“Watch your elbow.” The cell Heather was in was so crowded it was standing room only. So much for the Banti taking care of their prized possessions. That’s what they’d called Heather as they’d grabbed her and dragged her into this cell after the unsuccessful fight with Loka.

Heather’s heart thudded in her chest. What had been done to him? She’d seen that cyborg knock him out and drag him away from her. She needed to make sure he was okay. He’d been injured helping her. She rubbed the ache in her chest. It got worse every time she thought about Loka.

“Don’t mind the elbows.” Her colleague Ivy leaned against her. “It’s the smell of unwashed feet that’s turning my stomach. Someone in here needs to get to the podiatrist.”

Heather sighed. “Any idea when they’re taking us out of here?”

“I’m hoping they don’t,” Ivy said. “They might forget about us. We’ve been in here ages. If we don’t get bathroom breaks soon, things will get messy.”

“I have a bad feeling they won’t forget about us. The Banti consider us assets. They won’t forget about such a valuable resource.” Heather had discussed her theories with Ivy as they’d struggled to stay awake during the night. Poison Ivy had surprised her by becoming less spiky the more they talked. She’d been glad of the company.

“When I was grabbed, the alien who held me licked me,” Ivy said. “I can still feel his gross slobber on my arm.” She sniffed her arm and scowled at the offending skin.

“Sampling the goods,” Heather said with a shudder. “They’re going to trade us.”

“Sell us to the highest bidder, who will then eat us.” Ivy grimaced. “There’s no way that’s going to happen. The next Banti scum who points his snout near me will get it punched.”

“Are you for real?” Kate Drummond, Prodigy’s assistant engineer, shoved her dark hair off her face. “You think these aliens have us in here to fatten like cattle?”

“Yes. They’re Banti,” Heather said. “They think we taste great.”

Kate shook her head. “There’s only one part of my body that I like being eaten, and it’s not by some freaky alien who gets too bitey.”

Ivy laughed and shook her head.

Kate turned away, muttering to herself as she did so.

“We have to stop them,” Heather said. “And I need to know what happened to Loka.”

“Your alien protector.” Ivy smirked. “He’s into you?”

“He might not be so into me after what happened to him. It’s my fault he got taken away. The cyborgs messed him up pretty badly.”

“As if he would leave you to the Banti without putting up a fight,” Ivy said. “I gathered from the way you don’t shut up about him, Loka is crazy about you. Even I’ve noticed him lurking around the office, leaving you those bits of coal. It’s weird.”

“It’s not weird. It’s sweet. I’m just not sure it will go anywhere.” Heather ducked her head. She wanted Loka and the dream of a space pad together to be real. A place in the stars with her own gorgeous alien scientist.

“What’s the problem? You’re not that into him?”

Heather raised her eyes to the reinforced metal ceiling. “It’s not that. I like him. He’s great. Loka knows so much about science.”

“There you go. You can geek out together for days and talk test tubes and tedious star experiments. He sounds perfect for you.”

“He is. The timing isn’t. I’m not ready.”

“You need to get to know him better?”

“No. Well, I would like to get to know him better. I feel like I only know a little about him. But I love what I already know.”

Ivy rolled her eyes. “You sound ready to me.”

“My space pad, I don’t have it yet. I want everything to be in place before I settle down, find my mate, and have a family.”

“My relationship success is sketchy, but even I know it doesn’t work like that.”

“I wish it did. Three more years here, saving every penny I can, and I’d be all set. Then I can set up a My Single Alien outpost on my chosen planet, alongside my bakery. Then I can find my dream guy.”

Ivy snorted. “That will only happen if Diadora agrees. Have you mentioned your crazy cake and courting plans to her?”

“There is that tiny, insignificant hurdle to get over. Diadora knows I’m great at matchmaking. And I’m learning from Vegas. She’s showing me how to be a decent manager. Nothing like Diadora. I can’t be anything like her.”

