Marianne's Abduction (3 page)

That
was another thing they’d have to try to explain to her. How all this mess with
the Tyranns had come about in the first
place.
But for
now, River made sure she had a seat in the most comfortable armchair in the
room, and then he and Vaughn sat side by side on the sofa across from her.

“Okay,”
she said. “Please tell me what’s going on. Did you bring me here to see my aunt
and uncle? I showed those men near the spaceship my letter. Are they here? When
can I see them?”

River
exchanged a glance with his brother, and then he took a deep breath. He leaned
forward, resting his palms on his thighs.
“First things
first.
The ID in your bag says you’re Marianne Kowalski. Is that
who
you are?”

“Yes.
Yes, of course it is.”

She
sounded annoyed, not that River could blame her, but they had to be sure. “And
Betsy and Blake Williams are your aunt and uncle?”

“Yes.
Where are they?”

River
took a deep breath. “They came here how long ago?”

“I
don’t know.
A year, maybe?
They were going to Sera to
work as attorneys for the Regum. They said they’d be involved in the contract
negotiations between the Regum and the Tyranns, but I don’t even know what that
means.”

“We’ll
explain it all in a moment,” said Vaughn. “Were you offered the chance to come
with them at the time?”

“Yes,
but I … I didn’t.” Her voice trailed off, and a look of such profound sadness
graced her features that River had to fight the urge to get up and go over to
her. “I chose to stay behind at the time. They were supposed to come back for
me, but they never did. I heard nothing until I got that letter.”

She
glanced around, her face full of panic. “Where is the letter? Do you have it?
And where is my bag?”

“We
have both,” said Vaughn. “They’re safe. When did you get the letter?”

“Two
weeks ago. It was just sitting there in my mailbox. It had no postmark on it,
so I don’t know who put it there.”

“And
did you show it to anyone?” asked Vaughn.

“No.
No one.
I wasn’t even sure I’d follow the instructions
in it.”

“Why not?”
Vaughn’s voice was sharp.

She
sighed loudly,
then
fingered a thin gold chain around
her neck that River hadn’t noticed earlier. “I have my reasons. Look. Please
just let me see them. I’ll answer any questions you have, but I need to know
they’re okay.”

He
and Vaughn exchanged another glance, and then River forced a neutral expression
to his face. “I’m sorry to tell you this. Your aunt and uncle aren’t here on
Addo, and they’re no longer on Sera with the Regum. They’ve been taken prisoner
by the Tyranns, but we don’t know where they are.”

She
didn’t say anything. Her eyes widened, and River watched the skin on her face
grow pale.

“You
were targeted with that letter. The Tyranns sent it, not the Regum. It was a
trick they’ve begun using. It was their intention to take you as well, but not
to be reunited with your aunt and uncle.”

He
watched her swallow. “Take me where?” she whispered.

“As
bait,” said Vaughn.
“For blackmail.”

Chapter
Three

Marianne
shook her head as the two men talked. This couldn’t be real. What they said had
to be a lie. “No.” She didn’t have words. Her chest hurt suddenly, and she was
certain she was going to puke after all, although that water had helped
considerably.

Both
men rose at once, and Marianne wished her damn eyes hadn’t gone straight to
their crotches.
For
heaven’s sake.
This was hardly the time to be checking them out,
even if they were freaking gorgeous.

The
one who had given her the water reached her first, and he gently lifted her to
her feet. “Come sit with us over here. It’s all right. We’ll explain everything
that’s going on.”

“I
just want to know how to find my aunt and uncle.”

“We’re
working on that,” said the other.

“Really?”
It hadn’t occurred to her until
just now that they were the good guys. “You’re trying to get them set free, you
mean?”

“Yes,
we are. Come on. Sit down over here.”

She
did as they asked, taking a seat between them. “Where did you say we were?
Addo?”

“Yes.
Let us try to explain.”

She
held up a hand. “Can I at least know your names?”

They
both frowned. “I’m sorry,” said the one who had brought her the water. “I
forgot we never introduced ourselves. I am Vaughn, and this is my brother,
River. We don’t use surnames here.”

She
nodded.

“And
yes, we are on Addo. This is one of the three habitable planets in the Alpha
Centauri system. When you were brought here, you were put to sleep because the
journey only took an hour. We use technology you don’t yet have, called a hyper
jump, but your people can’t survive it while awake.”

“Is
that the sharp prick in my arm I felt?”

“Yes,”
said River. “The men on the transport recognized the names on the letter you
showed them, and brought you here because it was safer than letting you stay on
Earth.”

