“Well then, we will just track the ship that he left on,” Adjuster Peitz said as he glared at Commander Weisman. “It was a TX class vessel, correct? That’s what we have in our logs. We have ways to drum up any info that we need, Commander Weisman. We will find him.”
“I’m sure you will,” Commander Weisman replied. “When you find him, ask him to loan you some SPF 10,000.”
Dom, Desire and the Princess awoke in dirty cages side by side in a makeshift prison where once the grand banquet hall had been in all its splendor. The place was far from the glitz and glamour of the evening feast. The cloaking had been the ruse and this was the reality.
They all had terrible hangovers and their bodies ached from the dancing and being stunned to almost death. They were stripped of all weapons, jewelry, communication devices and shoes. The princess’s Glitter pouch was gone as well. They were trapped, helpless to do anything against Chief Rygel and the Veibons.
Dom was first to speak. “Damnit! Another flight suit ruined,” he said as he looked down at his shredded, soiled messy self. “Desire, are you ok?”
Desire groaned as she pulled herself upright. “Yes, I’m next to the princess. Princess, you ok?”
Princess Amaratis started crying. “I am, but how are going to get out of here. Where’s Jock?”
Dom sat up straight. “Whaddya mean, where’s Jock. Isn’t he next to you?”
“No, and Watu’s gone. What if he’s dead?” she cried.
Desire pulled herself together and tried to get a read on Jock. Her mind drew a blank. “Jock’s not here!” Desire said.
“How could he leave here in this disgusting place?” Princess Amaratis cried.
“You didn’t think it was disgusting last night when you were hitting it up with the Chief ha ha!” Dom chided.
“Dom, be nice,” Desire said. “That’s not gonna help. When was the last time you guys saw Jock?”
Dom thought back. “It was when we started dancing. He went off with that harem hottie.”
The princess howled. “Shush, princess. You’re going to draw attention,” Desire said.
“Desire, if you can’t get a read on him, do you think he’s dead?” Dom asked.
“I can’t tell,” she replied. Dom rubbed his head. This wasn’t good.
“So much for the twinkle of gold,” Dom said. “I guess these guys really are just dirt farmers. They just play dress up with Alien magic and faerie dust.”
Dom was tired of being cramped in a cage barely tall enough for him to stand up straight in, but he didn’t have many options. His flight suit bloused open and he was sweating in the moist, underground air. He couldn’t understand where the humidity was coming from since it was a desert outside.
Dom switched into SPOOK mode and started analyzing his surroundings. Based on the humidity, he guessed there were a few levels in the compound below them. He could hear water rushing in the lower depths. Maybe it was a spring or something worse, like a latrine garbage tunnel. That was all he needed.
“Stop thinking about shit, Dom,” Desire said. With nothing else to do but wait for the Veibons to come back, she busied herself popping around into their minds. In doing so, a thought came to her. “Now that the cloaking device is down, maybe I can read the Veibons' minds after all.” She would keep that as her one weapon.
The princess was pissed. She couldn’t believe Captain Andana let this happen to her. The Captain had been with her for years and was a trusted confidant. “I will spit in his eyes if he ever steps foot in my presence again,” she thought.
“I’d do worse than that if I were you,” Desire said aloud reading her mind. “I think you’d want to have him drawn and quartered and then tarred and feathered with his head placed on a spike at just the right height hung upside down and kicked until his brains exploded all over like the I saw in Mexico.”
“You’re reading my mind, Desire, I presume with the purple streak in your hair?” the princess said as she managed a small chuckle. “Well, your version is certainly a bit more graphic and violent than I was going for. But I like it. That’s definitely what I’ll do if I ever see him again.”
“Uh-hem,” Dom said and pointed. “It looks like you’re going to get your chance.”
“Shut up, Human!” The Captain sneered.
The next thing they knew, the Captain was front and center, looking condescendingly after his captives. Desire didn’t even bother trying to read his thoughts. She could tell by his body language that something really bad was about to happen and it would definitely involve spit.
“Look at you,” Captain Andana said, kicking dirt in their direction. “You’re so pathetic.”
“How could you let this happen to your princess?” Princess Amaratis cried. “My father trusted you for most of my life.”
“Your father… By the grace of Glitter, your father is wretched!” he said. “All those years parading suitor after suitor in front of you. And never once would he deem me worthy for your priceless hand.”
Dom muttered, “Oh shit.” Desire just shook her head.
“And you, you spoiled entitled brat. You never once respected me or thought of me as someone on your level. And to see you drooling all over that disgusting Human. Oh, the pleasure I derived from watching him die!”
The princess collapsed into the bars of her cage. “No!”
“Oh, yes. And then you wanted to run away from me and start your new precious life in Boru, leaving me in the dust. Princess, I have a very special surprise for your new life. You will be sold on the block to the highest bidder come nightfall. The Veibons have invited all the best slavers in the galaxy to attend the auction tonight. I suspect with your beauty and royal lineage that you will fetch a grand price.”
The gravity of the situation was sinking in. “And by the way, thank you so much for getting me an extra special bonus in the form of this Human and mind reader,” Captain Andana said as he turned to Dom.
