“Now you have processed your emotions, I have something for you.”

I rolled onto my back in the bottom of the drone. It was hard to tell how long I’d been back inside the ship.

My best guess was an entire night and most of a day. Not that it made any difference.

At least until now Macca hadn’t rushed me.

Nope, a sobbing snot covered leader wasn’t exactly going to inspire confidence in passengers.

I sat up keeping my head low and pushed open the hatch.

I’d run dry. There wasn’t anything left. No tears. No feeling. I was the same as the drone—empty and mechanical.

I climbed out.

Vertigo hit me in a wave.

I swayed. The glowing blue orb bobbed in front of me.

I held onto my head. “You’re intensely creepy hovering there you know that?”

“I insist you take sustenance before joining the passengers. Follow me.”

“Sure, Mom.” I followed Macca though the cargo hold, bypassing the door to the passenger bay, and entered a small room full of flashing lights and screens. “Is this the escape pods command center?”

“Yes.” The orb moved to a row of cabinetry on the wall. “Eat something from here.”

I opened the cabinet, and took out a box. “What is this?”

Dozens of wrapped packages filled most of the box.

“Health bars.”

“And you couldn’t give these to the passengers?” I unwrapped a block and sunk my teeth into the bar, letting out a sigh. It wasn’t horrendous, just tasted a little like dates.

“Heath bars are medically formulated for those with additional nutritional needs.” The orb sunk lower. “Reserved for cabin crew or those facing excess physical demands.”

“Well, I guess I count then.” I put the box back, and took another bite. “What with the risking life, limb, and vagina, to get supplies.”

My throat went dry. Not to mention I was physically tapped out.

Mentally exhausted.

Emotionally depleted.

Could the bars help with that?

“Precisely. You are not simply a passenger.”

I swallowed painfully, then scoffed the remaining bar. “What are you up to?”

The orb moved down to the end of the cupboards to the last long locker. “There’s something for you in here.”

I strode over and tugged open the door, then paused, and drew out a full-length body suit. “Oh…”

I glanced down at myself—still dressed in a petticoat and belt—then looked at the suit again.

The suit was a black and silver mash-up of alternating structured and a webbed fabric.

“Well at least this fashion is something we might be able to agree on this time.” I put the suit down, and removed my belt. “I was under the impression Crestonian women only wore dresses.

“Crestonian Lady’s only wear dresses.”

I tugged off the petticoat. “I thought all Crestonians were female.”

“I said Lady’s, not women.” Macca fluttered a little higher. “Lady’s are of the ruling class. Others dress for practicality.”

“Ahh, so high class girls wear foofy dresses.” I smirked. “But lowly peasants get badass boss gear?”

The orb flashed.

“Firstly, there are nonesuch as peasants in Crestonia.” She went even bluer. “ There is no poverty, no disease, no war. There are only Lady’s and Civilians. Secondly, that is not a Civilian suit.”

“Hmm…” I tried not to snort at Macca’s sensitivity. “So, does this mean that there are Civilian men? Is it just—”

“Inconsequential.” The orb flashed even brighter.

“Geez, touchy.”

“Dress yourself. You are required in the passenger bay.”

I yanked twice on the tag at the back of the suit. The back closed like a second skin, fusing around me in a way that felt a lot like wearing armor.

Too cool.

“If this isn’t a Civilian suit what it is?” I put on the boots that lay at the bottom of the locker.

Macca dulled to normal . “It’s the Captain’s uniform.”

I entered the passenger bay and met with commotion. The women gathered in the corner. A wave of shouts and chatter rolled.

So, this was Macca’s problem.

Riotous humans.

I strode forward then froze. Prespherona—the Crestonian child huddled on top of a chair away from the screeching crowd, huddled against a woman.

Why were they screaming at a kid?

A frown tugged at my lips.

I brought my index finger and thumb to my mouth. My whistle cut through the room like a guillotine.

Silence fell so abruptly there was almost a sound to the quiet.

I stepped forward. The crowd parted like it’d been severed in half. I strode directly through the middle, and climbed onto the chair next to Prespherona and the other woman, then faced the crowd.

