Page 4

Garnet

T his was a spaceship. They were in a spaceship, and she had no idea what to do! She couldn’t get away in a spaceship!

The panicked thoughts hounded Garnet as she escaped the small casket room, pulling Goldie behind her, only to end up in a big storage room. It was empty at the moment, but it was big enough to store a house inside. Her footsteps didn’t even echo as she ran through the open space, past a set of steep steps that led to a second level, towards the door she could see off to the side away from the others.

Which probably only led deeper into this place because this was definitely a spaceship, and she had no idea how she was supposed to escape from here.

Lifeboats? Did spaceships have lifeboats?! Did it even matter? Maybe they were still close to Earth. Maybe they could send out a distress signal or something. But she had no idea how to read alien, so how could she possibly?!

“Garnet,” Goldie called to her weakly.

“I know!” Garnet yelled back. Not upset with her, just freaking out. She saw a turn coming up at random and took it just because it was there.

Only to slam, hard , into a solid wall.

She bounced off with a grunted umph! She fell back into Goldie and her sister caught her, barely keeping them both from hitting the ground.

Then, the wall moved.

Garnet and Goldie both froze. Garnet’s breath caught in her throat as an absolutely huge, mountain of a man – alien – turned. And turned. And turned.

There was just so much of him. Muscles on muscles. And arms. So many arms. Four of them, all stacked with muscles as big as her thighs. Bigger. And tall. Garnet had to drop her head back to look up at his face. At the huge horn coming off his forehead before swooping over his head, the point angled backwards. He had beige skin, but it was covered in so many patches of teal and black scales.

They stood in his shadow, staring up at a pair of yellow eyes – all yellow, no white or black at all. He grunted something and his voice was rough, like the mashing of rocks. He lifted one of his four, enormous hands.

Goldie let out a scream of terror.

The monster flinched back before letting out a roar.

It was deafening. Like an avalanche. Like a mudslide. All loud noise at a bone rattling intensity. So overpowering, it completely swallowed their return screams.

Garnet, startled out of her stunned, terrified stupor, turned and ran, dragging Goldie by her wrist back down the hall. They immediately took a different turn. No monsters in this one.

“What was that?!” Goldie gasped.

“I don’t know!” Garnet looked back at her sister. Hating the tears in her eyes. Hating this entire situation. How could things have gone this wrong ?! Their lives weren’t perfect, but surely, they didn’t deserve this !

Someone stepped into the hallway. Right in their path. Garnet almost didn’t react in time, but Goldie pulled against her hand, bringing her up short before she ran into another person.

This guy wasn’t as big as the monster back in the other hall. And Garnet actually recognized this species. This was one of the three eyed domini that helped protect Earth. But just because his species had vowed to protect humans didn’t mean this particular guy did.

He was still big, just not overwhelmingly huge. He was also much leaner than the other guy, but that didn’t make him look weak at all. He cocked his head to the side, smirking at them. His three eyes were sharp slashes on his face, two near where theirs would be and one on his forehead, all three of them angled inwards towards each other. A fang glinted in the light as his lips parted. He had long hair back in a ponytail, a thick belt slung on his hips with weapons on both sides. At least, she assumed those gun shaped things were weapons.

Garnet and Goldie stepped back together as he said something. His voice was soft, almost playful, though since they didn’t understand him, maybe it was actually mocking. His skin and hair changed color as he moved. The majority of his body was the same red as his shirt, his hair and parts of his head were the silvery gray of the ship behind him.

Domini camouflaged to their surroundings. It didn’t make him invisible, but if he hid, it would definitely be harder to spot him.

He said something else. His tone a casual drawl as he reached for his hip.

His gun!

He was going for the weapon!

“Screw off!” Garnet kicked for him. He jumped back with a cry of surprise, his long tail whipping around as if to fend her off.

Goldie tugged on her hand again. Garnet turned to run with her, taking a different turn in the hall, passing by multiple doors. None of which opened.

Where the hell were they?! And where could they possibly go!?

They didn’t get far this time before they were intercepted again. This time, a door opened off the hall, and, without even thinking, Garnet took it. She ran right in only to come up short because there was someone stepping out.

This time, Garnet and Goldie both screamed. Their voices echoed into the small room, out into the halls, as they backed up.

The huge guy, much taller than ponytail guy but not quite as big as the monster, snarled at them before barking something in a rough, gravely voice.

This guy had dark brown skin, hard and rough, with streaking veins of gleaming red breaking through like cracks in the ground, shining like the glow of embers on a fire. Orange eyes burned; brow furrowed in anger as he barked something else. On his head wasn’t hair but a crown of short, thick horns. He was broad in the shoulders with big biceps and thick, heavy arms.

