Alien Slave (13 page)

“
You made us work for it
too, damn reluctant Imdiko.” Wynhod hugged him close, and Krijero
eased up.

Gelan took advantage of his clanmate’s
calming nerves. “We know Dani will resist for a little while. It
won’t be against you personally. And you did so well with her when
she shut down tonight. I think you’re more than equal to the task
of being her caregiver.”

Krijero licked his lips. “What if we
want to keep her at the end, but she doesn’t want us?”

Gelan shrugged. “Then we still have
each other. We’ll go back to the way we are now, the way we planned
to be all along.”

He knew it wouldn’t be that easy. One
only had to see the effect Krijero’s past had on him to learn that.
But Gelan thought Dani might be worth the risk.

Wynhod added, “I know it’s tough for
you, Krijero, but there’s something about that Earther that makes
me want to watch over her. She’s got a tough exterior but I get the
feeling there’s a softer girl in there, desperate to get the care
she hasn’t had.”

Krijero took a deep breath. He stayed
silent for a few seconds, then snorted. “Protective
Nobek.”

“
Exactly. She needs us all.
Someone to lead her, someone to guard her, someone to nurture
her.”

“
And we need her,” Gelan
added. “We need someone we can offer our strengths to. Life without
someone like Dani suddenly seems … empty. She fits us, and it feels
like a piece of ourselves would be missing if we walk
away.”

His clanmates stared at him. He
realized he’d said something more profound than they were used to.
Gelan was not usually a philosophical man.

Krijero finally sighed and shook his
head. “All right. I think it’s a mistake, but if you two really
want to buy her contract out, I’ll go along with it.”

Gelan pressed his lips to his
clanmate’s brow. “Thank you, Imdiko.” He shifted, got comfortable,
and closed his eyes. “Let’s get some sleep, clan. I want to take
care of a few things in the morning before we collect our
property.”

Despite his words, he didn’t fall
asleep right away. He waited for Krijero’s breath to deepen in
slumber before allowing himself to drift off too.

Chapter 7

Dani’s scowl sat firmly upon her face
as she dragged her feet down the hall towards Pob’s office. The
brothel owner’s summons had pulled her out of bed long before she
was ready to be sociable in the least. She barely snatched four
hours of sleep, and soreness from playtime with the Kalquorians
plagued her. She’d need a pain inhibitor to get through tonight’s
shift, especially if the three men booked her again. Boy, they were
endowed. And physical.

The rush of unwanted arousal made her
mood worse. Pob had better come up with a damned good reason for
waking her so damned early.

His door stood open, and she swept into
his office like a force of nature, ready to storm all over the
Dantovonian. The sight of Gelan’s clan waiting in the room made her
inhale sharply, and Dani choked on the sour fumes of the rinheo Pob
smoked.

Jeez, he could stay high for a year
without lighting another bowl of that shit, she thought.

The clan surrounded her in an instant
as she tried to hack up a lung. “Are you all right, Dani?” Gelan
asked.

After a moment she caught her breath.
Rubbing her streaming eyes dry, aware she hadn’t even combed her
sleep-tousled hair, Dani gasped, “Sure. Damn it Pob, trying
breathing normal air once in awhile. You’ll live
longer.”

The Dantovonian laughed heartily, as if
she’d told the funniest joke ever. Dani stared at him. What had put
him in such a good mood?

Pob could wait. Dani focused her
attention on the Kalquorians. Were they filing a complaint against
her? “What are you doing here?”

Before anyone answered, Pob’s computer
beeped, and Dani was treated to the very unlovely vision of him
smiling so hard the segments of his face ground together. The
brothel owner buzzed. “The funds are successfully transferred. I
appreciate your business, Kalquorians.”

“
We are done?” Wynhod
asked.

Pob buzzed again. “She is yours. I wish
you luck; you’ll need it.” With that, he pointed a black box at
Dani and tapped a button. Her collar’s release clicked. The circlet
flung wide open and fell with a meaty thump to the
floor.

She clutched at her throat, amazed at
how light her neck suddenly felt. She stared at the collar, its two
half circles spread like the wings of a dead bird. Dani slowly
looked up at Pob. “What is going on?”

The Dantovonian looked up at her as if
surprised to see her still standing there. “They bought your
contract. You belong to them now.”

Dani’s world came to a shuddering halt.
Her brain didn’t whisper a thought, she was so taken aback. Krijero
spoke, but she couldn’t hear him over the roar in her ears. Gelan
offered her something, and her numbed hands took it from him. Some
part of her recognized the dress she’d ogled in the storefront the
night before, but other than that, it made no
impression.

Somehow Gelan’s voice pierced the veil
she’d been cloaked in. “Change into this and pack your belongings.
We’ll take you shopping for whatever else you need.”

As if she’d turned into an automaton,
Dani’s senseless legs turned her around, carried her out of the
office door, and walked her to her room as she unfeelingly clutched
the dress to her chest.

The instant the door to her dorm
closed, Dani’s conscious mind flooded back. She stood in her little
broom closet of a room as terror closed over her. The Kalquorians
had bought her contract. They owned her.

Being rented for sex for a couple of
days had been one thing. But now she was their property for … Dani
did the calculations in her head.

More than three years. She was their
slave to do with as they wished for the next three years plus a few
months.

After all I did, all I sacrificed to
avoid going to Kalquor and live among the enemy, and now it’s
thrown out the window.

Damn them!

Dani had never hated anyone as much as
she now hated Gelan, Wynhod, and Krijero. The bastards had taken
advantage of her status. Once they had her on Kalquor, there was no
doubt in her mind that they’d keep her for good, enslaving her for
the rest of her life for breeding. Forget three years. The
Earth-destroying beasts would never let her go.

Calm down, Dani. Think. There has to be
a way out of this.

