by Regine Abel
She lowered her eyes and bit her lip.
“Look at me, Amalia,” I said with a stern voice. Her eyes snapped back up to mine. “This is very important. You cannot let anyone know about this. I’ve never heard of any Veredian with two abilities, let alone one that doesn’t require touch. They will turn you into a lab rat.”
She swallowed hard and nodded.
“You also need to be more careful,” I continued. “While having those visions you are vulnerable. Someone with ill intentions could have done serious damage to you. Make sure you only do this in a secure environment where no one can see you.”
“Yes, Nana.”
My heart swelled with love. Amalia was such a good child. For all her mischief, she overflowed with love, devotion and bravery. She wasn’t my daughter, but she might as well have been.
“I’m so proud of you, Amalia. I love you so much.”
She beamed at me and pulled me in for a tight hug.
“I love you too, Nana.”
* * *
In the following two-and-a-half years, Amalia blossomed—in every way—into a beautiful young woman. At fifteen, she already equaled my six foot height. I suspected she would gain another two or three inches by the time she reached full maturity. Strong, confident, smart, she filled my heart with pride. However, her lean, fit body took on curves that caught the attention of far too many crewmates. Despite Gruuk making her off-limits, the crew’s taunts and jeers now dripped with barely hidden innuendos when they didn’t flat out fall into lurid and disgusting territory.
They kept provoking her, hoping to push her into doing something stupid that would open the door to punishment. She and I knew all too well what constituted their favorite form of punishment. I had to forbid her from using her ability on the crew unless she knew them to be on deck or in the mess. She’d witnessed far too many sordid punishments by locking onto the wrong person at the worst possible time.
In the past years, the crew’s abusive behavior had escalated, as had the size of the ship. There were too many crewmates now for me to memorize them all, especially since Amalia and I avoided them as much as possible. She was too tempting a prey. The deepening rift between Gruuk and us only made the crew bolder in their harassment. I devoted most of my energy to teaching Amalia to restrain herself in the face of provocation.
She kept her chin up and found ways to bring a smile to my face, like showing up in our room with a warm cup of flexina tea and wild berries cookies just as I rose to go fetch some; or leaving my freshly washed operation garbs in the med bay with an ‘I love you note’ as she foresaw that I would forget them.
But beneath all that, I saw the sadness lurking.
She feared that sooner rather than later, the guards would get to her. The nature of Gruuk’s missions was also getting to her. From the benign earlier tasks of data and rare collectible thefts, Gruuk had started making her plant false evidence to incriminate innocents, break into people’s homes, ships and businesses, and hack into security and camera systems to cover the trails of his crew during missions.
And it was only the beginning.
The one small blessing was that Gruuk always provided her with the maximum amount of intel possible before sending her on one of those missions, not to mention the backup crew ready to intervene in an instant.
Some of the assignments confused her though. The first time he sent her on an infiltration mission, he only allowed her to disable cameras in the lobby of the hotel section of the casino on the Teforus V space station. He then requested that she find and wear an attendant uniform before breaking into the room of one of the patrons to retrieve some valuable item from his safe. It didn’t make sense why she couldn’t have simply disabled all the cameras, sparing her the headache of disguise. She could have completed the mission much faster.
Over time, other mandates made her scratch her head as well, but for all that, she always returned safely to me. More importantly, it did wonders to get her to think on her feet, adapt to potentially dangerous situations, and keep her cool in the face of adversity. This helped her cope tremendously with the crew’s provocations during her hot-headed teenage years.
A few weeks after her fourteenth birthday, Gruuk went to visit Venya, one of the Oracles he kept captive on one of his fortresses. He had gone to her often over the past three decades, usually after one of his Seers announced a major event, to help him decide how to handle the fallout in the safest—and most profitable—way for him.
