Galaxy's Captive

Mayra Consciousness came back to Mayra in sense fragments. An insistent electrical hum. A muted glow, warming the view from her closed eyelids. The cold floor digging into her warm skin. She swallowed and gaged on the taste and smell of blood in her mouth. She stirred. Each returning sense pulled her back into awareness. “Jaris?” The words burned her arid throat. “Jaris, you’re meant to evade the asteroids, not plow through them.” She grunted, rolling on the floor. She scraped her elbow on the rough surface and hissed as the scratch stung. She shook her head, trying to reorient herself. “Muz?” She tried speaking again through the jagged glass of her throat. Muziq was usually so quick on the phaser. She would have to be asleep at the console to let them hit something big enough to throw Mayra from her seat. Let alone knock her unconscious. Silence. Except for that annoying hum. She squinted, trying to locate the source. The console was always silent. There must be something wrong with it. Muziq would never let that noise go for this long. She blinked past the haze of her vision and jerked into a seated position. Her head whipped back and forth, ignoring the sharp pain in her neck and shoulders. She wasn't on the ship. She was in a room, barely large enough to pace. Rough concrete bit into her skin as she forced herself to stand. The walls were a slippery metal that would provide no friction to hook onto. There was a cot with no pillow, no blanket. It hovered in the air with no frame to support it. Nothing that could provide a weapon or tool. In the far corner was a glorified bucket that must serve as a latrine. And ahead of her the source of the electrical buzz. An energy field, glowing a peaceful mauve and pulsating with energy. An inviting color, not one that conjured thoughts of containment. She could feel the sizzle of electricity that surrounded the only plausible escape from the room. Not a room. A cell. “Muziq! Jaris!” She called, turning in frantic circles. The whole room spun. The ceiling near her feet and the floor her head. Bile burned up her throat. But she breathed in deep. She swallowed the bile back down. Her eyes darted to every corner of her cell. There was nothing, just the glorified piece of foam suspended in the air. How was there nothing here? Nothing to dismantle. Nothing to tear or break and turn into a weapon. The ‘toilet’ is welded to the ground. There was a button that pushed into the wall and dispensed water into the same bucket she was supposed to pee in. Despite that, she drank from the faucet. Her throat cried out for it. The water was gritty. Like they couldn’t bother to filter the mineral particles out of it. When her scorched throat was lubricated she screamed. “Guys, where are we? Where are you? What’s going on?” On and on. She asked the same revolving questions. She screamed for her comrades. She screamed for answers. She screamed for the bastard who put them in there. She screamed for anyone and everyone. Overn and over. Until she was so hoarse, no amount of water would soothe it. She banged on the force field and sailed through the air. She hit her head on the wall and crumpled to the ground. “Ouch,” she grumbled to herself on the floor. Plopping back on her butt, she glared at the barrier. “Okay Mayra, backtrack. Where were we? What were we doing?” Nothing. She couldn't remember. William’s deep brown eyes and even deeper umber skin came to mind. A flirtatious glint in those eyes as he took her hands at the foot of the ship. His warm fingers absent-mindedly rubbing the fourth finger on her left hand. His smile grew with every pass. “This is it. After this, no more missions for the next month. Just you, me, and a literal world tour.” “I feel like you’re missing a pretty important event.” Mayra smiled. He hummed, pulling her quickly into his arms, his whisper tickled the delicate skin below her ear. “Oh that.” He chuckled, raising goosebumps on her skin. “You mean when you claim me in front of the whole world, finally becoming my wife?” She shivered as he backed away from her. “Yes, that. But if you’re more excited about this round the world experience, we can just cancel the whole wedding thing. We co-“ “Now, that...isn’t funny." He grumbled into her neck. His low voice vibrated into her skin. I’ve been a patient man, all things considered.” “We’ve only been engaged a couple of months,” she argued. “I’ve loved you since before our high school graduation,” he admitted. Her brows knit together. That didn't sound right.“We weren’t even together in high school.” “I didn’t say we were.” Her smile grew fell a bit, but she quickly recovered. She glanced down at his full smiling lips and his joy brought the smile back to her face. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to steal a breath-taking kiss. She wouldn’t have stopped him. Would have enjoyed the kiss. Like she enjoyed them all. “Stop looking at me like that. Not unless you plan to do whatever got you looking so smug.” With one steadying breath she took a step back, rising higher on the steps and putting some needed distance between them. “No fraternizing on the job.” “You’ll recall that I was the one who told you to stop. I know the rules, May. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to break them every time I see you. Every time you leave.” She muffled her laugh at his pout. William was a master sulker. She smiled at him. Whenever she went on a mission they had these long goodbyes. It wasn’t ever like this when he was leaving. But he had to take his time with goodbye, whereas Mayra preferred to rush through each one. “I’ll be back soon.” Her hand painted a lazy path down his cheek. “It’ll be me, Muziq and Jaris. We’ll be half crazy if this takes longer than absolutely necessary.” “Come on, lover.” Muziq said, her head peeking around the hatch. “The sooner we leave, the sooner you can get back and make googly eyes at each other.” “Speak of the devil.” William joked. “Don’t insult the devil.” She ribbed back. Mayra and William stepped apart and she waved one last time before boarding the ship. That was the last solid thing she recalled. There were vague memories about being on board, but nothing specific. What was the mission? The longer she thought about it, the more even mundane memories slipped away. Muziq and Jaris argued like siblings. Mayra gave up on playing peace keeper an hour in, and instead instigated their squabbles. Muziq fired phasers at asteroids in the distance that were never a threat to the ship because she was bored. They slept in shifts as they flew closer to the Outer Planets border. Nothing helpful. Nothing about why they made this trip. Nothing to illuminate why she would be trapped in a cell now. "Come on, what was it? Was it recon? But on wh--“ A white hot pain flashed through her skull. She couldn’t even scream. The pain knocked the wind from her and she fell to the ground moaning. Digging her forehead into the concrete until the skin was scraped raw to distract from the pain within. Tears streamed down her face and she groaned before everything faded to black.