The Beast

The Beast - Part 10

He watched Tibi for a moment, before turning and walking into his room. His room wasn't big. The wall across the door had windows to the void and a bed but the bed was different. It was a quarter circle put in the corner instead of the rectangle he was used to. The wall to his right was filled with cabinets and the wall to his left had an improvised hammock but none of that caught his interest. His undivided attention was on the tied up and gagged Hyee on the floor. The ropes were so numerous that she couldn't even sit upright, he instantly got to work and ripped apart rope after until the Hyee was sitting in front of him leaned against the bed frame.

"Are you okay, can I help you?" Gabriel took a first aid class as a teenager but he doubted that would help him treat the alien.

"What do you want from me?" her voice was trembling

"My name is Gabriel, are you injured?" He tried to build an emotional connection.

"So you are the one who's gift I am. Why me, what do you want?" She was shaking, Gabriel knew that wasn't good.

"Just calm down, okay. I woke up on this ship two days again and they forced me to fight against the pirates. Aina, the captain, is trying to buy my loyalty with you but I am against slavery. We both just want to get off this ship and go back home." He inched closer with every sentence trying to calm her.

"Do you know how I ended up here?" The Question was rhetorical. "My planet was taken by the Rutha's and they allowed pirates to just take whoever they wanted. I was taken. Then your ship showed up. Do you know how they chose me as your gift? They lined us up, your captain had the doctor inspect us and the 'unfitting' ones were shot. We were trimmed down until four remained. I was certain to die right then and there, the hostage to my left held titles before the Ruhta came and the one on my right had a degree."

"But you lived and now you're safe, please just relax." Gabriel was not emotionally evolved enough to say anything else.

"After that, a weird lady with a prosthetic arm tied me up and left me in here. The only thing I've been able to think about is why I was chosen. If wealth or knowledge didn't matter what did? Am I the best one to torture? Do I taste the best? Is this a fetish thing and you want to rape me? Or do you want to harvest my organs for the other Hyee? So what is it, why am I alive?" The Hyee was starting to melt down and cry.

Gabriel had no answer: "I don't know why Aina chose you but I want you to know that I won't hurt you, okay?" He was desperately hoping something would connect with her.

"But what if you just say that to get my hopes up" her breathing was slowing down.

"I am not. I can't prove it but I can try. You seem very exhausted from the whole ordile. How about you just go to bed and sleep. I'll take the hammock and if neither of us kills the other one, we can start to trust each other." Gabriel felt guilty. He should have put more effort into calming down the Hyee but the rampage and getting shot drained him.

Lying in the hammock, made him think. What does Pin see in Aina? He saved his life and didn't commit atrocities, but Tibi told him that he was her 'lifelong' bodyguard. That could be code for something she didn't want to explain to him. How many lies was he fed? He could trust nothing Aina told him but what about Tibi or Chip. He knew nothing about Chip aside from the fact that she built the bomb inside him and added the parasites. That was the first and only act of Insubordination he saw, everybody else just did whatever Aina said. Even Tibi, she was nice to him but helped select what hostages needed to die.

His mind jumped from question to question until he finally fell asleep.