa laughed, “You really do have issues you know? Thinking your alien commander is the same as a movie character! You crack me up. But seriously, are you attracted to Venay? Do you feel
the mating bond?”
“I’m very attracted to him, but those similarities are probably why I feel so strongly about him. All through high school I watched the old reruns of The Next Generation and fell in love with Worf.” I scratched my head. “Huh, that makes more sense than this mating bond thing. I bet I’m into Venay because he’s so much like the character of Worf, besides the obvious physical differences. Inside, where it counts, they seem to be very similar.”
I couldn’t believe I was beginning to trust Venay and felt he had honor. What was wrong with me?
“Ok, whatever. You like the Commander, so what are you going to do about it?” She leaned forward and put her hands in her lap.
“Do? Nothing, for now. I need to get to know him better and try to figure out how we can help get the humans better treatment.” My people were so much more important than my crush on an alien Commander.
“Sorry, I hate to break it to you, but there’s nothing you can do about them. The Commander can control the treatment of our people here, on his ship. But once we get to their planet? I think it will take a lot longer to get something done. So, you better hurry up and marry that guy and get him on your side.” It was sad to think that Lisa was already believing their story.
“Really, you don’t think I can change the minds of all of the aliens on this ship? Get them to stop thinking of humans as their slaves? The idea has to start somewhere, doesn’t it?” I got up and started to pace the room.
“Well, that might help. But none of these warriors have enough political clout to do anything. They might be able to help you get in touch with those who do. So maybe if you make friends with the right V’Zenians? I’m not really a political person so I can’t help you here.” She shrugged her shoulders as though it was no big deal.
Maybe I was taking this too seriously? Or was I just naïve enough to think that I could really do something about this? I wasn’t really sure.
Cazon interrupted us at that point by ringing the bell. Lisa invited him inside, “Paris, the Commander would like to meet you in your quarters. I am to escort you back now. Later, someone else will come by to get you so you can help feed the, um,” He scratched the top of his head. “Humans? Yes, you can help feed the humans later on tonight.” He smiled and motioned for me to follow him. It seemed like he was trying to stop referring to them as slaves, so that was a start.
Worlds Away Page 7