“What do you mean?” Natalie asked.
“I’m not sure I understand it myself,” he replied. “She just didn’t act the way I’d expect someone to act who was going on a dangerous mission. She was too passionate, too wild. I should have known she never wanted me in the first place. She put on an act for me to get back to the Toom.”
Natalie cringed. “Are you sure about that? Her feelings for you may have been real. Maybe she decided to go back to the Toom at the last second.”
Arno shook his head. “She was thinking about it all along. I’m certain of that. You want to believe your friend wouldn’t deceive us about something like that, but if you think about it, you’ll realize I’m right. She was traumatized by her experience. She couldn’t function on board this ship in a free state. Then, when the mission came up, she saw it as a way to get back to the Toom.”
Melanie stepped forward. “He’s right. I noticed her watching Te in the arena. She should have kept eye contact with her own master, but she was watching Te instead. He turned her on. She thought of him as her master, and she followed his commands. When he told me to turn myself on, she followed his orders.”
Natalie gasped. “She couldn’t do that! She was with Arno. He was her master, not Te.”
Melanie waved toward Arno. “Ask him if you don’t believe me. He’ll tell you the same thing. He was in the arena with us. He saw for himself what Tina was doing and how she responded. Ask him.”
Natalie turned to Arno, but the expression on his face answered all her questions. She dropped her eyes to the ground. “I don’t like to admit it, but you could be right. I was just so happy she was engaging with other people on this ship after so many months in hiding. I didn’t want to admit there could be another reason she wanted to go back to the gatherings.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Kyan told them. “We’ve lost her, and now we have to figure out a different way to get her back.”
“We’ve lost a lot more than that,” Arno replied. “We’ve lost our cover, so we’ll never get her back. You and I will never go back to the gatherings again, so we’ll have to kiss Tina good-bye.”
“Don’t say that,” Natalie pleaded. “I know Tina deceived you, but try to see her position from her point of view. The regeneration beds gave her the nicest feeling she ever had. Nothing on this ship could compare with that.”
He rounded on her. “Nothing?”
Natalie shook her head. “You want to believe the connection you shared with her could replace the regeneration bed, but it’s like a drug. You’ve seen the way these women respond to it. It erases all the pain and shame and hardship of slavery and fills you with more pleasure and peace than you can imagine. I should know. I’ve been there. I wish I could say my love for Kyan could take its place, but it can’t. Nothing can take its place.”
Amber shifted from one foot to the other. “Are you saying you don’t have regeneration beds here?” She glanced around at the Mixtidelin's cold bare walls. “If that’s true, how do you....?” She broke off.
Natalie took her hand. “You two have a long, hard adjustment ahead of you to get used to a life of freedom. It isn’t as blissful as your life with the Toom, but it’s the only life you can have here. That’s the price of freedom. I’ve been living this life for eight months, and I can tell you from personal experience that it’s worth it. No one will use you or sell you or harm you here. You have the chance to be human again.”
Amber and Melanie exchanged glances. “Why can’t we just go back to Earth? Our families will be wondering where we are.”
Natalie shook her head. “I’m sorry. None of us can go back to Earth ever again. The regeneration beds altered our cellular structure so we’re no longer fully human. The Toom robbed us of that.”
“But you just said we had the chance to be human again,” Amber pointed out. “What happened to that?”
Natalie waved her hand. “I meant it as a figure of speech. You have the chance to be something other than a piece of meat the Toom sell to the highest bidder at the gatherings.”
Arno stepped closer to Kyan. “You take your friends down to the medical bay. Kyan and I have to report to the bridge. Commander Axilon won’t be pleased we blew our cover and lost Tina into the bargain.”
Natalie put out her hand to touch his arm. “We’ll get her back, Arno. We’ll find Tina and bring her back.”
He shook his head again. “She’s gone. I was foolish to get close to her, and now she’s gone. She wants to be with the Toom. We won’t risk trying to rescue her again.”
