by Marie Dry
“My imperial ship will arrive shortly to bring you to Zyrgin.”
“A…all right.” Was she really doing this?
“It is important that you do not tell your friends of your planned departure.”
“I can’t just go without saying goodbye.”
He cocked his head and for a moment, he looked disconcertingly like Zacar, her friend Natalie’s alien. “You will make a recording to say parting greetings to them.”
“Why can’t I just say goodbye in person?”
“Security reasons. Zacar has orders to provide you with anything you want to bring with you. Make a list on your TC and send it to Zacar.”
“All right, but I don’t have his address.”
“It is already in your TC and easy to find.”
Did he put it on her TC because he was sure of her answer, or because he had no plans to take no for an answer? “Will you be on the ship that takes me to Zyrgin?”
“No, you need to be in stasis so that your memory can be altered and I have to run my empire.” He didn’t sound as if he wanted to see her until she reached his planet and she felt a little ache in her heart. It would’ve been wonderful if she was a whole, clean woman and madly in love with him and he wanted her because he loved her and not because of the prophecy.
She frowned at him. “If you’re not travelling on the ship, how will you get to your planet? For that matter, how are you here now? I know it takes ten months, at least, for the supply ships to get here.”
“The same way I appear in your room. I think of where I want to be and I am there.”
Sarah glared at him. “If you don’t want to give me an answer, say so. Don’t make up wild stories. No one can travel between planets by only thinking about it.”
One moment he stood a few feet from her, the next he was in front of her. “I can do it. That is how I appear and disappear into this room.”
“Oh.”
“Before I go, I will implant your translator.”
She was about to refuse to have anything implanted in her, but when she reached Zyrgin, if she couldn’t speak the language, she’d be helpless and at this alien being’s mercy, unable to make friends. To start a new life.
“The doctor will assist me and I will do it now. I am weary of speaking your ugly language.”
“English isn’t ugly.” She said it absently, trying to breathe past the panic. She was going to live on another planet.
The door opened and the rude doctor walked in. He handed the Zyrgin two round, silver disks and then stood back and fiddled with a flat, silver piece of equipment.
“It sounds like the lisping of mudslugs,” the Zyrgin said and pressed the silver disks against her temples.
Mudslugs? Oh, he was still talking about speaking English. “I don’t sound like a slug,” she objected, trying very hard not to think about what was going into her brain.
“You do not have to fear the procedure. It is safe and painless.”
Easy for him to say—he wasn’t the one with alien technology put into his head. “Julia said her translator nearly killed her.”
“It was a defective model.” He tapped her temple gently with his finger. “This is an improved model and has been tested on humans.”
Her blood literally froze in her veins. “You used humans like lab rats?”
“No, we used raiders and implanted them with the translators. We did not turn them into rats.”
Sarah stared at him, not sure what to focus on. The fact that they experimented on raiders or the literal way he took her words.
She should be outraged that they’d experimented on the raiders; she tried really hard to feel outrage, but instead said with viciousness she didn’t know she was capable of: “I hope you hurt them a lot while you did it.” Hester might say that forgiving the raiders would set her free, but seeing them suffer would go a long way toward freedom for her.
A few years, even a year ago, she wouldn’t have been able to feel such savage pleasure at someone being hurt. But the thought of those savages suffering, gave her the kind of satisfaction no decent human being should feel.
“I did,” he said. “They died slow and agonising deaths. They died the way woumbers should. Begging on their knees.”
Maybe she wasn’t as hard as she thought, because now she wasn’t sure she wanted anyone to suffer like that, not even raiders. Wait, he’d used that word before. “Woumbers?”
“Men without honor,” he said.
He touched her temples and for a brief moment he surrounded her. His scent, his towering height, his savage beauty. And it was beauty. He might look alien and act like the universe belonged to him—she frowned—okay, maybe it did belong to him, but he possessed a kind of savage male beauty that called to her. Panic, at the thought of how powerful he was, and that strange unwilling attraction, warred within her.
