by Ava Walsh
I could see why humans had come to call this place home. Strath was a good ruler who cared about the happiness of his people. He spared no expense at this party and it showed. I wondered, for the first time, about Strath’s offer to keep me here. It was an enticing idea, but I didn’t think it would be possible for me. I wasn’t the kind of person who stayed in one place. I was always running, always moving, but maybe it didn’t have to be like that. Maybe I could stay here, under the protection of this Lost Lord.
All around me people were quieting and the music was stopping. Slowly, a hush fell over the huge open space as everyone turned their eyes up. I saw a raised throne high above us and Strath slowly walked to a platform at the center.
People began to clap and cheer. They screamed out his name, they called out that they loved him. The faces around me were enraptured as they stared up at their leader.
“My people,” he called out and the cheering stopped. He looked around at everyone, smiling down to the crowd. “When my father was forced to abandon his lands, we feared the worst. It was a time of great chaos. But you trusted the Strath family to guide you to safety. We made the great and dangerous journey, we risked all when we took to our ships.
“It was the greatest gamble of our lives. The Regime threatened to hunt us down, to bring us home in chains. But not only have we survived, we have thrived!” Thunderous applause filled the room.
“Everything you see before you belongs to us! We have worked for it and the Regime has no claim to it. We are free and ever shall that freedom remain ours!” Cheers erupted again, so loud that my ears ached.
“My fellows, tonight I command you to eat and drink and love. Leave your worries and care for tomorrow. Tonight, we celebrate!”
They loved him, I realized as I looked at the shining faces around me. Even the women from his bed stared up him with rapt gazes. There was no amount of money that could buy this devotion, he had earned it. I looked up at him on his throne and I wondered if my face matched the devoted ones around me.
Chapter Five
I woke up the next morning in a daze. I looked around my unfamiliar room. It took me a long while to remember where I was and what had brought me here. I barely remembered stumbling back to my room after the Festival of Sea and Salt. I dimly remembered Strath’s women guiding me back here and helping me undress, tucking me into bed.
Sitting up, I could see my dress in a crumpled pile in the corner. My pillow was smeared with the remains of my eye makeup. Was it only last night I had worn that glittery toga and danced the strange beat of Dolcivs music? Was it only last night that I had felt so free and unencumbered? Now, as the lights brightened to indicate the morning, the realities of where I was came rushing back to me.
What had happened last night? Had I kissed Strath? No, I had done more than that. I remembered his body pressed up against mine. His tongue on mine. His hands pinning me to the wall. I had wanted it. I had wanted him. If he had taken me right there, I would have given myself to him without hesitation. I would have rather woken up in his bed with his arms around me, than in here all alone. That scared me. I hadn’t come to this system to become the bedmate to some Dolcivs Lost Lord. I had come here to get plans for the rebellion.
I showered and dressed in a loose-fitting toga. I missed my human clothes, my pants and shirts that allowed movement and stealth. The toga was beautiful, but not terribly functional and I felt overdressed in it. I wanted to blend in and I worried the soft flowing robes would be too beautiful to be ignored.
I tried the door, but found, unsurprisingly, that it was locked from the outside. I needed to get out. I needed to get off of this ship. It was too tempting here. The food was too good, the clothes too nice. And then there was Strath. Strath with his strong hands and his taste in human art. He was too good. He was a handsome and charismatic leader and after one drink I had melted in his arms.
That wasn’t who I was. I wasn't some girl who fell head over heels for a powerful man. I was a human and a member of the rebellion. I answered to a higher calling. I was working not for my own good, but for the good of my people.
I had been forcing myself to forget my humanity and my place in the rebellion. I feared that if I thought about it, Strath could read the truth of what I was doing here on my face. I let myself forget, but that had been a dangerous idea. It was too easy to forget, too easy to slip into this life of comfort.
I needed to get off this ship before I was lost to it. Before the grand galas and rich meals started to feel normal. This wasn’t the life I led or the life I wanted. I lived on the edges where it was hard and dangerous. I was a fighter in a war, I couldn’t afford to become soft.
