Chapter 10

Helga

I'm looking at Fox through the phone and trying to imagine him a different color. Suddenly, I hear a loud banging and then a crash outside my bedroom door.

Ella screams.

I jump up and open the bedroom door to see some heavily armed men. They speak in a strange language and then shoot me with something. As I lose consciousness, I think, Isn't there any more to my life? I wanted to see Fox again. How unjust is this world?

I'm in a small metal room. Ella is next to me. She's still unconscious. I check her breathing by holding my fingers under her nose to make sure she's sleeping and not dead. When I'm content she's still alive, I move away so as not to wake her up. Why make her suffer any longer in what obviously is a prison of some kind? I stand up and investigate the small box we are stuck in. There's a light, which is good, but I don't know where it's coming from. The box looks completely empty. I begin running my hands along what should be smooth walls but they're not entirely level. "Is this a projection?" I ask myself in a whisper. If it is a projection, it's a good one, because I can't see any glitches or strange shadows from any angle. I continue running my hands along the walls, floor, and ceiling. I don't know what I'm looking for, a doorknob, a window, a switch, anything that might be a way out. After twenty minutes, I haven't found anything. Just the same bumps and crevices that don't move or activate anything when I touch them. Defeated, I sit down and look at Ella's still-sleeping form. Who has us and why?

My mind immediately jumps to Adam. Ella has no enemies, and Adam has money and knows dodgy people. He also would've been annoyed with Fox. So it'd fit his MO to do this kind of thing for revenge. But what's his end plan? Kill us? Unlikely, I think. But then all the articles I've ever read about men killing their ex-girlfriends for breaking up with them run through my mind. With renewed energy, I stand up again and begin looking for a way out.

"You can't escape. The hatch only works from the outside," I hear a man say from somewhere nearby.

"How do you know?"

"I designed that cage for you. I didn't expect there to be two of you though. I hope it can sustain you both."

"Sustain us?"

"Yes. You're in the cargo bay. We don't have room on our ship for two extra passengers."

"We're on a boat? Where are you taking us and why?"

The man laughs like I've said the funniest thing he's ever heard. "You're not on a boat. You're on a spaceship, and we're taking you across the galaxy to sell you at the most famous slave market in existence."

"Is this a joke?" I ask in a panicked voice.

"Far from it. We were only supposed to take the one named Helga, but we didn't know which one of you was her, so in our haste we took you both. However, if things get tricky and we begin to run out of oxygen, we're going to put one of you out of the airlock. I'd recommend staying quiet to conserve oxygen."

"Did Adam put you up to this?"

"I don't know an Adam. Echo, our commander, was sold at Gala as a slave because of Helga's paramour, Commander Fox of Alliance Force. Because of this, we're taking someone he values and selling them at Gala. What is it you say on Earth? An eye for an eye."

"I'm Helga," I admit, hoping to protect Ella. "But I don't know what you're talking about with this Commander."

"Don't play stupid with me. You know Fox, right?"

"I know a Johan Fox from Germany. But he's not…" I say, but in my heart, I know what he said to me was the truth; it was always the truth.

The box suddenly becomes transparent, and I'm shocked to see a grey-skinned man with brown hair looking in on me. He has a crazy expression, and I scream with fright. He looks like a zombie.

"Ah, this is precious. Fox didn't tell you who he really is, did he? He didn't tell you he was an alien."

I don't answer.

"Let me catch you up to speed, my dear Helga." He gives me a once over and says, "It's such a pity too, as you really do look innocent, but what has to be done must be done. Tit for tat."

I try to get my mind to work. I've heard so many stories of people overcoming these kinds of situations from my clients who've experienced them firsthand, I know as long as I stay calm and rational, I just might be able to get out of this alive. I decide not to comment on his appearance but instead I say, "You said you were going to bring me up to speed on the situation?"

"Yes. But for my own amusement, tell me who you think Fox is."

"A human man I met a week ago at the Heaven of the Bavarians tent at Oktoberfest. I served him beer. He told me he was from northern Germany and worked at the European Space Agency." I stop there. I don't know why, but I trust my instincts not to say anything more. Everything I've said so far is true, or at least was true at a certain point in time.

The man laughs, exposing sharpened yellow teeth, and I worry he might eat me. "Fox is the commander of a base run by the Alliance Force. They think they run Earth and they police anyone going in or out. But they're not human. They have no rights to Earth or our solar system, and they keep humans as pets."

