Chapter 9
Dima Pranxmo strode out of the medical office and surveyed the group standing outside his door. He raised his eyebrows at Natalie. “Are these the new arrivals?”
Natalie smiled. “These are them.”
“Where’s the other one?” Dima asked. “She’s not....”
Natalie shook her head. “She’s fine. She went back.”
He stared at her. “She what?”
Natalie closed her eyes. “Never mind, I’ll explain it to you later. Let’s go in so these two can settle into their quarters and start their new lives.”
Dima shrugged and went back into the medical bay. Natalie led her friends into the examination room behind him and motioned them to sit down in the comfortable chairs next to Dima’s desk. Natalie took her own chair and leaned back against the cushion. Amber looked around. “So where’s this scanning machine you’re going to use on us?”
Dima sat down at his desk and touched a button on the arm of his chair. “The scanner sensors are embedded in the walls. They feed all the information into the ship’s central computer and the report pops up on my display here.”
Amber stared at him. “What display? I don’t see anything.”
Dima pointed down at his desk. “Right here. Have a look.”
Amber stood up and leaned over the desk. Under the smooth surface of black glass, a square of glowing text formed lines against the black background. Her eyes widened. “Earth female, aged 23, perfect health except for minor bruising to the.....What the heck is this? History of fracture to the left leg. Re-ossified to normal density. History of regenerative alteration. Genetically enhanced for increased libido and auto-suggestibility.”
“You see?” Dima replied. “It’s all there. The scanners pick up every detail of your physical health and compile it into a report.”
Amber turned to Natalie. “Did they do this to you, too, when you first came on board the ship?”
Natalie nodded. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? The sensors can even monitor you remotely when you’re in your quarters. I used to come to Dima for reports on Tina when I wasn’t sure how she was doing and I didn’t want to disturb her. The sensors could tell me if she’d eaten her meals and how well she slept the night before. It’s very useful that way.”
“What about me?” Melanie asked. “What can your computer tell you about me?”
Dima touched his console. “You’re also in perfect physical health, but we could expect that for someone who spent so much time in a regeneration bed. However, the computer says you’re experiencing particularly acute stress. It’s much worse than anything any of the others experienced when they escaped slavery with the Toom. It’s even more acute than Tina’s.”
Natalie glanced over at her friend, but Melanie didn’t return her glance.
“The computer compares your reaction to other slaves who were not exposed to the regeneration bed,” Dima went on. “In a sense, the regeneration process had no effect on your emotional reaction to your experience.”
Natalie frowned. “Melanie?”
Dima squinted at the display. “The computer surmises, after analyzing the data from your physical and psycho-chemical hormone profiles, that you experienced some similar circumstance in the past. In a way, your previous experience prepared you to respond to your capture by the Toom. It made you more resilient, but at the same time, it subjected your system to stress for which the regeneration bed could not compensate. You’ve been suffering this stress without the benefit of the regeneration bed.”
Natalie and Amber stared at Melanie. She kept her eyes fixed on the floor in front of her and said nothing. Then, without warning, she covered her face with her hands and burst into tears. Natalie rushed to her side. “Melanie, what is it? What happened to you?”
Melanie sobbed as though her heart would break. “I never told you. I never told anybody. I never wanted anybody to know, and now some stranger is telling me what happened to me. I can’t bear it!”
Natalie cradled her in her arms. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it together. You’ve been through hell and came back alive, but you don’t ever have to go through that again.”
“You don’t understand,” Melanie wailed. “I could have stayed with the Toom forever. I enjoyed it. I loved it. I don’t blame Tina for going back.”
“None of us does,” Natalie replied. “We all enjoyed our time with the Toom. That’s what makes leaving so hard.”
“I enjoyed my time with the Toom,” Melanie told her, “but I didn’t enjoy the other time. I didn’t have a regeneration bed to help me through it the other time.”
“What other time?” Natalie asked. “What happened the other time?”
Melanie clamped her eyes shut, covered her ears with her hands, and screamed at the top of her lungs. “I was kidnapped. Don’t you understand? I was kidnapped and held prisoner. I was a sex slave, just like I was with the Toom.”
Natalie frowned. “But who would do this to you?”
“I never laid eyes on him before in my life,” Melanie replied. “Don't ask me how he knew my sister and I would be walking home from school when we did, but he must have been waiting for us. He pulled up to the curb and told us he was taking us home that day. He said my mom sent him, and that she had to go to the doctor. He took us home, all right, but not to our house.”
Natalie gasped. “Where did he take you?”
“He took us to a different city and kept us locked in a basement for two years,” Melanie told her. “He sold us to his friends for two hundred dollars a pop.”
Natalie’s jaw dropped open. She stared at her friend, but no one said a word. She and Amber and Dima listened in silence.
“My mother finally got the cops to believe we didn't run away,” Melanie went on. “They tracked the guy down and raided his house. My mom got us back, but she took us back to our old house, and we went back to school the very next week. We never talked about it. We never had any counseling. No one ever knew, and my mother never mentioned it again. She died without ever talking about it once.”
Natalie sank to her knees by Melanie’s chair. “Oh, Melanie! I never knew. I’m so sorry.”
Melanie raised her tear-stained eyes to Natalie’s face. “Will you stop apologizing to me? I can’t stand it! You’re the one person who’s done the most for me in my whole life. I wouldn’t have been surprised if you left me with the Toom, but you didn’t. You risked everything to get me out, and now you’re doing everything to make sure I settle in here and get my life back. I owe you everything. I owe you my life.”
Natalie shook her head, and Melanie’s face swam with her tears. “I only wish I’d known. I only wish....”
“Stop it!” Melanie snapped. “Stop it right now. I can’t stand you feeling bad for me. Besides, none of that matters now. We’re out, and I’m going to prove to you and the rest of the world you didn’t make a mistake by risking your life to free me. I’m going to take this life by the horns, and I’m going to thrive. You’ll see.”
Natalie stared at her friend. What could she say?
Melanie sniffed her tears away. “Do you want to know the worst part about this whole thing? The worst part is the regeneration bed took all the pain away. I remembered what happened, but it was all right. It didn’t hurt anymore. Fo and his friends did the same thing my dad did, but I enjoyed it because the regeneration bed took the pain away. Now that’s gone, and I have to live with the pain all over again.”