That day, Venya must have given him some disturbing news because, although subtle, the troubled look on his face was unmistakable for one who knew him as well as I did. The way he stared at us in the days that followed scared me. My gut told me that the Oracle’s words concerned us in some way and whatever decision Gruuk chose would cause one of the paths she presented to come to pass. From Gruuk’s expression, few or none of the outcomes pleased him.
He’d also taken to leaving the ship alone, for many hours at a time. It was highly unusual as he otherwise always had an away team with him. That he used a shuttle with warp capability raised many questions. The crew wondered about his destination, and the secrecy surrounding it, as did I. Gruuk had been going on those little escapades for a long time, decades even. However, they’d been rare and usually with him parting ways with the crew during an away mission, making them harder to notice. In recent years, they had escalated in frequency. One of the crewmates, unable to silence his curiosity, hacked into the shuttle’s navigation logs to find out where it had been. Having anticipated that eventuality, Gruuk had already wiped the data and set a trap to catch anyone trying to gain illegal access to it.
The culprit was caught within minutes.
Gruuk flailed both his arms from the elbow down while the crewmate screeched and writhed in agony, stopping only long enough for his victim to regain consciousness. Through it all, Gruuk remained stoic and methodical. His task done, he forbade Bradok and me from healing the crewmate. Two days later, with infection setting in, Gruuk dumped him on some random space station. Needless to say, no one else questioned their Commander’s whereabouts afterwards.
That Gruuk terrified me.
When Amalia first brought up escaping, my heart seized, torn between exhilaration and fear. The one time I’d mentioned that possibility to Sevina, she nearly had a stroke. It would have been so easy for her to breach a path for all of us on the rare times we docked on a space station, or even to get us to a shuttle or escape pod. Although none of us knew how to pilot, with Amalia’s ability, we could have controlled a shuttle.
Now, however, Gruuk had increased security since Sevina’s death. Amalia confirmed the presence of multiple booby traps in the various systems of the vessel. Tampering with any of them would likely trigger an alert or shutdown her access to other systems. Gruuk knew how she thought, he had trained her after all. She didn’t feel confident in her ability to outsmart him. He also made sure never to bring the ship close enough to any planet that Amalia could try to contact for aid, except if said planet enforced slavery.
Unless Amalia chose to kill us all, using her ability to escape would be risky at best. We had lengthy discussions on the topic. The one constant conclusion: we couldn’t run together. The crew would notice immediately. I never left the ship. My presence anywhere near exits or pods would raise far too much suspicion. Thanks to her stealth training, Amalia was well versed in sneaking about unseen. We agreed that she would escape the first chance she got during one of her missions to run to the closest authorities, beg for asylum and send help for the captives and me.
Opportunity came knocking sooner than expected when a system’s malfunction forced us to make an extended stop at the Belevar Space Station. A number of crewmates seized the chance to take a short leave—translate that as visit the bars and brothels—despite arriving mid-morning. With half the crew absent and most of the others deep in the bowels of the ship trying to fix it, this seemed like too good a timing to pass up. With Gruuk also off t
he ship, Amalia met no challenge sneaking out. I made sure to be seen once or twice, going to the mess hall for food or to the laundry room to give the appearance of normalcy.
Less than half an hour—an eternity—had gone by when someone used the lock override and barged into our room. I spun on my heels, my eyes locking on the face of the intruder.
Doruk…
My blood froze in my veins and cold sweat ran down my back.
He looked at Amalia’s empty bed and vacant desk before turning back to me, a malicious sneer painted on his otherwise attractive face.
“You let our little pet escape. I’m going to fetch her now. When I bring her back, the crew and I will have a great deal of fun with her. Thank you for that. We’ve waited a long time.”
Doruk walked out, enabling the curfew lock, trapping me in. My knees buckled and I collapsed to the floor, shocked and dazed.
How did they find out so fast?
I hugged myself, rocking back and forth. She was too young. They would break her beyond repair, beyond what my healing could do. Gruuk… I had to plead with him. Beg for his mercy. He loved her once.
