by R. R. Banks
"We are Klimnu," the first creature that had come into the chamber said in a voice that made my skin crawl.
"Run!" the pilot screamed, thrashing against the hands of the creature that held him, "Get into my cockpit and call for help."
The Klimnu that held him pulled the pilot up off of the ground and pulled his head back by his hair. The pilot kicked and another of the Klimnu grabbed his legs so that he couldn't move anymore. An instant later the one who held him slashed his throat with his fangs. The blood poured in a thick, glistening curtain down the front of his body and I felt my stomach turn. Pulling his head back further, the Klimnu burrowed his mouth into the pilot's neck until he found his spine, then bit through it with a sickening crunch. The rest of the man's body collapsed to the floor and the Klimnu held up his head like a trophy.
I fought the vomit that rose in my throat, struggling to stay in control and keep my mind clear so that I would have any chance at all to get into the cockpit and call for emergency help.
"What are you?" I asked in a strangled voice, still working my way around the wall.
The first Klimnu took a step toward me and I gasped, pressing myself harder against the wall.
"We are Klimnu," he repeated angrily.
"Why are you here?" I asked, the tears pouring down my cheeks like acid.
"Ynn, our planet, has become a wasteland. There is nothing there and even we are struggling to survive. We are going to Uoria to join our brethren there. There is no famine, especially with the Denynso to sustain us."
"What do you mean?"
The creature gave a horrific sound that might have been a laugh and was suddenly only inches from me, blocking me against the wall with his disgusting, slimy body. Instead of answering my question, he reached up and ran the tips of his sharp claws along my cheek and down my neck. I shuddered at the feeling, but when I tried to wriggle away from him, he tilted his hand so that the points of the claws bit into my skin like needles.
"You are a pretty little thing," he said, his voice lower now like he was trying to cajole me with his words, "I don't think I am going to let my men kill you. I would much rather keep you as my pet."
He looked at me the way that the men who had bought, sold, and traded me did and I felt myself grow dizzy with fear and disgust.
"I would rather die," I hissed and I felt his claws slash across my neck, digging deeply enough to make my blood flow but not enough to comply with my wishes.
I withheld the cry of pain that bubbled up in my throat. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of making me appear weak and vulnerable in front of him.
"Perhaps you will have the opportunity to experience both," he said and grabbed me by the front of my shirt, dragging me toward the door.
I felt the warmth of the pilot's blood soaking through my clothes as the creature dragged me through it on our way through the ship. No matter how hard I struggled, I couldn't free myself from his grasp. I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was dragging me through the side hatch of the ship and I grabbed onto the sides, desperately trying to stay within the ship, but he pulled me so hard the skin tore from my hands and I couldn't hold on any longer. A moment later I was in a dark hallway and I knew my life was no longer my own.
Chapter 5
In an instant I realized that the dark hallway was a connector between the ship that I had been on and another one. The Klimnu had attached their ship to the university's and torn through the wall, leaving it gaping and vulnerable. The creature dragged me down the hallway and into a large open chamber in the center of the ship. Behind us the rest of the creatures crawled through the doorway. One held a small black contraption in his hands.
"I have the black box," he said.
His voice was not as slimy as that of the creature that still gripped me, but he was no less disgusting as he passed close by me on the way toward an open door on the other end of the chamber. I knew that the black box was stolen from the university's ship and that it contained all of the programming for the trip to Uoria. In taking that box they had essentially stolen an auto-pilot flight right to a planet that they wanted to dominate. My stomach sank as I realized that there was no escape now. Without the black box, even if a miracle struck and I was able to get myself free of the Klimnu and back onto the university's ship, the emergency rescue crews would have no way of finding it.
The Klimnu holding me turned me roughly so that I was staring back down the hallway toward the ship. In an instant the ship exploded, becoming a massive ball of orange flame. I screamed as the ship disappeared and the hallway collapsed in on itself, closing the opening in the side of the ship and closing me in with my disgusting, threatening captors. I knew it was my last chance. Maybe if I could free myself from the grip of the creature that held me I would be able to get into the control room of this ship and reach out for help, or at least figure out how to steer the ship onto the closest planet so that I could get away.
Years of martial arts training from when I was younger came back to me in waves. I felt the lessons, the discipline, and the power flowing through my muscles as I channeled the confidence and intensity I once held. This was knowledge from a time before I ended up on the street, before I had to turn to the sickening men to stay alive. I took a breath and lashed out at the creature. My leg lifted and came in contact with the side of his head, making a deep cracking sound that resonated through the chamber. The creature let out a shriek that nearly brought me to my knees, but the feeling of his hands holding me in place released and I took advantage of the sudden freedom by taking off running across the room.
