AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Barnacles,” mutters one of those watching, and they rush forward to throw open my cell door and threaten me with a blaster gun.
“Give me the weapon, or I will shoot you, female,” he says.
“Here,” I say, tossing the staff up to re-grip into a spear hold. I lunge forward, launching it spark-side out at him.
He dodges, but my throw glances off one of his tentacles, causing him to curse again. He catches me with the tip of his own electrified weapon, sending a painful shockwave through my body. I slam against the back of my cell. While I’m recovering, my alien jailer grabs his companion and drags him out of my cell, locking the door behind him. Once the quivering body is moved out of the way, his rescuer comes around the side of the cell to jab me with his cattle prod one more time. He holds it to me, zapping me in punishment for my resistance.
My nails dig hard into my palms as the shocks flow through me. I let out an animalistic growl that turns to a shriek until he finally pulls the weapon away. Sweat beads all over me from the strain, and I fall to the floor, panting.
“That one might be unsellable,” one of them says as they hoist up their injured companion. “It will do us no good to deliver unsavory goods.”
“Raina!” Kaye hisses at me from across the way. “What are you doing?”
“Providing entertainment,” I say. “Did you enjoy the show?”
“They are going to separate you,” she whispers, darting a glance at the door as if they’ll pop back in any moment. They won’t. They came to feed us, and that means they won’t return until we’re starving again.
“So what? Maybe then I’ll get a better look at the rest of the ship,” I say. “It’s not doing us any good being together. It’s been at least a week now. If not longer.”
“It’s doingmegood. I know you’re alive,” she argues. “It’s starting to feel like I’m the only one concerned about preserving your life!”
“They didn’t kill us before, and they won’t kill us now,” I tell her, rolling my eyes. “We are money to them. And if they decide to kill me tomorrow morning? At least I’ll die well-rested, because I’m going to sleep like a baby tonight just thinking about how I fried that creep’s suckers right off.”
Kaye rests her forehead against the bars of her cell and sighs.
“I don’t know why you bother with that one,” Frankie pipes up from her own prison. “We already knew she was a reckless idiot. Or did you forget that time she hopped on the back of a charging wildebeest?”
She’s not talking about arealwildebeest, but it’s what we call the horned space-cattle that populate our colony. They can be aggressive fuckers, and their charges can be lethal. There were a few kids running around, and this wildebeest was ready to turn them into shish kabobs. At the time, the best plan I could think of was jumping on its back and redirecting its attention for a while. It ended up working out all right, even though I could’ve broken my back when he threw me off. But no one died, and the kids got out of the way in time.
“Raina, please,” Kaye murmurs. “I know you’re losing it. We’re all losing it. But don’t you think we should lie low and wait for a good opportunity?”
“And what if we never get one?” I demand. “It’s been weeks since they woke us up. Weeks since we walked on solid ground. I can’t sit back and take it!”
I say weeks, but the frustrating truth is that we don’t know how long. We often have no indication of the passage of time aside from meals and the changing of guard duties.
The guards return to my cell and stare at me.
“Can I help you?” I bark at them.
“Prickly one,” one of them addresses me. “You won’t make it to the auctions now. Are you pleased with yourself? This means you will not merit a new owner with any worthy position for you.”
“Suck my cock,” I tell him.
“So vulgar,” the other mutters. “Do these human females have cocks?”
“No, you imbecile,” the first guard snaps. “She is a barbarous animal with no manners! She is mocking us. Female, I leave it up to you. You have one last chance to be civilized, or we’ll take you to the cargo hold and you’ll be included in our livestock sales.”
I hock a fat loogie on his leering face.
He responds with a wet hiss of disgust. While they are trying to convince me that their threats are bad for me, I can’t help but wonder whether being sold with livestock might result in a better chance of escape than being taken to an auction. After all, if the three of us were sold to different buyers, all of whom were rich enough to afford either pleasure slaves or “exotic” servants, there’s a good chance they’d also have the security to keep their purchases in line. It might be a bad choice, but at least it’s a different option. Kaye and Frankie will go their way; I will go mine. Perhaps one of us will find freedom. We’ve already made a pact to find each other in the event of separation.
The guards don’t say anything more. They shoot me with a dart that pricks into my shoulder with stinging force.
My body becomes limp and numb, but my mental senses are still sharp. The feeling is strange, like my limbs are made of rubber.
“No!” Kaye shrieks as the monsters drag me out of the cell. “Where are you taking her?”
Our captors knock the tips of their weapons against the bars on her cell to keep her from reaching through. She shudders away.
