"Yes," Angel replies calmly.
"But what about her?" I nod at the unmoving body of the new girl.
"She is alive," Angela replies. "And as far as I can tell she is uninjured. We shall just have to wait until she wakes up."
"You think she will wake up?" I ask
"Yes," Angela nods. "I presume that she was hit with the same stun ray that they used on all of us. So she should recover."
"OK," I say, as another wave of dizziness sweeps over me. But it is fleeting, and a moment later I look over at Angela again.
"What did you say to them?" A timid voice from the far corner asks.
I look over and see that Mary, or Jane, is looking up at us. For a moment I think she is talking to me.
But then Angela answers her. "I told this Dracktari that what they are doing is highly illegal and that I shall report them to the authorities as soon as they dock their ship at a space station."
"Wow," I say. "That must have frightened him."
"You would think so," Angela replied. "But he seemed completely unconcerned."
"He did?" I reply. But then I realize that Angela is not getting any of my sarcasm.
"Yes," Angel pouted. "In fact, he said that if I didn't stop talking he would push me out an airlock. Though he put it a lot more crudely than that."
"I bet he did," I sigh, wondering just what type of alien Angela really was. Obviously an academic of some sort unused to the seedier side of life.
"I also obtained, as you colloquially put it, some good news and some bad news from the Dracktari," Angela says.
"Good news?" I ask.
"They are cutting their mission short and are leaving the vicinity of Earth forthwith," Angela replied.
"How is that good news?" I ask.
"Well, it means that they will not be kidnapping any more Earth girls."
"I guess. But if that's the good news," I say. "What's the bad news?"
"This ship has been infected with some kind of alien parasite that is attacking all of the ship's critical systems. And they don't know if we are going to survive the journey home."
Chapter Two
I just stare at Angela for the longest time. Finally I ask, "Sorry, could you repeat that last part?"
"This ship has been infected with some kind of alien parasite that is attaching all of the ship's critical systems," she repeated. "And they think the ship might not survive the journey home."
"That's what I thought you had said." I slumped back against the wall.
"I presume they thought they had it under control," Angel continues. "But apparently it has them worried now."
"They're worried," I say.
"Worried enough to abort what promised to be a very profitable mission."
"The profitable mission being kidnapping Earth girls to sell as sex slaves," I say.
"Yes," Angela says. "As I said Earth females are considered exotic beauties by many galactic species and so fetch a high price in the illegal slave trade."
"Glad to see that we're considered hot," I snort. "Even by tentacle monsters."
"Most species in the galactic federation are bipedal hominids," Angela explains. "But the general characteristics of each species varies widely. Never mind the individual variation within each species. However, within this wide range of physical characteristics human physical characteristics are sexually stimulating to a majority of species. It was one of the aspects of humanity that I wished to explore in my thesis." She looked at me. "That is why I was on Earth to do practical research."
I felt my eyes glaze over as she talked and it took me a second to wake up when I noticed she had stopped talking. "I am having trouble deciding if you actually are a deluded human girl, or really an alien researcher," I finally say.
"I can assure you that I am not human," she replied.
"Well, I have just seen a definite alien creature," I say. "And he is apparently kidnapping girls."
"They all are. That is why they have come to Earth," Angle says. "But how they have not been intercepted is a puzzle. This sort of thing is completely illegal. If they have contaminated the pristine condition of planet Earth the basis of all my research could be undermined."
I refrained from telling her what she could do with her research of planet Earth's pristine condition. Instead, I look around the chamber we are in. The bare metal walls do not impress me much. "So this is what the inside of an alien spaceship looks like," I say. "Where are all the flashing lights and glowing orbs and shit?"
"Why would you want the lights to flash?" Angela asks.
"You know," I say. "On control panels when they're piloting the ship."
"Ships are piloted from the bridge," Angela says. "Where I assume there are plenty of control panels for monitoring the workings of the ship."
"But none of those showed that the ship is infected by a parasite and is about to explode?" I say.
"I can't say what the control panels showed," Angle replied. "But the Dracktari said the ship was falling apart, rather than about to explode."
"Oh, well that's OK then," I say and roll my eyes again.
"I must admit that I had seen several signs that something was amiss," Angela says. "Like the noise that the door of this chamber makes when being opened and closed. But the Dracktari must not have been quite as observant as me."
"How could you not notice the sound that door made?" I ask. Even thinking about it was giving me a headache.
"Yes, the mechanism is badly in need of repair," Angle agreed.
"But you didn't think of an alien parasite infecting the ship?" I ask.
"I just assumed that these Dracktari were lazy about maintaining the ship's systems," Angela replies. "They have that reputation." She looked around the container we are in. "I do not like to speculate on individual members on a species based on general assumptions and reputations of the species as a whole, but I would not have much confidence in their technical ability. And if this is an unusual pathogen they may not process the skills and resources to bring it under control."
"So what about this door," I say as I climb unsteadily to my feet. I hold onto the wall for support as a wave of dizziness washes over me.
