Captured and Captivated

Chapter 4

HARPER

Something was wrong. The Krynn were acting too tense for what had just happened.

By necessity I'd become very proficient at reading their body language. After the auction they'd been happy. Jubilant even. They'd been slapping each other's backs, lashing their tails, and ignoring me completely.

It didn't take long before that changed. A message came through the terminal and it was like all the air had been sucked out of the room in an instant. Something was said. Unknown words were spoken and hackles were raised. One Krynn eyed me suspiciously, two of them began arguing, and the fourth grabbed me and hauled me out of the room.

They had never been gentle with me but up until now my captors had at least tried not to tiredly injure me. Not anymore. This one dragged me at a relentless pace, his grip on me nearly jerking me off my feet every moment that I started to lag. His claws sank deep in my arm, drawing blood, but he just upped the speed faster even when I yelped and started to struggle in earnest.

It didn't make sense. I hadn't done anything and now they seemed so angry.

A second Krynn began following behind us. I wasn't sure if he- if either of them- had the controls to my shock collar. They were arguing loudly with each other, and the one holding me shook me every time I tried to pull away.

There were a few other Krynn in the hallways, but they gave us a wide berth. I was pretty much totally naked now, the remains of the fabric strips were tangled around my shoulders or tripping up my feet. Not that it mattered, though. Few of the other bystanders would even look at me, let alone interfere.

I didn't bother protesting. My captors wouldn't have cared before, and now the wounds they were inflicting on me didn't cause so much as a blink.

They dragged down several flights of steps and the ambient noise increased along with the temperature. That's when I knew that I was on a space station, not a smaller ship or planetside somewhere. I had thought as much, but it made escape even harder. I'd need to find a ship first, then figure out how to fly it. Two complications I desperately didn't need.

We finally entered a small room buried deeply what had to be the bottom reaches of the station. The air was unpleasantly hot and the steady hum of the ship's reactor was now approaching a low level roar.

I was unceremoniously thrown into a corner on top of a pile of debris. Trash or maintenance parts maybe. There were wires and pieces of scrap, some of which looked familiar to me and others I could only guess what they had once been used for.

It was a storage room. Clearly it hadn't been prepared for me to be brought into here. My stomach twisted, a knot of dread and uncertainty forming right in the pit of it.

"What's going on?"

I didn't expect an answer, but I had turned so one arm was hidden behind me so I could feel around for anything that might be improvised into a weapon.

The Krynn that had been holding me growled. He was lurking in front of the exit door while the other went to a terminal station in the corner and began typing in commands.

A scratchy voice came from their comm and both my captors hissed. Bad news, I guess. Probably for me most of all.

The first Krynn pulled out some sort of baton like device. He advanced on my, his lips pulled back against his teeth as he barked words that sounded very accusatory.

I held up my wounded arm in defense. Let him see the blood rolling down it in a vague hope that they'd actually care.

The baton in his hand crackled. Electricity again? Either he must not have the control to my collar or this was something else. I was willing to bet that it had a lot more stopping power.

My right hand behind me grabbed something metal. I didn't know or care what it was, just that it felt like it had some heft to it.

The comm chimed again and the Krynn advancing on me paused.

His companion whirled around to face us, his eyes wide.

"Key-ah," he chirped. "E key-ah."

He pointed at some readout on the terminal. The Krynn in front of me squawked. It was a sharp, almost wounded bird sound that made all the hairs on my arms stand up. He stomped over to the terminal to look at it for himself.

That meant that both their backs were to me. Big mistake. This was it. This was my chance.

I blindly grabbed the object I'd been feeling and pushed up to my feet in one smooth, silent move. It was some sort of metal pipe- very heavy and I was weak- but by now the adrenaline had kicked into full gear.

I'm not normally a violent person. So says everyone who's about to do a violent act. The trick was to not think about it. I let instinct take over and give me laser focus. Four steps forward to close the distance. They were still bickering and didn't notice. Advantage to being both barefoot and underestimated. Two more steps. I aimed for the one with the baton and swung the pipe with all my might.

It hit him right against the side of his head. He collapsed, his body thrown against his companion and they both fell. The baton flew out of his hand and by some miracle I caught it mid-air. The other Krynn was reaching for something on his belt, but I was faster. I jammed the baton against his chest. There was a single button on the handle. Only one logical thing to do.

The baton made a sort of "choof" noise when I activated it. It tingled slightly against my palm but the Krynn collapsed. Watching him get electrocuted was almost comical in a twisted, wrong sort of way way. He looked like a cartoon character who'd stuck his finger in a light socket.

Then he finally stopped twitching and the room fell silent. The acrid smell of what I assumed was Krynn urine filled the air. I fell to my knees, the baton falling out of my hand to clatter against the cold tile floor.

I'd done it. I'd really done it. I'd either killed them both or knocked them out and I didn't care which one it was.

The terminal chimed again. A voice barked angrily from the other side. In the background were echoing sounds of a very loud argument.

I probably only had a matter of minutes or less before someone came down here. Getting back to my feet took more effort than it should have. The displays on the terminal were an uninterruptible scrawl o words and numbers. I'd hoped for a diagram of the ship but that would have been too easy.

Okay Harper, think.

I'm armed. I'm temporarily free. Nakedness aside this was the best my situation had been since I'd come here.

I grabbed the baron and went to the door panel. There was some sort of maintenance smock hanging next to it. It didn't fit me of course, but I managed to tie it into something like a toga.

Then came the next challenge. The door didn't open. Of course it didn't, there wast even a handle on it. A small scanner was next to it and I'd seen the Krnyn open doors by waving their hand across it.

I looked back at them. They hadn't moved an inch. Again, either unconscious or dead, but I needed to get their hand up here somehow or-

Okay, fuck it. Every action movie I'd ever seen had someone just shooting a lock open.

I pressed the baton to the scanner and pressed the button.

The screen literally exploded. I yelped, jumping back as sparks shot out from the sizzling hole in the wall like a firecracker.

And the door opened. It goddamned well opened.

It stopped halfway but it was more than enough for me to slip out. I'd gotten my wish. I'd asked the universe for a chance and it had given it to me.

The hallway was empty in either side. To the left was where we'd come from but I thought I'd heard voices. Voices and rapidly stamping feet heading in my direction.

Right it was then. Into the unknown. Desperate times and all that. I turned and ran, pushing myself as fast as I could possibly go.

I made it less than thirty meters before the first alarm went off.