Kate and the Kraken by Honey Phillips

Chapter Two

Despite Kate’s apprehension, Mary turned out to be right. Another guard appeared sometime later, but all he did was fill up their food and water bowls, barely glancing at them before moving along the line of cages and repeating the process. Almost all of the occupants were given the same food, although a few of the animals received something that looked more like raw meat. Given their rather impressive teeth, she suspected they were pure carnivores. Mush was definitely a better option.

The next guard who showed up seemed to be doing an inspection, checking the occupants of the cages against a tablet. Like the first two, he wore a plain black uniform, but he had what looked like an insignia on his shoulder and she decided he must be in charge. He paused outside Mary’s cage.

“You were provided with sufficient nutrition?” he asked.

“Oh, yes, thank you, Yakshi.” Mary smiled at him. “I’m just not very hungry.”

“You need to eat.” He hesitated, glancing around, then pulled a foil wrapped package out of his pocket and dropped it into her bowl. “You may find this more palatable.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want you to get into any trouble.”

Kate did her best to hide her disbelief. Mary actually looked concerned about the guard.

“No one will challenge me,” Yakshi assured her.

“Where are you taking us?” Kate asked, determined to get some answers.

His brows immediately drew together into a frightening scowl. “That is not your concern, human.”

“If it’s money you’re after, I have access to a large bank account,” she persisted, undeterred by his thunderous expression. “I can convert it into gold or jewels.”

“There is nothing on your planet I want.” For the briefest second, his eyes flicked back to Mary. “Now be silent, or I will be forced to punish you.”

Unlike the previous guard, he didn’t seem excited by the prospect, but she had no doubt that he would carry through on the threat.

“She’s just new, Yakshi,” Mary said soothingly. “I promise she’ll be good.”

Yakshi looked down at her, his face softening slightly, then dipped his head. “See that she is.”

He strode off down the corridor without another word.

“He’s the nice one?” Kate asked in disbelief.

“He’s really not that bad. I just think he’s under a lot of stress. And look.” Mary tore open a foil wrapped package to reveal something that looked rather like a protein bar. The color was an unappetizing grey, but it smelled like chocolate. Mary broke it in half and offered her the largest piece.

“Are you sure you want to share this?” Kate asked.

“Of course. Somehow, I don’t think you’re going to win him over.”

Mary’s blue eyes twinkled at her, and Kate raised her eyebrows.

“Did you put on that sweet, helpless little act on purpose?”

“I really wasn’t very hungry, but my mama always said you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

Kate smiled in spite of herself. “I’m afraid vinegar is more my style.”

“So? I make a wonderful vinegar pie. You can always transform ingredients.”

“I’ll take your word for that.”

As they munched their protein bar—which wasn’t exactly chocolate, but tasty enough—Mary told her more about herself. She was a kindergarten teacher and a recent newcomer to the Gulf Coast. The aliens had captured her on the beach not far from Kate’s lab.

“I should have known better than to try jogging,” Mary said with a rueful smile, looking down at her generous curves.

“Jogging?” Kate asked doubtfully. She had never seen the appeal.

“My doctor said I needed more exercise. I like to watch the sun come up over the water so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and run at sunrise.” She wrinkled her nose. “I can’t say I was enjoying it, but then something bit my neck and I passed out. I woke up here.”

Tears sparkled in Mary’s big blue eyes, but she gave Kate a tremulous smile. “I’m sorry you were taken, but I’m glad I’m not alone anymore.”

“I understand.” She’d always been a loner, but having a companion was surprisingly comforting.

“Did you grow up in the area?” Mary asked.

“No, but I’ve been here—there—since I was an undergraduate. After I got my doctorate, I went to work for an organization studying carbon recycling in the ocean. We get most of our samples off the coast.”

“You didn’t want to teach?”

“God, no.” She shuddered. “I was a teaching assistant while getting my doctorate and that was bad enough. I didn’t like teaching, and my students didn’t like me.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Mary protested. “I can already tell how smart you are.”

