by L P Peace
Still, the Ledaan was going to Caras, and Daris knew people on Caras.
Thoughts of what Addison might be going through haunted Zoe.
She sat in the far corner from Abrami, who hadn’t looked at or acknowledged her in the time since the devil had taken Addison away. She seemed disinterested in the shock and horror the rest of the crew were suffering.
Sometime after Addison was taken, Ariana and Pyri had flanked her. Now, hours later, they were still sitting with her, each holding a hand.
‘That girl is way too intelligent to be serving food. Bullshit neuro tests.’
How smart was Addison? Smart enough to find a way to make the alien wait? Smart enough to escape? Smart enough to find a way to the IGC and meet up with Sophia? Zoe was grasping at straws, she knew she was, but it was all she had.
‘Oh, give it a rest, Winters. You’re breaking my fucking heart.’ Abrami eyed her with disgust.
‘Dammit, Abrami, let the girl mourn her friend.’
Mourn?
‘Her friend?’ Abrami laughed. ‘They weren’t friends. No one liked Daniels. She was weird.’
Was?
‘Sophia liked her,’ Kayleigh said. Her voice was weak. Husky.
‘Sophia liked everyone,’ Abrami conceded. ‘She had a soft spot for weaklings and weirdos.’
I’m not weak.
Zoe looked up at Abrami, who was watching her, a scornful look on her face. She imagined a whole conversation in her head where she told Abrami about Sophia’s sister. But several things stopped her, not least of which was the dead weight of her tongue in her mouth.
Would Abrami even care anyway?
‘The Tessans will be coming, won’t they?’ Pyri whispered beside her.
‘You’re an astronavigation ensign. You understand how vast space is. What do you think the chances are?’ Abrami looked at Zoe. ‘How about you, Lieutenant?’
The first time Zoe sat in her station in astronavigation, the screens lighting the darkened room showing the nav data the Tessans had provided in real terms. There were holographic projections that turned the whole room into a 3D representation of local space. Each race existed in clouds of coloured lines. Tessan space was a golden glitter on the borders of each species they protected. Earth stood at one edge, the space around them mostly blank and unclaimed. Zoe could expand and contract the projection to the micro and macro level and had played in the room until her mind couldn’t stand it anymore.
Unless someone gave the Tessans their exact location, they would never be able to find them. There was no hope. It’s why Zoe hadn’t even considered it until now, she realised. She no sooner considered it than dismissed it. The only chance she would ever get to escape was from her eventual owner, and even the thought of that paralysed her with fear. What if she did and he caught her? What kind of punishment would there be? Did aliens whip humans, or were there worse punishments?
In the distance, they heard the sound of the lift opening, and suddenly, the room was filled with the catcalls of dozens of voices.
‘Oh, god.’ Zoe stood. Pyri and Ariana followed her a moment later. Zoe strained to see over the heads of the people in the cells between them and the lift but couldn’t see past them. Ariana grabbed her and pulled to the back of the cage with the rest of their cellmates.
The walkways between cages swarmed with alien males.
Somewhere, from deeper within the room, Zoe heard someone scream. The sound of cages opening sparked panic.
A group of alien males appeared in their corridor. One of them, the alien who had injected her when she first came aboard, was opening the cells. The others hauled people out. It wasn’t until the alien passed their cell that she realised she was wrong. The alien wasn’t opening the cells, just every second cell. The cells the men were in.
The cage next to theirs, the one Davenport was in, was opened and aliens stepped inside, hauling them out.
Davenport ran to the back of his cage and striking out, he grabbed Abrami and pulled her to the bars.
‘You’re the CO now,’ he hissed.
Hands grabbed him from behind.
‘Do better, Abrami,’ he said, holding onto her and the bars. ‘I know you can do better.’
‘Fuck, Marcus,’ Abrami’s eyes were filled with horror and dread. Behind Davenport, a giant orange and teal alien with digitigrade legs and enormous wings on his back pulled at him. Davenport let go of Abrami before he pulled her face-first into the bars.
‘I know you can, Danielle,’ he said as the alien hauled him from the cell. ‘I know it. Rebekah knew it too. You look after them, Danielle. You look after them as long as you have them.’
