by Tempest Luna
Showered—misted would be more like it, since the harvesting ship didn’t have “running” water—and with a fresh dose of synthetic caffeine thrumming through her system, Tessa took her seat at the helm with Naomi at her side.
“Ready for this?” Tessa asked her first officer. “The autopilot will do most of the work, but we’ll have to monitor for anomalies for the next couple of hours.”
Naomi flexed her fingers, her shoulders slumping. “No. But we don’t have a choice.” Naomi kept to herself more than any of them, but one drunken night, she’d told Tessa that her sister had died from a long, expensive illness, and she was in debt up to her eyeballs. So much debt that she wasn’t even allowed to register for the Off-Planet Brides program because the government wanted their money back first.
Tessa flicked the switch to turn on the nav system, then glanced back at Maren. “Strap in, ladies. Even though we’re supposed to just orbit for a while, Una, from Tyrio-Alpha Three, told me even the orbiting path was bumpy the last time she made this run—storms from Bayone’s sun. This is going to be a hell of a ride. Airsickness bags at the ready.”
“Technology can match us with aliens across the universe, put us into stasis, and turn an entire day’s worth of calories into a bar the size of my finger,” Maren said. “But they can’t get us through the Alpha Star Nebula without mortal danger and hurling.”
“I think they want us to suffer,” Naomi muttered.
Tessa pointed the ship towards a thick bank of swirling, deep purple clouds, then snapped on her oxygen mask.“Hold on to your butts.”
Halfway through the nebula, visibility shrunk down to nothing, and Tessa tightened her fingers on the thruster control. “Status report,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Sensors picking up a large mass thirty degrees starboard. Looks like an asteroid cluster,” Naomi replied. The ship jerked. Left, then right, then left again. With her brows drawn together, Naomi adjusted her mask. “This seems a little extreme—”
An asteroid bounced off their hull. “Work, damn you,” Tessa shouted at the thrusters. She punctuated her demand by slapping her hand on the console. A red light started blinking, and an alarm clanged in the cabin.
DEPRESSURIZATION IMMINENT
“Fuck!” Tessa yelled. “Tighten your masks. We’re losing oxygen—”
The ship shuddered as another impact rocked the tail end of the vessel. Tessa’s long blond hair started to whip into her eyes as a crack opened between the fore and aft sections of the harvester.
“Tessa!” Maren screamed as a great boom sounded behind the captain’s chair. Unable to spare a glance, Tessa prayed Naomi could figure out a way to stabilize the ship. But at her side, her first officer wore a look of pure horror as she flipped switches and grabbed the backup thruster control.
Focusing her gaze out the front windshield, Tessa’s heart stopped. A thick, swirling cloud raced towards them, dark purple flames churning in the center of the vortex.
“Emergency protocol alpha,” Tessa managed as she frantically mashed buttons on the console.
Oh God. We’re going to crash. If there’s even a moon down there.
“Mayday! Mayday! Tyrio-Alpha Seven going down in the Alpha Star Nebula!”
Naomi wrapped her arms around her head, leaning forward in the classic brace position. Behind her, Maren’s screams faded into the cacophony of twisting metal, hissing flames, and cracking glass. With a violent lurch, the front window screen spiraled into the flaming purple clouds, and pieces of the ship not nailed down pelted the back of Tessa’s seat and slammed into her shoulder before disappearing into the winds.
Free fall. Tessa’s stomach dropped. The flaming clouds rushed closer.
We’re all going to die.
Naomi’s chair cracked half-off its supports, and she reached for the ejector lever. Tessa couldn’t hear Maren at all anymore. Only a long, keening cry she didn’t recognize as her own until her oxygen mask failed and she suddenly felt like she was trying to breathe with her mouth and nose glued shut.
Flames singed her arms, and a piece of metal slammed into her back as she tried to eject her own seat.
Bursting through some form of atmosphere, the side of the ship crumbled away, and Tessa screamed when frigid air blasted her cheeks. As her battle for consciousness ended, she let the darkness take her.