“My paycheck just went up three-fold. It was so lucky of you, Dom, to happen upon our ship. But if you hadn’t foiled my planned pirate attack and hijacking of the royal cruiser, you wouldn’t be in this predicament. Pirate Himmelt would have just taken the princess and I would have been on my merry way with her Glitter pouch. Luckily your stupid dead friend was so smitten with princess here that he was careless enough to leave me alone in the cockpit so I could sabotage your ship. A happy ending after all. Now I get the Glitter and the price of the princess and two extra very valuable slaves. It shall be a grand evening!”
The princess cried in desperation and pounded her fists on the bars. The Captain stepped before her. He put his hand between the bars and graced her cheek with the back of his hand, wiping away the tears from her eyes.
“Don’t cry, princess,” he said. “It won’t be too bad. You’ll get used to it. Who knows, you may even begin to like it.”
She spit in his face.
He calmly wiped the spit from his eyes and nose. Then he raised his hands and slapped her across the face in return between the bars.
The three captives waited for the next round of beatings. They weren’t physical beatings, just more mental and emotional. The Veibons couldn’t afford to mark up their merchandise. No one would pay top dollar for damaged goods. They needed them to be in top shape, so they fed them and watered them, but it came with a heavy emotional price.
The Veibons were a twisted sort, stopping by every so often to up their bet on who would fetch the highest price and which species would enjoy the many pleasures of the Human, Centaurian and Aesneian. One Veibon even tried to touch the princess, but they cut off his hand with a rapier right in front of the captives and didn’t even clean up the mess.
Dom looked over at Desire, wishing there was something he could do and feeling less like a man by the second. The outlook looked grim, but all they could do was wait.
Desire tried to lighten the mood by consoling the princess and asking her about her life. How did you come to be such a strong
woman in your own right?” She asked
The princess talked about her people, how they were hardworking for the most part, except for the very wealthy who were addicted to Glitter. “When my father first discovered Glitter, things were very different. He was a nicer man then. Now that they had a thriving business, it consumed him and the kingdom. People stopped aging externally and the planet became obsessed with being the most affluent planet in the galaxy.”
“Aesneians really don't get addicted to Glitter until age 29. That’s when the flame of youth starts to flicker and fade and they worry about getting older, that their husbands are suddenly going to start looking around for younger females.”
“I wanted to be free of marriage, but my father insisted that I pair with one of affluent men in his realm. My potential husband is much like my father, distant and prosperous. Though I must admit, he a decent prospect. Sincere, respectful and if I must say, attractive for an Aesneian, even without Glitter. But all that doesn’t matter now. I’d given anything to be back there and not here. And now Jock has died in my stead.”
Desire felt a newfound closeness to the princess. They were both products of distant fathers who wished for something of theirs daughters that wasn’t aligned with what they wanted for themselves. Desire sensed the conflict within the princess. On one hand, she longed for the approval of her father, the king, but moreso she wanted the approval of her father, the dad. The one she looked up to once upon a time as a child, before he became wrapped up in the Glitter trade.
In listening to the story, a desperate sadness came over them and they all fell asleep.
Dom hadn’t been sleepy one minute and then the next he was dreaming. He dreamed he was back in Chicago, walking down Belmont toward the CTA stop, waiting for the train to take him to the Loop. He recognized it as the time long ago when he joined the Academy. He was heading down to the Daley Plaza, where the Academy had an office in the basement corner and he could then be sworn in at the Cook County Courthouse.
Then he was back on the Constellation, safe and warm in his own bed waiting for the alarm clock to go off, getting rest before his first mission. It was a quick op, simple in the fact that an ambassador handpicked him to escort her to a meeting on Mars. At the time, he thought it wasn’t the most difficult of missions, but after some time he realized just how dangerous meetings on other planets could be. His dream brought him back to the adventure and fun. He was back in the ambassador’s ship, which was glamorous and decked out. All he had to do was look pretty and protect her from her many enemies.
When he came to, he expected to be surrounded in the lavish settings of the Ambassador’s ship. But then he was back awake, in a cage and captive, in his present predicament. He roused Desire.
“We need to make a plan for when they come for us, Desire,” Dom said. “I’m not becoming a sex boy for some galactic gorilla mo-fo.”
Desire flinched at the thought of being sold to another species and having to perform crude acts to stay alive. “You’re right, Dom. But be quiet. I can hear voices down the hall and I’m going to try to read their minds again. It didn’t work when the cloaking mechanism was up, but perhaps now I can read their thoughts without the Alien technology in the way.”
Dom quieted and went back into SPOOK mode. He too could hear voices in the distance, one being the Captain and the other being the Chief. They were arguing over just how much to charge as an opening bid for their captives. The Captain wanted to be paid more than top dollar for such valuable specimens.
The princess was especially valuable. Royalty was a new wrinkle for the slave trade; the Veibons never had anyone of her stature as a captive before.
“You brought me the princess, as agreed,” the Chief said. “She is even more exquisite than your comms showed. Too bad she has such an attitude.”