“You
brought me here to keep me from going along with these Tyranns.” They were
truly her heroes, then.
Heroes with tats all over their arms,
and rich, deep, sexy voices.

“Exactly.
So, as Vaughn said, we are on
Addo.
Sera is
where most of the Regum live, and the
Tyranns now control Voyeur Moon. Our planets revolve around our star just as
your Earth revolves around its star, so we have the same hours in a day as
you’re used to.”

“Are
you human, like me? I mean inside.” They looked human enough, but both were
taller than most men she knew, and their combat fatigues couldn’t hide their
muscles. Both had dark hair they wore near shoulder length, and River had eyes
as blue as sapphires, while Vaughn’s were the color of dark chocolate.

“Yes,
but our DNA is vastly different than yours,” said Vaughn.

“You
said the Tyranns control Voyeur Moon. What does that mean?”

“Let
me start at the beginning. The Regum
are
the ruling
class of all three planets. They have been for centuries. They live in palaces
and have great wealth, and they control the laws and commerce on all three
planets. Or, they
did
control it on
Voyeur Moon.”

He
shifted his weight so that his body faced her, and she forced her gaze to stay
on his face, which wasn’t much help because she’d never seen such good-looking
men.

“They're
also very puritanical about sex, and for centuries have raised the women of
Sera, Addo, and Voyeur Moon to believe that sex is messy, painful, and nothing
more than a duty so they can bear their husbands children one day.”

“Is
that why the Tyranns took our women? The rumors floating around Earth say so.”

“It
didn’t start out that way,” said River. “Not to the point it has spiraled
downward. You see, the Regum have strict laws not only about sex. Their laws
also permeate the way our people think and feel. They want to control every
aspect of our lives.”

“And
the people rebelled.”

River
nodded, a slight smile gracing his lips. All that did was make it more
difficult to concentrate on what he said. “As rebellion against these laws, and
especially against the way the women were raised to think and feel about sex
grew, the Regum backed off somewhat and allowed women from a nearby planet
called Velone to be brought voluntarily to Voyeur Moon.”

“As what?”
Even as she asked the question
she knew the answer. Both men, at least, had the grace to color slightly.

“As
exactly what you’re thinking,” said Vaughn. “But they were housed in lavish
facilities, and kept well fed and very comfortable. They serviced the men of
all three planets, but no one forced them to have sex. They came here
voluntarily.”

“Wait.
You said all three planets. I thought the Regum hated sex?”

Vaughn
chuckled. “They don’t hate it. They just don’t want our women to enjoy it. And
even some of the Regum
don’t
always follow their own
laws. To allow the Velone women to be brought here in the first place, the
Regum repealed the laws which make seeking the pleasure of a woman outside of
marriage a crime, but then the star around which Velone revolved exploded.”

“How horrible.”

“Yes,
it was. And even worse, the Regum used this as a way to ‘prove’ they were right
all along. They told their people it was a punishment for them having brought
the Velone women to Voyeur Moon, and they closed the brothels on that planet
and took the Velone women to Sera. They gave them legitimate jobs and pretended
nothing had ever happened.”

“You
know, all this time, I thought
they
were the good guys. But you’re not painting them in a favorable light right
now.”

River
held up a hand. “Hold on. Wait until you hear more about the Tyranns before you
judge. I’m not saying the Regum
are
perfect, but I’d
place my fate in their hands over the Tyranns if given no other choice.”

“Why
did the Tyranns want Voyeur Moon to begin with? Didn’t others live there?”

“Not
that many. You see, it’s a bit closer to our star than Sera or Addo, so the
summers are brutal. It's also less aesthetically pleasing, with a rocky, barren
terrain and less water than Sera or Addo. After the Velone star exploded, the rebellion
against the
Regum
intensified, with the Tyranns
rising up to become an entity of their own. The group took on that name, and
made it their mission to oppose everything the Regum did, but especially their
antiquated views toward sex.”

“But why the brutality against
us?
Is what I
heard true, then?”

“It
wasn’t supposed to be that way,” said Vaughn. “But a small faction within the
Tyranns took matters into their own hands, and targeted Earth. The Regum and
the Tyranns had been watching Earth for centuries, but the Tyranns had become
more interested in exploiting humans than merely observing them. They were
obsessed with your porn industry, and made a lot of assumptions about Earth
women because of it.”

“Oh,
you’re kidding.” She shook her head.
“No way.”

“I’m
ashamed to say it’s true.”

She
narrowed her eyes. “You two aren’t Tyranns, are you?”