Chapter Three
Ro
Stacking another box of Foxfire crystals on his trailer, Ro grunted as his back protested. The twin suns—one deep blue, the other a brilliant pink—sank below the horizon, and the temperature almost immediately dropped ten degrees. He wiped his brow, draped a tarp over the trailer, and locked the outbuilding’s doors. Sweat chilled his skin as the winds picked up.
Tomorrow, long before the suns rose, he’d hitch the trailer to his speedster and make the long trek to the Citadel.
He’d worked his ass off for fifty sun cycles, dawn to dusk, digging deep into the rocky soil of Balrov to find the energy crystals the Supreme Ruler Trexu, the planet’s usurper, leader of a race called the Sypians, demanded. More than six of the planet’s revolutions around the twin suns had passed since the green-skinned race had invaded Balrov, murdering thousands, imprisoning thousands more, and pillaging and stripping the natural resources—all for their own gain.
Balrov had few trees left. No lush grasses. No fruit. Except within the Supreme Ruler’s sector. Ro managed to keep a small garden alive, but he paid dearly for the seeds and the extra water. His hands ached, even days after his last mining run. The rough, scarred pads of his fingers had little sensation, and he hadn’t slept more than half a moons cycle since the last trade.
Maybe he’d see his brothers. Vrax attended every trade, but Zaden…no one had seen Zaden in an entire revolution. But likely, Zaden had seen them. The youngest of the three, he’d broken when the Supreme Ruler had taken Ja’la and her mate, Cark. Not long after, the three brothers had learned that Cark had been brutally murdered to serve as an example to the other slaves.
And Ja’la… Ro swallowed hard as her heart-shaped face swam in his memories. The Supreme Ruler had taken her to his personal harem. Turned her into a pleasure slave for him and his most trusted men.
Beautiful, kind, Ja’la, forced to endure beatings, rape, and the death of her love. All so the Sypian ruler could have his fun. Zaden had gone mad, and only Vrax and Ro’s quick thinking had saved their brother from attacking the Supreme Ruler as he had sorted through the males, deciding who would live “free” and who would be collared and forced into slavery.
Vrax had belted Zaden in the gut, effectively silencing him while Ro had distracted the Supreme Ruler by dropping to his knees and pledging his loyalty. The shame from that day haunted him. He should have fought. Done something. But their mother’s promise had overridden his pride.
“You will always survive. For one another. Promise me, my sons.”
She and their father had died less than two sun cycles after the first Sypian sky crafts had reached their sector.
Opening the small cabinet in his sleeping chamber, Ro withdrew a faded sketch Vrax had done of the family the revolution before the Supreme Ruler had changed their entire lives. They looked so happy then.
Now…Ro often wondered if he would have persisted without his promise to his mother.
Glancing up at the pink and purple clouds through his skylight, he prayed. “Ancient ones, I offer up my life, my hopes, my dreams. All that I am. Please help my brothers. Let me see them again. And if Ja’la lives, please bring her peace.” The prayer he wanted to make for himself remained unsaid. Please, let my suffering end. Let me die.
* * *
Tessa
She could breathe. The minor miracle wasn’t lost on her as she tried to force her eyes open. Odd sounds filtered through the haze of pain. Conversation, but the words had a distinctly hissing quality. She couldn’t understand anything. Was her chip working? Programmed with every known language in the galaxy, it should have b
een able to translate for her. Or perhaps the problem wasn’t her chip, but the pounding in her head.
Oh God. Maren. Naomi. Memories of their last few moments together, the rending metal, the flames, the fear…
A sob escaped her raw throat as she managed to open her eyes. Then another when her surroundings came into focus. Bright lights overhead made her squint, and the scent of antiseptic filled her nose. A hospital? Was someone taking care of her?
She tried to sit up, but only managed to move an inch before she realized her wrists and ankles were trapped in thick metal restraints. Cold air whispered over her skin—her naked skin.
“Help,” she whispered. “Please…” Turning her head, she felt something hard and rough around her neck. Fuck. A heavy collar encircled her throat, and as she raised her head slightly, until a chain connecting the back of the collar to whatever she was lying on rattled. “Is anyone…there?” she asked, though she couldn’t see anyone in the room.
