Page 6 of No Strings Attached (Mated Fates #1)
QUICK REACTION FORCE TO THE CARGO BAY. NOW!
Trak had been showing him the finer points of shock stick operations when the intercom bellowed. He hurriedly shoved the stick into Bahbi’s webbed hand and took off towards the training area exit.
“Gotta run, can’t wait to see what the ruckus might be!” He flashed an impish smile back at Bahbi as he went through the door.
Bahbi smiled back and shouted, “Good luck!”
Then he simply stood there, looking down at the stick, and sighed. Now he could effectively deliver immeasurable pain to one of the poor creatures in the cages. That’s…just…fucking…great , he thought and then laughed a little because his thoughts sounded more like Trak’s than his own. On the other hand, adding Trak’s cynicism to the sentiment had somehow lessened the weight on his heart at the thought of causing pain to another living creature.
Shit, I’m not cut out for this work , he thought and sighed again.
A red flashing light started strobing in the room and the intercom boomed again: QRF ALTERNATES TO THE CARGO BAY, NOW! RIGHT FUCKING NOW!
Bahbi looked around the empty training area nervously and then double-timed it to the bunk room. He didn’t want to be alone in this room if things had gone sideways on this asteroid, and the hysteria in the intercom voice certainly suggested that things had.
About an hour later, 20 disheveled Trallians started filing back into the bunk room. A few minutes after that, Trak appeared sitting cross-legged in the adjacent top bunk with a swollen eye and a grin on his face.
“Did I miss chow?”
“I have no idea, how do you know when it’s chow time? More importantly, what the hell happened in the cargo bay?”
“Our final captive arrived. Female. No fur except on her head and cunt. No sharp teeth or claws, either, but she packs a wallop.” Trak grinned.
“Did she do that to you?” Bahbi asked, pointing at Trak’s eye.
“No, that’s from the elbow of one of our esteemed colleagues. It took seven of us to grab her and carry her into the cage. My hands still smell like her, because my grip was up at the top of her right thigh. Wanna smell some alien female?” Trak held out his hand, but Bahbi just shook his head.
Trak shrugged and gave a your loss look, “I don’t think she seriously damaged any of the Trallians in the bay. She was only hell-bent on getting to either of the two Ulus that brought her here. I overheard,” and here he tapped the side of his head with his index finger to indicate the Ulus’ telepathic communication, “one of them explaining to Qlu that she was immune to the stasis gas. So, she made the whole trip here in a stasis pod, with the whole mess of tubes, lines, and respirator in her , wide a-fucking-wake .” Trak’s face showed amusement and amazement.
“No. That’s…that’s…no. How long was the trip?” Bahbi was horrified; he couldn’t imagine anyone surviving that way for more than a few days.
“Just under a month.”
Oh, sweet mother of all things holy , Bahbi thought. “Did she calm down in the cage?”
Trak waggled a finger at him. “Don’t rush the story, boy. I’m a QRF alternate, so I was just hanging back and watching until we were officially ordered in. From what I saw and from what I overheard from the cargo team and from the surviving Ulu explaining to Qlu, they had opened the pod before arriving to make sure their merchandise was intact. That’s when they realized that she was awake and assumed that they had forgotten to use the gas when they grabbed her. So, those geniuses then closed the pod up again and activated the gas, right before arriving. When they opened the pod on arrival, everything seemed normal, and she seemed to be asleep. After they removed her tubes and restraints so that the regular cargo team could lift her out and place her in her cage, she attacked.”
“She was faking it?”
“Yep.”
“What did she do?”
“She let herself be lifted out of the pod by the cargo team and then launched herself out of their arms at the Ulus. She grabbed a surgical cutting tool off a nearby table of instruments and started slashing and cutting pieces off the Ulu closest to her. It was brutal. I saw what was left of him lying in a corner. Apparently, she did that in just a matter of seconds, then got the other Ulu in a headlock while he was standing around gaping and pointed that cutter into his ear cavity. That’s when the first QRF team was called in with the almighty Qlu in tow.”
“Oh fuck, no.”
“Oh fuck, yes . Qlu started trying to talk to her. Apparently, she’s worth potentially more credits in the auction than the other nine…except maybe the Garoxian. Qlu was talking to her like you talk to a skittish wilg, and her reply was to smash her elbow into the back of the head of the Ulu she was holding hostage, which dropped him on the floor. She then grabbed him by his ankles and swung him in a full arc before throwing that poor bastard at Qlu.”
