Starport: Zeta Prime (Alt) (6 page)

He had initially planned to stay
hidden, he was a talented stalker and could’ve remained undetected,
even from Misha, but he started to feel guilty at how uncomfortable
she was clearly getting, and needed to intervene.

At his
appearance, Misha immediately changed her attitude. She tilted her
head in order to seem like she was attempting to understand the
actions being played out to her, and looked to Faron with a
helpless smile.

Jillian
was too
surprised by her own reaction to take much notice. Once the
embarrassment at being caught in such humiliating circumstances had
calmed, she felt a thrill at seeing him. At knowing he had not just
dumped her and left. Having no control over it, her heartbeat
started to increase as he walked up to her.

“
Do you need to release water?” he asked gently, placing his
hand on her arm.

Torn, she
wanted to just nod at him in affirmation. But she still had her
concerns, and had made the foolish error before of revealing too
much too quickly to a man–albeit a human one, so the comparison
wasn’t quite the same. She couldn’t trust someone she knew nothing
about though, that was her final decision. Painful though it was,
she pressed her lips together to prevent a moan from escaping her
lips, looked up at him and gave a hopeless shrug.

Misha watched this exchange with obvious distaste until she
could witness no more. Dropping her caring act, she
slammed the bowl down, turned on her
heel and leapt out of the building. Jillian gaped after her, of all
the stories she had heard regarding their basic lifestyles and
primitive existence, she had not been prepared for girlie nastiness
akin to being at a school on Earth. In a way, it was rather
entertaining. It seemed that girls could always be bitches, no
matter what the planet.

Unaffected by the
departure of the female, the male captor did not remove his
eyes from Jillian, and she was horrified to note the amusement in
him. As he failed to disguise his growing smile, she felt a burning
rage radiate from the inside out. This was some awful torture and
what felt more unbearable was the fact that he was obviously
getting a great deal of pleasure from watching her squirm. She
wished she had her stun gun right now, even more so, she wished she
had a real gun. Never before had she wanted to kill someone dead as
much as she did in that instant. That was how badly she needed to
pee.

It was difficult to keep his face from showing his delight
at her response to Misha. She had very clearly understood her
resentment, stood up against it by not rising to her evocative
insolence, and appeared as though she were stunned and a little
amused by Misha’s childish display of irritation. He was delighted
because he felt that this meant she
was seeing them as individuals, that her fear was
decreasing, and he knew he would soon be able to introduce her to a
villager.

Sensing her
urgency now, he directed her to a small hole on the opposite side
of the hut from where they were standing. Her mouth dropped as she
looked first at his extended palm, proffering her the hole, and
next into his face, aghast at the insinuation he was making. It
seemed that the–opening–in the ground was the toilet, though she
really, really did not want it to be so. The urge was at the point
of overwhelming however, and she was prepared to take whatever was
on offer. They had this kind of thing in South East Asia, right? It
would be fine.

Not aware
that she had been waiting to go for so long, Faron continued to
look at her as she danced around the hole. To the point of
bursting, Jillian had to flick her fingers in a motion she hoped
would usher him out. She wasn’t about to do it right there in front
of him, that was for sure.

He laughed. She just captivated him
. She was so shy and proud. He waited around a moment
longer, teasing her a little, then he finally, finally relented and
left her alone.

Sweet relief cloaked her, and she at last felt like her
mind could focus on more important
things. Before reviewing the day so far, she lifted the
clay jug to her lips and gulped down the most refreshing water she
had ever tasted. She did eye the food, it looked like crushed
potatoes, and suddenly realized she was starving. Crossing her legs
to sit on the fur, she reached for the plate. Sniffing it first,
she detected a hint of the sweetness from last night’s meal. Hungry
now, it smelt delicious, and she scooped a large handful to cram in
her mouth.

It was creamy, really rich–
like decedent scrambled eggs but with the consistency of
potato. The sweetness she had smelt reminded her of coconut. She
finished it in seconds, it had been divine.

Full and
fairly contented, given the fact she was chained up, she shuffled
over to the warm patch of sun, and observed the graceful movements
of the cat-people, way off in the distance. Her mind began to
wander as she did so.

She was
always used to having to be tough, shipped from pillar to post as
child–her Mother had proved unable to cope with her due to mental
health problems, and her Father had vanished from their lives
before she could even remember–she had been constantly put into
unfamiliar situations with unfamiliar people. Passed from foster
family to foster family on the grounds of her being
‘uncontrollable’ and ‘wild,’ she had built up thicker and thicker
walls in defense, forming attachments to no one and no place. A
steel exterior that was embedded several layers deep. It had taken
years for her to prove herself in the army, having such an unkempt
history and a bad reputation people refused to forget.

She had learnt to control her hedonism, to
realize that by acting in the way
she had, she was obstructing the path out of her old life. But she
never forgot the lessons she’d learnt. Never forgot that she
couldn’t trust anyone, that no one would look out for her but
herself, having been let down so much that lesson was proven again
and again. Most recently when she had taken the blame for an
explosion she had nothing to do with. Briefly, she thought of Mikey
and his selfless act. Afraid of the weakness that thought might
cause, she quashed it swiftly.

Faron
spoke to his
most trusted companion and brother Camil, informing him that he
felt it was nearly time to unchain her.

