by Jane Hinchey
“What's going on, where are they taking them?” Noyota whispered.
“Relax. You're all going to get a turn. They're taking you to a cleansing unit and will give you a change of clothing if you want.” Sure enough, over the course of the next hour, the rest of the women were taken away, only to return fresh, clean, and wearing black uniforms.
Meal time hadn't improved, though. More disgusting bars were delivered. I tore open the wrapper in the hope they'd switched flavours, but the stench wafting from the bar killed my hopes. My stomach rumbled in demand and I had to admit I was starting to feel the effects of no food or water for ... how long had it been? My last meal, that I could remember, had been on Earth. How long ago was that? I didn't know how long my alien abductors had held me for, but I presumed they'd provided some sort of sustenance, for I hadn't felt hungry or thirsty when I was rescued. It was only now, twenty-four hours later, that I was starting to feel hungry.
Not long after the bars were delivered, the lights dimmed, and again I curled into a ball on my bed. As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered how long it would take before I was returned to Earth. At this rate, there was a very real possibility that I would starve to death first.
CHAPTER FIVE
When the doors opened the following morning, a different soldier walked in, one we hadn't seen before. He carried an air of authority about him, more so than Alrik, although I admit the two men did look similar. Tall, broad, dark, ruggedly handsome.
“I am Draven, Commander of Ships. As you are aware, we are returning you to your home planets. This will happen over the next few days. As some of your planets are located in different galaxies and solar systems, we will be required to hyper sling from time to time. But in the meantime, it has been brought to my attention that your treatment has, on occasion, not been appropriate and that you are not, in fact, our prisoners. On behalf of the Acarnania Confederation, I apologize for this. It was never our intent. We simply wanted to keep you, and our crew, safe. We also had not expected such high rescue numbers when we retrieved Nyota.
“Regardless, I am here to offer you free run of the ship. If a door is locked, it is due to safety concerns or the privacy of our personnel. If you will step forward one by one, Rao will imprint the floor plan of the ship into your translator chip. Please be aware that this imprint will be erased when you leave the ship.”
Rao approached with what looked like a pair of safety glasses. I watched the women ahead of me step forward, don the glasses for a second, then remove them. They appeared to suffer no ill effects, so I joined the line. When it was my turn, there was a flash of light, and as I blinked, a series of maps and blueprints danced across my vision before disappearing.
Draven and Rao left the cell, leaving the door open behind them. We all looked at each other, shell-shocked, before slowly venturing out into the corridor. I was led by my stomach. As soon as I thought of food, a map to the dining room was displayed before me. All I had to do was follow it.
Stepping into the dining area, I froze when I recognized the soldiers from yesterday sitting at a table. They sneered when they saw me.
“It's okay. Come in.” Alrik was standing on the far side of the room next to a series of metal dishes, similar to a bain-marie back home. He held a plate in his hand and was piling spoonful’s of something on to it.
I crossed to him, giving the soldiers a wide berth.
“Hungry?” he asked when I reached his side.
“Starving!” My stomach let out a loud rumble. Embarrassed, I clutched my hands to my belly to quell the noise. Too late; Alrik had heard. He handed me an empty plate and I looked curiously into the tubs of food.
“What is it?” I asked, although to be honest, I didn't really care. The heavenly scent had reached my nose and it was a hundred times better than the stinky bars they had given us earlier.
“This is Muus Stew.” Alrik indicated the first tub of food. It contained chunks of turquoise-coloured meat in a white broth. He pointed to the next tub. “And this is Waaxozo.” This one looked like giant burritos that had been cut into two-inch slices. “And this is Vao.” The final tub held golf ball-sized rounds of meat in a brown sauce.
I leaned forward and sniffed the tubs, surprised by the delicious aroma rising from them. I scooped a serving of each onto my plate and found myself a seat at an empty table. Alrik slid into the seat next to me. He watched as I tentatively scooped up the Muus meat and put it in my mouth, chewing slowly. There was no explosion of flavours on my taste buds; instead, the meat was bland, and if pressed, I'd admit it had no real flavour at all. When I didn't spit it out, Alrik turned his attention to his own meal and ate in silence.
