Precious Cargo: Alien Romance (Forgotten Cargo Book 1)

by Beva John

  Raan’s face looks pained. “Your planet is no longer habitable. You cannot go back.”

  “Not habitable? What does that mean?”

  Raan touches the mini tv screen on his arm and the image on it changes, with additional alien text. He presses his finger to the screen, waits a moment, then says, “It occurred over six hundred years ago. In 2081 according to your reckoning. There was a nuclear war.”

  “Shit,” Lindsey says. “I guess humans are as stupid as I thought.”

  Iris looks shell shocked and Martha cries.

  As Raan’s words sink into my brain, I realize that part of me was still hoping that I could go back to Earth, even if time had passed.

  But that is no longer a possibility.

  I have never felt so alone in my life. I am just one insignificant human, whirling through cold dark space with no home to go back to.

  I also realize that Raan didn’t ask me about my talents or my preferences. “What about me?” I ask. “Aren’t you going to help me find a good buyer?”

  Raan smiles. “Actually, no. You are staying with me.”

  My heart seems to give a happy little flip. If Raan wants me, that’s good, isn’t it?

  Iris smiles and says, “How sweet.”

  Lindsey’s face is like stone. “Lucky bitch. Hope you like Lizard dick.”

  RAAN

  The next days are particularly busy as I arrange for buyers for the human females, including the three women who are still held in stasis in the storage pods. As much as I would like to spend time with Sylvia, getting to know her better and preparing her for going home with me, I cannot. I must meet my obligations to the Silver Scrapper and secure those buyers.

  In some ways, finding buyers for the women in the pods is easiest. There are many buyers who wish to buy Earth females that are still in their original abducted state – in unopened pods. I don’t understand the collector mentality, but there are some travelers who have large collections of human females. As much as I would not wish to sleep my life away, I think that the women in stasis will not mind. They will never know.

  I also do not spend private time with Sylvia because I do not want the crew members to know that Sylvia is mine. I wouldn’t put it past some of them to kill me so they can claim Sylvia for themselves. Having four Earth women on board the Silver Scrapper has made everyone testy.

  For a few days, I thought keeping two armed guards outside their room and a Brune woman within their room was sufficient security, but then I learned that Iris had bribed the guards with sexual favors – something called a blow job – to allow her to work her own prostitution business on the side.

  After a fight broke out between two of her intoxicated clients, which had ended with one crewman dead and the second in Medical Bay with a knife in his gut, I discovered that Iris had earned several hundred dits in only three days.

  I wasn’t angry with her – how could I be? – and in part, I admired her ingenuity.

  However, Captain Delk declared the human females to be a safety hazard and ordered that all of them be put in stasis, even my Sylvia.

  As much as I hated to put Sylvia back in stasis, I thought it was for the best. I just prayed that the Gods would be merciful and that she would emerge later on Bataa, completely safe and well.

  A few days later, the Silver Scrapper docks at a Cooperative outpost on Enset. Enset is an ugly, undesirable planet with almost no natural resources. Its only value is in its location: at the edge of one galaxy with nearby wormholes to other galaxies.

  The main station is housed under a large dome because the atmosphere on Enset is not salubrious for the main traveler species. As a precautionary measure, however, I wear a breathing apparatus around my neck.

  A few thousand years ago, Enset had been a Brune colony station, but Enset rebelled, declaring its independence and now it is poorly policed by Cooperative law enforcement, with occasional employment strikes and government coups.

  The natives of Enset are a sedentary race – more hairy than Katolls, shorter and thickset, with long arms and beady eyes. Their skin fur is light and around their eyes is a darker band.

  As part of my last duties, I supervise the transportation of all the human females, which involves various layers of bribes and the use of secondary warehouses to avoid the Cooperative agents.

  I then make my own farewells. Captain Delk says it has been a pleasure working with me and wishes me success in my future. Officer Hadr does not speak to me at all. He is eager to take over my position as First Merchandiser.

  As much as I will miss travelling about the five galaxies, I have no true friends on the ship – only acquaintances. I travel light, carrying everything I own in a bag with a shoulder strap: two changes of clothes and my nutrition supplements, small gifts for my niece and nephews, and my data screen on my arm.

  Everything I don’t need, I have already given away to my crewmates. Nothing I owned on the Silver Scrapper is worth the cost of sending it to Bataa. It will be better to purchase new supplies when I am home.

  Unlike most Namvire, I have no desire to acquire material possessions. Ever since I was a child, I wished to acquire experiences instead. I kept my bedroom almost empty with little more than a bed, my clothes and a data screen.

  My mother sometimes joked that someone must have switched me in the nest with someone else’s baby, for my two brothers and sister adored their possessions.

  I find it interesting that Sylvia is the first significant purchase I have made in years.

  I still find the buying and selling of humans to be morally repellent, but I don’t know of any other way I could keep Sylvia safe.

  I wonder what she will think of Bataa and my family.

  But we still have a complicated journey to get there. I wait until the Silver Scrapper is safely off planet before returning to the warehouse where Sylvia is stored.