This is good , I think. The more I learn, the better prepared I'll be to escape. I don't know how much of this I can believe though. But then again, this man-zombie thing in front of me is pretty convincing. "But why don't the human governments tell this Alliance Force to go?"

The man puts up his hands in exasperation. "If only the people of Earth could. Unfortunately, Earth's world leaders are greedy. There's always money and technology exchanged and regular people like you and me, suffer."

"You're telling me Earth's leaders know?"

"Of course they know. And humans are abducted every year and no one ever blames aliens."

"Yes, of course they know," I repeat back, and I actually have no problem believing this. I've seen the worst humanity can do. "But what does this have to do with me again?"

I realize the man had momentarily forgotten I was his prisoner. He's not used to doing this , I surmise. "Let me start from the beginning. We were on a routine run to pick up and drop off goods from Earth. We're traders and there are, believe it or not, human-made products some people in the galaxy will pay high prices for, like vanilla."

"Where are you from?"

"A secret colony of humans. I'm not telling you where. We don't want anyone from the Empire to know where it is."

"Okay. Forget I asked. Continue. You were on a routine trip and…"

"Alliance Force stopped us for trafficking humans and arrested our commander. In the Empire, if you can't pay your fines, you must pay by years in slavery. So Echo was sold at Gala, and we're going to sell you in the same way."

"But I haven't committed any crimes."

"Oh it doesn't matter. We want revenge because as we see it, neither did Echo. Those human women came with him willingly. We're going to sell you to a trader who will, in turn, sell you again."

I'm almost afraid to ask, but I must, "Who buys humans?"

"Alliance people or Octopods. If you're unlucky, a Dulu will buy you for medical experiments and to breed you with other galactic species in grotesque configurations. I've seen what's left of some humans in Dulu care. I'll never forget the horror of it and I've seen some other terrible things in the galaxy, but that was the worst fate a human could endure."

I want to wretch. I swallow hard. I have to keep my cool. "What makes you think Fox will care about me? Or my friend? I only met him a week ago."

"Galactic rumor has it that he must marry before he turns fifty years old or he'll lose his position as commander."

"Well, right there I can tell you you're wrong. He's nowhere near fifty. Are you sure we are talking about the same man?"

The grey-skinned man with yellow teeth shakes his head, his greasy brown hair moving back and forth. "There's no doubt about it. The Commander is fifty in a few weeks. He was, and probably still is, planning on marrying you. We've been monitoring his communications from Earth."

"Then aren't you worried he's going to come and rescue me?"

"How? He's on Alliance Force. He has no ship of his own. It'll take him time to go through the proper authorities to get permission to come after you, that is if the High Priestess gives him permission. You're just a lowly human servant. The chances that his superiors let him come after you are slim. But he loves you, there's no doubt about that. And in selling you we would have hurt him as he hurt us by sending Echo to be sold."

I look down at Ella, still sleeping. "Let her go at least. I'm the one that you want."

"Too late now. We're already on our way and have left Earth's solar system."

"Please. I'll do what you want without a fuss if you just let her go. She has no part in this. There must be a way to send her back." I might not be able to save myself, but at the very least, I can save Ella. I touch my necklace, the one Fox gave me. "I'll give you this. It's worth a lot of money on Earth, and it's shiny."

The man looks closer at my necklace. There must be a forcefield between us because I can't smell him, and given his appearance, he must have a very powerful rancid smell about him.

"Give me the necklace, and I'll send your friend in an escape pod with a beacon for Alliance Force to pick up."

"Will she survive?"

He cocks his head. "She's got a sixty percent chance in the pod."

"What are her odds here?"

"About forty percent that we don't put her out the airlock."

"And how long if we are sold at the slave market?"

"Most humans only survive a few years in captivity. More if Alliance people own them, but no one can guarantee a specific buyer for slaves at Gala."

I take off the necklace and offer it to him. He takes out his gun, which looks exactly like a ray gun from old science fiction movies from the 1960s, and then lowers the forcefield. He smells like rotten fish and unwashed old man. His dirty fingers touch mine as he takes the necklace, and then he grabs Ella by the arm and pulls her out of the cell. Once she's out, he reestablishes the forcefield.

"Please be gentle with her," I say. Tears are in my eyes as I watch him drag her away roughly. I hope she's really going to an escape pod and not out the airlock. I realize then I should have made sure I watched. Guilt sweeps through me. When I can't see them anymore, I sit down in the small transparent cell and cry. I hope Ella survives this. This is all my fault. I do always pick the wrong men. Or in this case the wrong alien. "Oh Gott! What have I done?"