by Rena Marks
What do they want with me? They didn’t bother to beam Miranda and Niki. Oh, God. This must have to do with my geisha/call girl training. I glance down, and sure enough—as usual—my nipples are erect and poke through the soft leather halter top I wear. I can’t let them see that. I won’t endure more training.
A wisp of the tie from my headband blends down with my hair, and I get a brilliant idea. While they’re distracted, I unknot it from the back of my neck, and quickly work the headband under my halter, around my boobs. I position it right over my nipples and it adds an extra layer to tamp the girls down. I tie it behind me and tuck the pieces into my leather halter.
The ship dips down, and we come to a landing. We’re not leaving the planet. I’m confused—why abduct me if we’re staying here? The red air in my tube has dissipated to barely pink now, and I can watch the aliens interact even though the lights out in the main room are dimmed to nearly non-existent. The leader is barking an order to a couple of them. Then two nod, and the outer door lowers. The ship is shining a spotlight outside, because it’s grown pretty dark. Across from us is the old crashed Drurian vessel. That’s why we haven’t left. They want to check out what’s happened to the old crew.
Provided there are no more Drurians on this ship, we could lose two to the night. I hope they shut the door and don’t allow night predators in. As soon as I think it, though, the inevitable happens. A long, white, tentacle-like snout snakes up through the ship just as the other two leave to inspect the other crashed vessel. Lights begin flashing, and though I can’t hear anything, I’m sure alarms are going off by the way the four aliens on board turn and scurry about. One is grabbed by the white tentacle, and he’s lifted up toward the creature’s mouth. The other two are running, and trying to stab it even as the door to the ship closes. I move back, out of the way, huddling in the far corner of my glass cage. I can’t believe these idiots left the door open.
Then the white, gelatinous blob of a creature flings the Drurian against my cage, cracking it with the force of impact. His dark gray blood oozes down the glass, streaking it like engine oil. The other three Drurians manage to inject the creature with something that hardens its blob-like mass, and it becomes a hard, stiff, solid mass that resembles a skeleton. Yet it twitches, still alive.
All they have to do is shine the light on it, but no one switches on the bright overhead lights.
The remaining three Drurians are panting, and their eyes are large and blinking. They stare at me through the glass enclosure.
“What was that?” One asks.
The Drurians speak English? Son of a bitch, they never let on. That’s why one was able to pretend to be Bruno.
I shrug. “I have never seen anything like that before.”
“Captain,” the one next to him says. “I have lost contact with Drezin and Triacht.”
The one called captain closes his bug-like eyes. The eyelid moves up from the bottom. “Check their vitals,” he snaps.
“None detected.”
“Three men down,” he mutters, staring at me. “In less than an hour. Is that what happened to the last vessel?”
I remain mute. I can’t even believe he wants me to answer.
“Perhaps it is not worth it to pick through the remnants of the Donnorhea,” one says. He looks nervous, from what I can detect. “Maybe we just need to leave this planet.”
I have to keep them here. The longer we’re here, the more chance I have to escape. As soon as we lift off, I’m trapped.
“That is what happened,” I say. “Two of the Drurians went outside to repair some damage to the outside of the ship. They were never heard from again.”
“And the rest?” The captain asks.
“One was poisoned, somehow. A plant or something he ate.” I don’t want to give too much detail, since I might be able to push one of them into a poisonous tree.
“Each crew is manned by six personnel. That still leaves three unaccounted for.”
I shrug. “I wasn’t awake the whole time.”
One of the aliens goes to the controls, enters something and rips off a piece of paper that has ejected from a slot on the counter. It looks like a grocery receipt.
“Item 68835 of the Human variety. She was given the Eenspash programming. It was deemed unsuccessful and she was re-marked for food. In the event they managed to escape the planet before the food supply was depleted, she would be reestablished as level four slavery. In the meantime, she was placed in stasis.”
“Level four. A lady’s maid. What an honor,” the captain says, scratching his chin. “Even if the Eenspash programming was unsuccessful—“
“It says her heart failed upon the first time. They almost lost her.”