“That’s not always an advantage,” Kate said dryly. “I bet your students love you.”

Mary’s smile faltered, and Kate realized how she must have sounded. “Oh, crap, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. But now you can see why I wasn’t good at teaching. Or anything that requires interaction with other people, actually.”

“I’ll just have to teach you to use a little more honey. It will make your life easier, wherever we end up.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, and then Kate sighed. “Can you hand me that foil please?”

“I’m afraid there isn’t anything left,” Mary said as she handed it over.

“That’s not why I wanted it.” She leaned forward to examine the lock on the cage. “This appears to be an electronic lock. I might be able to use the foil to disrupt the signal and open the cage.”

“Really?” Mary’s eyes widened, but then she bit her lip. “And then what?”

Hmm. She had been focused on the immediate problem, but Mary was right. What were the next logical steps?

“Find the transporter room, I think.”

“Transporter room? Like in Star Trek?”

“Or something equivalent. It’s hard to believe that they’re flying in and out of our atmosphere without being detected.”

“You think we could just beam back home?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I think we’re still close.”

“Why?”

Kate gestured at the empty cage next to hers. “I’m afraid they’re looking for someone else.”

As if in answer to her words, a guard appeared. A stretcher floated behind him, another woman dressed in white strapped to the surface. He paused outside the empty cage, and Kate watched as he pressed a small black oval into the woman’s ear canal, then unfastened the straps and dumped her body on the floor of the cage.

He looked down at her, then over to Kate and Mary, and grinned. It was not a pleasant expression.

“Not a bad haul. The three of you are going to make us a nice little profit.”

“You can’t do this,” Kate said urgently. “We’re people. We have lives. You can’t just sell us.”

“Why not?” He shrugged. “There’s quite an underground market for human slaves. Apparently, you’re very fuckable.”

“Which is why we should have taken more,” Eshak said as he came to join the first guard.

“You know we can’t afford to attract attention. The new Emperor has the Royal Fleet monitoring communications on this planet. Better to be discreet. Then we can return whenever we want.”

“I say it’s better to be bold. Fill up the ship, make a lot of credits, and retire.” Eshak ran his eyes over the unconscious woman and licked his lips. “And if we took more, we could keep one for ourselves.”

Kate shuddered. As appalling as she found the thought of being sold as a slave, the thought of being in the hands of someone as brutal as Eshak was just as bad.

“I hope this Royal Fleet locks you all up,” she snapped.

Eshak reached through the bars with shocking speed, grabbing her dress and slamming her into the bars hard enough to knock the air out of her lungs. “You’d better hope not, human. They’re just as likely to throw you in prison for being on this ship. Or use you themselves.”

The other guard gave him an odd look, then tugged Eshak away from the bars. “Come on. The captain wants to go over the inventory and decide on the best markets. It’s a chance for you to tell him he’s all wrong,” he added sardonically.

Eshak actually seemed to flinch. “I’ll pick my time,” he muttered.

“Yeah, right.”

The two of them disappeared down the corridor as Kate rubbed her aching chest.

“Are you all right?” Mary whispered.

“Just bruised. I never thought I would be grateful to be inside this cage, but at least he couldn’t—” She broke off as she realized that something had changed. “Can you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

“The vibration. I think the ship is moving.” She saw Mary’s face pale as the other woman reached the same conclusion. “We’re leaving Earth.”

They sat in horrified silence as Kate let the foil flutter to the floor. She might possibly have been able to operate a transporter, but there was no way she could pilot a spaceship. Everything she had worked for was slipping away and she was powerless to stop it.

A harsh groan disrupted her gloom.

“Where the fuck am I?” The new woman sat up, rubbing her head. A stunning redhead, she glared fiercely at both of them. “And who the fuck are you?”

“Fellow captives,” Kate said dryly.

“The headache doesn’t last long.” Mary gave the newcomer her usual cheerful smile.

“Aren’t you a ray of fucking sunshine,” the woman muttered, then sighed. “I’m sorry. I’ve been having a bad week. A bad year, for that matter.”

