Jailed

by Daniella Wright

  I look into his operation better and understand that he’s genuine. He’s seriously rescuing these people. He’s said as much it doesn’t give much money, so I can’t think of any motivation for him to do this, other than genuine philanthropy.

  I’m not sure if all his crew share the same view. I hear mutterings of discontent, and long stares from some of the crew in the social rooms, and it always makes me nervous, because of the power they wield. I wish in a way I could have some sort of weapon. A gun, a laser gun, a lightsabre, whatever the hell they go for up here. But even with those, I’m not sure it could be enough. Unless they had helmets that protected from their telepathy. Or something. Not that I even know if that’s feasible, but hey.

  I find myself growing fonder of Krizen, honestly. Sometimes I lie in bed and dream about him, but I’m not sure if it’s just an echo of what he did before, or whether I’m growing seriously attached.

  Or even if it’s some kind of Stockholm Syndrome. I’m not trying to emulate him, though, or scramble to please him. I’m trying to find my way home, and figure out the system around me.

  I get myself out of bounds one day upon the ship, walking into an area I’ve never visited before. I hear voices, quiet, coming from one of the rooms, and when I pass, one thing stops me dead in my tracks.

  “Should we kill him?”

  My mind starts whirring. Kill who? Glancing around nervously, I see no one who is about to jump down my throat and demand what I’m doing here.

  “I don’t think it would come to that. He’s a good Fauv, we can try to imprison him and drop him off.”

  “Good or not, this business earns nothing. We save some people. Big deal. We get nothing out of it, nothing to feed families. All the donations go on keeping this cursing thing running.”

  I recognize the grunts as Fauvin language. It’s Krizen’s crew members. Discussing mutiny? Murder?

  “But the humans. We sell them, we’re made.”

  “Yes, but don’t forget Mardyn. He’s hot on our tail.”

  “Don’t worry. I have an idea for that…”

  Footsteps startle me into action. I start walking faster, panic igniting my body. Just as I turn the corner, I hear a door open, and don’t risk looking back. My heart threatens to stutter out of my chest, and my limbs shake from adrenaline.

  Immediately, I know I have to go to Krizen.

  If they remove him… then there’s no one to regulate what happens to the women. No one to help them.

  Greed. Of course aliens would be motivated by it. Fuckers.

  It takes me a minute or two to find my direction again, and I head towards the command deck, hoping I’m not going in on one of the few times Krizen isn’t there.

  Walking in, I find he is, but the two sentries are watching as well. I eye them nervously. Are they part of the plan? They’re not with the group I overheard, but that doesn’t mean they’re not part of a possible coup.

  I open up the galactical map under a pretence of looking for the Milky Way, but I eventually confess what I’ve heard to him. Although I said it quietly into his ear, I wince when he repeats it out loud, for the sentries to hear. He demands to know the names, but I can’t give him any.

  “I don’t believe it. No one would do that. I’ve traveled with some of these Fauvs for years. No.” He dismisses my words, and my face flushes.

  “That was before you got four humans on board. You said it yourself. We’re worth fifty billion chits each or more. How many people would turn up that kind of money? Why do you?”

  I know I’ve struck a nerve. His eyes narrow. I’ve just accused him indirectly of slavery again.

  “Get out,” he hisses. “Now, before I get really mad. No words. Nothing. Go.”

  I see the murder in his eyes, and a thrill of fear resonates. I’m not getting through to him. Not now.

  He doesn’t want to believe his crew will betray him if the price is right.

  I walk past the sentries, and I feel their stares upon me. God, I hope they’re not part of the coup.

  I head back to my room, feeling lost again, unsure. Once again, I’m stuck in a precarious situation. No way was I not overhearing the rumblings of mutiny. I need to somehow persuade Krizen before they catch wind of it. If they haven’t already.

