by Luna Voss
Captured by the Babymaker
Luna Voss
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Also by Luna Voss
Chapter One
“Becky had sex with Jason last night,” Barbara announces as I chew my sandwich.
“What?” says Sam, lowering the water bottle from her lips. “Where did you hear that?”
“I heard it from Duncan, who heard it from Jason,” says Barbara.
I sigh, continuing to eat. I can’t deny to myself that I find this type of gossip interesting in a certain way, but it’s mostly a sad kind of way. Gossiping about sex and relationships always makes me feel a little bit depressed. It reminds me that I’m an outsider. That I’ll never have the chance to experience a teenage romance like this of my own.
That’s because I’m a Kyrzon Bride.
As one of the human women in New Byzantium who was chosen at age 13 to be auctioned off to one of the savage aliens that rule this planet, the world of young love has always been off-limits to me. No boy wants to date you when he knows that you’re going to be sold to an alien warrior when you turn 20.
My friends Sam and Barbara are Kyrzon Brides too, so I know they understand. But for whatever reason, they seem to enjoy the drama of our peers dating all around us while we’re left out. Most of the other Brides do, if I’m being honest. I guess it makes them feel normal, while for some reason, it makes me feel the opposite. People are different, I suppose.
I’ve known Sam and Barbara for years, although we’ve never been best friends. Lately, I’ve been getting to know them better as we’ve all been assigned to work on a new project together. We’re on a team that’s installing a new solar farm outside the settlement of New Byzantium, and we’ve just finished training. This is our first day actually out at the job site.
The new solar plant is a ways outside the settlement, in a big, open field that gets a lot of sun. The whole area is fenced in, a necessary defense against the predatory animals that live on Planet Kyrzon. Even within human territory, the risk of being attacked by a tusk-bear or a pack of raptors is great if you are outside the walls of a settlement. We traveled here via a hover-cart, parked just outside the fence. And we’ve been reminded more times than I can possibly count about the importance of locking the gate.
Right now, it’s our lunch break. I sip from my water bottle as I listen to my friends chatting, feeling wistful. I’m 19 years old. Less than a year from now, it will be my turn to be sold. And then, at long last, I will be able to experience the part of my womanhood I’ve had no choice but to spend my teenage years denying.
When I was younger, I hated being a Kyrzon Bride. And to be honest, yeah, I’d probably choose not to be if I could. But at this point, I’ve made peace with it. 10% of all the women in our society are auctioned to the Kyrzon. How bad can it be? It’s not like the Kyrzon males are especially hard on the eyes, that’s for sure. I, like many of the Brides I know, find comfort in maintaining a sense of humor about the sexual possibilities that await us in becoming wives to these tall, muscular warriors.
“I heard Jason has a big dick,” says Sam, giggling.
I roll my eyes. “Bullshit. Where on Kyrzon did you hear that?”
Immediately, I regret asking as Sam and Barbara devolve into a mock argument about Jason’s penis size. I swear to God, my friends are children.
“Well, in any case, he isn’t half as big as a Kyrzon,” says Barbara. “So really, we’re just talking about baby dicks here.”
Even I can’t resist giggling at that. “How would you possibly know that? Barbara, have you ever even seen one?”
“Seen what, a Kyrzon dick?”
“A dick, period.”
“Yes. That time we all went skinny dipping in the bathhouse two years ago, remember?”
“Oh yeah. I definitely wasn’t part of that. So I guess that makes you the dick expert, huh?”
Barbara laughs. “I’m just saying, Kyrzons are seven feet tall and made of solid muscle. You can’t say you’ve never considered how big their dicks are.”
“That doesn’t mean you know they’re big,” says Sam, chiming in as though this is just an ordinarily intellectual discussion. “Like, I don’t think taller humans necessarily have bigger dicks. I think it’s just random. For all you know, Kyrzon cocks could be tiny.”
I sputter on my drink. “Could you imagine? All these super manly, seven-foot-tall Kyrzons, with their beards, weapons, bulging muscles and all that, and they’re walking around with itty bitty little cocks? How funny would that be?”
“Nooo, don’t say that,” says Barbara. “You’re ruining my fantasy.”
“Maybe they don’t have penises at all,” Sam teases her. “Maybe they reproduce asexually.”
Barbara throws back her head in feigned frustration. “Okay, have you ever walked past the saloon on an Auction Day when it’s filled with Kyrzons? Did you notice the way they looked at you? My ass they reproduce asexually.”
The voice of the foreman cuts into our conversation. All the other workers, eating together in groups of two and three, raise their heads.
“Lunch break ends in five minutes!” he calls out. “Time to finish up your food and get back to work.”
* * *
Barbara, Sam, and I work next to each other setting up solar panels. Sam keeps teasing Barbara with absurd theories about the Kyrzon anatomy:
“I heard they have barbed penises,” she says, not even able to get the words out with a straight face. “And then when you’re mating with them, they stick you with the barb, and you’re stuck to them until they’re finished.”