Behind her, a presence hovered. Along with the vague sensation of someone watching her.
“I…know you’re there. My n-name is Tessa. I’m a Tyrio-Alpha harvester. My ship—”
There was a quiet click, and then pain consumed her. Electricity shot through her body, and Tessa screamed as she flailed helplessly against the restraints.
“Silence,” a voice commanded from beyond her field of vision.
He needn’t have bothered. After the collar shut off, Tessa couldn’t make a sound. Too weak, she panted, tears streaming down her temples and into her ears. The being stepped forward, a second, smaller…alien…behind him. They were an odd mix of handsome and grotesque. Green skin, eyes like a serpent, and shimmering scales, yet they sported seriously cut muscles on their sparse frames. The big one was least seven feet tall and looked much less humanoid than the smaller one.
A cloak in the same emerald hue as his skin draped his shoulders, and glittering rings adorned his long, thin fingers. His chest was bare, and metallic ribs wrapped around him.
The smaller one glanced down at a handheld tablet. “Human, my liege. My records indicate the species can be bred, but they are wild, untamable.”
The big guy rubbed his hands together. “I have never had a human.”
Tessa looked right into the massive alien’s yellow eyes. “You’re not…going to have one…now…asshole,” she managed, her voice hoarse.
As she shuddered in her restraints, nausea churned in her belly. The ruler scanned her body, and a forked tongue poked out of his thin lips. His long fingers stroked down Tessa’s cheek and neck, between her breasts, to her flat stomach. She tried to shrink away, but the shackles kept her from doing more than wriggling her hips—which, in hindsight, probably wasn’t the smartest idea. When the leader reached the blond curls that covered her mound and swiped his forefinger between her lower lips, she screamed.
“Get the hell away from me you fucking prick!” The collar turned on long enough to silence her, and as the alien withdrew his hand, she tried to blink away the tears.
“Humans are noisy.”
The smaller alien stared into Tessa’s eyes for a long moment, and she couldn’t be sure, but he almost seemed…sorry. Kind even.
Holding a wand close to Tessa’s head, he flicked a switch. A loud buzzing obliterated all other sounds, and she tried to speak, but her lips wouldn’t move. Coherent thoughts fled, and she could only cry silently as he continued his scan and the wand traveled over her breasts and her belly. The buzzing stopped, and she fought against whatever had paralyzed her tongue and muddled her mind as the smaller alien made a sound of displeasure. “This one is defective, my liege.”
“Defective?” the ruler said. “It was found in a pile of wreckage. Can it be repaired, Nyx?”
With a shake of his head, the doctor, Nyx, passed the wand over her skull again, silencing her with a wave of pain.
“No, sire. Her body is too damaged. Nothing that will shorten her lifespan, but she is unable to breed. Coupling with her could be dangerous. She carries a strange disease in her channel that could cause a male’s cock to shrivel.”
“I don’t have—” Another buzz of the wand, and Tessa’s protests faded into whimpers.
“Send her to the mines, then. Let the slaves have their way with her. But learn as much as you can about her first. Her ship broke apart. There may be others of her kind on this pitiful planet, and if so, we will explore breeding with them.”
Nyx shook his green head. “Her lungs will not filter the air in the mines, Supreme Ruler. But despite her small size, she is strong. She would fetch a high price at the trade as a Foxfire harvester.”
“A high price? I’m not your possession,” she tried to say, but the words escaped slurred and half-formed. Tessa jerked at her bindings again, then spit at the big guy, but she was still reeling from the electric shocks and barely managed to reach the edge of the table.
The ruler grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled—hard. “Is her blood clean, Nyx?” he demanded.
“Y-yes, sire.”
Bending her head to the side, the leader snarled and sank his fangs into Tessa’s skin below her collar bone. The pain lanced through her shoulder, down her right arm, and across to her heart. She couldn’t breathe. Her throat threatened to close up, and her muscles seized, then started to tremble uncontrollably.