  What can I do in this context? He’s obviously not willing to talk to me right now. I can’t trust any of the crew, and I haven’t exchanged so many words with them. The former captives don’t have his ear. Maybe they’ll be scared enough into demanding an audience with him, but I don’t see any of them being proactive. A lot just stand around listlessly, even with their new freedoms.

  The other humans don’t seem entirely sound of mind, either. They took the imprisonment worse than I did. I kept myself thinking, exercising, talking.

  I also thought often about my family, and that’s been helping me to cling on as well. I doubt my mother and father would want a gibbering wreck of a daughter returning home.

  The answers to my fears come later, when it’s lights out through the ship.

  The door slides open, and I see someone silhouetted there, just before my body is hit by that fucking mental thing. I tense up, and I can’t scream. I can’t unlock my throat. I can barely breathe. They walk over to me and pick me up, and I identify him as one of the crew members. He walks out with me rigid in his arms, and I see more of them when I desperately roll my eyes, trying to make out what’s going on. Krizen! Why didn’t you listen?

  They take me somewhere I’ve only explored once. The pod bay.

  “Got her? Good. She already warned the captain. He didn’t believe her, but he has a soft spot. If she’s around, it’s a liability.”

  “We’ll need to act faster. Once he notices…”

  “Yeah, well.” The voices wash over me. I can’t tell who is speaking. Everything sounds as if it’s coming from a great distance. I just hear low grunts, with different underlying accents.

  “This will get Mardyn off our trail and rid the whistleblower,” the one holding me says, and there is a murmur of agreement.

  I’m bundled into one of the pods, only big enough for one, maybe two people.

  “Cut the communications in the pod, too.”

  “She won’t know how to use it…”

  “She might.” More grunts. I see them tinkering with the wires in the pod, ripping out the ones attached to a monitor. I’m roughly hauled on here.

  “Did you send the signal for him to catch?”

  More murmurs, then the pod door slams shut on me. Clanking, whooshing noises disturb me, and I still can’t move.

  A low humming noise reverberates, and I feel the pod judder as I’m launched from the spaceship. I see it through the small window in front as I tumble, just before it vanishes from sight. My heart drops into my stomach.

  I’m able to move my limbs again. Panicking, I tamper with the monitor, trying to find some way to communicate. Within moments I’m sobbing, the fear almost crippling me. The colors of space spin around me. I don’t know how to make this pod move, or if they disabled that. I’m just moving uselessly in the void.

  I don’t know how long I’ve been tumbling through space for, but some time later, a spaceship converges on my location.

  I watch it apprehensively.

  A golden beam of light probes out of it, ensnaring my pod.

  I’m whisked out of the pod – and I’m straight back in the cell that’s been my prison for God knows how long.

  “Welcome back, human,” Mardyn’s voice croons through the intercom in my old cell.

  My response is to hit my fists against the wall and scream.

  Chapter Four

  Again, I lose track of time. Apart from Mardyn’s sneering, waspish face, though I give him no indication that I understand his language now, I get to hear his degrading insults first hand. His hateful black eyes and thin yellow face infuriate the shit out of me. There’s fear, of course, but right now, my anger overrides all that.

  I
hear him have to persuade his “frustrated” crew members to not take it out on me, because I’m his money earner.

  I think about Krizen. I wonder if he’s alright. If he’s noticed my absence, and connected the dots, or if the crew have already implemented their mutiny. I don’t know, but I can’t help but reflect on what those crew members said. He’s fond of her. It’s true I’m the only one of the rescued going onto the command deck, but I just assumed it was because he knew where to take the others. Not because there was anything significant about me. Other than his interest with my blonde hair. His almost but not quite assault.

  Did he do that because part of him desired me?

  I cling onto that fresh thought, allowing it to fuel me. Any thought in this hellish cell is better than nothing. The memories of earth are fainter then I’d like them to be. The memories of Krizen, his noble, shaggy face, his mountain of a body, his quiet confidence – and the sharp, hot scent of him – it’s much fresher in my mind.

  I make that my focus, with my family. I entertain myself. I think of what it might be like to be in bed with him. Anything, really. Anything but this fucking cell again.

