Chapter 1: Captive

"Get a move on over there!" The slave driver's voice was strident and more than irritable. Ria jumped with fright, shuffled forward a little faster, and rolled her eyes, absent-mindedly scratching the base of her skull where her original captors had implanted two language processing chips.

She had only understood what they were after the pasty-faced, three-eyed creatures had inserted them, and the tiny gadgets had begun to do their work in her brainwaves. Before then she had been convinced they were going to kill her and suck out her grey matter for some bizarre lab test.

She tried to fall in step with the rest of the captives, none of whom looked human, and wondered where the rest of her crew were. Hopefully, someone had the craftiness to escape and find a way back to Earth, or perhaps one of the alert beacons they had tossed out before the aliens had landed and impounded their ship would do its work.

Of course, the question whether any kind of signal could get out of a random wormhole, like the one their ship had been unexpectedly sucked into, had not yet been answered.

NASA had not been able to do trials to that effect as yet. This would be the acid test. All she could do now was try to stay alive until help came, and, in the circumstances, that meant offering as little resistance as possible.

The slave drivers led the lumbering line of chained captives into a large hall that looked a bit like one of those convention centres on Earth where trade expos were held, only more impressive. The huge domed roof towered over level upon level of floating stalls showcasing all kinds of wares, from tech to food to clothing, to a dizzying array of bottled substances Ria could only guess at the use of.

Customers floated around on smaller platforms, drifting from stall to stall as the exhibitors loudly advertised their wares and gave demonstrations to all who would stop to watch.

There were a few other stalls devoid of produce or gadgets, like the one they were being bundled onto now. These were double the size and held captive slaves, standing in miserable rows, chained to the railings of their stalls. The slave trade seemed to be alive and well in this galaxy, Ria thought bitterly. She didn't mind being treated as an alien… but as a slave? That was taking it too far.

She grit her teeth, leaning heavily on her covert ops training to subdue the violent urge to fight her way to freedom. Freedom could very easily mean death, as had been proven by a handful of less self-controlled individuals at the beginning of their journey from the ship impound yard.

Ria scanned the other stalls full of prisoners to see if she could spot someone from her crew. For a moment she thought she saw a NASA uniform, the good old Star-Spangled Banner adorning the sleeve. Without thinking she waved and shouted, "Hey! NASA! I'm at your three... Aarrgghh!"

She remembered too late that lifting her hand with the chain attached to it was a bad idea. Pain coursed through the right side of her body as the shock device in the shackle was set off. These bonds were designed to inhibit any kind of quick or violent movement and they were insanely effective.

The slave driver moved swiftly across to her and, as if the electric shock wasn't enough, gave her a clout with his prodder. "Shut up, Prisoner B5279!" he yelled into her face, reminding her of the drill sergeant from her basic combat training.

She grit her teeth again, winning the inner battle that would prevent her fighting an external one - one that she would be sure to lose. When her ears had stopped ringing and her sight was no longer blurry, she searched again for the NASA uniform, but it was gone. If it had ever been there.

Frustration mounted in her mind, threatening to drive her off the edge. Desperately, she countered it by whispering her own personal mantra under her breath. "Stay alive, Ria. Freedom is choosing how you respond. Stay alive, Ria. Freedom is choosing..."

"Ah! Driver! Thank you for being on time for a change!" A new voice reached Ria's conscious and she turned to see where it had come from. Another three-eyed, pasty-faced being beamed down on her and her shackled compatriots from a raised platform that their floating stall had just docked into.

His chin folded into multiple rolls, leaving him without any kind of recognisable neck. His shoulders drooped and extended into flabby arms that rested languidly on his ample paunch, which he drummed with the extremities of one ring-bedecked, four-fingered hand.

"Quite a collection you have here," their apparent new owner continued. His eyes roved over the captive aliens, taking in every detail with a keenness that Ria could see was expertly practised in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of physical beings, whatever galaxy they happened to hail from.

