by R. R. Banks
I scrubbed clean and stepped out into the cool air shivering. It would be nice to be somewhere different. I hoped somewhere warm. This weather was getting ridiculous. I took the folded piece of paper out of my pocket and unfolded it so I could check the directions to the meeting point one more time. I had never traveled by spaceship before and I was afraid that I would somehow take a wrong turn along the way, get lost, miss my trip to Uoria, and be stuck in the same life with dark memories that haunted me no matter how hard I tried to put them behind me.
The bright green piece of paper led me to one of the university's many outlying study buildings; this one so far at the other end of the campus that I was afraid my short legs weren't going to get me there in time. For a brief moment I entertained the idea of waving someone down and asking them for a ride, but just the thought made my stomach turn as I remembered how many times I had done something similar, and the consequences I had suffered because of it.
Forcing myself to think about something beyond those memories distracted me so much that I almost didn't realize I had gotten to the building. It loomed ahead of me in brilliant chrome and black detailing and for a moment I just stood back and admired it. It was extremely impressive for a building that existed purely for the purposes of housing ships and arranging travel for the students and researchers at the university. I stood on the sidewalk outside and looked at it. Somewhere inside there the crew was waiting for me, waiting to bring me aboard a ship that would take me on a journey far from Earth and far from everything I had ever known, and everything I had been trying to outrun.
I took a deep, steeling breath and strode into the building, exuding as much confidence as I could even though there were butterflies swarming in my stomach. No one I knew had ever traveled off of Earth so I had no one to give me advice on what the trip would be like or how I was going to handle it. This was truly an adventure into the unknown and I was nervous, but ready to embrace it. There was no way it could be worse than anything I had already endured.
The woman at a massive, gleaming front desk looked up at me and flashed a smile so big and bright it looked like she had been rehearsing it.
"Hi," I said cautiously, approaching the desk and holding up the green sheet of paper as if it was my pass to the building, "I'm Leia. I'm here for my trip to Uoria."
"The foreign exchange program!" the woman said with excitement, "They are just fueling up the ship and will be ready to go in a few minutes. Go through that door and go to the end of the hall. Type your name into the keypad beside the door and it will let you out into the loading area. Have a fantastic trip!"
"Thank you."
I followed the woman's point to a tall metal double door at the end of the room and it opened as I approached as if it could sense my presence. It led into a long, wide corridor lined with doors with nothing more than numbers to differentiate them. I followed the corridor to the end and found the keypad by the door. My fingers shook slightly as I typed my name into the keys, but I didn't know if they were shaking more from nervousness or excitement.
The door swung open as soon as I finished typing my name and I stepped out into a huge room that swarmed with people. I waited just inside the door until a woman in a short dress and pointed hat came up, took my elbow, and led me toward the ship in the middle of the room without saying anything to me.
A few moments later I was settling into a large plush seat that surrounded me like a pod, securing my seatbelt as tightly as I could, tucking my small bag in behind my feet. It didn't contain much, only the few articles of clothing I had that I felt comfortable wearing in a school setting and my meager art supplies. I closed my eyes and let out a long breath, knowing this moment was the last of life as I knew it and that soon I would be experiencing something incredible, something that would fuel me to another level of my art.
Chapter 4
The top of my pod was still open and a pleasant-looking man appeared above me.
"Hello, Leia. You are my only passenger today."
"Yes," I said, not really knowing what else to say when he paused.
"The flight from Earth to Uoria takes approximately five days when the conditions are good. If you prefer, I can put you to sleep so that you can pass the trip in your pod rather than experiencing all of it. Would you like me to do that for you?"
My mind immediately panicked at the thought of him doing anything that would put me into a state of not being able to control myself or make decisions. It was much too close to what the men had done to me, how they had controlled me for years using drugs and manipulation to keep me as their compliant servant. I shook my head adamantly.
"No. I'll stay awake."
The pilot got a strange look on his face, but nodded.
"That's fine. We have plenty of supplies to sustain you through the trip. If you change your mind, though, just let me know."
"I will. Thank you."
"I'm going to go ahead and close your pod up now. It will open when we get out of orbit and it is safe for you to move around the rest of the ship. Make sure your seatbelt is secure and just relax. The takeoff is the worst part."
He smiled, but I didn't find his words terribly reassuring, and when he closed the pod, the loud clicking sound of the lid clamping into place made my stomach flip. I rested my head back on the seat and gave my seatbelt another tug just to make sure that it was tight around me. A few moments later I felt the pod around me start to shake slightly as the pilot began the lift-off process. The shaking grew more intense and right as I felt like I couldn't take it anymore, the shaking eased and I felt a tremendous surge upwards.