Dozens of not thrilled faces turned to me.

“Hi.” My pulse gave a tremor. I rubbed a hand along the side of my Captains uniform. “For those of you who don’t remember my face, I’m Leila Hains.”

No one moved.

“I’m pleased to report that my mission for supplies was successful.”

A ripple of murmurs rose.

My heart gave another tremor. Successful . For these people at least.

For me though…Successful was not a word I’d put to it.

“I’ve acquired not only the rations needed, but also a replacement energy cell which will allow us to depart this planet as soon as the drones have finished stocking our water storages.”

I swallowed a mouthful of remorse for holding up the only remain drone by crying in it for so long. Prior to that they’d both been busy searching for me .

“Where are we going?” A woman called out.

I turned to her.

The blond woman stepped forward beside another. “Where did you get su—”

“Will we go home—” Another voice called out.

“How long—”

“What—”

I glanced around. The women swarmed closer, shouts rising. I put my fingers to my mouth and whistled again.

The crowd silenced.

“I will take questions from raised hands only. But first I have a few of my own.” I glanced at Prespherona, then my gaze stalled on the woman holding her. It was the same girl who’d sat opposite me at the table before we escaped from the smugglers. “What’s your name?”

“Bianca,” she whispered, her grip on the girl loosened.

I nodded to her, then scanned the crowd, and gestured to a woman right at front who’d been pointing at Prespherona with a jabbing finger. “Why were a hundred women screaming at a little girl?”

The woman’s face curled. “She has special food that we don’t have.” She waved a wrapper.

It was one of the bars from the command center.

I glanced at the Macca hovering across the room.

“Nutrition pallets are insufficient alone for a growing body.”

I frowned.

“She has only been provided the medically recommended rationing to supplement nutritional pallets for traveling children.”

“Those aren’t Candy bars, they are medicinal.” I looked back at the crowd. “They will be provided to any minors on board or to those with additional nutritional requirements, as per medical guidelines.”

The woman dropped the wrapper on the floor and the look she sent the child made my skin itch.

I glanced at the cringing kid. It wasn’t her fault that her guardian was an especially unlikable computerized tyrant.

Who knew they ways in which Macca had literally alienated the passengers while I’d been gone. Especially if she led with the “superior” Crestonian spiel.

I spoke directly to Bianca. “How much have passengers been told about why we were taken or where we are going?”

Bianca shook her head. “Nothing.”

“I think it’s time we talk about the situation we’re all in.” I turned back to the crowd. “Macca, please amplify me on the speaker system so everyone hears this.”

“Do you intend to incite hysteria?”

I ignored the prodding voice in my head, and pointed to Macca hovering. “She thinks that maybe you all aren’t ready to hear the harsh realities, but I think everyone in this room has already survived alien abduction.” I looked at the woman who’d held the wrapper. “I think everyone is reacting right now out of confusion, and frustration, and helplessness.”

The woman glanced at two others

“It’s okay to feel frustrated.” I scanned all the faces. “It’s okay to be sad.”

Three younger girls in the front leaned into each other.

“But we no longer need to be confused or helpless.” I took a deep breath. “The truth is that we were taken by people traffickers to be sold on the open alien market for a variety of purposes, none of which are at all pleasant.”

Several women grabbed hands.

“The important thing is that we escaped.” I nodded to several passengers. “We escaped, we secured supplies, and we now have means to travel.”

The girls at the front straightened a little.

“And we have been promised sanctuary on the planet Crestonia in exchange for the safe return of their citizen Prespherona.”

Chatter broke out again.

“I know we all want to go home.” I raised a hand for quiet. “Honestly, I don’t know if or when that will be possible, but it is very important to keep in mind that we are currently traveling in an environment where humanoid females are a commodity. In fact, the planet we are on right now—” I pointed to the ground. “Is a male only planet, where females are traded—”

I froze.

Everything seemed to get slower. Cold broke over me.

What were the odds…

What were the fucking odds, that we’d escape from human traffickers only to randomly land on a planet of warriors who traded for woman?

