by Ravyn Wilde
Chapter Six
LAUREN AND KAITLYN were asleep when something woke them at the same time.
“What was that?” Kaitlyn whispered close to her ear.
Lauren shrugged and listened to the quiet. The door between the women and the Siloths had been locked from this side and the mechanism broken. Randi and Rachael looked at it from both sides and said it would take a blow torch to get into the room from the direction of the hall.
When the guards woke up and started nagging at them. Sissy took the opportunity to train them all how to shoot the silver canes and the men were unconscious again.
Plus, Rachael figured out how to erect a virtual wall between them and the guards. The women could see whether or not the guards were awake, but the guards couldn’t see anything in the room outside the cage.
Donna suggested they map out an escape route to an empty room on another level. It was a good idea. They picked one on the second level, down from the medical bay. Then locked the door from the inside, moved in some water and food, a few weapons, and some blankets they found. Then they made sure everyone knew how to get to it through the labyrinth of the ceiling.
When they were done, they decided shifts for guard duty and went to sleep. It had been a long day. Everyone was asleep. So, what startled both of them awake?
“Lauren, Kaitlyn you have to hear this, come.” It was Natacha.
They scrambled up off the hard floor and pulled blankets around their shoulders, tiptoeing around sleeping bodies to get to the table they set up as a command center in the corner.
Rachael and Randi rigged a couple of the communicators and they heard enough to know it worked but they didn’t recognize any of the voices or hear anything that pertained to them. Because Natacha had a translator and it wouldn’t matter what language the Siloth spoke, she volunteered to listen. Planning to nap when there wasn’t any conversation.
She was sitting at the table with the earpiece to one of the communicators in her hand. “Hurry. It is the commander talking about us.” She waved them over. They didn’t have to worry about being heard, the techy twins took off the mouthpiece so no sound would come from this end.
“Plug it into this,” Randi said coming up to the table. “I rigged a speaker last night so we could all listen if something came in.”
“Umm. I’ll get us water to drink,” Tallie said. She’d taken on the responsibility to remind them to eat and drink.
They had all been overjoyed to find a real bathroom on this side of the bars. It even had some type of shower that Lauren hoped to use this morning. She was thrilled their new bugout room had a bathroom too.
Randi plugged the communicator into the speaker and a deep voice thundered, “The red planet of Megoth is closer.” That sounded like the commander.
“It is but the planet itself could be an issue. They have auctions, yes. We could sell the women quickly. But there are also rebels and marauding hordes. We might lose our heads and our money before we manage to fix the ship and leave.”
They had no idea who was talking.
“We can’t take the women to Brac on Zylar. He was arrested for not only selling women but a list of things that will ensure he never sees daylight again. That is done. But most of the women are breeders and the ones that aren’t, have high value just because of their species. Even on Megoth, breeders will bring us enough money to fix the ship. The others may provide us a small profit. And Megoth is close. How far away is the lab you wish to travel to?”
The Siloth they didn’t know sighed. “It is farther than we should go with the damage to the solar shields. The money for experiments on the woman would be more than the price we’d get for breeders, but not if we don’t make it to that planet. Megoth is within a few hours. You are right, sir. What will you do about the women? They’ve locked the door of the prison bay?”
Deep male laughter filled the space and the women looked at each other.
“Let them have their win for now. In a few hours, we will be on the ground. Before they wake up, we’ll blast the door down and put them on the auction block before nightfall.”
They sat for a few moments, staring at each other in stunned amazement. Then quietly whooped and made a dive for the things they’d prepared. Just in case.
All of them hoped, prayed, and prepped for the slight chance they could do more than irritate their captors and die when they finally killed them. They were all prepared for that final sacrifice. Now it might not be necessary.
Ashton and Tallie handed out the packs of water and food they had put together for them all. Sissy handed out silver canes and modified Siloth uniforms. They weren’t pretty, but it was better than the pajamas most of them were wearing. Earlier, when they had checked out their locked door from the hall side, they’d also discovered some long cloaks in a storage closet. Those would double as disguises and blankets.
Lauren asked Sissy, “The guards?”
The half Siloth woman grinned. “Randi found a button with a Siloth label. I told her it said sleep. We pushed it, and they slept.”
She snorted and faced everyone. “The plan is to move quickly through your assigned floor. Weapons, shoes, better clothes, a fire source, pots to cook in. Those are the items we need. But don’t take too long. Go through and get out. We will meet on the fifth floor and it may take time to work around the elevator. So, don’t leave it until the last minute. Plan on about an hour. Those with watches, keep an eye on the time. Alarms should be off,” she warned.
That was all they needed. A too stupid to live moment when they were sneaking around an alien ship—and their watch alarm went off, alerting the enemy to their presence. Not good. “I’m serious. Check now that all alarms are off.”
She wanted to hit her head repeatedly on the nearest hard object when Randi and Rachael had to help two of the girls turn off their alarms. They didn’t know how, and they forgot they had them.
When she got the nods, she gave Kaitlyn a hug and started to climb. Sissy and Lauren were going straight to the top.