The captain clucks his tongue. “Still, a level four will fetch an excellent price. Now tell me, how is it you were able to survive on this planet while so many Drurians were viciously attacked?”
My brain works a mile a minute, trying frantically to think of something—anything to stall them. To keep them on the ground. And so much for tying the damn glow-rock headband around my nipples. They already knew how I’d been trained.
Just then there’s a clanging on the outer ship. One of the aliens turns his head, and the other screeches, “Captain! It is Triacht. He is trying to raise his hand to the identifier, but appears to be too weak.”
“Fool! I thought you said his life signs were gone?”
“I—I do not understand. That is what the computer read, but here he is outside. I have a clear image.”
“Raise the door,” the captain bellows.
Dammit. He’s going to let more predators inside, and this time there’s a hole the size of a head in one of my protective glass walls.
The glow rocks. I can fish them out of my boobs and tie them around my neck. That’ll keep the creatures from me until morning. I gulp. Morning is going to be so far away.
The outer door is raised, and I scramble, trying to get my glow-rock headband untied from my back. But a body is flung inside, and suddenly the small captain’s room is flooded with four Blaedonians, the Stargazer Neo, a female Stargazer, and a…man. A human man. They burst in and to my astonishment, the captain suddenly grows about five feet. Now he towers over everyone, even the Blaedonians.
Tijar and Jeroc stand together, brothers to the end. I see them glance quickly toward me, before probably assuming I’m safe in the glass. Tijar frowns when he sees blood marring the surface, but must have assumed I’m all right since I’m moving around.
The Drurians are outnumbered. There are only three of them, even if one is larger than the rest. As I watch, my guys charge, taking on the captain. I scream.
What the hell are they thinking? Go for the little guys.
No, instead the woman with the silver hair goes for the little Drurians, and they’re an easy kill. She grabs their heads and bangs the back of their skulls together, squishing their brains all over the place.
“Dammit,” the human with her says. “Two of them, Persephone? You couldn’t leave one for someone else?”
Then my attention is diverted to Tijar and Jeroc, as they take down the giant captain. Jeroc is thrown behind him—across the room—and my breath catches. Then Tijar distracts the captain with a series of jabs to his chest, and the captain seizes, jerking upright before collapsing onto the floor. Behind him stands Jeroc, his sword bloody. He wasn’t down at all. It was a planned maneuver to get behind him while he was distracted by Tijar.
“Good job,” Tijar says, clasping Jeroc’s forearm. Then my mates turn to me. “Tessa.”
I run to the front of the glass cage to meet them, but there are no openings.
Neo has moved to their computer system. “Hold on,” he says, and then the glass surrounding me lifts into the ceiling. I run to their embrace. Tijar’s closer. I jump up, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. Jeroc moves in and surrounds us, hugging us both.
“Which one’s her mate?” the silver-haired
woman asks.
Just then Jeroc begins kissing me senseless. He breaks away long enough for me to kiss Tijar, too.
“Oh,” she says.
“Computers linked,” Neo announces. “Babe. Can you hear me?”
The voice of Jessie sounds over the loudspeakers. “Everyone all right? How’s Tessa?”
“Everyone here has made it. Tessa’s fine, though it looks like she had a run-in with a…” he kicks the white tentacle creature. “Mop. We’re coming aboard. Lights still holding?”
“You betcha.”
“Aschero had a couple energy rocks in his backpack,” Neo winks at me. “We used them to supercharge the headlights of the ship.”
“I will not ever get caught outside without a glow-rock again,” Ash says.
“We were able to re-amp the ship to make a tunnel of light, like a headlight. The night predators find it too bright to get through.”
“How did you get the captain to open the door?” I ask, stunned.
“That’d be me, ma’am,” the human says. “I’m Jack, head of your Protection Task Force.”
At a look from Neo, he amends, “For this planet. Persephone here is your guardian. Anyway, I did things the old-fashioned way. Picked up his cold carcass and knocked on the door with it.”
