Learning to Blush (36 page)

* * *

“We’re not gonna get there in time.” Thorton combed his fingers through his dark hair, fretting and frustrated. His wife had to be scared out of her mind. She was surely awake from the journey to the Frian capital, and surely being questioned, being tortured… being killed?

He was the worst husband ever. The last expression he remembered seeing on her face was a hurt one after he gave her the supplement. That’s probably why she was with Ellie when it all happened, rather than with
him
! His poor red-headed little angel…

“I don’t want to think about it,” Graham told him, slightly adjusting the patch over his eye.

“Graham,” Tim said, sitting down in a pilot’s chair next to Michael and flipping some switches, “you look hot with that eye-patch. I mean that in the most non-homosexual way possible. I’m just observing.”

“Tim—I’m not in the mood for jokes,” Graham warned. “Just go. The journey will take a few long days, but we’ll get through—”

Michael closed the hatchway. “Whoa, whoa. Who said I’m going the
long
fucking way around? We’re not rescuing Ellie the old way, you know!”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, raising an eyebrow as he buckled himself in.

Tom turned to his own console and put down his sunglasses, even though he was flying into a place where there wouldn’t be a sun for another 6,000 light-years. “Light the fires, Big Daddy,” he told Michael.

“Why do I get a bad feeling about this?” Peyton suddenly asked, his eyebrow worrying.

Michael picked up the speakerphone and his voice suddenly resounded over the speaker system. “Thank you for riding Jonas Spacelines. We’d like to take this time to remind you to leave your tray tables in their upright and locked positions… Your seat is not made out of a floating device, but in the case of a fire-landing, just put your head between your legs, pull forward, and kiss your ass goodbye,” Michael said into his microphone, smirking despite the circumstance.

“Hold onto your dicks.” Tim must have said that; it was impossible to tell. As soon as they were in open-space and a mile away from the mothership, the ship itself lurched.

Graham, Jack, and Thorton had spent most of their lives onboard spaceships. They had been through warp-drive a countless number of times, but this was different. This was something they’d never forget, and would never recommend. Going through a ‘Jonas-Warp’ was unpleasantly like having one’s belly-button play tether-ball with one’s own spleen.

When they came out of Jonas-Warp, the ship panted as one, then everyone gave nervous laughs, and then Peyton turned his head and puked his guts out. “What the
fuck
was that?” Peyton demanded, his body still feeling like pudding.

“That, my friends,” Michael said, turning around in his seat, “was the sound of our awesomeness. This ship was chosen by us because we had installed Jonas-Warp one-point-oh.”

“You test-drove us?” Jack demanded unsnapping himself from his seatbelt.

“Oh, no. We’ve been test-driving this ship since our sisters turned up missing, Admiral. I mean, c’mon. We knew one of these days we’d have to sail this rescue-cruise. Keep your eyes out and your hands on your guns, everyone. We’re coming into proximity on the Frian planet.”

Graham blinked his one good eye. “What?” he asked incredulously. “What do you mean, we’re already in proximity?”

“I mean we’re landing.” Michael shrugged. “So watch your ass.”

“What do you mean 'we’re landing'?” Thorton was now asking. He couldn’t believe it either. “Are you saying…?”

“You guys knew what we were making all this time, right? Did you even
look
at Ellie’s plans? This is what it was all about!” Tom reminded, pushing his sunglasses back up to his forehead. “This ship is the shit, man. It’s wicked fast.”

“Kids, you all have wise-mouths and can’t shut up, but goddamn it—when we get back, if I don’t get rung up on charges for abandoning my post, I’m gonna get you boys a medal,” Jack said, a laugh in the back of his throat in spite of himself.

“Hey, let’s not shift this into neutral. We’re not coming out of this alive just yet. Hopefully this just gives us a shot at rescuing them,” Michael reminded, and then he cast a weary look out the window. “Remember, there’re a lot of Frians on that planet…”

“Well…” Tim said, wheeling his chair around and crossing his legs and twiddling his fingers. “Let’s change that.”

* * *

Penny’s body glistened with sweat; beads of which ran over her swollen welts as tears streamed out of her eyes. The man kept whispering in Penny’s ears about all the ways he was going to use her, fuck her, rape her… And she had stopped caring. There was nothing she could do about it.