Ivy looked around the room. “Take a few tips from me: let no one mess with you. Expect people to let you down. Never have sex with a client before making them sign a nondisclosure agreement.”

Heather stared at Ivy. No wonder she had trouble with relationships if she applied those rules to every area of her life. She looked around the cell. “I know it’s crowded in here, but I don’t see Diadora. Maybe she’s evaded capture.”

“Maybe not.” Ivy grimaced. “With her cybernetic parts, they might not consider her good enough to keep alive.”

Heather’s stomach did a slow, unhappy flip. “We cannot be served up as hors d’oeuvres for these aliens.”

“Especially since you have a giant horned alien to fight for.”

“You’ve got things to fight for.”

Ivy shrugged. “Sure. But I don’t have a hot alien waiting to make cute little babies with me in our love pad.”

“I don’t have that, not yet.”

“You want it. Admit it. You’re into Loka. Why fight it?”

Chewing on the side of her finger, Heather realized there would never be a perfect time to find love. She could wait years to get her dream space pad. In the meantime, Loka would find somebody else. He wouldn’t want her if she kept him waiting for too long.

She would not let him go, not now he was here. She wanted Loka, and she would fight to get back to him.

Shoving her way to the front of the cell, Heather took a deep breath and turned to face everybody. “Listen up. These aliens can’t hold us captive.”

“They’re doing a great job so far,” someone at the back of the cell said.

“Because we’re letting them. We need to fight back.”

“How?” Heather recognized Cybil from the dining hall. “Everything we’ve tried has failed. Now they have the cyborgs in control of the station. We’ve got nothing.”

“We have these.” Heather raised her fists. “And there are a lot of us.”

“Have you ever tried punching a cyborg?” Ellen Danvers, a tiny brunette with a pixie cut who worked in the docking bay, pushed her way to the front. “They break bones. You cannot fight against them. That’s sort of the point of having security cyborgs on the station. No one beats a cyborg.”

“We have to try,” Heather said. “The aliens who have captured us are going to eat us. It’s the Banti. I think they’re working with the Vincole.”

“How do you know that?” Ellen asked.

“Long story. I found some code. It was in our database. The Vincole want to discredit our work, and the Banti get to take the spoils.”

“You could be onto something,” Kate said. “We figured out part of that code that’s infecting this place. It had a Vincole vibe. They’ve tried an attack on the station before, but we’ve always been able to stop them.”

“All of this is your fault?” Ellen glared at Heather. “The Vincole want your business. I can’t say I blame them. Every alien race wants humans to breed with. My Single Alien is known for being a bit slow.”

Ivy shoved into Ellen, sending her sprawling to the ground. “Sorry. I didn’t see you there.” She stalked to Heather’s side and nodded at her.

“We work damn hard,” Heather said. “We don’t have enough women and too many aliens.”

Holly Lipinski, a plump blonde from catering stepped forward. “You said the Banti want the spoils. That’s us?”

“That’s right.”

“What are they going to do with us?” Holly glanced around. “No one likes the Banti.”

“They want to breed with us, just like all those horny alien bastards out there,” Ellen said.

“They don’t want to breed with us.” Heather looked around the cell. “They want to auction us, most likely to other Banti. They want to eat us.”

Startled gasps filled the cell. Someone at the back threw up.

“How do you know that?” Ellen demanded, her cheeks now pale.

“Because she’s bloody brilliant.” Ivy grabbed Heather’s hand. “She figured out the problem with the code. She realized what the issue was.”

“And yet here we are in a cell. Heather didn’t exactly stop the problem,” Ellen said.

“If Heather hadn’t picked up on what was going on, we’d most likely already be served up as the main course to these aliens.” Ivy’s grip on Heather’s hand was so hard her bones ached. “If any of you bitches have a problem with Heather, you come see me.”

Several of the women muttered under their breaths. They all knew not to cross Poison Ivy.

Heather smiled gratefully at Ivy. “What Ivy means is that we know what we’re asking is dangerous. We can take on the cyborgs. If we get enough people holding their arms and legs, we can disable them. Then we get out of here.”

