To say I was shocked when the body in the body bag moved is an understatement. My grandmother had always told me about the spirits of the dead, and how if they felt like their fate had been tampered with, they could come back to seek vengeance. She was a superstitious soul, my grandmother, and the haunting mental images seared into my mind from her stories kept me up at night. Sometimes they still do.
So naturally, while scouring the ship on my routine patrol to check the wiring, I was horrified to find a body bag. A full one. Captain Zod was known for being careless with his casualties, so it hadn’t been surprising at first to see that he had lost his temper and chosen not to spare a life.
What was surprising, though, was the gentle human voice begging for help.
I had never heard a human voice in person before. It was my job to stay on the planet Jenal’k and tend to maintenance matters. That meant I could work on ships, but never fly in them. It wasn’t my place to learn about the places my ships went or what kind of people were transported in them. In fact, as far as I knew, I could have been executed for even thinking about it. That’s what my grandmother would have said.
But there was something about that voice that made me feel like maybe it would be okay to bend the rules, just this once. Captain Zod was remarkably cruel, and to think that he could have harmed a human girl? It wasn’t right.
Still, all the captive humans were accounted for. Right now, Zod was probably receiving his medal of honor from Supreme Leader Aloitus for his bravery and leadership in space. They would congratulate him for saving the Thressl’n from extinction by bringing human females for breeding purposes, even though that praise should have gone to the man in charge of the mission.
The Supreme Leader seemed to favor Zod above all others, even Second in Command Zerk’k Arkti. Zod and Supreme Leader Aloitus had more in common, though nobody would be foolish enough to call them friends. It made me worry about what kind of world they were molding for us. Wasn’t it bad enough that the gender disparity had caused an underpopulation of Thressl’n women?
The soft voice in the bag sounded again.
“Please.”
I suddenly knew what I had to do.
“Shh!” I demanded. There was a small wiggle in the bag, and then complete stillness. I felt bad; she probably thought I was Zod. But if I had my way, he wouldn’t touch another hair on her head.
Still, that meant problems for me. If I was discovered stealing Zod’s private property, even if it was a body bag, it could be the end of the line for me. Even though he wasn’t supposed to have her there in the first place, as Supreme Leader Aloitus was very stern about bringing back one hundred humans per ship, and one hundred only, I was sure that Supreme Leader Aloitus would have made exceptions for his poster child.
I grimaced, wondering how to go about removal of this earthling without anybody being any the wiser. Fortunately, it was a rather common occurrence for me to perform custodial work on the ships upon their return, and many people were used to me taking the bodies of casualties to the crematorium for preparation. If they were crew members, a ceremony would be held. If enemies, then it would just be a quiet riddance of their body and everybody would go on as if nothing had happened. It was a bleak task, but one I was used to.
The human was light compared to other body bags I had carried out of Zod’s room. All too often, the casualties were our own, densely muscled Thressl’n people. We were a heavy breed; even our women rivaled the men in strength and size.
“Laike!”
I froze at the sound of my name and prayed that my bundle would remain quiet.
“Greetings to you, Absle,” I said, smiling quickly at my best friend since childhood. He glanced at the bag and back at me.
“Zod has been at it again, huh?” he asked grimly.
“So it seems,” I replied.
“So are you coming tonight?”
I had totally forgotten about the community dinner to celebrate the arrival of the crew of Zod’s ship. Every time a ship came back successfully, we found it a reason to celebrate. Space could be a cruel place.
“Oh, I don’t know,” I said, my voice trailing off. I hated social events with the Thressl’n. I had always been a loner at heart.
“Well, I’ll save you a seat. I hear there’s going to be performers at this one.”
“Already?”
They usually saved the performers and big celebrations for the arrival of the Second in Command’s ship. It seemed that Supreme Leader Aloitus wasn’t thinking twice anymore about showing his favoritism.
“You know how it is. Maybe things will be changing a little around here,” Absle said with a sly smile. “Could be about time.”
He turned his back on me and waved, and I watched him walk away, puzzled. Was Absle really a supporter of Supreme Leader Aloitus? That was an unpleasant surprise.
The bag shifted a little in my grip, and I shook it sternly. I didn’t want anybody else to stop me before I got it out of the ship. Especially if my cargo was feeling troublesome.
I walked briskly through the familiar labyrinths of the ship, my hearts pounding hard as I went. I had to come up with a plan to get this Earth female out of here. If anybody discovered me, I would not only risk my own life, but I could also be putting Captain Zod’s reputation on the line. That meant that if I were caught, my punishment would be infinitely crueler. Who would dare to challenge the Supreme Leader’s lapdog?