Ellie was roughly shoved into the room. She was pale and wide-eyed, covering her stomach protectively with her arms. “Oh, Penny!” she said, looking straight at her. She turned her head to Jazeel. “She doesn’t know anything! She’s innocent, My Lord! We know nothing! We’re worthless to you!”

Penny held her breath, waiting for Jazeel’s response. Surprisingly, he rolled his eyes and had cut her down. Her body fell in a heap on the floor as she heard Jazeel say, “It’s all too interesting that you don't seem to be equally worthless to the Swarii. If they can breed with humans, this generation might have a chance. Right now only one-in-four males can find a mate at all.”

“My lord…” Ellie squeaked.

“It’s time we take your planet and harvest it for the workforce we can get, and slay the rest of you,” Jazeel continued coldly. “Better to have you dead than for them to create one abomination after another with you like the one you carry. After we send a
second
little surprise to the planet of Libii this week then the Swarii will be more desperate for women than ever…”

Penny froze and lifted her head. Was he divulging his evil plan? Wow. She’d seen this sort of thing in James Bond movies… Just she couldn’t imagine anyone would act this way in real life; not even such a cliché villain like Jazeel.

“Even now, I have a biochemical weapon of mass-destruction about to ship out.” Jazeel gave an evil chuckle. “But you, my Pet, will help us gain knowledge on this little sub-species. Or at least your fetus will once we extract it. And you—” he sniffed, looking at Penny. “Prime? Just do away with her after you bring the Pet to the medical bay.”

Penny gasped.

“Actually,” the prime hummed. “My Lord, my Lady—would you mind if I kept her for an evening or two? Just for my personal use? They might not give information very freely, but this bottom is delicious… And there are things I’d like to try out for when I’m breeding with the girl of your choice…”

Lady Gahaal smiled her reptilian smile. “Yes, very well. If you must; I suppose you need to release regularly to keep your semen healthy and fresh.” She sighed and twiddled her fingers, saying, “Do away with her after you’re done with her. I wouldn’t care for her whelps. They’d be ugly little beasts…”

“No!” Ellie yelled. “No, please! Mercy! Don’t hurt Penny. I’ll tell you everything…”

“Yes, you will.” Jazeel looked over at his Prime. “We’ll keep that one alive as long as this one plans to speak for us…” His yellow eyes glistened with this new opportunity. “And then maybe you’ll be a good pet again. You’ll give us prettier whelps than whatever atrocity you presently carry. I wouldn’t mind breeding you.”

Ellie paled to an even whiter color and she crumpled to the ground.

“You are too kind, my lord,” the Prime said, wrapping her tight grip around Penny’s wrist and yanking her off the ground before he led her from her place, pushing his fingers against the welts on her naked bottom.

The Prime had no difficulty pulling Penny out into the hallway, even though she tried to grab onto Ellie’s hand on the way out; their fingers were barely able to touch. Both of them were now crying; they knew rescue was impossible. Penny was going to get raped and killed, Ellie was going to lose her baby and would probably be forced to breed with this evil son-of-a-bitch before too long. Maybe
she
would get rescued, long-after she'd been raped by the Prime, but that was doubtful. There were too many enemies here; too many Frians. It was far too highly secured…

Besides, their husbands probably weren’t cleared to rescue them, and it was laughable to think that any Swarii would go against their own protocol.

“Please, just let me go, okay?” she begged Lady Gahaal’s Puppy-Man.

“Why would I let you go?” he scoffed. “You’re mine, and so is this juicy little ass of yours.” He gave it another squeeze. “I’m gonna make your whoring little mouth beg for it, too. Ever have a cock up your ass?” he continued to mock, wheeling her into his bedroom and laughing at the same time.

Penny gripped the doorframe. “Please, no! Please. You can’t! I’m married! Please don’t!”

“I don’t give two fucks if you’re married! He’s not here, is he? I’m sure you like yourself a load of Swarii cock like your little friend does, but he’s nowhere to be seen. So it’s just you and me.” He pried her fingers off until she cried out and her body fell into the room. “Maybe you’ll forget all about him.” He pushed her towards the bed and pinned her arms behind her back.