When they made it above the bridge they watched and listened to what was happening. Sissy had to translate a couple of times. Everything seemed to go as planned. She smiled when the commander ordered several of the Siloths to go get the damn women out of their hole.
That meant anyone waiting for the elevator to move, would be able to get to the last floor. Within ten minutes the only ones missing were Kaitlyn, Nat, Tallie, and Donna.
Even that didn’t bother her. Not yet.
The ship landed in perfect condition. Within seconds the electricity went out. Kaitlyn and her crew had pulled out the right wires. The elevator would no longer work, neither would the Siloth communications.
Lauren and Sissy threw the gas canisters down in the bridge, immediately knocking out anyone in the room. Randi had been able to make the small gas bombs from the canister in their prison that was labeled, sleep.
It looked like some of the Siloth landed badly. She couldn’t be sorry if they were badly injured or dead.
When Lauren and those with her couldn’t open the door to the outside, they pointed three silver canes at the exact same spot and caused a minor explosion. The door blew off, letting in hot air and sunshine.
Their group didn’t wait for the last four women. Their job was to get outside and find a place to hide. Keeping track of the ship so they could shoot any Siloth who came out, and direct Kaitlyn and her three associates to where they were hiding.
They walked out into red sand and stared at the flat, barren terrain.
“Well, shit.”
Sissy sighed. “There is nowhere to hide.”
Lauren turned in a circle. “Not unless we dig a hole.”
SHE DIDN’T SEE THEM coming. She thought later that they probably went out another door and used the tunnels in the sand. But knowing how it happened didn’t help her.
All of a sudden, she was stripped of her weapons, wrapped in her cloak so she couldn’t move, and several Siloths lifted her over their hea
ds and started running.
She saw Sissy taken, but nothing of the others. She tried to thrash, to get them to drop her, anything. And soon realized it wouldn’t work. She was well and truly caught. The cover over her head eventually loosened and she could breathe easier, catch a glimpse of the night sky, or the sand.
And at one point she saw several buildings. She tried to stay hopeful. Maybe she would have a better chance to escape!
They threw her into a cage, and she caught a glimpse of dozens of the cells filled with all types of alien women. Then everything went black.
Chapter Seven
WHEN SHE WOKE UP NOTHING had changed. It was hot and very pungent. It almost made her miss the morning water cannon showers on the Siloth ship. If someone wasn’t trying to drown her—it would be refreshing.
This place could definitely use a good cleaning. And she still wished she hadn’t lost the hair tie Kaitlyn made her. Not just because it could be used to strangle someone. She needed to tie her hair back.
The light was better this morning and she was sad to see that she wasn’t the only one who was captured. Sissy was awake in the cell next to her. She nodded her head and went back to watching the surroundings.
Lauren noticed Sissy had two of the hair ties on her wrist. The next time the tall, red alien woman looked her way, she motioned to her wrist and then held her hair up. Sissy nodded, grinned, and threw one of the strong braided ties to her. Lauren smiled her thanks and promptly created a messy bun on the top of her head.
Randi and Rachael were sharing a cage across the small path, they were huddled together on the floor with their eyes closed. Lauren was happy to see that Ceely had been put in a cell with Nancy, and they were next to the twins.
Another scan of her surroundings and she saw the black-haired Asian girl, Tawnya, awake and talking quietly to Ashton, who was biting her nails. They were just on the other side of Sissy. She stood up and tried to see even further into the caves.
Searching for Kaitlyn.
Sissy stood and came as close as she could, saying quietly, “They aren’t here. They weren’t with us when we came to this village and into the caves. And they haven’t been brought in. I’ve watched.”
Lauren nodded and looked at her alien friend. Sissy looked tired. “Sissy, you sleep. I did for a bit and I’ll take a turn watching over us. Rest now, so we can run if we get the chance,” she whispered.
Sissy nodded and laid on the floor of her cage. She arranged herself so she was as close as she could get to Lauren and shut her eyes.
Lauren studied the inside of the cave, counting guards and trying to get an idea of how many women were in cages. She didn’t see any men, but it looked as if this place had several chambers. She guessed the men could be kept in another room. Or did they only sell women into slavery?
Part of her was happy to see that the only earth humans were the ones from her group. There were others who had very humanlike features—and then sported feathers on their head or scales on their arms.
She could see sunlight streaming in the cave opening. But not any of the buildings she’d noticed when she was brought to the cave. Lauren had hoped for an alien city or town, something that might have a police force or laws that would protect them. Sissy said this was a village, and by the number of cages and the size of this cave, she guessed that no one cared about the women imprisoned here.
Shit.
It was a good thing it was warm in here. She looked down at the small scraps of fabric the aliens dressed her in. She knew they’d been kidnaped to be breeders. But this outfit was insane. All wispy straps and see-through shit. God! She hated this.
Lauren wanted out. She wanted her cousins.
She was tempted to start screaming again and never stop. Then they’d have to kill her.
