“My ankle and … my cheek. Mostly.” Her response sounded breathless and rife with terror, but she was past pretending.
The alien set her slightly away from him while supporting her weight, and green eyes scrutinized her face. She cast her own gaze down, trying to breathe, and searched for more words.
“I’m fine. I’ll just get going.” She made herself look him in the eyes. Never show fear in front of a predator. Who had told her that? Or had she read it somewhere? Maybe it was one shouldn’t stare at them lest they interpret it as a challenge. Heaven help her.
“That is not the plan, female,” he said formally, with a deferential nod. How could he appear respectful when she was so obviously at his mercy? “I will carry you to the ship to spare your ankle. It and the slight abrasions on your skin can be treated immediately.”
“No, it’s okay. Really. I don’t live far from here and … and my mom will help me out…”
“I have my orders.” She was swung up as if she weighed next to nothing, and cradled with care against that broad chest, then carted back up to the road and toward the ship. He made the climb with minimal effort and the show of strength silenced her.
The activity had dwindled, with only a few of the taller figures in view, and one of them strode to them.
“Report.” Another alien, dressed the same as the one toting her along, although with heavier markings along the shoulders, spoke to her captor.
“I heard a cry ring out and the sounds of a fall, Commander. I investigated. This female fits within the parameters of our search. She has injuries.”
Celeste heard a distinct snarl emanate from the other alien, and the one holding her tensed, before speaking again. “The leg injury and the other marks happened when she fell, I would assume, and I take responsibility for the one on her face.”
“She is a potential life-bringer!”
Holy smokes. A person could cut the tension with a knife, and she didn’t like being between caught between these two individuals. They were both strikingly handsome, with features much like those of some of the Earth men she had known, although these two had eyes of virtually the same green color. Siblings? Her mind jumped to the thought of clones, another outlawed advancement tabled in the archives.
“I will accept discipline,” her personal transport announced, and she found herself unable to swallow the words that bubbled up. He probably didn’t need defending, but she was nothing if not fair.
“I tried to run, and he grabbed me as my ankle gave way. I fell into him. It wasn’t his fault.”
Alien number two froze in place and transferred his gaze to her. Green. Green for sure. Black hair like the other guy, green eyes like his. With pupils like a cat’s. She shivered as they elongated as his stare locked with her own. He then nodded—deferentially. With respect. What was this? Life-bringer?
“As you say, female.” He turned back to alien number one. “Bring her. She is the last in this area, and the transports from other parts of this continent are away to the mother ship.”
She didn’t want to go. And the fact she was the last didn’t bode well, especially when there were apparently other transports. It didn’t take a genius to recognize what was going on here. Alien Abduction 101. Resistance was futile, however, although once she was on board that ship there was a good possibility she’d never see Earth again. Or perhaps she would return, changed and different, probed and maybe possessed. She tensed in the alien’s arms as he marched to the entry of the vessel. This behavior reminded her of the Searchers, and her stomach roiled, its paltry contents souring with every connect-the-dots thought she had.
At the last minute, she struggled against the muscled arms holding her captive, striking out with both fists and trying to flip her body free. She didn’t waste her breath screaming for help, or begging, but simply tried to get away. But he merely tightened his grip and the other alien, presumably his superior, spoke over his shoulder.
“You must accept this, female. You will not be harmed. And you will receive an explanation shortly, as well as the best of care.”
She didn’t want to accept being kidnapped, although sensed they actually meant her no harm or would have not been so careful with her. It was the promise of an explanation that settled her, however, and she subsided. It was that or admitting she had no choice, and was powerless, something highly unpalatable. Denial might save her sanity for the time being. Her alien transporter carried her deep into the bowels of the spaceship and she heard a hiss behind them as the light from her planet dimmed with the closing of the hatch. Her emotions shut down tightly with the sound.
****
“Do you know what’s going on?” The question was posed by a really tall brunette with wide, hazel eyes.
Celeste had been surveying her remarkably healthy ankle. There was no sign of swelling and only a slight discoloration across the arch and around the joint itself. She hadn’t yet put her boot back on, in fact electing to take both of her footwear off and walk barefoot to the area she was presently sitting in. The flooring was immaculate and as smooth and warm as anything she’d trod. Not that she really had much of anything to compare it to.
The alien had taken her to what was clearly a medical treatment room, although she hadn’t seen anything like it since her youth, and carefully deposited her on an exam table. Her terror had resurfaced, all those ancient stories about vivisection and sampling surging into her forebrain, but another alien, maybe a doctor, had simply waved a device over her. Her cheek was now fine, and all the little cuts and bruises had vanished. She’d explored the surface with her fingertips, looked in the proffered mirror, and saw no evidence she’d scraped the skin. Her hair was another issue, tangled and full of detritus from the ground. She’d been loath to brush off her clothing in the seemingly sterile surroundings, but twigs and leaves had sifted off of their own accord.
