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Chapter Seven

P etra

I have Anya comm Theos, who’s one of the males accompanying the women on their shopping spree. I tell them to use a couple thousand extra credits on non-necessities, compliments of yours truly. I also ask them to buy me really good hair-cutting shears and a pair of size six shoes if they can find any.

I’m still a little shaky from my ridiculous tear-fest. I must have been more worried about being thrown back into a cell than I’d realized. I told Anya I was fine to make my way back to my room alone although I was so nervous on the walk to the bridge I have no idea which direction to go. After all, how big could this ship be?

I immediately realize the error of my decision to strike out on my own. I try to smell my way to the kitchen—I know how to get to my room from there—but I don’t detect anything. I must be really lost; I find myself in an abandoned wing of the ship. For a moment, I forget how tired I am and explore.

I know the gladiators and human females on the ship overthrew their previous masters; there must have been a lot of them. I count at least twenty rooms. It looks like the inhabitants left in a hurry. The rooms are in disarray, with beds unmade and clothes scattered everywhere.

I rummage in a dresser and grab a couple pairs of socks. They’re made for a large person, but at least I have something to cover my feet.

I make my way out of this abandoned wing and realize again how exhausted I am. I just want to find my room and lay down.

Everything is written in a language I can’t read. Even the numbers next to the doors are incomprehensible. I finally find the dining room and make my way to my door. Luckily, I counted doorways from my room to the food. I’m ready to pass out in my own bed, except now I realize my doorway is not keyed for my palm print. I feel a moment of overwhelm, losing my balance and needing to lean against the wall until I pull myself together.

By the time a towering silver male happens by, I’m certain I look as frazzled as I feel.

“Can you help me get into my room?” My voice sounds desperate even to my own ears.

“Certainly. I’m Steele. Let me comm Savannah to code your door.”

Ten minutes later, my doorway’s been re-keyed and I’m lying in my own bed. Within a minute of that, I’m completely out.

I wake up to a soft knock on my door. When I answer it, a sweetly pretty blond is standing there. She appears to be studying the floor, then glances at me with a quick, shy smile. “I figured you might be sleeping... I’m Grace, sorry to wake you,” she pauses awkwardly.

“No problem, come in, I shouldn’t sleep the day away, I was just so tired.” I shrug.

“Actually, I think you did sleep the day away because I’m here to see if you want to come to dinner.”

“Whoa, it was just breakfast. I was so exhausted. What time is it?”

“Savannah can rig the clock on your computer.” She gestures to a tablet perched on a tiny desk in the corner of the room. “She figured out some math ratios and can have your screen display Earth time on it. She tells us it’s only good to within 99.4% accuracy with real Earth time due to... trust me, I have no idea. But it helps you know whether it’s morning or night and when it’s mealtime.”

She flashes me a hesitant smile.

“That would be helpful. There are so many things about my life right now that are disorienting, if I knew what time it was, that would be a good start at normalcy. Well, right now nothing’s normal. I guess it’s the new normal,” I force a little laugh, then gesture her to the chair at the desk.

She stands where she is, twisting her fingers as she looks at the floor. “I also came to thank you for the credits. That was so generous of you. The girls all bought a few things, but everyone voted to give me the lion’s share…”

She flinches and gives a sheepish look. “Lion’s share? I wonder if that’s a politically incorrect thing to say with Zar on board.”

She looks so serious, but it strikes me as funny, and my laughter loosens her up a bit.

“At any rate, I found a shop with an instrument that’s a lot like a guitar. I’ve been lost without my instruments. I play guitar, piano, flute, and a little banjo. They’re my sanity. I think I’ll do a lot better now that I have my ‘guitar.’” She puts it in air quotes.

“I’m glad to help.”

“I know how hard you worked for the money. I’ll try to pay you back.”

“Don’t worry. Enjoy it. By the way,” I add, “I think I saw an instrument that might interest you in the other wing.”

“Other wing?”