“Who makes the food? Do you have a chef? Kitchen staff?”
“We use a replicator; it synthesizes meals so we are not required to carry fresh produce.”
“So this,” I waved a chunk of meat, “isn't real? Is that why it doesn't taste like anything?”
“It is synthesized Muus meat, but the flavour is as it should be. Muus meat can be difficult to cook. If you undercook it, the meat is very bitter. If you overcook it, the spices it emits can be quite rancid. We program the best recipe into the replicator to avoid that issue. Although the flavour may seem bland, the meat holds essential nutritional components.”
Finished with the Muus Stew, I picked up the burrito replica and took a hefty bite. Within seconds, my eyes were streaming and my mouth was on fire. I managed to swallow the mouthful without spitting it out, but I hurriedly put down the remainder of the burrito.
“The Waaxozo is quite spicy. For some it is overpoweringly so, for others it is quite palatable,” Alrik said.
“For the record, I don't do spicy food!” Fanning my face and wiping my eyes, I looked around for a drink to quell the fire still burning in my mouth. “Drink?” I asked Alrik. He was a step ahead of me, returning to his seat with a glass of what looked like iced tea.
“Keda tea. You can drink it hot or cold.”
I sipped cautiously, pleasantly surprised when it really did taste like the tea back home. It had a slight tang of lemon, very mild, which was pleasantly refreshing and instantly put out the fire on my tongue.
I glanced back at my plate. Besides the discarded burrito, all that was left were the meatballs.
“Are these spicy?”
“They have spices to add flavour, but are not hot.”
“They look like the Swedish meatballs we have back home.”
“I believe every galaxy has their own version of this,” Alrik agreed.
I bit into a meatball, the taste so familiar I groaned. Although different to what I was used to, it was close enough. Within minutes, I'd wolfed them all down.
I sat back, rubbing my rounded belly, feeling over-full, but happy. I wasn't going to die from starvation after all. Progress. Now that my attention wasn't solely on food, I looked around the dining area. Some of the other women had started to wander in, none of them quite as desperate for food as I had been, since they'd been eating those disgusting bars.
Two soldiers still remained at the table I'd passed when I first came in. One of them was watching me, his lips curled in a sneer and his eyes narrowed. When he saw me looking at him, he lowered his hand to rest on the gun at his hip, stroking it, as if to send me a message.
“You all have the same colouring? Dark hair, dark eyes.” I swivelled in my seat, shocked to discover Alrik had left. I hadn't even noticed. Feeling foolish for asking a question when no one was there, I returned my attention to the surly soldier, only to discover he and his companion had also left. Jeez, these guys moved super-fast and super silently. No wonder they were soldiers.
The scaly skinned women, Toshiko and Rayna, plopped into the chairs opposite, plates laden with food.
“You feel better now you've had some food, yes?” Toshiko asked.
“Much. At least there is something I can eat.”
“We believe the freedoms we have been given are thanks to you.”
“What do you mean? I didn't do anything.”
“You were taken for healing yesterday and returned clean and in fresh clothing. We were offered the same courtesy. That wouldn't ordinarily have happened. You had to have said something.”
“Well, I didn't ask nicely, if that's what you mean. I accused Alrik of treating us like prisoners and that it wasn't fair. We haven't done anything wrong, and yet we were being locked away, our basic needs not being met. That is not how we do things were I'm from, and I guess you could say I was pretty vocal about that.”
“Perhaps humans are evolving after all,” Rayna said around a mouthful of burrito. “Perhaps we can learn to be more assertive like you.”
“Aren't those burritos too hot for you? I couldn't eat mine.”
“Different species. Our tongues are not soft like yours. Spices and heat do not affect us.”