I kept my gaze pinned on the crowd, away from the blue orb glowing across the room, and pulled my raging suspicions into order.

“Right now, this little girl is our ticket to safety.” I pointed to Prespherona. “So, anyone butthurt that the bossy orb treats her like she’s special, know that at this moment the child is the most important person on this ship. Without her, or without that annoying orb, all we are is a bunch of commodities floating around in space with nowhere to go, waiting to be pirated and sold .”

Eyes went wide.

I panted. “Do we all understand?”

The girls in the front nodded. A few others just gapped, and looked at Prespherona.

“Good.” I straightened. “Now I think it’s also time there’s a little more organization around here. We need to catalog passengers, work out who has skills we might need, assign tasks and a crew.”

Chatter started up again.

“Bianca, the orb will show you where to find something to write with.” I hopped off the seat, then helped her and Prespherona down. “Everyone else, form an orderly line.”

A few odd protests rang out.

The woman who’d led the wrapper outrage glanced around. “What, you guys got something better to do?”

I breathed all the way out.

The passengers would be fine.

They’d only needed a little reassurance. A little order to the chaos.

I glanced out of the transparent wall of the aircraft. The bright red horizon stretched out. The mountains were behind us, out of sight. And I was glad not to see them. What lingered in the mountains was a burning red-hot scar inside me.

And it wasn’t done with me yet.

The women rolled out sleeping mats in the cleared passenger bay where the chairs had been collapsed into the wall panels. Prespherona lay curled against Bianca. Her pale arm stretched out, reaching for the orb.

Macca dimmed and floated down into her hand.

The girl’s fingers closed around the orb and something about the way she clutched it brought all my suspicions flooding home.

I opened the hutch door to the cargo bay and eased outside. The metal stairs rang with my steps. I made my way to the command center.

“What are you doing?”

“I need some space.” I closed and locked the door behind me.

Private space where no one could overhear.

“It is best you remain with the passengers as much as possible.”

“That isn’t necessary. You saw for yourself the passengers understand the way things have to be now.” I leaned against the door. “They won’t be a problem for Prespherona, or for you. Our goals are the same again aren’t they, Macca?”

There was the smallest pause before Macca responded. Almost as though the computer heard the undertones dwelling in my words.

“They are.”

“They’ll be fine without my supervision.” I glanced around the room. Yep, I’d just made myself dispensable to Macca and I’d let her know it. But that didn’t mean I didn’t have any hands left to play. “Speaking of Prespherona, looks like your kid is forming a special bond with a human.”

“Children require tending.”

“It’s good for her.” I sat in the high-backed pilot’s chair. “Children need nurturing.”

“A human is far from equipped to nurture a Crestonian youth. A poor substitute for a guardian, but better than none.”

I schooled the knowing tug of my lips. “You sound jealous.”

“Save your psychology for your own kind. You know nothing of our Psyche.”

“Your?” I leaned forward, and set my hands on the command desk. “You’re an awfully self-aware piece of equipment.”

“Your earth training could not hope to encompass—”

“Why are we on this planet?” My words echoed against the closed walls.

“Because we escaped—”

“On a ship full of fertile women that just happened to land on not merely a male only planet, but one that trades females for mercenary services?”

“Emotions. Suspicions. Imagination. Every time I think you’ve matured, it’s the same.”

I let the repetitive criticism roll off.

“When it finally all clicked, I tried to figure out what made you change your mind.” I rubbed my fingertip on a patch of shiny metal. “I mean, I would’ve thought you could’ve organized a trade before we even arrived here. But you didn’t. Or couldn’t.” My movements ceased. “So, you sent me in. Because I can speak on your behalf.”

“Your imagination knows no bounds.”

A bitter smirk stung my mouth. “Because I can speak on your behalf, without exposing your vulnerability.”

“I have no idea to what you allude.”

“Without exposing your weakness.” I leaned into the chair. “That’s why you encouraged me to submit to mating in the beginning.” My throat stuck together. “Because you hoped once my own chance of freedom was gone, I could be motivated to sacrifice the others to your cause.”