“No.
We never were. We’re not from the ruling class, either. While the Tyranns
thought all Earth women were obsessed with sex and would gladly come to Voyeur
Moon and enjoy becoming sex slaves to them, the Regum had slowly been allowing
the Tyranns to colonize Voyeur Moon as their own. Most of them believed if they
gave the planet to the Tyranns, they wouldn't have to deal with them, but
others felt all that would do is
give
the Tyranns more
power, and make the rebellion they'd been waging even worse.”

“Sounds
like the Regum never had control of the Tyranns to begin with.”

“We
agree,” said River. “As the Regum fought among
themselves
on how to best deal with the growing extremism of the Tyranns, the Tyranns
decided to invade Earth and capture its females with the intent of making them
sex slaves for their males. But this time, they didn't plan on letting the
Regum run the show, as they had done with the Velone women.”

“In
the beginning,” said Vaughn, “the human females were to be treated as well as
the Velone women were, but the more extreme Tyranns soon took over the
operation and began building the Zoo instead.”

“So
it is real.”

He
raised a brow. “You’ve heard about that on Earth, too?”

She
nodded.

“Our
boss,
Jakara
, was one of many Tyranns who refused to
help build the Zoo, and that subversion led him to be targeted by his
superiors. By then, the Earth women were being brought to another facility
called the holding cells because the Zoo wasn’t ready yet.”

He
glanced toward his brother, and a nasty shiver ran down Marianne’s spine at the
look that passed between them. “Entire families were taken there at the
beginning. We haven’t been able to figure out where the men who weren’t sent to
the mines here on
Addo
went, or the women who weren’t
deemed suitable for the holding cells.”

She
didn’t say anything. She merely waited, now holding her breath, and tried to push
away the images racing through her mind. Who could come up with such a sick
thing to do to an entire planet?

“The
women who were deemed suitable as sex slaves were paraded in front of men who
would come to the holding cells and choose them. They then became the property
of those men. This is why Tyranns like Jakara opposed what was happening. None
of you were supposed to be treated this way. No one but the extreme faction of
Tyranns wanted this.”

She
swallowed hard and blinked back tears, clenching her hands together in her lap
to keep from screaming as images flashed through her mind. “What happened to
Jakara?”
Anything to move onto another subject.

“Jakara
is one of a number of warriors who got caught up in the fight for their
freedom,” said River, “but who didn't sign on for what is still happening to
the females from Earth on Voyeur Moon. When he brought an Earth woman named
Callie here, he took an instant liking to her. Her family was killed shortly
before he brought her here, and his heart went out to her.”

“Why
were they killed?”

“There
were riots in the holding cells. The guards simply started shooting.”

Marianne’s
heart nearly stopped at his words. “That isn’t what happened to my aunt and
uncle, is it?”

Vaughn
shook his head. “We are certain they’re still alive. The Tyranns wouldn’t have
been so interested in bringing you to Voyeur Moon if they were dead.”

“So
this place we’re in now … did it belong to the Tyranns, too?”

“Yes.
This building used to house quarters for the Tyranns,” said River. “They had a
hub here that they used for short transports back and forth to Voyeur Moon.
This is where Jakara brought Callie before taking her to his home.”

“And
you work for him now?”

“Yes.
We both do. He couldn’t turn Callie over to the holding cells, where she would
have waited to be chosen by men to be used at their will. That’s why he risked
everything to take her for his own and hide her at his home on Voyeur Moon.”

“So
he kidnapped her. But how was that any different than what other men would have
done to her?”

“He
was one of the Tyranns who opposed what his group was doing with the Earth
women. He did not mistreat her. He’d hidden her for months, and they fell in
love. One day they were out walking and a drone flew too close. She was likely
spotted then. As the extreme faction of Tyranns’ depravity grew, Jakara pulled
away more and more. He was finally forced to make a choice between his job and
Callie when one of his friends betrayed him.”

“What
happened then?”

“While
Jakara was out flying a mission, this friend and Jakara’s Section Chief took
Callie out of Jakara’s home and to the holding cells.”

“How
did he get her back?”

“He
enlisted the help of Eldon, a Regum that he’d known since childhood, and the
two men disguised themselves and went to the holding cells, posing as men who
wanted to choose a woman to take as their own. This was so common by then that
no one gave them a second glance.”

“It
still sounds risky.”

“It
was. They could both have been recognized. But they were able to get her out of
there, and now Jakara and Callie live here on Addo and work gathering
intelligence on the Tyranns. She’s joined the fight to stop the Tyranns from
taking everyone left on her planet.”

Marianne
took a deep breath. Her chest no longer hurt, and the urge to cry had passed
for now. “That’s an amazing story. We only had bits and pieces of what was
going on, and I admit I didn’t believe the rumors about the Tyranns could be entirely
true.”