FIVE
The Be’Kal Zephyr landed in port while the sellers were still registering their merchandise. Arkis quickly put on the costume that turned him from a handsome feline Law Enforcement officer to a homely red scaly-faced Vrootomian Prince. Vrootomians had large bulbous bald heads with bumpy ridges from the back of their heads to just above coal black eyes that dominated their faces. The lower half of the face had a nose and mouth like a chimpanzee and oversized elfin ears on each side of their heads.
They were notorious in the slave trade and mainly bought females of multiple races. They were particularly fond of homo sapiens and willing to pay exorbitant fees for them. The Vrootomian race was also known for their subjugation of females. Even their own females were little better than slaves.
The slave auction was set up like a sports arena with private booths for buyers surrounding the display platform in the center. Bidding was done from the terminals in each booth. At the end of the time limit, the highest bidder won. Arkis had done this before, and he was good at it.
This was the first time for Zeke. Though he had never been to a live auction, he’d seen the holovids, and it turned his stomach. He wished they could free all the beings that were to be sold there, but they were just there for the Earthers.
The sellers lined the corridor outside the arena with their wares. The six Earth women sat together on a hard, plastic bench chained together like animals. They didn’t talk among themselves as the reality of what was about to happen to them, kept them on the verge of tears. They had been kidnapped from their home world, the only world they had ever known. Now they were waiting to be sold into slavery. When they reached the head of the line, the silent lavender alien motioned for Jenna to stand. She had just enough chain to do so without being choked by the chain on her neck.
The Tenzari slave master, whose name they never knew, led Jenna and the other five women by the chains around their necks in through the hallway that led to the auction arena. The six were seated on the bench located approximately in the middle of the queue. To Jenna's horror, slave master paused at each woman on the chain and removed the flimsy cloth that covered her, before they could sit. That left them all naked save for the chain around their necks.
There was a small room that led to the arena where the slaves were taken for examination by prospective buyers. Tenzari slave master ordered them to submit or feel the bite of the pain stick. It was an especially humiliating experience as the males of several species stroked and probed their bodies, invading their various orifices. Finally, when it was their turn for display in the arena, the slave master unhooked their chain collars from the chain that strung them together.
"Females will stand straight arms at sides. Step on the circle that will turn you so buyers can see from all sides. Any disobedience will bring pain. Understand?"
"Yes, sir," the women replied in unison.
Jenna was the first to be prodded to enter the arena. The Tenzari poked her behind with the pain stick but didn't activate it. The two prongs on the end were painful enough as they jabbed into her buttock. She grunted plaintively but moved forward quickly so he wouldn't poke her again. As she moved forward, she saw the circle on which she was instructed to stand. The lights were so bright shining down on her that she could not see the buyers in the surrounding booths.
It didn't matter. Jenna knew the aliens were looking at her. She could only imagine what lurid fantasies the creepy aliens she had seen might entertain with her in mind. She stepped up on the pedestal, standing straight with their shoulders back and head held high with tears streaming down her face as it raised her up, pivoted slowly around, and around so bidders could see her in all her naked glory.
Zeke swore when he saw the pain and anguish on her face. There was something about her at nagged at the back of his mind and twisted in his gut. He attributed it to his disgust at seeing her humiliated as she was offered for sale to the highest bidder. Got that one,” Arkis said a couple minutes later. He also won the bids for the next four. The bidding on Susan, the tall natural blond with blue eyes, went higher than any of the others did. Arkis thought he had won, but another Vrootomian outbid him barely a second before the bidding on her closed. “Damn it!” Arkis pounded the terminal. With his fist. “We got all but one.”
“Can we buy her from the Vrootomian?” Zeke asked.
“I bid all the rest of the gold we had,” Arkis lamented. “Surely, he will want more than he paid.”
“What about the contraband? That’s worth a lot on the black market.”
“Not to Vrootomians.”
“I think I saw someone who might be interested when we were checking in. Why don’t you collect the women, and I’ll see what I can do?”