“So do I, but in this instance, it does seem to be rather appropriate given the situation.”
Darla allowed herself one more glance at Heydar’s muscular form reclining in his bunk, then returned to her own resting place. She may have recovered from whatever the Raxxians did when they’d abducted her, but she was still a bit low on energy.
She had been staring at the smooth curved metal forming the top of her bunk space, her eyes slowly becoming heavy with both exhaustion as well as boredom, when the secondary door to their holding chamber opened. A pair of Raxxians strode in and surveyed the lot of them. Darla felt her adrenaline surge, taken aback by their frightening appearance. At least she’d had an initial exposure to take the edge off of their dramatic entry.
Then she thought about what happened to that man. He was taken away, and it was her fault. And worst of all, he could have been their afternoon snack for all she knew, and the Raxxians might still be hungry.
“All of you, stand here,” the larger of the pair demanded.
It was just a guess, but she was pretty sure their ranking system was based as much on physical prowess as much as age superiority.
The humans all moved into a line, the sharp tang of nervous sweat tinging the air. Heydar, however, remained in his bunk. The aliens glanced at him but made no move to roust him. He was nearly as large as they were, for one, and if what Mei had said was true, provoking him could provide their captors with more of a problem than they wanted to deal with at the moment.
The Raxxians turned to the line of obedient livestock and stepped closer, walking slowly past each of the much smaller humans. Periodically they would stop and perform a closer examination, turning a person’s head side to side or feeling their body, likely gauging the meat on their bones. Looking at their frightening teeth, it seemed possible they ate the bones as well.
Victor stood firm, his jaw flexing with obvious hatred. The muscles under his shirt were tense, ready for a fight, but the alien captors were entirely uninterested in any sort of conflict with this puny human. He stood tall all the same, but the Raxxians merely glanced at him, sizing him up in an instant, then moved on to the next captive.
Then, as quickly as they had entered the chamber, the Raxxians departed. The humans let out a collective sigh of relief. It looked like they would all live to see another day. Heydar looked out at them all with an almost bored gaze, then returned to pondering the walls of his bunk, or meditating, or whatever it was he was doing.
As for Darla, her adrenaline dropping back to normal levels, she thought doing the same sounded pretty darn good right about now. Within just a few minutes nestled in her bunk, she drifted off into a restless sleep.
CHAPTER SIX
Darla was sleeping, but it was a shallow slumber. Barely napping, really, which, given the strange environment she had found herself in, made perfect sense. But nevertheless, she was more exhausted than she might have originally realized. So much so that the first rumble coursing through the ship failed to rouse her from her contemplations.
She was still in the zone, lingering in that in-between state where dream and reality’s edges began to blend together as her subconscious mind attempted to reconcile all the impossible events of the day, and it was quite possible she’d have stayed that way.
Then she banged her head painfully on the bunk wall when the ship abruptly shook violently, throwing her to the side.
“What the fuck?” she blurted, rubbing the sore spot as she lurched to her feet.
The ship bucked again, making her grab the bunk edge for balance while it knocked several people not fortunate enough to be near something to hold on to straight to the deck with its intensity.
Darla felt her stomach churn from the motion, but it was a weird sensation. It seemed almost as if there was something else going on in her belly besides the ship moving in directions it really shouldn’t be. A disruption the likes of which she’d never felt before. One that moved to her very core. Not even after the most ridiculous bender for her friend Allison’s bachelorette party had she felt like this.
This was different, and the feeling of unease in her gut was growing as fast as her worried curiosity. This wasn’t normal. Something was going on. Something big. The question was, what?
The initial event had upended Victor, but he quickly scrambled back to his feet, racing to the far door in a flash. He took up a position against the wall to one side, a murderous look in his eye.
“Maureen, what’s he doing?” Darla asked, pointing at the thick-necked man lying in wait.
Maureen steadied herself and turned to look. “Oh, shit. This won’t be good.”
She looked as though she was about to do something to keep Victor from making their situation worse and possibly getting them all killed, though she didn’t exactly know what, when an alien-shaped blur flew across the compartment. Heydar had crossed the space in an impossibly short time, stopping face to face with the normally imposing human.
Next to the much larger alien, Victor suddenly seemed a lot less frightening than before.
“What do you think you are doing?” Heydar snarled.
“What’s it look like I’m doing? I’m waiting for those bastards to come check on us. And when they do, Pow! I’m gonna take them down and get the hell out of this place.”
“You realize you are aboard a Raxxian ship, do you not?”
“Obviously.”
“And you would overpower a pair of guards and do what, exactly?”
“Make a run for it. There’s got to be an escape pod or something. And if not that, I don’t know. I’ll make a go at the command center.”
Heydar shook his head as if scolding a child.
“Do you even know how to fly a vessel such as this?”
“Well—”
“In fact, do you know how to pilot any spacecraft? Or even an airborne vehicle, for that matter?”
“I mean, no. But how hard can it be? Computers run everything these days, right?”
Maureen let out an exasperated sigh. “Typical man. He probably wouldn’t be willing to admit he was lost in space and ask for directions either.”
Heydar glanced her way. “Are all males on your planet this way?” he asked, shaking his head.
“The stubborn ones are.”
Victor cast an angry look at her.
“Don’t stink eye me, Victor. You know I’m right.”
Darla stifled a chuckle and kept her eyes on Heydar, still fixated on the tall alien suddenly taking command of the situation with such ease. It was quite a shift from his earlier demeanor. For a moment there, he seemed like a natural leader.
The ship rocked and bucked, shaking hard. A wave of nauseating power flooded the compartment, making even Heydar look a little queasy. Darla and Maureen managed to keep their meals in their stomachs, but at least half of the humans were not so lucky, including Victor.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stood up tall by sheer force of will, locking eyes with Heydar once more.
“I’m getting us out of here with or without you. Are you going to join me, or do you like being a Raxxian pet?”
Heydar shook his head but was clearly processing the options. “Do you even know what that was?” he asked.
“Felt like something blew up on the ship.”
“That was a Grommix attack pulse, and at relatively close range. And this craft? It is a transport ship.”
“So?”
“So, that means it is decently shielded, but lacks both the speed and firepower needed to combat so formidable an adversary.”