I felt along the wall, searching for the warmth that would indicate a technology junction. I felt it with the palm of my hand, to the left of the door. Using a board from the closet, I pried the wall away. My fingers bled as my nails pulled and pried at the plastic covering. With a grunt and one final pull, the panel came off and I could see the junction box. It took me only a moment to find the connector to the door. I disabled the power and just as I hoped, cutting the power forced the door up.
With a confidence I didn’t feel, I stepped out into the long empty hallway. I didn’t look around me. I walked with a purpose, my eyes straight ahead. I tried to look like I knew where I was going as I headed toward the elevator. I pushed a button to call it and then waited. I forced myself not to fidget. It seemed to take forever. I glanced down the hallway expecting any moment for someone to round the corner and catch me.
The elevator arrived and I stepped inside and stared at the panel. I saw the sign for the hangar bay and pressed that button and felt a familiar pull in my stomach as the elevator began to move. It came to a stop before the hangar bay and my heart stopped as another person stepped in. It was a human male, he nodded at me and I nodded back. Luckily he turned and faced the door. I was grateful he wasn’t trying to make conversation. Thankfully, the ship was so big that there was no way for everyone to know everyone else. To him, I was just another human woman going about my business.
The man got off and I breathed a sigh of relief. I watched as floor by floor the elevator made its way to the hangar. I paced in the elevator. I couldn’t take it anymore. This waiting was driving me crazy. I could be caught at any moment. Did the Dolcivs know that I had left my room? How much time did I have?
The doors opened and I ducked into the hangar bay and hid behind a protrusion in the wall. I peered around the protrusion, looking to see if there were any guards, but the place was silent and nearly empty. Everyone was recuperating from last night, no doubt.
I moved through the hangar bay wishing I had something else to wear. In my fancy toga, I wasn’t blending in very well. I needed a pair of coveralls or something. Above me, I could see several Dolcivs guards and engineers moving about in the control room. So far they hadn’t seen me. I stayed out of sight of the control room and hurried towards the back of the hangar.
I knew that Strath was powerful, but I hadn’t expected an armada of this size. He had what appeared to be dozens of fighter ships of all size with his insignia burned on the side. They lined the walls, looking well-maintained and ready for a fight. I passed underneath feeling naked and exposed underneath their brute strength.
There she was, my baby. Zephyr was her name. It was an ancient word that meant West Wind. The rebellion had captured it from some rogue Dolcivs smugglers and it had been given to me to carry out my missions.
She was a large ship with smooth flowing lines. I spent a lot of time and money making her shine. I loved that ship, warts and all. Compared to Strath’s sleek fighters the Zephyr looked especially dingy. There were dents on the side and scratches from the various dogfights she had been in throughout her long life. But I wouldn’t have traded her for anything.
I could see materials from the inside of my ship scattered about. There were my bed and sheets, there was my couch from the lounge. My pictures and the little treasures I had coll
ected, a calcified bird’s egg, a plate made for me by stranded humans I had picked up on a run. I didn’t like seeing them scattered everywhere as if they were meaningless. They meant something to me. But I would have to leave them behind. There would be no time to gather any of it.
Every last inch of my ship had been ripped apart and searched thoroughly or so they thought. From the rubble, I guessed that they were still stuck on five hiding spots. Only five more to go, I thought with a wicked smile. They would never find them all.
Moving quickly and hunched over, I made my way to my ship. I used my own furniture as a shield moving from couch to chair, hiding behind each piece, slowly getting closer and closer.
There it was, only a few feet away, the door to my ship. I could make it. I would run onboard. They had no doubt disabled my computer, but I was ready for that. I had a backup computer installed on the ship. It didn’t have the functionality of the main computer, but it could activate engines, navigation and life support in an instant and that was all I needed to run.