I stare at him, safe in Tijar’s arms. “You…knocked?”
“Yep,” he says cheerfully. “They opened right up.”
Son of a gun. They did.
“I don’t know how they knew to beam me,” I say.
“Jessie says you’re tagged. If we can get you over to the vessel, she’ll remove it.”
“Let’s roll,” Neo says, and I tense when the door lifts. True to their word, the light is bright as daylight outside, and there’s not a predator in sight. I can hear them, though, as they snarl and howl from a safe distance. We get quickly to the other vessel, and the door opens to show Jessie, Miranda, and Niki, all safe. Tijar sets me down, and they surround me, babbling at once.
“Are you okay?” Niki asks. “What did they do to you?”
“Nothing. I was kept inside a glass cage the whole time. But did you know they can speak English?”
Niki nods. “Drakar and I found out during captivity. They pretended not to, though. I think they wanted to trick the humans into talking freely amongst themselves.”
“Neo connected their ship’s computer to ours. I’m reading everything they’ve discovered. We have to make sure no other Drurians are going to be tempted to come here. The last thing we need is for them to know your planet is full of the energy crystals,” Jessie says.
“Did they notice your headband?” Niki asks.
“No.” I blush. “I, uh, took it off.”
“Where is it?”
“I used it as a bra to tamp down my own headlights,” I admit. “I didn’t want them to get any ideas about my sex training.”
Jessie gives a bark of laughter. “Good thinking,” she says.
Then Jeroc and Tijar are back, surrounding me and dwarfing me between the two of them. They seem to need to constantly touch me and quite frankly, I’m okay with that.
“Well, we’ll be here overnight,” Jessie says. “Might as well get dinner ready.”
“Miranda and I can get it.” The girl named Persephone steps up. “You can remove the tag in her, and check over the pregnancies on the other two.”
Jessie nods. “Thanks, Seph. Over to sick bay, ladies.”
The three of us follow Jessie, and I blow a kiss at the guys. When we get to the room set aside as a sick bay, she sees to Miranda first. She listens to the baby’s heartbeat, draws some blood and measures her belly. She asks some questions like how far along they are, but of course we can’t answer since no one keeps track of time.
She’s curious when she gets to Niki. “You say you’ve been pregnant since the last time Neo and I visited?”
“Obviously,” Niki says wryly, rubbing her belly.
“That’s been almost a year ago.”
“I know. Blaedonians are pregnant for eighteen months. We’re guessing the human gestation will last about a year. I’m shooting for another month or two.”
Jessie winces. “I can’t even imagine. Nine months was long enough.”
As if on cue, a baby’s cry sounds over the loudspeaker.
“Neo has the monitor hooked up to the ship.” She grins.
“Do you need to get him?” Niki asks.
“No, Neo will. He knows I’m in here with you. Now, Tessa, let’s get you up here.”
I lay on the table where Niki had just been and Jessie runs her scanner over me. “Sonofabitch,” she mutters.
“What?”
“They tagged you…in your womb. It acts as a sort of IUD, keeping you from getting pregnant. The problem is we’re not sure how much damage it’ll cause. Tessa, this is going to be a surgical removal.”
I nod. “Just get it out. I don’t want them tracking me again.”
She turns to Niki and Miranda. “Send Neo and Persephone in. And probably Tijar and Jeroc should come.”
Eyes wide, they nod and lean in to hug me. “It’ll be fine, Tessa,” Niki whispers.
“You’re in good hands,” Miranda says, and then they leave.
“Do you think I’ll be able to have children?” I ask Jessie.
“I honestly don’t know. But Neo has healing properties within his hands, and Persephone was trained as a nurse, so you’re in good hands. Plus you’ll have your guys right here. Let’s get you numbed up, shall we?”
The numbing agent does more than that, it makes me sleepy. I’m barely aware of when the door opens and Tijar and Jeroc come in, each taking a hand. Jessie whispers to Neo, and he comes up to the side of the table where Jeroc sits. He places his hands over my belly, and I watch them light.
