Chapter 5
In an instant I realized that the dark hallway was a connector between the ship that I had been on and another one. The Klimnu had attached their ship to the university's and torn through the wall, leaving it gaping and vulnerable. The creature dragged me down the hallway and into a large open chamber in the center of the ship. Behind us the rest of the creatures crawled through the doorway. One held a small black contraption in his hands.
"I have the black box," he said.
His voice was not as slimy as that of the creature that still gripped me, but he was no less disgusting as he passed close by me on the way toward an open door on the other end of the chamber. I knew that the black box was stolen from the university's ship and that it contained all of the programming for the trip to Uoria. In taking that box they had essentially stolen an auto-pilot flight right to a planet that they wanted to dominate. My stomach sank as I realized that there was no escape now. Without the black box, even if a miracle struck and I was able to get myself free of the Klimnu and back onto the university's ship, the emergency rescue crews would have no way of finding it.
The Klimnu holding me turned me roughly so that I was staring back down the hallway toward the ship. In an instant the ship exploded, becoming a massive ball of orange flame. I screamed as the ship disappeared and the hallway collapsed in on itself, closing the opening in the side of the ship and closing me in with my disgusting, threatening captors. I knew it was my last chance. Maybe if I could free myself from the grip of the creature that held me I would be able to get into the control room of this ship and reach out for help, or at least figure out how to steer the ship onto the closest planet so that I could get away.
Years of martial arts training from when I was younger came back to me in waves. I felt the lessons, the discipline, and the power flowing through my muscles as I channeled the confidence and intensity I once held. This was knowledge from a time before I ended up on the street, before I had to turn to the sickening men to stay alive. I took a breath and lashed out at the creature. My leg lifted and came in contact with the side of his head, making a deep cracking sound that resonated through the chamber. The creature let out a shriek that nearly brought me to my knees, but the feeling of his hands holding me in place released and I took advantage of the sudden freedom by taking off running across the room.
I ran a few steps and then dropped to the floor, using my small frame to my advantage by sliding through the legs of two of the creatures that came at me. Getting past all of the creatures, I scrambled to my feet and took another step toward the open door on the other side of the room. I felt a surge of energy and hope as I reached a hand toward the doorframe, hoping to grab onto it so that I could pull myself through. Before I could, however, I felt a sharp, searing pain in my back.
I fell back, pulled by some unseen force. The intensity of the pain took my breath away and I couldn't withhold the sharp gasp that came from my lips. A moment later the creature who wanted to keep me as his pet appeared by my side. I looked up and realized that the pain came from more than a dozen fine wires that came from the ceiling. The creature walked around me and touched a button on the wall. I screamed as the wires retracted, lifting me a few inches off of the floor with the hooks embedded in my back. The weight of my body pulled the hooks through my skin, slicing through my back, but held so that I dangled from the ceiling with my toes barely grazing the floor beneath me.
"Misbehaving will do you no good," the Klimnu hissed at me, "It will only make this far worse for you."
I opened my mouth to speak, but he covered it with his hand and I felt like I was being gagged. My voice would not push through my throat and I could barely breathe. Even when he pulled his hand away from my face I couldn't make a sound and only the smallest amount of air seeped through my mouth and nose into my lungs.
That is where I stayed for the next four days, hanging from the ceiling of the main chamber of the ship unable to make any sound. The Klimnu passed by me throughout the day as they went about their normal business, walking past me as if I was a gruesome decoration. Occasionally one of them would tip a small amount of water down my throat, but they never brought me food and by the time they told me we were preparing to land, I was nearly delirious with hunger.
Four days later.
The shaking of the ship as we lowered toward the ground intensified the pain in my back and I felt fresh tears following the dry, sticky path of those I had already cried over the last few days. I have never been one to cry often, but the excruciating physical pain and emotional despair I was in drew more tears from me than I remembered crying in the last several years.
Even with the pain, however, the shaking was welcome because it meant that we were nearing the surface of Uoria and perhaps they would free me from the hooks that held me in place. It may mean that I was a few steps closer to death, but that relief would be welcome.
When the shaking of the ship calmed, the group of Klimnu came into the chamber and without a word, the one who had held me in place when they first captured me came to my side and wrapped an arm tightly around my hips. He used his long, slimy fingers to pry each of the hooks from my back and as they swung through the air I could see droplets of blood spatter across the floor. He picked me up over his shoulder and I draped over it like a ragdoll, incapable of moving.
He carried me out of the ship and I got my first breath of fresh air. The university had warned me that breathing on the strange planet would be challenging at first, but I didn't care. The warm air smelled sweet and as it washed across my skin I felt a brief moment of relief from the agony. After only a few seconds, however, the creature brought me into a building and darkness engulfed me. He threw me to the ground and I felt pain shoot through my hip as it cracked against a stone floor. My eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness and I could just make out the nearly bare space around me. There was a plate of something that resembled food on the floor and I descended on it, eating ravenously as the metallic sound of the barred door slamming reverberated in my head.
I don't know exactly how long I stayed on that cold stone floor before the Klimnu returned. My captor opened the barred door and stepped into the cell with me. He ran one of his fingers along my leg and then through my hair. I shivered in disgust and turned my face away from him. To my utter surprise, he stepped away.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Leia."
"Why were you on that ship?"
"I am part of an exchange student program with Uoria. I am here to study the land and the culture and work on my art," I answered shakily.
There was a pause and I could feel tension growing in the cell.
"I don't believe you."
"What do you mean?"
"My brethren say that you must be a scientist. Uoria has only allowed a few humans to visit and they have all been researchers."
"I'm not a researcher."
"You must be," he said, taking a step back toward me, causing me to cower against the wall, "You know something about the Denynso that has brought you here to do more research. Tell me what it is."
"I don't have anything to tell you," I said, my voice sounding slightly more pleading than I would have liked it to.
"We will accomplish our goal, Leia, whether you cooperate with us or not. I do warn you, though, if you choose not to cooperate, I can promise you will not live to see the sun again much less do any studying."
The Klimnu walked out of the cell and locked the door behind him, leaving me alone in the darkness. I curled my knees to my chest and sobbed into them. I had finally made it to Uoria and yet I was back in the torturous, brutal hands of captors who sought to control my every breath.