Page 11 of No Strings Attached (Mated Fates #1)
Vi watched Bobby head back through the door for the control room, now back in his coverall and his shift almost over. He had stopped to collect his empty food satchel from Acken, who had given him a low bow, and to remind the Ophidian that he would be turning the heat pad back down to its original setting. Then he had placed his hand on the scanner and turned around to simply look at her for several seconds, amber eyes glowing, as if she might be a mirage. She held his gaze and gave him a small smile before he turned and left. She shivered a little with…the cold.
What he had told her about life on Trallia, well at least for everyone except the warriors and females, had sickened her. She could feel herself cultivating a real appreciation for the quiet, honest, unguarded person that he was, especially after learning that he had known his whole life that he was destined for slavery. Apparently, he was the runt of his litter, though he was taller and bigger than she was, and runts had very little in the way of opportunities to escape slavery.
She thought she could sense the faint outline of the larger person he could become if given the chance, an intriguing and attractive personality built on the foundation of his innate honesty and unguardedness.
Trak, on the other hand, she was less sure of. She was about to start breaking apart and analyzing her misgivings when Bobby shut the lights out. She guessed it would only be for a short time before the day cycle started and the temperature rose, so she pressed backwards closer into Mister Beastly and let her thoughts drift, wondering what fresh hell might be in store.
It was about an hour after the lights came on again and the temperature rose slightly when Qlu, looking 100% like Time for Timer and ready to sing about cheese or homemade popsicles, burst through the cage room door with full entourage. He came straight to her cage and brandished something. Vi finally saw that it was a paperback book, the cover showing a woman in the throes of passion while green arms encircled her from behind and the green hands hid her breasts from view. Only the shoulders and neck of the alien were visible above her. The cover read, Extragalactic Love .
Vi stood and crossed her arms, glaring at Qlu.
He snarled at her, then spoke in a surprisingly squeaky voice, “I wish to know the contents of this human/alien sex manual!”
Though she wanted to burst out laughing at the sound of his voice and what he said, she held her stance and her glare.
Qlu turned around to his lackeys and said, “Oh shit, that’s right. We haven’t gotten a translator into her, yet, have we? Get one and some shock sticks!”
Vi purred, “I understand you just fine, asshole.”
Qlu’s head whipped around, and he screeched, “What did you call me?!”
“You understood me just fine, too. So, you want me to read that for you, huh? What will you give me?”
“Guh… give you?” He squeaked out, “You’re not in any kind of bargaining position, human. I’ll give you your continued life!”
“I doubt you’re going to kill me for not reading that book for you. I’m sure I’m worth more than that at your upcoming auction.”
“How do you know about that?”
She raised an eyebrow, “I know a lot of things about a lot of things. So, what will you give me?”
He put his hands on his body, elbows bent, in the region of his general roundness that Vi thought might be his hips, “What do you want?”
She thought about it, considering what she might realistically get from him, then listed off on her fingers, “A blanket for everyone, turn up the temperature in here, double the food rations for every captive, and increase the temperature of that snake’s heat pad.” She pointed at snake guy.
Qlu shook his head, wildly, “Absolutely not.”
She shrugged and regarded her fingernails, totally indifferent. “Then you’re a pretty shitty businessman, because some of us won’t live to see the auction in the temperatures you’re keeping us or on the amount of food you’re giving us. You’re going to lose your investment.”
He dropped his arms, “Which ones won’t make it?”
She shrugged again, as if disinterested, “I will die from the cold, and so will the snake, unless the auction’s today. The Estranian and the Garoxian will both die from starvation unless the auction’s this week, but I don’t think anyone is going to be in great shape by the end of this week. You’re really fucking this up for yourself with these conditions.”
Qlu thought for a moment, tapping his chin, then muttered, “Those four are my highest value items.”
She laughed, and said, “Sure we are, unless we’re dead.”
Qlu narrowed his eyes at her and thrust his yellow hand with the book between the bars, snapping, “Read me the first page so that I can be sure you even can read.”
Still laughing, she took the book, opened it up, and read, “Esmerelda awoke on the floor of a strange room, not her bedroom, when a giant, green, and very naked man burst through the hatch door and shouted, ‘Come with me, they’re almost here!’” She closed the book and looked at Qlu.
Qlu glared at her for another moment, then shouted, “Fine!” and waved his arms at his lackeys, “Do it!”