“And go where?”

“Anywhere that isn’t this cell,” Heather said.

“We’ll fight back against these aliens and beat their scaly asses,” Ivy said. “There’s no way I’m going to be spit-roasted by the Banti and then served up in a butter and parsley garnish, so they can devour my flesh.”

Someone in the cell snickered.

Heather rolled her eyes. “They will eat us. This is our chance to get out before that happens.”

“I’m with you,” Ivy said. “I’m not cowering in the corner and letting these sick fuckers have at me.” Her sharp glare shifted around the cell as if daring anyone to object.

“We have to take the next opportunity we get. It won’t be perfect. It will be messy, but we have to try.” Heather looked around at the crowd of wary, scared faces. She recognized most of the women, but some were strangers, most likely passing through the station when the attack happened. Bad luck for them.

“Who’s with us?” Ivy asked.

Several women shuffled their feet; most dropped eye contact. This was not looking good.

“This is our only chance,” Heather said, still not prepared to give up. “We can do this. We can’t wait any longer. You all have people out there who will miss you if you become an alien banquet. Think of the reasons you have to live.”

“I’m with you,” Kate said. “Let’s teach these Banti a lesson.”

“Me too,” said another woman.

Several more women nodded and raised their hands.

“We can do this, nerd girl,” Ivy whispered into her ear. “The cowards are turning into brave bitches.”

Heather nodded as she looked around the cell again. It was time to fight. She turned at the sound of footsteps approaching the door. “This could be our chance.”

“What do we need to do?” Ivy asked.

Heather divided the women into small groups. She pointed at the group to her left. “Focus on the cyborgs’ arms. They could have weapons. Keep them pinned down. If they have lasers, make sure they don’t get to keep them.”

She turned to the next two groups. “You’re on the legs. Stop them from moving.”

“What are you planning to do?” a woman Heather didn’t recognize asked.

“I’m going round the back and disabling them. I know where their emergency off switch is.”

“And I’m helping,” Ivy said.

“Will that work?” the woman asked.

“I’ve done it before.”

“You have? You’ve beaten a cyborg?”

Heather grinned. She had. She’d beaten a cyborg before; she could do it again. “They’re not so tough. Focus on your job. Don’t get scared. If we work together, we’ll win.”

Everyone shuffled back from the door, fear simmering through the group as the door locks clicked open.

Ivy grabbed Heather’s elbow. “No need for you to lead the troops. Wait until you see an opportunity before going after the off switch, or they’ll crush you.”

Heather’s mouth was dry as the door opened to reveal two cyborgs. Her stomach flipped. They both carried lasers.

“Now!” The word wasn’t even fully out of her mouth before the women surged forward in an angry mass.

It wasn’t pretty or coordinated, but they were on the cyborgs in seconds, grabbing their arms and legs as they screamed and kicked.

The lasers clattered to the floor. All Heather could see was two piles of furious females. It was a terrifyingly awesome sight. Everyone was fighting.

“Time for us to do our worst.” Ivy ran out of the cell, Heather on her heels.

They sprinted around the mass of snarling women to the back of the cyborgs.

Pulling off the access panel to reach the emergency override button, Heather slammed her hand onto the base of the cyborg’s spine.

Its left fist spun around and thumped into her thigh before it stopped fighting and slumped forward. Several of the women fell to the ground as it lost its grip on them.

“Mine’s not working.”

Heather looked over to see Ivy hitting the wrong part of the cyborg, smacking it on its metal butt and missing the override button by an inch.

She sprinted over, ignoring the ache in her leg from being cyborg punched. She yanked off the panel and pressed the button.

The cyborg stopped, its arms sinking to its side as the frenzied crowd pulled it to the ground.

The women roared in delight and began hugging and laughing.

“We did it.” Ivy grinned at Heather.

“We did the first step,” Heather said as she scooped up a laser dropped by the cyborg. “Now, I need to find Loka, and we need to get back control of the space station.”