“Yeah, I got so lost today my head was spinning. I found these socks.” I lift up my leg to display the sexy blue sock with the heel approximately halfway up my calf. “And there’s a ton of clothes and personal items scattered around. One of the rooms, about halfway down the right side of the hall as I recall, had what looked like a space-age musical instrument.

“I thought I might find some dead bodies. Glad I didn’t. You guys must have put up a fierce battle when you took over this ship.”

“There were only eleven of them, and three of those we let go at the next port. What abandoned wing are you talking about?”

I explain how I stumbled into it. She looks excited to explore it.

“I almost forgot,” she says. “I have your scissors and a weird pair of alien flip flops. It’s the best we could find. We all bought some; none of us were wearing shoes when we were kidnapped. We’re hoping to find something better on the next planet we land on.”

“Thanks. What’s for dinner?” I stand up, ready to go. I realize I never hacked the extra couple feet off the bottom of my jumpsuit, and if I don’t roll up the legs I’m going to kill myself walking to the dining room.

“We were gone all day and didn’t want Maddie to have to cook. We bought, um; well... we decided to call it rotisserie chicken. Of course it’s not chicken. I mean, we have no idea what it is. When the shopkeeper told us what it was, Theos interrupted him real quick and forbade him to show us a picture of the animal on his computer. Theos assured us it tasted like chicken, which come to think of it, how could he know since he doesn’t know what chicken tastes like? At any rate, we bought enough for everyone and we’re hoping it’s edible.”

Zar’s voice comes over the intercom inviting everyone to dinner, so we take off.

S o this must be everyone on board. I’ve met all the women by now. There are a few men I’m seeing for the first time. It’s kind of scary to see all these aliens in one place. They’re all massive, muscled gladiators and some of them look fierce. Oh my, there’s a big gold guy with a huge, muscled neck. I’m totally shocked when I’m told he’s the pilot of the ship. As foreign as he looks, he’s totally hot looking. He grabs some food and tells Brianna he’s heading to the bridge.

It seems everyone’s in couples. Everyone that is except Grace, the doc, and me. We all sit at the same table.

“So, you women have only been on the ship for a couple of weeks, right? It seems everyone is paired up. How is that?”

Grace stalls for a moment, at a loss for what to say. “The slavers kidnapped ten Earth women for the ten gladiator slaves they were already transporting. They threw us together haphazardly and…” She stops talking for a long moment. A really long moment. I think she’s ready to cry.

“And each pair was forced to mate each day in an attempt to impregnate the females and increase their price at auction,” the doctor compassionately finishes her sentence.

Oh, what the heck did I do? They both look ready to cry.

“I was part of the plot. I had to oversee things.” The doc looks sad and chews his bottom lip. “If you hate me for that you have every right. Every right.”

“At any rate,” Grace finishes, “even though most of the couples like each other, everyone chose to go into separate rooms after we were freed. They wanted to figure out if they had a real attraction for each other, or if it was simply a matter of proximity. Except for Zar and Anya who are living together and are a mated pair.”

“Come and get it!” Maddie places several heaping platters of food on a table shoved against one wall. We form a line, cafeteria style, and help ourselves.

“Rotisserie chicken,” she puts chicken in air quotes, “mashed potatoes, gravy and... vegetable.” All of us women are well aware that this meal is actually mystery meat and mystery starch plus mystery veggie.

“Smells good,” I call to her as I dish up.

Everyone at our table is already eating when a straggler wanders in. No, not Shadow, who I’ve been looking for out of the corner of my eye all evening. The tiny female who sits with us looks like a three-foot-tall elf. Her oblong ears tilt back, her shoulder-length hair is blond. She looks tired. She looks more than tired, she looks sick.

“Tyree, I’ve asked you to visit me for a checkup several times,” Dr. Drayke scolds. The perpetually smiling doctor is not smiling now. He looks concerned. “I’m the ship’s doctor, and I think I’ve let this go long enough. I’m worried about you and I need to examine you. No excuses! You choose, tonight after dinner or tomorrow morning.”