Vi stood there holding the book until the blankets had all been distributed, the snake guy had hissed in pleasure, the temperature had risen dramatically, and double breakfast had been served. She ate a single handful of the double ration of kibble while looking Qlu in the eye, then sat down on her folded blanket and began to read. Someone brought him a stool.
About four hours later, Vi was chugging down water from hollow cage bar, her throat raw, when she heard the sound of the last of Qlu’s lackeys shuffling out of the door and the latch clicking. He had jumped up and practically run out of the room during a particularly contrived, but no less explicit, sex scene.
She was embarrassed to have provided her fellow captives with their only taste of Earth art and literature through Extragalactic Love . But when she walked back to stand on her folded blanket, looked up, and met the others’ gazes, she saw appreciation.
Acken was the first to speak, peering at her through the cage bars, “I perpetually underestimate you, to my ongoing shame.”
Vi shrugged, a little taken aback, “It just seemed like a good chance to get our conditions improved so that we aren’t too weak for whatever fight is coming when we get out of here.”
Caussus raised his voice to be heard from the end of the line, “No, madam, it was your generosity and compassion that made you do what you did, even if you try to rationalize it as a practical measure.”
Acken was nodding. She just shrugged, then grabbed the bars and looked at Caussus. “Did you give Friend our buddy Malachite’s ration again? His double ration?”
Caussus looked down.
“OK, listen, that trawg looks exactly like an Earth dog. And an Earth dog will keep eating anything you give it, acting like it’s starving to death, until it gets so fat that you have to push it with a stick to roll it out the door. I’m getting more than enough to eat and give the extra to Mister Beastly. Snake guy says he’s fine, and Kompi looks like he’s pretty famine resistant. So, I want you to push Malachite’s ration to Acken, OK? We’re going to be relying heavily on him later.”
Friend whined.
“Don’t give me that shit, Friend,” Vi laughed, pointing. “You’re getting double rations now and it’s still probably too much for a trawg your size. You will help Caussus push it over to Acken.”
“Yes, Vi.”
“You’re a good boy, Friend. Now, I’m going to sing some songs to Kompi, then I’m going to sing those same songs with Kompi for Malachite, then I’m going to try to get some sleep before our friends return tonight.”
She took a handful of kibble from her bag, then passed the remainder of the bag through the cage to Mister Beastly. He took it, then handed her his blanket. She promptly wrapped it around herself and tucked in the top, like a towel, then said, “Thank you, Mister Beastly.”
“Aye.”
She was thinking a little early Elton John might be nice. Easy for duets and very melodic.
Violet awoke on her folded blanket pad to Kompi singing, “Tiny Dancer,” and felt a powerful wave of the melancholiest feeling she’d ever experienced. She didn’t have a word for it; the closest approximation she could make was lonely lostness . That was close. Lostness. She lay still on her blanket pad and allowed a few tears to leak out of her eyes while listening to Kompi finish the song. But she didn’t let her face screw up, or sniffle, or sob. Just those few tears. She could not afford to experience or indulge these feelings in any way. She could not give in to them, because people were counting on her.
With her back still to everyone else, she wiped the tears from her eyes and opened them, then got up and sat back on her knees, joining Kompi for “Rocket Man.” The lyrics wanted to pull her deeper into her malaise, but the singing together with Kompi—and both of them doing it for Malachite, to keep him alive—countered the urge just enough.
She didn’t know what time it was and had no real way of knowing, but somehow she felt very strongly that Bobby was in the control room already, watching her and listening to them sing. She could just feel it to be true.
Bobby entered the room a few minutes later, pushing the cart with the food sacks in front of him. His eyes lit up, and he smiled at her as he said, “I heard about your bargain with Qlu.” He began to move down the opposite row, making a bag bowl for the snake and then simply handing everyone their bag instead of using the maximum-security broomstick method. He continued, “I’m glad that today was a little more comfortable for all of you, with the extra food, and blankets, and heat.”
Vi watched him stick his arm fearlessly into each cage, stopping at Malachite’s.
Vi said, “His ration goes to Acken.”
Bobby turned around and trotted it back to the Estranian, then tended to her row, finishing up by handing bags into Mister Beastly’s cage, then hers. She wondered if he was conscious of how much trust he was showing everyone. She thought about him: quick to trust but also accepting of abuse. She’d maybe have to watch out for him, watch his back, a little extra.
She took a small handful of kibble from her bag, grimaced, and ate it. She didn’t honestly think she’d be able to choke another bite down, so she handed the rest of the bag to Mister Beastly. He had already finished his own.
Bobby scowled a little at her, with downturned whiskers. It was…it was…it was utterly fucking adorable, is what it was. She looked away.