“
I know you always do what’s best
for us. That I am not doubting,” Camil said. “But this
race, they are unpredictable. I’m not sure we understand their ways
fully enough to be certain of her actions. I remember what happened
to the other clan, how they were deceived.”

Faron
nodded his head
and placed a reassuring hand on top of his brother’s shoulder. He
too, remembered the other’s fate well. It had been the same tribe
the invaders had first befriended to practice language skills on.
He had watched what he thought were friendships being made, bonds
being formed and had thought, like all the others, that the merging
of their two people would be harmonious.

But the strangers to their planet had deceived the tribe.
For after they had been invited into the village, they had suddenly
started to detach, being too busy for conversation and the
companionship members of the tribe had grown accustomed to. Some
of
Faron’s species had even
learnt a few words in that bizarre language, but this did not give
them insight as to the new behaviors and sudden
dismissal.

Then, the
invaders had brought foreign looking, large devices into the
village they had once been made welcome in, causing the tribe to
flee, and then knocking down their homes and lives without any
remorse. Their objects had flattened the entire village to the
ground to the complete devastation of those who had spent all their
lives there.

A large
fence had been constructed, heavy materials brought in and more and
more of these small-eyed people moved in. Faron didn’t know, but
that village was to be the site of the gateway, and where, years
later, he had first laid eyes on Jillian.

“
I have not forgotten, brother. But do not worry about her.
This one, she’s different from the others,” Faron said, trusting
his heart.

Chapter
Seven

Jillian
was all alone
for a good while. The sun was warm and her seat comfortable, but
she itched to be able to walk around. While her chain allowed free
movement enough for her to stand and walk pretty much the radius of
her prison, she still felt cooped up and uneasy at being
so.

The
cat-people were fascinating to watch, providing her with occasional
distractions from fluctuating theories about her fate. She watched
their young chase balls and play fight with each other on the dusty
auburn earth, and it made her smile–the innocence of them as
charming to see as with human children. She was too far away to
hear the words they called to each other, or what the adults said
to them every so often which she found frustrating. Little clues
into the lives of these aliens may have proved useful at this
point, so she continued to strain her ears hopefully, just in case
the mild breeze carried in her favor.

The female from yesterday came and fetched her jug. She
gave
Jillian a long look,
which she matched. At this point, Jillian didn’t want to come
across as unfriendly or challenging–despite the instinct that this
female clearly found her distasteful–but she also didn’t want to
come across as weak or a pushover either. She was mindful of the
fact that the females here, while slightly smaller in stature than
the few males she had encountered, and much smaller than her
kidnapper, they were still agile and strong. A physical battle
between the two wasn’t Jillian’s desired activity for the
day.

She watched
as the female carried the jug towards the large dwelling at the
head of the other buildings curving in front of it. She felt
slightly envious as she saw the sunlight hit her downy skin, giving
it a glossy sheen and highlighting the impressive muscle structure.
Her hair hung straight as a board and the color of straw. Her sleek
frame disappeared into the building, but she emerged again quickly
and slunk her way back to where Jillian sat, placing the now full
jug by the door.

“
Here you
are,
prisoner. Enjoy the luxuries while you still can.” Misha’s words
were rounded and undulating, but Jillian understood her with little
difficulty. She had hoped she would say more—reveal something,
anything, about the reason for her capture. But she turned and left
with a tight smile.

Jillian
concluded two
things from that very brief encounter. Firstly, that she was most
definitely a prisoner here–and possibly awaiting some form of
punishment, for what crime she did not know. And secondly, that the
female that was tending to her was a right, royal bitch.

* * * *

Faron
led the men
deep into the forest. Great sturdy chunks of corded tree trunks
covered them as he gave his orders.

“
Fayzel, Visha and Niall—
I want you three to patrol here. If you see any of the
other species, follow them silently. If they get too close to the
village, tie them and send out a call.” He instructed the three
youngest of the group–although still much larger and more solid
than a human male could ever wish to be–he figured the position
furthest from the human colony would be the safest for those not
yet old enough to be considered warriors.

“
Ashan and Charin, circle the tree line on the invaders’
side. Chances are, if they were to hunt her, they would do so
without entering the wilderness. It is rare for them to come alone
without their machinery.” The two males he spoke to nodded
seriously.

“
Camil and I will patrol the place my female spent most of
her time, and also where she managed to escape from. If there
appears to be any activity, or signs of a search being conducted,
we will send out a call to discuss our next move. I am doing this
as reassurance to you all that the female in chains will not
present a problem to our village. We will meet here in one day with
our findings. If all is well, we’ll then hunt food for a great
feast on our return.”

Faron
’s men waited
for his signal and then leapt high into the trees, making no sound
as they swung towards their set locations—sending the ribbon-like
throngs that hung from the branches fluttering in their
wake.

Despite his certainty that his ‘prisoner’s’ people would
not be able to trace her back to the village,
Faron had a duty to ensure that everyone was
protected from the horrors that had befallen the tribe who had so
willingly embraced them when the colonists had first
arrived.

As he pounced across the treetops in the direction of the
bunker where
Jillian had been
held, he also knew he had to do everything in his power to ensure
that his feelings about her were correct–that she would not run and
alert her people to their location and also that she, as well as
his tribe, were safe.

Once his
tribe, and he, was appeased and comforted by the knowledge that
their village would not be ransacked, then he could make his
special announcement.