by M. Garnet
She was on the bunk for what must have been a couple of hours. That gave her time to think about things she didn’t want to conclude. These aliens looked like anyone from Earth, except for their size. Well, a few people on Earth were seven foot tall or more, but it wasn’t the norm. The larger size appeared to be the norm for these tough guys.
That their technology was far advanced compared to Earth’s was proven. They had some type of defense that had prevented the attacks from the Air Force. She had seen the blossoms of brilliant color as bombs burst against something above the warehouse and the large parking area where the space ship that had no form seemed to sit.
She saw the people that were left behind collapse all at once, falling to the ground in unison. She didn’t think that they were dead. Somehow, they were just unconscious, all at once. Yet Mike, her partner, was dead. She knew several other officers were wounded or dead. Several men of the National Guard had appeared on the scene. They had fired first, but were taken down by burst of nothing from the hands of the big guys.
Yet, with the technology of these aliens, it could have been worse. So, they didn’t kill wantonly. They had restraint, with some kind of principles. They showed real respect to their own two dead crewmen, with a type of honor guard taking the two bodies on board the ship.
Still, there was a conflict here that she was having trouble understanding. With the honor that they showed to their own dead, with the restraint in the killing of more of her own people, there was this barbaric attitude toward her, along with the prisoners. Slaves. She wondered if these people believed in and accepted the attitude of owning other people. Slaves.
This created, in their minds, a different attitude toward others. If you owned another, you did with that slave what you wanted. She thought back to that sad time in the beginning of the South in old America. The plantation owners had slaves, field workers, house servants, and even for sex. Shit. She really wanted to be back in the warehouse with the group that was unconscious on the floor.
It surprised her when a door slid opened unexpectedly. Two large men were there. One had a rod that she suspected was like a cattle prod. She decided not to move. The other had a tray. They stepped just inside the room. One touched a spot on the wall. A flat area slid out. He set the tray down. They backed out, letting the door close behind them.
She got up, going over to the spot where the door had opened. There were the lines in the metal, but no indication of what might open it, or that it really was a door. The technology was beyond anything she had seen. She looked at the tray, seeing that it held a cup with liquid and a sandwich. She hesitated, but decided she needed to keep her strength up. She didn’t believe they were going to poison her, since it would have been easier just to shoot her back in the warehouse. She also wondered and was worried if the food was edible.
The cup held water. The sandwich was bread with some type of spread that was sort of bland, but she felt she needed to eat. She quickly ate and drank, standing on the cold floor, then went back to pull her feet up on the bunk to warm them. She had no way to tell time as she had been stripped of her watch along with her belt. Everything in her pockets had been taken away. They had taken her uniform shirt, but she still had her uniform slacks and the sleeveless tee shirt over her bra, so, she had nothing to fight with. Although she was trained in basic physical defense, she was not looking forward to trying it against the large guys on this ship.
She guessed that the men were some type of military. All of them were around, or over, seven feet tall. There was also a lot of muscle packed onto their bodies, so they evidently either came from a planet that built muscles or they worked out a lot. Either way, she was not happy to have found that out when she had fought them the first time. She remembered the arms that had wrapped around her in the warehouse, squeezing the air from her lungs, until the final kick with her boot was all there was. The next thing she knew, she found two guys holding her up. She began struggling again to try to escape, which was totally useless.
The big guy in charge and one of the others had very small gadgets attached to their necks. They spoke English most of the time and she didn’t like what she heard. Then, they spoke in their own language. She felt that she wouldn’t have liked it if she could have understood any of it.
She saw a woman being pulled onto the ship after being stripped naked. It seemed that she had told them where she had hidden. She saw, over her shoulder, that some of the men were also naked, and were herded into the ship through a different opening. She was pulled in a different direction. She noticed that the ones left in the warehouse were dropping as if they were knocked out. Some of the soldiers from the ship had also gone over to where they were holding her people. They selected some women that they brought on board in the same area that she and Shanna had entered. They pulled her away from the rest and taken her down a narrow, metal hall that was featureless except for lines that went from ceiling to floor. They had stopped at a point she couldn’t tell from any other spot on the wall. One of them put his hand on the wall. A door slid open, through which she was pushed into the room or cabin. So here she was, sitting on a bunk.
The door slid open again with a sigh. The big guy himself entered. He hesitated a moment, looked at her, then pushed against something. A drawer slid out. She decided to keep quiet and just watch until she found out what was going to happen.
He pulled out a couple of items of clothing, then went over to another spot. Here, he opened another drawer that was deeper. He pushed next to it and a door opened to what looked like a bathroom, small, but similar to what might be on a sea ship. A small, enclosed shower, a small sink, and an obvious toilet. Okay, these guys were built like the people on her planet. The bathroom was all built of what looked like stainless steel, but not as polished. She could really use that toilet.
He opened another deep drawer and dropped her leftover tray into it before shutting it.
