One of the others spoke up. A long-legged blue woman with a bulbous torso and spindly limbs. Her words, however, were utterly alien.
“You’re right. We’ve been lucky so far,” the other woman replied.
Margot looked at her, stunned. “You understood that?”
“Translation rune,” the woman said, turning her head and tapping a small tattoo behind her left ear. “We all get them. You will too, but the Raxxians have been very busy on Earth. Snatched up a lot of people, from what I’ve gathered.”
“Wait, so there are more of us?”
“Seems that way, though we can’t say for sure how many. They keep us separated in small groups. I’ve been here almost a month, but you’re only the second human I’ve seen.”
“Where’s the other one?”
The woman’s face darkened. “They took him. He made too much of a fuss. Tried to fight one of the guards. Said they can’t do this to him, like he actually had some kind of rights up here. So they took him, and he never came back.”
“What happened to him?”
The woman sighed, her spirits visibly falling. “It’s pretty clear they decided to make him their dinner.”
The blue alien spoke again.
It sounded like complete alien gibberish to Margot. “What did she say?”
“She says that’s why we keep quiet. Don’t draw attention. They took Malinga just now, but that wasn’t your fault. Shejust happened to be here when they dropped you off, and for whatever reason, the guard decided he wanted to take her.”
“And you let him?”
“Nothing we can do, girl. Believe me, if there was, we would have. They usually leave us all pretty much alone, for the most part. But now it’s going to get interesting.”
“Why?”
“Because when they brought you in, the ship’s vibrations changed. Malinga said it was the drive systems powering up for an inter-system jump.”
“How did she know?”
“She’d been her longer than the rest of us. Might be why they chose her today, but there’s no way to know.”
Margot’s cheeks flushed. “I-I’m sorry about your friend.”
“It’s the nature of our lives in this place.”
“And these aliens? They were all abducted, like us?”
“Aye. But you’ll be able to ask them their stories yourself, just as soon as the Skrizzit has time to give you your rune.”
“The what?”
“Skrizzit. It’s what they call the person who applies the pigments to people. They’ve only got one on board, and he’s a captive just like us.”
“A captive working for them?”
“Not by choice. But since he has a skill, they have him do the markings. His name’s Heydar. Big man, you’ll see. Not really talkative though, but from what I’ve gathered, he’s been here longer than all of us combined. Some kind of prize captive or something.”
Margot looked at the others. They were all so different. So strange looking. Soalien.
“I guess this means I’m going to be able to talk with you all pretty soon?” she more asked than stated, still not so sure how much credence she was going to put in this tattoo ink tech thehuman woman had talked about. And about that, she couldn’t very well go on calling her that. “Hey, by the way, my name’s Margot.”
“Alida,” the woman replied with a warm smile, despite their circumstances. “That’s Balla, Horvustix, and Olalla. Their names wouldn’t be understandable to you right now if they said them in their language, but you’re right, soon you’ll be able to communicate just fine. For now, you should lay down in one of the bunk spaces and let your body fully recover from the stun. It can take a few hours to completely wear off, sometimes longer. Once it has, we’ll show you how to get food and water from the compartment’s systems, along with where the bathroom area is and anything else you might want to know.”
