Nicole Krizek

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

EPILOGUE

Kor hated Vox. He had read the planet’s complete description in the ship’s database, but all he could think about was that it was hot as hell. And sandy. By the Gods was it sandy. With the way the wind was blowing, he was sure that he’d have sand in places he’d never had sand before. “How much longer will it take to complete the scan?” He asked.

His companion and mate, Ty, replied without looking up from the handheld tablet. “Not long. We just need to scan the rest of the city. I don’t want to miss anything.” Ty’s voice, as usual, was calm and patient. Kor hadn’t expected to hear anything different, but he was trying to be hopeful that they’d be able to finish quickly and get off that hunk of sand-covered rock.

Vox was a small planet comprised of deserts and the occasional outcroppings of rock. The majority of the planet was uninhabitable, but due to its remote location on the outskirts of the galaxy it attracted individuals that wanted to stay far away from the law. These thieves, murderers, mercenaries, etc. had built a small city and used it as a trading post for their stolen wares and as a stopping point through space. 

Kor was thankful the city was the only populated area on the planet. That meant that by the end of the day, they’d have it scanned and be on their way.

Kor and his crew had been assigned to that sector of space for several months now, having been ordered to search every habited planet, asteroid, or hunk of rock floating in space, to find new species in that part of the galaxy.  While they usually traveled in their ship, the Adastra, a science vessel that Kor captained, he hadn’t wanted to draw too much attention on a planet like Vox. Instead, he and Ty had landed a small shuttlecraft, and would rendezvous with the Adastra in three days time.

Until Ty finished his work Kor would suffer the planet in silence and be vigilant of their surroundings. The only other things that
Vox was known for, besides being able to fry a Frivolian egg with its intense sun, were its lawless inhabitants. The people who lived here adhered to their own rules, none of them good. Kor was not going to allow any harm to come to Ty; the most important job Kor had in the universe was to protect his mate.

While Ty’s eyes stayed glued to his tablet, scanning for all life forms within reach, Kor guided him forward. They were currently walking through what passed for a market place in the small city, but Kor was on high alert. He was beginning to hear a ruckus, caused by a large crowd, within a building up ahead. The noise was enough to distract Ty from his scans and he looked up. The closer they got, the more the noise became a roar. Intrigued, they walked into the crude building with packed dirt walls and old fabric, hung to make a ceiling to block out the worst of the sun’s powerful rays.

Kor and Ty shared a long look as they realized they had walked into what could only have been a slave auction.

The inside of the building was as dismal as the outside, but it was filled to capacity with the planet’s denizens. They had worked themselves into some sort of frenzy. From every corner of the room beings from all over the city were yelling and jostling each another.  Some shouted taunts, others sums of money, while others seemed to be yelling just for fun. There was even a group of males on their left, working out their problems with knives and fists.

Slave auctions could get heated when there was someone worth bidding on, but that was rare on planets such as this one which normally dealt in stolen merchandise. Any slave procured legally was sold farther towards the central part of the galaxy where the seller could get much higher sums of money for the slave, especially if the slave was special, or rare in some way.

Kor led the way farther into the room, while keeping a close eye on his mate as they stepped around a group of
Grungles. They stood at least two feet taller than Kor’s seven-foot height, and were known to have rather brutal character and were quick to temper.

Once the stage was in clear sight Kor stopped, frozen at what he saw: a female, standing on the raised platform at the other end of the room and she was absolutely breathtaking. He was so stunned by the sight of her that it took him a moment to notice that she was shaking with fear, causing the manacles around her wrists to jingle together.

The woman had the palest skin Kor had ever seen, it was nearly pink in color and without scales, horns or fur. She was around five and a half feet tall and scantily clad in a tattered outfit that she obviously had to endure to be sold. He could see she had long brown hair hanging down her back, but Kor unfortunately couldn’t see her eyes since she was staring down at the stage.

Kor thought that the
Blattarian, a creature that resembled a giant cockroach, was enjoying his role as slaver and auctioneer, far too much. He was currently describing her attributes to the crowd. According to him, she was a female that was strong enough to be used for labor, intelligent enough that she could be taught menial tasks, and that he had generously implanted a Universal Transmitter in her while she was in stasis so she’d be able to understand any of the galaxy’s languages. He even pointed out her many orifices to the aliens with tentacles, and that she had plenty of extra pounds and would make a good meal. But to Kor, the most interesting characteristic the Blattarian mentioned was that she was originally from the planet Earth.

Earthers were exceedingly rare out in space because, for the past several thousand years, the Grays had declared Earth under their protection due to its scientific abundance. It was rare to be given the opportunity to objectively observe a developing species and the Grays had been closely monitoring the planet’s evolutionary development for several thousand years.

Ty’s voice interrupted Kor’s thoughts. “Now that’s a sight I never expected to see. I never imagined finding a bipedal species in this sector, much less an Earther. A female Earther.” Kor could tell that Ty was trying to hide his excitement at finding such an extraordinary creature. He too knew the treasure she could, potentially, be to their species, the Arathians.

Arathians had never been able to test Earther DNA due to of their protected status, but there were no rules against having an Earther in your possession if you managed to buy one off-world. Kor had heard that the Grays’ observations had yielded very interesting data, and experiments had been highly successful for the most part. Luckily, Earthers who remembered their experiences with the Grays were often dismissed and considered foolish, or crazy, by others of the species.

Kor forced his eyes away from the Earther and looked at the audience and the Blattarian leading the show. Thankfully slavery had been outlawed on his planet, Arath, for several centuries now, but it was not illegal throughout the galaxy, or even throughout the Galactic Alliance. Kor shook his head sadly. Greed truly was a universal problem. The Blattarian had to be insane to have gone to Earth and violated its protected status, but by the sound of the large sums of money being bid, he would soon be wealthy
and
insane.