The breeze from the open window wafted
against her skin where exposed by her slave clothing. She rubbed
her neck where the collar used to be. She looked at the dress still
clutched in her hand.

As excitement seized her, the little
voice she too often ignored spoke up. Wait. Take a breath. You know
how bad things get when you don’t think these things through, when
you don’t consider all the stuff that can go horribly
wrong.

“
Like what?” she whispered.
“Like being free to live my life as I want? What is there to
consider other than getting the hell out of Dodge while the
getting’s good?”

She yanked her bra and skirt off so
savagely that something ripped. The dress the Kalquorians had
bought for her, no doubt thinking she was shallow enough to trade
her liberty for a pretty frock, went on. Dani didn’t even take the
time to admire how the ruffles up top gave her pear shape a more
hourglass appearance or how the skirt showed her long legs to
advantage.

Dani paused for only a moment,
realizing she had no funds to get on a transport and leave the
Kalquorians as far behind as she could fly.

So use your body. It’ll pay the way off
this rock.

And after that?

No time to think. Go before those
freaks come looking for you!

The small voice, the one Dani almost
never listened to, tried one last argument. Those Kalquorians have
treated you well. They’ll abide by the agreement. Running off
half-cocked is a mistake, one that could get you in serious
trouble.

Dani tried to listen. She tried to make
herself calm down enough to think over the ramifications of her
actions, especially if the clan caught her. But in the end the
opportunity to escape was too great to be denied.

Dani stepped on her bed, boosted
herself up on the window, and swung a leg over. Moments later,
walking quickly but trying not to draw attention to herself, she
disappeared into the throng of aliens partying on the streets of
Ler, collarless and free.

The spaceport lay only about a mile
from the hub of Ler. Dani reached it quickly and tried to look like
she knew what she was doing as she looked over her
options.

Ships and vendors crowded the port, and
Dani hoped she’d see an Earth vehicle among the multitudes. Hangar
after hangar stretched as far as the eye could see. Ler was a
popular destination for decadence-seeking tourists. It boasted more
sex slaves than anywhere else on Dantovon. Surely she could find
some man of her own kind enjoying freedom from the old regime.
Someone who would have pity on a lost, frightened woman who’d ended
up on this planet through no real fault of her own.

Her head ached from the mass roar of
different engines as ships set down and took off. The chatter and
buzz and shrieks of various alien speech added to the din. Adding
in the burnt scents of rockets firing, the fetid stench of the
nearby jungle, and alien body odors, made her senses
reel.

Dani dodged milling tourists, busy
dockhands, and hover carriers transporting visitors and their
baggage to points unknown. Panic crept close on quiet feet as she
saw no one she thought might shield an Earther female. Surely the
Kalquorians looked for her already. They had to know this would be
the first place she’d head for. They may already be in the
spaceport if they’d taken a shuttle, watching for their property to
show up.

A hum behind Dani eased her with a
hypnotic trill. She recognized that relaxing sound and turned. She
spied her favorite customer three people back. “Reggie!”

The Isetacian scuttled easily between
those separating them to reach her. His many eyes widened in
surprise. “Dani, why you here?”

He whistled to a Dantovonian escorting
a hover carrier full of bundled cases. “Bay 7987.” The carrier
whizzed off, scattering tourists and workers before it.

Dani nearly pranced with delight to see
her client. “Check me out, Reggie. I’m sprung!” She indicated her
collarless throat. “I guess Pob finally got sick of me.”

“
He let you go?” Reggie
looked around the crowd with concern. Harboring an escaped slave
was punishable by public flogging, and even without her collar and
slave clothing, he was obviously unconvinced of Dani’s legal
liberty.

She shrugged, determined to persuade
him through pretended lack of concern. She snuggled up to him like
she didn’t have a care in the world, slipping her arm through one
of his. “You know Pob is all about the money, and I was costing him
more than I was worth. He didn’t foresee how expensive an Earther’s
dietary needs can be in the long-term.”

Reggie relaxed, apparently taken in by
Dani’s act. “This good for you. I sad. I miss visit
you.”

“
You’re so sweet. You know,
you were always my favorite customer.” She sighed. “The only bad
part of being free is the loss of food and board. I’m kind of
hurting for funds. Where are you off to?”

Reggie rubbed up and down her thigh
with one hand. Dani allowed it, hoping he’d get aroused, making him
more open to helping her. He said, “Go to Joshada. Trade good
there, bring raw materials, ep, ep, get finished products, make
good markup on Ib-Sod.”

Dani thought out loud. “Joshada huh?
Kind of close to Kalquor, and Ib-Sod is definitely not
Earther-friendly.”

Reggie agreed. “Earth occupation during
war make Ib-Sod not happy for Earthers. Kill on sight.”

“
Beggars can’t be choosers,”
Dani sighed. “Joshada might be okay until I can find transport to
somewhere else. Want some company for your trip?”

Reggie hummed his happiness, and
another hand grasped her thigh. “You come with me, Dani? Ep, ep,
have fun time.” His lascivious grin spoke of his joy to have struck
such a bargain.

She grinned back. “That’s the
idea.”

Reggie pulled her towards a small,
dimly lit hangar. “Here ship. We go soon after load.”

Dani stared at the small, battered hulk
he led her to. Maybe once it had been a nice ship … or part of two
or three nice ships. Badly fit together, looking as if someone had
simply dropped a ton of spare parts on the ground, it resembled
something a very clumsy and untalented Tragoom might have put
together. Her heart sank.

I’m supposed to ride in
this?

To Reggie she said, “This is it,
huh?”

“
My ship.” He looked
absurdly proud of the thing.

“
Wow.” She thought about his
last visit to her in the brothel, of how he’d talked about making
repairs. “And you fixed it after last time?”