He strode away down the corridor and Kyan followed. Natalie watched them out of sight. Then she sighed and turned to her friends. Melanie gazed at the corner where Arno and Kyan vanished. “What was that about?”
Natalie guided her friends the other way down the corridor. “I’ll tell you later. Right now, we have to take you two to the medical bay. You won’t have the regeneration bed to heal you if anything goes wrong. The medical staff will need to check you over and make sure you didn’t get hurt in the arena.”
Amber stopped walking. “I’m not having any nasty aliens poking and prodding at my private parts.”
Natalie laughed. “Darling, that’s exactly what Fo was just doing.”
Amber dropped her eyes.
Natalie took her by the hand again. “Don’t worry. No one will lay a finger on you. They perform all the examinations with scanners. You can keep all your clothes on, and you won’t feel a thing.”
Amber looked down at her own body. Goosebumps spread over her skin. “I’m cold.”
Natalie nodded. “Follow me, and I’ll get you some clothes.”
She opened a locker in a compartment adjacent to the transport bay and took out two of her own uniforms. “Put these on.”
I’ll go with you to the medical bay, and then I’ll show you to your quarters. Then I’ll go back to my own quarters. I have a uniform there I can put on.”
“How do you know which quarters are ours?” Amber asked.
“Commander Axilon assigned you both quarters before we left,” Natalie replied. “We didn’t know when or how we’d be bringing you back—or even if we’d be bringing you back. But we assigned you quarters just in case. I don’t know what the Commander will want to do with Tina’s quarters. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when Kyan and Arno report to him.”
“Will they go after her?” Melanie asked. “They won’t leave her with the Toom, will they?”
“I really can’t say,” Natalie replied. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if Commander Axilon leaves her to her fate. This is the second time Kyan and I have risked our lives to bring you three back, and now Tina’s thrown our efforts back in our faces. I don’t blame Arno for turning his back on her.”
Melanie studied her. “I didn’t know you did that. I didn’t know you put yourself in danger for Tina—and for us. We owe you our lives.”
Natalie blushed. “Just wait a few months before you thank me. You’re still under the influence of the regeneration beds, so everything still looks rosy and bright. When that wears off, you’ll wish you were back with Fo like Tina is now.”
Melanie shook her head. “I could never go back. If you think freedom in space is important enough to risk your life twice to bring us back, I could never turn away from that. I’ll do everything I can to prove your sacrifice was worth it.”
Natalie squeezed her hand and they started down the corridor to the medical bay. “I have just as much to thank you two for. You two are the only others of my kind in the whole galaxy. Not only are there no other humans, but we’ve been altered to the point that we’re no longer the same species. We’re three of a kind, so we should stick together if we can. In a way, I share more with you two than I do with Kyan.”
They passed the windows looking in on domestic scenes. Children laughed and played with their parents, and groups of people practiced martial arts in training studios. Amber stopped in front of a window looking in on a class o
f children learning to read. “This is a big ship. I didn’t realize there were so many people on board.”
Natalie gazed at the scene. “It’s a hologram.”
Amber’s head spun around. “What?”
“It isn’t real,” Natalie murmured. “There are no children on board this ship, and no women, either—apart from the three of us. The Galactic Police Force only sends men after these illegal traders. They can’t risk one of their officers getting captured and taken into slavery.”
“But you said you’d been here for months,” Amber replied. “You’re a woman, and you’re going after the traders. How do you explain that?”
“They shouldn’t have let me stay,” Natalie replied. “They should have sent me to the rehabilitation center with the rest of the slaves they rescued from the gathering.”
“Why didn’t they?” Melanie asked.
“Maybe because I was different,” Natalie replied. “Maybe because I had been altered too much. The other slaves could just go back to their home worlds, but I couldn’t. Then Commander Axilon heard from one of his operatives that Fo planned to bring another Earth female to a different gathering. That’s when he got the idea of sending me undercover to get Tina. If that hadn’t happened, he probably wouldn’t have let me stay on board.”