“I can’t believe they’re bidding on her like a piece of meat.” Ty didn’t bother to hide his disgust. “Look at her, she’s trembling in fear.”

Kor looked back at Ty and knew that they were in agreement. They couldn’t stand by and watch this female be won by any of the creatures assembled when at their hands her future could be worse than death. There was no other choice but to win the auction himself so that he could protect her.

With his most authoritative voice, the one only used when chastising his crew, he shouted: “I bid half a million credits.”

The noise in the room quickly dwindled until the sound of his own breathing was loud in his ears. He looked straight at the Blattarian, willing him to decide quickly and close the bidding so they could leave with the little female Earther.

There was no way any creature present could outbid him. Five hundred thousand credits was a fortune, but Kor knew that his government would spare no expense to test the
Earther’s DNA.

*****   

Lacy found herself standing on a small stage in a dirty, hot room, staring, aghast, at the
things
all around her, yelling out sums of money and goods. Money and goods offered in exchanged for
her.
The most disturbing things she heard were all the disgusting commentaries of what the things wanted to do to her, if she became their slave.

She was forced to stand still while the creatures yelled out the foul things they wanted her for: sex, entertainment, service in a home, or a living lawn ornament. One thing, with tusks, even said that it wanted to take her home to be a main course at dinner.

Her body was numb with fear but a small part of her realized that she was just as enthralled as she was repulsed. She looked around the room at the aliens... Aliens! In all shapes and sizes. She had always believed humans were not alone in the universe, but she had imagined that the ETs would look more like the “little gray men” from the science-fiction channel, rather than the six-legged, eight-eyed, scaly, and oozing nastiness that stood around her. And the smell of them all was one of the worst parts. It was a cross between bodies that had gone unwashed their entire lives and rotten trash. The smell was so strong that it made her eyes water and made breathing difficult.

When she had been shoved onto the stage and told to “Stand still!” she had quickly scanned the room looking for a way to escape, but unfortunately the only other way out of the building was a doorway at the far end of the room behind the audience. Even if she somehow made it past all the aliens and out the door, she had nowhere to go. She had manacles around her wrists, barely any clothing
on, no money, no transportation, and she had no idea where in the universe she was! All that didn’t give a girl too many options. 

She gave up thoughts of escape and focused on the creatures surrounding the stage and tried to find the least nasty among them. Sadly, all she saw was various examples of gross, and grosser.

One such revolting creature, stood just in front of the stage, let out a sound almost like a sneeze, and some disgusting globs of green slime flew out of one, of several holes in its face. It nearly landed on her bare feet. When she let out a small cry of shock and revulsion the crowd erupted into laughter and, for whatever reason, the bidding intensified. Apparently they liked her disgust… Nasty perverted aliens.

Suddenly, above all the noise and
putridness, a loud, deep voice bid a sum of money, much larger than any of the previous offers. Lacy’s eyes followed the turned heads of the crowd and she saw two men who looked nothing like the unclean, fowl creatures crowded around her. They so closely resembled humans that she had a moment’s thought:
Maybe she’d been saved
! After she took a longer look at them she realized that those men were not from Earth. 

Each stood at least seven feet tall, with smooth caramel-colored skin, black hair, chests twice the width of hers, and the largest arms she’d ever seen. They were wearing matching black clothing that reminded her of a uniform, but were so tight that they did little to hide the muscles underneath. One of them was slightly shorter, but bulkier than the other, and had shoulder-length, wavy, midnight hair that should have made him look soft were it not for the intense glower that he’d aimed at the auctioneer. Clearly he was the one who had bid on her and was waiting to seal the deal. Lacy counted herself lucky that she was not the recipient of the fierce look.

Lacy looked at the male’s companion who was standing next to him; he was taller, but leaner, and had hair that was pulled back from his face. He was staring right at her, with a look of displeasure. It made her feel self-conscious of her appearance and Lacy glanced down at herself to see why she should warrant such a look.

She was dressed in the skimpy “clothes” her captor had ordered her to wear. They were comprised of a bra-like
top, that exposed more of her breasts than it hid, and a skirt made of long strips of cloth, that opened as she walked, and revealed her skin underneath. She knew that she also had some bruises and small cuts on her arms, legs, and torso, from being manhandled for past two days, and being forced onto the stage against her will. Then, she remembered that her face must also be bruised, from the smacks she had received from her captor whenever she asked a question, or opened her mouth to speak at all.

Overall, Lacy was willing to admit that she didn’t look her best, but she was not hideous by any standards. Well, any Earth-based standards, anyway. She had no idea what passed for attractive or ugly out here in the back-woods part of the galaxy, especially when compared to the scaly, hairy, oozing, gross aliens that surrounded her.

Still curious as to what would have caused the man’s look of displeasure, Lacy’s eyes went back to his. The look of disgust had become one of compassion. In those eyes she saw the sympathy she’d been craving since she woke up to the inescapable nightmare she was in. It was only the fear of being beaten again that forced her to resist the urge to run to him and beg for protection.

She had nicknamed her captor, Rat-
Bastard  and she turned to look at him as he laughed and demanded proof of such a sum of money. She could have practically imagined the thing clapping his many hands together in glee. One of the two men stepped forward and, after pressing a couple of commands, handed the auctioneer a device that had been attached to his belt. Rat-Bastard looked at the device and asked the crowd if anyone would bid higher. His question was met with grumbles from the audience, so, since no one would outbid the two men, he excitedly exclaimed that she was sold.