They won’t let him spare her.
The offense was too severe. He couldn’t allow this to go unpunished without getting deposed. A million scenarios ran through my mind, but all came down to the same conclusion: there would be no escaping this.
Oh Goddess, protect my baby!
Minutes stretched into an hour before the door unlocked and swished open. Gruuk stormed in, murder on his face. The tendons in his neck stood out, so tense they appeared on the verge of snapping. I scrambled to my feet, my legs numb from having knelt so long on the hard floor. The door closed as I hugged myself again, shaking under the condemnation in his eyes.
“I trusted you,” he hissed. “I trusted you to keep our daughter safe and you betrayed me.”
Our daughter… Could he still love her? Please, Goddess, let it be so.
He took a few steps towards me, seething with fury.
“I TRUSTED YOU!”
The booming sound of his fist slamming into the wall echoed in the room. Blood smeared the dent left behind, right next to Eryon’s carving.
My body rocked with sobs.
“I… I wanted to save her. T-this isn’t the life f-for her. The crew… the way they look at her—”
“This is how you save her? By sending her onto a fucking space station I all but own?” He looked me up and down as if I was a disgusting creature. “A space station, Maheva. Use your fucking head! How long do you think it will take to scour it to weed her out with everyone on the search? HOURS, YOU FOOL! You don’t escape on a space station, you escape on a PLANET!”
I flinched under the venom of his accusation. No, I hadn’t thought of that. How could I? What did I know of the world beyond this ship? What did I know of the possible size of a space station?
He snorted and shook his head in disbelief.
“The crew knew she was off limits. They wouldn’t have touched her. Now, you’ve all but delivered her to them!”
“Not her! Please, not her!” I begged, tears streaming down my cheeks.
Cold, ghostly hands crushed my lungs, making it impossible to breathe. I stumbled forward, hands reaching out for him. He shoved them away and turned his back on me, pacing.
“Punish me. ME! Not her. Please!”
He laughed sadly.
“You know the Guldan way, Maheva. We punish people with what they cherish the most. Who do you think she cherishes the most?” he asked, his black eyes boring into mine.
Me.
My hand blindly grabbed for support, landing on the foot of the bed. Horrible pictures flipped through my mind. The crew hated me. They hated the privileges I’d been entitled to for decades. This punishment would be one for the ages.
“Do you have any idea how many sacrifices I’ve made to protect you and your children?” he asked, his voice filled with resentment. “Do you have any idea how many challenges I’ve faced? And all for this? I trusted you, Maheva.”
“I had to try to save her. You know she can’t live this life.”
“All you had to do was to be smart,” he spat out.
He ran his hands over his ebony horns, before wrapping them around their sharp tips. Silence settled between us, only disturbed by my soft sniffles. For a moment, he seemed lost in painful thoughts. Dropping his hands back down to his sides, he faced me, a cold, hard look on his face.
The heartless master had returned.
“Some crewmates suffered blaster wounds when they got shot pursuing her, and some Belevar guards got killed.”
“What shots? Who fired blasters?”
“Irrelevant,” he snapped. “Fix yourself up and go tend to them in the med bay. See that they fully recover. If any of them dies, it will compound the punishment.”
He turned to leave.
“Gruuk!” I called out, moving towards him.
He whirled around, an enraged look on his face, stopping me dead in my tracks.
“Master! You call me Master, Slave. You forfeited any privileges the moment you betrayed me. This time, you have crossed the line. Remember well that this is all your doing.”
He walked away, the door swishing open before him.
“Be in the med bay in five minutes.”
Numb, I stared as the door closed behind his retreating back.
CHAPTER 11
Maheva
The two wounded crewmates took no time to heal, despite the severity of their injuries. The death of the two security guards from the station scared me. Apparently, some male had offered Amalia his protection, firing on her pursuers.
The crew recaptured Amalia four long hours after her escape.
