Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Science Fiction

No one else comes on board the ship for the next week, so I’m starting to suspect we’re “full.” Which is good, considering that our tiny hold gets more and more crowded-feeling with every hour. Now with Donna—the brutalized redhead—squeezed in with us, we feel like sardines.
		Not that anyone is jumping up to complain.
		Lily and I talk quietly during the night, when the guards leave us alone. We must be heading out to space now. Our ears have been popping repeatedly during the last few days, and we suspect we’ve begun traveling at a high speed.
		And we don’t know what to do about it.
		“We start by killing the guards,” I tell Lily and Kara for the second time tonight. “The little green men seem to have the basketball heads doing all the grunt work. I think if we get rid of the orange ones, maybe we can bully our way into demanding a return to Earth.”
		“Tiny flaw in this plan, Gariel,” says Lily, ever the practical one. She gestures at the bars of the cage. “We’re on this side, and they’re on the other side. With guns.”
		“We need to do something to prompt them to open the door. “Kara’s quiet voice cuts through the darkness. “I would says we could wait for another captive to show up, but…”
		“Yeah,” I say thoughtfully, my gaze sliding over to where Donna huddles in a corner, alone. She’s been a straight-up mess ever since they’d returned her to the cage. She’s quiet now, of course. She spends her waking hours with her fist stuffed against her mouth and biting down on it, tears streaming down her face. And she resists all attempts to befriend her or calm her down. It’s going to take time and patience, and because we’re all crammed into something the size of a closet, patience is running short at the moment.
		I look back over at Kara and Lily’s grim faces, thinking hard. “What if we all pretend to be sick the next time they come to feed us?”
		“That won’t be too hard,” Lily says. “Those seaweed bars are fucking nasty.”
		But Kara shakes her head. “And what if they decide that since we’re all sick, they’ll just dump everyone into space? We’re extras, remember? As long as they have their quota in those pods, we’re expendable.” She gestures at the lockers on the opposite side of the room. 
		I can’t forget them. I don’t know if I’m jealous that they’re completely unaware of our situation or even more horrified at what they’re going to go through when they wake up. But she’s right. The pod people being safe and secure makes us superfluous, and I’m not willing to add “sabotage the pods” the escape plan. Nor am I willing to leave them behind. We’ll simply have to factor them in. “Well then,” I say. “What if we scream?”
		Kara swallows audibly. “That terrifies me.” She peers over my shoulder at Donna and shudders.
		“I don’t like it either,” I tell her. “But what are our options? One misbehaving person ensures that everyone else stays safe, right? So we get their attention, get them to open the doors…”
		“And?” Lily prompts. “What? Get raped?”
		“No.” I don’t even want to think about that. “We need a distraction of some kind. We can rush them when they open the doors. There are more of us than them.”
		“But they have guns,” Kara points out.
		“But if we all rush them—”
		“Then the ones in front get shot,” Lily says. “I don’t want to be here, but I don’t want to die. And I don’t know that the others do, either. They’re not really fighters. None of us are.”
		“But what choice do we have?” I protest. “We can be good little slaves and still get raped and still get sold off for God-knows what. At least if we fight back, we have a chance.”
		“No, you’re right,” Lily draws her knees up close to her chest, thinking. “So we make a distraction, have them open the doors, rush them, take the guns, and take control. We just need to make sure Kara’s protected through all of this.”
		“Me?” Kara looks surprised. “Why?”
		“Because you’re the one with the translator,” Lily says grimly. “We’re not going to be able to convince them to turn around and go back to Earth if you get shot and we can’t talk to them.”
		She has a point. “I’ll be the distraction. It’s my plan.”
		“You sure?”
		God, no, I’m not sure. Every part of my body vibrates with terror at the thought of those pebbly-skinned creatures touching me. But what choice do I have? Sit back and do nothing? Roll over and let these creatures decide my fate? Screw that. “I’ll do it.”
		As if agreeing with me, the ship lurches and dips, sending us all sprawling.
		Not a single person screams, of course. We know better.