They walk meekly in front of an alien towards were I am tied. Before I can say anything the alien snarls something ear splitting at the girls.
"He wants three of us on one side and the other to sit beside Cari," Angela translates.
The new girl, Mary, and Jane sit against the opposite wall. Which leaves Angela to sit beside me.
"Hi," she says.
"Um, hi," I reply. I look away before she can say "I told you so", or whatever idiom she might use from her own alien language.
The alien has already tied the other girls against the wall with more of the plastic bungee straps, which I now see come out of the wall. I have just figured out that this part of the craft is a cargo area when the alien turns to Angle and straps her in beside me. He snarls something rough at us then turns to go back to the seats at the front of the craft.
"He wants us to stay where he has put us," Angela says.
"Sure he does," I say.
"We're on a spaceship," Angela says. "There no point in trying to escape."
"There's always a point," I reply.
"So is this the other girl?" the new girl asks. "The troublemaker."
"Yes. Cari meet Julie," Angela says. "Julie meet Cari."
"Hi," I say and try to smile.
"Hi?" Julie replies. "What the fuck is this place? Who are these creatures?"
"Has Angela not explained things to you?" I ask.
"That bullshit story about being kidnapped by aliens!" Julie replies.
"Well..." I nod towards the front of the craft where the aliens are strapping themselves into their seats at the controls of the shuttlecraft. The smell alone is enough to convince me that they are real aliens. Not to mention the strange planet that can clearly be seen through the front window floating against a backdrop of stars. I would say unfamiliar stars, but I wouldn't know what the stars look like from Earth in the first place.
"Can't you smell them?" Mary says.
Julie turns to look at her. "Yes, but this is just... unbelievable," she says.
"Well, believe it," I say. "I didn't just crawl through an alien starship and be tied up in the cargo hold of an alien shuttlecraft just to pull a fast one on you, girl I've never seen before!"
One of the aliens turns and snarls another high pitched growl at us.
"They want us to stay quiet," Angela hisses.
"I bet they do," I say.
But all other conversation is stopped, by a loud clunking sound as the shuttle shakes. And we are all pushed down as the view through the windscreen starts to turn rapidly.
"Oh, fuck." I hear someone say. But I do not know who. Maybe it was me.
And then we were falling.
Mary and Jane scream. And the alien snarls back at us.
"Please be quiet," Angela whispers. "There is no reason to be afraid. They are just maneuvering the shuttlecraft to land on the planet."
"Oh, shut up," I say, completely tired of her constant subservience to our captors.
But then there is a loud roaring sound and I feel like an invisible hand is trying to crush me against the floor of the shuttlecraft. On the other side of the cabin I can see the other girls are also being pushed down. Julie opens her mouth to say something, but I can not hear what she is saying over the deafening noise.
I try to turn my head to look at Angela, but the force pressing down on me is too strong.
Then as suddenly as it started the roaring stops and, as my ears begin to ring in the silence. The force holding me down is gone and I find myself falling straight down. I am suddenly glad to be tied down.
Mary and Jane both scream.
"Shush," Angela hisses.
I look around me. The deck of the ship is solid under me and I am still tightly bound to the wall behind me. But I feel like I am falling.
"Fucking hell," Julie says. "This is fucking real." There is an edge of panic in her voice.
One of the aliens shouts something back at us, but doesn't bother looking up from his control panel.
"Yes," Angela says. "Now please be quiet before you make the Dracktari angry."
"You mean that's not their angry voice?" Julie asks.
I look out the front windscreen and see that the whole view is now dominated by the planet, which seems much closer than before.
"Are we going to land on that planet?" Mary asks in a weak voice.
"It would appear so," Angela whisperers back.
I look around at the other captives. With our odd assortment of party dresses and regular street clothes none of us look like we are about to embark on an expedition to explore a strange, new world. But we are all tightly bound to the sides of the compartment and so are going to go where our captors take us.
For their part the aliens are glued to their controls and seem content to ignore us when we whisper. But they do occasionally snarl at each other in their shrill voices.
"Good," I say, looking around at the other humans. "We might be able to get some help there."
"Why would the Dracktari take us to a place where we could get help?" Angela asks.
But I can not answer her as a wave of dizziness washes over me. I can feel my stomach tie itself into a knot as I try to vomit. But nothing comes out.
"Are you feeling alright?" Angela asks me.
I try to open my eyes, but my eyelids do not work.
"Cari?" Angela asks.
I try to answer, but I can not speak.
Suddenly we are pushed back into the floor of the shuttlecraft and this time I realize that the roaring sound the makes the shuttlecraft shake must be the engines firing, as the aliens maneuver us towards the surface of the planet.
I struggle to remain calm as the engines fire again and we are all pulled back towards the rear of the cabin.
When the noise of the engines stop and I am falling once again. The nausea is washed away by a primeval fear that grips me as I reach out my hands to grab onto something. Only to find that I can not move them. But after a moment I regain my composure.
I look towards the front of the craft and all I can see is solid ground in front of the craft. It looks like we are nosediving straight towards the surface of the planet. "I hope these Dracktari know how to fly this thing," I say.