Apparently, Laike Ostra’ki (Maintenance and Repair) did.
***
After a few more close calls, I finally made it to the emergency exit without being spotted and disabled the alarm. Luckily, I had parked my maintenance vehicle close by and reached it briskly, despite much commotion from the recent arrival of the ship. I tossed the bundle onto its bed with a sickening thud. The female inside grunted in pain, and I felt regret over my rashness.
Still, I couldn’t apologize. Instead, I climbed inside the hovercraft and sped away from the ship as quickly as I could, before anybody would find that the Earth female was missing.
I arrived at my home in Mount Zennith in record time and hauled the bundle inside. Luckily, it was out of the way and living there meant I had a comfortable amount of isolation.
Most Thressl’n preferred to live in the red desert of Armath, where the environment was more nourishing to our bodies. The Thressl’n receive energy from solar sources, and many develop seasonal and weather disorders when they are not in warmer climates.
However, I had a solid constitution and had always been a loner at heart. My favorite place to explore as a child had been Mount Zennith. There, I had the quietude I needed to design ships for the royal fleet and build them and take them apart. I was an expert on the subject, though my placing ceremony had identified me as more of a maintenance worker. That meant I was never truly celebrated for my designs, just asked to work on them when they failed.
I suppose you could say I had developed a healthy intolerance for the other Thressl’n, who just expected me to accept my lot in life without any question. Of course I enjoyed helping to make technological advances for my brethren. But letting the clueless Thressl’n with engineering titles take all of my credit was a different story. And thus, I had chosen to make my home in the mountains. Although it was colder there, it was quiet and peaceful.
I took a quick glance around to confirm that nobody had seen me take the Earth female out of the bed of my hovercraft. Of course, my property was deserted, and I hurried inside with the bundle. I had to think fast. They had seen me remove the body, and if a cremation didn’t happen soon, it would be investigated.
“Let me out of here!” the human cried, her soft voice muffled from the bag. I frowned, my mind racing in search of a plan. “Please!”
Without thinking, I knelt down to the bag and unzipped it.
“You must be silent!” I exclaimed. I was trying to think, and her insistent shouting was driving me to agitation.
I felt immediate regret when my eyes finally fell on the human. Her face was the most gentle and vulnerable I had ever seen, with large, clear eyes that I felt immediately trapped in. They were the color of amber, and the thick, auburn curls that fell over her shoulders were astounding. It was a hair color coveted by my people, but one which occurred only rarely by natural means.
She was absolutely breathtaking, but my harsh words had contorted her features into an unattractive combination of fear and anger. But she was obediently silent, and for that I was grateful.
Finally, it occurred to me that I would still be able to bring the body bag to the crematorium, as long as I left the woman at my house.
“Come,” I said, gently at first. But when she didn’t move, my agitation and impatience came through. The females on Jenal’k were expected to listen and obey, not sit there with defiant expressions on their faces. And as much as I wanted to accommodate this unfortunate creature, I needed her to listen to me.
“Now!” I exclaimed, lifting her by the wrist. I was surprised by how much stronger I was than she, despite her resistance to my touch. It was like leading a Thressl’n infant in comparison of strength.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, her voice soft but strong. If she was afraid, she didn’t want me to know it.
“You must wait here until I return,” I said.
But I knew she wouldn’t wait on her own accord. Unfortunately, if she were left on her own, it would be dangerous. Camps were being built on Mount Zennith, not very far from where I lived. If she escaped, she would be rounded up into the camps with the other Earth women and Zod would find her again. Who knew what would happen to her then?
I pulled the female into the dark cellar where I stored much of my food supply. “Down here.”
The female was quiet as I rummaged through sacks of supplies until I found twine used to braid certain roots together for drying.
“Sit.”
She sat silently, her eyes filled with anger.
“You won’t get away with this,” she mumbled.
It was strange to hear English in person. We had only received brief broadcasts here and there from Earth, but they had been enough to give us a basic understanding of the language. The Thressl’n were keenly adept at learning new dialects, as communication was highly valued and a necessity in maintaining peace in the universe.
“I hope for your sake that you are wrong about that,” I said.
Her eyes flashed in confusion as I bound her wrists and legs to one of the sturdy shelves in the cellar and climbed out.
“If you do not stay quiet, you are going to find more trouble than you know what to do with,” I cautioned her, before shutting and locking the cellar door.