  I think about him taking me by force. Part of me wonders if I should be so attracted to an alien, the other part, though, craves him unexpectedly, now that I’m truly focusing on it.

  I admit, it starts consuming my thoughts. I feel myself slipping into the madness, the longer I remain here, getting my food and water rations, and listening to the guards constantly debate whether they can get away with raping me or talking about their next haul.

  When you have nothing better to do, you sleep a lot, or even hibernate. Several times, I’ve woken up to find two or three ration packs on the floor. I hate sleeping so long, it feels horrible, but I don’t feel like I have a choice.

  I wake up, and notice I don’t have a ration pack this time. I finish the one I’ve placed by my bed, and stare at the door, sure I should be due a pack by now.

  I don’t get one.

  Reluctantly, I trudge over to the door, and push aside the window to peer out into the corridor. The ceiling light is flashing red, like an alarm, but there’s no sound. I numbly stare at it for a moment, trying to process what this means. I lean harder against the door, and it swings open, causing me to stumble.

  I clatter into the corridor, gaping at the door. It was unlocked? I’m half tempted to go back in again, in case the wasp fuckers come to inspect, and after a minute’s deliberation, I decide that something fucky is going on. At least three of the rooms in the corridor have had their doors melted.

  Why else would the lights be flashing? They never did this in the whole time I spent here before. Frightened, I shuffle along the empty corridor, the heat of the ship wafting into me from the onboard air conditioning. I make it out of the corridor for the first time by myself, and stick to perceived shadows as much as possible, often forgetting to breathe.

  I see a blood splattered body lying on the floor. I gasp, and crouch by it, seeing it’s one of the waspish crew members. Bullets riddle his back.

  What happened here? My eyes rest on his weapon. I remove it from the holster, and hold something that looks like a gun, though not of any design I’ve seen on earth.

  Reassured by its weight, I test it, and a blue bullet spews out of it in a quiet hiss, ricocheting off the wall. Heart shivering, I make my way through the network of corridors, finding the odd wasp body here and there strewn over the floor. When I finally reach the Marauder command room, it’s a bloodbath. I see Fauv bodies – were there Fauvs in this crew? – scattered over the deck. A dozen wasp-alien bodies. And Mardyn, with a hole in his head.

  I step through the room. Holy shit. The consoles flash around me. The ship appears to be spinning, not on any course.

  Someone coughs, and I almost leap out of my skin, before I identify the source of the noise.

  Holy crap. It’s Krizen. I gasp, drop the gun, and hurry over to him. There’s blood seeping out of his chest and arms. His eyes focus on me as I touch him.

  “Krizen? What the fuck?”

  He coughs again. It’s weak, and makes my heart quail. “Nice to see you too.”

  I laugh, a little hysterically. “Are you dying?”

  He glares at me then. “Not yet. Help me to the med bay. It should be near here… I can heal when I’m there…”

  I’m not sure how I can help a muscle mass like him, but I try nonetheless. He leans one of his arms on me, gets up, causing a fresh gush of blood. “One second. I need to make sure we’re not going to crash into a meteor…” I help him stagger over to the control panel, where he adjusts the settings so we’re no longer crazily spinning.

  I don’t want to admit how relieved I am to see him. My heart is soaring. Half in worry, half in happiness. We find the med bay after some searching, and he gets himself into an odd machine, that reminds me of a sunbed. It starts an examination beam, and he smiles at me reassuringly.

  “As long as I’m not fatally wounded, this will repair my tissue.” He smiles apologetically at me then. “I’m sorry. You were right.”

  I bite my lip. “The mutiny happened, I take it?” Part of me wondered if he had deliberately chosen to come and rescue me, or had somehow tricked Mardyn into coming aboard.

  “Yes. I knew something was up when I went to check in on you, and you weren’t there. You’re usually in the command room most of the time. I’ll notice a behaviour change like that, especially after your warning. In hindsight,” he coughed, “I really shouldn’t have said what you overheard out loud. Bad judgement, really. I didn’t want to believe it.”

