Worlds Away

by J. L. Hendricks

  “Where would I go now? I can’t fly a spaceship, and we are already out of my solar system, aren’t we? How would I get home?” I gave him a pout and tried to grab a hold of his hand but he moved it so he could open the cage. He put his hand up against a biometric lock that opened the door.

  Venay looked behind me at the rest of the girls. “The rest of you stand back. Don’t bother trying anything.” He took a long look at someone over my shoulder so I looked back. It was Betsy he was staring at. She was looking down at the ground and shaking.

  “Sheila, can you keep an eye on Betsy?” I looked from Sheila to Betsy, and that was when she noticed how frightened the girl was. She moved over to sit next to Betsy and put her arm around her.

  “Sure thing. You go get cleaned up and put some meat on those skinny bones of yours, and I’ll take care of Betsy.” She gave me a smile as I walked out of the cell.

  Chapter 5

  “Venay, why do you allow young girls to be abducted? That girl Betsy, she’s barely 18 and hasn’t even finished high school yet.” We were walking down the corridor to what I hoped was a real bathroom where I could take a shower, or better yet, a bath.

  “She is of the correct age, our laws don’t require that humans have finished school, just that they are at least 18. It wasn’t always like that. But over the years the humans have worked with their mates to get us to see that we need to consider who we are taking. Young children for example, it would take years for us to raise them and then to consider what to do with them. Teenagers are nothing but problems. I guess those years of growing up and adjusting to your body’s changes as either a human or a V’Zenian, are the same on both worlds.” He put his arm around my shoulder, and guided me down another corridor until we stopped in front of a door.

  I almost screwed my plan up. When he touched me my body wanted to tense up, but I had to remember that I needed to gain his trust in order to find a way off this ship. In order to do that, I needed him to think I was falling for him.

  There was another one of those biometric scanners next to it and he put his hand on it and the door swooshed open. “We agreed that the women, at least, needed to be grown up before we take them.”

  “She’s way too young to be out here and having to deal with deciding to be a mate or a slave. You really should look for older women, not young adults.” I peeked my head into the room I assumed was going to be my quarters for the duration of the journey. To my right was another room, the door was open, and it appeared to be a kitchen type of area. Against one wall in the room, a table and two chairs sat, as well as a short counter with two very different electronic contraptions on it. One looked like it might be some sort of futuristic microwave, but the other I had no clue. It was rectangular and metal with a lever on the right side. I couldn’t tell how it opened.

  Straight ahead was a sitting room. The chairs and sofa looked more comfortable than what was in that room where I first met Venay. Then to the left was another room, but the door was closed. The living room was furnished in muted tones of beige and silver. He really did need a woman’s touch to make this a home and not just quarters on a ship. “How long do you live on this ship each year? Do you even have a home back on your planet?” I looked over to him and wondered what it would be like to be married to a man who spent most of his time flying the galaxy. I shuddered with the thought. But I wasn’t sure if it was a pleasurable shudder or not.

  “I spend most of the year traveling between our two planets, and only stay home for two months before I am off again. Our race is in dire need of an infusion of new DNA so I must find mates for as many males on my planet as I can. We also tend to go through a lot of slaves during the year it takes me to make a round trip.” He sounded like it was no big deal to go through slaves by the dozen, it was as though he was talking about how often they needed new linen, not new human beings.

  I eyed him warily. “Why do you need an infusion of new DNA?”

  He looked at me with pursed lips. “We made some very large mistakes several centuries ago after a viral outbreak almost decimated my species. My ancestors locked themselves away and stopped intermingling with other families on my planet. This created an issue with mating; it started out as cousins mating with cousins, but as the blood lines were polluted, it became an even bigger issue than anyone realized.” He stopped for a moment and took a heavy breath, then ran one hand down over his face before continuing. “Before anyone knew what was going on, most of the females on my planet were infertile. We already had an issue with low population, so the families started to merge again and tried to reverse the damage. With so few fertile females, we knew within a generation or two our species would die out.” He shook his head as he looked across the room with a distant expression on his face.

  I actually felt bad for his people. What would humans do if we were in a similar situation? We wouldn’t give up and just die, that’s for sure.

  “We used to be a race ruled by royalty, similar to your kings and queens. But once we cut ourselves off from everyone, the lower class or servants became the only means to continue mating if we didn’t want to mate with our brothers and sisters. After the royalty had all mated with their relatives, they decided to try mating with the servants only to find they had the same issue. No one thought anything about the servants or that they could have the same issues. So we merged the lower class with the upper class in a last ditch effort to keep our population alive. It may have given us one more generation.” He took my hand in his and continued.

  His hand was large in comparison to mine, but for some reason, it felt good. I shouldn’t like this feeling. Hopefully, it’s just because I felt bad for the plight of his people.

  “We had space flight capabilities before the infection; we just stopped leaving the planet. It was thought that the virus which almost killed us all came from another planet. It was later that we realized it was a virus of our own doing. So the space ships were brought out, fixed, and we set out looking for a new species to keep our DNA going. We also needed more servants.” He laughed at what he said.