Her eyes drew back to the big man. She realized that he was stripping off his clothes. He kicked off his boots, letting them lie on the floor. As he pulled off everything else, he dropped them into the deep drawer. Totally nude, he started into the bathroom, but stopped to look over at her. She was shocked, but tried to keep her eyes on the bathroom instead of him.
He went to another spot, opened another slot to pull out something, then closed that slot up. He walked over to her with something in his hand. She froze and just watched the naked man approach with the small item in his hand. She was aware that she had been correct—physically, he was in shape, with large muscles on the arms and chest, ripples in the stomach. She raised her eyes, refusing to look any lower. He had a small item, about the size of his thumb, in his hand. It was dark, smooth metal. He reached out, but she drew back in a natural reaction.
He said something, pointing to his neck. She saw that he had a small round tab on his neck, but she wasn’t sure what it was. She decided she didn’t want a huge, naked man near her, so she slapped his hand away. She slid down the other way. Suddenly, he had his hand in her hair in a cruel grip. She let out a yelp and raised her hands to pull at the hand holding her hair. He pulled her head back at a sharp angle that allowed him to place the metal item against her neck as she kicked her legs out. The metal bit into her flesh. She yelped again, but he had let go of her as he stepped back.
She reached down to her neck, feeling the small metal item attached to her as the pain stopped. She looked up and was now able to scuttle away.
He spoke words that she understood through a vibration at her neck. “It is a translator. You will now be able to understand our language, or anyone else who talks to you. This translates different languages even if the other person does not have on a tab. It will help you speak their language so that with effort you can communicate. Don’t try to remove it, as it has dug into your neck muscles.”
He turned away, going into the bathroom. She watched in total confusion as he stepped into the shower. Water poured out, but ther
e was no enclosure, yet none of the liquid splashed out on the floor. The water stopped. Air came on to dry him. She did glance at him fully. From the back, he had long strong legs with thighs thicker than her waist. He was sinewy for his size. She looked away as he turned to face her, but she got a quick look at a very large male organ accompanied by two heavy balls that she wished she hadn’t seen. She didn’t want to think about that portion of his anatomy.
He came out picking up the items he had previously set out. He began to get dressed. “Do you want to get clean?”
She sat, gripping her fists into the blankets for a moment until she realized he had spoken to her. She looked over at him, but he had his back to her. He found a mirror and was doing something to his face.
She decided to try this translator. “No, but I could use the toilet.”
He waved his hand, continuing working, ignoring her. She crawled to the end of the bunk, then edged to the side, entering the small bathroom. She looked around for a door to close. She stepped out, then stepped back in. She finally turned around and went over to the toilet, looking at it. She decided it worked in the normal manner, but she saw no handles. She looked around, then took the couple steps back to the door again.
He looked over at her. “Problem?”
“Privacy. The door won’t close,” she spoke firmly.
He turned, looking at her for a long moment. “You don’t have privacy anymore. Hurry, we are to join everyone for the meal.” He then went back to another drawer. He pulled out something else as he still ignored her.
Damn, what is this all about? Okay, I have a choice. Either one is going to be uncomfortable. Since she didn’t want to be uncomfortable in her clothes, she went ahead and used the toilet. It worked like a bidet. She refused to look out the door to see if he was watching. She pulled her panties and slacks up, then went to the sink. She washed her hands, splashed her face, and as she rose up, he was there, holding out a towel. She jumped back, but the area was so small there was no place to go. He also handed her a hairbrush, then he was gone. For a big guy, he moved fast and quietly.
There was a mirror over the sink, so she brushed her hair. Somewhere along the way, all of her hairpins had disappeared. She had no choice but to let it hang down, but it was clean, so she pushed it behind her shoulders. She laid the brush down and slowly exited the tiny room. She headed for the bunk, but suddenly there was a large hand encircling her upper arm. They were out of the cabin. They were going down the hallway.
She tried slapping at his hand and pulling way. Her smaller weight actually pulled him off stride. He stopped suddenly and she found herself pushed up against the wall with a hand around her neck cutting off her air. She was off the ground as she struggled for a moment. As blackness started to drift behind her eyes, she quit fighting. She just hung onto the wrist that was choking her with both of her hands.
“Good, you understand. Resist, and I will punish you. Now, let’s go eat.” He let go, which let her slide down, coughing as she pulled needed oxygen in. She felt color come back into her face. This time, he had his hand in the back of her neck as they were moving down the hallway. She was slightly ahead of him as he pushed her at a fast pace with the tight grip on her hair.
They rounded a corner, then entered a larger room that was a dining room. It was probably also used for other purposes. There were a lot of men already at the tables. There were some men bringing in dishes, serving what must be officers. He pushed her around until they reached what was the head table. He pulled out a chair, looked at the man sitting in the next chair, and motioned with his head. The guy gave a big grin, got up and moved down. That caused a wave as each man bumped himself down from one seat to the next. The big guy pushed her down in the vacated seat. He, too sat down. Immediately, someone brought a plate and set it in front of him.
It was full of steaming food. There was fruit that she didn’t recognize next to baskets of bread. Glasses around all the men were filled with what looked like wine. In front of her sat a small empty plate and a small empty glass.