“So, ladies, once my stomach has settled a bit, I thought I'd hit the gym. Want to join me?”
“Hit the gym? I don't understand.”
“Exercise. Workout. Train. I can see on the map that the soldiers have a large training area, where I assume they practice battle moves, things like that. On my planet, I work in law enforcement too, and I'm not used to sitting idle, so I'm going to go check out what they've got and get some of my own practice in. Do you want to come?”
“We are not trained in law enforcement. What would we do?”
“I could teach you a little self-defence, if you like? How to protect yourself if someone tries to grab you.”
“Like with the tractor beam that kidnapped us?”
I smiled ruefully. “Unfortunately, no. But if someone comes up behind you and tries to grab you, I could teach you how to break their hold and get away.”
The two women looked at each other and nodded, “Yes. That would be pleasing. We shall come. We shall see who else would like to come, too.”
“Okay, well, I'm going to head to the gym ... training room ... and see what equipment they have. You join me when you're ready.”
I found the training room two floors down. The ship was big, bigger than any of the naval ships back home. The map told me this level housed supplies, an armoury, and the training facility. I assumed the armoury would be locked and didn't even bother looking for it. I just hoped the training facility wasn't out of bounds. I was itching to get some exercise in. The lack of activity was making me twitchy and angsty.
Stepping up to the door, I let out the breath I didn't realise I'd been holding when it opened. The room inside was dark, but lights flickered on as soon as I stepped over the threshold. As predicted, the room was large, about the size of two tennis courts. Plenty of space to run the circumference of the room uninterrupted. One end housed what appeared to be gym equipment, but nothing looked familiar. I'd have to ask someone to show me how to use it. If I was here long enough, of course. The other end of the room was set up with three large square mats, slightly larger than a boxing ring. Sparring was my guess.
I was half way through my warm-up stretches when the other women started to trickle in. I was thrilled when I realised they all wanted to train with me. They gathered around and I explained the concept of self-defence.
“Ladies, what I'm going to teach you today is about safety. Yours. The whole idea is to get clear of danger. I'm not going to show you how to fight and win, I'm going to show you how to escape! Let's face it, these guys, the Acarnania warriors on this ship? They're big guys, right? Huge. Unless you're a soldier or warrior yourself, you're not going to win a fight with them—BUT you can get away from them.”
The women gathered closer, intrigued.
“What we're going to focus on first is using your feet,” I continued. “Not just to run away. Attackers expect their victims to defend themselves with their hands, so they'll hold you in a way that prevents you from moving your arms. What you want to do in that situation is to stomp your heel down on his foot. The pain will make him relax his grip, but only for a moment. If you can slip out of his grip, do it. Then run. Run and hide, or run and scream, depending on the circumstances. Let's pair up and practice. Now, we're only practicing, so I don't want you to stomp your partner’s foot. I want you to stomp the mat next to it, but hard. You need to get a feel for the strength and power behind this move.”
I herded the women over to the big padded mats. Partnering up with Talia, I demonstrated the move a couple of times. Once I was happy with Talia's performance, I moved around the group, offering words of encouragement and support.
“Okay, ladies, what happens when that doesn't work? Or they have big boots on and it doesn't have quite the impact you were hoping for? Do it anyway. Don't look at their boot and think, ‘Oh, this won't work’ and not bother trying. If you can surprise him for just a second, it'll allow you to move into this next one.
“Kick him in the leg. This will make him stagger and lose his grip for a moment. Depending on how he's holding you, you can kick forward, backward, or sideways. Kick his shin, his calf, his knee, his thigh or his groin, as long as you kick him hard.”
Smiles all around. The women clearly liked the idea of kicking a man in the balls.
“Let's practice kicking each other for a minute. Again, we don't want to hurt each other in this exercise, so you aren't going to be able to kick as hard as I want you to, but I want you to practice the movement.”
I went through the exercise with Talia again a few times, then left the girls to stomp and kick, while I went in search of kick-boxing bags.
