Defender of the Stars

by Lucee Joie

  The radio crackles in the background as I scour the intergalactic connection. So far, very little has surfaced regarding any recent rebellions against the Galactic Union—ours or any others. However, even in the middle of what appears to be a media blackout by the Union, there are still clues.

  I have seen a mention of a cancelation of an auction. The reason cited was an outbreak of the highly contagious, but apparently not very deadly, Norpox. While this is apparently a common occurrence, what has caught my eye is that it occurred at the very same auction in which we were all meant to be sold.

  In addition, with what Bivir and Marir told us, I have also located another incident that occurred on Bruxland around the same time as their attack. The incident is being listed as thwarted terrorist attack and the Union is giving themselves a massive pat on the back for a job well done. The general consensus from the media is also in praise of their work against the attack.

  That, to me, smacks of a cover-up.

  Which means that the Galactic Union are desperately trying to conceal our escape rather than have others know of it. This is kind of a good thing. It means that there are plenty of planets out there that have no idea what is going on. It makes travel for us a lot easier. However, there is also the risk that there could be a covert group on each planet that knows exactly what is going on and is monitoring things very carefully—especially regarding arrivals and departures to each planet.

  Finally, I start searching Earth’s worldwide web. It is not something needed for Ece’s request. Instead, it is personal. I need to check-in.

  As I click on the details and bring up a search engine, I actually clutch at my chest. Missing my old life comes over me like a wave, a dangerous tsunami that threatens to engulf me.

  Without even thinking, I click through to find details of my own life, to see what has happened in my town, how people are moving on. I am a glutton for punishment like that. I also desperately want to log into my social media accounts but am too scared that it will somehow ping my activity. It’s where I draw the line on my own misery, I guess.

  To distract myself, I read my local paper online, discover that a new housing permit has just gone through to build closer to the beach than ever before. I am saddened by the news, by the thought that my little oasis is finally being swallowed up by tourism.

  Then, I see that my grandmother has died. I suck back my breath, the ragged noise engulfs me as I sob. My grandmother had been my lifeline. She was my best friend, my confidant, my guiding light.

  I close my eyes against the shock of the news as an anguished cry erupts.

  “Hello?” The radio issues a single word before the crackle of static resumes.

  I freeze in terror, not even able to reach over and turn off the radio, of breaking my link to the intergalactic connection. I am caught between my grief and this new complication, unable to react to anything but my consuming sorrow.

  “Can you hear me?”

  Even in desolation, I notice that the voice is different from the last time.

  It is a female and there is no robotic overlay suggesting a voice changer is present. The woman sounds scared as she whispers at me across the galaxy. I pause before answering, before shutting off the connection. Her pain has connected to my own and I suddenly feel less alone in the universe.

  “Oh, please hear me,” she continues. “Please, is there anyone out there? I need your help.” The woman starts to cry.

  I can’t help myself. Thinking of Bivir and his sister, Marir, and the trouble they are currently in, I wonder if maybe this woman also has something to do with that rebellion. Maybe this is even Marir, although my automatic assumption is that this is a different woman, even if I can’t work out why I think that.

  “Hello?” I finally reply.

  “Hello! Thank you for responding! Please, I need help. I am trapped here and can’t get away.”

  “Who are you?”

  The line is silent for a moment. “I can’t say.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m on a ship, a big one, I have been trapped here for some time. The Ochek are brutes.”

  I gasp. Is she on the same ship that I was on originally? It was possible that one of the other breeders had managed to escape, even during the confusion of what we did. There were certainly plenty of other women still held in captivity when we fled. My heart immediately swells for her. I can sympathize with her situation, having been there myself.

  “I suspect I know where you are. Don’t bother saying it out loud, there’s no need. How long have you been trapped? Did you escape when the others did?”

  “I can’t say,” the woman says and I wonder why she has suddenly clammed up with the information.

  I picture the Leonida, trying to work out where all of the cells are and who it might be. “Are you human?”

  “Yes,” the woman replies. “Can you help me?”

  “I’m not sure.” I don’t want to lie to this woman, neither do I want to give out too much information. “I need to speak to the others. Is there any way you can arrange to make contact again?”

  “If I can, it will be at this time each day.”

  That’s completely understandable even if I am surprised that the woman can make contact at all, let alone regularly. Perhaps there is merely a small window of opportunity for her thanks to a situation that occurs at this time each day.

  I wrack my brain trying to work out what happens at this time each day but come up empty. I simply don’t know enough about the routines on board the Leonida outside of my own previous ones. When I was a breeder, there was very little opportunity to escape, especially for a human. If she were a Brux or Nostral, it would be different, there is plenty of time in which they might be overlooked by the guards on board.

  Something doesn’t make sense but all I can hear is the sadness in her voice and her loneliness echoes inside of me, speaks to the time when I was also a trapped woman just like she is now.

  Plus, my curiosity is certainly piqued over who this woman might be and whether or not I actually know her from our time in shared captivity.

  “How did you go?” I ask when Ece and the others return. Danika is not among them, I note.

