Mate-Prize

by Renee Bond

  Not even really a person.

  As I approached Travan, he slid his hand around my waist, pulled me closer - then gripped me by the waist, in both hands, and lifted me effortlessly off the deck. A second later I plopped down in his wide lap.

  “Oh!”

  Wasn’t expecting that.

  I sat stiffly, not sure what to do. Uncomfortable. Awkward.

  A terribly strong hand place itself on my chest, above my breasts, and gently pushed me back until my back was against Travan’s torso.

  “Breathe deeply,” he said. Gently. Almost soothingly.

  Once again, I obeyed.

  My body started to relax before my mind did. Clearly, it remembered the feel of Travan’s massive, rock-hard body pressed against it. It decided, quite on my behalf, that it liked the sensation.

  Well… if you can’t beat em….

  “There!” said Daxen excitedly, pointing out into space.

  At… nothing?

  Then, one of the tiny dots ahead of us began to grow.

  And grow.

  It was a planet! We were coming up on it quickly. It soon filled the field of view ahead of us.

  “Wow,” Ellon whispered.

  “No kidding,” said Travan.

  I was more than a little awestruck myself. But I was also confused.

  “I thought you guys were used to space travel?” I asked.

  “Grunts like us usually ride in troop transports or dropships,” said Travan.

  “No windows,” supplied Ellon helpfully.

  Ah.

  "Well?” Travan asked, speaking softly into my ear.

  I turned my head. Looked up at him. His eyes peered down into mine. There was an unmistakable softness in them.

  These men, clearly, weren’t used to hiding their emotions. Having spent their lives in a ridgid, uniform military hierarchy, the thought that they might want to may never even have occurred to them.

  Maybe they just weren’t used to having emotions.

  A race of alien warriors, with no experiences in life besides killing, never having met anyone besides other professional killers. It occurred to me that all four of the men who were my keepers… my owners… very likely had the emotional development of young, badly abused boys.

  “It’s breathtaking,” I whispered. “Thank you. For letting me see.”

  It felt weird, to thank him for such a humble thing as looking at something. But it also felt right. The fact was that Travan didn’t have to let me in the cockpit, to look out the window. Weirdly, that made it feel like something of a treat.

  Travan’s hand gave my left thigh a little squeeze as he turned back to the sight at hand.

  The planet grew and grew. It was browner than the pictures I’d seen of Earth from space. But there was plenty of green, more towards the poles. There weren’t many clouds in the atmosphere, but the ones that were there looked much like the clouds back on Earth.

  “We’ve received clearance to land,” said Daxen, once we’d flown close to the planet. By that time I could make out whole cities, massive patches of grey and dark colored metals, with movement visible even from orbit.

  “Back to the living quarters,” said Travan, setting me back on the floor. “Tell Jensi to strap you in. Atmospheric entry can be rough.”

  I did as I was told.

  Chapter 27

  Rachel

  Back in the sleeping quarters, Jensi flipped a few switches, and two of the bunks rotated into a sort of wide couch. Ellon sat in one, while Jensi and I sat side by side in the other. A lot of seat belts - crash webbing, Jensi called it - came out of the back of the couch. He helped me strap in, saying nothing the whole time.

  Weirdly, he didn’t even look me in the eye. For some reason, that made me nervous.

  For about ten minutes, the spaceship pitched and vibrated.

  Then it started getting worse.

  “Does it always do this?” I asked.

  Jensi was sitting next to me, about an arm’s length away, secure in his own crash webbing. He looked over at me. He didn’t answer for a minute. It was almost like he was trying to decide something about me.

  “Always,” he finally said. “You get used to it. It’s actually much better in this ship than in an assault dropship.”

  Another minute rumbled by. Then my curiosity got the best of me.

  “What’s it like?” I asked, my voice low. I really hoped I wasn’t asking something he’d take offense to.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Fighting,” I said. “Being in a dropship. Shooting at people. War. Killing.”