“I’m certain I’ll be better in the morning,” Tyree hedges. Hell. I’ve only known her for about five minutes, and even I know she’s full of shit.

“First thing after breakfast Tyree, or I’ll come find you.”

“Where’s her mom?” I ask.

Tyree may be tired, but she dredges up the energy to shoot me an eat-shit-and-die look. “I’m thirty-five.” She waits a moment for that to sink in, then pulls her face together and adds, “I’m Tyree, you must be Petra.”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know. I’m new here…” That was possibly the biggest social blunder of my life, and I’ve made many.

She finally takes pity on me and interrupts with, “Forget it, I have looked in the mirror lately. I know you meant no harm.” She gets up with effort and helps herself to the tiniest portions of food I’ve ever seen. A one-year-old would eat more than what she put on her plate. And now that I’m watching, I see she’s not even eating what little food she has, she’s just pushing it back and forth.

Shadow slinks in and heads straight for the food table. He’s almost out the door with his “to go” order in hand and a roll in his mouth when I pat the table next to me. “Over here, big guy. Table for five!”

A hot potato of awkward moves back and forth between Shadow and Grace. There must be hella backstory between these two. Shadow pales and takes a step back; Grace makes a little strangled sound in the back of her throat. I freeze; the hand that was patting the table is suspended in midair.

Out of my peripheral vision, I see Captain Zar almost choke on his bite of food, launch out of his seat, and hurry over to Grace.

“May I see you for a moment?” he asks as he nimbly pulls her out of her chair, grabs her plate and seats her at his table.

“Oh shit!” I murmur to no one in particular, “I don’t know what I did, but I just stepped in a big steaming pile of…” I clamp my lips shut—people are still eating. “What was that about?”

“Ask Shadow,” Tyree and the doctor say simultaneously.

“I need to get back to medbay,” the doctor announces as he shoves the last of his food in his mouth. “Tyree, how about we do that exam right now?”

She nods eagerly, and they exit as fast as they can.

Shadow is standing awkwardly, holding his plate in both hands, a roll still clamped between his lips.

“This isn’t the place for me,” he says after he sets the roll on his plate. “You don’t want to be associated with me. Everyone will hate you, too. That’s not fair to you, Petra. You’ve done nothing wrong. I’ll eat in my room. You go sit with the others. Make friends.”

He strides out the door. I’m sitting alone at the table and for the second time today my eyes are welling with tears. I won’t have it! I’m not a crier. I take deep breaths and keep my head down, trying to finish my food. Grace, bless her, comes back over and sits next to me, putting her hand on mine.

“No one blames you, Petra. We’re all so proud of you, how strong you are.”

“Thanks Grace.” Boy, this ship is full of landmines. “It’s obvious something happened between you and Shadow. Can I ask—”

“I have an announcement to make,” Maddie practically sings this information, cutting off my question. “We ladies bought some delicious food we’re going to cook tomorrow. We’re going to have a party. We've talked Grace into playing her new instrument. We’re all going to dress up in our new clothes, and anyone who wants to can dance.

“The party will be tomorrow night after dinner. It’s a combination sail away party from planet craptastic, a chance for us to get dolled up after being in pajamas or jumpsuits for the better part of a month, and a welcome aboard party for our newest crewmember, Petra.” She points at me in a ‘ta-da’ motion. There is a smattering of applause and many welcoming nods and smiles.

My fears of guilt by association seem unfounded. It’s a pleasant greeting, although I’m still curious as hell about the backstory between Shadow and Grace.

I stand up. “Thank you all for the warm welcome. I’m a hairdresser by trade, or at least I was. I will be setting up shop here after lunch tomorrow. Anyone who would like a professional cut is welcome to show up.”

I walk back to my room and don’t even get lost once. On the way, I try to figure out what just happened in the dining room and why everyone hates Shadow; he doesn’t seem so awful to me. It’s a puzzle and I don’t have enough pieces.