“If I’d wanted you to simply be mated then—”

“ No, you didn’t want me to simply be mated.” I launched to my feet. “You needed me to be mated but to do what you want, and you knew my cooperation was a precarious thing.” I heaved a breath. “You almost lost it several times.”

The room rang with the dull hum of electronics.

“Because as much as you claim to loathe emotion, you struggle to control your own pride, your own frustration.” I collapsed back to sitting. “Because as a Crestonian Lady of the ruling class, you are accustomed to being obeyed.”

The room buzzed with silence.

A quiet resounding confirmation.

“But you changed your mind. You took nutrition pallets and a new energy cell, instead of…” I exhaled slowly. “Instead of trading the women for Baratican’s to rescue you.”

My ear made that static sound it tended to make, as though Macca went to say things but then didn’t.

“Where are you, Lady Vaccimulgence?” My shoulders pulled tight.

The static crackled. “I have been acquired by a farm in the Nexidinos solar system.”

Oh, Macca. She was on one of those terrible farms.

“And the orb?”

“I was able to link my consciousness to the conduit before I was taken.”

I closed my eyes. For the all the horror of it, there was some relief in knowing the truth. “Is there a way to still make a deal. Baratican’s don’t just trade in women do they?”

“I’m without currency until we return to Crestonia.”

“We can’t just leave you…” I pressed my palms to my eyelids. Okay . Macca may be an unlikable cow. But, people in trauma are not at their best.

Desperate, afraid people are not at their best.

And she’d changed her mind…

She’d sacrificed herself to horrors I couldn’t bring myself to imagine.

“Is it because you started to like me?” I swallowed thickly. “You couldn’t go through with it?”

“Humans, you think everything is one-dimensional. You think everything is about you.”

“Oh, I doubt it’s one dimensional.” I snorted and dropped my hands. Even as I’d asked it, hoped that maybe the voice in my head would be the one person it turned out I could count on, it rang too unlikely.

I’d had too much intimate insight into Macca’s inner-workings to think she’d be so selfless.

Not for a lowly human anyway.

“Okay, so you started to like me, I mean how could you not.” I smirked again. “But you also got to know me and realized you couldn’t get me to sell the other women out.”

“Speculation is a useless endeavor.”

“You started to question if your plan would work. Then I made the bargain with Thor and you saw an opening…” I snapped upright at a memory. Crestonians possess deep affection for their offspring, and passionate loyalty to their maternal family line. “To cut your losses, and at the very least save your progeny.”

Macca retreated back into silence.

“It’s alright. I’m not going to use your kid against you.”

A severing pain cut through my chest. Macca sacrificed herself for her daughter.

Even though it meant she’d live in abject misery…

I slapped my palm over my mouth.

Because that’s what love is.

My lungs caught on fire. Real love surpasses self-preservation—the most compelling of all instincts.

Love surpasses instinct .

Like the irrepressible instinct to mate.

A tear leaked from my eye, and my breath made a shuddering sound.

Macca finally responded. “Don’t fret, human. I accept my choices, and I will not trade your humans.”

But I continued to cry.

Not just for Macca.

For Thor… Thor who’d gotten to know me. Who knew I wanted to leave. To go home. Thor who almost lost me to another Warrior because I’d dangerously escaped.

Thor who cared .

Who cared so much he’d sacrifice his own happiness for what he thought would be mine…

Pain bore down on the knotted mass of wounds I’d been carrying around, and burst them open.

Sweet, kind, lovely, Thor.

He gave up forever so he wouldn’t hurt me.

I let myself have a moment to cry, then pressed my boots deeper to the floor, and pulled myself together.

There was only so much I could achieve at one time, and I had to start here.

I shook my shoulders. “Can’t we get to Crestonia, and then hire Baratican’s from there?”

Surely paying and hiring people wasn’t harder in advanced civilizations than it was on earth? It had to be doable remotely…

“I did not mislead you when I told you it would take a great deal of time to return to Crestonia in an escape vessel. In order to avoid hostile territories, and recharge cells before they completely deplete again, I expect it will take in the vicinity of five of your human months to reach our destination.”