‘Oh god, oh god, oh god.’ Zoe closed her eyes.
The chaos of the room grew louder, taunting her until what she was seeing in her mind was worse than what was happening.
‘Oh my god, is that—’A male alien’s voice interrupted Pyri’s question.
Zoe opened her eyes and found herself looking into the eyes of Earth’s history.
She sucked in a breath and shrank from the bars when the creature reached through them, seemingly trying to grab her from across the cage.
He said something, looking straight at her, then waited, seemingly for an answer.
In all of her life, Zoe never thought she might see one of the aliens who’d committed The Violation, let alone have one of them talking to her.
‘What’s he saying?’ She looked at Pyri.
‘You don’t wanna know,’ Pyri whispered.
‘He’s saying he would fuck you because you’re not mud-coloured,’ Abrami snarled. ‘Fuck you, pig piece of shit.’
The alien said something to Abrami, which turned her face pale. She withered into the corner. Beside Zoe, Pyri hissed and shook her head. ‘That’s…’ Her voice seemed to choke as she searched for the right word. ‘Foul.’
The pale alien turned back to Zoe and continued speaking, then turned to Abrami and snarled something.
‘He says you look like a…’ Abrami frowned. ‘A what?’
‘Aavani,’ the alien’s voice trilled slightly over the double ‘a’ sound.
‘Aavani. Isn’t that one of the slave races?’ Abrami looked around the cage.
The alien spoke again.
‘Oh, Jesus,’ Abrami gasped. ‘Winters.’ Zoe looked at Abrami. There was pity in her eyes. ‘He says he’s at the end of his term, and he’s choosing you. I think they’re paying him with you.’
The devil appeared in a burst of speed and knocked the white-skinned alien down the long walkway.
‘Oh, your boyfriend’s here.’ Abrami’s pity twisted into an ugly sneer.
The white alien almost fell to his ass, catching himself on one hand, but he was up and throwing a punch at the devil so quickly Zoe’s eyes lost him for a moment. In a blur of activity, the dark-skinned devil pinned the white alien to the bars and snarled something in his ear.
‘What the fuck?’ Zoe looked at Kayleigh, who was staring back at her.
The devil spoke again, and the white-skinned alien hissed, then said something.
‘Your boyfriend there just got that white-skinned piece of shit to apologise to you.’
Why would he do that? Zoe shrank back from the aliens, looking around, hoping someone would appear and break them up. The other aliens seemed to be utterly disinterested in what was transpiring between the dark purple and white aliens.
Looking at the devil, lightning struck her stomach when their eyes met. The devil said something else.
‘Oh no, Zo,’ Pyri shook her head.
‘Fucking hell, Pyri, you’re killing me here. What?’
‘He says you’ve been chosen by their boss.’
Zoe looked at the devil; he pushed the white alien away and stared at her a moment. There was something fiercely proprietary in his gaze. Zoe felt a tightness in her chest, a sudden breathlessness.
‘Is he the boss?’
‘Not unless he talks about himself in the third person.�
��
The devil looked Zoe up and down with a raw, desperate hunger on his face. Then he was gone.
‘Jesus, Winters,’ Abrami sneered at her. ‘What did you do to make him want you that much? Do you give good head or something?’
‘Back off her, sir,’ Farah said. Her lip curled at the word sir.
‘What did you say to me?’ Abrami’s eyes widened in shock.
‘You heard me.’ Farah paused, ‘Sir.’
‘How dare you,’ Abrami hissed. ‘I’m going to…’
Farah waited a moment to drive the point home. ‘I was willing to accept orders from you when we were on the ship. I was willing to see if you could step up, like Commander Davenport asked, minutes ago. But I will not sit back and watch you rip into the crew. If you won’t step up, then I will.’
Abrami stared at her for a moment, Zoe thought she was going to argue. Finally, she shrugged. ‘Have it,’ she hissed.
Around them, the noise of the room became subdued.
The lifts closed, and the room went quiet. Zoe could hear crying.
Farah walked to the door of the cage.
