'Firefly meets Battlestar Galactica'.
A merchant's daughter is captured and sold into slavery.
A genetically modified survivor of an alien attack scours the galaxy for her taken brother before he is 'disassembled'.
An alien scientist u...
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A drop of sweat forged a path down her temple, crawling along her cheek. It hung from her jaw before falling with a light thwack on the thermal suit covering her shoulder. The past few hours ticked by at a mind numbing pace. Cole had nothing to occupy her mind in the metal box of a cell, staring at the pitted walls, the heat overwhelming her suit temperature controls in the first hour. Her mind kept drumming up images of Daisu, wondering if her friend was still alive.
If these mysterious people killed him, it would break her. If she survived this and he didn't, she'd march into the Queen's chamber and give herself up. Not that she could get back to the Veil, since her captors confiscated the Era'na. What were they? Her thoughts circled around the same theory, but the idea upset her scientific sensibilities. It was impossible, but she hadn't been able to hypothesize any other solution since they surrounded her ship.
"Should we make a run for it?" Daisu muttered out of the corner of his mouth, like they could hear him through the hull.
"There is a squadron of merc ships scouring the planet for us, we wouldn't make it to the upper atmosphere."
"We'll take our chances with our mystery visitors then. Think they're hostile?" He reached for the sword strapped to his seat, catching her incredulous glare. "What?"
"We have no idea of their intent or firepower and you want to launch yourself at them with the sword?" Cole folded her arms. "I'm not going out there, it's not like they can breech the Era'na-"
One of them stepped forward, becoming partially visible by the Era'na's interior lights. It wore a mask, a crude construct of stiff leather and glass. The eye sockets were bulbous, the glass distorting the face beneath. The helm was vaguely triangular, but the pointed end hung slack at the mouth, drooping without resistance. The effect was unnerving, reminiscent of monsters from Cole's childhood stories. The figure withdrew a device from its leather cloak, raising it toward the ship.
"Is that a rock?" Daisu asked as a pulse of white light blinded them. Cole blinked, her vision filled with blank spots. The sound of the Era'na's engines abruptly ceased as the ship lost power. "They shut down the ship? They shut down the ship!" Daisu jumped up, naked sword in hand.
"What are you doing? Put that down." Cole hissed, still half blind. They froze as the Era'na's door slid open, revealing another leather clad figure, or the same one, her vision was too spotty to tell. Daisu cried in outrage before another flash of white sent her eyes rolling up in her head.
She woke in her cell, alone, but unrestrained. Whatever species her captors were, they did not view the fey woman threatening enough for chains. She'd show the bastards. The door was dead locked, bolted from the outside. It was low tech but effective. Cole was left no choice but waiting for them to come for her. She refused to meet them unarmed. She scanned every inch of the wall for some sort of monitoring device, but her prison was simply a large metal box. She ripped the control port from her useless thermal suit.