“Why did he let you stay on after that?” Amber asked. “Shouldn’t he have found somewhere else for you to go?”
“He should have,” Natalie replied. “But Tina needed me. She didn’t respond well to being rescued. She wouldn’t come out of her quarters, and she wouldn’t talk to anybody but me. Commander Axilon kept us here so we could stay together until she recovered.”
Melanie shook her head. “And now she’s gone.”
“And it’s all our fault,” Amber added.
Natalie rushed to her. “Don’t even think that! Tina made her own choice. None of us made that choice for her. If she couldn’t handle life outside the regeneration bed, we can’t force it on her.”
“I never thought she’d be the one to cave in and run back,” Melanie told her. “I would have thought Amber would be the one to do something like that.”
Natalie cast a glance at Amber. Then she lowered her eyes.
Amber straightened up. “I know you both thought that about me. When Fo and his men first took us from Earth, I thought I would die of fear. But after they put me in the regeneration bed, I started to like my new life. Now that I’m here, I know I can handle anything that happens.”
Natalie gazed into her face and sighed. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that. I was worried about you. It sounds terrible to say. I shouldn’t.....”
Amber stopped her with a wave of her hand. “You don’t have to apologize. I know I fell apart. I’m not as strong as you, Natalie. I always thought you were the strongest of us, all except....” She stopped.
Melanie nodded. “We all thought Tina was the strongest, and we were all wrong. Tina’s gone, and we have only ourselves now. Let’s forget about her and concentrate on the future.”
Natalie stopped in front of the medical bay. “I don’t want to forget about Tina. She may have let us all down and put us all in danger, but I can’t let her go. I can’t rest until all four of us are free.”
Chapter 9
Dima Pranxmo strode out of the medical office and surveyed the group standing outside his door. He raised his eyebrows at Natalie. “Are these the new arrivals?”
Natalie smiled. “These are them.”
“Where’s the other one?” Dima asked. “She’s not....”
Natalie shook her head. “She’s fine. She went back.”
He stared at her. “She what?”
Natalie closed her eyes. “Never mind, I’ll explain it to you later. Let’s go in so these two can settle into their quarters and start their new lives.”
Dima shrugged and went back into the medical bay. Natalie led her friends into the examination room behind him and motioned them to sit down in the comfortable chairs next to Dima’s desk. Natalie took her own chair and leaned back against the cushion. Amber looked around. “So where’s this scanning machine you’re going to use on us?”
Dima sat down at his desk and touched a button on the arm of his chair. “The scanner sensors are embedded in the walls. They feed all the information into the ship’s central computer and the report pops up on my display here.”
Amber stared at him. “What display? I don’t see anything.”
Dima pointed down at his desk. “Right here. Have a look.”
Amber stood up and leaned over the desk. Under the smooth surface of black glass, a square of glowing text formed lines against the black background. Her eyes widened. “Earth female, aged 23, perfect health except for minor bruising to the.....What the heck is this? History of fracture to the left leg. Re-ossified to normal density. History of regenerative alteration. Genetically enhanced for increased libido and auto-suggestibility.”
“You see?” Dima replied. “It’s all there. The scanners pick up every detail of your physical health and compile it into a report.”
Amber turned to Natalie. “Did they do this to you, too, when you first came on board the ship?”
Natalie nodded. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? The sensors can even monitor you remotely when you’re in your quarters. I used to come to Dima for reports on Tina when I wasn’t sure how she was doing and I didn’t want to disturb her. The sensors could tell me if she’d eaten her meals and how well she slept the night before. It’s very useful that way.”
“What about me?” Melanie asked. “What can your computer tell you about me?”
Dima touched his console. “You’re also in perfect physical health, but we could expect that for someone who spent so much time in a regeneration bed. However, the computer says you’re experiencing particularly acute stress. It’s much worse than anything any of the others experienced when they escaped slavery with the Toom. It’s even more acute than Tina’s.”