“My husband will come for me. And he will kill you even if I’m gone. You hear me?” she threatened, and for a moment, she felt like that Thorton really would. Thorton would avenge her, even though they did nothing but fight. The same man who left flowers on her bedside pillow and said her name softly as he pushed his length into her—he would kill this man who would just take what wasn’t his.

“Shut up, whore. The only thing I want to hear from your lips is ‘Daddy’. Maybe if you talk dirty back to me, I’ll be a little gentler.”

Penny squinted and prayed for a miracle as she cried miserably to herself. She listened to the Prime take off his belt and she sighed. '
Thorton, wherever you are…
' she thought
, 'I love you
…
I really love you.'
She had never truly even thought those words before, but now, towards the end, his face and his voice was the only things she could think about. Her husband; the one she’d never see again. The one that couldn’t rescue her this time.

Chapter Fifteen

“Alright, we’re breaking into three strike teams,” Jack said, pointing his fingers at Tim, hoping to keep his attention for more than five seconds, which had been the previous record. “We don’t know where the girls are, and to even leave the planet we’re going have to take down the communications and the deflector shield so we have an escape route settled. Jones—you lead me there and you and I will shut it down.”

Peyton stuck his thumb up in agreement. “Right.”

“Mike and Thorton—you take the left passage. Graham? You take the boys and take the right—”

“Why do we have to have Ol’ One-Eye on
our
team?” Tom grumbled.

Jack reached out and smacked Tom upside the head hard enough for him to go cross-eyed for a second, even as Jack continued to say, “We meet back in oh-four-hundred. Set your watches. Be back by then, and
be alive
.”

“What if I’m merely undead?” Tim asked, thinking he was cleverly telling a Zombie joke. He was rewarded by Peyton smacking the back of Tim’s head. “Owe! My brains!”

“Get serious,” Peyton warned.

“Any questions that are
not
stupid?” Jack asked, and was met by blank faces. He gave a weak smile. “Good luck, all of you.”

The group of them quickly headed out of the ship. “You ready to kick some ass?” Mike asked Thorton, cracking his knuckles.

“Are
you
?” Thorton asked, raising his eyebrows and heaving his gun over his shoulder.

“Shit yeah!”

Thorton rolled his eyes. “Do a better job than when you tried to rescue Graham,” he ordered, leaving the ship with Mike on his heels.

“Ah, man! You can’t keep bringing that shit up! It was ages ago!”

“It was a just
two months ago
.”

“Yeah, well—Swarii days are longer. That counts for something. I’m gonna kick some ass…”

“Don’t bother with ass-kicking, ass-stomping, or putting your foot up any asses,” Thorton told him; apparently a bastion of human lingo. “Just point and shoot, Kid. Don’t get fancy.”

“You got it, Boss.”

Thorton pursed his lips together. “And hurry up. I gotta bad feeling.”

* * *

Penny was going to get raped, just like her mother warned her when she was growing up. Only it wasn’t because she was ‘sending the wrong signals’. It wasn’t even because she wore shirts two sizes too small. It wasn’t because she wound up in the backseat of the car with the wrong boy.

Except for a few incriminating smart-phone photos of her boobs, she’d say she survived Earth with nothing but good experiences. It wasn’t until she left the planet that everything got weird—in space, it seemed like there was nothing but murderers, drug lords, villains, and rapists around every corner! Boob-shots were definitely the least of her worries.

Refusing to be a damsel in a life-threatening amount of distress, and without hope of any white knight about to rescue her on horseback, she launched herself at the Prime and tried to claw his eyes out.

She had all the effect of a kitten who decided it'd had enough. Maybe a kitten would have made more progress, but Penny had played hooky on that fateful day when they were teaching self-defense in gym class. If she had gone, it was said that she’d know all the proper techniques to kill a man with one well-directed move—or so her gym teacher would have liked her to think.

In any case, the Prime backhanded her across the face. It would have been nice if his hand broke across her cheekbone for his trouble, but she could see no symptoms of his pain from her new-found position on the floor, where she was sure the left-side of her face was sure to explode from the amount of swelling it was quickly achieving.

The pain was all she could think about as the Prime settled upon her. She didn’t scream—she didn’t bother. She was helpless to do anything. Soon, Earth would be taken over by Frian scum. Another crippling plague would fall upon the Swarii federation, she would be dead, and Ellie would have her child ripped from her body and replaced with something that would be raised as a pet.