“Damn. They’re not very heavy, but still .”
“Right. She lost her weapon at that point and the primary QRF tackled her. It took all ten of them in a pile to get her controlled. They called us in to grab a hold of her while she was restrained by all those bodies, while Qlu hauled his fat ass off the floor and proceeded to verbally flay the surviving Ulu.”
“So, you successfully got her into the cage?”
“Sure. Well…there were a few narrow misses by the claws of the Garoxian next to her once we made it to the cage. She screamed, bucked, and thrashed the whole way into the holding area. Really riled up the other captives.”
“Do you know where she’s from?”
“No clue, never seen anything the likes of her before. If she’s what the females of her world are like, I’m amazed that the males can get in and out for breeding with their cocks still attached.”
“I just hope I can survive night cycle watch with my cock still attached.”
Bahbi braced himself heading toward the control room for his first watch. He had donned his baggy prison-style coverall and slung the bag of kibble crosswise across his shoulders, and he now carried his insufferable shock stick in his right hand.
Earlier, Trak had helped him figure out “chow.” Feeding was done once per day cycle, with a couple of Trallians wheeling a cart carrying a big bin of kibble. You showed up at the cart with your sack, had your sack number scanned, and got a big scoopful dumped in, allowing you to eat whenever or wherever.
He and Trak had both walked back to their bunks, munching, and Bahbi had said, “It’s nice to know that kibble tastes like pounded and dehydrated fish assholes everywhere you go. Very comforting.” He was increasingly feeling the pull of a very unfamiliar urge. An urge to simply be himself and speak his mind around Trak, rather than behaving in the ingratiating way expected of a runt. It was both liberating and a little terrifying.
Trak had nodded, “Yep, the consistency and persistence of terrible things is a balm on the soul. I guess that means you don’t want me to smuggle you in some flarn during your first night cycle watch?”
Evidently, Trak had an in with Qlu’s chef, another hapless Trallian but with better-than-average cooking skills. Bahbi would welcome some fresh flarn, but if he were being honest with himself, he’d welcome Trak’s company for any duration during his first night cycle watch even more. He was intimidated by the duty and downright scared of the aliens, even though he didn’t know anything about most of them. If anything, his ignorance made his fear worse, because his imagination filled in the blanks.
The Garoxian was the only one he had recognized on sight, but that was because the whole galaxy had seen them for the first time a few years back when The Zig had attempted to invade their planet and the Ogobians had broadcast it galaxy-wide. Every member of The Zig landing force had been savagely torn apart within the first hour of the invasion, all of it captured and recorded, and Ogobian Broadcasting still played the highlights any time galactic entertainment got a little slow.
No one knew anything at all about their species or their ice planet, other than they could decimate a battalion of The Zig in minutes. And that was probably enough to know. Before that attempted invasion, The Zig had been the most feared fighting force among the inhabited planets. In fairness, they still were, but now it was also known that there was something even scarier. And Bahbi was about to be in the same room with one.
Walking down the hallway, he thought about that empty cage next to the Garoxian and Trak’s story about the female in the cargo bay, imaging those two going at each other through the shared cage wall—fur and blood flying—and him having to get between them to protect Qlu’s investment. Bahbi shuddered.
Despite Trak’s description of her as essentially defenseless, in his imagination she was a slavering hell-beast with razor-sharp claws and fangs, covered in spikes, and hiding a cunt full of gnashing teeth between her legs.
He was almost to the control room when Alved came up beside him in the hallway and said, “Let’s get this shit over with, boy.”
Bahbi nodded and Alved reached past him to open the door. He shouted at the group holding the day cycle watch, lounging idly in front of the monitors, “Hold the lights for a few minutes while I give the new runt the tour.”
Grumbles followed, and someone shouted, “Watch out for that female—she’ll bite your cock off!” Then laughter from the whole group. Bahbi shuddered again since it recalled a precise and unsettling image from his own mind just moments earlier.
Alved moved to place his palm on a scanner at the side of a heavy metal door, then thought better of it and said, “You do it, so we can make sure you’re coded in the system.”