Natalie glanced over at her friend, but Melanie didn’t return her glance.
“The computer compares your reaction to other slaves who were not exposed to the regeneration bed,” Dima went on. “In a sense, the regeneration process had no effect on your emotional reaction to your experience.”
Natalie frowned. “Melanie?”
Dima squinted at the display. “The computer surmises, after analyzing the data from your physical and psycho-chemical hormone profiles, that you experienced some similar circumstance in the past. In a way, your previous experience prepared you to respond to your capture by the Toom. It made you more resilient, but at the same time, it subjected your system to stress for which the regeneration bed could not compensate. You’ve been suffering this stress without the benefit of the regeneration bed.”
Natalie and Amber stared at Melanie. She kept her eyes fixed on the floor in front of her and said nothing. Then, without warning, she covered her face with her hands and burst into tears. Natalie rushed to her side. “Melanie, what is it? What happened to you?”
Melanie sobbed as though her heart would break. “I never told you. I never told anybody. I never wanted anybody to know, and now some stranger is telling me what happened to me. I can’t bear it!”
Natalie cradled her in her arms. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it together. You’ve been through hell and came back alive, but you don’t ever have to go through that again.”
“You don’t understand,” Melanie wailed. “I could have stayed with the Toom forever. I enjoyed it. I loved it. I don’t blame Tina for going back.”
“None of us does,” Natalie replied. “We all enjoyed our time with the Toom. That’s what makes leaving so hard.”
“I enjoyed my time with the Toom,” Melanie told her, “but I didn’t enjoy the other time. I didn’t have a regeneration bed to help me through it the other time.”
“What other time?” Natalie asked. “What happened the other time?”
Melanie clamped her eyes
shut, covered her ears with her hands, and screamed at the top of her lungs. “I was kidnapped. Don’t you understand? I was kidnapped and held prisoner. I was a sex slave, just like I was with the Toom.”
Natalie frowned. “But who would do this to you?”
“I never laid eyes on him before in my life,” Melanie replied. “Don't ask me how he knew my sister and I would be walking home from school when we did, but he must have been waiting for us. He pulled up to the curb and told us he was taking us home that day. He said my mom sent him, and that she had to go to the doctor. He took us home, all right, but not to our house.”
Natalie gasped. “Where did he take you?”
“He took us to a different city and kept us locked in a basement for two years,” Melanie told her. “He sold us to his friends for two hundred dollars a pop.”
Natalie’s jaw dropped open. She stared at her friend, but no one said a word. She and Amber and Dima listened in silence.
“My mother finally got the cops to believe we didn't run away,” Melanie went on. “They tracked the guy down and raided his house. My mom got us back, but she took us back to our old house, and we went back to school the very next week. We never talked about it. We never had any counseling. No one ever knew, and my mother never mentioned it again. She died without ever talking about it once.”
Natalie sank to her knees by Melanie’s chair. “Oh, Melanie! I never knew. I’m so sorry.”
Melanie raised her tear-stained eyes to Natalie’s face. “Will you stop apologizing to me? I can’t stand it! You’re the one person who’s done the most for me in my whole life. I wouldn’t have been surprised if you left me with the Toom, but you didn’t. You risked everything to get me out, and now you’re doing everything to make sure I settle in here and get my life back. I owe you everything. I owe you my life.”
Natalie shook her head, and Melanie’s face swam with her tears. “I only wish I’d known. I only wish....”
“Stop it!” Melanie snapped. “Stop it right now. I can’t stand you feeling bad for me. Besides, none of that matters now. We’re out, and I’m going to prove to you and the rest of the world you didn’t make a mistake by risking your life to free me. I’m going to take this life by the horns, and I’m going to thrive. You’ll see.”
Alien Romance Box Set: Eblian Mates Complete Series (Books 1 - 3): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance Page 13