"I trust that if they can navigate an interstellar starship that flying a shuttlecraft should be within their technical expertizes," Angela replied.
"But their starship is apparently falling apart," I say.
"Yes," Angela replies.
The engines roar again and the shuttle starts to bounce around. I presume we are entering the atmosphere. I catch a glimpse of something square and regular looking at the edge of the window. It is gone almost as soon as I see it, but it looks like something man made. Maybe a city? I think to myself. My first sight of an Alien city.
But the significance of my first sight of alien civilization is lost as the engines roar to life once more and we are pulled towards the rear of the shuttle as the aliens maneuver towards the surface of the planet.
The surface of the planet, I think to myself. Am I really about to set foot on the surface of an alien planet? I laugh to myself as I think about how excited my geeky ex would have been if he were here with me. If only he had not dumped me he might be living his every Si-Fi wet dream.
But instead, I close my eyes and try to remain calm as I am shaken about with the buffering that the shuttlecraft is getting as it descends into the alien atmosphere. Luckily we are well strapped in, even if it is against our will, for otherwise we would have been thrown about the cabin and probably have injured ourselves. Even the Dracktari were swinging about on their seats.
The captain snarls something at the pilot. Who snarls back.
I turn to ask Angela what they are saying, but the noise is too loud for her to hear what I am saying. So I turn back to look out the front window. And almost scream as the windows shows the planet very close and we are still apparently diving straight down towards it.
I watch in abject terror a
s the brown colored mountain range below us rushes towards us a supersonic speed.
At the very last minute, just when I am sure that the Dracktari are on some kind of suicide mission, the pilot pulls the shuttlecraft up and we are suddenly skimming the mountain tops at what must be an orbital velocity.
And there's a mountain right in front of us!
But the pilot tilts us on our side and we scrape past it.
The captain snarls some more orders and the shuttle starts to slow and drop down. But the mountains are still whizzing past too fast for my comfort. But then we are clear of the mountain range and are skimming over the treetops of a brown and purple colored forest.
The shuttle continues to slow. But the only break in the forest canopy below are a couple of large rivers that we fly over. But then the pilot slows down quite rapidly and we come to a complete stop, hovering in the air. I can not see what is beneath us. But the pilot must know where he is going as the shuttle starts to descend vertically and a few seconds later there is a shudder and a shake as the shuttle touches down. The whine of the engines stops and there is silence for a long moment.
Then the aliens start screeching at each other. And I want to clamp my hands over my ears. But I can't as they are still tied securely to the sides of the shuttlecraft.
There is a clunking noise and the rear of the compartment drops down to form a ramp. The aliens all get up and traipse past us and down the ramp out of the craft. On his way out the last alien absentmindedly unties us and we are left sitting there in the cargo hold of the alien shuttlecraft. I have trouble comprehending that I have just after landed on an alien planet. I look around at the others. Nobody moves or says anything. Down the ramp the aliens have gartered in a small group about six feet beyond the end of the craft.
I look around at the others. "Should we try to escape?" I ask.
"Where would we go?" Angela replies. "We are stuck on an unknown planet in an unknown part of the galaxy. Even if there were some kind of outpost on this world, it looks like it is the same size as Earth. The gravity feels the same. So it might be thousands of miles away from us in any direction. It would be like if you were dropped in South Africa and told to walk to New York." She lets out an exasperated sigh.
I know that logically she is right. But emotionally I need to do something. I can feel all this pent up frustration building up inside me.
Julie steps close to me and whispers, "We need to bide our time." She looks around. "There will be a better time."
"Like when we're locked up in some other cargo hold again?" I reply.
Nobody answers.
After a moment Julie says,"Let's join our captors." And starts to walk down the ramp.
We all follow along behind her.
"Does this mean that one of us is going to be the first human to set foot on an alien planet?" a small voice asks.
We all turn around to look at Jane. Who I had never heard speak before.
"Um, I guess," I say. I turn to look out the rear ramp of the shuttlecraft.
"None of you will be the first human to set foot on an alien planet," Angela says as she walks down the ramp and steps onto the alien ground beyond. "You are hardly the first batch of humans to be kidnapped and sold into slavery."
"We're not?" Julie asks as she follows Angela down the ramp.
Mary and Jane follow timidly behind her.
I turn and look back into the cabin of the shuttle.
"Do you even know how to unlock the controls, let along fly the shuttlecraft?" Angela calls up to me from the base of the ramp. The others all turn their heads to look at me.
I look past them to the group of Dracktari who are standing in the middle of the clearing, clearly not worried about me stealing their shuttlecraft. "I guess not," I say, as I start to walk down the ramp.
I step off the end of the ramp and take a moment to think standing on an alien planet in another solar system. The ground under my feet is burned, probably from the shuttle craft's engines. And judging by the extent of the burnt ground this is not the first time a spacecraft has landed here. Though I'm not really an expert.
Maybe it's a regular landing spot for these aliens, I think to myself. If they are smuggling or doing some other illegal activity like kidnapping slaves, I guess they'd avoid regular spaceports.