Bahbi placed his shaking hand on the scanner and held it for 3 seconds before it flashed, and the door clicked. His heart, which had been doing double time, started to pound so hard his vision wavered as the door opened. Alved pushed through the door first, and Bahbi was looking at his back when he heard a female voice say, “Oh good, more otters.” Then he was looking across the room directly into her cage at her face. The moment stretched and distorted with his heart hammering like it was, and he jumped when Alved spoke.
“Although I have no idea what an ‘otter’ is, we all already have her language loaded. But there’s been no way to get a translator into her, yet. Those goddamn Ulus don’t need them with their fucking mind-speak. Qlu wants it done within the next few days, so I guess we’re going to have to wait her out.” He turned his head toward her and said brightly, “Gotta sleep sometime, you nasty little shorg.”
She grabbed the bars, then barred her teeth.
“So, she can’t understand us?”
“Nope. Not her and not that Garoxian next to her, since no one has their language translated, yet.”
A low voice came from the first cage on their right, though no one was immediately visible. “Wellll, I dooo, Traaallian, and I know you can underssstand my language…I sssmell unwashed female and Uluuu blood. One isss making my cock twitch and the other isss making me sssalivaaate. I’m not enjoying either sssensssation at the moment, so MAAAKE IT FUCKING SSSTOP.” A giant snake suddenly slammed against the bars in the front of the cage. It was positioned two feet higher than the top of Bahbi’s head, with its lower body coiling and receding toward the back of the cage, its head and body at least as wide as his.
Alved sighed and turned away from the cage toward Bahbi, holding out his hand palm up, “The Ophidian. They get bought for espionage, mainly, on the rare occasions someone catches one.”
Bahbi felt himself backing away before he realized that Alved had positioned them in the middle of the room, equidistant from the five cages that lined the two opposing walls. It was the safest place in the room, and he definitely didn’t want to back up into that opposing wall of cages. He broke the enthralling eye contact with the Ophidian and took in the whole room. He noticed all the sets of eyes boring holes into him and Alved, then unsuccessfully tried to suppress another shudder.
Alved took a few steps forward and pointed toward the next cage. “Estranian.” Yes, that registered for Bahbi now, looking at him, in a way it hadn’t when he viewed the occupants through the monitors yesterday. The naked male was light brown, at least 8-feet tall and with a cock like a club; he had a line of snow-white hair that stood straight up—running from the bridge of his nose, across the top of his head, and down to the crack of his ass. “Highly prized as berserkers.”
The Estranian grinned, then looked at the female and grabbed the base of his cock, “I have other talents. If you need any help subduing the female, just give her an hour with Acken.” His deep voice boomed.
Bahbi hazarded a glance behind him at the female, a look of horror on his face. Acken’s cock was almost as long as one of her forearms and twice as big around. She was giving Acken back a fierce look and showing him a single finger. He guessed that the exchange hadn’t really needed a translator.
Alved moved on and tossed his hand dismissively toward the next cage. “Trawg. I’m sure you’ve seen them before.”
Bahbi had, looking at the happy canid wagging its tail against the rock floor. “Companion animal?”
The trawg woofed and stood, tail accelerating so much that the back half of his body was in movement. “Yes! I’m called ‘Friend’! Thank you for giving me such a nice cage.”
While the other occupants hissed, spat, and cursed in disgust at the eager trawg, the female spoke up, “Holy shit, that’s a talking dog!”
The trawg turned toward her and said, “Yes! I’m called ‘Friend’! Can we be friends?”
“Oh…right. Those sounds were really similar to the ones it made the first time…it’s just a regular dog with parrot skills, right?” She looked disgusted. “ Fuck this place…and fuck all of you. Fucking black lab-shaped talking space parrot.”
“I’m sorry you are mad. I’ll try harder to be a good boy,” said Friend.
The trawg looked downcast and Bahbi couldn’t help trying to comfort him, “She can’t understand you, yet. Don’t get upset by what she says, Friend.” The trawg perked back up a little.
Alved looked at him incredulously, “Don’t fucking engage with the merchandise.”
Bahbi hung his head in acknowledgement of his screw-up.