I ran a few steps and then dropped to the floor, using my small frame to my advantage by sliding through the legs of two of the creatures that came at me. Getting past all of the creatures, I scrambled to my feet and took another step toward the open door on the other side of the room. I felt a surge of energy and hope as I reached a hand toward the doorframe, hoping to grab onto it so that I could pull myself through. Before I could, however, I felt a sharp, searing pain in my back.
I fell back, pulled by some unseen force. The intensity of the pain took my breath away and I couldn't withhold the sharp gasp that came from my lips. A moment later the creature who wanted to keep me as his pet appeared by my side. I looked up and realized that the pain came from more than a dozen fine wires that came from the ceiling. The creature walked around me and touched a button on the wall. I screamed as the wires retracted, lifting me a few inches off of the floor with the hooks embedded in my back. The weight of my body pulled the hooks through my skin, slicing through my back, but held so that I dangled from the ceiling with my toes barely grazing the floor beneath me.
"Misbehaving will do you no good," the Klimnu hissed at me, "It will only make this far worse for you."
I opened my mouth to speak, but he covered it with his hand and I felt like I was being gagged. My voice would not push through my throat and I could barely breathe. Even when he pulled his hand away from my face I couldn't make a sound and only the smallest amount of air seeped through my mouth and nose into my lungs.
That is where I stayed for the next four days, hanging from the ceiling of the main chamber of the ship unable to make any sound. The Klimnu passed by me throughout the day as they went about their normal business, walking past me as if I was a gruesome decoration. Occasionally one of them would tip a small amount of water down my throat, but they never brought me food and by the time they told me we were preparing to land, I was nearly delirious with hunger.
Four days later.
The shaking of the ship as we lowered toward the ground intensified the pain in my back and I felt fresh tears following the dry, sticky path of those I had already cried over the last few days. I have never been one to cry often, but the excruciating physical pain and emotional despair I was in drew more tears from me than I remembered crying in the last several years.
Even with the pain, however, the shaking was welcome because it meant that we were neari
ng the surface of Uoria and perhaps they would free me from the hooks that held me in place. It may mean that I was a few steps closer to death, but that relief would be welcome.
When the shaking of the ship calmed, the group of Klimnu came into the chamber and without a word, the one who had held me in place when they first captured me came to my side and wrapped an arm tightly around my hips. He used his long, slimy fingers to pry each of the hooks from my back and as they swung through the air I could see droplets of blood spatter across the floor. He picked me up over his shoulder and I draped over it like a ragdoll, incapable of moving.
He carried me out of the ship and I got my first breath of fresh air. The university had warned me that breathing on the strange planet would be challenging at first, but I didn't care. The warm air smelled sweet and as it washed across my skin I felt a brief moment of relief from the agony. After only a few seconds, however, the creature brought me into a building and darkness engulfed me. He threw me to the ground and I felt pain shoot through my hip as it cracked against a stone floor. My eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness and I could just make out the nearly bare space around me. There was a plate of something that resembled food on the floor and I descended on it, eating ravenously as the metallic sound of the barred door slamming reverberated in my head.
I don't know exactly how long I stayed on that cold stone floor before the Klimnu returned. My captor opened the barred door and stepped into the cell with me. He ran one of his fingers along my leg and then through my hair. I shivered in disgust and turned my face away from him. To my utter surprise, he stepped away.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Leia."
"Why were you on that ship?"
"I am part of an exchange student program with Uoria. I am here to study the land and the culture and work on my art," I answered shakily.
There was a pause and I could feel tension growing in the cell.
"I don't believe you."
"What do you mean?"
"My brethren say that you must be a scientist. Uoria has only allowed a few humans to visit and they have all been researchers."
"I'm not a researcher."
"You must be," he said, taking a step back toward me, causing me to cower against the wall, "You know something about the Denynso that has brought you here to do more research. Tell me what it is."
"I don't have anything to tell you," I said, my voice sounding slightly more pleading than I would have liked it to.
"We will accomplish our goal, Leia, whether you cooperate with us or not. I do warn you, though, if you choose not to cooperate, I can promise you will not live to see the sun again much less do any studying."
The Klimnu walked out of the cell and locked the door behind him, leaving me alone in the darkness. I curled my knees to my chest and sobbed into them. I had finally made it to Uoria and yet I was back in the torturous, brutal hands of captors who sought to control my every breath.
Chapter 6
"Seven days."
They were the first words I had heard since my captor left me in the cell. I had been fed once and given only a bucket of water to drink. I barely had the strength to raise my head to look at the Klimnu who stood on the other side of the bars staring at me like an animal in one of the zoos back on Earth. His mouth curled up in a disgusting, skin-crawling smile and I could see that he was looking at me in much the same way as the one who had captured me and told me he wanted to keep me as a pet.
That creature appeared behind the one at the door and pushed him aside, opening the door and stepping into my cell. He knelt down beside me and I felt him touch me. My body recoiled and his hand wrapped more tightly around me. He leaned forward and ran his tongue along my skin, causing bile to rise in my throat and my chest to constrict painfully.
