Part II
Kate
Iam so screwed right now.
Apparently, my new home IS the aircraft.
Yes, my new place of residency is an enormous metal coffin zooming through the cosmos. Just that one thought makes me feel like I’m going to shit all over the floor, right here in front of him. I curl into myself more and keep my eyes facing out the window. I don’t want to show him any respect, it’s bad enough I’m on the floor at his steel feet.
“There’s no way I’m going to be able to stay in this tin box,” I say, in a shrill shaky voice that doesn’t even sound like me.
“It’s quite humorous to me that you think you even have a say in the matter,” the huge space alien asshole answers back.
I want to scream. I want to wake up from this horrible nightmare and go back to living my nice boring life.
“Why me?” I ask, whirling around to face the monster. He’s covered from head to toe in that strange suit of armor they all wear. It makes them some sort of cyborgs or something. I’m not sure if they’re human or what. I keep repeating things I know, because I think I’m literally going crazy.
Runesaidhe was just as human as me. And Rune helped me. I think he even helped me save my sister from boarding this tin can.But now I’m here instead.
“Don’t misunderstand yourself as anything special. Your body was just compatible with our armor and you’re a prime candidate for breeding. Nothing more.” The gears and plates shift noiselessly along the bottom of his jaw. Smooth matte alloy clings to him like a layer of skin. I know how deep the metal runs, it sinks through your pores and fills the marrow of your bones with ice. It makes you a monster. Does something to your brain letting you override your own humanity.
“Pious. That’s your name, right? Take off your faceplate,” I say, tightening my arms over my bare breasts. I’ve been leaning against the window, curled into a ball covering all my important parts with my clumsy limbs, loose and stringy feeling since we vaulted into the atmosphere.
The creature steps back, his metallic fingers crunching into fists.
“Rune told me about you,” I lie. Rune pretty much evaded every question I ever asked of him, but this guy-alien-whatever doesn’t have a clue.
His metal mouth might be smirking at me. I’m not sure. There’s one thing I learned while being stuck with Rune for the last few days, these creatures really think they are superior. Of course they do, since they’re a race of only men. The women seemed to have vanished.Gee, uh, duh, I wonder why? What could possibly be bad about living inside a cold gray metal ship with a merry little gang of arrogant assholes?I’d go and get myself extinct too.
His icy metal fingers are on me before I can even process he moved. They clamp like vise grips around my throat. “Get up,” he says, lifting me with one hand.
I have no choice, my body just goes. Sharp white-hot pain rips beneath my jaw as he pulls me. My calves and thighs strain to keep the tips of my toes on the floor to relieve the pressure. Spit and gasps choke out of my throat as I try to suck in air that’s being blocked by his strong grasp.
“So fragile, your kind are,” he murmurs, pulling me closer to his dark-holed eye sockets. I wonder what his mask is displaying as it analyzes my emotional and physical status to him. I instantly heat with fury. I can feel my skin tighten and pinch. I don’t want this asshole to be able to read what’s going on in my body right now. There’s no way I want him knowing I’m scared out of my damn mind. My hands slam at his elbows, trying to make his hold less harsh, but all he does is chuckle.
His fingers open without warning and I stumble trying to catch my balance. As soon as I’m steady, I cover my body with my arms and hands. “I need clothes,” I spit out. My voice is husky and dry. “And a glass of water, asshole.”
The metal latches on his mask lift at the corners of the dumb hole he has for a mouth.He issmirking at me. “Why don’t I show the princess to her new palace?”
A section of the flat gray wall opens and a long bright corridor spreads out behind it. “You will follow with no resistance.” It isn’t a question, but a bold statement with what sounds like a threatening snarl at the end.
Inside my head I screamFUCK YOU!
“Clothing?” I ask, before taking a step forward. “You want me to walk through that hallway naked? On a ship full of men who have never seen a naked woman before? Uh, that would be a HELL NO!”
He yanks my arm by the elbow and drags me through the door. “Stupid girl, the Caelum are wearing their faceplates and their view of you is being overridden.Idon’t even notice your state right now.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any safer to walk naked through a hallway, Sir Douchalot,” I grumble, trying to pull my arm away.
Pious ignores my ribbing and pulls me past dozens of doorways and walkways, everything as far as my eyes can see are in shades of dull matted gray or black. I’m already depressed by it. “This place sucks,” I say.
“Only when someone opens the exit hatches,” he says, fixing his dark eyes in my direction. I think he’s smirking at me again. This is ridiculous. I’m going to find a way to blow up this ship. Boom. Gone. Alien problem solved.
He stops abruptly at the end of a small alcove he just turned into and a narrow door slides open to reveal a small cell-like room. It’s the same size as my bathroom in our apartment back home. The walls are pale gray and a small bunk juts out from the farthest one. To my right and left the walls are covered with strange machinery. Buttons of various shapes and small lights blink along the expanse from ceiling to floor. As soon as Pious shoves me inside, my head feels full of cotton. It’s the same feeling when you stick your fingers in your ears and you hear that soft rumble of white noise.
The door hisses and slides closed behind us.
Slowly I spin around to take in my surroundings. Pious is pressing buttons on a small red console by the door; it’s the only thing besides the little blinking lights with color. He pulls open a small drawer and reaches inside.