“Sure would be nice to have Vesta here,” he says.
“You got this, babe,” Jessie says.
“Tessa, I’m going to bend your knees and have the guys each hold your legs up.” Persephone repeats the order in Blaedonian to Tijar and Jeroc, and each one takes my thigh just above the knee. She inserts something inside me, and I’m so fuzzy and out of it that I don’t even mind being spread-eagled. It helps that Tijar is murmuring in my ear and kissing my temple. Jeroc is tracing calming circles on my hand.
I can feel Neo’s hands, hot over my lower belly. Then something is inserted into me, and things feel uncomfortably tight for a minute.
“Okay,” Persephone says, and drops something into a metal container. It clangs when it hits. She quickly removes her gloves, but not before I see they’re bloody. Then she indicates to the guys that they can release me. She gives a look to Neo, and his hands glow even brighter as he holds them on me. He stays there for quite a while, and I know there’s more damage that they’re letting on. He stays like this at least fifteen minutes, until his hands are shaking. I don’t remember him having this much trouble with Niki, when he healed her scarred brain. Finally I reach out and touch his hands with mine.
“Don’t kill yourself,” I whisper. “It’s okay. It’s probably better if I don’t have kids anyway.”
“Hey, I’ve never failed, and I’m not going to on you,” he says, and his hands shake even more.
I’m starting to feel something inside. A warmth and a calm where only emptiness was before. Finally, his hands start to lose the glow and then they return to their normal color.
“All done,” he announces, and he looks tired.
“Everything’s all right?”
“Jessie will scan you to make sure, but I’d feel it if it wasn’t,” he says with a smile. He clasps a hand onto Jeroc’s shoulder, and says in Blaedonian that he thinks everything is completely fine.
Jessie takes a scanner and runs it over me, and smiles. “Not a scar in sight. Everything’s back to normal, hon.”
Chapter Eleven
I sleep in sick bay that night, where the computer can monitor me. It’s the first night I’ve spent away from
the guys and I feel lost without them.
When the door opens the next morning, I expect it to be one or both of them, but instead it’s Jessie, Niki, and Miranda. Jessie has her son nursing from her breast. She sits in one of the chairs next to me so she can finish feeding him. He coos as he feeds, and he’s cute as a button. When his eyes open, they’re the same neon-green as his father.
“He looks so much like his daddy,” Niki says to her. “We found out that Blaedonian children are born with tails. They shrivel up and drop off before ten years of age. At least, we think that’s how old they are. Tessa, what’s the youngest age of a child in your class?”
“About that. We haven’t seen any tails, but the last full-blooded baby just born has one. Not sure how low the diaper will go to compensate.”
“That reminds me, I’ll send you off with cloth diapers and safety pins,” Jessie says. “We have to avoid harming the environment, so I can’t give you disposables.”
“Understood,” Niki says, with a wide grin. “How about a mirror? We’ve tried to explain to the Blaedonian ladies what it is, but they’re baffled.”
“No problem. I’ll give you every mirror on the ship. It’s not like I can’t get more.”
She stops to burp her son, rubbing his back gently, before she switches to the other breast and speaks to me. “The men—including yours—left this morning to get to Jack and Persephone’s ship. I guess Jack and Seph chopped down a bunch of trees so they could land and get to you all when you were kidnapped,” she says. “Drakar, Aschero, Jeroc, and Tijar thought they could take them back, so they can take your load of glow-rocks to the village. They’ll bring the rafts back, so Jack can cut them a load of lumber from the fallen trees. No waste here.”
“Lumber? Do you suppose he could cut one round? Like a ballet barre?”
“Of course.” She taps her ear, and relays the message instantly. “We’re going to leave you guys with some new saws that are sharp, but we’ll take your old ones so there’s no disposing of trash that doesn’t belong here. Since we’re here, we should probably make you some new menstrual cups, too.”