And huge. Not as big as the four-armed behemoth, but he could probably grab their heads in both hands and crush them like eggs. He certainly looked angry enough to do it as Garnet and Goldie backed up into the hallway.

He stepped towards them, raising his hands.

Goldie let out a cry as she kicked out, sending her slipper shoe flying. It smacked the guy right across the face. As he sputtered and smacked it away, Garnet was already tugging on Goldie’s hand dragging her – minus one shoe – down a different hall.

Damn it! They weren’t doing anything but running into monsters and possibly making their captors angrier.

They needed a plan! They needed a chance to fucking breathe! Something !

Someone stepped into her sight, right at the end of the hall. Garnet came to a skidding halt, Goldie knocking into her back. Both of them were breathing hard. Goldie’s hands tightened against her arm as Garnet’s heart raced.

This guy…

This guy was dangerous.

“Garnet,” Goldie called to her weakly, tugging against her arm. Trying to get her attention.

Garnet turned and gasped.

There was another one at the end of the hall. Boxing them in from both sides. And he was equally as scary as the first guy.

Twins. Like them, but males. And unsettling.

Both of them were dark blue in color, but they didn’t have skin. Instead, their bodies were covered in small, shiny scales. They were reptilian, and maybe that’s what made them so unnerving. At least the monster’s scales were interspersed randomly over skin.

Or maybe it was the edge in their green eyes as they took a step forward together. They looked at the two of them like they were considering the best ways to chop them up.

The guy in front had the left side of his head shaved, while the rest of his hair was long and straight, down to his waist, gleaming bright white. He also had a scar going through both of his lips on the left side that made his face even scarier.

The guy behind them had the same hairstyle, but his hair was shaved on the right. He didn’t have a scar through his lip either, but he did have nasty, old burn scars covering his entire right arm, right up to the edge of his sleeveless black shirt and further underneath. The scales there had all been messed up, but he still apparently retained use of his limb and all five fingers.

Was it the scars that made these two seem extra unnerving? Or maybe it was the slow, identical way they walked towards them. Closing them in. Cutting off any means of escape from either side. They both had big ass knives at their waists, but neither tried to grab them. They didn’t really need to. Not with the thick, white claws at the ends of their fingers.

“Garnet, what now?” Goldie asked, hiding against her back as Garnet turned, putting their backs to the wall, trying to keep an eye on both of the stoic, creepy twins.

“I don’t… I don’t know…” She admitted, her belly sinking.

Damn it. Was this the point they’d be grabbed? Subdued? Raped?

Garnet was shaking as Goldie sniffed softly behind her, trying to hold back her tears. Because it felt terribly like the end was converging on them from both sides. Moving in lockstep with each other, like they might be mirror images.

Yellow flashed in front of them and Garnet screamed, throwing a punch-

-that went right through that yellow fucker.

“You again!” She hissed.

“ Hello to you too ,” he responded in calm, crisp English.

“You better back the fuck up!” Garnet snarled, not bothering to question why he was now suddenly able to speak their language. She didn’t really care at this point. If she could bluster her way out of this situation, that was good enough for her.

“ I’m just a light projection, ” the yellow guy assured her. “ I’m not really here. So, backing up or moving closer wouldn’t really make a difference. I can’t actually touch you. ”

“You know what I meant, smart ass! And tell those guys to back up too!”

“ Sorbet and Tebros won’t harm you. They’re merely following the captain’s orders to try to keep you from getting into any further trouble. ”

“Look,” Garnet started, lowering her voice, still breathing hard from a combination of sprinting and panicking. “You can have me. Do what you want with me. Just don’t hurt my sister!”

“Garnet,” Goldie pulled on her shirt. “Don’t-”

“I won’t fight back! Or I will. Whatever you want. Just leave her out of it!”

“ By the great storage keepers, we’re not going to do anything to you, ” Yellow said, like he was stunned she’d even make such an offer. “ If you’d just calm down and listen, I’d explain what’s going on here. I assure you, we mean you no harm. ”

“You don’t have to lie to me, okay!? I get it. You found yourself some humans and you want to… to… do whatever! Fine! I don’t care! Just leave my sister alone!”

Movement at the end of the hall caught Garnet’s eye. She turned as one of the dark blue twins stepped to the side, allowing the gray guy to walk past. Immediately, dark blue guy stepped back into place, making sure she was trapped in.

But Garnet was more focused on the gray guy. His red eyes were still so calm, distant, as he looked her over.

Somehow, his calm was both scary and soothing.

He didn’t look like a guy that was about to hold her down and rape her. He didn’t look like he had any interest in hurting her whatsoever.

