Sarah walked timidly towards the door of her father’s study. Or, what used to be his study. Ever since Thomas Dawson had fallen ill, the study served more as a hospital room than anything else. Melanie, his wife, had purchased one of those beds on wheels and cleared out a large portion of Thomas’ beloved library. She feared the decade’s worth of dust that clung to many of the volumes was making her husband’s cough worse. Thomas hated sleeping in the study, and each time he went into remission, he and Melanie had the same fight.

In fact, they were having it now, as Sarah listened quietly, her ear pushed hard against the heavy Mahogany door.

“Darling, I know you hate it down here.”

“Then why do you insist on imprisoning me in this depressing room?”

Melanie sighed, “I’m not imprisoning you,” Sarah heard her mother’s voice catch in the way it always did before she started crying, “but this way you’re closer to the kitchen, and you don’t have to use the stairs and…and…” the woman’s reasoning was cut short by the onset of a wet sob erupting from her chest.

“Shhh, shhh, it’s okay my love.” There was a creaking sound as her father struggled out of his bed. “Please, don’t start again. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“It’s not you. It’s this damn disease.”

“Cursing it won’t make it go away. Trust me, I’ve tried.”

The two were silent. Sarah turned her head to peer through the crack in the door. Her parents were standing in the middle of the room, holding on to each other so tightly she could see the veins in their arms protruding from the intensity.

“Do you know why I hate sleeping down here?” Thomas loosened his hug and looked down at his wife.

“Because it’s cold?”

“Because you’re not sleeping next to me.”

“Wake up!” Scared by the booming voice, Sarah fell back away from the door. “Wake up!” The voice seemed to simultaneously come from the heavens and from inside Sarah herself. “I said WAKE UP!”

Sarah’s senses were awakened by an acute pain in her lower back. Someone had kicked her. Hard. Opening her eyes, she involuntarily let out a pathetic moan. She was lying on the cold metal floor of what looked to be a storage room of a foreign ship. Her oxy-helmet had been removed, and she was bleeding from a cut near her left eye. As her vision adjusted to the dim light, she realized she was not alone. There were three figures standing over her, and two others lying on the ground next to her. As she tried to sit up, she realized her hands were tied behind her back.

“Get her up!” one of the figures yelled. A slimy hand wrapped around Sarah’s arm and yanked her into a sitting position. Her head swam like a drunken fish, and she felt the sting of upcoming vomit in the back of her throat.

Swallowing her sick, Sarah forced herself to focus and look up at her captors. One of them was a halfsie, but what made up each half she couldn’t determine. There was a strong looking female Haraldie with perfect, uniform scars, running down both her arms. Upon seeing the third creature, Sarah could no longer control her stomach. She bent over and let loose her lunch all over the Selachi’s leather shoes.

“Uuk! These are new shoes you little bitch!” The Selachi raised his fist, but before he could bring it down on Sarah’s temple, the Haraldie woman grabbed his arm.

“Don’t, Jent! She needs to look pretty for the markets. Swollen lips and black eyes don’t sell.”

The two aliens stared angrily at one another for a moment, and then Jent throw his arm down indignantly. “Fine. But you’re cleaning these.”

The Haraldie woman simply shrugged, bent down close to Sarah and started touching her face. She pulled Sarah’s eyes open, checked her teeth, and smelled her hair.

“Hey! Stop!” Sarah squirmed as much as she could, but it was in vain.

The Haraldie woman pulled Sarah onto her feet. “Okay.” She motioned to the halfsie. “Pitt, get her clothes off.”

“What? NO! Wait!” Sarah backed herself against the wall and prepared to kick whoever came near her.

The halfsie man approached her slowly. “This will be a lot easier if you cooperate.” He sounded almost regretful and his eyes were overcast with what Sarah recognized as fear. That was her way out.

“No, please, please don’t. You don’t want to do this. I will do anything you ask just please don’t.” She couldn’t help but bring herself to say the word, “please don’t use me.”

The halfsie man immediately backed away. “Woah, woah, nobody said anything about using!” He looked to the Haraldie. “Reema, you can’t possibly be asking me to—”

“No, you moron!” Reema yelled, looking at both the halfsie man and Sarah, as if the insult had been meant for both of them. “If black eyes don’t sell, what makes you think sloppy seconds will! She needs to be in pristine condition. Nobody touches her. I just need to get a better look at the merchandise.”

“You mean we don’t even get to take a test drive!” Jent asked, while staring at Sarah and running his tongue along the back row of his two sets of teeth.

“Back off, shark-boy. She’s not for you.”

Jent, unphased by what the Haraldie woman was saying to him, moved closer towards Sarah and sniffed the air around her greedily.

“Jent, I’m warning you—”

“You’re warning me?” The Selachi turned around and advanced on the Haraldie. “Well how’s about I warn you about what happens when you warn me?”

Reema stood her ground, her eyes daring Jent to try something. “I’m a rank higher than you, and you know it. Not to mention the boss has been looking for an excuse to toss you ever since you ‘accidently’ impregnated the last slave girl and soiled our chances of selling her.”