“You’re not hungry?”
“I’m plenty hungry. I just can’t choke down more of that shit without gagging. I’m eating enough to keep me alive, don’t worry about it. Especially now that my body doesn’t have to work so hard to stay warm. When is Trak coming?”
At that, the door burst open and a squad of ten Trallians filled the entryway, all carrying shock sticks. Everyone froze.
The foremost Trallian pointed at Bobby and said, “You! Open the cage. Qlu wants her taken to his quarters.”
Vi yelled, “Fuck that!” Then she backed as far into the cage as she could. She pressed up against the side of Mister Beastly’s cage and he went to her, one hand wrapped around her waist and one hand ready for slashing.
The Trallian in charge pushed Bobby from behind with his shock stick and bellowed, “Open, now!”
Bobby stood frozen, eyes locked on Vi and blinking fast. Then he transformed. Completely. His shoulders sagged, he reached for a bar on her cage door to brace himself, and he let his head drop. The weary, cynical voice that came from him when he spoke was almost a perfect imitation of Trak.
“Sure, I open it up. And then you’re going to, what? Just go in and grab her? Out of the Garoxian’s arms?” He laughed. “Nice knowing you.”
“What’s your name?”
“Bobby.”
“You have a better idea, runt ?”
“Maybe. But I’d rather see your plan in action. Anyway, cleaning the chunks of you off the floor will be an entertaining way of finishing up my watch.” He turned to face the squad leader and leaned casually against Vi’s cage, arms crossed and smiling. “Ready?”
“No.” He waved the shock stick, “You will tell me your plan. NOW!”
“I don’t have a specific plan. But I’ve earned some trust from her. I was the one who got the translator in her. Let me go in and coax her out.”
“Coax…her…out?”
Bobby looked around in disgust, “Did none of you ever tame a wild thark in your youth on Trallia? Just stay back and don’t approach the cage, no matter what happens .”
Bobby eyes locked on Vi as he placed his hand on the scanner, then pulled open the cage doors. He approached her exactly like a wild, unpredictable beast, with his left hand stretched out and slow steps forward. But he also gave her a small, crooked smile to show her—she hoped—that his act had a point. When he got close enough, he put his right hand on Mister Beastly’s forearm and took her right hand in his left. The entire squad of Trallians behind him gasped. Bobby gave Mister Beastly’s arm two pats and Vi felt his arm loosen around her waist. At the same time, Bobby whispered, “Come forward to me,” only loud enough for her to hear it.
Vi came forward and Bobby gently pulled her hand, until she was close enough to feel his fur against what skin she still had exposed by the blanket dress. He took his right hand from Mister Beastly’s arm and began to stroke her hair, like petting a cat. He leaned in close on her other side so that he could whisper.
“Even if we both fought right now, I’d end up dead on this floor and you’d still end up in Qlu’s quarters, anyway. At least this way, I can come in there with you. If we need to fight against whatever he’s planning for you, and die fighting, we will. But let’s not die fighting unnecessarily.” She looked up into his amber eyes and saw that he meant it; he would fight and die alongside her. Something in her welled up.
She nodded almost imperceptibly, afraid to speak. Then she was surprised as Bobby wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace that she immediately responded to, pressing her face into his furry chest and sliding her hands through the fur on his back in an almost desperate clutch. She let out a choked sob, and she could feel something in her wanting to break loose, to fly around inside her and smash down all her barrier walls in response to his embrace, but she nailed it back down. There was a flood of fury, and terror, and lostness coming for her at some point, but it couldn’t be now. So, she relaxed her hold on him and got hold of herself.
The squad leader shouted, “Hey, what are you doing with her?”
“I’m giving her comfort and reassurance, dumbass,” he said with steel in his voice. “What does it look like? Did your mother have machines tend to your litter?”
Bobby released her, then knelt and effortlessly picked her bodily up in a bridal carry, walking confidently out of the cage.
“Give her to me.”
“Sure. But you might want to say goodbye to your testicles, first. Did you see what she did to that Ulu? She’s going to do the same to any Trallian except for me.”
Vi caught Bobby’s hint and gnashed her teeth at the squad leader, growling. She turned her free hand, the other was around Bobby’s neck, into a clawed thing and reached for him.
The squad leader gasped, then turned and blustered at his squad which filed out the door, while Bobby followed last, with Vi in his arms.
She heard Acken say, “Good luck, little she-beast. And Bobby,” right before the cage room door snicked shut.