23. Kara
23
KARA
“So this wine is from Hopola Five and they’re renowned through the whole galaxy for their vineyards,” Gaela said as she poured the dark green liquid into two large crystal goblets. She didn’t stop at half a glass but poured until the wine almost reached the rim. “It’s so fruity and delicious! Just wait until you try it. Oh, but first we have to get some snacks!”
“Sounds good to me—what do you want to make?” Kara asked, walking over to the Thought-cooker.
“Oh, would you be a sweetheart and make some of those paked botatoes like the one you had the other night?” Gaela asked.
“You mean baked potatoes?” Kara asked, grinning. “Sure. And then maybe you can make us a snack from your home world too.”
“I know just the thing—I’ll make you snaglefruss!” Gaela exclaimed. “Oh, it’s so crispy and creamy and delicious. But you concentrate on those potaboes first.”
Kara didn’t bother correcting her again. She just pressed the suction cup to her temple and pictured two perfect baked potatoes with butter and sour cream. For good measure, she added some cheese, chives, and bacon on the side. If a regular baked potato got Gaela excited, a loaded one was probably going to blow her mind!
They got settled on the couch with their wine and snacks—(“snaglefruss” turned out to be a kind of fried dough with a creamy topping and specks of crunchy root veggies that tasted like fried onions to Kara)—and turned on the entertainment screen.
“Now while I’m looking for something good, try the wine,” Gaela instructed.
“Oh, okay.” Kara took a sip and swished the dark green wine around in her mouth. It started out fruity and light but then it had a strange, slightly bitter aftertaste she noted.
“Now tell me what you think—isn’t’ it delicious?” Gaela asked, smiling as she picked up a piece of snaglefruss and popped it into her mouth.
“ Mmm , it’s really good,” Kara agreed. She didn’t like to complain about the bitter aftertaste since her friend was so proud of the wine. She even took another sip to be polite and then wished she hadn’t. The bitterness was more than just an aftertaste now—it was actually making her lips go numb and tingly!
“Go on, drink up!” Gaela urged, nodding for her to take another sip.
Kara sat the drink down instead.
“Um, I think maybe I better eat something first,” she said. “I can’t keep drinking on an empty stomach.”
“Oh nonsense—how are we going to get good and drunk if we don’t work at it?” Gaela demanded, grinning at her. “Try one more sip—the third sip is when it really kicks in.”
Kara really didn’t want any more of the dark green wine, but again she didn’t want to be rude. Raising her crystal goblet, she took another sip and had to fight not to spit it out. The bitterness was so strong now it almost made her feel like she might throw up!
“ Mmm ,” she said weakly, putting it back down. “Yummy. But I’m really hungry so I thin…thin… think I need to eat somethin…I mean some- thing.”
She frowned. What was wrong with her mouth? Why were her words coming out slurred?
“Oh, you’ll get a chance to eat something, sweetie,” Gaela said, grinning at her in a distinctly unpleasant way. “But not here.”
“Wha…what do you mean?” Kara asked, shaking her head. For some reason, her friend’s face was looking fuzzy around the edges. In fact, everything in the room was going in and out of focus. What was wrong with her?
“You’ll see,” Gaela said. “Nono!” she called. “It’s working!”
“Wha’s workin’?” Kara demanded. “I thin I need t’ go—don’ feel s’ good,” she added. She tried to stand up from the couch but her legs felt weak and wobbly and they didn’t want to hold her weight.
“You just stay right there,” a new voice said and she looked up to see Brother Nono standing there in his long green robe.
“What’re you doin’ here?” she asked, slurring her words. “Gaela said you’re gone.”
“I was waiting in the back room for you.” He smiled at her. “I think it’s time we went for a little ride together.”
Kara frowned up at him, trying to make his features come into focus. He didn’t look so much like the shy, inexperienced novice as he had in the past. Instead, his face had taken on a more worldly, knowing look—he seemed almost sinister to Kara as she stared up at him.
“Wa…wait. Where’re we going?” she asked as he put an arm around he waist and started lifting her off the couch.
“Why to the Exotic Beauty Lounge, of course,” Gaela said, coming around to get Kara’s other side. “That’s a brothel, in case you’re wondering, sweetie,” she said, smiling in a most unpleasant way. “And it turns out you’re going to be extremely valuable there because of your special DNA.”
“My special wha?” Kara shook her head. None of this seemed to be making sense. How could Gaela and Nono be doing this to her? She’d been sure it was Feex who was the bad guy—she’d had no idea that her new friends might be in any way involved in the kidnapping ring.
“I had your genetic material tested after you ate with me the other night—got it off your utensils,” Gaela explained as she slung one of Kara’s arms around her neck and helped Nono drag her off the couch. “It turns out you’ve got just the right genetic makeup to respond to y’thosin.”
“Y-wha?” Kara shook her head, she wasn’t even going to try to repeat that word.
“It’s a kind of stretching agent used by brothel managers who need to accommodate clientele who are, shall we say, well endowed.” Gaela gave an unpleasant laugh. “Like Trolloxes, for instance. Most of the time when they get a smaller woman, they have to spend weeks stretching her out so she can take a Trollox shaft. But for someone with the right DNA, a single shot of y’thosin— otherwise known as ‘the stretchy drug’ will get them ready.”
Kara began to panic, but in a very fuzzy and distant way. She remembered what J’orn had said about the two-headed trolls who were ten feet tall and how they often killed the women they tried to have sex with. Was Gaela actually suggesting she was going to sell her to a brothel that catered to those monsters?
“Wait—you can’ do this t’ me!” she protested. “I’m not…I can’…”
“Oh yes you can and you’re going to make us a lot of credits!” Gaela smiled at her in that extremely unpleasant, greedy way again. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to find just the right girl to sell to the Exotic Beauty Lounge! You’re going to fetch a fortune.”
Kara shook her head as the horror of the situation dawned in her fuzzy mind. Her new “friend” wasn’t any kind of royalty from another planet—she was a common grifter who sold hapless women to brothels for profit!
“Please,” she begged brokenly. “Please, don’…don’ do this!”
“That’s enough of her begging,” Gaela snapped. “Give her another drink of the wine.”
Nono lifted the half-full wineglass and though Kara tried to shut her lips, he somehow managed to slosh a big mouthful of the awful, bitter stuff into her mouth anyway.
“Now swallow!” Gaela exclaimed and slapped a hand over Kara’s mouth.
Kara swallowed reflexively and felt the numbing drugged wine spread from her mouth down into her throat. She choked and gagged for a moment and then everything started going dark.
No! she thought. Oh, no—I can’t lose consciousness! I have to stay awake—I have to fight them!
But her body refused to do anything at all—she couldn’t even lift her hand to slap Gaela or push the other woman away when she wrapped her arm around Kara’s waist.
“Come on, sweetie,” she said, smiling even wider. “Let’s take you out the back way so nobody suspects. Nono will sign you out in the book up front and then, as far as anybody knows, you just decided to leave early.”
Kara felt a wave of fear roll over her…but that was followed by a wave of blackness.
She felt herself tilting forward, as though she was falling into a deep, dark hole with no bottom.
No! she thought distantly. No, I have to stay awa ? —
And then everything went black.