Chapter Three

Sarden

I don’t know what made me stop the testing. It was certainly true that having a certificate of sensitivity would make the little Earth female easier to trade. And the Gods knew I needed every advantage I could get when dealing with that two-faced bastard, Tazaxx. But still…I couldn’t let it continue.

I suppose it was the look on her face…the tears standing in her large, lovely eyes. Throughout the ordeal of being transported and informed that she had been bought and would be leaving her home world and her friends forever, she had remained stubbornly courageous—refusing to cry. I knew many females who would have been weeping and howling long before they were strapped to a testing table but not this little Pure One—only now when she was about to be subjected to intense pain did she allow tears to rise to the surface.

I admired her courage, that was all, I told myself. Also, though I am half Vorn and have the horns and markings to prove it, I’m no sadist to take pleasure in the pain of females. My other half—the refined half, as my little sister, Sellah, is always laughingly pointing out—is Eloim. We don’t worship our females as the Majorans do or feel the need to share them in the manner of the Denarins, but neither do we believe they are inferior.

“Females are equal to males.” I could almost hear Sellah’s voice echoing in my head. “Just because you’re stronger doesn’t make you any better or smarter!”

The thought of my little sister raised an aching pain in my chest. She was the reason I ought to let this testing continue—she was the cause of all this in the first place. But I knew what she would say if she could see me—she wouldn’t want the little Pure One punished or hurt. After all, the Earth female had simply had the bad luck to catch my eye on the Commercians’ light-viewer when they powered up the Alien Mate Index.

The mercenary Commercians had showed me many females—flicking first through images of what was considered attractive by Earth standards. Many tall, thin, boney creatures with long, sleek hair and wide eyes had cycled over the light-viewer. They had put me in mind of the graceful tallaths which galloped with impossibly long, fragile legs over the fields of Yanus Six. With their cool, vacant stares and slender, brittle-looking limbs they did nothing to arouse or excite me. I doubted they would interest Tazaxx either.

Then the AMI happened to flicker over this particular female—I realized I didn’t even know her name. Anyway, she had been having a heated discussion with an Earth male—a puny creature in rumpled clothing who shouted and threw something at her head. She ducked, her wild curls flying, and went storming out of the room. Char’noth, the lead Commercian had been about to flip to another subject but I stopped him.

“Wait,” I had told him, fascinated by the plump little female. “I want to watch her—this could be the one.”

And so she had been taken on my request—because I bought and paid for her. But not just because she was beautiful, I was quick to tell myself. After all, I wasn’t looking for a mate for myself—I was looking for a female that would tempt Tazaxx. I was certain she would do that—watching her with her luscious curves exposed certainly tempted me. And the fact that she was a La-ti-zal could only help. My head was still ringing with the vivid colors she’d shown me when we touched, although my vision had mostly gone back to its usual shades of sepia.

At the moment, though, I had other things to think of beside her beauty or her unique abilities. Such as the fact that Char’noth and the other Commercians were staring at me in incomprehension, wondering why I had stopped their sensitivity training.

“What is the problem?” Char’noth demanded, his eye stalks wiggling in a way that showed intense displeasure. “The table is all charged—the test will take but a few moments.”

“I…er…” I cleared my throat, feeling foolish. “I don’t want my property damaged.”

“There will be no damage,” Char’noth protested. “The test is pain through nerve conduction. There will not be a mark on the female when we are finished.”

“Yes, but your little test will still hurt like a bastard and I’ve never been interested in causing females pain,” I snapped. “There are other ways to test sensitivity.”

In fact, there were several. I even had an old sensitivity tank back at my ship, if I remembered correctly. I had won my ship, The Celesta, in a hand of double-blind-Trill from an old bastard who’d used to be a science officer for the Assimilation before it had been defeated. Though I had cleaned it out and outfitted it for smuggling, there was still quite a bit of obscure medical equipment left in the hold that I thought I might sell to a collector some day. It would be worth a pretty credit if I could ever find the right buyer. Now, maybe I could put some of it to use. It certainly couldn’t be as painful as what the Commercians had in mind.

“But—” Char’noth started to protest.

“Let her go,” I growled. “I’m taking her now—I have no more time to waste on you lot.”

“Master, don’t forget her documentation!” A.L., still in travel mode, fluttered on my shoulder. He had also come with the ship and his mainframe was located aboard The Celesta. I found it useful to take him with me during trade negotiations. His compact travel form could fit into some very tight spaces so he was good at gathering information and watching my back.

“Right—documentation,” I said.