He stepped back, ready for something and if she had to guess, she’d say he looked ready to catch her. How bad were the side effects if he thought she’d keel over?
“Is that it? I don’t feel any different.” And she couldn’t figure out if she now spoke in their language because of the device in her brain. Or maybe she still spoke English because he spoke her language. It could drive her crazy trying to figure it out.
“You do not feel as if you are going to faint into my arms?” It was the strangest question said in that deadly tone. He stared at her face. “You are not changing color.” She was right, he’d been ready to catch her.
Sarah didn’t know if she should be charmed, but she was. “No, I feel fine. Why did you think I’d faint?”
“Zacar’s breeder fainted. Zacar said her face changed color and then she fell over.”
“Oh.” She’d have liked to know that before she allowed him to implant things in her brain.
“It will take a few minutes, then you will speak and understand SE.”
The doctor left without looking at her.
“SE?”
“Standard Galactic.” Now she remembered—Natalie and Julia had said they could only speak SE, that the women were never implanted with the Zyrgin language.
“So, we’ve been speaking English?”
“What else would we be speaking?”
Before she could answer him, he was gone.
The next two weeks she packed, made lists of things she wanted to take with her, and TC’d it to Zacar.
She recorded messages for Natalie and Julia. It took several attempts before she managed to record a message she was halfway satisfied with. Hiding her preparations from her friends felt wrong, but she was a miserable coward, because it was easier following the Zyrgin’s request that she not tell them.
She changed her mind about going every second day, but then she’d think about her life, of the pity in her friends, and she knew she had to take this chance at a new life. Whatever it may bring couldn’t be worse than what she’d experienced in the camps.
Before she was ready, it was time to board the spaceship that would take her to a strange planet, to live with a powerful alien warrior.
Dizzy, her stomach churning, she allowed the Zyrgin and another alien to place her inside a silver stasis pod. The Zyrgin placed a cable over her chest and it sucked against her skin.
“How long will—”
Darkness.
4
“Arise, breeder.” A harsh, faraway voice said, through bubbling water.
Sarah frowned and tried to figure out why anyone would stick their head into water to talk. She knew that voice, but where from? She felt so heavy. Terror stuck vicious claws into her heart. She couldn’t feel her body. Did they cut off her limbs, the way they’d threatened when she couldn’t cry?
“Open your eyes, human.” The voice was closer, insistent, harsh, and definitely male. Her fingers prickled as if the finest needles pierced her skin repeatedly. The panic subsided a little. She still had hands, could feel them now, lying next to her hips. She tried to wriggle her fingers, but they bare
ly moved. Her toes prickled, before she could panic about not feeling her feet; they wouldn’t move either. She moaned—was she paralyzed?
“The feeling will return to your body, human,” a grating voice said. She knew that voice that sounded like meteors smashing together. Sarah frowned, or tried to—her skin wouldn’t move. How did her brain even come up with that strange way to describe the voice? As if someone had put cotton wool in her ears and now took them out, her hearing abruptly sharpened. She heard her own heartbeat and a strange vibration, a pulsing beat she couldn’t place.
Human? He’d called her that before. Her eyes sprang open and Sarah couldn’t suppress a soft whimper. Everything around her was a silver blur and every few seconds her vision would sharpen and she saw someone hover over her. A green someone, wearing a lot of silver, which didn’t make sense at all. She blinked frantically, tried to rub her eyes, but her arms flopped back to her sides. A large, vaguely reptilian-looking, hazy, green-and-gold creature stared down at her with eyes as black as the deepest pits in hell. She opened her mouth to scream. Wait, she knew him. She frowned, her forehead crinkling at last, and tried to concentrate through the pain in her head. Didn’t she?