I can’t help but laugh at Barbara’s horrified expression.
“You guys are just determined to kill my sexy alien fantasy,” she groans, shaking her head. “For the record, Kyrzons do not have barbed penises.
“Hey, I didn’t say anything,” I laugh. “Blame Sam.”
“Do you hear that?” Sam asks suddenly.
“No,” says Barbara. “Hear what?”
“It sounds like… hooves in the distance.”
Barbara and I freeze. Hooves can only mean one thing: tusk-oxen.
And wherever there are tusk-oxen, there are Kyrzons.
I strain my ears, but I don’t hear anything.
Barbara relaxes. “Oh, go suck on a barbed penis,” she says to Sam, rolling her eyes.
“I’m serious,” says Sam, still listening. “I really did hear something.”
I raise my head, looking outside the chain-link fence that surrounds the solar farm. All I see are trees rustling in the wind. Around us, I see other human workers. None of them seem to have heard anything.
“I really don’t think anything is out there,” I say.
Sam scratches her head. “I could have sworn I heard hooves.”
We keep working, and the light begins to fade. Eventually, the foreman tells us that it’s time to leave for the day, and we start to pack up. Several of the boys finish before we do, and they leave the compound early with the
foreman, unlocking the gate and walking out to the hover-cart.
“Hey, ladies?” says the foreman, dipping his head back through the gate. “We’re just going to wait in the hover-cart while you pack up. You’ll be ready in a moment?”
“Yes,” says Barbara quickly. “We’re just—”
Barbara’s voice transforms into a scream as an ax flies through the air and embeds itself in the foreman’s head. He falls to the ground dead, the gate hanging open.
Nobody even has a chance to react before a group of Kyrzons burst out of the trees around us and charge the solar farm. The boys in the hover-cart yell first in terror, and then in desperation as the fearsome aliens drag them out of the vehicle and out into the woods. I hear their three voices screaming, and then all of them are cut short.
Barbara, Sam and I are all flat on the ground, cowering, trapped in the fenced-in solar farm. None of us have even seen a Kyrzon outside of the safety of Human Territory before, where they are required to be unarmed.
But we are in Human Territory. This fact is both inescapable and terrifying. The idea of armed Kyrzons conducting raids here is unthinkable. For hundreds of years, our two peoples have been governed by a pact, and for hundreds of years, both of our peoples have honored it. The fence we have around this compound is meant to keep out raptors and tusk-bears, not Kyrzons.
“What’s happening?” Barbara whispers, her voice quivering. “Do they know we’re here?”
“Shhh,” says Sam, and Barbara falls quiet.
I raise my head and look up at the gate, where the foreman’s body is still bleeding on the ground. Just behind him, the hover-cart floats lazily, already powered on. I don’t see the Kyrzons anywhere.
“We should make a break for it,” I whisper. “To the hover-cart. It might be our only chance.”
I make eye contact with Barbara and Sam, and they both nod. On my fingers, I begin a countdown.
Three, I gesture.
Two.
One.
On cue, all three of us jump up from the ground and sprint for the gate. We’ve almost reached it, when seemingly out of nowhere, a Kyrzon appears and pushes it shut. We all crash into it and land on the ground in a heap.
I stare through the fence at the alien as I pick myself up off the ground. He’s wearing some kind of battle helmet that covers his entire face.
“Got them,” he grunts, looking over his shoulder. I watch as three other Kyrzon warriors appear behind him, all of them wearing helmets that cover their faces.
Chapter Two
The Kyrzons advance. Behind me, I hear a muffled sob. I turn, and see past Barbara and Sam the rest of our coworkers at the solar farm, three other women. I had completely forgotten about them. They’re huddled against the back fence, looking terrified.
“Six of them,” says the Kyrzon in front. “Six women. That’s more than we expected. Are we going to be able to travel with all of them?”
“It’s going to be hard,” says another. “We’ll have to double up, two per tusk-ox. Maybe we should just kill two of them so we don’t have any extras.”
Another alien steps forward, this one wearing a spiky metal helmet. “You fucking idiot, we’re not going to kill any of the women,” he snarls.
“So what do you propose we do?”
“Like you said, we’ll have to go two to a tusk-ox. It’s not ideal, but we’ll manage.”
The Kyrzon in front opens the gate, and the aliens walk into the solar farm. The women around me and I all cower. We’re completely helpless.
One of the aliens looks down at us, addressing us for the first time. “We mean you no harm,” he announces, as though we all didn’t just hear them discussing whether or not to kill us. “You are now Kyrzon Brides. Please step forward, and we will bind you for travel.”
I glance at Barbara and Sam, and then over at the other women. I see fear in each set of eyes. Fear and uncertainty. None of us ever expected anything like this to happen. Even those of us who are Kyrzon Brides were expecting to join the Kyrzon world in a very different way than this. Barbara looks like she’s about to pass out.
