by Stella Cassy
And, much more importantly, me.
14
Talia
Talia
I woke up with my head ringing. I felt like I’d drunk a bottle of Jack’s. By myself. And then smashed my head with a hammer.
It was a strange feeling, because I hadn’t done any of that in years as far as I could recall.
I slowly sat up, trying to figure out where I was and what was going on. Up above me, high in the teal-colored sky was a white sun, a distant dot that was nonetheless incredibly bright. It did not help my headache at all.
I glanced down and saw that my legs were lightly scratched and bruised. And bare. What had I been doing? I inspected my appendages and limbs, finding no serious damage. But I was, again, naked and alone in what seemed to be a strange and barren place.
I was lying on a hillside. Though it was the side of a hill so big and massive, with various ridges and bumps, that I could see neither the top nor bottom of it. Just endless, dusty, uneven ground both above and below me as far as my eyes could see.
I tried to remember what had been happening. Figure out what had been going on. There had been Mister Magoo’s National Holdings, of course, then it was destroyed, and I was kidnapped, wasn’t I? Then… a smile crept across my lips. Oh yes, then there was that. Rethryn may have been a giant jerk, but he also had a giant—
“Bastard!” I remembered with a start. He had thrown me straight into his closet. Like a child with a toy that he was bored with.
I frowned. Was that exactly what happened? No, it wasn’t. There was something else, the sounds of explosions and an alarm ringing. Had he put me in the cupboard to save me for later, or to protect me?
I peered around me and found an answer, of a sort. Half-buried in some sand was what appeared to be the closet that he had thrown me into. On the side was written Dual Use Emergency Escape Pod. Thirren Starship Systems.
I couldn’t help but laugh. The supposed prince’s ship was so small that his closet doubled up as an escape pod.
I slowly pushed myself up to my knees, then to my feet. I could feel the tiny but bright white sun on my skin, and a gentle breeze tickled me. I brushed off some loose bits of dirt with my hands and looked around for clothing. I walked over to the escape pod, a.k.a. Rethryn’s closet.
From within, I withdrew an oversized shirt type thing. It fit me like a dress. A poorly fitting, very conservative one. It draped over me like a dust sheet on a statue and hung down almost to my feet. When I put my arms through the holes, my hands didn’t even peek out the end of the sleeves, so I had to spend some time rolling them up into two big, round cuffs.
When I was done, I felt, and looked, like some kind of enslaved space-hobo thanks to my dirty, dusty skin, ridiculous outfit, and the metal collar that was still firmly locked around my neck. But that was okay. There was no one here to see me anyway.
I looked up into the sky again, as if expecting to see the spaceship. Of course, I didn’t. Then another thought struck me. Maybe there was no spaceship anymore. Maybe I was all that was left. Maybe there was no more Rethryn, the jerk. No more too-small jail cell. No more Drakons trying to get a loan.
The thought didn’t please me as much as it should have. Rethryn may have been a jerk, but he was a jerk that had saved my life. And he was a jerk with a really, really nice —
“What are you doing here?”
With a start I spun around to find a group of three Nortians staring at me. They were a tall race, all of them nearly eight feet tall, but anorexically thin with long limbs, like someone had taken an oversized skeleton, stretched it out, then covered it with only the barest minimum of flesh and skin. Blue skin, at that. They were not a beautiful species.
The Nortians all had feathered manes that ran half-way down their long necks. I peered up at the small group.
“Just hanging out,” I said with a shrug, as if this was the most natural thing in the world. As I didn’t actually know this world, perhaps it was.
“Where is your master?” asked the closest of the Norts. He was also the tallest. And boniest.
I shifted slightly to my left, so that the Nortian’s head blocked out the bright sun behind him, and so I could get a good look.
“What master?” I tried to play innocent.
The Nort extended a long bony arm, and then extended an equally long finger, poking at the collar around my neck.
Dammit.
“Oh. Yeah, he’s not here right now. I’m sure I’ll see him soon. Where’s the nearest spaceport?”
The leader of the small group of Nortians turned to face his companions, and they had a brief, whispered consultation. Then, he turned back around to face me again.
“We do not believe that such valuable information should be shared with a slave. When your master returns, we will speak with him. We will check on you later. Goodbye.”
The Nortians made to leave, but I wasn’t going to let them do that without giving me something to work with. This was the closest I’d been to freedom since that night back on Earth when I’d been kidnapped.
“Hey! My master orders you to tell me.”
The leader of the Norts turned back to face me again. “You have a recording of this? Or a communicator so that we can hear from him directly?”
I put my hands on my hips, wishing I was dressed in something a little more regal than this oversized Drakon shirt. “As he owns me, I speak with his voice.” This logic worked for me, but the Norts didn’t seem to agree.
The alien leader didn’t even deign to respond to that, turning around and walking off with his companions.
“Hey! Come back! I order you!”