And he’d had plenty of chances, she could admit to herself, now that she wasn’t in a panicked rush to just get away. His grip on her wrists had been firm but not bruising. When she pulled away, he let her go. He only grabbed her to stop her from hitting him, and even then, he didn’t take the opportunity to hit her back.

But how could he be so damn calm ? He didn’t seem the least bit phased by their strikes against him, their escape, or anything. He came to stand next to the yellow ghost guy while the two of them exchanged words.

His eyes never left hers.

Garnet stared right back. Doing her best to look hard and unafraid. But not so unfuckable that he’d try to hurt Goldie instead. Who was almost certainly a much more tempting target. She was so sweet and soft and nice – everything Garnet wasn’t. They wouldn’t be the first ones to take advantage of that to Goldie’s detriment.

It was a strange line to walk, but if they were determined to claim some human pussy, Garnet would rather they take it from her and spare her delicate sister. She could handle it for herself, but she couldn’t watch her sister suffer like that.

“ Excuse me ,” yellow guy started speaking to her again. “ If I may, what are your names? ”

Garnet glared at him. Should she lie? Would it matter? Did knowing their names give them some kind of advantage? This wasn’t like a fae thing where their names had power, right? She didn’t know anything about aliens, and she wasn’t sure what was a risk and what wasn’t.

“ So distrustful ,” Yellow chuckled. “ Here, why don’t I start? My name is Alred van Hamass Recall-12. It is a pleasure to meet the both of you. And you are…? ”

Garnet glared, but finally figured that him knowing couldn’t hurt. “Garnet Sweetwater.”

“ Wonderful. And your charming sister? ”

Garnet pushed Goldie back. Trying to hide her from his… lack of eyes.

“Her name is Goldie, but you don’t have to worry about her. You’re dealing with me now.”

Goldie’s hands tightened against Garnet’s back. She could practically hear her sister silently begging her not to sacrifice herself. But Garnet remained unmoved.

She would not back down. She’d promised to always protect Goldie going forward. No matter what threat came their way. Just how Goldie had once protected her.

“ Garnet. Goldie. ” Alred inclined his featureless head to both of them, “ I would like to welcome you to our ship, the Humility. We are a humble delivery company. ”

Garnet scoffed. “Funny way to translate human traffickers!”

“ No, I assure you. We deliver goods only. Maybe the occasional slightly illegal delight or so, but nothing harmful. Certainly not people. Not the unwilling ones anyway. We were as surprised to find you in that chest as you were to be in there. Well, maybe you were a bit more surprised considering… ”

Garnet’s eyes narrowed on him. Not sure she liked this nice, buddy-buddy, relatable shtick he was trying to put on. It felt like he was trying to set her at ease or something. Which, admittedly, could just be an attempt to calm her down.

But it could also be a trap!

Though, did they really need to trap them further? They were already stuck here on this ship, between two guys that made her skin crawl just looking at them.

And there was that calm guy in the gray jumpsuit, eyes all bright and red. And calm. In control. This was a guy who wasn’t bothered by things getting a little crazy. He didn’t care. He was going to meet each situation with the same untouchable, unflappable aplomb.

Soothing, and scary.

“ This is our captain, ” Alred gestured to him with one hand. “ Tanin A’Faar. He is the owner of our delivery company, and he was just doing his normal inventory of a shipment of gemstones for a shinuk king when he found you. We certainly weren’t expecting you to be in there. Anymore, I imagine, then you expected to be in there. ”

Garnet stared at the gray guy – Tanin. For surely those were his words translated through the yellow ghost thing. Person. Whatever the hell he was. She didn’t think that he was a real person. That had to be like a computer program or something. Hopefully. Maybe there were ghost type aliens. Did they work like that? She didn’t know.

“What do you want with us?” She asked, getting straight to it. “Just tell me. Don’t play stupid mind games with me!”

“ I assure you, we are doing no such thing. We only want to help. ”

“Yeah? Then why are we being boxed in, huh?!” She pointed to one of the two creepy twins that were standing there, eerily still, setting her nerves on edge with their unnerving presence.

“ Sorbet and Tebros were merely instructed to keep you contained so as not to hurt yourself. They mean you no harm. The captain has already assured your safety. ”

And again, it came right back to the guy with red eyes. He hadn’t looked away from her. She shivered under that unerring gaze but couldn’t even say she found it truly uncomfortable.

Garnet clenched her jaw, and decided to give in. Just a bit. Not that she really had much choice. They were surrounded on all sides by huge, hulking figures. Tanin was shorter than the others she had run into, but that didn’t make him short. He still stood well over her head.