  “Danika stayed behind,” Beth replies. “I think Bivir will be okay but he needs medical assistance for some time yet.”

  I nod my head. Ece walks past me, his body skimming against mine and I feel the heat of him. His fingers brush against mine and I automatically reach for him, surprised at my action. His hand wraps briefly around mine before letting go and moving on. As soon as the moment is over, I am questioning whether it even happened at all.

  “Anything exciting happen on board while we were gone?” Ece asks and I am startled. Turning, I am trying to hide the fact that his words have caused me to jump slightly. “Oh, you know, nothing much. The usual.”

  “Have you found anything out?” Beth asks and I am glad to be talking about something that doesn’t center on what I am trying to hide from the group.

  I want to be honest and open about the woman on the radio. However, a part of me also wants to keep her secret. I am not sure how everyone will react and whether or not they will want to continue radio silence on the matter.

  “There appears to be a cover-up,” I say. “I haven’t found any official news on our escape and I also looked into the rebellion on Bruxland. There isn’t anything directly relating to either event, just some news about the Union stopping a terrorist plot.”

  “Well, that’s awesome to hear,” Beth replies as she flops down into a chair.

  “Not necessarily,” Ece replies. His eyes are on me and I can feel them delving. My heartbeat accelerates as my attraction grows for this man, even against all the odds. A brief image of making love to him rushes through my mind and I blush in response. Ece’s gaze darts away and I wonder if he is also remembering the same moment.

  “I agree, Ece,” I say, deliberately using his name, trying to coerce him to turn back to me, t
o see my desire for him. I am a sucker for his punishment, I decide. “I think there might be many eyes on the lookout for us regardless of what they are saying officially. We still need to be careful.”

  I think of the woman on the radio.

  I am not being careful.

  “I might have another look at the reports if you don’t mind,” Ece says. His back is still turned towards me. “I know my father and how he likes to word things when hiding valuable information. Do you want to help me Horgeer?”

  “Sure,” he replies and they both leave the room. I am nervous that the woman on the radio might try to make contact while the men are busy researching. It is not quite time for her to be contacting me but it is close enough to unsettle me. I hadn’t thought about this, about what would happen when everyone returned and the computer room would become more heavily populated.

  “How gorgeous is Bruxland?” Beth says once they leave, interrupting my train of thought. “I never wanted to come back here. Being in space is for the birds!”

  “It sure is pretty down there,” I agree, settling uncomfortably into a seat opposite Beth.

  “Ece said you went to some hot springs. What were they like?”

  My mind races as I try to block out the night Ece and I spent there, of the intimate moments we shared. The moments draw out between us as I try to commission a reply, try to even remember the question that Beth had just asked me.

  “What is it, Shirley?” Beth probes. She is smiling when I look up at her. “Oh my God! You and Ece had sex, didn’t you?”

  I blush out my answer and Beth squeals in excitement. “I knew you two had a thing for each other! I just knew it.”

  “Yeah, well it’s more complicated than that,” I finally admit. “Ece used to be my breeding partner. He was the one who gave me up because I couldn’t produce children.”

  I watch the happy expression slide right off Beth’s face. “I’m sorry. No wonder you’ve been weird towards him.”

  “Do you think we’ll ever overthrow the Galactic Union,” I say in order to change the topic of conversation. I can’t talk about Ece or deal with the emotional mess of it all.

  “I sure hope so,” Beth replies. “They shouldn’t be allowed to do what they do. So many women taken against their will and it doesn’t even have to be that way. Plus, what they’re doing with the Brux and the Nostrals is just as disgusting. Everyone should be entitled to their own medical professionals.”

  “I agree,” I say. I pause a moment, staring off into space through the porthole next to me. “I wonder what happened to all those women we left behind?”

  “Yeah, I think about that a lot,” Beth confesses. “I bet they don’t even know what’s going on, that there is a rebellion starting.”

  “I wonder…” I start to say and Beth looks at me quizzically, so I hurry my response. “I wouldn’t put it past some of them to have their own contact system in place.”

  “I never knew any of the other women during my time onboard, but I wasn’t there for long, so I suppose it could happen,” she finally concedes and I sigh softly, glad that my reasoning seems to sit well with Beth.

  “Probably,” I reply, not wanting to give away anything else. “Well, I need the little girl’s room.”

  I get up and leave, not because I actually need to use the bathroom but because it is closing in on the time that the women on the radio will contact me.

  I nod at Ece and Horgeer as I pass them in the corridor. They nod back at me, as though nothing is amiss.

  Since that first contact, it has been three days and she hasn’t returned to speak to me. I worry about her. I also worry about us. Perhaps she has worked out where we are and she isn’t contacting us because she is on her way here with the Galactic Union. I chew on my nails as I walk, hoping that I haven’t just endangered us all.

  “Hello?”

  I breathe a sigh of relief when I enter the room and hear the woman’s voice when I switch on the radio.

  I voice my concerns to the woman.

  “I will wait for you to contact me, then,” she replies and I sigh in relief.

