“No, please. I need to speak to Sardaan K’Vass,” Dani protested as the metal monsters hauled her into a cell in the lower levels of the ship. She’d tried to fight, dig her heels in, but she was no match for their non-human strength. They’d simply hauled her off her feet, and it became a case of walk or be dragged. She had enough dignity to want to walk.
But the sight of the cell door looming largely ahead of her like the cavernous maw of some space beast, ready to swallow her up whole, changed all that. Fear lanced her, the sure feeling that if she let herself be taken in there she would never get out.
“No! No!” She struggled against the metal monsters so violently one of them lurched to the side. Hope filled her. Perhaps she could fight them. She redoubled her efforts, throwing her weig