He stopped when he reached Ria in the middle of the line. She looked down, trying to avoid eye contact, partly because she could never figure out which eye to look into, and partly because she didn't want to appear defiant, or pleading, for that matter.

"Hmmm... This is an interesting one, Driver," the owner said, in a tone of voice Ria struggled to identify. "Where is this one from?" He lumbered down from the platform and came to stand right in front of her. Inspecting her, he lifted her chin with one pudgy finger and began examining her face, neck, lifting her arms, rubbing her auburn locks between his fingers.

It was all she could do to fight down the urge to slap this self-satisfied alien, but she knew the truth was that she was actually the alien here, and her very survival depended on her self-control.

"I got it quite cheap at the space debris recycle centre," the slave driver replied proudly. "It came complete with the basic language chips, so it will understand enough to fetch a good price..."

"No, no, no, Driver!" the fat alien interrupted the slave driver, a smug look in his three eyes, "This one is going to go as a gift for the Dragon King! It just needs a few updates before I can take it there. Some anti-viral and digestive programs, and a change of dress and you have quite the exotic specimen! Good work, Driver, good work!"

The slave driver grunted, separating Ria from the other prisoners and shackling her to himself while the owner perused the remainder of the slave driver's purchases for the day. Two more aliens were singled out, who Ria thought looked far more exotic that she did, but she wasn't as worried about that.

What concerned her way more was the idea that winding up in a king's palace might just be the end of her hopes for escape. Security would be off the charts, she would probably never be left alone; her spirits sank at the thought of being stuck here forever.

It was a thought that consumed her mind so completely that she hardly had room to wonder what function she would be expected to fulfil when she was presented as 'the king's gift'. But even if she had wondered about that, she would have had her question quickly answered.

As Ria entered the royal palace, still a little dizzy, and slightly nauseous, from the newly implanted chip upgrades in her brain, it was clear she and the other four candidates their owner had selected, were to be presented as addenda to the king's harem.

With more skin showing than she was comfortable with, and her alien owner fussing over her clothing and their posture, she felt like she had been transported back to Babylonian times. A vague memory surfaced of her devoutly religious mother reading to her about King Xerxes and some girl called Esther who was forced into his harem. It felt like she was in a dream, living that story, only, she couldn't remember how it had ended.

Their little group was ushered closer to the far end of a great cathedral-like building, where a huddle of large, humanoid aliens in ornate, Byzantine looking dress were apparently discussing some or other important business.

A lizard-like being, with vaguely humanoid features and wearing a strange five-cornered hat cleared his throat, and said in a bored voice, "Your Majesty, the Collector Hargoid has brought some specimens for your selection."

The biggest of the aliens in the group stood up from the great throne he sat in, which seemed to be composed of a writhing mass of miniature dragons fashioned from some black metallic substance that shimmered with a blue undertone.

The sight of the throne, however, as imposing as it was, did not grip Ria as much as the look of the being who had occupied it. She had heard of dragon shapeshifters, and now she was possibly the first Earthling to see one face to face.

He was in humanoid shape, and yet the golden-brown scales on his face and his deep amber eyes, which seemed to be looking right through her, testified to his true form. Ria's gaze moved upward to the top of his head where the scales gave way to rows of small horns of the same golden-brown colour that seemed to flash pure gold when the light caught them at a certain angle.

"Can you not see that I AM BUSY?!" the Dragon King roared, literally, the scales along the back of his neck and head arching up and growing longer as they glowed red.

Everyone in the room felt the power pulsating from him like a living thing with a will of its own, and Ria half expected him to morph into his original dragon shape and consume them all in a breath of fire.

Collector Hargoid didn't seem phased at all, though. He propelled his blubbery physique towards the king with surprising speed, and not the faintest glimmer of fear showing.

"Ah, but your Majesty can only profit by taking a short rest break and feasting your Majesty's eyes on these beautiful, exotic specimens I have brought," he raised his hand as the king took a breath to speak again, and cut him short, "As a gift, Highness, a gift. And not one I have chosen, but a collection for you to choose from, Highness." He bowed low to the ground, exposing the back of his head as he paid obeisance with his body language, if not his words.