Before they had stepped forward enough for Alved to reference the next cage, a slim but muscular, beautiful, and naked male stepped forward, “I am Caussus, and it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance. Please let me know if there is anything that I can do to make my captivity less onerous for you or your master.” Caussus gave a little bow, then stepped backwards from the bars.
Friend wagged his tail and said in an awed whisper, “He’s a very good boy.”
Caussus turned to the trawg and bowed, a slight smile on his face. “Thank you, sir, and I am sure that you will make a wonderful companion.”
Alved turned to Bahbi, “Servant clone from the labs on Zilla. This one is fully trained and accredited.”
“Don’t all those sales go through The Trade?”
“This one was acquired legally, then re-acquired under somewhat different circumstances.” Alved shrugged and moved on.
In the next cage, Bahbi could barely make out a sparkling green form in the darkness at the back of the cage. Alved jerked his chin and said, “Mineralite from Dim. This one’s emerald. Hasn’t moved since arriving.”
“Should someone make sure it’s alive?”
“The cage sensors say it is. We had to bring in a specialist to calibrate the sensors for that guy.”
Alved pivoted 180 degrees and faced the farthest cage on the opposing wall. Inside was a giant snail, suckered to the front of its cage. There were trails of slime coating the interior bars on each side. Alved grimaced and pointed, “Big snail. Doesn’t talk. No idea where they’re from, but I think it’s a delicacy for some of the buyers. You’ll have to give it a hand at feeding time.”
Bahbi’s eyes raised in shock.
“I’ll show you. At least you won’t have to worry about this guy.”
The next cage held a patchwork male, seemly comprised of pieces of many different aliens, and held together by cybernetic prosthetics. He made Bahbi’s mind hurt, just looking at him.
“This one’s feeding and elimination are handled by the machine behind him, we just have to make sure the tubes stay connected. He’s in stasis mode right now, but he can be awakened with a wake word. All his physical movement capabilities are shut down until after purchase.”
Bahbi was aghast and hoarsely said, “It looks like he’s made from several different species. What could someone want to buy him for?”
“He is made from several distinct species. Dead ones. Whoever buys him will do it to learn the reanimation technique.”
Bahbi was speechless, so Alved moved on.
A chubby, grinning giant greeted them from the next cage. He waved a hand at Alved and Bahbi, and Bahbi smiled and waved back before he could catch himself. Alved scowled at him.
“Mush brain. Don’t think it can talk. Hell, he can barely feed himself and find the hole to shit in. But I guess he’s got some kind of special talent that means he’ll fetch a nice price.”
“Does he have a name?”
“Hell if I know.”
The giant was still staring and grinning at Bahbi when he said, slowly, “Kompi.”
Alved shrugged, “I guess his name’s Kompi. First time I’ve heard him say anything.”
Bahbi dragged his feet a little following Alved to the second to last cage, housing a huge, fur-covered nightmare. Almost as tall as Acken, with long, shaggy white fur, and a slightly feline facial structure; its claws were extended and its teeth were bared.
“Garoxian. Like I said earlier, no language in the translators. Just make sure you stay out of reach of his cage. We’ve all seen what they can do to a body. And that brings us to this nasty little shorg in the last cage.”
Bahbi looked at the female, taking all of her in. She was naked and covered in Ulu blood, like the Ophidian had complained about. Shiny black hair on her head, curly black hair on her cunt, and piercing green eyes. Creamy beige/pink skin with a bluish cast and splotched with dried Ulu blood, except for her hands and forearms, which were covered with it. She was shorter than Bahbi, with a similar slim build and two small teats.
And she was obviously furiously angry. She stood with a wide stance and her arms crossed under her teats, glaring in their direction. Then she spat, “Human. From Earth. And fuck your mothers,” before turning her back to them. Bahbi found his eyes admiring the delicate curves of her tailless backside, then caught himself.
Alved signed heavily, “Right. Let’s do the feeding.” He walked over to the cage that Caussus was in and pointed. “Here is the water line.” Alved placed his hand in the cage and pointed to one of the bars that obviously had a hollow compartment towards the top for a water tube. Seeing Alved’s hand in the cage and Caussus standing placidly towards the back, he realized why Alved had chosen this cage to place his hand in. It was one of the few that he would get it back from.
“Water runs down the bar into the hole in the ground.” Pointing to the drain hole the bar continued down into. “Hole in the back of each cage for shitting.”