“Where am I?” If only she could think, could remember. The room had too much silver, was too clean, but her mind seemed unable to grasp onto reality. How did she end up with monsters, green-and-gold reptilian-looking monsters? “Why is everything silver?” she asked the bald, green creature she should know. Her voice sounded strange, as if she haven’t used it for a long time.
“It is the jinz izwe. I will lessen the glare.” The silver dulled around her. “You have been in stasis and are recovering from it. You landed on Zyrgin an hour ago. The doctor will examine you and then we will disembark.”
Jinz izwe? The silver stuff? She pushed that aside. Right now she didn’t care what that was. Her mind cleared as if someone had opened a curtain, and it all rushed back—she remembered. No wonder she was so groggy.
The guesthouse, kicking him in the nuts, the first time he’d appeared in her room on Earth. Throwing panties on his face the second time. Their bargain.
Her heart beat as if racing for dear life. She’d agreed to be his wife in exchange for his technology taking away her memories of that year of hell. Heat pooled in her stomach. She’d agreed to have his children.
“H-ho… How long have I been in here?” She sounded hoarse and rusty, and she was so cold, even her soul felt like an icicle rattling inside her.
“Eleven months.”
Sarah tried to sit up and it took several attempts. She clutched her arms around herself, and felt the goose bumps on her skin; she’d never been this cold. “I s-s-slept that long?” He’d said it would be a yearlong trip. No wonder she could barely speak. “I’m so cold.”
“Yes, you slept that long. This will help with the cold.” He conjured a silver sheet out of nowhere, and for a moment, while he adjusted it around her, she was surrounded by his delicious scent. He might look vaguely reptilian with his green-and-gold skin, but he also looked like her rescuers and she couldn’t miss how well-built he was, how deep his voice was. And he smelled wonderful, exotic, and spicy and clean. The sheet cocooned her with gentle heat. It hit her then, the realization, the possibility of freedom from her hellish past. She didn’t wake terrified and sweating, thinking of the camps. Only, now that she wondered about the treatment, she was thinking about it. Did that mean the treatment to lessen her memories worked? She huddled into the delicious heat the silver sheet cocooned her in. Panic threatened, but she pushed it down. She’d chosen this. Come what may, she’d forge a new life with purpose and joy.
The door slid open and another alien entered. Not as tall or as muscled as the aliens she’d seen so far and a lot smaller than the Zyrgin.
The Zyrgin stepped closer to her. Sarah appreciated his protection. And the treatment he’d said would dull her memories of the camps. “This is my personal physician. He will examine you now.” The doctor held up a flat, silver rectangle, like the rude doctor on Earth used. He was definitely not a warrior like Viglar, their doctor on Earth. Apart from his horrific bedside manner, Viglar had looked like a warrior. This alien might be bigger and more muscled than the average human, but he was no warrior.
Sarah rubbed her aching head. “Why does he have to examine me?” She had bigger problems than being cold coming out of stasis. Like being on an alien planet. Her chest tightened and her breath rushed in and out of her lungs. She didn’t even know the name of this being who exuded power so great, it dominated the room. She’d agreed to come to another planet to live with him in what she hoped was something like a marriage, but he continued to call her his breeder. The doctor stepped forward, but she noticed he kept a wary eye on the Zyrgin.
“Please allow me to ease your head,” he said in stilted English and held up a slim, silver object that looked like a pen.
Sarah recognized it. When Viglar had injected her with it, all her physical pain had been eased instantly. All the horrific infections and wounds had cleared within days. Only the scars remained. Viglar had done miracles, until they were barely noticeable, but she carried the scars. She carried them proudly, in remembrance of the other women who’d perished in those camps. Sarah nodded her permission. He’d probably inject her whether she wanted him to or not, but after the camps, it was nice to have him pretend she had the choice.
The Zyrgin took the slim pen from the doctor, pushing the other alien back. Again, she appreciated his protection. The treatment worked—the horror she went through was a dulled memory. But she still didn’t want any of the males to touch her.