  To my surprise, he laughed.

  “Some parts of it are the same for everyone,” he said nonchalantly. “The adrenaline. The fear. The feeling like you’re in a hazy tunnel. Other parts are different for everyone. For me,” he said, flashing a dangerous grin, “feeling like I could die, that I must kill or be killed… it has become the only time I’m really sure I’m alive. It’s an adrenaline rush that makes the rest of the world feel hollow. Flat. Long campaigns wear you down. The constant stress, the psychological burden, breaks as many people as are killed by enemy fire. But for me, being on leave for too long is far worse.”

  As he spoke, I realized that there was a part of me that had been craving normalcy so much that I’d come to think of my four alien abductors as… well, almost like friends. Or, maybe it’s more accurate to say that my mind was trying to talk me into thinking of them that way, if only for my own sanity. I could only keep the mind-shattering reality of having been abducted and forced into being some sort of interstellar trophy wife at the front of my mind for so long before I felt like was going to pass out. Maybe it was Stockholm syndrome. Maybe there were so many parts of my new reality that blew my mind that I was having trouble thinking clearly.

  Yet, as Jensi spoke, I became very, very aware of just how different my world had become.

  I was not in Kansas City anymore. Not on Earth anymore. I was not around nice men who loved my music and wanted to buy me drinks. I was not in the tour bus, driving a few miles down a straight road, getting ready to go through the familiar routine of putting on a rock concert.

  I was in space. This was a fucking warship. And the man sitting next to me was not my friend. He was a warrior. A killer. A conqueror. He did not like me. He saw me as his. Human property. Valued property, sure, but property nonetheless.

  And he only fucking felt alive when he was fucking killing.

  I started to feel like I was looking at him through a long, hazy tunnel.

  Jensi laughed.

  “Killing you would defeat the purpose of all my years of fighting, little woman,” he said. “You have nothing to fear from me. So long as you behave, of course.”

  I swallowed. My eyes dropped away from him, unable to hold his.

  The vibrations were lessening, but every once in while I could feel the ship jump up or pitch down. It felt just like turbulence on an airplane, only worse.

  Two strong fingers, a thumb and an index finger, gripped my chin. Not hard, but not soft either. Slowly, firmly, they pulled my face back up so that I was looking at Jensi again.

  “Do you believe me?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I said. I didn’t totally believe him.

  He frowned.

  “I’m tempted to punish you for lying to me,” he said, “but in this instance I think it would be counterproductive. For now, simply know that, in time, you will learn to obey without fear.”

  I didn’t know what to make of that. So I said nothing.

  He released my face.

  I leaned back against the couch and closed my eyes. It felt like the past forty-eight hours were catching up with me all at once.

  “Relax, little woman,” said Jensi, his voice amused… and, maybe, a little bit concerned. “You are safe.”

  Hearing that made me feel just a little bit better. I took a deep breath.

  “Thanks.”

  “Do keep one thing in mind, howe
ver.”

  The edge of anxiety crept back into my chest.

  “Don’t ever say or do anything to come between the members of this squad ever again.” Jensi’s voice was low, and deadly serious. As if this was a matter of life and death. “I will not tell Travan what you said to me before, because I believe that you are remorseful for what you said. Just know that if he heard you talking like that, he would punish you far more harshly than I ever would.”

  I shivered.

  After a time, the turbulence evened out. Jensi and Ellon both unstrapped and left the room, without a word.

  I thought about what he said for quite a while.

  Torn.

  On the one hand, I didn’t owe my fucking kidnappers anything. Ever.

  On the other hand… if I really did manage to come between these alien warriors, it might spell life or death for one of them, or all of them, in some future battle.

  Chapter 28

  Rachel

  I was still thinking about it when Ellon came into the sleeping quarters to retrieve me.

  “We’re headed dirt-side,” he said matter-of-factly. “You’re coming. If you’ve got to use the facilities, do it now.”