She blinked. Oh, my hell. What a little whiny bitch. She told herself. She was not going to commit suicide by pissed off alien. She took a deep breath and remembered something her grandfather had said to her a long time ago.
With a school paper to write, she asked her poppa about his philosophy of life. He had been a prisoner of war, had lived through lots of prejudice and oppression. And he was a happy man. He didn’t have to think about it. He told her, “When there is life, there is hope.”
She needed to decide right now if she believed that. If she could live it. No matter what happened to her or what was done to her, could she live and hope for something better. Could she use her brains and her family's training to get the hell out of this mess?
Or would she give up?
Lauren looked around at all the women in the cages.
They didn’t have a Kaitlyn who would be looking for her soon. Or a Makayla who taught her how to take care of herself. Warning her that sometimes the odds would be against her but to keep trying.
They didn’t have a poppa who inspired her long after he died. “When there is life, there is hope,” she whispered to herself. She could do this. And made a promise that she’d try to help everyone she could along the way.
SEVERAL HOURS LATER, Lauren sat on the floor of her cave with her legs out in front of her. Stretching. There wasn’t enough room to do a kata or to even just stand and stretch. The tops of their cages were pretty low. But she could sit and do dance warmups to keep her body limber. She noticed that Sissy and the other girls around her were doing the same thing. Even ones who hadn’t been on the Siloth ship with her.
As she stretched, she watched. The guards and their movements. The workers walk the floor with water and nutrition bars. The way the buckets that served as their bathrooms were swapped out by section after section.
There was an uproar at the entrance to the cave when a man came in dragging a young alien girl. Her face and body were a mass of bruises and small cuts. The large alien dragging her was furious. In seconds the small creature was thrown into the cell next to Lauren. She buried her head in her arms and wept. Great wracking sobs that filled the cavern. And the man stomped out.
Lauren moved to the bars between their cages and tried to talk to the girl. But she wouldn’t respond. She tried to reach her hand through, hoping to offer the comfort of touch, and couldn’t reach her.
Finally, she slid down and sat, and started singing. Lullabies and protest songs that her parents and grandparents had taught her. Love—mixed with the will to overcome—and the combined backbone of millions who had been slaves on another world—their hymns and chants now offering hope on an alien planet.
Every once and a while she would mix it up with more popular tunes, and the other earth girls would join in. After the third song, the girl in the cage next to hers had stopped crying. But all throughout the cave there was silence and faces pushed against the bars, their hands out to Lauren, urging her to keep singing.
The peace and enchantment of those moments morphed into her worst nightmare.
The Siloth guard she bested once, the heavyset one with the mean eyes, stood in front of her cage with a big stick. He’d come to poke at her and scream at her. He railed at the guard with the keys to the cage to let him in.
Lauren knew he planned to humiliate her, and probably kill her in the end.
She wasn’t going down without a fight.
Where she had used her voice for love and care before, now she used it against the Siloth. She sang an operatic aria that had some of the highest notes and most irritating vibrato.
The Siloth bully screamed and attacked the guard, taking the keys from his body he threw himself at her cage and had the door open in a heartbeat.
Lauren centered herself and took a deep breath, going into a fighting stance. She didn’t have much room, but she figured she would get one chance to kick, so she better make it good.
The beefy guard had to duck to come in her cage, Lauren immediately spun and snapped his head with a well-timed roundhouse kick.
She braced for him to come after her again, but a roar shook the cavern and the guard was pulled out and thrown. Lauren saw a flash of mu
scled man follow the body. “What the hell?” she gasped and tried to calm her racing heart.
But she didn’t hesitate for long. She picked up the keys the Siloth guard dropped when he was intent on getting to her. And started unlocking cages.
DAXTER WAS ON A MISSION he didn’t want to finish. His father wanted him to check out the slave markets and report on which planets were being harvested for workers. He was headed to the men’s section when he heard a sound that stopped him in his tracks.
He stood there for long moments just listening, finally opening his eyes and searching through the cavern for the one singing those songs. The sight nearly brought him to his knees.
With the blood pounding through his body, he went blind for a moment. Felt the shift in his cells that signaled he had met the one woman in the entire galaxy that could warm his heart and his loins. He was immediately enamored and fixated on that tiny creature.
His body flushed with arousal, hard and strong. She was his.
At that moment her song went from uplifting and heart-aching, to a primal screech.
His eyes flew open and he searched for the cause. That was his future mates cry for help. He knew it!
Locking his gaze on the large, red Siloth who stood in front of her cage, he moved to his mate’s defense. And was shocked when her small frame delivered a kick to the huge hairy creature, knocking him back several feet.
He caught the pleased look on her face before he bellowed in anger and dug his claws into the body of the Siloth and threw him across the cavern. Within moments he delivered the killing blow and picked up the body, intending to lay it at his woman’s dainty feet. As a gift.
Fred blocked his path and shook his head no, violently warning him not to finish that action. His friend and counselor pointed forcefully at the ground.
So, Daxter dropped the body. He frowned at his friend who was trying to tell him something else. Why the hell didn’t he just speak?