“There’s not much we can do with that,” the Captain said, knowing that some of the better customers in attendance at the auction would realize her worth and pay three times the price. “I’m sure you have customers that prefer their slaves a little feisty. Charge them even more for the hassle.”
“And the three extras we had are now down to only two,” the Chief replied. “I will need to reduce your fee because of that. It’s only fair.”
They agreed that the remaining two captives would be worth whatever the market could bear. Since they weren’t part of the original deal, the Captain bargained on them and only demanded slightly more than the going rate for an average slave trade. He threw in a bit of Glitter and the servant Watu to sweeten the deal.
“The mind reader might also spark some interest with her purple streak and ample cleavage,” Captain Andana said. After much negotiation, he and the Chief came to an agreement on Desire’s price.
“Ha ha! We will seal this deal with blood!” The Chief declared. “Just kidding, my friend! Now it is time to tend to our precious captives. We will make them a bit more comfortable, and ensure they look and feel their best for our biggest auction of all turns of the moon. Ha ha! I wish I could keep the princess for myself. But for now, her servant will do.”
Desire discovered she could read their minds. Dom rallied internally, preparing for whatever was next to come.
Fedlin System, 10,000 Earth Miles East of Aesneia
Jock ran with the feelings in his heart. He reached out to the princess, in imitation of Desire’s telepathy. She’d tried to explain how it worked, thinking that maybe if they understood a bit more about her abilities, they could perhaps develop the capability. But it wasn’t working now. Telepathy was a gift for Desire only, one that Jock and Dom would never have.
Alone in the cockpit, he had nothing better to do, so he let his mind go blank and then thought of nothing but her. He reached out, felt his hand on her face, looking down into her big blue eyes, telling her that he loved her and that he’d be back to rescue her. She just needed to hold on, and he’d be back. “Hold on…hold on…hold on…” he thought.
JAXXY pulled him out of his reverie. “Sorry, Major,” JAXX said, “but we’re coming up on the system now. Warp jump engaging to final destination.”
Jock steadied himself at the console, once again glad that he was strapped in. The stars faded to a blur as the ship lurched forward. Coming out of the jump was bumpy. The TX had been through a lot on this trip.
Suddenly, the faraway planet of Aesneia zoomed in closer once they were back at normal speed. Jock thanked his lucky stars that he had made it without incident or more pirates. The princess had always described her home as being a twin of Earth, and she was right. High wispy clouds covered much of the planet, though intense flashes of blue pierced the haze with a patchwork of beauty below. Browns and greens of cities and forest cascaded in unison with the spinning planet.
It was about almost one and a half times the size of Earth but just as she told him and he thought it to be both majestic and beautiful. He had no idea where to land, just a few coordinates JAXX managed to snag from the databanks before he had teleported the passengers from the crippled royal cruiser the day before. It wasn’t much to go on, but it was worth a shot.
He pulled back on the throttle and slowed the engines as they descended through the atmosphere. It was denser than Earth; the heaviness glowed brightly and they were burning up on entry. “JAXXY, full power to the front shields,” he said, hoping that would slow any deterioration of the cockpit.
As soon as the ship entered the lower atmosphere, they were greeted by a toll gate. The entire planet was protected by a perimeter shield and they needed to pay the toll to get on their way. With the thriving glitter trade and the many visitors wanting to buy the planet’s spoils, it was one more way they made a pretty penny. Jock had no means of identification, not that he needed papers to enter another system. But the team had plenty of credits in their chip account to gain access. The toll gate was more of a formality, but Jock didn’t have time for any setbacks. He wanted to blurt out that he had info on the princess to speed things along. But he si
mply gave his name and home planet in the Federated Union and paid the toll, letting them know that he was there for business, not pleasure. The Fedlin toll guards entered the ship’s info in the log and opened the outer shield.
From there, Jock flew swiftly toward Aesneia and the TX was soon joined by two sleek point-nosed fighters with active laser cannons at the ready. “Something in the paperwork must have sanctioned an alert,” Jock thought as they flew up close and flanked each side of the ship.
“TX1539, state your business,” a voice crackled over the comm stat.
Jock took a deep breath and thought deeply but quickly about just how to answer. He had no clue about the politics of this planet and how the fighters might react if he came out with the truth about the princess. He gambled and went for it.
“I bring word that the Royal Highness, Princess Amaratis, has been captured. I’m here to ask for the Glitter King’s help in rescuing her.”
Even as a former GOON, Jock knew the truth was the only card he could play at the to gain the access he needed. The sooner the Aesneians knew he was there to ask for help, the sooner that he could get back to help rescue the princess as well as Dom and Desire.
“You have news of the princess?” the voice on the other end said.
“Affirmative. Her Captain has betrayed her and she is being held captive on the moon Veibos in the Boru system.”
The voice went quiet for a moment and Jock felt the first hints of perspiration above his lip.
“Proceed on your current course, then, and we’ll escort you to the capital,” the voice on the other end.
“Well, JAXXY, at least that seemed to get us somewhere,” Jock said. JAXX chirped in agreement.
Escape of the Glitter Princess Page 7