The medical-type alien had assessed her quickly, speaking reassuringly, and with respect. Once the injuries were treated, aside from him pressing lightly on her abdomen with a silver tool and then taking a blood sample, she’d been released. There were other women in the same room being attended to by other male aliens wearing the same kind of clothes, but no one seemed to be in any real physical distress.
It wasn’t her imagination that the guy who had caught her looked relieved when her wounds were dealt with so swiftly, despite how quickly he’d masked his features. She’d asked his name, offering hers first, and in apparent shock, he’d supplied it. Janler. No last name. Maybe it was his one and only, although he’d said something about a house. A trooper. And he’d quickly brought her here before departing with another of those nods. Here was a large room with a door that didn’t open from the inside, occupied by a number of other women.
Trying to smile at the brunette, she shrugged. “I don’t have a clue what’s going on. I just got escorted here. Are you okay?”
“I think so. I arrived a few minutes ago. I saw a doctor type, and he extracted some blood, prodded at me, and then I was brought in to join them.” The other woman gestured around at the young women of all shapes and sizes and coloring. They huddled in groups of twos and fours, with the occasional individual perching alone on the seating scattered here and there. Lowering her voice, she asked, “Do you think they’re going to perform some kind of experiments on us?”
Celeste had already homed in on the blood sampling, fingering the area near her elbow where the fluid had been taken, because there was no longer an obvious site of retrieval. She looked at the other woman’s arms and saw nothing to indicate anything on her skin either. To say the room wasn’t vibrating with anxiety would be a lie, but none of the others were carrying on in any fashion to suggest hysteria, and that struck her as strange.
Women had come to accept their lot over the years, in a time where might had made right. They’d either become a partner, like Laurel, if they were lucky, or some man’s chattel, or, like herself, had forged a path alone. So maybe this wasn’t a place fo
r screaming and freaking out, but surely the reaction around her was unusual. Come to think of it, she was pretty calm on the face of it. The terror she’d experienced upon witnessing the kidnapping of other people and then herself had markedly dissipated, and yet she didn’t feel resigned to her fate.
“I don’t have a clue,” she repeated. Staring into the other woman’s eyes, she detected curiosity mixed with puzzlement and thought she probably looked much the same. “I think they gave us something to keep us from acting up.”
Brow wrinkling, the brunette slowly nodded. “That makes sense. Although there’s another area out there sounds like a bunch of cats are locked inside.”
Some of Celeste’s calm bled away. “What?”
Nodding again, the brunette blinked owlishly. “One of the armored guys was leaving it as I passed, and the noise was horrible before the door slid shut. There were women in there.”
Shivers returned, and she clasped her arms around herself in an awkward parody of a hug. The other woman mimicked her and actually rocked a little, forward and back. Celeste’s imagination ran rampant and she visualized what was going on in that room and wondered when her turn would come. Experiments. Rape. Did the Meridians eat people? Clone them? She felt the urge to rock as well.
“I’m Shirley Janson.”
“Celeste Raynor.”
“I can’t handle this.” Shirley’s words were edged with burgeoning hysteria and it spurred Celeste to a decision. She was tired of things taken from her control.
“Then let’s do something.” At Shirley’s startled look, she shoved her feet into her boots, then stood and clambered on top of the bench-like seating, balancing with one hand against the smooth wall of the craft. “Hey!”
It required two more loud calls before the rest of the women paid attention. And then they focused on her like she was intensely important. It made her innards quail because she usually avoided attention at all costs, but the information from Shirley about that other room had tripped something inside of her.
“I’m Celeste Raynor and I’m not going along with this … this atrocity.”
A murmur began with another tall woman in the corner, who stood and drew up the other two women she’d been crowded together with. Other voices joined hers in agreement and most of the others got up and moved to gather closer to Celeste.
Taking a deep breath, she asked, “Does anyone know why they grabbed us?”
There was a chorus of denial and some shaken heads.
“Were any others taken that you know of? Who aren’t in here?”
A blonde spoke up. “I saw a couple of others from our village, Charlotte, and Moira. They aren’t here.” She hesitated before adding, “They lost it when escorted away. And I mean lost it. It took a couple of those big guys to subdue them. Do you think they’re … dead?”
“The woman from next door went the same way,” a high-pitched voice contributed.
“I saw a few others like that,” another woman called out.
“Me, too.”
Celeste couldn’t sort out all of those who were offering the information, but she heard Shirley say something again about the other room with the upsetting clamor. Thinking fast, she wondered if there was some way to make a stand, some previously unknown warrior part in her raising its head.
“Hey!” She punctuated her shout with a shrill whistle. This time, everyone paid immediate attention. “Shirley here says there’s another area, a place down the hall, that doesn’t sound so good, what with the noises coming out of it. Maybe that’s where those women are.”
The tall woman pushed forward, her red hair glowing in the overhead lights. “So they grouped us according to behavior?”
“Maybe.”
“And what are they doing to the ones who got crazy on them?”
Celeste had no answer and didn’t want to venture one.