I lift my eyes from the ground to look around. My first look at an alien planet. Thought it's not that impressive, to be honest. But then, I'm not much of an outdoors person. Give me a big city full of excitement and energy, rather than the great outdoors any day.
We are standing in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by the strangest trees that I have ever seen. They are as tall as Earth trees. Stretching up twenty or thirty feet into the air above our heads. But there the similarity ends.
Firstly everything is colored purple and brown, rather than the green that I would be used on back on Earth. And even the structure of the trees is different. Instead of having a thick thunk with branches growing out of them these seem to be all long "thin" leafs that spout from a single central point. Though thin is relative here as even the narrowest leaf was at least three feet across. They just look thin as they are also twenty feet long.
They remind me of the documentary programs I would watch with my Ex watch about prehistoric creatures and evolution. They were like the primeval forests from the age of dinosaurs.
But then a peal of thunder cracks across the sky. I look up to see if there is a storm, but the sky looks clear, if a little orange.
Another peal echoes around the forest clearing and I follow the gaze of the aliens to see a tiny speck in the sky. Soon the speck grows, and I see that it is an aircraft of some kind. And it is rapidly coming towards us.
The aliens start snarling at each other. The one I assume to be the captain has a radio or phone and is screeching into it. More squeals come back in answer, and the group of aliens amble over to stand beside the shuttlecraft.
"I guess we are here to rendezvous with others," Angela says.
"We?" Julie whispers to me.
But I do not answer her as I am looking up into the sky at the approaching craft. Maybe they can help us, I think. But then, they do seem to be in league with the aliens that have kidnapped us. So maybe they're not coming to rescue us.
The sound of the alien aircraft audible now and it is much closer. I am surprised at how familiar the craft looks. I mean, it looks like an aircraft, not like flying balls of light or anything. But I guess the laws of physics are the same everywhere.
The aircraft zooms up to the clearing, the noise of its engines drowning out everything else. As the aircraft slows it angles it's jets downward, and I realize why the aliens walked around the other side of the ship, for the downdraft from the hovering aircraft blasts into us, covering us in a cloud of choking dust and nearly sending us flying to the ground.
Quickly we turn our backs to the blast and, coughing and spluttering, hurry around the leeward side of the shuttlecraft to get out of the onslaught. The Dracktari are standing there making hissing sounds with each other. Which I can only assume is their way of laughing.
The jets from the aircraft suddenly shut off, and the cloud of dust settles once more onto the ground.
The Dracktari amble around to the other side of the shuttle, still hissing to each other.
"They have a strange sense of humor," Angela says.
"You think," I reply as I brush dust from my hair.
There are some mechanical sounds, presumably from a door opening in the aircraft, and the Dracktari start screeching loudly once more. They are answered by some new voices, that don't sound quite so hurtful to the ears.
"I guess we'd better go see what's happening, "Julie says.
"Yes," Angela agrees.
And so, we all walk around the side of the shuttlecraft.
The new aliens are what I would call "lizard men". They have leathery skin and no hair. Or ears even. Their faces have stunted beaks, with no teeth, and their eyes are
cold and have vertical slits for irises.
They also appear to be officials of some kind, there are official looking markings on their aircraft, and the four new aliens are all wearing the same uniform.
I briefly ponder how even on an alien planet, who knows where in the galaxy, having met my second alien race, or third I suppose if you count Angela, I can still understand the difference between the Dracktari's utilitarian 'uniform' of the spacer's jumpsuit and the uniform of an official in a government army or police force.
There must be something to this whole universality of life business.
The two groups of aliens greet each other. But right from that start, even without being able to understand what they are saying, it is obvious that there is some disagreement between them.
"Who are the new aliens?" I ask Angela, as the leaders of the two alien groups start howling words at each other.
"They are wearing the uniform of The Enforcement Arm of the Galactic High Commission for the Protection of Undeveloped Species," Angela says.
"Like police?" Mary asks.
"I suppose their role could be analogous to a police force," Angela says.
"Are they here to rescue us?" Mary asks with a glimmer of hope in her voice.
"It would appear not," Angela replies. "They seem to have some arrangement or agreement with the Dracktari. An arrangement that is currently in dispute."
"Did you not say that the enforcement arm of the galactic commission thingie are supposed to stop aliens like the Dracktari from landing on undeveloped planets like Earth?" I ask.
"I did. And that is what they are supposed to do," Angela says. "But it would appear that these specific officers are both neglectful of their duties and also in league with the Dracktari."
"You don't say," Julie says. "Corrupt cops, who would have through it."
Angela looks at her, clearly not knowing how serious or sarcastic she was being.
"So what are they saying to each other?" I ask.
"Apparently the Dracktari were supposed to deliver more than five Earth females to 'the cops'," Angela says. "And 'the cops' are expressing their disappointment and anger to the Dracktari at getting such a paltry return for taking such a great risk."
Kidnapped: A Science Fiction Adventure (Reborn Starship Book 1) Page 5