But he wasn’t looming. He wasn’t intimidating. He was just kind of there. Watching her with those demon red eyes. Like he was just waiting for her to decide to do the right thing.

“Okay.” She started. “Let’s say I believe you. How did we get here?”

“ It’s as I told you. We were contracted to pick up a chest containing something precious. During our inspection of the treasures, our captain felt that the chest was deceptive and had me investigate further. That’s when we found you. ”

“So, your client? He’s the one who brought us here?”

“ His employees, actually. They jettisoned your chest in an effort to save themselves. Or, more likely, to not be caught with you. We were hired to get the chest back. ”

“And is that’s what’s happening now? Are you bringing us back?”

Alred didn’t answer her right away. He instead began speaking to Tanin in their tongue. Repeating the question. She wasn’t sure that she liked the fact that the answer wasn’t an immediate and resounding no.

Tanin responded to him. But he kept his eyes on her. Answering her directly. So confident and unconcerned, it was no wonder she was having trouble believing him. That wasn’t the alarm of someone who accidentally found trafficking victims.

“ The captain states that our client violated the terms of the job when he attempted to hide illegal cargo for transportation. Our contract with him is thus null and void. You two, I assume, did not leave your home voluntarily. ”

“No way.” Garnet might not remember exactly what happened when they left the planet, but she didn’t need the flashes of broken, disjointed memories to know it wasn’t by choice. Even if they did want to leave Earth – which wasn’t altogether a terrible prospect considering everything – there was no way the two of them would have agreed to go like this .

“ In that case, we will transport you and your darling sister to the nearest peacekeeper ship or outpost. Whatever is closer. ”

“And a peacekeeper is?”

“ Keepers are Coalition police. They have no jurisdiction on planetary bodies, but they do hold it over starships, space stations, colonies on any world smaller than a planet, and, of course, through space itself. They will be able to help you get back to your home safely. ”

“And the guy who kidnapped us?”

“ There is more than enough evidence in the chest and with your testimony to see that he is suitably punished, I’m sure. But since we do not want to share in that punishment, we would like to bring you to the keepers as quickly as our ship allows. Which will be some time, I’m afraid. Our generator needs a few days to recharge. ”

“What’s going to happen to us in the meantime?”

Again, Alred translated her question, and again, Tanin answered it while maintaining eye contact with her. She stared back at him. Calming down further thanks to that gaze.

There was something so steady about it. So untouchable. That he was so focused on her should have been unnerving. The creepy twins sure felt that way, and they definitely had the hard, unending, no blinking look down pat.

But there was just something different in the way Tanin looked at her. Not like a creepy statue. More like a leader, secure in his power, overseeing the solving of a problem.

“ The captain says you two are free to stay in the extra guest cabin. You will be treated more as passengers, though, of course, we will not charge you for your stay. He does request first, however, that you be checked out in our medbay. As rudimentary as it is, it can still tell us if you’ve any kind of… issue after your ordeal. ”

“Issue like what?”

“ Injuries. Tracking devices. Things like that. ”

“Tracking de- Is that what this collar is!?” She reached up, grabbing for the offending ring. The more she calmed, the more she was aware of just how tight it was around her throat. It wasn’t choking her, but she was aware of it in the worst kind of way.

Alred cocked his yellow head. “ I admit, I don’t know what that collar is. Ah, but I should be able to scan and remove it from you. There are very few systems that are designed against or even capable of keeping my kind out. ”

“Right,” she mumbled, not even sure what his kind was . Was he a computer program? He certainly wasn’t acting like one. But AI could get super realistic even on Earth with their less advanced technology, so alien AI must be super high tech.

She wasn’t going to figure it out just standing here.

Turning her head, she spoke back to her sister-

“What do you think?”

Goldie peeked up at her through her bangs. Unlike Garnet, her wavy hair was free to fall down around her face and shoulders, unencumbered, all the way to her waist. She appeared to be trying to hide under the long strands.

“Do we really have a choice?” She whispered back.

Garnet growled with frustration. Not because she didn’t like the answer, but because she knew she was right and hated the feeling of helplessness that washed over her at hearing it.

Good intentions, bad, or anything in between, they had no other option but to go along with whatever these strangers wanted.

Worse than helpless. They were totally dependent upon people they’d never met, couldn’t trust, and were absolutely terrifying.

“ Does it help if I assure you of your safety? ” Alred asked peaceably.

Garnet turned forward again. No one had come any closer to her. Which was better than if they had continued to crowd around them, but only marginally because they were still trapped.

But like Goldie said, it wasn’t like they had any better options.

“It really doesn’t,” Garnet said. “But we don’t have any other choice. So, for now,” she locked eyes with Tanin again, “we’ll accept your hospitality. Thank you.”