Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Two

Slave Ship Renovation

The women crossed the desert from a spaceship one of them had piloted... to the ruins of the spaceship where they'd once been held captive. Nine of the women held on this ship had been kidnaped from their homes on Earth, four were taken from other planets throughout the galaxy. They were all targeted to be sold as breeders or as a novelty in the alien zoo. Whatever role they were assigned, all were destined to become slaves.

But that didn't happen. The women fought back in every way they could. Then they schemed and planned and worked together to take their kidnappers down. The women had disabled the slaver's spaceship, forcing it to land on Megoth. Once it touched down, they escaped. Some of them had to escape more than once. But they did it.

Lauren stood with her hands on her hips, surveying the ship. The sun was beating down on them and she could clearly see the hatch door they'd blown open in order to leave their prison. The sight filled her with satisfaction. She could handle anything thrown at her. Amazingly, she didn't blink at the lie. So, what if the sight of the dead animal bones beside her bed this morning freaked her out? She may not know how they got there, but she took care of them… didn't she?

She looked around at all the women. Together, they could handle anything. Just like Makayla helped her deal with the dead animal bones. It was time to put all of that out of her mind and concentrate on something she could handle.

Her gaze shifted to Randi, one of the twins from Earth. "You're sure Ashton and Donna were okay staying on Dorvan, taking care of those still at the zoo?"

Randi nodded. "Yes. Ash just couldn't handle coming to the wedding. And Donna believes she is close to translating the code used on all the communications to the leader of Dorvan. There were hundreds of what looked like information sheets... on the slaves. If she is right, it will mean that we could figure out where some of them came from and maybe even what their birth names were. We hope so."

She felt sorry for Ash. Lauren knew the twenty-one-year-old girl had been madly in love and scheduled to marry her high school sweetheart. Until the Siloth slavers kidnapped her a week before the wedding. No. Ash didn't need to be here.

Tallie came up and locked arms with Lauren. "It would be great if Donna can decode that information. Some of the slaves were taken when they were very young. They don't remember any name but what they were given as a slave. And they don't know where they came from."

"Slavery is just crap!" Lauren said vehemently. "I can't wait until we get everything put together for a school, and places for the slaves to live while we help them figure out what to do next."

Rachael came up and stood by her twin. Both she and Randi were twenty-two years old and nearly identical, with short, curly brown hair, freckles, and dark green eyes. They were tech geniuses. Not just tech from Earth... but it turns out they had an uncanny knack with alien tech. They were geeks. At first, they were a little clumsy and not very physical. Being around Lauren and Kait had changed that. They started doing Katas, had learned how to handle a variety of weapons, and trekked across the Megoth desert without complaint.

Nancy and Makayla walked up together. They were both in their thirties. Besides being close in age, they were alike in other ways. Nancy had short, curly blonde hair, blue eyes. She came from just north of the Texas border and had told everyone on the first day that she hadn't been a country girl for a number of years, but she figured it would all come back to her. She told them to find her a gun, she could shoot it. Nancy used to be a marksman and trained to shoot in the Olympics. Kayla was a marksman in the military. So yeah. Some solid ground for a friendship.

Cocking her head to the side, Nancy stared at the Siloth spaceship for a minute. "You know, we could use this ship for quick and easy temporary housing."

Lauren frowned. "What do you mean?"

She smiled. "I was an HGTV watching fiend at home. I especially loved those renovation shows where they turn barns, churches, or factories into houses or apartments. Hell, one of my favorites was when they turned an old grain silo into a fantastic house. If you can turn a grain silo into living quarters, why couldn't we do the same sort of thing here? We'd leave some of the rooms as they are and some of it, we'd gut. I think we could easily create one or two-room apartments. If I remember right... all those spare rooms we crawled through had private bathrooms. They were small but functional. We could turn the bridge into a lounge—because hey—there are windows to the outside world. Then turn the big room where they imprisoned us—into a workout room or library or something and then cut in some strategic windows. It would take less time to fix this than to build from scratch, right?"

Kaitlyn nodded. "I think there would be room for several classrooms, too. Maybe daycare for kids?"

They all turned around and looked at the spaceship with new eyes.

Makayla grinned. "Okay, the plan has changed. No tearing the ship apart and selling it for scrap. We don't want to fly this thing, but we want the water and all life support systems to work. Did this ship have a kitchen?"

Everyone turned to Makayla with a blank look. They all started shaking their heads. "No idea." "Didn't see one." "They fed us granola-type bars and gave us tubes of water. No cooking."

Lauren laughed and held up her hands. "Okay, stop! I've got an idea. Let's break into teams of two." She turned to Randi and Rachael. "You guys broke it... well… shut it down. Want to see if you can fix it and make a list of what you'd need to keep the water and lights on?" They nodded enthusiastically.

"Great. The rest of us can check out the rooms, clear out the junk, but no smashing anything like we planned," Makayla said. "Keep an eye out for anything that looks like a kitchen. If you finish a room, put one of these red tags on it, with a note about what is behind the door. Like a closet, bed and bath, storage, etc. If you don't know what the room is, just put a question mark."

"Oh," Kait started. "If you have an idea for a room, something to personalize it or make it fun... note that on the red tag with your name. Once we get everything working, we will want to finish some of the main areas and then each of us can pick and choose the rooms we want to revamp." She turned to Makayla. "Do you think the walls could be painted? They are dark gray or black now. It would be so much better to do white with some colors."

Her sister nodded. "I'm sure it would work. But take a lot of time to paint." She frowned. "So, maybe a sprayer, too. I'll get it ordered. I'm going to be on the bridge, going through the ship's database to download information I can feed into our ship and translate. We might be able to find more slaves."

Randi suggested, "If we can paint, then it would be great to have lines on the floor or wall to lead people outside, to the bridge lounge, or the kitchen. It is so easy to get lost in there."

"Yes!" Lauren said. "And different colors on all the doors. Maybe numbers as a sort of address so they can tell if it is their room or someone else's. Or a closet. This is so great! I like the thought that the slave ship—will transform over the next few months and become a home for liberated slaves."