“Charlotte and Moira were kinda frail. Their dad took them away a couple of weeks ago, and when they came back they never left the house. He said they were sick. Maybe that’s why they went nuts.” The blonde shook her head. “I heard rumors about an alien invasion from a guy who was in the old city. He said there was a movement afoot so none of our women would be good captives.”
A couple of the women began to cry and were quickly joined by several others. Celeste figured the invasion had to be related to the Searchers abducting women, but couldn’t think it through. Things were deteriorating rapidly and she figured if they didn’t have something to occupy themselves, all of them would soon be in that other room. She cursed her initiative and wondered how to fix it.
Whistling again, she succeeded in gaining their attention. “I’m thinking they gave us something when they took that blood sample. Something to keep us placid, the ones who didn’t go crazy on them first. Maybe it didn’t work on the others. But I’m not going down without a fight.”
“We don’t stand a chance,” replied the woman who had expressed concern about her friend from next door.
“Maybe not, but I’m not going to sit around like some docile animal while the Meridians decide to do what they want with us. If they drugged us as it is, to keep us calm, I’m not going to let them do anything else without standing up for myself.”
Her little speech played back in her head, and Celeste experienced no small shock at her temerity. Regardless, it seemed to appeal to the rest of the women and they looked to her, apparently waiting for direction.
“I hardly think they’ll come in here one-on-one, to take us someplace or…” She didn’t know what else they might do, so stuttered to a halt, not willing to speculate. There were enough horrible thoughts in her head and not all of them about aliens. “Anyhow, if we break into groups of say, five, with somebody in each group who has been doing some kind of manual labor, to kind of spearhead with strength, we should be able to take on up to three of those troopers.”
There was some strangled laughter, and one woman said, “Most of us work hard, honey. Just like it’s obvious you do. Groups of five should work. We just blitz them and take ’em down.”
“And if they use their weapons?” That was Shirley, and Celeste couldn’t blame her for her reaction, seeing as she’d been so unsettled by what she’d heard from the other room.
Another voice interjected. “What if they do? We’re probably dead anyhow, and in ways I don’t want to imagine.”
“I don’t think they’ll use shooting weapons on a ship,” Celeste said, remembering the old space series she watched all those years ago. “And they were pretty courteous, overall. I just want off of this thing before it leaves Earth!”
“So we overpower the guards or whoever they send in, and try to get to the exit? I’m Belinda, by the way.”
Nodding at her, Celeste scanned the others, who were looking determined and focused, now they’d shaken off the torpor. It wasn’t a great plan, because even if they got to the door or hatch, it was unlikely anyone would know how to open it. But it was all they had. They grouped themselves accordingly around the room, with no one appearing to need much direction, and her spirits rose at the sight of them, her sisters-in-arms.
As it turned out, they didn’t have long to wait. The worst of it was that there was a distinct hum of machinery and something invisible held them all steady, against the movement of the vessel. With a sinking heart, Celeste understood they were airborne and probably making for that mother ship. Well, maybe they could take hostages and force the pilot to turn back. Or keep them from taking any of the women out of this room and to that other one. Or something.
The door hissed open shortly after the invisible pressure loosened its grip, and three Meridians passed through, each pushing a laden cart ahead of them. The aroma of some kind of food permeated the air before the closest three groups of women descended upon the aliens, bearing them down beneath their weight. All without a rehearsal. Celeste wanted to scream with laughter at the heaving figures on the floor as the males struggled to get out from under the scrum. Her reac
tion was so inappropriate she knew for sure she’d been drugged.
She hustled past the closest melee and managed to brace her back against the door panel before it slid shut. Shirley shoved a cart her way and the panel stuttered impotently against the barrier as she wedged it lengthwise. The corridor outside yawned emptily and Celeste made a decision while her pulse raced and she quivered with anticipation. Levering over the cart, she crouched and peered both ways, the battle behind her raging on with grunts and feminine squeals, as the aliens were pinned to the floor. Belinda joined her, clambering over the imposed barrier, then Shirley, and a handful of others. Some of the women hung back and peered through the opening.
Hesitating, not willing to leave anyone behind, she wondered how to manage it when movement caught her eye. Several troopers, sans weapons, and wearing far less armor, were moving swiftly in their direction. As if on cue, Celeste chose the point, with Shirley and Belinda at each shoulder, two others at her back, and they charged the first trooper. It was the alien who had chastised Janler, and she allowed herself a moment of satisfaction as the wedge of women bore him to the floor. She heard whoops and screams behind her as the rest of her sisters piled through the door.
Chapter Three
“Master?”
“What is it, Bast?” Lysett was on his way to see his parents and was running late. He never seemed to have enough time anymore, primarily because he chose not to allow himself any.
“Part one of the mission is complete. All the compatible females we located are off the planet Earth and en route to the mother ship for the interviews.”
“Good. Let me know—”
“Master?”
Ah, so there was an addendum. Of course, there was. Nothing ever ran smoothly.
As if reading his mind, Bast added, “The process went as planned with the exception of one of the transport ships. I thought I should raise it.”
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