What felt like hours later, there was a click and a hissing sound as the lid to my pod popped open and eased upward a few inches. I released my seatbelt and pushed the lid up the rest of the way so that I could climb out. We were still days away from the planet where I planned to spend the next six months, but I already felt like Earth was a lifetime away. The sense of freedom and possibility surrounded me and for the first time in years I felt all of the tension, fear, and worry ease out of my shoulders. It would be less than 24 hours before it all returned and what was supposed to be my salvation became my hell.
I had just eaten a huge lunch and was settling into my pod for a nap on the second day of the journey when I felt the ship lurch and shudder. It settled only for a moment before shaking even more violently and tilting to the side so harshly I tumbled out of my pod and onto the floor. I heard a scream from the front of the ship where the flight attendant stayed for the majority of the time and then a series of pounding sounds that felt like they were shaking my bones.
The door between the chamber where my pod sat along with a table and cluster of chairs and the small room where the flight attendant stayed dented then split, and my breath caught in my throat as a loathsome-looking creature climbed through the break into my chamber. It looked like a slimy skeleton covered with ghastly white skin and oily strings of hair coming from its comparatively tiny head. Steeply pointed teeth jutted from its mouth and claws several inches long protruded from the ends of its thin fingers.
I scrambled backwards as four more of the creatures climbed into the room, the last one dragging the pilot along with him. They seemed to notice me suddenly, all of them turning their eyes to me at the same time and approaching with long strides that covered the floor space between us in seconds.
"What are you?" I screamed, flattening my back against the far wall of the chamber and starting to work my way around the room toward my pod.
"We are Klimnu," the first creature that had come into the chamber said in a voice that made my skin crawl.
"Run!" the pilot screamed, thrashing against the hands of the creature that held him, "Get into my cockpit and call for help."
The Klimnu that held him pulled the pilot up off of the ground and pulled his head back by his hair. The pilot kicked and another of the Klimnu grabbed his legs so that he couldn't move anymore. An instant later the one who held him slashed his throa
t with his fangs. The blood poured in a thick, glistening curtain down the front of his body and I felt my stomach turn. Pulling his head back further, the Klimnu burrowed his mouth into the pilot's neck until he found his spine, then bit through it with a sickening crunch. The rest of the man's body collapsed to the floor and the Klimnu held up his head like a trophy.
I fought the vomit that rose in my throat, struggling to stay in control and keep my mind clear so that I would have any chance at all to get into the cockpit and call for emergency help.
"What are you?" I asked in a strangled voice, still working my way around the wall.
The first Klimnu took a step toward me and I gasped, pressing myself harder against the wall.
"We are Klimnu," he repeated angrily.
"Why are you here?" I asked, the tears pouring down my cheeks like acid.
"Ynn, our planet, has become a wasteland. There is nothing there and even we are struggling to survive. We are going to Uoria to join our brethren there. There is no famine, especially with the Denynso to sustain us."
"What do you mean?"
The creature gave a horrific sound that might have been a laugh and was suddenly only inches from me, blocking me against the wall with his disgusting, slimy body. Instead of answering my question, he reached up and ran the tips of his sharp claws along my cheek and down my neck. I shuddered at the feeling, but when I tried to wriggle away from him, he tilted his hand so that the points of the claws bit into my skin like needles.
"You are a pretty little thing," he said, his voice lower now like he was trying to cajole me with his words, "I don't think I am going to let my men kill you. I would much rather keep you as my pet."
He looked at me the way that the men who had bought, sold, and traded me did and I felt myself grow dizzy with fear and disgust.
"I would rather die," I hissed and I felt his claws slash across my neck, digging deeply enough to make my blood flow but not enough to comply with my wishes.
I withheld the cry of pain that bubbled up in my throat. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of making me appear weak and vulnerable in front of him.
"Perhaps you will have the opportunity to experience both," he said and grabbed me by the front of my shirt, dragging me toward the door.
I felt the warmth of the pilot's blood soaking through my clothes as the creature dragged me through it on our way through the ship. No matter how hard I struggled, I couldn't free myself from his grasp. I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was dragging me through the side hatch of the ship and I grabbed onto the sides, desperately trying to stay within the ship, but he pulled me so hard the skin tore from my hands and I couldn't hold on any longer. A moment later I was in a dark hallway and I knew my life was no longer my own.
Chapter 5
In an instant I realized that the dark hallway was a connector between the ship that I had been on and another one. The Klimnu had attached their ship to the university's and torn through the wall, leaving it gaping and vulnerable. The creature dragged me down the hallway and into a large open chamber in the center of the ship. Behind us the rest of the creatures crawled through the doorway. One held a small black contraption in his hands.
"I have the black box," he said.
His voice was not as slimy as that of the creature that still gripped me, but he was no less disgusting as he passed close by me on the way toward an open door on the other end of the chamber. I knew that the black box was stolen from the university's ship and that it contained all of the programming for the trip to Uoria. In taking that box they had essentially stolen an auto-pilot flight right to a planet that they wanted to dominate. My stomach sank as I realized that there was no escape now. Without the black box, even if a miracle struck and I was able to get myself free of the Klimnu and back onto the university's ship, the emergency rescue crews would have no way of finding it.
