Mary and the Minotaur by Honey Phillips

Mary and the Minotaur

Chapter One

“Where are we going?” Mary asked Yakshi as he gripped her arm painfully and hurried her along the corridor.

He was one of the aliens who had abducted her from Earth, but he was usually nice to her—or at least nicer than any of the other guards.

“To an escape pod. We have to get you off the ship.”

“I don’t understand. Why? And what about the others?”

A lump formed in her throat at the thought of her friends. Lily and Kate had been abducted at about the same time and the three had formed a tight bond as the alien ship traveled ever further from Earth. Both of them had already been dragged out of their cages, leaving her alone.

“The Imperial Fleet is on our trail,” he muttered, then looked down at her, his eyes burning. “And I’m not about to lose you to those bastards.”

Eshak, the worst of the guards, had implied that the humans would be imprisoned—or worse—if the Fleet discovered them. While it was nice of Yakshi to want to keep her safe from the Fleet, would it really be that much more unpleasant than what these alien slavers had in store for them?

“But what about my friends?”

“The pods are only big enough for one.” He stopped in front of a wall of oval-shaped doors and opened one to reveal a small, circular space. One side was padded, with straps hanging next to the padding. “Get in.”

Her stomach churned. She was not good with small spaces.

“Yakshi, please.” She gave him her best friendly smile. “Is this really necessary?”

“Yes.” He pushed her inside, not exactly roughly, but hard enough to make her stumble through the doorway and against the padded wall. “It might even work out for the best.”

“I don’t understand.”

He looked up from where he was fastening the restraints across her body, his eyes still heated. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to acquire enough credits to purchase you by myself. I might have had to share.”

“Share?” she whispered. The thought that he intended to acquire her was bad enough—the fact that he had already planned to share her only made it worse.

“Don’t worry, pet. I’ll make sure that I’m the only one who finds you.” His hand closed over her breast as he fastened the last strap, followed by a sharp pinch as he caught her with his claw. “You’ll be all mine.”

Oh no. She had done her best to be polite and friendly to him, but she wasn’t attracted to him in the least. Even though he was an alien, his jutting brow and hairy body bore a disturbing resemblance to primitive humans.

“Yakshi,” she began, determined to let him down gently, “I don’t—”

He mashed his mouth against hers before she could continue, forcing his tongue between her lips, and she almost gagged. He tasted like rotten garbage, and his thick tongue threatened to choke her.

An alarm sounded in the distance, and he raised his head, a satisfied smirk on his ugly face.

“Don’t worry,” he said again. “I’ll come for you, and you’ll have plenty of time to show me how grateful you can be.”

He grabbed his crotch, his meaning all too clear, then stepped back and slammed the pod door shut. She was still shuddering when it launched itself into space.

Why did this keep happening to her? Not being kidnapped by aliens, of course—that was an entirely new experience—but attracting the wrong men. Some men took one look at her short stature, blond curls, and big, blue eyes and dismissed her as a silly little airhead. The others tended to focus on her more than bountiful breasts and curvy body and assumed she would fulfill their sensual promise. The last man had been so obsessed with her that she’d ended up moving across two states to get away from him.

If only she was more like Lily, able to discourage someone with a single withering remark, or even able to use Kate’s icy logic, but she had been brought up to be polite and well-mannered and she hated confrontation.

Although she was neither naïve nor impractical, she had decided a long time ago that it was better to look for the good in people. Sometimes, probably even frequently, she was disappointed, but it was far better to suffer the occasional disappointment than to live in constant suspicion. Her aunt had lived that way and it had kept her safe, but it had never made her happy.

She had lived with her aunt from the time she was five. Her pretty, erratic mother had dropped her off on her aunt’s doorstep one day, kissed her, and departed in a swirl of perfume and flowery skirts. Mary had never seen her again.

“Don’t worry, darling!” her mother had called cheerfully as she headed for her car. “Your Aunt Elizabeth will take care of you until I can come and get you.”

Looking up at the grim, unsmiling woman, Mary hadn’t been so sure. With a sinking heart, she remembered that her backpack with all her carefully hoarded supplies was still in the car.

“I expect you’re hungry,” her aunt said, opening the door into a spotless house.

Five minutes later, Mary had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in one hand and a glass of milk in the other hand. Then her aunt led her to a plain, neat bedroom with a pretty blue quilt on the bed, and told her that it was all hers. Mary had decided that maybe she would be all right until her mother returned.

Life with her aunt was the complete opposite of life with her mother. Aunt Elizabeth never appeared with a bag full of presents and a fanciful tale about her adventures, but she was there every night when Mary went to bed, and still there every morning when she woke up. Their house was always clean and warm and dry.