  Right after he said it, the ship gave a lurch that made me glad I was still in my crash webbing.

  Ellon grinned.

  “Touchdown,” he said. “Time to report in. We’ve all got to report in person to our superior, in order to receive our patrol assignments.”

  “Am I... a part of that?” I asked. I was getting excited to go out and see my first alien world, but it seemed like I wouldn’t be needed in any official capacity. “Am I patrolling too?”

  Ellon burst out laughing.

  “Wow,” he said, “you’re a funny one! A mate-prize with an assault rifle. No, we just need to register your presence on the planet, which will be useful in case hostilities break out in the future. The four of us - the real soldiers - will probably be patrolling in shifts of two, so usually there will be someone here on the ship with you. But today we all go.”

  My excitement hit a speed bump. Not just because Ellon thought the idea of me on patrol was ludicrous, but at the realization that we were about to embark into hostile territory.

  “Is it safe?” I asked. “And I could too handle a gun!”

  Ellon chuckled.

  “Best take that thought right out of your little mind before Jensi or Travan hear you talking like that. They don’t have my sense of humor, little woman.”

  I frowned, resisting the urge to stick my tongue out.

  “I have a name, you know. It’s Rachel.”

  Ellon eyed me sideways.

  “Not anymore it isn’t,” he said. “We haven’t decided what yours will be yet, but mate-prizes are always assigned a new name by their squad.”

  That stung. I didn’t know what to say to that. Or, rather, I couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t get me punished.

  Ellon helped me unseal my crash webbing. It wasn’t intuitive. He then gave me a white jumpsuit to wear, made of a material that felt like leather. I saw at once that it was far less revealing than the tiny white number I’d been wearing up until then.

  “Not the kind of planet to be drawing attention to ourselves,” he said.

  The garment was heavy. But once I’d put it on and zipped the front up to the top of my neck, I discovered that it was both much softer and much cooler than I’d thought it would be.

  “So, what kind of planet is it?” I asked. Getting to see an honest-to-goodness alien planet was one thing. Seeing a dangerous one was quite another.

  Ellon shrugged. He was pulling on a fresh pair of trousers and a new shirt, both stark white, both identical to the mildly pungent ones he’d just taken off. The fashion range of the clan Triumphant military continued to impress.

  “Hot, dry, and full of valuable metals,” he said. “Locals are used to living under one regime or another. This planet’s been conquered and re-conquered countless times over the last few millennia - and that’s a cycle that’s not going to stop anytime soon. Our clan took the place nearly twenty years ago, but it’s clear they preferred previous management. Probably cause our taxes are higher. Or because we appropriate more planetary resources. Or because we conscript more. Not my department, to tell you the truth. All I need to know is that the local crime bosses, in conjunction with the underground politicians we haven’t yet shipped off to prison worlds, have a standing bounty on us and our allies. Lucky for us, we’ve taken so much wealth from this planet that those bounties don’t actually get paid very often, even when they’re owed. So, in a nutshell, the locals don’t like us, and have reason to kill us, but aren’t actually real motivated to risk their necks doing it. Makes for a pretty tame planet, if you ask me. Most of the locals are actually pretty friendly - they’re just trying to get about their own lives as best they can. But you never know who’ll try to stick a blade in your back. Some of them do it just for fun. Anyways, we have allies on-planet, a clan called Everlasting. Well, they used to be our allies. Then they weren’t, for about a year. But we won a few good battles against them, so now they want to be friends again. About a year ago this planet was a hot zone, at least one major battle every week. Then the ceasefire was signed. More permanent peace talks are still ongoing. Meantime, us and them don’t trust each other much. Course, us grunts on the ground, we know it’s not personal. So most of the Everlasting soldiers you might meet are pretty good guys. Bottom line is that they’re probably friendly. But again, you never know who might have lost a one too many buddies fighting us and might still want to get even.”

