Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Ziana and Maria had compared notes on their abductions, as well as the living conditions aboard the Raxxian ship at length. They were stuck in a slow-moving transit container, after all. Time was one thing they had an overabundance of, and conversation with someone from home was as good a way to pass the time as any.
They discussed all manner of things in their weeks together. Weeks that stretched into months, so far as they could tell, given the lack of a proper timekeeping method beyond the irregular arrival of food through the delivery slots. They talked about their lives, their homes, pretty much anything and everything, and, in time, even things they usually kept to themselves. It wasn’t as if they had any secrets worth keeping, after all. Not now. Not on this planet far from Earth.
Of course, they also dove into their individual experiences with the whole Raxxian abduction thing. It had been fairly similar for both of them. Each had been snatched up at night, and each of them was out on their own when it had happened. It seemed to be a common theme with the green-scaled bastards who took them. They were aggressive and violent, but they also preferred to operate in ways where they had the clear advantage, targeting individuals rather than groups, and typically at night. As a result, their victims never knew what hit them and there was no one around to help.
Each had woken up aboard the Raxxian ship, surrounded by aliens and, in Maria’s case, a few other humans as well. All of them had the same tale. One minute they were going about their lives, the next they were waking up much later, confined to a single compartment aboard the Raxxian livestock ship.
Livestock.
Cattle.
Food .
That’s all they were to them. There would be no experimentation, no anal probes. The Raxxians didn’t care about any of that. These were pieces of meat, nothing more, destined to be someone’s meal, and food didn’t warrant the effort. The one exception to that was the need for them to be able to follow directions when herded from one compartment to another.
The humans had received the translation rune behind their ear from the same large, golden-tan-skinned prisoner. He had been with the Raxxians a long time, from what they’d learned. A prize of some sort, which explained why they hadn’t just eaten him outright. Heydar was his name, and he was a man of few words. He was also trained in applying the pigments, though none of the aliens thought he was an actual Skrizzit by trade. Whatever the case, he had provided them with the means to communicate with everyone else, and for that they were grateful.
When the Raxxian ship later fell under attack and subsequently broke into its many constituent livestock holding containers, the hapless prisoners had been afforded one shot at freedom when the individual segments auto-landed on the nearest planet. Many died in the incident, some containers being destroyed in the attack while others burned up entering the atmosphere or slammed into the ground when their auto-landing systems failed.
But some had made it down intact, and it was the occupants of those compartments who were now scattered across the continent, the angle of descent varying wildly between many of the segments given the very unplanned nature of their violent separation from the Raxxian vessel.
Ziana had been the sole survivor of her compartment, the unit hitting hard and collapsing on impact. She’d been severely concussed but somehow escaped the crumpling metal. It was just a fluke of life, her limp body tossed about and managing to avoid fatal harm. The other two who had been locked in with her had not been so lucky. She didn’t know that, of course, but the fact that they were not now with her stuck in this new transport container made that the most likely scenario. The reports of the others overhearing the guard team’s discussions about the “dead ones” when her unconscious body was unceremoniously tossed inside only served to confirm it.
As for Maria, she had made it out with seven others. The aliens among them scattered to the wind as soon as they’d made their way out of their crashed vessel. The humans, on the other hand, had stuck together, all of them utterly at a loss about what to do on this truly alien world.
As luck would have it, a small Raxxian retrieval team from the downed ship found them, capturing two of her fellow humans while Maria managed to escape. It was short-lived, however, and the lone Raxxian that had come chasing after her while the others hauled the rest of their catch back for processing caught up with her in short order.
Whether it was good or bad luck was still open for debate, but the group of armed men who ambushed them both had saved her from a certain Raxxian fate. She was a prisoner again, sure, but at least she wasn’t going to be food. She had that going for her, and she’d have many weeks to get her bearings before she might meet whatever fate had in store for her.
As for the Raxxian taken prisoner along with her, he had been stripped of his weapons and gear, bound securely, due to his kind’s violent nature, then tossed in with the rest of the prisoners. Just one more body to take to market, though Raxxians were not in demand for several obvious reasons. Regardless, he’d be taken to their destination, fed and sheltered until they could see if they might have a buyer.
Several of the prisoners had other ideas.
Raxxians were not only pretty much universally hated, they were also on the shit list of countless individuals for a far more personal reason than just some interspecies grudge. Raxxians had caused a great deal of harm and distress to families across the systems, and it was hard to find anyone who hadn’t lost someone to their aggressions or the byproducts thereof. Be it friend or family, it didn’t matter. What did was that it was personal.
The Raxxian was mysteriously found dead two days later, the guards hauling out the body and discarding it for the animals without much commotion about it. Yes, it may have possibly been sold, but the odds were slim, and not even the guards could blame whoever it was that had ended its brutal life. Of course, everyone denied any knowledge about what happened, and just this once they were allowed their little charade.
But none would make the mistake of assuming they could get away with that sort of thing with a prisoner who might actually be worth something.
Maria relayed all of that to her new friend when she finally regained her senses after several touch-and-go days while her body mended as best it could. But once Ziana was whole again, the two discussed everything, becoming thick as thieves with their shared common origin, though they did wind up on decent terms with a few of their alien companions.
“Any idea when we might finally get out of here?” Maria asked one of them, a red and yellow-skinned creature that appeared to be both male and female, if she was reading its morphology correctly. She could have sought a bit of clarification, but given the stressors they were all facing, she didn’t want to be rude and ask.
“Probably another ten days or so, if they keep taking in newcomers at the same rate.”
“Why ten days?” Ziana asked.
“That’s when we’ll hit our maximum capacity before we tip into being overcrowded. Since it’s not a prison transport, they’ll want us looking good when we arrive. And that means adhering to standard overcrowding regulations.”
It made sense when you thought about it. They’d look a bit haggard, naturally, but if they were to fetch a good price, they couldn’t look too beat up. It was why their captors had finally given Maria a medical kit for her companion’s injuries. Injuries that had healed up quite nicely as a result.
“Well, I guess we’re ten days from something new,” Ziana said, shaking her head with a resigned chuckle. “Let’s hope it’s better and not worse. I mean, sure, it’s a pipedream, but hey, maybe we’ll wind up in some amazing futuristic alien city and be appreciated as newcomers from Earth.”
Little did she know how accurate that statement would be. Just not in the way she’d hoped.