They didn’t take orders from me. Literally. With my hands on my hips and an annoyed expression on my face, I watched them as they walked away at a fast clip. It wasn’t that they moved their legs particularly quickly, but that they were so long, that even with their ambling gait, they covered a huge amount of ground with each step. If I were to follow them, I would have to jog just to keep up. Not that I wanted to follow that bunch of skeletons anyway. They were nearly as bad as Rethryn, but they didn’t even have his saving grace, as far as I could tell.
I scanned the immediate area for something useful, or interesting. A gun perhaps, or maybe a teleporter or half-buried spaceship with the keys still in the ignition. Failing the most practical things, maybe a bag of makeup or some takeout.
This planet didn’t seem to have any of that stuff lying around though.
Disappointed, I had to cover my mouth to stifle a yawn. This section of the planet seemed to be nothing but dust, sand, rocks and annoying aliens. I could still see the Norts, stalking their way up the hill with their long, languorous strides. Soon they would be over the nearest ridge and out of sight.
Stifling another yawn, I went back to Rethryn’s closet to see if I could find anything useful inside. I searched through most of the same junk I had tossed out of there earlier when I was ransacking his room.
I remembered the knife, and then with a curse, I remembered that I had left it on top of Rethryn’s desk. Perhaps now it was floating out there in space amongst other debris.
At what was now the right-hand end of the closet, which had formerly been the floor when it was upright, I found a large box labeled emergency rations.
Now that was something I understood. I hoped he had some whiskey in there. And maybe some burgers. The fact that the supply cache was clearly from Thirren, a planet which had neither whiskey nor hamburgers, meant I strongly suspected I was going to be out of luck. But hope springs eternal.
Greedily, like a spoiled child at Christmas — and I should know, I was one for every year of my life until I was kidnapped — I tore open the box.
The contents were disappointing. There were only two kinds of item inside, but dozens of each one. The first was package upon package upon package of a dry biscuit like cake. Or perhaps a cake like biscuit. I opened the first one and chewed it. I couldn’t help but imagine how such a travesty
of taste had come to be:
“We’re looking for some emergency rations.”
“So what you want? Chicken and gravy? Meat and potatoes? Chips and candy and burgers and beer and whiskey?”
“Oh, no. We were hoping for cardboard.”
“Cardboard? You can’t eat cardboard.”
“Then, can you make something that tastes like cardboard? But grainier? You know — something really bland. The kind of thing that would make taste buds suicidal.”
“Of course sir. We’ll see what we can do.”
After forcing down one of them, I opened one of the other kind of packages contained inside the box. These were pouches full of liquid. Miracle of miracles, unlike the food, these had a mild but pleasant taste. The flavor was something like watery lemon crossed with blueberry. Inoffensive, but you wouldn’t want to overindulge.
I sucked down two of the liquid packets quickly, then leaned back against the closet.
After one cardboard ration and the drinks, my stomach was as full as I wanted to get it — there was still a gnawing hunger, but the knowledge of how bad the food tasted outweighed the intensity of the pangs for nutrition.
One thing I had found since becoming a slave was that I didn’t really need to work at watching my weight anymore. The nonstop work, and the terrible food, had stopped me from gaining any pounds, despite the fact that people always used to say that both stress and travel could contribute to putting on weight. Not for me!
I covered my mouth again as I felt another yawn coming on. Despite the fact that the Nort sun was still high in the sky, according to my body clock it was bedtime. Especially since the last thing I had been doing before being thrown down onto this planet was the best sleep aid I knew of.
With nowhere better to go, I clambered into Rethryn’s closet and pulled another one of his shirts over me as a kind of makeshift blanket.
As I climbed inside, I felt like some kind of alien vampire, hiding in a box in the middle of the day so that I could sleep.
I just hoped they didn’t have any dangerous animals around here.
Or if they did, that they had a penchant for cardboard tasting military rations instead of human flesh.
With that happy thought, I began to doze off.
I was awakened in the classic way: with a spaceship landing on my head.
Actually, I think I may have been the first person in the history of humanity for that to happen to.
I was enjoying myself, lost in a dream that involved a yellow-scaled Drakon, a bottle of whiskey, and a completely empty schedule. Empty except for —
ROAR
The spacecraft’s rumble was like the worst alarm clock I’d ever heard in my life. For such a tiny ship it sure put out a lot of noise when you were up close. My eyes blinked open, and I looked out of my cupboard / escape pod to see Rethryn’s ship almost, but not quite, landing on top of me. At the last minute it edged to the side, setting down right beside me.
I sat up, staring at it, while I waited for my mind to catch up with what was going on. Sometimes when I woke up at this time of day — whatever time of day it was — I at first thought I was still back on Earth, and it took a while for my mind to catch up with everything that had happened. That was happening now.
When I had finally caught up, I realized with a start that this had been my best chance of escape in a long time — and it looked like I’d blown it.
Before the gangway could lower from the ship, I hopped out of the escape pod, and after glancing left and right, started running down the hill, since it seemed easier than going uphill.