  “Sounds complicated,” I said, struggling to take it all in. Resource appropriation.

  Forced conscription. Conquered. Re-conquered.

  Damn, but intergalactic life was mean.

  “That it is,” said Ellon. “I probably just made it sound a lot worse than it is. We’re currently operating at Code Blue. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a minor dust-up. Break up a fight or protest, that kind of thing. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if we went our whole six-month assignment without so much as a verbal altercation either.”

  “Do other clans treat their planets the same way?” I asked. I didn’t have any choice but to be here. But I didn’t like the idea of being part if some sort of Evil Empire.

  “Would it make a difference to you, or me, if they did? Or didn’t?”

  My head drooped.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “Sorry,” said Ellon with a sympathetic smile, “but the right answer is ‘not even a little.’ I was born Triumphant. You were harvested Triumphant. So Triumphant we shall be. The galaxy is a big place, little woman. Far, far too big for any of us little people to make a difference in. Best thing to do is what you’re told, and to make the best of it. By the way, that’s not just great advice. That’s an order.”

  Ellon’s eyes got almost serious for a split second. Just long enough to remind me which one of us outranked the other.

  As if I needed the reminder.

  Chapter 29

  Travon

  I’d never been to ground-base Gemini 55. But when my squad and I got there, we knew exactly where to go. Throughout clan Triumphant, every ground-base shares the exact same floor plan. Makes it easy to get around, and even newly assigned troops would know exactly where to be in case of hostilities.

  The five of us registered our arrival. Sat through a short, automated debriefing, administered by a military admin AI on the base’s network. It took less than an hour. There was a written test, to make sure we understood our orders, and a small battery of medical tests to make sure we were fit for duty.

  The whole trip took just a few hours.

  Our woman was silent nearly the whole time, bouncing back and forth between keeping her eyes on her own feet and staring about as if seeing everything for the first time.

  Which, I had to keep reminding myself, she was.

  Easy to forget just what a p
rimitive culture she comes from sometimes.

  I’d never been to the planet named Exonious before. It was… Hell, it was kinda nice. Blue skies. Wide open spaces. Clean air. A bit dry for my tastes - most of the terrain was a mixture of dust, dirt, rocks, brown vegetation, or all of the above. But I have to admit, the mountains were quite a sight.

  Our guard rotations wouldn’t start for another day. So after we finished our admin, we decided to explore the local area that would be our home for at least the next 6 months. Daxen used his internal netlink - a military-grade computer installed at the base of his skull, which he’d been trained to manipulate with neural inputs alone - to call us a commercial drone-shuttle from the nearest town. None of us were keen to wait for the next windowless, all-but-airless, definitely-shock-absorber-less military transports to take us back to the spaceport where we’d left our ship.

  Shortly, a sort of mostly-clear hovering vehicle touched down on the dust in front of us. It looked almost like a wide, flat saucer, with a central compartment featuring several rows of padded benches lined up under a clear canopy.

  It looked… flimsy.

  “We sure about this thing?” I asked Daxen. “It looks like a toy.”

  “That’s just because you’re used to assault craft,” he said, giving the weird flyer a knock on its single transparent wing. “This baby is made of clear nano-steel. Might not look like much, but as long as you don’t fall out, we’ll be perfectly safe.”

  That was good enough for Ellon, who never much questioned Daxen on tech-related issues. I could tell Jensi was as skeptical as I was. We got aboard anyways.

  It was a bit cramped. The locals obviously weren’t as virile, fearsome, or just plain large as our genetically-modified bodies. But once we settled in, it was comfortable enough.

  The woman sat on Ellon’s lap this time. Jensi and Daxen were both trying to pretend that they hadn’t noticed. Instead of following their example, I gave Ellon a subtle wink. The big bastard actually flushed a little. Even so, I could tell that we wouldn’t want to let the woman choose where to sit too often. If she chose the same person to sit next to, or on, every time… well, that would just lead to discord in the ranks.