Chapter 3
Haley
Defective?!? Seriously?
That word is still ringing in my head. Even in space, I can’t get away from being reduced to a uterus. I know I have much bigger problems to deal with right now, but it still stings.
I can’t help it that my lady parts don’t like to play nice. I have hated my period and everything about it since I was a teenager, and even though I know I shouldn’t, I hate my body at times. Sometimes, it feels like an enemy fighting against me. I hate that Cheryl from work keeps asking me when I’m going to start a family and reminding me of my biological clock. I hate the memory of Chad’s cruel words, and I hate that even on a spaceship far away from Earth and facing a future in a brothel, his words still haunt me.
As soon as the Zyfeliks finished making their plans, the two lower-ranking aliens roughly deposited me back in my cell. Now, I’m lying on the narrow cot and we’re finally alone.
“Pssst, Haley. Are you okay?” Aria, a few cells down, breaks the strained silence.
I really don’t want to talk right now. I want to curl up on my bed and try to forget it all. But Aria has been so kind and optimistic, doing her best to keep our spirits up, and I don’t want to hurt her feelings.
“Yeah.” I mutter.
I’ve struggled for years with not feeling normal and inadequate. That feeling of being a square peg in a round hole has never quite left me, and now even aliens think there’s something wrong with me.
Unbreedable. That was the excuse Chad gave me when I caught him cheating on me. I was honest with him from the beginning about my diagnosis, and he told me it was fine with him. He assured me that he loved me and wanted to be with me no matter what. Turns out, it was all a lie.
When I walked in on him with his sidepiece, after the yelling had died down and he had kicked her out, he said that he could never actually commit to someone who wasn’t a real woman – his words, not mine.
The fact that, now, even aliens are judging my worth based upon whether or not I am breedable is seriously messing with my head.
“Bullshit. You look like something the cat dragged in and the kitten refused. And Rose does, too.” Crystal speaks up, breaking through my tumultuous thoughts.
I roll my eyes at her words. Although, they’re probably true.
“So, will one of you tell us what happened?”
The silence hangs heavy in the air until it becomes unbearable, and I slowly sit up on the side of my bed. At the very end of the room, I can just barely make out Rose seated on the floor, still pale and obviously rattled by something. She has one arm wrapped around Zoe who, surprisingly, has drifted off to sleep with her head in Rose’s lap. The poor girl must be exhausted after the day’s events. It’s obvious something upsetting happened to Rose in the medic bay that really shocked her.
What she says next, her usually confident voice quiet and trembling, takes me and everyone else completely by surprise.
“I’m pregnant.”
A moment of stunned silence descends on us as we all process her announcement, then it’s broken by a flurry of voices bombarding her with questions.
Everywhere I go someone’s pregnant. I huff out a laugh of disbelief.
There’s a tiny part of me that is envious of Rose right now, even if the circumstances are less than ideal. I’ve tried to tell myself that I’ve accepted I’ll never have a child, but the truth is. . . No, no I can’t think about that right now. I have accepted it. I did. Right now, I need to do something to distract myself from my own problems, and what’s better than talking about someone else’s problems.
As strange as it may seem considering we’re locked up on a spaceship, I’ve become friends with these women. Rose is my friend and she deserves my support, nothing less.
I let out a shrill whistle that silences the rising noise level in an instant. Hey, I didn’t work at a summer camp during college for nothing – I can quiet down a cabin full of tweens in two seconds flat.
“I know we all have a lot of questions, but one at a time.” I make eye contact with Rose. Her face is tight and she looks like she’s barely holding it together. “If you don’t want to tell us anything, that’s okay. It’s your business, not ours.” She gives me a small nod.
“Me, first.” Jayden bounces up and down on her toes and raises her hand high in the air like we’re in class. “Did one of the grays knock you up? Was it some weird experiment?”
“Jayden!” Mara admonishes the teen.
“What? They do that. I saw it on a show my cousin used to watch. They abduct humans, impregnate them, then force them to give birth to little alien kids so they can repopulate Earth with them. I’m shocked it took this long for it to happen to one of us.” At the groans, Jayden insists. “It’s true.”
Crystal rolls her eyes and interrupts before Jayden can go on. “You need to quit watching trashy TV before it rots your brain, kid.”
But now that Jayden has said it, we all look at each other and exchange glances. What if?
“That’s not what happened, right?” Maddie asks, her voice hushed with trepidation. I can feel the expectation in the air as everyone waits for Rose’s answer. As crazy as what Jayden said sounds, I don’t know what to expect anymore. Anything could happen.
Rose’s eyes are misty with unshed tears as she shakes her head. “I was already pregnant before the abduction. I had just found out the day I was taken. I was so happy, and I wanted to be a mom so bad, but. . .” Her voice cracks and the tears overflow to run down her cheeks. She breathes in deeply through her nose and slowly releases it, and even from this far away I can see her hands trembling. Her voice is barely a whisper when she continues. “But the Zyfeliks said that as soon as the baby is born, it will be taken from me and sold.”
The room is quiet, and I don’t think any of us knows what to say. Rose is facing a devastating situation and my stomach twists in sorrow for her. I couldn’t imagine having to face the possibility of my child being ripped away and sold by aliens, never to see them again.
“It’ll be okay, Rose. We’ll figure something out.” Aria calls out. She’s the ray of positivity in our group. At this point, I don’t think anything could dim her glass half full, cheery disposition. “We’re smart, capable women. If we put our heads together, there’s nothing we can’t do.”