“These should do the job.” Alrik was standing inside the door. He touched a button on the panel on the wall. Twelve full-length punching bags dropped from the ceiling, snapping into place on the floor. Each bag was over ten feet tall.
“Thank you.” I flashed a smile at him, running my hand along one of the black bags.
“You are training them to fight.”
“No. The opposite, actually. I'm teaching them how to run away. Fighting isn't going to save their lives, but getting away will—or at least give them a fair chance rather than standing there being victims.”
“This will not stop an abduction like the Bellatania.”
“Of course not. But it's what I do on Earth. I teach a class of women how to defend themselves against attacks.”
“That is a noble thing to do.”
“I don't know about noble. I've got the skills and knowledge, why not share it? Hey! I've got an idea.”
“Yes?” He eyed me warily.
“Maybe some of your men could volunteer. So the girls can practice? Your guys are big and tough. A little stomping and kicking from these women shouldn't hurt them. What do you say?”
“I will see what I can arrange for you, funny human. I fear your trainees need practice with the bags first, though.” He pointed to Rayna, whose leg was swinging so wildly she nearly fell over.
“The name’s Sierra, not funny human. How about tomorrow? The girls don't need to be perfect.”
“Very well. Sierra. I will see if I can get you some volunteers.” The sound of my name on his soft, kiss-me lips was intoxicating. I watched as he disappeared into a room I hadn't noticed when I first came in. He returned a minute later, wearing shorts and nothing else. His broad chest rippled with each movement and his six-pack abs were clearly evident from this distance. I gulped. Oh boy. Distracting myself, I turned back to my trainees and called them over to the punching bags, showing them how to kick.
“Your kick will have more power if you bend your knee toward your torso first, and then kick. This lets you kick stronger and higher, but you need to do it quickly. Have a practice, but don't hurt yourselves, okay?”
I moved amongst them, correcting their form and offering encouragement. When I was happy with their progress, I practiced with my own bag, combining punches with roundhouse kicks, feeling the sweat rolling down my back. The women, tired from their efforts, left en masse, but I stayed, punching and kicking the bag. The feeling of familiarity, of the known in
a world of unknowns, gave me comfort.
I was in a world of my own, jabbing, jabbing, kicking, when strong hands clamped onto my hips from behind, holding me still.
“You are tiring. Your hips are getting loose. Hold your stance or you risk injury,” Alrik spoke into my ear. I hadn't noticed him move from where he'd been training on the equipment across the room. But now I was very aware of him, his heat burning through the back of my shirt and pants, which were now damp with sweat. I froze. His hands seared through my clothing, sapping my focus. I pulled away, turning to face him. Hot and dishevelled, I gathered my hair up and held it with one hand on top of my head to try and get some air flow to the back of my neck.
“I didn't mean to startle you.” He didn't step back, but held his ground, invading my space. His dark eyes seemed even darker as they roved over me, taking in my heaving chest. A trickle of sweat that ran down into my cleavage held his undivided attention.
For once lost for words, I simply watched him, the heat swirling between us making my knees weak, and I had to lock them to stay upright. It was as if he'd released some sort of pheromone into the air. Each time I breathed, all I could smell was him. His warm, musky scent was so delicious that I wanted to lean forward and run my tongue along his bare chest to see if he tasted as good as he looked.
My gaze travelled over his muscular chest, the thick column of his neck, the square jaw, up to his mouth, a mouth that was slowly curling into a grin. My eyes darted to his, my head tipping back. His eyes dropped to the curve of my throat for a moment before coming back to meet my gaze.
Those dark eyes pierced me, hot, so unbelievably hot. I sucked in a breath, my hormones sizzling to life. I wanted him. Wanted the taste of him on my tongue, his lips on mine. The level of want scared me.
I stepped away, bumping into the punching bag and sidestepping behind it so it was a barrier between us. I held his gaze a second longer before turning and leaving the room. He didn't follow.