Jent was now just inches from Reema’s face. He breathed in calmly. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re jealous. What, Reema, you want to swim with the shark?” Jent moved in as if to kiss her, but the Haraldie moved quicker. Using her slight height advantage, she brought her right elbow down hard upon Jent’s shoulder, while throwing her left fist directly into his stomach. He lost his air like an untied balloon and crumpled into a sort of standing fetal position.

Reema bent down in order to make eye contact with the agonizing Selachi man. “I wouldn’t fuck you for all the pinches in the galaxy, you loathsome, mucus-y, bottom feeder. Now get out of my sight before I report you for insubordination.”

Breathing near-asthmatically, and with eyes watering from pain, Jent left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Reema didn’t say anything, simply pointed at the Sarah, implying Pitt get back to the task at hand. He walked towards her, again, this time with more confidence, but she was ready. Bracing her back against the wall, she jumped as high as she could and sank both her feet in the Halfsie’s groin. Pitt bent over in agony as Sarah, unable to catch herself, landed on her tailbone, flooding her with a pain like she had never felt.

Reema yelled. “We don’t have time for this!” She grabbed Sarah roughly, mumbling, “You want a job done right, you gotta do it yourself.” Reema curled her fingers around the collar of Sarah’s thin shirt and ripped it from her body with one quick motion. Sarah stood, shaking, in only her bra and pants—her bound hands keeping her from covering herself. Just then the door to the storage room opened and the tall, blue form of who had to be the captain emerged.

“What the hell is all this noise about?” he yelled, moving towards the group with heavy, authoritative steps.

“Captain, hi,” Reema’s voice cracked. “Don’t worry, everything’s under control. We were just figuring out what to do with our captives. This one here I’m thinking we can sell—”

“What’s wrong with Pitt?” The Kylen pointed to the halfsie man who was rolling on the ground, openly crying.

“Well, she’s uh, she’s a fighter. Let’s put it that way. But nothing I can’t handle.”

“Let me go!” Sarah struggled against the Haraldie’s tight grip, but the two aliens paid her no mind.

“Where’s Jent?”

“Probably pouting somewhere.”

“Of course he is.” The Kylen touched Reema’s shoulder and reached to take Sarah into his own arms.

“Don’t touch me you disgusting—ahh!” The Kylen dug one of his claws into Sarah’s arm.

“You, stop talking.” He looked to Reema, “What do we have here? A halfsie?”

“I don’t think so, Grom, sir. I’m pretty sure she’s pure human.”

“Pure human? Really? But she’s so…ugly. Her skin is the color of that brown clay we used to make our waste buckets out of, don’t you think?” The Kylen laughed. “And that hair. Do you think there’s some evolutionary advantage to having such wild, unkempt curls? Protection for the skull, perhaps?”

“It is possible, sir. I don’t much about humans, aside from how to get the best market price for one.”

“What are these tiny spots all over her face?” Grom reached one of his clawed fingers out and lightly stroked Sarah’s cheeks.

Before Reema could even venture to guess what freckles were, Sarah spit clean into the Kylen’s face, aiming for his eyes.

“Let. Me. Go.” She kept her voice confident and steady, but braced her body for a blow that didn’t come.

Grom was silent. He breathed in slowly, keeping his composure. He wiped the saliva from below his eyes and leaned his face in close to Sarah’s.

“Did you just give me a command?”

Sarah said nothing but kept steady eye contact. His gray irises no longer seemed like calm, beautiful storm clouds. Rather, they crackled with the intensity of a devastating lightning storm.

“I’m the commander of this ship, and I don’t take kindly to people who question my authority. Now you’ve made yourself very clear, you wish to be set free, but that’s not going to happen. You see, you’re mine now. I own you. And I can do whatever I want with you. And right now, I think I want to take you back to my room and ensure that you understand who’s in charge here.”

The fire of Sarah’s bravery was beginning to extinguish as the helplessness of her situation started to dawn on her. Finally, she broke their staring contest and hung her head in silence.

“What about the rest of them?” Reema asked, pulling Grom from his apparent fixation with her.

“Are these the only ones left?”

“No, these three were just the only ones who didn’t sustain any life-threatening wounds. Nickle is working on getting the other five in stable condition. Hopefully we will be able to salvage enough to break even at the markets. This plunder is starting to cost us more than it’s worth.”

“We’ll see about that. Go ahead and take your earnings. Whichever you want. Just don’t kill them. You can use them until we land, then you either have to find a permanent use for them onboard, or we will try to sell them. Tell the others.”

“Yes, sir.”

Grom pushed Sarah out in front of him. “Let’s go.” Sarah went without a fight. Grom leaned his head into the storage unit before closing the door. “Oh, and Reema, one more thing. No one is to touch my human, you understand? She’s mine, and believe me when I say, I will kill for her.”

Reema nodded. “Understood, sir. I’ll let everyone know.”

Grom nodded in return, closed the door, and set his gaze on his new prize, a slight smile curling at the side of his mouth.