There were no more fairy cakes and sweet sodas at midnight, but neither were there long days with no food at all. She had breakfast every morning and dinner every night, and there were always wholesome snacks waiting in the refrigerator. It had still taken her two years before she stopped hiding food away.

Despite Aunt Elizabeth’s stern demeanor, Mary had quickly come to recognize and appreciate the deep vein of affection that ran beneath the brusque surface. She had occasionally rebelled at her aunt’s strictness, of course, especially as a teenager. During one of their worst fights, she had accused her aunt of hating her because she was too much like her mother.

“And you hate my mother!” she yelled.

“I don’t hate your mother. She’s my sister and I will always love her, but I don’t want you to have to go through all the things that she went through.”

“It wasn’t so bad,” she said defensively.

Her aunt sighed. “Mary, you’re always so determined to only look at the positive side of life. When she brought you to me, you only had two dresses and you were significantly underweight.”

“Why did she bring me here? Did she get tired of me?” She had never asked before.

“No.” Her aunt hesitated, moving over to the bureau. “Do you remember a man named George? Maybe Uncle George?”

He had been one of her mother’s boyfriends, a big cuddly man who liked to put her on his knee and give her candy. “Yes.”

“Your mother caught him coming out of your room one night. Even though she was frequently… confused, she knew enough to realize that she couldn’t keep you safe. So she brought you to me.”

“You mean it was my fault she left me here?”

“No! Don’t ever think that. She did the best thing she could do for you.”

“I miss her.”

“I do too.” The words were almost inaudible, and Mary could see the sadness on the older woman’s face. But then it disappeared behind her aunt’s usual sternness. “Now let’s have no more of this nonsense.”

When her aunt had fallen ill during her last year of college, Mary had returned home to nurse her. Even then, the older woman had rarely given into any display of emotion, but Mary knew her well enough to know that she was glad that Mary was there. After her aunt’s death, she had sold the small house they had lived in and returned to college. It was during that last year, when the feeling of being alone had weighed so heavily on her, that she had drifted into a disastrous relationship with Ronald.

He had seemed so sure of everything, just like her aunt. It had taken her far longer than it should have to realize that, unlike her aunt, there was no core of affection beneath his orders—only the need to control. But perhaps some part of her had known, because at least she’d never given into his demands that she sleep with him. And once she understood what he was truly like, she had managed to escape his control and make a whole new life for herself in Cosmo Beach. A good life. She loved living by the sea, and she loved teaching her kindergarten class. She had even begun to consider dating again.

Instead, she went out to look at the stars one night and woke up in a cage on an alien spaceship, trapped once more. But she had gotten away from Ronald and she was determined to find a way out of this situation as well. As the pod tumbled down towards a planet far below, she allowed herself to hope that this might be her chance—first to escape, and then to find her friends.

Instead of plummeting straight down, the pod jerked and skittered like a leaf on the wind. The seemingly random movements confused her at first, but she eventually decided that she was headed in the direction of a huge city. A confusing array of skyscrapers in a wild variety of shapes filled the air over the city, and her stomach churned. What if she collided with one of them or smashed into the middle of a street and killed innocent bystanders? She searched desperately for any way to control the pod, but she couldn’t see anything that looked promising. It didn’t help that she was restrained against the worn padding.

Determined to free herself, she started fumbling with the restraints just as the pod jerked, then jerked again. Each time it slowed a little more, and she decided it must be under some kind of control, no matter how erratic its path. She was close enough now to see more of the high towers filling the horizon, but the pod was angled slightly away from them, heading to an area of the city with fewer tall buildings. More jerks, and then a last tumbling fall that dropped her down into a dark pit beneath the surface. The pod came to a halt with a thud that rattled her bones.

Her head finally stopped spinning, and she made quick work of the remaining restraints. The light entering the pod was dim, but not as dark as it had originally seemed. When she peered cautiously through the porthole, she could still see daylight far above her, even though very little of it reached down to wherever she had landed. As her eyes adjusted, she could see that she was surrounded by strange, broken shapes, many of them damaged or warped. It almost looked as though she had landed in a junkyard.

But why had she ended up here? Despite the random movements of the pod, she was quite sure that this destination was no accident. She was even more sure that she didn’t want to wait around for Yakshi to come and retrieve her. If she could get away from this place, maybe she could find someone to help her locate her friends.

The door controls were even harder to manage in the dim light, but she finally managed to find a release and the door swung open. The pod had landed on a small metal platform with rows of identical pods to either side. A narrow path wound its way down from the platform and through the shadowy stacks of junk. Since she didn’t see any other option, she started along the path, casting a longing glance at the daylight above. If she could get to the surface, it would be so much easier to find her way around. She decided her first priority would be to make her way there.

