Page 8 of No Strings Attached (Mated Fates #1)

Bahbi watched the night vision monitors in horrified astonishment as the huge Garoxian engulfed the little female and they continued to stand pressed together while the female occasionally rotated her form to press her front, then back, against the beast. He had been delighted to hear the lovely sound of her singing and quickly found the control room’s volume knob to hear her better. He had been amazed when Kompi had flawlessly repeated the female’s songs, but that amazement was tempered by the pit of fear in his belly from seeing the female and Garoxian in an embrace.

Now he was trying to decide what he would do if it looked like he needed to intervene. The Garoxian could kill that female 10 times over before Bahbi could even make it into the room. Before she herself could even step away from the bars.

And just what type of embrace was it? He didn’t think Qlu would be much happier if the Garoxian fucked the little female than he would be if the brute killed her.

And Bahbi had to figure out how to get her clean, which had been a bad enough job by itself; now, it included getting her separated from the furry monster, then cleaned. His stomach was a roiling vat of acid. He needed to get a translator into her, so he could simply reason with her. She was a rational being, right?

Thinking back to Trak’s description of the havoc she had wreaked in the cargo bay, Bahbi thought, Riiight, rational…and I’m rationally fucked .

He made up his mind right there, grabbing the translator and his shock stick, then heading for the door. Might as well meet my goddamned doom intentionally, instead of just continuing to let shit happen to me.

The female was singing solo now, as Bahbi walked through the door and the light came on, something having to do with some mean old man. It seemed like a weird thing to sing about. She stopped abruptly, surprised by the lights.

Bahbi walked toward her cage, stopping just short of where he judged she would be able to reach him. She remained where she was, though, with her back pressed up against the Garoxian, his furry mitts on her shoulders, both of them regarding him curiously. Bahbi could see that her skin now held more of a pinkish cast, less bluish. Was that blue tinge from the cold? Had the Garoxian been keeping her warm as a thanks for her food ration?

Bahbi screwed his courage up and held out the translator, keeping eye contact with the female. He made sure she could see the device, then slowly moved it like he was going to place it in his own right ear. Then he pointed at her with the index finger of his left hand.

She had held his gaze throughout, and now she asked, “You want me to stick that in my ear, huh?”

Bahbi smiled and breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Do this with your head for ‘yes’,” she nodded, “and this with your head for ‘no’,” she shook her head. “Do you want me to put that in my ear? Is it a translator?”

Smart female. Bahbi nodded. She’d asked two questions, but the answer was the same for both.

The female considered for a moment, then asked, “What will you give me if I do? Will you give me clothes?”

Bahbi shook his head. He didn’t see any way he could find her clothes, other than giving her his own. And that would be pretty damned hard to explain; his coverall was marked with his assigned number, so it would be clear whose coverall she was wearing, and he would be hard pressed to explain his own nakedness.

“A blanket?”

Bahbi tilted his head. Were there any blankets available that he might give her?

“You can’t give me clothes, but you’re not sure if you can give me a blanket. Is that correct?”

A nod and a smile.

She looked at him, scowling, and asked, “Are your people the ones holding all of us captive?”

A shake.

“But you work for the asshole responsible?

A tilt of his head.

“So, like everything in life, it’s fucking complicated, right?”

Bahbi nodded.

“Let’s try this: do you like or support whoever is responsible? Are you on their side?”

Several emphatic shakes.

“Are you here voluntarily?

Another series of emphatic shakes.

“Do you know what they’re going to do with us?”

A nod and a grimace.

“Are they going to eat us?”

A shake, a tilt, then a reluctant point towards the giant snail.

“They’re going to eat that guy in the last cage, but probably not the rest of us?”

A nod.

“Are they going to fuck us?”

Bahbi let several seconds slip by, then slowly nodded and pointed at her.

“Just me, huh? Lovely.” She thought for a moment. “Can you break us all out of here?”

Several more emphatic shakes.

“Even if we take you with us when we leave?”

A very slow, very contemplative shake. Bahbi noticed that she hadn’t asked about freedom for just herself. He wondered if the other captives had, as well. She thought in terms of “us” and “we,” not “I,” and she was willing to include him in the “us” and “we.” The impact of that realization generated the tiniest fissure along the fault lines of Bahbi’s reality. He had never, ever been part of an “us” or a “we,” not even among his own litter.

“That idea has some appeal to you, doesn’t it?”

A slow, semi-dazed nod.

“OK, give it to me. I’ll put your damned translator in my ear if you promise, PROMISE, to try to get me a blanket.”

Bahbi nodded, then placed his hand over his heart and bowed as low as he could.

The female chuckled, “You’re a very earnest otterman. I could almost believe you.”

The known habited worlds of the galaxy fitted everyone with translators during their infancy, so Bahbi had never seen one implanted before into an adult sentient. That’s why he wasn’t prepared when the female began to scream as the device’s tendrils made contact with her ear canal and pulled themselves in to burrow and lodge permanently in her head.

He was doubly unprepared to see her fall, screaming and writhing on the cage floor, while the Garoxian went mad in the cage next to her. Bahbi stood, gape mouthed, as the terrible scene played out and the Estranian howled with laughter from across the room.

Until she fell silent and stopped moving, then the room went very quiet.

After a few seconds, he heard, “Youuu ssseem to beee mossst ssseriousssly fucked, Traaalllian,” followed by laughter from the adjacent cage.

Bahbi just nodded, still locked in the mode of conversation started with the female and jaw frozen. I’m going to have to go in there. Oh fuck, I’m going to have to go in there to see if she is still alive. In his panic, he had forgotten all about the cage sensors in the control room.

The Garoxian started growling menacingly and the giant, Kompi, was rocking back and forth on his ass, arms around his knees and keening, while a desperate plea came from the trawg’s cage, “You have to save her so I can be her friend. I love her. Save her! Now! Now now now now—.”

The trawg and the cacophony of growling, keening, and laughter was cut off by the authoritative baritone of Caussus, who was standing at the front of his cage observing the scene “Sir! Sir! Sir, I believe you are considering the risk to yourself of entering the female’s—Vi’s—cage, and I do sympathize greatly. But please consider the risk to yourself if she dies and you did not try to intervene. I believe any death you might experience at her or the Garoxian’s hands would be both faster and less painful than whatever awaits you at the hands of our master if she dies.”

Bahbi glanced away from the female to Caussus, then slowly nodded. That was certainly true, and while it didn’t lessen his fear, it did give him the resolve he needed. He stepped forward to the front of the female’s cage but hesitated at the hand scanner. The derisive voice of Acken came to him from behind, “You shame your ancestors, boy. Let me out to check on her. I’ll fall dead on the spot from disgrace if I’m ever afraid of a small female, of any species.”

Bahbi shook his head and muttered, “Nice try,” then placed his hand on the pad.