“It will be sent directly to your ship,” Char’noth said sullenly. “But first—”

“First, nothing. Unstrap her.” I made my voice low and commanding, glaring at Char’noth until he acceded.

“Do as he says,” he snapped at his underlings.

Muttering angrily in their high voices, the Commercians set about freeing the female. I was fairly certain they’d wanted to do more than just test her sensitivity—they wanted to find a way of identifying other rare and valuable assets like her before transporting them to their base. If they could pinpoint which females were La-ti-zals before they transported them, their profits would treble. Well, too bad—the female was coming with me. I’d lingered long enough around this tiny, benighted blue planet. I needed to get to Tazaxx and make the trade before it was too late. Before he—

I pushed the thought aside as the little Pure One was finally freed of her bonds. She collapsed on the floor, her breath coming in tight gasps. I could tell she was trying hard to hold back her tears.

“Come,” I said, lifting her by the arm. I felt a tingle and there was a quick flash of color behind my eyes but it was nothing compared to the jolt I’d experienced earlier. The inhibitor was doing its job—barely. I reminded myself to check it later and see if I couldn’t find something stronger for her to wear in The Celesta’s stores of medical equipment. She had an immense untapped talent—good thing she was still latent or she might have fried my entire nervous system when we touched.

“I can’t.” Her legs wobbled and she nearly fell.

“What do you mean, you can’t? Will your legs not work?” I lifted her more firmly. She was tiny but substantial, I noted. I liked that—no male wants to be with a female he fears he might break. Not that I planned on being with her, I reminded myself sternly. She was for trade purposes only.

“I mean, I can’t go with you. I can’t leave my home and my friends and family. I won’t.”

She struggled in my grasp, much to my amusement. It may be true that females are equal to males in intelligence but when it comes to physical strength, we have the upper hand. In this case, I used it.

Swinging the struggling female into my arms, I headed for the exit where my short range shuttle was docked. My ship was in orbit around the fourth planet from this system’s sun—Mars I believed the Earthlings called it. It was only a short trip in the shuttle to get there and it was far out of reach of any immediate pursuit from Earth. Not that the ignorant Earthlings knew I was here or even that their planet was being harvested. But even if they had, there was nothing they could do about it.

For a moment I felt a stab of pity, remembering all the innocent, unknowing faces I’d seen on the AMI. None of those females knew they might be taken and transported at any moment. Stripped of their identities and sold to the highest bidder—the male with the most credit looking for an expensive, exotic plaything or a bride with the finest pedigree the Universe could offer…

Then I pushed the emotion away. There was no point in feeling bad for the Earthlings—they’d done this to themselves. Dissolved the lock around their planet little by little until finally the Commercians were able to take not just one or two people but as many as they liked and as often as they liked. There were going to be a hell of a lot of disappearances down on that little blue ball—soon the inhabitants would be paying for their carelessness.

But that had nothing to do with me. The little Earth female I had picked, however, did. And she was currently doing her best to wriggle free of my grasp.

“No! No, put me down! I said I’m not going with you!”

She beat against my chest with her little fists and her eyes were bright with unshed tears. Because of our proximity, I could see her in her natural tones—her hair was a deep shade of red like Proxian rubies and her pale, lovely skin was dusted with little specks of pigmentation that should have been detrimental to her appearance. Instead, I found them charming—I wondered what they were called. They were especially thick across the bridge of her petite nose which was currently wrinkled in anger.

“I said let me go!” she cried, struggling in my arms. I liked the feel of her soft body close to mine and the way her full, bare breasts heaved as she moved. Her nipples were a soft, innocent pink and the little patch of curls that decorated her mound was the same color as the flaming strands on her head. I felt my shaft harden as I considered if she had other pink areas I might like to explore.

Before my lust could carry me too far though, one of her flailing hands caught me across the face, causing me to jerk back with a growl.

“Careful, little Pure One,” I told her, tightening my grip. “My patience isn’t limitless.”

She stopped struggling abruptly and contented herself with just glaring at me.

“You… you Devil-looking son of a bitch!” she spat.

I tried not to smile. It amused me that she compared me to the fallen deity that tortured her people after death. My own version of damnation was The Pit and I had long ago accepted that I would go there after death. A male can’t commit the acts I have and not have a soul so stained even the Goddess of Mercy would turn her face from him. I was probably adding to my burden of sins at the moment but I told myself I didn’t care—I was doing what was necessary. What was right, even if it might not look that way to an outsider.

“Call me what you want,” I told her, going through the airlock and settling her in the interior of my shuttle. “But the fact is, you’re coming with me, little Pure One. And there is nothing you can say or do to stop it.”