I just needed to get on board and access the main panel. From there I could start the computer, lock the ship up and blast my way out of there. I paused, did I really want to blast my way out of here? I would make an enemy of Strath if I did. He was a powerful Lord. Wouldn’t it be better to have him on my side rather than as my enemy? He had been so kind to me, it felt wrong to reward his kindness with betrayal and destruction of his hangar bay.
I was hesitating, I had never hesitated before. I wasn’t the kind of girl to overthink my actions. I made a plan and then executed it. But I was learning all new sorts of things about myself on this ship.
I stared at the door, debating what to do. If only I had more time. But the truth was I didn’t and I knew it. The rebellion needed these plans. I didn’t have the time to try and turn Strath to our side as that could take weeks or even months. The rebellion needed these plans today. People were fighting and dying in the war and I had the ability to help them. I had to get the plans and go. I would do minimal damage to Strath’s ship on my way out. Once the plans were delivered, I would come back and try to find some way to make it up to him.
Taking a deep breath, I stared at the door and then decided this was it. I needed to run. I crouched down and just as I was about to rush forward a strong hand came down and grabbed my hair.
I screamed as my head was jerked back. I reached for the hand holding my hair, but it was a Dolcivs hand. I swatted and pulled at it, but it was like an ant fighting an elephant. The guard ignored the blows and scratches from my hand as if they were nothing. I struggled to turn my head and see who had me. I just managed to see a Dolcivs male glaring down at me. His hand tightened its grip on my hair as he pulled me back. I scrambled, struggling to get to my feet and get some control over my actions. But when I managed to get my feet below me, he kicked them and I was down again.
“I wasn’t doing anything,” I called out. “I was just checking on my ship. Let me go!”
But the Dolcivs guard didn’t care. His face remained a permanent grimace. He did not speak or even look me in the eye. He led me to a weapons locker and pulled out a pair of cuffs. He spun me around and pushed me against a wall, locking the cuffs tightly around my wrists. Saying nothing, he pushed me forward towards the elevator.
I shouldn’t have hesitated. That was my mistake. I should have run, but the thought of hurting Strath had stopped me. I held back tears and shook my head to clear them. I would not cry in front of this guard. I needed to be strong. Maybe there was some way I could talk my way out of this.
The elevator went on for a very long time. The guard and I rode in silence. I kept glancing up at him, but I never met his eye.
“Where are we going?” I asked him, but his only answer was silence.
The doors finally opened up revealing a dark and dank prison. A horrible smell hit my nose, the smell of sewage and sweat and misery. This wasn’t like the prison cell I had been in before, this was much, much worse.
It was freezing cold down here. The air was thick with moisture. We must have been near the ship’s coolants. Condensation ran down the walls and dripped into filthy puddles on the rough floor. Haggard looking people peered out from their dark cells. They were emaciated, their eyes sunk deep in their lined faces. They were dressed in rags, the men with thick, dirty beards that hung down to their chest.
The guard opened a cell door and threw me inside. My arms were still trapped behind me and I had no way to catch myself. I fell with a thump, the wind knocked out of me as my jaw slammed painfully against the floor.
I fought my way back to my feet, the guard watching from the other side of the locked bars. Without my arms, it took a long time and I fell back down more than once. When I was finally up, I looked at him desperately and he motioned for me to come to him. Gratefully I walked to him and put my hands at the gate to my cell. He unlocked my cuffs and I quickly backed away massaging my wrists. He left without saying a word.
There was no bed in this cell. Just a pile of straw in the corner with a filthy blanket next to it. There was no toilet either, just an empty bucket. I looked around at the floor, there wasn't anywhere for me to sit without getting wet.
From another cell came the plaintive cry of a woman. She was wailing loudly, a wordless tirade for all of the ills she had suffered. Her wail was unending, a constant cry that stabbed my ears.
“Shut up!” A male voice screamed. “Stop crying. Just shut up!” His voice echoed up and down the hallway making it sound like there were hundreds of men screaming. The woman only grew louder in response.
