Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Margot had woken up very confused, with blurry eyes, a dry mouth, and a throbbing headache. Last thing she remembered, she'd been walking her neighbor's dog, a sweet Dobie rescue with natural, floppy ears named Daschiel. It was an odd name, but she adored him, and she'd been more than glad to help exercise him when his parents worked long shifts.

Because of his breed's perception as a dangerous animal—though he was as far from that as could be imagined, and his terrifying snarls were just his way of smiling—he made it almost a joy walking him even in the wee hours. And that was what she'd been doing that fateful night.

One minute, she was walking the bestest boy, enjoying the night air, feeling about as safe as a woman on her own late at night could be with the intimidating, black and tan dog at her side. The next, she woke lying on hard metal, and given the stiffness in her joints, her body felt like she'd been out for hours. Worse than physical discomfort was the massive, green-scaled creature looming over her as she roused.

A monstrous looking thing, and unlike a dream, it didn't fade away to a normal reality when she rubbed her eyes. It just came into sharper, horrifying focus. All of those sharp teeth, and its bulging muscles flexing angrily as it growled and hissed at the others around her in an absolutely terrifying tone and intensity. It was a brutal creature, of that there could be no doubt. And she was utterly vulnerable. If it wanted to harm her, there was nothing she could do about it.

Fortunately for her, it seemed to be preoccupied with the others locked in her compartment. The creature stormed across the compartment and grabbed a bright-yellow-skinned woman with orange hair and an almost feline set of eyes, hauling her out the door by the thick hair on the back of her head as if she weighed nothing, the door sealing shut, cutting off her cries, as soon as they passed through.

It had all happened so fast. It was an unfathomable sort of terror, bombarding her still-dazed mind in a flash, her first moments of waking hitting her as though part of some horrible fever dream. She sat up and spun around, adrenaline pumping hard into her veins at the sight of her companions.

There were three aliens, each from a different race, and all staring right at her. They were odd, strange looking creatures the likes of which she'd never even dreamed of. A scream built in her throat, threatening to burst free, when a firm hand gripped her mouth. A hand belonging to a stout, dark-skinned woman with thick, curly hair and wide-set eyes. A human woman at that.

"Shh. You don't want to be making no fuss," she commanded with a thick island accent that Margot thought sounded somewhat familiar, but she couldn't quite place.

Margot fought hard to get her reeling mind under control, and when the woman felt her start to calm a bit and breathe more normally, she finally released her grip.

"That thing. What was that?" the confused newcomer gasped.

"They're called Raxxians," what she now confirmed was the only other human in the compartment replied. "Nasty things, them. Eat people, don't ya know."

"Eat?"

"Aye. We be food for dem, nothing more."

One of the others spoke up. A long-legged blue woman with a bulbous torso and spindly limbs. Her words, however, were utterly alien.

"You're right. We've been lucky so far," the other woman replied.

Margot looked at her, stunned. "You understood that?"

"Translation rune," the woman said, turning her head and tapping a small tattoo behind her left ear. "We all get them. You will too, but the Raxxians have been very busy on Earth. Snatched up a lot of people, from what I've gathered."

"Wait, so there are more of us?"

"Seems that way, though we can't say for sure how many. They keep us separated in small groups. I've been here almost a month, but you're only the second human I've seen."

"Where's the other one?"

The woman's face darkened. "They took him. He made too much of a fuss. Tried to fight one of the guards. Said they can't do this to him, like he actually had some kind of rights up here. So they took him, and he never came back."

"What happened to him?"

The woman sighed, her spirits visibly falling. "It's pretty clear they decided to make him their dinner."

The blue alien spoke again.

It sounded like complete alien gibberish to Margot. "What did she say?"

"She says that's why we keep quiet. Don't draw attention. They took Malinga just now, but that wasn't your fault. She just happened to be here when they dropped you off, and for whatever reason, the guard decided he wanted to take her."

"And you let him?"

"Nothing we can do, girl. Believe me, if there was, we would have. They usually leave us all pretty much alone, for the most part. But now it's going to get interesting."

"Why?"

"Because when they brought you in, the ship's vibrations changed. Malinga said it was the drive systems powering up for an inter-system jump."

"How did she know?"

"She'd been her longer than the rest of us. Might be why they chose her today, but there's no way to know."

Margot's cheeks flushed. "I-I'm sorry about your friend."

"It's the nature of our lives in this place."

"And these aliens? They were all abducted, like us?"

"Aye. But you'll be able to ask them their stories yourself, just as soon as the Skrizzit has time to give you your rune."

"The what?"

"Skrizzit. It's what they call the person who applies the pigments to people. They've only got one on board, and he's a captive just like us."

"A captive working for them?"

"Not by choice. But since he has a skill, they have him do the markings. His name's Heydar. Big man, you'll see. Not really talkative though, but from what I've gathered, he's been here longer than all of us combined. Some kind of prize captive or something."

Margot looked at the others. They were all so different. So strange looking. So alien.

"I guess this means I'm going to be able to talk with you all pretty soon?" she more asked than stated, still not so sure how much credence she was going to put in this tattoo ink tech the human woman had talked about. And about that, she couldn't very well go on calling her that. "Hey, by the way, my name's Margot."

"Alida," the woman replied with a warm smile, despite their circumstances. "That's Balla, Horvustix, and Olalla. Their names wouldn't be understandable to you right now if they said them in their language, but you're right, soon you'll be able to communicate just fine. For now, you should lay down in one of the bunk spaces and let your body fully recover from the stun. It can take a few hours to completely wear off, sometimes longer. Once it has, we'll show you how to get food and water from the compartment's systems, along with where the bathroom area is and anything else you might want to know."

"Thank you," Margot said, following the woman's lead to an indentation in the wall that was one of the bunks.

It looked as if they were an integral and seamless part of the ship's hull, which was a marvel of design, but for a bunk, they only sported the thinnest of cushions inside. It was better than nothing, she supposed.

"I can't thank you enough."

Alida chuckled, a tiny ray of sunshine even here amid death, fear, and captivity. "Hey, we all look out for each other. It's the only way, no matter what they might do to us. We can't let them take our humanity."

Olalla clucked out something in her shrill tongue, eliciting a laugh from Alida.

"Yes, of course," she said. "Only two of us have humanity, if you want to be picky about it. But you get the idea."

"I do," Margot replied, and she really did. They supported each other no matter what. A survivor's mentality. And that was what they needed to do here.

Survive.

Alida patted her on the shoulder as she curled into her new bunk. "Rest up. You'll get your translation rune soon enough."

Little did they know, that would not come to pass. Instead, the ship would be blown to pieces, its myriad compartments hurtling to the surface of an unknown alien world just a few hours later.

For Margot, having only just been abducted, she almost laughed at the situation. Somehow, terrible as her situation was, it was now going from bad to worse, and she'd only been conscious a few hours.

"You've got to be kidding me," she grumbled to herself as she tried to clear her head, the exasperated lament her last coherent thought before being slammed hard into her bunk's wall from an explosion rocking the ship and breaking the compartment loose. Her head hit the metal with a solid bang and Margot was knocked quite unconscious, soon to wake on a strange planet, bruised, confused, and very much alone.