I stood waiting in the hold where I had been ordered to report. Close to sixty females, spread between nine cages, cast wary looks my way. Some of their eyes lingered on my markings. Obviously, they had never met a Veredian before. My presence, and that of the fourteen or fifteen crewmates in the hold set the females on edge. As I understood it, there were never more than one to three guards at any given time in here. Therefore, they knew something big would be happening any minute.
The room reeked of despair, sweat and rust.
The security lock beeped and the door opened on Doruk and Piruk on each side of Amalia. Their thick fingers dug into her skin as they dragged her in. The terrified, hunted look on her face broke my heart. Although she didn’t appear injured, fear coiled in my belly seeing the amount of blood staining the front of her dress.
Her escorts all but shoved Amalia at me. She stumbled forward with a whimper. I pulled her into my arms in a bone crushing embrace, needing to reassure myself of her presence. My hands settled on her skin, checking for any sign of injury. I quickly healed the bruising on her arms that Piruk and Doruk’s hold had inflicted, but detected no other damage. Her body was fine but I feared what the next few moments would do to her mind. No fifteen year old should be facing this.
“Nana, I’m… I’m sor… sorry,” she choked out.
“Hush, sweetheart. It’s okay. Everything will be all right,” I whispered in her ears.
It wouldn’t be. The Goddess only knew how bad it would get.
Cheek against cheek, I held the back of her head so she faced the wall, shielded from the sight of the crew. Their leering gazes burned the air out of my lungs. The way they looked at my baby, they had to be imagining all the horrible ways they would defile her once Gruuk passed his judgment.
As if summoned by that thought, the door beeped open. My heart leapt to my throat when Gruuk, like Death himself, walked in with his black eyes, black hair, black horns, and black clothes. He stood a dozen feet away from us, facing our direction. Amalia trembled against me and turned her still far too young face towards me, seeking reassurance.
I had none to give.
Fear twisted my innards, not only because of what would befall me, but because of how it would scar Amalia to witness it. I glanced at
Gruuk, eyes pleading but found only cold determination in his. Hands shaking, I caressed her hair in the hope of giving her some measure of comfort.
Goddess, I beseech you, give me the strength to endure.
The guards drew closer, their eyes glued to Amalia, burning with lust.
You won’t have her, you bastards. You won’t have my baby.
“You are here to face punishment for attempting to escape.” Gruuk’s booming voice resonated through the large room. “My rules are simple: behave and no unnecessary harm comes to you. Disobey or betray me, and there will be no forgiveness. You knew my rules well and still transgressed them. Now, you face the retribution you have earned.”
“As the most senior crewmate, I claim first rights to the young one,” the Science Officer Horlek exclaimed, licking his thin lips, his lustful gaze roaming over Amalia.
My heart seized while Amalia tightened her hold on me, her fingernails digging into my flesh.
Gruuk leveled him with a hard stare.
“No one touches her.”
The crew’s gasps of shock and outrage rose like a tide. Doruk frowned at Gruuk, his expression a mix of worry and displeasure.
“As per Guldan rules, you are punished by what you cherish the most,” Gruuk calmly said.
My insides liquefied as the hungry eyes of the crewmates feasted on me. Their hatred, lust, and malice washed over me like a rain of acid, tearing away my skin, leaving me bare and exposed. I felt faint, my lungs unable to draw in any air.
“That’s all right,” Piruk said, cracking his neck. His muddy brown eyes undressed me with a salacious glint. “She’s not as fresh, but still hot as fuck. I always wanted to try a Veredian. Some experience to boot won’t hurt.”
Amalia looked at me, a horrified expression on her face. Her fingers gripped my dress. “Nana?”
I mechanically caressed her hair again, my trembling hand moving of its own will.
“It’s okay, sweetie. I’m going to be fine.”
I thanked the Goddess that my voice didn’t give away the terror that liquefied my insides.
“You will not get her either,” Gruuk said, his face and voice devoid of emotion.