How had this happened? Just yesterday I had been treated like a king. Dressed and brought to a festival where I ate and drank to my fill. Then I had returned to my own private room with my own soft bed. Now I was stuck down here, waiting for a punishment I knew was coming. Sadly, I piled the hay up in the corner until it made a dry seat. Sitting down, my head fell to my hands. What was I going to do now?
Chapter Six
I barely slept. The woman never stopped crying and I understood why everyone hated her. By morning, I hated her too. At least I thought it was morning. There was no sense of time in this prison. The light was always the same. It was always cold and wet. There was the ever-present sound of water dripping, making the filthy puddles bigger.
I was starving. No food or water had been brought to me and I wasn’t yet desperate enough to sip from the sullied puddles that surrounded me. Instead, I sat on my dry pile of hay with my grimy blanket wrapped around me as I went over every mistake I had ever made.
Footsteps echoed around me. The guards were coming.
I followed them with my ears, ready for them when they presented themselves at the door to my cell. My stomach dropped. Strath wasn’t with them. What did that mean? Had he given up on me? Was he going to let his guards interrogate me? I had utterly ruined everything with him. He must hate me and I couldn’t blame him. He had been nothing but kind to me and at the first opportunity, I had betrayed him. He would never trust me again.
The guards entered my cell and roughly pulled me to my feet. They cuffed me and pushed me out of the cell and down the hallway. The tall Dolcivs guards loomed over me. The other prisoners craned their heads from inside their cells and watched my progress with interest. As we walked, I focused on turning all my emotions off. I couldn’t let myself experience fear or terror. Or tears. I had to be strong.
I didn’t know if I could be strong. I had been trained for this, of course. But I had never been captured before. I tried to recall my training and take some comfort in it. I had to hope that it would be enough. I had to hope that I lived to see the end of this or died before giving any secrets away.
They didn’t put me into the elevator. Instead, we walked past it to a set of heavy iron doors. The Dolcivs guard grinned at me as the door swung open and I was pushed inside, just barely managing to stay on my feet. The room was dark and I couldn't see anything. Then a harsh overhead light was turned on. I
winced against the brightness, blinking rapidly as my eyes adjusted.
My stomach dropped. It was an interrogation room, a bad one. There were shackles hanging from the walls with red stains on the ground below them. On another wall, there were chains that ended in handcuffs. There were beds with straps to hold people down, chairs embedded with sharp spikes. Everywhere I looked there was some new instrument of torture. I struggled against the guards, trying to push my way to freedom, but my exertion was nothing to them.
They pushed me back. Their hands were all over me as they spun me around and cuffed my wrists to heavy chains bolted to the wall. There was about three feet of chain, I could take two steps, but that was it. The cuffs chafed against my wrists and the chains were heavy.
The guards took a step back and smirked at me before leaving. There were sharp knives in a case, what looked like dental equipment strung up along one wall, pincers, pliers, spikes, branding irons. Every horrible thing that could be used to cause pain was kept in this one small room.
I stared at each instrument imagining what it would do to my body. I could hear my own screams. I could hear myself telling my every secret as I begged for the pain to stop. Eventually, I would beg for death.
I pulled desperately at the chains, putting both of my feet against the wall for leverage. I pulled with all my strength, but nothing happened. The chains were welded to the wall. There was no way a human woman could pull them out. I stretched the length of my chains, struggling to reach the many tools on the walls around me. But they were tantalizingly just out of reach. There was nothing I could do, nothing. There was no escape. The chains were thick, sturdy and short and there was no way out of them.
I don’t know how long I waited. I tried to avoid looking at the instruments of torture around me. I wrestled with the heavy chains praying for some way to get out of this. I was hoping for some miracle that I knew would never come. Where was Strath? Maybe if I could see him I could explain everything. But no, if I did that he would know why I was here, he would know I was working with the rebellion. There was no telling what he might do with that information. He could use it as leverage against the Regime, offer me up in exchange for whatever he wanted.