  I smile wryly into his face, and grasp his big hand in mine. “What happened, then?”

  He grits his teeth. The blue beam continues examining him, highlighting damaged spots on his body as he lies down. “Some of the loyal crew members came to warn me, and we ended up ejecting all our rescues from the spaceship, programming the pods to land at the nearest Demogalactic planet. Then we escaped before the lockdown was completed. They fired a few shots at us, but we got out. Then, we coordinated to find Mardyn’s ship – knowing you were tossed to him as bait, and pretended we were the other humans. There was only three of us, so that made it easy.”

  I smile in spite of myself. “You came back to me.”

  Krizen appears embarrassed by my words. “Yes. But I lost the last of my loyal crew in the spat.” He squeezes my hand, then scowls at the light now healing him. “I suppose that’s it, then.”

  “What’s it?” Now I’m confused. Alarmed as well, from the wave of sadness that covers his face. “What’s wrong?”

  He closes his eyes, swallowing a lump in his throat. “Everything I’ve worked for. Gone. Just like that.” He pauses, before saying, “You know why I started this job in the first place?”

  I shake my head, now stroking his cheek. “No. I don’t. I think you missed out on saying that one.”

  He laughs, then winces from the pain it causes him. “I lost my sister years ago to crime rings like Mardyn’s. When we found her in the end, she had died from chemical toxins and abuse.”

  My heart twinges in sympathy. A few things click into place, making perfect sense to me. “Oh. So that’s why…”

  “Yeah. That’s why.” Something twitches in his jaw. “When I’m healed, I can take you back home. We’re in Mardyn’s ship. He’ll have the coordinates for your galaxy on it.”

  Excitement hits me like a hammer. Then, I register the gravity of his words, the kind of emptiness in his expression, and I hesitate.

  When he gets better, I can go home at last. After ages of doubt, of wondering if I’d ever make it back, I’m given the chance. I’m no longer lost in space and time.

  Except, now that I’ve found out I can go home, I’m a little bit at a loss. There’s a dejected Krizen lying in the med bay, with all his life’s work gone. This alien had saved me. Twice. More than twice, when I think about the fact he gave me the freedom to roam, to seek my home.

&nbs
p; I feel responsible for him, somehow.

  It also seems we have a lot of dead bodies to clean up.

  Chapter Five

  A bunch of dead bodies later, ejected out into the vacuum of space, and one healed Krizen, we’re standing in the command room, looking at the map that shows where my home is.

  Despite his lack of enthusiasm and motivation from losing his crew and ship, he is happy to take me home.

  “It’s the least I can do for you after everything you’ve gone through,” he grunts. I see the pain in his eyes, though.

  “What will you do once I’m gone?” I ask. I step in close to him, to stare into his light brown eyes, his shaggy face.

  He shrugs. “I’ll probably scrap this and go back to my home planet. Stop the donations and work something less chaotic.”

  “Doesn’t sound like something I expect you to do, Krizen. I think you’re pretty good at rescuing people.”

  “Right.” His lower lip juts out, as he taps on something in the console board. “Except I need a crew. And it’s clear to me that obtaining a stable and reliable crew is a dream. If someone like you comes up again, this will happen again. This lifestyle isn’t luxurious, either.”

  I examine the constellation map that has my galaxy highlight. My heart twangs. I’m about to say or do something that will either be the best idea of my life, or the worst. “We can rebuild your crew again. Screen them more carefully. Maybe get some female crew members, anyone who has had a bad experience with trafficking. Just be picky. I mean, you got this guy’s ship, right? The living quarters could do with some upgrading, but it’s not that bad, right?”

  Now it’s Krizen’s turn to stare at me in puzzlement.

  “You’re a good person. I can see that. This is what you’re meant to do,” I whisper. My heart is hammering. “Don’t give up.”