The king seemed to be familiar with the Collector's tenaciously persistent manner and decided that humouring him would be more expedient in getting rid of him than anything else.

"Quickly then," the monarch said, waving one hand agitatedly.

Collector Hargoid wasted no time. He had his foot in the door and he was not about to let the chance go by unappropriated.

"This one is from the far regions of your kingdom, the Grolian solar system. See its amazing multicoloured scales, and it sings beautifully!" He cuffed the dragonesque creature at the far end of the line-up.

In response, she flung back her head and let out a series of screeching howls that felt like they were sawing right through Ria's bones. She dared not cover her ears, though. Who knew how such a move would be interpreted in this culture?

Collector Hargoid, eyes closed, rocking back and forth, looked like he was listening to the finest strains of Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet in C Major. When she was done, he passed on to the next one, slapping her on the back with his fat fingers. "This one is as strong as a Vargillon! It will happily take anything the king wishes to throw at it," the Collector grinned and winked suggestively.

Ria had no idea what a Vargillon was, but the manner of her current owner had just confirmed her suspicions. Whoever won this weird beauty contest was going to join the king's harem. She shuddered. She would have rather died fighting the aliens who had impounded her ship.

"This one is from the far-off solar system of..." Collector Hargoid continued, only to be interrupted by the king.

"I'll take the one on the end. Now, off with you! I have urgent business to attend to!"

"Excellent choice, Majesty!" Hargoid fawned, moving toward the singing dragon creature. He had wanted to protest and continue his eloquent introduction of each candidate's virtues, but he knew instinctively that he had come a little too close to overstaying his welcome.

"Not that end. The other end." The Dragon King's voice was flat and disinterested. Ria wondered if he had even seen what she was, or if he just wanted to spare himself the dragon lady's vocal talents.

"Ah, yes!" Hargoid was instantaneously at Ria's side, "This one is soft and smooth, an equally excellent choice," he said, squeezing the length of Ria's bare arm and stroking her hair.

She felt like she was going to be sick, and she wasn't sure what nauseated her the most: being referred to as 'it' and advertised like ripe fruit at a farmers' market, or the idea of being the concubine of an alien dragon shapeshifter, royalty or otherwise, it made no difference.

The Dragon King had already turned his attention back to his urgent meeting and ignored the Collector's last statement.

"Now then, you lucky alien, you!" Hargoid congratulated Ria as he steered her towards the lizard-like creature who had called the king's attention to the gifts Hargoid had brought. "You just do whatever he says and you'll be the happiest alien in the Dragon King's realm."

How honoured am I? Ria thought sarcastically. All that consumed her mind was how her chances of escape had just plummeted below zero. It was going to take some serious creativity to find a way out of this one, but right now, she was drawing a blank on ideas. She would just have to lie low and look for the chinks in the Dragonesque armour.

"This way, concubine," the lizard-man said, his face expressionless. Clearly, he had done this many times before, as the boredom in his voice testified. He turned away with a flick of his green-brown tail and Ria followed him dutifully. Time, she thought, I just need time. And while I'm here, I'll check out the tech. Might be something we can use when I get back.

Still following the lizard butler, and lost in thought, she almost bumped into him when he stopped abruptly.

"You will stay here until someone fetches you," he said, and then turned and left her standing at the entrance of a Utopia filled with fragrant tropical-looking plants, and cascading waterfalls falling into steaming, flower-filled pools, while strange looking insects - something like butterflies crossed with dragonflies - flitted between the pools and the flora.

Ria noticed a variety of humanoid creatures there, too, splashing in the pools, picking and eating fruit from the trees, and playing strange musical instruments that looked a bit like harps.

For a moment, she simply stood still, taking it all in. "Well, Mom, I sure hope this isn't the Heaven you told me about, 'cause it feels a bit more like hell, to me," she said softly, suddenly missing home.