The ground was rough, and difficult to run on without shoes. Doing my best to step on sand and dust instead of pointy rocks, I dodged and waved my way downhill. There was no substantial cover for me to hide behind, and I think I knew the effort was futile almost as soon as I’d begun. But I’m not a quitter.
The further down the hill I got, the more sand there was. In theory this was good — fewer pointy rocks — but in practice it was anything but. The sand was slightly sticky, and so soft that I began to sink into it with every step. My legs began to ache with the effort, my muscles burning as I lifted my legs over and over. Running downhill had never been so tiring.
When I finally dared to look back over my shoulder, I saw Rethryn walking toward me, an amused look on his face. That was it. I wasn’t getting away this time. No way. If he wanted, he could change into his dragon form, swoop me over, and pluck me up like a ripe berry.
Panting, I slowed to a stop and turned around. Forcing a smile onto my face I greeted him.
“Oh, hi! Didn’t see you there!”
He tilted his head at me as if trying to work out whether I was an idiot or just kidding around. I’m not quite sure which he decided on.
“Come.”
With a shrug, as if whatever it was I was actually running down the hill to do was a mere trifle that could be easily forgotten, I started back in his direction. It was even harder going up, the sand seeming to want to suck me down and make me stay in place, and the hill was even more tiring on the legs going up it than it had been on the way down.
“What were you doing?”
I made a big show of panting for breath before responding. Of course what I was actually doing was trying to think of an excuse. Finally I thought of a brilliant one.
“I was hoping there’d be a river down at the bottom of the hill. I didn’t think much of the drinks in your ration packs.”
The slight flick of his head showed he understood. I guess he had had his own experiences with the ration packs over the years.
“So what happened? One minute we were in your cabin. The next minute… I was here. On…Nort?”
“That’s right. You’re on Nort. The ship was sabotaged. In the confusion, the escape pod in my cabin was jettisoned with you in it. I’m glad to see it did its job.”
“So, back to the ship?”
I looked around the desolate landscape wistfully, cursing myself for having gone back to sleep in the escape pod. But then again, where would I have gone? Maybe it would be better spending a bit more time with Rethryn rather than starving myself to death or dying of boredom from eating cardboard tasting rations on this dull looking planet.
I started to walk toward the gangway, but I didn’t get very far. Rethryn picked me up with two hands around my waist and tossed me over his shoulder.
“Charming,” I said sarcastically in his ear.
“You should walk faster. Now be quiet.”
15
Rethryn
Rethryn
Due to the series of explosions aboard my ship, various systems were triggered that shouldn’t have been. One of which was the emergency escape pod which had sent Talia blasting down to the planet below our ship.
It had been an act of sabotage, and I knew exactly who to blame. And this time it wasn’t the human’s fault. Not unless she’d managed to smuggle a clutch of bombs onboard, which she clearly hadn’t.
I started to march to the cargo bay, intending to put her back in the cell.
“Please, don’t put me back in there. That cell’s too small for me to even sit down in. Isn’t there somewhere else?”
I do not normally concern myself with the comfort of slaves. Or of anyone junior to me. A little discomfort builds character; that’s what they used to say in the Academy. And a lot of discomfort builds a lot of character.
But she had not had the benefit of my military training, nor my noble bloodline. And anyway, she was more fun when she was being agreeable. It would be in my own best interest to keep her that way for the time being.
“Then we will go to the recreation room.”
I didn’t put her down, just changed my direction slightly so that instead of going straight forward to the cargo hold, I went up the ramp that led to the second, and only other, level of our embarrassing ship. I passed my cabin, and before we got to the bridge, we entered the rec room.
“Out.”
The two junior officers in there had vacated the room before I even finished giving my command. It always gave me a sense of satisfaction to have my orders obeyed with such diligence.
With the room now empty, I placed Talia down on one of the dining tables. I considered laying her back and taking her again then and there. Perhaps I would shortly.
“So what happened? You said sabotage?”
“It’s none of your concern.”
She sat up on the table, her legs drawn toward her chest, her bare feet on the table. She hugged her legs close to her chest as she looked at me.
“Was it the person you mentioned before? Illswing’s mother? The one you said would offer me freedom?”
I growled a warning at her, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. Instead of cowering, she just continued to give me a curious look.
“She is the kind of woman who says many things. None of which should be believed. If you ever do have the misfortune to meet her, don’t believe a word she says.”
“Unlike you? Are you trustworthy?”
“Stupid question,” I told her. “You wouldn’t know whether to believe my answer anyway.”
She shook her head at me. “No, if you told me you were untrustworthy I would believe that. But if you answered the other way, and told me you were trustworthy, well then I wouldn’t know what to believe.”
“You talk too much. Didn’t they ever tell you that on Minapolis?”
She shook her head at me. “Nope. They very much valued my advice. They would often come to me with questions or to seek my council. They found me clever and insightful.”
I stared at her for several microns, trying to assess whether she was lying, joking or boasting. I did not reach a conclusion of which I was confident but leaned toward the thought that she was kidding.
“If that’s so, then they will be pleased to have you back.”
That sure got her attention. Her eyebrows shot up.