Ouch! Make that my second priority, she thought as she stepped on something sharp. When she awoke on the alien ship, she had been naked except for a far too skimpy white gown. Neither her clothes nor her shoes had been anywhere in sight. Finding something to cover her feet was first on her list.

As she continued winding her way through the stacks of junk, she kept an eye out for anything that could be turned into a foot covering while simultaneously trying to watch where she placed her feet. As she turned another corner, she found what looked like an old couch, the fabric hanging from it in long strips. The material was already thin and tattered, but she managed to tear off a few strips and tie them around her feet, relieved at the extra protection.

If only there was something I could do about the slave gown, she thought wistfully.

She had never worn anything so revealing before, preferring long skirts and oversized tops to hide her curves. Unfortunately, a change of clothes was going to have to wait until she found more material. Moving a little more confidently with the wrappings on her feet, she headed for what she hoped was the exterior wall. It seemed logical that the exit would be located along the wall.

As she turned another corner, a door opened, spilling artificial light into the enclosure. Her first impression was that the Pillsbury dough boy was standing there—his round little body and a round little head silhouetted against the light. But then he stepped more fully into the light and she realized he was nothing like the familiar figure. Beneath a dirty jumpsuit, his skin was bright orange, and he had large, bulbous eyes and a round tube-like mouth.

“Hello there,” she said nervously, trying to smile.

He was the first truly alien person that she had seen, and she hadn’t expected someone so cartoonlike. The Ithyians who had taken them were surprisingly humanoid. With thick, hairy bodies and jutting brows, they looked more like primitive cavemen than a technologically advanced race. Not that their resemblance to humans made them any nicer, she thought regretfully. She had been so sure that Yakshi had a decent side, but even he had turned out to be a disappointment.

Although the person staring at her was undeniably alien, he didn’t look threatening. Nor had he responded to her greeting, still staring at her with his round little mouth open. Maybe he didn’t understand her. The Ithyians had given them some type of translation implant, but it was possible that it only worked for their language.

“Do you understand me?” she asked as slowly and distinctly as possible, holding out her open hands and what she hoped was a universal sign of friendship.

“Yeah. Where did you come from?” he demanded.

“Umm…” If she told him, would he insist on returning her to Yakshi? She tried desperately to think of some remotely plausible explanation for her presence in the junkyard, but she’d never been very good at lying. Maybe if she told him the truth, she could persuade him to help her get away from here and find her friends.

“From an escape pod,” she said finally. “I’m not sure why, but it landed here.”

His little round eyes blinked rapidly, then he muttered what was clearly an obscenity.

“Should have known better than to trust an Ithyian.”

He stepped closer, and she did her best not to flinch. A stench of stale grease and alcohol wafted over her as he peered at her face.

“What are you?”

“I don’t understand.”

“What species?” he asked impatiently. “What planet did you come from?”

“I’m a human. I come from a planet called Earth.”

He swore again. “Fucking Yakshi.”

“I don’t understand.”

“He just asked me to store the pod. Didn’t say anything about it being occupied.”

She stared at him in horror. Yakshi had expected her to remain in the pod? With no food or water or other facilities. What had he been thinking?

Not of me, she thought sadly and wondered why she was even surprised. She pushed her disappointment aside and smiled at the new alien.

“I’m sorry about this. My name is Mary—”

“Your name is trouble,” he interrupted.

“What’s your name?” She did her best to keep her voice pleasant, despite his rudeness.

“Trothar,” he muttered, then reached out and poked her breast with a thick finger.

It didn’t hurt, but the unexpected gesture made her jump. He shuddered and shook his head.

“Way too soft.”

That wasn’t very nice. She might have been a little on the plump side—okay, a lot—but he was no skinny Minnie either. Before she could think of a suitable response, he grabbed her wrist and started pulling her through the doorway. His fat little fingers were surprisingly strong.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Away from here.”

Maybe that was a good sign. She didn’t want to be here when Yakshi showed up.

“Oh, thank you. Do you think you could help me find my friends?”

“There are more of you?” He shook his head, his round head bobbing. “Yakshi is a fucking idiot.”

“Why?” she asked breathlessly as he proceeded rapidly through a series of dirty corridors. Junk was piled everywhere, but he wove his way through the narrow path that remained with surprising agility.

“Humans are trouble. The new Emperor has a thing about ‘em. No one is supposed to be trading in them.” He shot her another look, and shook his head again. “Can’t see the attraction myself.”

The feeling was mutual.

“So you’re going to let me go?” she asked hopefully.

He snorted. “I said Yakshi is an idiot, not that I am. You’re worth a hell of a lot to someone.”

Her heart sank. “You’re going to sell me?”

“Hell no. I don’t need that kind of trouble.”

“Then you’ll help me—”

“I’m not going to sell you. I’m going to trade you.”