There was a lot of talk going on, but even with the translator, she was having trouble keeping up with it. She could understand when one person addressed the man next to her. She understood that he was the commander, that his name was Bleak. Most of the talk was about the next stop on their schedule. It was evidently not a scheduled one, so there was some discussion as to how much this would put them out of their way. It also touched on how much profit they would make.
She was surprised when Bleak stopped eating to place food from his plate onto her plate. He also picked up his glass then tipped it to pour some into her glass. Okay, she was not one hundred percent dumb. There was some message here. She wasn’t sure if it meant she was under his protection or if she was his possession, but it did mean she got her food from his hands. She wasn’t very comfortable with that thought.
She decided she could miss a couple of meals in order to make her own kind of statement so she just sat. She listened and watched. She looked around the room. She saw that she was the only woman present. She did catch a couple of rough jokes about women. A couple of the men got up, saying they needed to get back to their training. Because of the laughter, she had the feeling it was not military training.
“Eat.” The deep voice beside her startled her. She looked up at the commander.
She frowned up at him. “I am not very hungry.”
He smiled at her with only a lift of one side of his mouth. “As warriors we have a belief, eat when possible to stay strong. One never knows when life will make us miss a meal.” He lifted his glass, drinking deeply.
She looked down at the plate, thinking about his words. If she ever had a chance to escape, she would need her strength. She had no utensils even though he had something that looked like a fork and spoon combined. Well, she had fingers, so she pulled a piece of the meat apart and tried it. It didn’t taste like chicken, but it was at least palatable, so she chewed. She also picked up pieces of the vegetables. She found them bland, but edible. Hoping they at least had vitamins, she ate another couple of bites, but at this time, she heard the mention of slaves. The crew was talking about selling the men at a different auction than the women. The bite in her mouth would not go down.
Chapter Three
They were intending to sell her people on board at an auction as slaves, and if this also meant the women, this would mean her, too. She forced the bite down, hoping that what she had eaten would stay down because now her stomach was in serious trouble. She sat back in the chair, fighting the nauseous churning that was pushing at her throat. She couldn’t sit still any more. She pushed back so that she could jump up. She was then able to hurl herself around the table.
She saw arms reaching for her. She ducked, throwing herself low, then sliding between legs spread apart. She rolled under a table. A hand closed around her shoulder. She twisted and did a back flip that sent her behind three surprised large men who were laughing. She slipped past them, heading for the large open door. There was a man coming in through the door. She did a drop kick, bringing her heel into his crotch, causing him to keel over as any male would, grabbing his manhood in pain. Her body hit the floor, but instead of rolling and coming up, which was what she had trained to do, she found she had a large boot planted firmly in the middle of her back, pushing her into the metal floor.
She caught her breath. She turned her head sideways to look up at the commander. He had come around the other way, letting his men fight with her just to interrupt her sprint to wherever by waiting for her at the door. He had guessed that was where she had been heading. He reached down, caught the waist of her pants, and hauled her upright. There was a wave of applause along with a lot of laughter. A couple of guys helped the soldier, who was still moaning while holding his jewels, to stand in a bent position.
The man was dragging her upside down by her waistband down the hallway, hardly able to get her breath. She tried to get his attention, but
she couldn’t even yell or speak, as she couldn’t draw in enough air. She waved her arms, but to no avail. They were at his cabin. He literally threw her onto the bunk. She had figured out by this time that he was really mad, but so was she. She realized he was going sell her as a slave. She was not only angry, she was scared in a way that she had never felt before.
“I will be back when the ship is settled down for the night. Be naked and in the bed. Believe me, you don’t want me to strip you.” He left without looking at her.
His words began to sink in. Naked. No, shit, no. This is going to lead to rape. There is a lot wrong with this picture. She was not a virgin, but sex was not high on her to do list. In fact, she could count the times on one hand, and none of them had been forceful, or rape. There was the fact that this guy was built bigger than the guys she knew. She was not sure her body could accept him. Rape was humiliation, and it was also going to hurt, but what options did she have?
She looked around the cabin and then down at her clothes. If he tore them off her, that would hurt also. She moved her pants around and looked at the red burn mark she had at her waist from being carried back to the cabin. She also had bruises on her arms from earlier scuffles. Would it invite sex if she was undressed, or would it invite pain if she were dressed? She slammed her fists into the wall behind her. In disgust, she got off the bunk and carefully got undressed, folding all of her clothes and placing them into a pile on the floor. When she got to her panties, though, she ran out of courage, so she left them on. She climbed back into the bed, pulling the covers over her.
Time was a slow torture as she waited for his return. She had no way of telling how long it was, but without a watch, the time seemed to drag. She found that she was stiff from holding herself so tight in the bunk against the cold metal wall with the covers clutched tightly in her fists. She was almost relieved when the door slid open with its soft sound as he entered. She watched as he went about opening drawers, putting items away. He began to undress. She found it difficult to breathe.