But there’s no point trying to fight, or trying to run. These warriors are so much bigger and stronger than us that the idea is laughable. I glance at Sam, and then I step forward, holding out my hands without a word. A moment later, my friends do the same.
“You have the ropes?” one of the Kyrzons asks.
“Yeah, right here,” says the other, pulling out a bundle of cord. “Let me cut you some pieces.”
I watch as one Kyrzon doles out pieces of rope to the others, who then proceeds to tie all of our hands. I can’t decide if I think they’re bad at what they’re doing, or great at it. On the one hand, they thought to bring rope to tie us up. On the other hand, this would have gone a lot faster if they had pre-cut the pieces. But then again, it’s not like that’s going to stop them from getting away with this. Worst-case scenario for them, things take slightly longer than they would have otherwise. It’s not like anyone from New Byzantium is coming to check on us. And even if they did, what match would they be for a band of armed Kyrzon warriors?
The alien with the spiky helmet, the same one who had argued against killing us, stands in front of me as he ties my wrists together. His touch is firm and insistent, but more gentle than I would have expected. He doesn’t hurt me.
“Blindfolds?” he asks, turning over his shoulder.
“Right here,” says another, and passes him what seems to be a black cloth sack. Before I even have a chance to protest, he puts the sack over my head and my entire world goes dark.
I stay in place, listening as our alien captors tie up and blindfold the other women. Behind me, someone is sobbing gently. There’s nothing for me to do but stay still, unable to see or move my hands.
“What do you want to do about him?” asks one of the warriors, and I have to imagine he’s talking about the foreman’s body lying next to the gate.
“Get rid of it,” another one growls. “That head wound is too obvious, nobody will believe that came from a raptor attack.”
“Unless we just take the head. Raptors eat heads, right?”
“Yeah, but they eat bodies, too. Why would they just eat the head? Besides, do you want to behead him? Be my guest, if you want to deal with all that mess.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll go drag his body into the woods with the others. But we should leave more blood.”
Another Kyrzon voice jumps in. “I think he left enough blood already. Look at this.”
“Well, then let’s stomp those raptor feet we have through it and make some bloody footprints.”
After that I hear them moving around, both in and out of the compound. I don’t want to picture what they’re doing to the foreman’s body. My mind races, putting together an understanding of what is happening. It seems like these Kyrzons knew to expect us here, and have been planning to kidnap us and make it seem like we died in a raptor attack. If they succeed, we’ll all become Kyrzon Brides, and no one in Human Territory will ever even know what happened to us.
In a way, I suppose you could make an argument that this doesn’t ultimately change things very much for us. Sam, Barbara, and I were all already destined to be sold to the Kyrzon, and I think one of the other girls was as well. So it’s not like the idea of becoming the property of a Kyrzon warrior is completely foreign to us.
But this is different. In Human Territory, being a Kyrzon Bride is a tradition. It’s official. Something with ritual around it. It’s an event that we plan for, expect, and know when to say goodbye.
This isn’t anything like that.
I wince as I hear what must be the sound of them dragging the foreman’s body off into the woods. No, this isn’t anything like being purchased through the official auction process. When Brides are sold at auction, no one dies.
“You think that’s enough blood?” one of the aliens growls.
“Let’s make some more footprints outside the fence,” says a
nother’s voice. “Remember, single file on the dirt. We don’t want to have to cover any more of our tracks.”
After a few more minutes, I hear the gate to the compound open, and a gruff voice addresses us:
“It is time to leave. Come, and we will guide you to our mounts.”
There is no choice but to comply. A big hand touches the small of my back, and I let it guide me out the gate of the solar farm. Behind me, I hear Sam, Barbara, and the other women following, presumably guided by Kyrzons of their own. We walk for what seems like a long time, and the ground becomes more uneven. I hear sticks cracking under my feet, and then mud squelching.
Where are they taking us?
The Kyrzons lead us until I hear what sounds like a large animal breathing. The fear inside me rises. My whole life, I’ve been taught to fear the creatures that inhabit this planet.
“Hey, girl, I’m back, see?” I hear one of the Kyrzons murmur. His voice is sweet, almost playful, like the way I would talk to a dog. For a moment, I’m confused: is he talking to me?
And then I hear an animal snorting, and I realize he must be talking to his tusk-ox.
There must be a tusk-ox right in front of me.
I’ve never seen a tusk-ox before. Humans don’t use them. They’re far too big and powerful for us to control. I stay in place, blindfolded, waiting for some kind of instruction from my alien captors.
And then one of them grabs me by the waist and lifts me up off the ground. I squeal in surprise. He places me down onto what feels like an enormous saddle, and I’m terrified to realize that I’m actually now sitting on a tusk-ox’s back. Without my vision, my perch feels precarious, as though I’m at risk of falling off at any moment. You’re okay, I try to tell myself, taking deep, shuddering breathes. You’re still alive. You’re going to be okay.