When the asshole drew back, blood dripped from elongated teeth in his pinched mouth. “Unfortunate that she cannot be bred. Her blood is…stimulating. Take as much as you can. Study it. Ready her for the trade. And learn all you can from her neural implant.” His hand shot out, and sharp talons extending from his fingers scraped at the skin behind her ear. Still shaking, she couldn’t even squirm as he sliced the chip from her neck.
Tessa moaned quietly as the effects of the alien’s bite started to fade. The ruler dropped the implant into a metal bowl, then stalked out of the room.
“Please,” she whispered. “Help me.”
Nyx shook his head, then pressed a piece of gauze to the dripping wound behind her ear. Of course. She couldn’t have understood her captor anyway. Something in his eyes shifted. Rather than assaulting her, the—what was he? A doctor? A scientist?—alien dressed her wounds. She hadn’t noticed how badly she’d been hurt in the crash. Several deep gashes on her legs, a couple of broken ribs, and a large cut over her left breast started to ache, then burn.
He uttered a string of words she couldn’t understand, then rested his hand over the wounds from the leader’s teeth.
“They hurt. Can’t you…do anything?” The sharp pain had turned to liquid fire flowing all through her chest, and she panted shallowly, trying to find some way to escape the agony.
Nyx shook his head as he slid a needle into her arm, attached a tube, and started to harvest her blood. A pressure syringe hissed at her neck, and Tessa’s vision went glassy. “No,” she moaned, her tongue two sizes too big for her mouth. “I don’t want…to die…”
Nyx’s oddly handsome face wavered back and forth in front of her. He ran his hand over her hair, almost like he was petting her, and whispered something that sounded…comforting. With her last conscious thought, Tessa wished she could understand him.
* * *
When Tessa woke, she was curled on the floor of a small cage in a cavernous, noisy room that stank of sweat, waste, and something else…something bitter. Fear. Her wrists and ankles were bound in heavy shackles, perhaps ten inches of chain between them. At least they hadn’t secured her arms behind her back, so she could lift her hands and feel all around the collar, looking for a catch, a hinge, anything to get the damn thing off of her. Nothing.
One of her fingers brushed the skin behind her ear, and she winced. Whatever Nyx had done to ease the pain from her broken ribs hadn’t done a damn thing to treat the gash from the removal of her neural chip. Or the two puncture wounds from the big guy’s fangs still burning in her chest.
Next to her cage, a large animal roared and tried to butt its head agains
t the bars of a similar enclosure, and Tessa yelped. All around her, huge purple men with collars, thin, worn pants, and not much else carried metallic crates and wheeled other cages in from a long, dark tunnel.
“Help!” she managed as she grabbed the bars of her cage. She tried to pull herself up, but her legs wouldn’t hold her. One of the large aliens stopped a few feet away and looked at her with such deep sadness that Tessa’s eyes started to burn. “Please. Let me out.”
The big guy with shaggy hair so black it was almost blue shook his head and touched his collar. “Kuu.” His chest bore what looked like years of scars, and half of his left ear was missing.
An angry shout came from the tunnel, and the alien fell to his knees, dropping a box of round, yellow fruits. Clutching the collar, he groaned in pain, and one of the green, scaly men stalked over and punched him. More angry words she couldn’t understand, and the purple alien struggled to his knees, bowed his head, and nodded.
Tessa shivered—equal parts cold and afraid. She mouthed, “I’m sorry,” to the collared man as he picked up the yellow fruits and returned them to the box. His stomach growled, and he held one of the fruits for a second longer than the rest, then returned it to the box with all the others.
Touching his collar again, he rushed off. As another three slaves followed, each with boxes of their own, Tessa dropped her head into her hands.
This was the trade.
* * *
Hours passed, and the procession of slaves moving goods slowed until only the scarred man missing part of his ear remained. The faint light seeping through a large metal door to her left faded into darkness.
The male darted a glance around the cavernous space, then met Tessa’s gaze and held a finger to his lips before he disappeared into a side room.