The Klimnu holding me turned me roughly so that I was staring back down the hallway toward the ship. In an instant the ship exploded, becoming a massive ball of orange flame. I screamed as the ship disappeared and the hallway collapsed in on itself, closing the opening in the side of the ship and closing me in with my disgusting, threatening captors. I knew it was my last chance. Maybe if I could free myself from the grip of the creature that held me I would be able to get into the control room of this ship and reach out for help, or at least figure out how to steer the ship onto the closest planet so that I could get away.
Years of martial arts training from when I was younger came back to me in waves. I felt the lessons, the discipline, and the power flowing through my muscles as I channeled the confidence and intensity I once held. This was knowledge from a time before I ended up on the street, before I had to turn to the sickening men to stay alive. I took a breath and lashed out at the creature. My leg lifted and came in contact with the side of his head, making a deep cracking sound that resonated through the chamber. The creature let out a shriek that nearly brought me to my knees, but the feeling of his hands holding me in place released and I took advantage of the sudden freedom by taking off running across the room.
I ran a few steps and then dropped to the floor, using my small frame to my advantage by sliding through the legs of two of the creatures that came at me. Getting past all of the creatures, I scrambled to my feet and took another step toward the open door on the other side of the room. I felt a surge of energy and hope as I reached a hand toward the doorframe, hoping to grab onto it so that I could pull myself through. Before I could, however, I felt a sharp, searing pain in my back.
I fell back, pulled by some unseen force. The intensity of the pain took my breath away and I couldn't withhold the sharp gasp that came from my lips. A moment later the creature who wanted to keep me as his pet appeared by my side. I looked up and realized that the pain came from more than a dozen fine wires that came from the ceiling. The creature walked around me and touched a button on the wall. I screamed as the wires retracted, lifting me a few inches off of the floor with the hooks embedded in my back. The weight of my body pulled the hooks through my skin, slicing through my back, but held so that I dangled from the ceiling with my toes barely grazing the floor beneath me.
"Misbehaving will do you no good," the Klimnu hissed at me, "It will only make this far worse for you."
I opened my mouth to speak, but he covered it with his hand and I felt like I was being gagged. My voice would not push through my throat and I could barely breathe. Even when he pulled his hand away from my face I couldn't make a sound and only the smallest amount of air seeped through my mouth and nose into my lungs.
That is where I stayed for the next four days, hanging from the ceiling of the main chamber of the ship unable to make any sound. The Klimnu passed by me throughout the day as they went about their normal business, walking past me as if I was a gruesome decoration. Occasionally one of them would tip a small amount of water down my throat, but they never brought me food and by the time they told me we were preparing to land, I was nearly delirious with hunger.
Four days later.
The shaking of the ship as we lowered toward the ground intensified the pain in my back and I felt fresh tears following the dry, sticky path of those I had already cried over the last few days. I have never been one to cry often, but the excruciating physical pain and emotional despair I was in drew more tears from me than I remembered crying in the last several years.
Even with the pain, however, the shaking was welcome because it meant that we were nearing the surface of Uoria and perhaps they would free me from the hooks that held me in place. It may mean that I was a few steps closer to death, but that relief would be welcome.
When the shaking of the ship calmed, the group of Klimnu came into the chamber and without a word, the one who had held me in place when they first captured me came to my side and wrapped an arm tightly around my hips. He used his long, slimy fingers to pry each of the hooks from my back and as they swung through the air I could see droplets o
f blood spatter across the floor. He picked me up over his shoulder and I draped over it like a ragdoll, incapable of moving.
He carried me out of the ship and I got my first breath of fresh air. The university had warned me that breathing on the strange planet would be challenging at first, but I didn't care. The warm air smelled sweet and as it washed across my skin I felt a brief moment of relief from the agony. After only a few seconds, however, the creature brought me into a building and darkness engulfed me. He threw me to the ground and I felt pain shoot through my hip as it cracked against a stone floor. My eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness and I could just make out the nearly bare space around me. There was a plate of something that resembled food on the floor and I descended on it, eating ravenously as the metallic sound of the barred door slamming reverberated in my head.
I don't know exactly how long I stayed on that cold stone floor before the Klimnu returned. My captor opened the barred door and stepped into the cell with me. He ran one of his fingers along my leg and then through my hair. I shivered in disgust and turned my face away from him. To my utter surprise, he stepped away.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Leia."
"Why were you on that ship?"
"I am part of an exchange student program with Uoria. I am here to study the land and the culture and work on my art," I answered shakily.
There was a pause and I could feel tension growing in the cell.
"I don't believe you."
"What do you mean?"
"My brethren say that you must be a scientist. Uoria has only allowed a few humans to visit and they have all been researchers."