‘My security team,’ Farah called out, loud enough for the whole deck to hear. ‘roll call.’
‘Sir, Carter, sir,’ a female voice called out.
‘Sir,’ another voice rose, also female. ‘Anderson, sir.’
‘Sir, Khan, sir,’ another woman called.
‘Sir, Moretti, sir.’
Seventeen voices responded—each female. Farah looked at Ariana.
‘Sir, Nakamura, sir.’
‘In alphabetical order,’ Farah called. ‘Status.’
‘Sir,’ Anderson called. ‘All the men are gone. They took the chief engineer and his second. Sir.’
‘Next,’ Farah called. She began pacing across the cell, her head cocked as she listened.
‘Sir,’ Carter shouted across the room. ‘Same as Anderson. All the men are gone, sir.’
The reports came back in from all corners of the room. All of the men from the Endurance were gone. The women were alone.
‘That’s why they broke us up by gender.’ Zoe looked up at Farah from the floor. ‘To make it easier to separate the men when the time came.’
‘Yeah. Sons of bitches.’
‘What do you think they’ll do to them?’ Pyri asked. It was one of the few things she’d said since they arrived.
‘Can’t imagine it’d be anything good.’ Farah grimaced.
Zoe glanced around the room, as far as she could.
‘I wonder what the white alien’s race is called,’ Pyri muttered.
‘Cealin,’ Farah said. ‘It was part of a security briefing we got sent from the Tessans.’ Farah slid down the bars to the floor.
‘Cealin,’ Zoe tested the word on her tongue. ‘Cealin,’ she repeated, locking the look of the alien and word together in her mind. ‘I wonder what the winged guy who took Davenport is?’
‘Maybe you can ask your boyfriend the next time you see him,’ Abrami said.
One look from Farah was all it took to silence her.
‘I wonder what your bo… er.’ Pyri glanced at Abrami, then looked back at Zoe. ‘I wonder what that dusky purple alien is?’
‘Or their boss.’ Farah was watching her. Zoe’s skin felt like it was creeping from being under so much scrutiny. ‘I think it’s the metallic purple dude.’
The one with the shock stick, Zoe realised. ‘What makes you think that?’
Farah shrugged. ‘Just a hunch.’
The lift doors opened once more—shock pulsed through the room.
Zoe covered her face and waited for the hoots and jeers to start again, convinced the aliens had returned for them. After a moment, when it was apparent that the large numbers hadn’t returned, Farah stood.
‘Can you see anything?’ Abrami asked.
Farah shook her head. ‘Wait.’ She moved her head, tracking something. ‘It’s the purple metallic guy.’
‘Speak of the devil,’ Ariana muttered.
‘What is he here too?’ Abrami scoffed.
‘They’re walking the cages,’ Farah said. ‘I guess he’s a buyer.’
Farah watched, murmuring their movements to the people around her. Eventually, they appeared.
The metallic purple alien was accompanied by a pale-skinned alien with Lilac hair. Cold blue eyes passed over them, and he said something.
Pyri got closer to Zoe.
‘He says he prefers the pale-haired women to the dark-haired ones.’
‘Fuck,’ Zoe whispered, glancing at Danai and the long corn blonde hair that was falling out of her tie.
She felt something prickle across her skin and stilled, keeping her eyes fixated on a small divot in the floor. The pale alien said something to the purple one.
‘You’re getting a lot of interest today,’ Pyri said, taking Zoe’s hand and squeezing it.
The purple alien responded, and the pale one turned to Danai. He stared at her, a wrinkle of a frown appearing on his forehead.
‘What are you looking at?’ Danai snapped. Scowling, the alien walked on, leaving the purple one behind.
Zoe looked up; he was staring at her with what seemed to be a mix of several emotions. Zoe could make out anger and speculation. She tried to look him in the eye, but her eyes wouldn’t rise to meet his. She saw his mouth twist into a cruel smile and shivered, hugging her knees tighter.
He left.
Minutes passed. Down the walkway, they heard gasps of surprise.
‘Please, no,’ a woman’s voice called.
‘Who’s that?’ Danai hissed.
‘Please, please no.’
The two males exchanged words.