  “The first species we found that was bi-pedal, like us, were humans. But your kind was so backwards that we decided they were not advanced enough to help our DNA. We took those we wanted to be our slaves and came home with them. The journey was long and half of the warriors on the ship had taken human women as their mates before we returned. There were at least a dozen pregnant women who ended up giving birth to very healthy V’Zenian boys and girls. It was decided that we were to capture more women for mating and also to bring back the males of your species to be our slaves.”

  He let go of my hand and stood up and walked to the far wall where there was a small porthole, and he looked outside, “We were desperate to save our race. So we came back with multiple ships and picked up over one thousand humans.”

  I jumped up and gasped, “One thousand humans at one time? How did you do this, and why so many?” I looked at him with my mouth agape and narrowed my eyes. “How many of the women willingly mated with your kind on that trip?”

  He lowered his head, “Not many, I am afraid. But after that we started to rethink our ways and each decade we see better and better treatment of the slaves. It has been over a century since it became law that the human women must choose to mate with us, we are not allowed to force ourselves on any woman. Nor would we want to. These are the women who are our mothers and sisters. We would not allow them to be treated so poorly, at least, not anymore.” He looked at me and lowered his head in shame. I could see that he felt the guilt of what his ancestors did. Maybe he even felt guilty for his actions now.

  “Venay, you are still abducting humans against their will and forcing them to serve you as slaves or be mates. Most of the women in your holding cells would never choose to be mated to your warriors if they met them back on Earth and were given a choice. Well, except maybe Sheila. But what you are doing is still wrong.” I got up and paced the area in front of the sofa. My heart was breakin
g for all of the women and men who had been taken against their will and forced to do the unthinkable.

  “Surely your population has grown, and you now have the ability to reproduce without the need of humans. How long have you been doing this?” I sighed and wondered what I would do if I were in his shoes and held the fate of my entire species in my hands. That couldn’t feel good.

  “It has been over two hundred years, and we still have not been able to instill enough of your DNA into our babies. While we have started to look more human, we still only have about a 50% reproductive rate. Even children born to a human and a V’Zenian might not be able to reproduce.” He walked back to where I was standing and wrapped his arms around me.

  I could feel his sadness, it was seeping into my bones. Something inside of me wanted to console him and tell him that everything would be alright. So I let him hold me while he thought about what his people had done, and what they were still doing to the human population.

  “There are movements on my planet to stop the infusion of human DNA. But there isn’t another option on the table. We have traveled to other planets and met other species, but none of them are as compatible with us as humans. Even more now that we have bred with your kind for so long. Most of my planet is now inhabited by VZ Hybrids.”

  It was at that point I interrupted, “What’s a VZ Hybrid?”

  “That is what I am, one parent is V’Zenian and another is human. Although, most who claim to be V’Zenian really have some human blood in them somewhere along the line.” My stomach made a most embarrassingly loud sound at that point.

  Venay pulled away from me and looked down towards my stomach. “I am sorry, I should have given you something to eat as soon as we arrived. I am sure what you have eaten so far hasn’t been very filling or appetizing, has it?” He gave me a sad smile and walked toward the kitchen.

  Chapter 6

  After a nice hot meal and a weird shower, alone thankfully, the Commander had to leave me. He was needed on the bridge, or whatever they called it. My only frame of reference for outer space and ships was all of the sci-fi shows I watched growing up. If Captain Kirk could see us now, I wonder what he would think?

  I was forced to stay inside my new quarters the rest of the day. Venay had locked the door so I couldn’t get out; I know because I actually did try. I ate a few things from the futuristic microwave, which turned out to be a food replicator. They had programmed some Earth items like cheeseburgers and pasta. At least I wasn’t going to starve on this trip.

  Venay came back hours later, and I was asleep on the couch. I didn’t want him to think I was ready to share his bed, so I figured I would be sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future. It wasn’t too bad, and I slept quite well until he woke me up.

  “Paris, what are you doing sleeping out here on the couch? You can sleep in the bedroom. That bed is quite comfortable.” He sat down on the edge of the couch and rubbed my back as I tried to wake up. I had slept on my side since the couch wasn’t very wide.

  “This couch is comfortable; besides, the bed is yours. I know I agreed to be your mate, but I need to wait to get to know you better before I can marry you. Do you even have pastors on board to perform marriages?” I looked up to him wondering how it worked. Now that I had agreed to this I needed to know the details. Did they have the same anatomy as humans? I had to assume they did since they had been mating with us for almost two centuries now.

  He smiled and leaned down to kiss my cheek, “You are so sweet. As Commander it is my duty to perform the ceremonies for any couples who wish to mate while on board my ship. My second in command will perform ours when the time comes.” He ran his hand down my arm and held my hand in his. It felt warm and comfortable. It seemed strange that my small hand would fit in his giant one so perfectly. I caught myself and stopped that train of thought.