I waited for a moment to see what she would do, and when I was satisfied with her silence, I ran to my study. My uncle had been my best friend and closest ally before his passing, and he had been a doctor. He left me all of his things after he died, and I kept one particularly interesting specimen in my office. It was the skeleton of a scarce race of people from the Yuloph galaxy. The elusive Yuloph peoples were smaller than humans, and thought mostly to be extinct. However, sightings of them did occur, although they were very rare, and my uncle had been the proud collector of this valuable treasure.
I held it in my hand a moment, reluctant to part with such a gift. Everybody had been jealous of the generous inheritance, and I had coveted that skeleton all my life, more so after my uncle’s passing. But it was the only way.
I stuffed the skeleton into the body bag and stuffed it with soaking wet bedding from around the house. I had to work quickly; they would be expecting me at the crematorium soon if any news of the body bag had reached them. When I was finally satisfied, I threw the bag back into the bed of my hovercraft and took off toward the crematorium.
The Thressl’n had a difficult relationship with death. Most didn’t enjoy looking it in the face, and so the crematorium, like my home and the camps where the human women were to be located, were located in the vast hills of Mount Zennith.
I just hoped that nobody would be any the wiser for my cargo.
***
“Laike, greetings to you,” the pleasant operator of the large ovens greeted me. His name was Kelron, but he preferred me to avoid using it for some reason. I simply avoided using his name for any reason.
“Greetings,” I replied, shifting nervously with my bundle. When the body was a Thressl’n, the bodies were removed from the black bags. I would have to tread carefully in order to avoid discovery.
“Is this one of ours?” Kelron asked.
“No, much lighter,” I said.
“Good, we’re running low on fuel today. It’s been a busy season.”
I nodded grimly. A war was raging on the other side of the C’loggh galaxy, one that the Thressl’n were determined to stay out of. However, every once in a while, a recruitment ship would land and make glittering promises to some of the men who were more dissatisfied with their roles in the rigid Thressl’n society. I had never been approached, but I wasn’t sure I would want to go with them if I was, no matter how annoying it was to surrender credit for my inventions.
Unfortunately, those Thressl’n men who managed to get recruited were more often than not returned in these same black body bags. It had been a dismal task carting them back and forth from the loading docks. I had seen more death this revolution than I could ever remember occurring in the past.
“Toss it in,” Kelron said, with an impartial flick of the head toward the large burning chamber.
“Yes, sir,” I said, throwing the bundle into the huge oven. I braced myself for discovery, knowing there was no way that the smell of burning flesh would reach our noses this time. It was a terrible, unique smell, similar to the burning of hair and the flesh of living creatures the universe over.
I was shocked when everything went as usual. My hearts were pounding as if I had just gotten away with murder. It seemed funny to me that I had actually done just the opposite. If only the Earth human would see it that way.
“All right, I’ll take it from here,” Kelron said after an insufferable bout of waiting. The skeleton my uncle had given me was broken down into small bone fragments now, and everything else in the bag had been reduced to ash. I was nearly crushed by the weight of my own relief.
“Okay, see you next time,” I said, bowing to Kelron.
“Yes,” he said distractedly. He was already halfway into the oven, pulling out the remains. I left hurriedly. I didn’t want to be there if he happened to sense something strange. I would have no clue how to answer his questions.
I returned to my vehicle and sat trembling for a few moments at the steering panel. What I had just done was possibly the most foolhardy thing I could ever have imagined doing. I had gone directly against Captain Zod. And if he found out what had happened, he would not rest until he knew the whereabouts of his unlucky captive.
I couldn’t let her back into his clutches. Even though it was fully clear that I was risking everything, I just couldn’t bring myself to sacrifice an innocent like that. Especially not to the merciless and cruel leaders of my planet. Captain Zod was one of the men I despised more than anybody in the universe. Who knew what horrors the poor Earth creature had already experienced?
I would go home and explain the whole mess to her. Surely she would understand. Maybe then, once the misunderstanding was cleared up, she would be able to teach me more of Earth and the places beyond the C’loggh galaxy. I had never been off my planet. I had designed ships of my own my entire life but had never been permitted to build and fly any of them myself. The injustice was great, but I would just have to accept my place in Thressl’n society. There was clearly no other option for someone like me.
I sped my hovercraft toward home, my mind reeling with possibilities. I wanted more than anything to get to know the beautiful, intoxicating woman from Earth better. I had a good feeling about her. Hopefully, she, too, would have a good feeling about me.
After all, we would only have each other to share this huge secret with from now on. Nobody but Zod knew she was on this planet. We would have to learn to trust one another eventually. There was no other option.