  “What’s your name? Not your real name, the one I can call you by if that is safer.”

  “Just call me Mary,” she replies.

  Chapter Ten: Ece

  I watch Shirley from across the room. It has come to this, surreptitious glances and wishful thinking. I want her. I want her so badly that it consumes me day in and day out. Yet, the distance remains between us and I don’t know how to fix it.

  Shirley stands, scans the room, her fingers rubbing together by her sides, as though she is nervous about something. I used to watch her do this in her sleep.

  “I have something I need to tell you all,” she finally says. Her voice is quiet so not everyone hears at first. The buzz of talk continues initially but slowly drifts off as people start to realize that Shirley needs to speak. I sit up straight, waiting on her words.

  “What is it?” Beth asks.

  “I have been making contact with a woman onboard the Leonida.”

  Before she can explain further, Horgeer is shouting and Beth is trying to calm him down. “You have risked us all!”

  “I don’t think so,” Shirley replies. She glares at Horgeer, her anger towards our kind always ready to flare out. “She is trapped, like Beth and I was, trapped by your own kind. She has given me plenty of information and has helped to explain the current situation on board the vessel.”

  “Is this the voice we all heard before?” Beth asks.

  Shirley nods her head.

  “Then why has she spoken to you?” Horgeer asks. His voice is lower now, less agitated but I bet that he is still ready to fire up should the situation arise. “How do you even know it’s a woman?”

  “I think she is calling out to her own kind, to those that she knows won’t hurt her. No offense, Horgeer, but most of us have post-traumatic stress disorder thanks to the Ochek. The last thing I would be wanting to do if I were her is to reach out to the very people who have never shown any kindness towards our race.”

  “Not that I don’t believe you,” a woman in the group asks. I turn, noting that it is Clare, one of Shirley’s friends. “But, how did she get access to a radio? There’s no way any of us would have the opportunity to speak freely and alone, let alone actually get close enough to a radio.”

  “To be honest, she’s been a bit vague about that part,” Shirley admits. “However, she has given me so much knowledge about the ship and Emperor Thahars that I don’t doubt she is on board currently.”

  Shirley scoots her gaze in my direction. I can understand her nervousness. Even though I have joined this slapped together rebellion, I still think about my father, I still love him through all his rotten life choices. It causes conflicting emotions inside of me that I try to ignore.

  “What sort of information?” I ask.

  “She has given me details of what the inside of the ship looks like. No human would know that if they hadn’t been on board. Plus, she knows that we have left, that the emperor is looking for us. Currently, he is searching Earth.”

  “Is there any suspicion that we might be over Bruxland?” Clare asks.

  “I haven’t told her where we are but I have my suspicions that she knows anyway. If she has contacted us then she, at least, might know where we are.”

  I am relieved that Shirley was being cautious about the radio contact. I didn’t want to believe that she was a fool that believed anyone’s sad story.

  “What about how she contacted us?”

  “Apparently she was a techie before she was abducted. She has been covertly learning everything she can about how the systems work onboard the Leonida. She has also admitted to attaching an access device to the Prennia and that is how she has been able to contact us.”

  My skin ripples with fear as Shirley reveals this detail. “How does a human breeder get such access to the entire vessel?”

  Shirley’s lips tighten at my words. “
Like I said, there are holes in her story. Yet, I tend to believe that she is onboard the Union’s vessel and is wanting to help us.”

  “What does she want in return?” Horgeer interjects.

  “She wants freedom. Both for herself and for the women still on board.”

  So, we had the same objective. Well, that is if the woman’s story is true. “Can we speak to her?”

  “That’s why I came to you all. I have finally convinced the woman, Mary, to speak to us as a group.”

  “Mary?” Clare says. “I don’t remember anyone on board with that name.”

  “She wants to remain anonymous.”

  “So, when can we talk to her?” Beth asks.

  “If she can make it, she will be available in a couple of hours. However, there is one stipulation with her speaking to the rest of you.”

  Shirley pauses. She is looking all around the room but her gaze refuses to settle on me.

  “What is it?” I finally say.

  “She doesn’t want you to be present, Ece.”

  I blink slowly. My jaw is clenching and it matches the pace that my fists set. “What is the reason she gives for that?”

  “She isn’t sure just how committed you are to the rebellion. She doesn’t believe that you would leave your father’s side, that you are dedicated to freeing us all.”

  Shirley makes eye contact with me as she says this and I can tell that every word hurts her to say it. When she is done speaking, she looks down, no longer willing to look at me.

  I am hurt. Hurt beyond words. Not because of what Shirley has said but because her act of looking away seems to imply that she might also be siding with this Mary on the matter of my conviction.

  My teeth are so tightly clenched that a cramp threatens my jaw and my neck aches as my shoulders bunch up. Using all of my energy, I unclench my fists, trying my hardest to give the persona that I am calm, that Shirley’s words have not wounded me. I want to argue my case, to question Shirley and ask her whether or not she is also in agreeance with Mary. However, I remain silent.