  “Where is Lisa? Can I go see her or any other girl who has agreed to mate with your men?” I looked up at him questioningly. This was the moment I was waiting for: would he grant me freedom while on his ship?

  He eyed me for a moment and then responded, “For now I can’t let you roam about freely. I will escort you or their mates will escort them here to visit with you. So far Lisa is the only one who has chosen a mate. I have heard that a few of the women have made some advances to my crew, but no one else has chosen as of yet.” Venay got up and walked toward the kitchen. He looked over his shoulder and asked, “Have you had dinner yet?”

  “No, I haven’t, and I’m hungry. What’s good?” I walked into the kitchen, and my stomach started to rumble. If I kept up this level of eating, I would put weight back on in no time. Part of me was excited for that prospect, but another part of me would be sad if I did find a way out of this mess.

  “Venay?” I needed to talk to him, but I was hesitant. This was a sticky subject, and I wasn’t sure what he was going to say, although, it would tell me a lot about his character. I took a seat at his small table.

  “Yes Paris?” He put down our dinner plates, took a seat, and looked at me expectantly.

  I scratched the back of my head and my right knee was bouncing so high it almost hit the underside of his table, “What are you going to do with the young girl who was in my cell?” I couldn’t bring my eyes up to meet his, if his answer was not something I wanted, I knew I was going to either cry or get angry. Those two emotions would not help me in my situation.

  He sighed, “Well, she is too young to allow anyone to choose her for a mate. Which only leaves slavery as an option for her. It isn’t the best option, but my mother might need an extra hand. She has always treated her slaves with the utmost respect. I could reach out to her and request that she buy that girl, what was her name?”

  I was so overjoyed that I jumped up and gave him a huge hug, “Thank you so much! It really means a lot to me that you would look out for Betsy. Will you tell your men that they are not to try and convince her to marry them or mate with them?” I sat in his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck and felt utter contentment for the first time since high school. My smile must have been quite large because he smiled back at me. It was the biggest smile I had seen on his face since meeting him.

  “Yes, I have already told them to leave her alone. Several of us on this mission have decided that we will make sure the next batch doesn’t include anyone under the age of 21. We all agreed that 18 was just too young for this life. Most of them made horrible mothers at such a young age or insisted on waiting to get pregnant. We even lost a few babies during birthing to very young mothers.” While he was still smiling, I had stopped. I was happy that young girls wouldn’t be taken again, but he still planned on taking women and men. The contentment I felt earlier was gone. In place of it was a hardening of my heart. This was a lesson for me, one I wouldn’t soon forget.

  I couldn’t get comfortable with him. He’ll take care of me as best he can, but he was still an alien who goes to Earth and abducts human beings to take back to his planet.

  “Hey, what’s the matter? I thought you would be happy with that?” He used one hand to move my hair away from my face.

  I got up from his lap and went back to sit in my chair, “While I am grateful that you will take care of Betsy, I’m still disappointed that you’ll continue to abduct innocent men and women from my planet. Isn’t there something else you could do? Like maybe ask for volunteers or something?” I moved the food around on my plate with my fork as I had lost my appetite.

  “I don’t like this either, but it’s this or let my species die out. We can’t contact your Earthen Governments, they will not be able to handle this. Your species isn’t ready for intergalactic relations with anyone, even if they are partly related now.”

  “I think letting us get used to this would be better than abduction and forced slavery. You don’t seem to understand our past. Slavery is something that we dealt with a while ago. Our people are still very sensitive to this topic, as they should be.”

  “Yes, we know all
about your history. We have even taken some of the humans who were slaves on your planet. Our history teaches that they were very happy to leave your world.”

  “Hmph, I doubt that very much. Being abducted from one bad situation, one where you understood the rules, and being taken to one where you don’t understand? I think your history books were written to just make your kind look better.” This discussion was not going well. I crossed my arms over my chest and stopped eating all together.

  “I think I lost my appetite. What do I do with the left-overs?”

  “Left-overs?”

  “You know, the food I didn’t finish.” I still couldn’t look at him.

  “We don’t need to worry about that. The food will get recycled and used again in the replicators.” Venay didn’t seem to have any issues with his appetite. He took several bites of his food as I spoke.

  “Seriously? You can recycle the food and use it again? That is just the thing my people would love to learn about! I bet if you met with our leaders, they would be happy to exchange some of your technology for Earthlings who want to join you guys.” The idea of hunger no longer being an issue sparked several ideas.

  “As I said, you aren’t ready. This topic is not one I wish to keep discussing. What do you want to do tonight?” The fierce look in his eyes told me to drop the topic, for now.

  “Okay, fine, for now. Can I go see some of the women I know?” I eagerly asked.

  “Yes, that might be a good idea. Show them you are happy with your choice and that you are safe as well.”

  We walked together to the room with the prisoners, as we walked I asked him more questions about the ship and how many were on it. Turned out he had another room of slaves.