"Are you feeling OK?" Angela asks.
"Yes," I say as my head clears. I take a deep breath and stand upright as I let go of the wall.
Much to my surprise I neither fall or, nor do my legs give way.
"So, where does this door lead?" I walk unsteadily towards the door.
"Out to an access corridor," Angle says, as she walks beside me. "And from there to the rest of the ship."
"Maybe we can escape," I say, as I walk over to take a closer look at the door.
"Escape to where?" Angela asks. "We are on a spaceship, in space."
"How do you know we are in space?" I turn from the door to look at her. "Maybe we have landed on Earth."
"Interstellar ships do not land on planets," Angela Explains. "They are too big and would collapse under the gravitational strain."
"So how do aliens go down to the surfaces of planets," I ask.
"Well, a lot of them don't," Angela says. "Many millions of beings are born on ships and stations, and live their whole lives without visiting the surface of a planet."
"Wow, to spend your whole life in space," I say. "That must be weird."
"Not to the people who live their lives that way," Angela replies.
"No, I guess not," I say. "But what about the rest of the people? How do they got on and off starships?"
"Starships have shuttlecraft for landing cargo and people onto planetary surfaces," Angela explains.
"Shuttlecraft," I say. "Could we not steal one of those and escape?"
"I would assume that such shuttlecraft would be configured as to be only accessible to authorized personnel," Angela says.
"Yes, I guess so," I say, turning back to look at the door once more. "Is this the door's control?" I ask, pointing to the flat panel on the wall.
"Yes," An
gela replies. "But it too will be programmed to only operate for authorized persons."
"Really?" I ask. "Did it not work when you tried it?"
"I haven't tried it," Angela replies.
"You've been in this room for four days, and you never thought to check that the door was locked?" I look at her.
"But our Dracktari captors have told us to stay in here," Angela says.
"And you always do what your kidnappers tell you to do?" I snapped at her.
"I have never been kidnapped before," she replies, perhaps a bit stiffly. "I do not really know how one is supposed to behave."
"Well, where I come from one is supposed to try to escape when one gets kidnapped." I put my hand against the panel, and a wall of sound crashes into me.
I once again clamp my hands over my ears as I wince with the pain. At first, I thought that I must have set off some alarm alerting the aliens to my attempt at escape. But then as I see the door start to grind open I release it is the sound of the broken door rolling back.
Luckily I am a lot smaller than the Dracktari aliens, and it only takes a few seconds for the door to open wide enough for me to step forward and squeeze through the opening. But not so luckily I can not doubt that our captors will hear the noise of the faulty door as it pulls itself open.
Thankfully, outside in the corridor the noise is less overwhelming. I look up and down the surprisingly wide space that I am in. I had kind of assumed that corridors in a spaceship would be narrow and cramped, like on a boat on Earth. But apparently not.
There is a similar looking door to the one that I have just come through on the opposite side of the corridor. And in each direction both right and left along the corridor there is another pair of doors space out at about fifteen foot intervals.
The weird thing is that the corridor curves down in both directions and I can not see more than fifty feet either way. I look back through the door and try to shout to Angela, "What way?"
She too has her hands over her ears. She says something back to me, but I cannot hear her over the noise of the door as it continues to grind open.
I look at the slow progress that the door is making. It is going to take too long for it to open and stop making noise. I am expecting the Dracktari alien to show up at any moment and either hit me with the stun ray again, or worse. I shudder at the thought of being killed for trying to escape. Briefly, I glance at the control panel on this side. If I touch it will it simply stop the door or will it make the door close, and perhaps lock? I do not know.
Looking past Angela, I can see Mary and Jane, and the limp body of the newly captured girl. None of them have made any attempt at moving towards the door. I wave at Mary and Jane. And try to call out over the noise. "Come on," I call, "Let's make a run for it."
But they can't hear what I am saying. And neither looks like they are going to be moving anywhere anytime soon.
Looking back at Angela I see that she has stayed inside the compartment. I wave at her to come on. But she just shakes her head and stays standing just inside the door. I consider grabbing her and dragging her along after me. But then I shrug and decide to leave her. After all, I don't know where I am going and she might very well be safer staying where she was told to stay.
But I was never one to meekly wait for my fate, so I turn and run down the corridor, not know where I am going. But I only get halfway to the next door before I stumble as a sickening wave of vertigo washes over me. I stop and grab onto the wall to steady myself. I don't know if it is the stun ray or my empty stomach, but I am feeling very light headed.
I take a couple of deep breaths and look back over my shoulder. And once again have to close my eyes as another wave of vertigo hits me. For I am suddenly looking back down at where I have come from and Angela is standing at an angle on a floor that was completely flat when I stood beside her, but that now looks like it is on a slope. Also, she is standing straight out from the slope, not leaning to remain upright.
It is a most disconcerting sight.
I blink and look down at my feet. I am definitely standing on flat, level ground. Well, I suppose that I should call it a deck as I am on a spaceship. But as I look up and down the corridor I can see it curves down in each direction. And when I look back at Angela she is still staining at an angle. It is like some optical illusion or trick camera angle.
