1
Elena
“You know,I swore off helping humans thelasttime I had to pose as a slave.” Jadara shook her head, her fire locks dancing with the movement like living flames.
“I know, girl.” I crept closer behind her and grabbed her arm. My usual golden brown complexion appeared a shade too pale after months spent on a deep space vessel. It stood in contrast to my alien friend’s bright blue shade. I sighed at the thought, aching for planetary ground and sunshine. Lots of sunshine. “I promise once we escape this so-called space cruise, I’ll owe you one.”
“Some cruise,” she muttered. Tugging at the yellow scarves banded around her breasts, she attempted to hide more of her exposed skin for the fifth time. Matching fabric hung from her waist in strategic positions to cover her sensitive areas. Strappy sandals of the same banana hue completed the outfit. “Gah!” Her hands flopped at her sides, giving up on her fidgeting for the time being. “I can’t believe I fell for their ‘guaranteed pleasure for all’ shtick.”
“Well, it is a catchy slogan,” I offered. She huffed at that, and I didn’t remark further. It was on the tip of my tongue to continue with a funny story or a round of sarcasm, but I held back. Comedy was my go-to for tense situations, but years working as a security officer taught me to curb the humor.
We fell into a companionable silence as we waited, hidden behind a hexagonal potted plant three times our size. The burgundy leaves provided the perfect coverage to spy on our captors. That was if Jadara could stay still for more than two minutes. “Elena…” She tapped a pointed nail on her chin and glanced at me. “Where are these eepobars anyway?”
“Eep-oh, what now?” I raised a brow at her.
I’d been lucky to find Jadara and employ her help. After the attack on DS1—the first deep space vessel sent from Earth to create a colony on a new planet—my crew was scattered. With the help of our chief security officer and our ship’s doctor, we managed to get some of the science team off the ship safely. They were the most vital of us as they had the knowledge to create the colony. But their escape was a near thing as the bastards had hit us from multiple points, battering the ship. With a little luck, we managed to steer the scientists into an escape capsule and launch it with stealth shielding. It was the best we could do given the circumstances. What happened after that…well, I was still rattled from it.
“Eepobars,” Jadara repeated, snapping me back to the present. “Isn’t that what you called them?”
“You mean hippo-bears?” I snorted. Our attackers had turned out to be a gang of space thugs, a species called the Mangox. Hell bent on causing havoc, they were apparently the biggest and baddest of all the nasty players in the Meta Sector. Engaging in everything from underground weapons procurement to slave trading, their current con was the SpaceZ Pleasure Cruise. It’s where I found myself after they abducted everyone left aboard DS1 that didn’t have the luck of escaping. Although, I wouldn’t have abandoned ship, even if I’d had the chance.Never.
Jadara, as if sensing my distraction, pivoted quietly on her sandaled heel toward me. “Yeah, you said the Mangox were eepobears. It’s a curse, no?”
“Not quite.” A chuckle bubbled in my chest. “I was saying they looked like a cross between a hippo and a bear, two animals from my home planet.”
“Oh.” She spun around to continue our watch. “Well, they may look like that, but animals are too good for these monsters. They’re nothing but asshats.”
The laughter I’d been holding back broke free, and I had to clasp a hand over my mouth to contain it.
“Shhh,” she hissed at me. “We’re supposed to be stealthy, remember?”
“Itoldyouthat.” I flicked at her shoulder to emphasize my point. “You’re the one that’s throwing around Earth slang like you were born to use it. How am I not supposed to laugh?”
Casting a withering stare over her shoulder, she scoffed. “You’ll manage, Miss Security.”
“Just keep an eye out. We need to find a way to locate my friends and get off this damn ship.” I fussed with my own outfit, a replica of Jadara’s except the fabric was purple instead of yellow.What I wouldn’t give for that ugly navy jumpsuit.My security uniform had been a drab design, but it was functional and comfortable, and oh how I missed it. After the attack, the Mangox had blasted our ship with some type of chemical concoction, knocking us unconscious. We didn’t even have the opportunity to fight back. When I’d come to fully for the first time, I awoke in a room filled with tropical plants. Little did I know it was a simulation on this accursed space cruise.
Waiting as we were now had my mind wandering to that nightmare memory that was far too fresh.
“Where am I?” My head throbbed as if I’d gone on a two-day bender. Since I rarely ever drank, and certainly not enough to blackout, that didn’t seem plausible. I rose slowly, the acids in my stomach rising with me. Ugh. I put a hand to my chest as if to stem the tide. But with the world around me spinning and my head throbbing, it was a lost battle. I fell onto my hands and knees gagging. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you viewed it, nothing came up.
“Great. So I’m probably dehydrated too.” As if summoning the feeling into existence, I rasped against a dry throat. The pain caused tingles over my neck that had me dreaming of water. It was only then the dizziness and nauseous eased enough for me to take in my surroundings.
Bright blue plants filled every inch of the space, dotting the pink sand with patches of black soil. With long ashen trunks and wide leaves that gave off a turquoise glow, they reminded me of palm trees. My family had lived in Puerto Rico for generations before the diminishing of viable land on Earth, and although I’d never seen the plants in person, my family had enough holo-vids standing beside them to make me feel as if I had.
Remaining on my hands and knees, I reached for a teal frond that rested near my head. “Soft.” I mumbled. My thoughts were sluggish as if moving through pudding. I used the texture of the leaf to help ground me. The leaf crumbled beneath my ministrations, but the action worked to pull me from the chemical-induced fog. I rose fully this time. With my legs under me, wobbling slightly, I managed to stay standing. “What is this place?”
As if in answer, a beam of light hit me. I shielded my eyes, but the strange glow encapsulated me. Then, a disembodied voice spoke. “Come one, come all to the paradise sector! A new treasure for you is on display.”
I scanned the skyline where the voice seemed to be speaking from above. I wished I hadn’t. Another round of nauseous threatened. Beyond the treetops a clear glass panel encircled what should have been the sky. This was no natural environment. It had been created for observation. And as the white light continued to shine on me, I knew in my heart the truth.
“It’s a goddess damned zoo.”
I shook my head violently as if to dislodge the memory. It hadn’t been long after that I’d found Jadara. Taken from the “paradise” habitat as our captors called it, I was placed in a barred cell at night. My blue alien friend had apparently complained after seeing what the pleasure cruise actually was—a glorified slave market—and had been taken into custody for her outbursts by the ship’s security. Housed in the same cell as me, she explained everything about the Mangox and their scam, which she had learned of the hard way.
“All I wanted was a nice, relaxing vacation,” she’d said to me the first night of our captivity together. “Okay, and maybe a little fling too. Is that too much to ask for?”
I’d commiserated, having wanted a new life among the stars as opposed to being planet-bound on ever decreasing Earth’s land masses. And okay, yeah, a galactic romance might have been on my mind too. But neither of us got what we wanted. Instead of her dream vacation, she’d been horrified to learn she’d ended up on a slaver’s ship masquerading as a space cruise. And well, Jadara, being a fierce rebel as I soon discovered, wasn’t one to keep quiet or back down when faced with injustice.