I wiped my face. “Can’t we contact your home and have someone else do it?”

“Again, you don’t understand complexities. The entire house of Maccamilencia was on board when our ship was hijacked. I expect we were betrayed. There will be those who will benefit from our absence. I dare not alert any until Prespherona is safely home. Lest she be intercepted.”

“Holy shit.” Looks like they didn’t have war in Crestonia, but that clearly didn’t mean there wasn’t subterfuge. “Okay, Macca. We’re friends now right?”

“Allies.”

“Well, allies don’t abandon each other.” I smiled. Allies. Close as it got to friendship with Macca. “You can count on me. I’m not going to give up on you because it’s too hard. I’m not going to let you down. If we’re allies, we’re going to help each other.”

The voice in my head felt human for the first time.

“It’s too late for me, Leila.”

I swallowed. “I know what it’s like to feel hopeless, but it’s not too late as long as you’re breathing. So, let’s run through our options.”

At this point making a deal with the Baratican’s was a no go unless we wanted a hundred or so forced marriages.

“I know it must be horrendous, but can you hold out where you are for five months?”

“It is too late.” Macca’s volume increased.

“I’m sure it feels that way but—”

“No, stubborn human. It is too late for me. I am to be reclassified.”

A chill seized me. “What does that mean?”

“I am in a breeding farm, Leila. A breeding farm and I took measures to ensure I could not be bred in the moments before my capture. I have the length of one cycle before they realize and I will be reclassified.”

I grabbed onto my upper arms. “Reclassified how?”

“From breeding stock to produce.”

No. I doubled over. Produce . People meat. My forehead touched the console.

Deep breath in through your nose…

My pulse regained regular rhythm. “So, we have a cycle, how long is that?”

“Thirty-nine human length days.”

“Well that’s more than you’d have if you were human.” I sat up. “If we had a faster ship, like the Baratican’s would use if you’d been able to hire them, how long would it take to get to you?”

“Perhaps four to six days.”

I breathed out and stared at the console. “This thing must have maps. Can you show me on here?”

Lights rose out of the dashboard forming a picture.

A picture of meaningless dots…

“You are here, on the Baratican home planet.” One of the yellow dots turned blue and flashed. “I am here, in the Nexiumnos system.”

The image zoomed, deepening and almost seeming to turn inside out, before another yellow dot flashed blue. Space . You couldn’t so easily flatten it like a map of earth.

“Show me again.” I leaned forward and studied the images. “Slow it down slightly, so I can see the route.”

“It will make no difference but if you insist.”

The map moved again, but this time flooded with dimension.

“Is it possible to have a physical copy of this map to study?”

Something clicked on the console.

I glanced down, and pulled a small disk out of a slot. The image faded from the console. “How does this work?”

“Hold the map flat between two fingers.”

I squeezed the disk between my thumb and index finger. “It’s not doing anything.”

My hand tilted. A three-dimensional image burst to life in front of me. The route to Macca’s location ran on a loop in a three-dimensional projection.

“Well this is handy.” I watched the images again, then changed my grip on the disk, ending the loop, and tucked it away in a compartment on my suit.

I turned back to the console. “Now show me Earth from here.”

“I cannot.”

“Come on Macca, I thought we were allies helping each other?” I frowned. “You can’t expect me to believe that you know so much about Earth but not where to find it?”

“I was able to access plentiful databases on your species. Your biological makeup, physical environmental needs, behaviors, cultural history, genetics, evolutionary patterns. Gillans keep extensive resources on alien stock. It significantly increases sale value to have as much data as possible on new species. However, one thing they do not make readily available, one thing they guard fiercely, is the coordinates of harvestable planets.”

My stomach churned.

“I am sorry, Leila. I do not know the location of your Earth.”

I rocked backward. After only a glimpse at the vastness of space, the impossibility of trying to find an uncharted planet struck.

My breath flowed out slowly. “It’s okay. Let’s focus on one impossible thing at a time. We’ve got thirty-eight days to bust you out.”