But I don't have time to think about it. The compartment door is also still grinding its way open and making enough noise to wake the dead. It won't be much longer before at least one alien shows up to investigate. Assuming they haven't already seen me trying to escape on whatever security cameras they must have aboard the ship. I look briefly at the ceiling, but can see nothing that looks like a camera.
I turn and start to walk along the corridor. But once again I get hit with a wave of dizziness as I walk down the sloping deck. Again I grab hold of the wall to steady myself. And realize that I am still standing completely upright. I look down at where the wall joins the floor, and the wall is aligned at a perfect ninety degrees perpendicular to the floor. I do not feel like I am on a slope. But when I look ahead, or behind me, I can see the corridor curving away from me.
"Artificial gravity," I say to myself. What else would they have on an alien spaceship?
I start to move again, releasing that the Dracktari planet must be the same size as Earth as the gravity seems the same to me. After all, there's no reason they wouldn't set the gravity to suit themselves. I doubt they set it to suit their captives.
But it feels very weird to me. It looks to my eyes like I am running downhill, But every step feels to my sense of balance like I am running on a level surface. My eyes and my inner ears are giving my brain conflicting signals. However, I find that I can make good progress if I look down at my feet and just concentrate on running rather than looking where I am going.
But after a few minutes, I realize I am not looking where I am going. Which is not a good thing to do when I am trying to escape from an alien spaceship. I look up from the deck, only to see Angela standing at the open door to the compartment that I have just escaped from.
I look back down the corridor behind me. It curves down and away behind me. And then forward to the corridor the curves down and away from me, and realize that I have run in a complete circle around whatever storage area this is on the alien ship.
"Fuck," I say to myself as I hurry over to stand beside Angela.
The door has finished opening. Well, it has stopped halfway. But at least it was no longer making the unbearable noise it did as it first tried to open.
"If you seek to escape you might wish to use the elevator to travel to other levels on the ship," Angela says.
I look at her for a moment, but I can detect no trace of sarcasm. So I ask, "Elevator? What elevator?"
"If you note the handrails two point five point seven meters along the corridor," Angela says as she points. "And the control panel on the wall beside them."
"Oh," I say. "They're just there." I see the handrails that Angel was talking about seven feet away.
"The Dracktari have a reputation of being adverse to work, so it would make sense for them to put us in the storage compartment nearest the elevator," she said.
"So the Dracktari are lazy criminals?" I ask Angela.
"Why yes," she replies. "Everyone knows it."
So, here I am in space but the same type of prejudices about different people or species apply as people have about races on Earth, I think. "Are aliens all just humans with masks?" I ask.
She looks at me in puzzlement. "I don't understand that question," she says.
"It doesn't matter," I say. But another thought occurs to me. "How come the Dracktari look like humans," I say. "Even if they're ugly motherfuckers, they still have two arms and two legs and breath the same type of atmosphere." I sniff the air. "I'm not going to get poisoned breathing this air, am I?"
"No, the air is quite safe," Angel assures me. "As to why the Dracktari have the same biped
al, humanoid appearance," she starts to lecture. "It is because all the species in this section of the Galaxy have through either parallel evolution, or through some super old race seeding the stars, are all the same kind of bipedal hominid," Angela explains. "Opinions differ, and there is no conclusive evidence either way. But the fact is that throughout this segment of the galaxy life, and especially intelligent life, is based on the same chemistry and produces broadly similar creatures."
"And what about other sections of the Galaxy?" I ask
"The star systems on the Leeward side of the spiral arm have been colonized by the TickTickRicky, who are arachnoid and have perhaps some kind of telepathic hive mind," Angela explains. "It is hard to know definitely because communications with them are quite sporadic and extremely confusing."
"OK," I say trying to comprehends what she was telling me. But I have a more immediate problem. I have to figure out where I am actually trying to go in order to escape.
"Does this ship have lifeboats, or escape pods, or anything like that?" I ask.
"Lifeboats?" Angle smiles. "Is that a human idea?"
"Yes," I reply. "On Earth ocean going ships carry smaller boats that can be used to evacuate crew and passengers if the ship sinks."
"Oh, I understand now," Angle says.
I wait a moment. Then I prompt her, "So is there anything like that on a spaceship? This spaceship."
"There is probably an emergency evacuation system," Angela says. "But it would only be useful while in close proximity to a planet or space station."
"Might we use it to return to the surface of the Earth from this ship?" I ask.
"Possibly," Angles says. "It would most likely be programmed to land on the nearest habitable planet if one were within range. And the Earth would qualify as a suitable destination in the absence of a space station."
"OK, then," I smile at Angela. "So that is what I need to find." I look over her shoulder at the two girls who were still huddling together, and at the newest victim who was still lying unmoving on the deck. "Is anyone else going to make a break for it?" I call out.
Kidnapped: A Science Fiction Adventure (Reborn Starship Book 1) Page 2