Then he pointed over to a wheeled cart holding paper bags, “Food in those. Go grab the cart, and I’ll show you how to do it.”
“You said yesterday that I wouldn’t need to come in here during my shift unless there was trouble.” From behind him, the Estranian snickered.
“Day shift boys voted and decided to pass it off. Don’t get in a twist about it, there are a few other nasty jobs that are much worse that they’ve left for you.”
“Like what?” Bahbi felt sick.
“One thing at a time. Get the fucking cart!” Alved was clearly losing patience.
Bahbi wheeled it over to Alved, and he grabbed the first bag, then turned toward the Ophidian’s cage, “No arms to grab you, but you want to stay away from those fangs.” He tore the top off the bag to make a kind of bowl and placed it on the floor. Bahbi saw without much surprise that it contained the same kibble that was in his pouch.
“Take this stick here,” grabbing a five-foot-long stick from the top of the cart, “and push it into the cage. But the stick doesn’t go in the cage for the threatening ones with arms. We can’t be giving them a weapon.”
Bahbi nodded in understanding while Alved grabbed the next bag and placed it on the floor without tearing it open. He pushed it toward the cage with the Estranian and left it just barely within reach when the Estranian pushed his arms through the bars.
For the trawg, he repeated the same maneuver as with the Ophidian, tearing off the top to make a bag bowl and pushing it in. He simply handed a bag directly into Caussus’s hands, who received it with both hands and a bow, then pushed a bag as far back into the Mineralite’s cage as the stick would allow. Moving across the way to the giant snail, he took a bag and carefully poured out the contents on the floor within the cage. Alved skipped the reanimated cyborg but handed a bag into the hands of the smiling Kompi. Then he handled the Garoxian and the female the same way he did the Estranian. The Garoxian upended the bag into his mouth, eating all the kibble in one mouthful. The female looked at the bag sitting a few feet in front of her cage in disgust and made no move to take it.
“More pounded fish assholes?”
Bahbi snorted laughter through his nose and then nodded at her in confirmation, glancing over sheepishly at Alved when he realized what he had done. She looked into his eyes with a smirk, her green eyes sparkling, and they held each other’s gaze for a few seconds. Then both of their attention was torn away by the Garoxian as he howled and snarled, pounding at the door of his cage. When the female spoke again, Bahbi’s head snapped back to her.
“He’s still hungry.” She bent at the knees and reached out for her bag. Then she did the unthinkable, walking over to the side of the cage that separated her from the Garoxian and sticking her arm through the bars into his cage, holding out the bag of food.
The room—which had been full of the sounds of eating and low complaints about food quality and quantity—went silent as Alved and Bahbi shouted, “NO!” in unison.
She spoke to them without turning away from the monster who was silently regarding her and her outstretched arm, “Why not? Why would he want to hurt me? I didn’t put him in this cage. And I’m not going to eat this shit anyway. I only gagged down the first round because it had been a month since I’d eaten anything at all. Even pounded assholes tasted decent at that point.”
The whole room, at least all the conscious and sentient beings in the room, watched in fascinated silence as the Garoxian approached the female’s offering. Rather than tear the bag out of her hand or rip her arm off for the fun of it, he slowly raised his fisted right hand to his chin, bowed low, and then gingerly took the bag out of her hand. Before she could retract her hand, he caught it in his massive, fur covered mitt.
Bahbi’s breath caught, and his body zinged in fear. But the Garoxian just held the female’s hand for a moment while looking into her eyes. Then he carefully dropped it and sat cross-legged on the floor, holding the bag with both hands. He didn’t move to open it and eat, just sat.
“You’re welcome,” she whispered, and the whole room continued to hold its breath for another handful of seconds.
Alved sort of shook off the moment, then turned back to Bahbi, “You’ll need to get her cleaned of that blood before Qlu’s inspection at the start of the next day cycle.”
As Alved turned back toward the heavy metal door that led to the corridor and control room, Bahbi sputtered, “Wh…pff..what…how the fuck am I supposed to do that?”
Alved just motioned to the utility section of the room that held mops, buckets, a hose, and a deep sink, then placed his hand on the scanner. The door clicked open, and he pulled it, looking back at Bahbi impatiently. Bahbi followed, the sound of the Estranian laughing heartily at his back.