Between Rebels

Chapter 2

2

Never trust men. Humans. Trads. Athions. Never trust men.

I repeated my mantra over and over again as I sat on the bed, staring out into space. Into actual, black, endless space. A few stars far, far away, but nothing close. No planets, least of all the Earth. The window was large, too large. When I’d first seen the darkness outside, I thought it was there to swallow me. A slice of glass was all that separated me from the abyss. It had to be something stronger than glass, right? Something that could withstand the sheer nothingness of space.

I wrapped my arms tighter around my legs, making myself as small as possible. I’d woken up several hours ago, in a tiny room with no more than a bed and a small wardrobe built into the wall. There was no bathroom and my bladder was starting to complain. My throat was parched. How long had I been here? How long since they abducted me? I was still wearing the same clothes, but that didn’t mean anything.

I knew nothing about Athion technology. Had they beamed me up into a spaceship or had we departed from Earth? Had there been a small shuttle or a massive rocket? I had no idea. It had never been my intention to go to Athion, which meant I hadn’t really read up on their kind. It had been enough for me to know that they were the good guys.

As if. It was naïve to think that an entire species was good. Just like you couldn’t say that all humans were good or evil. There were nuances and there were always some rotten apples. I just wish I’d realised that before. Now it was too late. I was trapped on a spaceship.

My eyes stayed dry. I’d cried enough tears when I’d first woken up. I’d shouted, screamed, banged against the door. Nobody had come. I’d searched the room for cameras, but I’d not found any. They were either hidden really well or the Athions weren’t watching me. If I was on an Athion ship. For all I knew, they could have sold me to Trads to be shipped to one of their breeding facilities. I shuddered. I’d kill myself before I let that happen to me. Just like Tonya. She’d been strong enough to do it. I would be too.

I forced myself to look away from the window. The darkness made me even more scared of what was about to happen. With nothing else to occupy my mind, I started doing mental arithmetic. My mother had taught me to do that whenever I got frightened by something. Take some random numbers and make them meet.

452 times 17.

7684.

Too easy.

6000 divided by 43.

That one took me a little longer.

I’d always liked numbers, even though I wasn’t a maths wizard. I enjoyed the way they were solid, reliable, unemotional. When I concentrated on my calculations, the world didn’t seem as scary.

By the time the door opened, I’d started reciting the decimals of Pi. I scrambled to the back of the bed, as far away from the door as possible.

Laki entered, smiling, strolling into the room as if he hadn’t drugged and kidnapped me.

I glared at him. I could have begged him to return me to Earth, but I knew it was useless, so I stayed quiet, saving my energy for when I actually had a chance to change my fate.

“I thought you might need the bathroom. I’m afraid we don’t have en-suites like you do on Earth.”

I wish I could have refused, but my bladder was getting impatient.

“Where are we?”

“On route to Lo, one of Athion’s moons. We can’t take you to Athion itself, but Lo is both far and close enough from the planet. The government isn’t as strong there. Lo has its own regent, a man who’s sympathetic to our cause.” He smirked. “And our money, mostly.”

They didn’t want their kin on their home planet to find out they’d kidnapped me. That gave me a tiny bit of hope. Maybe if I met a decent Athion on Lo, I could tell him what had happened and they’d return me home to Earth.

“How long will it take?”

“Six months at hyper speed. We thought about putting you in a pod as a sleeper, but it would be much more fun to get to know our new wife during the journey. It gets boring.”

I gasped. “Wife?”

His grin gave me shivers. “Of course. What did you think you’d be? Our maid?”

“I didn’t want to be anything! You kidnapped me!”

Tears were threatening to spring from my eyes, but I fought hard to keep them away. I didn’t want to seem weak.

“It’s your purpose. Human men are spineless. They don’t deserve their females. I’m glad the Trads discovered your Earth. It gave us the chance to follow and see the potential. A planet ripe for the taking. If it were up to me, every Athion man would get his own human woman. Sadly, the government doesn’t agree.”

He spat, actually spat, his spittle landing on the floor. “We applied to get our own wife, but with my brother’s record, they wouldn’t give us one. But we’re owed one. We almost died for the Emperor. We’re owed a female. For now, we’ve agreed to share you, but only because we had to leave Earth sooner than planned. Maybe we’ll steal another from Athion itself. It might even be easier than kidnapping you. Females are so gullible.”

He was crazy. I was in a spaceship with two madmen.

“Record?” I asked, dreading the answer, but I needed as much information as I could get. It might save my life.

Laki shrugged. “My brother killed a lieutenant. And a few Custos. It was self-defence.”

Custos, I’d heard of them. Athion elite soldiers. They were the first to land on Earth after the invasion. They’d talked to the human governments about letting women travel to Athion to be safe from Trads. And Arri had killed several of them. I was in a spaceship with cold-blooded murderers.

What the f**k was I going to do now?

I rarely swore; I was a teacher after all and had to set a good example. But right now, f**k was the perfect word to describe my situation. f****d up. Hopeless. Crazy.

“Do you want to go to the bathroom or not?”

I kept glaring at him, but got off the bed, angry at my traitorous body.

“Don’t try anything stupid. We’re in space, far away from Earth or any other civilisation. You’re stuck with us, sweetheart.”

Something snapped in me and I stormed forward, slapping him in the face. He stared at me in surprise, then laughed. “It seems we got ourselves a little poomii. That will make it even more fun. Breaking you.”

I didn’t ask what a poomii was. I didn’t care. And I certainly wasn’t going to let them break me. I’d fight tooth and claw until I escaped.

“Show me that bathroom,” I demanded, pretending to be a lot more confident than I felt.

“No.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Since you’ve decided to behave like a poomii, you’ll be treated like an animal until you learn to behave. I shall get you a bowl.”

He left me speechless. I hammered against the door in the vain hope that he was just joking, but two minutes later, he returned with a plastic bowl, carelessly throwing it onto my bed.

“There’s your toilet. And don’t expect to get fed today. I want you to think of how wrong it was to slap me while your stomach growls.”

I launched myself at him again, but he expected me this time, grabbing my arms and pushing me back with more strength than I’d thought he possessed. I fell, landing on the floor with a thud.

“Maybe I should get you a collar and leash. Yes, I think that would be fun.”

He closed the door behind him and as soon as he was gone, I finally let my tears fall.