  But when I approach the warehouse administrator with my proof of ownership, he touches his data screen and says, “That item has already been delivered.”

  “What?” I grab his arm and look at his screen.

  He protests, but I am twice his size. I see from the data on his screen that he has not lied.

  Someone else claimed Sylvia less than an hour before.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  SYVIA

  I am not keen on the idea of going back into stasis, since it makes me feel claustrophobic, but Raan reassures us that we will be in a light sleep, not the deep sleep state we had before when we were in the storage unit.

  After he’s gone, Lindsey says rudely, “I don’t trust him.”

  I wish she would give Raan a chance, but she’s been through more than I have, having already been sold to a Penko. I also feel guilty because Raan decided to keep me rather than sell me like everyone else.

  But Iris tells me not to let Lindsey upset me. “I think she’s jealous of your good fortune.”

  “Good fortune?” Lindsey repeats. “Ha! The bottom line is that we’re all being bought. Officer Raan is no different than any of the other buyers. And when he tires of you, he’ll sell you to someone else.”

  “Don’t let her discourage you,” Iris says. “I think he likes you.”

  If he does, he has a strange way of showing it. Since his pronouncement that he was keeping me, he has made no effort to speak with me privately. As the days passed, the time we spent together in the Medical Center seems more like a dream.

  Real life is spent locked in our room, with the only break being a trip to the bathroom or having our food delivered. Rather than worry about the unknown future, we busy ourselves by talking about our past lives. I learn how to make bread from Martha, but I don’t know how useful that information will be once I’m on Bataa.

  Iris manages to bribe the guards and have a little action in the middle of the night when the rest of us are sleeping, but that doesn’t end well – hence the Captain’s decision for all of us to be packed away in pods.

  When the time comes for
us to go back under, Martha prays.

  I don’t want to say goodbye to these women that I have gotten to know so well. They are my last contact with Earth. I offer each of them a hug.

  Martha and Iris hug me, but when it is Lindsey’s turn, she hesitates.

  Then she smiles ruefully and says, “Hell, I can’t stay mad at you. I wish you well, Sylvia.”

  “You, too.”

  And then, one-by-one, we are placed in new tubes and the blue doctor attaches our breathing masks.

  The other three women are put under first, and I am last. Raan reaches into the tube and touches my hand. He says, “When you wake, you will be on my home planet Bataa.”

  I smile, hoping for the best, and within minutes, I fall asleep.

  When I wake, I am momentarily groggy. I expected to be met by Raan, but instead, there is a strange creature that looks like a cross between a sloth and a chimpanzee standing beside the travel pod. It has short pale fur, long arms, and darker fur around the eyes. It is wearing shorts and a vest – no shoes. With all the fur, I can’t tell if it is male or female. “Greetings, human female.” From my translator, I can tell that the creature is speaking the language of the blue people.

  “Greetings,” I say as I sit up and look around. I am in a small room decorated with clashing purple and red and lots of blinking lights and a large bed.

  The creature says, “You must bathe and dress, and you may eat after your first client.”

  I frown. “First client? I don’t understand.”

  The creature says, “You are now the property of Anno Dar. If you are obedient and compliant, you will be paid well. If not, you will be punished.”

  This seems like another nightmare. “Where is Officer Raan?”

  “I know of no such officer.”

  I am trying to make sense of this. “Am I on Bataa?”

  “No. You are on Enset.”

  “What and where is Enset?”

  “Enset is a travel station. It is in a different galaxy than Bataa.”

  I can tell that I am totally screwed. I’m not even in the right galaxy. I feel like a package that was misdelivered by the post office. And without Raan anywhere, how am I to find him? I dread the answer to the next question, but I must ask it. “Who is Anno Dar?”

  The creature smiles. “The owner of the most prestigious brothel on Enset.”

  Crap. I should have known that something like this would happen.

  I don’t think Raan sold me, but I will probably never know now.

  And this time, I don’t have Lindsey or Iris as moral support.

  I am alone, on a new planet, in a brothel.

  I briefly consider overpowering the furry creature and running for the door, but where would I go if I did manage to escape?

  I need to think before I do anything hasty.

  The creature says, “Thank you for not crying. I hope you will be happy here. The last human female we had was emotional and non-compliant. She did not do well here, and unfortunately died, but Anno Dar prefers to always have a human female available, so that is why we acquired you.”

  “Acquired? How?”

  The creature does not answer my question. “It does not matter. It is time for you to bathe, dress, and receive a contraceptive.”

  Contraceptive? I had never thought about that. “Are humans compatible with other species? Can we actually breed?”

  The creature laughs. “Not with us, but with most of the travelers, yes. The Brune, the Namvire and the Katoll.”

  I have heard bits and pieces of this, and now I’m trying to make it make sense. “The Brune are the blue ones, the Namvire have scales and the Katoll are the hairy ones.”

  “Not so hairy,” the creature corrects me, sounding a little defensive.

  Oops. The creature before me is much hairier than the armed soldiers on the Silver Scrapper.