Kayleigh shot to the door, moving down the bars to get a better view. ‘Eileen Lane,’ Kayleigh whispered. ‘She’s a fighter pilot.’
The aliens passed. The pale-skinned one was dragging a small blonde woman behind him.
‘Eileen?’
‘Kayleigh.’ The woman slipped out of the man’s grasp. She grabbed Kayleigh’s hands, her face contorting in fear and frustration. ‘I had the shot. I had the shot, then Sophia jumped. I only hesitated for a second… No.’ The hands of her new owner grasped her.
‘The bet. Pyri’s money was on Sophia. Pyri won the bet.’
For a second, hope replaced everything. Then Eileen was dragged away. She screamed before she was gone. When the lift doors closed, they could still hear her muffled pleas. Then silence.
Zoe crossed the cage and pulled Kayleigh into her arms. Farah appeared a moment later.
Kayleigh was shaking, tears streaking down her cheeks. She wiped them away, then placed her hands over her face. ‘They’re going to pick us off one by one, aren’t they?’
Zoe looked at the upset faces of the women in her cage, and those around them. Her gaze landed on Ariana, whose mouth was pulled into a grimace.
No one spoke.
People spoke of attending auctions on The Crucible in whispered tones of horror.
Most of the men had been sold, en masse, to a mining corporation extracting amot in Iladar space. It was as bad as it could get. The Iladar were strong enough to stand up to the Tessans. If the Tessans wanted them back and the Iladar refused to bargain, there might be a war.
Now that the vast majority of the men were sold, the rush to get one had increased.
Daris stood on a balcony overlooking the hanger that had, long ago, been converted to an auction room. A Himaran female stood at the podium. Her dark grey, almost black skin was covered in bright red markings which advertised the toxicity of her species. They showed on her face and hands, the rest of her body was tightly wrapped up. Just to touch a Himaran was deadly. Her red hair was dreaded, long, down her back, and bright blue eyes looked out over the room.
‘Item one.’ Her voice rang out clearly. ‘This is an older human male. Like the others, he was acquired just a rote ago. Older models are notoriously harder to train, so I suggest he would be good as bait for a g
ladiator pit, or for a hunt if your interests lay in that area.’
Her words, delivered so professionally, chilled Daris to his bones. He hadn’t known it was this bad.
An Enhari pulled a human male up to the stage. The auctioneer went quiet, allowing the audience to peruse the goods on display.
‘We will start the bidding at three hundred credits.’
Daris hissed in a breath. They were practically giving him away.
The room was silent.
‘Please,’ the human addressed the room. ‘My name is James Whittaker. I’m a very important man. If you buy me, deliver me to the IGC, and Earth will compensate you handsomely.’ He looked around the still quiet room. ‘You’ll never have to work again.’
A murmur went through the crowd.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Daris saw Tolomus step up next to him. ‘If he hadn’t have said anything, someone would have bought him eventually. Now they won’t.’
Daris looked at Tolomus. ‘Why not.?’
Tolomus seemed to consider for a moment. ‘The Bentari and my people have invested a lot of money in making sure the human ship never reaches the IGC,’ he said. ‘All of our guests know this. None of them will risk their ire.’
Daris looked back at the human. He was staring out from the stage, hope fading from his eyes.
‘Please,’ he held up one beseeching hand.
‘What happened to his arm?’ There was a bright red mark on his forearm.
Tolomus’s smile was gone almost as soon as it appeared. ‘The data packet.’ Tolomus smiled. ‘The account access needs approval from the Tessans,’ he sneered. ‘But the information about Earth’s resources are worth a fortune. The Bentari and my government will pay a lot of money each, for a copy. As will others.’
‘He kept it in his arm?’
‘Between the meat and the bone.’ Tolomus crossed his arms over his chest. ‘One of my guards told me you fought a male who thought to claim the pale-haired female.’ He went on after a few moments of silence.
‘We were supposed to be getting the males, not staring at the merchandise.’
Tolomus smiled, there seemed to be approval there. ‘I just returned from there with the Nbalan. He was also interested in her. It seems she’s pulling a lot of attention.’