“How exactly are we going to escape from a ship in outer space?” Crystal drawls sarcastically. “It’s not like we can just break out and flag down help.”
A few of the others chime in with comments until they’re talking over each other and the volume in the room begins to rise again. At the far end of the cells, Rose has stopped crying and is sitting still with Zoe cuddled against her side. She’s gazing off into space with a defeated look on her face that breaks my heart. There must be something that we can do.
I speak up, raising my voice to be heard over the others, “Aria is right. We need to keep our eyes and ears open. Remember, Zaez said it’s illegal for the Zyfeliks to even have contact with Earth, let alone abduct humans to sell. So, if it’s illegal for them to have humans maybe one of us can escape and find a space cop or something to help us.” I don’t know if there is such a thing, but it sounds logical to me.
“Space cop?” Crystal asks incredulously. She’s staring at me like I’ve lost my mind, but it makes sense.
“Yeah. If there are laws, then someone has to enforce them. So, there’s probably some type of space law enforcement.” I explain, meeting their gazes.
“So, we just keep an eye out for, what, aliens in uniforms with badges? Okay, easy as pie.” Crystal’s voice is mocking.
“I thought we agreed not to mention pie or any food.” Isabella glares at Crystal and she glares back.
I can hear Jayden’s mournful sigh all the way from my cell. “Yeah, especially, apple pie or cherry pie or my favorite, pizza pie.” My stomach growls in frustration as she rattles off a list of food. Just the thought of food from Earth makes my mouth water.
“Pizza’s not a pie.” Maddie interjects.
Jayden shoots her a scowl. “It is, too! Sort of. And I really miss it.”
Isabella rolls her eyes at their antics, and then, as if just remembering something, she gasps and turns to point at me. “Wait, you were upset, too, when you came back.” Her jaw drops and she gasps. “Oh my God, are you pregnant, too?”
Damn. And I almost got away with not having to tell them, but I guess I have to come clean, now. If Rose could admit what’s going on with her, then I can own up to my own problems.
“No, the exact opposite.” They’ve all turned and are watching me with puzzled expressions. I take a deep breath before continuing. “They said I’m defective – their words, not mine. I’m infertile. They were going to kick me out. Then, they came up with some other plan.” I explain about how the aliens have decided to take me to a backwater planet called Gigla and sell me to the aliens who live there.
A heavy weight settles on my chest as I tell them about the brothel and the jewels our abductors are excited about acquiring in exchange for me. Horrified expressions cross their faces as they listen. They grow outraged and even Crystal curses under her breath when I relate how the Zyfeliks tried to drag me to a hatch to dump me outside and how I narrowly avoided dying today.
When I finish, Mara stands up in sudden inspiration. “Maybe this is exactly what we need. The bad guy is almost always caught because he makes a mistake or cause something unexpected happens and he’s forced to change plans. The Zyfeliks have had to change their plans. This could be our chance to escape.” Her green eyes are bright with excitement as she turns to me. “Do you know how long we have before we reach Gigla?”
“They said it would take two full cycles, but I don’t know how long that is.” I shrug my shoulders.
“Days. Two ship days.” Emily whispers, her thin voice nearly inaudible. This whole time, she’s been curled up in her usual spot silently observing, but now, she’s sitting up and cautiously looking around. Emily has been so quiet that I almost forgot she was there. “A full cycle is probably the same as a full day on the ship. So, two days from now we’ll reach Gigla.”
“Nice to see the scaredy-cat speak up.” Crystal snarks, and Emily shoots her a withering look.
“That’s uncalled for.” Rose warns, and Crystal rolls her eyes in response. “We need to support each other. We’re stronger together, not apart.” Rose continues. There is a hint of color back in her cheeks and her voice holds a thread of determination that wasn’t there moments earlier.
Maybe Mara is right. This could be the chance we need. The heavy knot that had settled in my stomach starts to loosen and a tiny flutter of hope blooms inside me. Maybe this is the chance we need.
“That’s right! If we stick together, we can teach these motherfuckers not to mess with Earth girls!” Maddie cheers. The smile on her face falls and she immediately shoots a chagrined look towards Zoe and Jayden. “Oops, sorry. Forgot about the little ears.”
“Hey! I’m fourteen, that’s practically an adult.” Jayden protests. Crystal rolls her eyes and mumbles something under her breath that I can’t make out, while the rest of us send the teen sympathetic looks. “And my ears aren’t little!”
Just then, the ship suddenly jolts, and I throw out my hands to steady myself against the wall. So far, the trip has been smooth, and it hasn’t really been too noticeable that we’re actually on a spaceship – other than a quiet humming noise. But now, the humming noise is louder, almost as if the ship has sped up, and there’s a slight vibration that moves through the metal floor and walls. I guess this is the maximum hyperdrive.
I break the silence that has fallen over us. “So, we’re all agreed? The first opportunity one of us gets to escape, we’ll take it and try to find the space cops to rescue the rest of us.” I look down the line of cells, meeting everyone’s eyes.
For the first time since the reality of being abducted settled over me, I don’t feel completely hopeless. It’s not great, but this is the only decent plan we’ve managed to come up with so far.
“Agreed.” They all echo in agreement with even Emily chiming in.
I settle back onto my bed and think about what the coming days will hold. One thing is certain, I wanted a change, and I got it.