  I wish there was a way for me to learn more about the universe I have entered and the people and places. If I knew more, maybe I could escape. I say, “Is there any way I could get one of those arm things everyone seems to be wearing?” Lindsey said it was some sort of computer, but the only computers I knew about were so complex and large, they filled rooms.

  I am woefully behind the times when it comes to technology and I need to catch up.

  The creature smiles and says, “No. You have no rights to personal property.”

  Lindsey was right. We are slaves.

  The creature adds, “But when you retire, if you have been cooperative, you may take some of your wages with you.”

  “If” being the operative word. I ask, “How many human females have retired – that you know of personally?”

  “Only two. They both worked many years. One left when she was too old and frail to work, and the other lost her mind.”

  Talk about job security.

  I think it ironic that this creature speaks about retirement and wages when it is clear that I am a slave. I say, “Can I choose to retire now?”

  “No.”

  I thought not.

  I walk over to the door and open it, but when I step into the hallway, I am shocked with a bolt of energy from my neck that brings me to my knees, gasping with pain.

  My entire body shudders.

  “Forgive me,” the creature says. “I forgot to inform you that you are not allowed to leave this room.”

  Forgot, my ass. Although this creature is civil, and seems to have a sense of humor, it is no friend of mine.

  I realize that I am wearing the equivalent of a shock collar, like a disobedient dog.

  This definitely complicates any plans I will make to escape. I say, “Excuse me, but do you have a name?”

  The creature says, “If you must, my title is Four. If you wish to communicate with any of management, there is a communication screen here.” It walks over to a wall and touches a panel that lights up and has a written language that I cannot decipher. “All you have to do is speak, and someone will hear you.”

  And help me? If I say that my current client is too skuzzy to have sex with?

  “Do you often get Penko clients?” I’m trying to be brave, but I don’t think I could have sex with a slug.

  “No, they rarely travel.”

  I suppose that is something to be thankful for. “How many clients will I have, on average?”

  “No more than one or two a day. And sometimes, you may go several days without a client. Anno Dar does not wish to sell you at a discount. You are a high value item.”

  I nod, remembering Iris who wanted to work in a fancy brothel.

  And now it is my turn. I don’t think I have the guts to attack a guy like Lindsey, but I also cannot be as laissez faire as Iris.

  I didn’t ‘save’ myself for marriage, but I still think sex is supposed to mean something. I don’t want to put out for guys – aliens – that I don’t know and don’t care about.

  But how much of a choice do I have?

  I ask, “Where are the bathing facilities?

  CHAPTER NINE

  RAAN

  Someone else has claimed Sylvia. I press the data screen on my arm, accessing the sales files on the Silver Scrapper. Although I no longer work for them, I kept a hidden access code for all their data. It is something I learned from my brother Rint: One never knows when access to data will be useful.

  In a few minutes, I learn that after I purchased Sylvia, Hadr arranged for a second buyer to pick her up on Enset.

  Damn him to the lowest canyons of hell.

  I quickly find the buyer’s identification and tracking information. The buyer was another merchant, a Namvire. It only takes a few minutes to find his family store and a listing of his ship ownerships on my data screen. After that, it is a matter of bribing the right station officials to find where his ship is currently docked.

  I hire transportation and race across the station to discover a docking bay swarming with Teeks and Katolls. I speak to another Namvire, standing to one side, who looks unusuall
y pale in his uniform. He is a young traveler, and his tail twitches back and forth as if he is agitated. I say, “I am looking for a human female, recently acquired, and I am willing to pay top price for her.”

  He blanches. “I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”

  My hand reaches for the gun at my waist. “You don’t understand. The human is mine and she was sold to your employer by mistake.” I show him a still picture of Sylvia on my data screen.

  He blanches. “It’s too late. She’s gone.”

  “What do you mean – gone?”

  “Some of the natives swarmed the dock. They killed my employer and took the human female. I don’t know what to do. My career is over. I have no job and I’ll be accused of negligence. I have brought disgrace on my nest. I should kill myself.”

  I grab him by his shoulders and give him a shake. “Stop that.”

  I then open the neck of my coat to show him my name necklace. “If you help me find her, help me take her off this brixing planet, I will employ you. What is your name?”

  “Timka.” He looks at me as if he can’t believe what I am saying.

  I persist. “Who took her? Where is she?”

  He says, “The dock workers say she was taken by one of the local crime families. And will be sold to a brothel here on Enset.”

  I thank the Gods that Sylvia is not already on another ship, heading out into the five galaxies. If she is still on Enset, I can find her.

  SYLVIA

  As I wait for the arrival of my first client, I pace about my cell, for I will not call it a room. From what Four told me, I will never be allowed to leave this room. Never to see the sun or breathe fresh air, although the air in Enset is not good for humans. Anno Dar apparently paid a ton of money to have better air piped in this brothel.

  I am dressed, somewhat, in a gaudy, slutty outfit. My top is nothing more than a metallic bra, with metal spirals, like pipe cleaners, wrapped around my breasts, leaving my nipples free. I am also wearing a long, flowing skirt that is open in the front to show my pussy, which has been trimmed and perfumed. On my clit is one of those little jeweled boxes. It looks like a ruby this time.