"Are you sure you don't have anything to tell us about the Denynso?" he asked, lifting his head away from my arm and bringing it to the other one so he could repeat the lick.
"I told you that I don't know anything about them. I am just an art student. I'm not a scientist or a researcher or anything else. The whole reason I'm here is to learn about them."
I sobbed as his teeth dug down into my skin, drawing fresh blood to join the dry streaks from other bites that covered my body. This had been the greatest torment; him coming into the cell with me to lick and touch me without speaking, then biting or clawing me when I had no information to give him.
********
"Thirty days."
My captor stepped into my cell and I raised my head to look at him. The weakness in my muscles made it almost impossible, but anger and bitterness were replacing my fear. They kept me so close to the edge of death, hovering just on this side of life, that I didn't feel that I had anything to fear any longer. It would take only a moment to finish me and then at least I would be free. I refused to cower from him any longer.
The creature came into the cell and sat down beside me. This was strange. He had never sat with me before. After a month I had become accustomed to him coming into the cell and torturing me, prodding me for information, touching me in ways that made me feel sick. Sometimes he would feed me. More often, however, he didn't.
He reached out and touched my leg and an idea suddenly occurred to me. Perhaps I could lure him into trusting me. If I could use what I learned from the time with the men, I might be able to lower his guards and find a way to free myself.
I didn't withdraw from his touch like I usually did and he looked at me. His sickening hands tore my shirt away from me, but I continued to fight the revulsion. As if testing me, he leaned forward and bit into my breast savagely. I drew in a pained breath, but still didn't move away. The creature shredded my pants with his claws and suddenly I was in nothing but my bra and panties. I was thankful for the relative warmth of the room, but felt exposed and ashamed as he looked at me. I closed my eyes and brought myself to the distant plane of existence I had trained myself to escape to when I was under the hands of the men who felt they owned me.
When his touch finally left my body, I quickly covered myself and curled against the wall.
"You never told me why you wanted to come here," I said cautiously, trying to start a conversation with him that may both lull him into complacency and give me information I could use to help me if I ever managed to get out of the prison.
The Klimnu hesitated for a moment, and then looked at me.
"We want Criea."
"Who is that?"
"The king of the Denynso."
"Why do you want him?"
"The Klimnu feed off of the temper and aggression of the Denynso. The more we provoke them, the greater the benefit. Even more powerful than their temper, however, is their blood. Their blood gives us even greater strength. We are already the far more superior species in terms of intelligence and capability. Their blood gives us the intensity and power of their warriors to make us the ultimate race."
His words were some of the most terrifying I had ever heard and I could sense his growing agitation, so I allowed the conversation to end. He left and a few minutes later another of the group brought me food.
********
"Forty days."
In the ten days since I had begun to give into the roving tongue and prodding fingers of my captor, I had learned more about the planet where I was now imprisoned and the powerful warriors who lived there. He stepped into the cell again and I immediately started talking.
"You never explained to me why you want Criea," I said, hoping to dissuade him from touching me.
"To get back at him," he said, reaching forward and running his fingers down my shoulder despite my hopes.
"Why?"
"The Klimnu were once beautiful creatures," he said and I withheld an exclamation of surprise that this wretched creature could say that anything like him had ever been beautiful.
He continued to talk and I learned that there was a time when the Klimnu were strong, beautiful, and powerful. Knowing their own planet was on a
rapid path toward destruction, the Klimnu decided to take over the lush, healthy, and clean planet of Uoria for themselves. The Denynso, however, had been there since the beginning of their kind and were not willing to let the Klimnu take over. As they tried to take over, the Klimnu came into contact with plants that contained toxins so potent and virulent they immediately began to transform the once lovely creatures into the contorted, disgusting versions.
I listened to my captor talk, horrified yet fascinated at what he was telling me. He told me how they approached the incredible healers of the Denynsos and asked that they heal them. These healers agreed to provide the antidote to the toxins if the Klimnu agreed to leave the planet and stop their efforts to take over. They refused and only increased their violent attacks. The more violent they became, the worse their condition became. Finally they appealed to Criea to command his healers to remove the toxins and return them to their health and strength.
"The king refused," my captor said, his voice seething with anger, "He said we deserved what we got because of our selfishness and cruelty."
"If you wanted so much to be healed, why couldn't you just promise peace and find another planet?"
As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I knew I had gone too far. His eyes flashed with fury and before I even saw his hand moving I felt the vicious tips of his claws slash across my back, opening the still-healing wounds form the hooks that had held me in the ship.
"You are not the only human we have attacked," he told me through gritted teeth, "The other survived because he was mated to the most powerful warrior of the Denynso race. You will not be so lucky."
He fell into a frenzy, biting me all along my body and slashing at me with his claws. When he finally had his fill and left, I lay on the floor quaking with pain, feeling the life draining from my body. I closed my eyes, welcoming death.