“That’s all right,” Mary said immediately. “Being kidnapped by aliens is enough to make anyone grouchy.”

“Aliens?”

Her disbelief was clear, and Kate gestured at the other cages. “Take a look around.”

“Fuck. I guess this week can get worse after all.” A reluctant smile crossed her face. “I’m Lily, fellow captives.”

It turned out that Lily ran a beach bar only one town away from Kate’s lab. She’d been taken when she left the bar late at night.

“I had to close because I fired my bartender last week.” Lily scowled. “Cheating bastard.”

“I assume you had more than a professional relationship?” Kate asked dryly.

“Yeah. I know better, but man, did he look good naked.”

She sighed wistfully, and Kate did her best to hide her skepticism. She’d never found the male body particularly aesthetically pleasing in real life.

Mary’s eyes were as big as saucers. “I can’t believe he cheated on you. You’re beautiful!”

Lily grinned. “Thanks, sweetie. I just have shit taste in men.”

“Me too,” Mary said softly, a troubled look crossing her face before she smiled again. “What about you, Kate?”

She shrugged uncomfortably. “I don’t really have time to date. But I’m sure if I did, the men would suck.”

When the other two women laughed, she felt an unexpected sense of kinship. Mary had been right—this was better than being on her own.

The days settled into a monotonous routine, with little to differentiate them other than the regular feedings. Yakshi continued to come by periodically on his inspection rounds. He always gave Mary a treat, although he showed no interest in either Kate or Lily.

“I must be losing my appeal,” Lily drawled after Yakshi dropped another bar in Mary’s feed bowl before he hurried away.

“Maybe you should be a little nicer,” Mary said, as she broke up the bar and passed them each a piece.

“In my experience, men only think one thing is nice, and I’m not prepared to go that far.”

“Yakshi’s not like that,” Mary protested.

Lily let it drop in the face of Mary’s distress, but she gave Kate a skeptical look. Kate suspected that Lily was quite right about Yakshi’s intentions, even if he was only treating Mary like a cute little pet right now.

Kate estimated that they had been on board for approximately two weeks when Eshak suddenly appeared in front of her cage, unlocking it and dragging her out despite her panicked protests.

And now here she was, bobbing along in an alien ocean like a letter in a bottle. Alone. Her eyes unexpectedly filled with tears, but she refused to let them fall. She wasn’t the type of woman who cried, and now was not the time to start. All she could do was hope that her friends’ pods had landed safely, then do everything she could to find them.

Friends. It was almost as foreign a concept as aliens. She had been an awkward, gifted child—too smart for her own good, her dad used to say—and she had never been particularly close to anyone. But being confined, half-naked, in adjoining cages had created an unexpected bond. With little to do other than talk, she knew the other women better than she had ever known anyone.

Please let them be okay, she thought.

While she didn’t worry as much about Lily—the fiery, determined redhead was a force to be reckoned with—Mary’s innocent, optimistic nature would make her an easy target. Kate only hoped that Yakshi had been the one to take her to her pod.

But worrying about her friends wasn’t going to help her escape the pod, and she had an uneasy feeling that time was not on her side. A small red light next to the door blinked rhythmically, and she remembered Yakshi’s words about picking her up later. A tracking beacon of some kind? She most definitely did not want to be here when they returned.

At least her hands were free. The position was somewhat awkward, but she managed to reach the closure on the head restraint and gradually worked it open. Once she could move her head, it was easier to see the remaining fastenings and she opened them much faster. As she freed the last one, a large wave picked up the pod and slammed it down again, knocking her to the ground.

While she had been wrestling with the restraints, the sky had darkened, the two suns disappearing behind heavy clouds. Another wave caught the pod, and her stomach dropped as it rolled down the steep slope into the trough. Despite her feeling of urgency, if the storm was going to get worse, she would be better off staying safely in the pod until it passed.

That was when the first drop of water trickled through the seal around the door.