"What's that, miss?" a deep voice growled next to her.

Ria jumped for the second time that day and saw that the voice had come from a burly looking, bear-like creature with no weapons, but claws like the ones the guy had in the Wolverine movie. There were two of them guarding the room, one on each side of the doorway, which seemed to have no door, but Ria had watched enough Sci-Fi movies to know not to assume that everything in alien worlds was as plain as the nose on your face.

"Uh, nothing, I was just..." she pointed towards a group of creatures at a nearby pool, "going there." Ria moved over to them, the words of her superior officer echoing in her head.

"Expect the unexpected," Major Thomson had said before their mission had left for Mars. They were meant to be the pioneering core group, going to establish the first colony on Mars.

Thanks to plastic fibres choking up everything from drinking water, to salt, to farming soil - in fact, right down to the very air they breathed - the Earth was becoming an increasingly toxic place.

She wondered if he had ever imagined anyone would encounter the 'unexpected' that was now staring her in the face. Thriving alien life. And not merely life, but, communities, cultures, races, kingdoms.

NASA would probably decorate her with every laurel in America if she could get out of here and tell them about all that she had stumbled upon. She made up her mind to document as much as she could of everything she came across in this strange galaxy, especially the tech. It would be worth her weight in platinum once she got back. And with the time-space-continuum factor, that would probably be just in time to retire, rather comfortably.

She reached the four creatures at the pool. "Hi!" she said, smiling, "I'm Ria. What is this place?"

They all stared at her blankly, inspecting her from head to toes and not one of them breaking the silence. She was just wondering what to say next in a second attempt to thaw the icy atmosphere when another voice reached her ears from the entrance.

"B5279!"

She wondered why those numbers sounded so familiar, and then a sharp jolt from the tracker band on her ankle reminded her that it was her prisoner number.

"B5279! Please respond!"

"Yes! Yes! I'm coming!" she called out, thinking, My name is Ria Gallagher, lieutenant astronaut of Mars Mission Alpha Zero. She dared not say it out loud. Feigned amnesia and anonymity were key until she found out whether these aliens were aware of her specific planet's existence and what their disposition towards it was.

The alien who had summoned her was a creature similar in ethnicity to the lizard-man butler but seemed to be female, although she was larger, and her voice was very deep, so Ria couldn't be sure. She also had scales more closely resembling the king's than those of the lizard man.

"You will come with me."

Better get used to obeying commands from strangers, Ria thought, sighing inwardly, and followed the lizard lady to a room leading off of the giant terrarium she had just found herself in. Inside were two more similar looking lizard ladies who, without any warning, took hold of her and proceeded to strip her, ripping her astronaut suit from her body unceremoniously.

She wanted to cry out, but she bit her lip. Stay alive, Ria. Freedom is choosing how you respond. The lizard ladies lifted her bodily into a steaming tub, which was similar to the pools she had just seen, smelling of spices, but more intoxicating than anything she had experienced on Earth.

They began scrubbing her all over with soft bristled brushes that made her skin tingle as if they had rubbed it full of cayenne pepper. Despite her best efforts to retain objectivity and acuity of mind, she felt herself relaxing as the spices and the hot liquid in the tub did their work.

Even when they unexpectedly dunked her head underwater after vigorously rubbing a sweet-scented, oily, waxy substance into her hair, she hardly responded, merely holding in what little breath there still was in her lungs. In some strange way, she was beginning to grow accustomed to the rough manner of this dragon-lizard-shapeshifter race.

They didn't seem to know their own strength, and being covered with scales, one could hardly expect them to understand what it felt like to be "smooth and soft," as Hargoid had put it.

She allowed herself to be lifted out of the tub, roughly dried off and draped in cascading, heavily embroidered material, shaped into something like a long, closed poncho.

"Wait in the garden," the first lizard-lady said brusquely. "The butler will fetch you when the king is ready for you."