He pressed the instrument gently against her neck. It had been awhile since she’d crouched in corners, but suddenly she wished she could again. He was so overwhelming and so alien and just too close to her. What had she been thinking? She felt her cheeks get so hot, she could probably light a match with them. She’d agreed to have a child with him. Her every sense was suddenly overwhelmed with him. Her chest warmed at the thought of cradling a baby. Her baby.
A soft prick against her neck and then the Zyrgin stepped back from her, taking his delicious heat with him. Without speaking, the doctor left. The Zyrgin took her arm and steered her out of the stasis cabin and through a long, winding corridor. “A ceremonial dress has been laid out for you in your cabin.”
“All right.” His hand on her upper arm burned through the material of the floaty dress they’d given her to wear in the stasis pod. They’d given her mind-numbingly detailed and scientific explanation about the electrical properties of the material.
Around them were long, winding, silver halls.
“Natalie and Julia will be so jealous that I got to fly in one of the spaceships.” Natalie had said she’d seen the control room of one of their ships. Julia had been so jealous. That day, when she’d been sunk in memories and miserable, Natalie and Julia had tried to cheer her up. It seemed a lifetime ago.
He didn’t reply.
“Could you show me the control room?” She’d love to see the place where they piloted the ship from. Would it be anything like the space ranger’s cockpit? She’d love to tell Julia, when she talked to her, that she’d seen the control room of the spaceship.
“No.”
“Why not?” It wasn’t as if she knew enough about spac ships to sell their secrets.
“It is not the place for breeders.” A chill crept over her soul at his answer. A premonition of things to come?
After several more twists and ups and downs, along endless silver corridors, he stopped, turned, and the wall opened to reveal a cabin as large as her room in the guesthouse.
It had a metal bunk on which some kind of cloth glittered. The traditional dress? Sarah looked around. Apart from a chair, it was empty. They sure weren’t into decorating much.
“I thought the rooms in your ships would be small because of lack of space.” How could she sound so normal when she was freaking out inside because she was on alie
n planet, about to marry their emperor?
His lip curled, revealing a hint of a fang. “Zyrgin ships are superior, in size and performance, to the ships of other space-faring races.”
“I see.” She’d promised herself, after they’d rescued her, that she’d never beg again. Not for food or safety. To her everlasting shame, she wanted to drop to her knees and beg him to send her home. At least she didn’t cry, just as she’d never cried in the camps. It was the one humiliation she’d never had to endure.
This can be your new life, she said silently. Have the courage to go for it.
He picked up a pale blue, glittering garment from the bed and it looked delicate in his large hands with those claw-like fingers. “You will put on the dress and shoes and make your hair stay on top of your head.” He stared intently at her scalp and she had to check the impulse to touch her head to see if something was wrong. He walked back to the door. “I’ll come for you in an Earth hour.”
Earth. Longing so intense, her heart ached, rushed through her. She wanted to go home. Wanted to be with her friends. “I can’t do it,” she told him and carefully stepped out of reach of those huge fists. Agreement or not, she wanted to go home. To Julia and Natalie who had never given up on her. She held out her hands. “Please let me go home.” She wanted to be back in the guesthouse and make clothes for her friends.
Sarah dropped her hands and frowned. No, she’d rather be on an alien planet with this frightening being, than in a self-imposed exile in the guesthouse; she’d promised Julia she’d follow the adventure. She couldn’t stand being apathetic and listless anymore. She straightened.
He tracked her movements, reminding her of a predator watching its prey.
If she went back, what would be different? She’d try to appear all right for Julia and Natalie’s sake. The horrific apathy had left her when this alien came to her with his outrageous bargain. Sarah straightened, lifted her chin. and looked him in the eye. “Please ignore my request to go home. It was just nerves.”
“I assume we will not see any more of these human nerves?” he said smoothly. His silky, threatening tone sent needle pricks down her spine.
