Empty Toward The Moon

Chapter Four

I also looked away from them and took inventory of my person. There were bruises and scrapes along my arms and knees, a gash that was healing on my forehead. It would leave a scar if I didn't get it treated. I had no shoes on my feet, no underwear under the grey pants and smock that did not fit me at all well. Oh my goddess, I really hope no one has taken vidpics. Mortification creeped up on me unawares. Then anger and disgust.

Oh, I hate this. Stupid plumbing apes chicken brains. Soiled composting digit stickers. Oh my goddess, my nails! I swore and cursed internally, lamenting my thousand credit manicure I'd had done just last week. I carefully broke away the extra pieces of nail that had been damaged so they were at least even, then finger combed my hair, trying to remove the tangles. I bet I look a hot mess.

When blue eyes Mocha-skin snorted next to me in contempt, I froze, slowly looked over at the siblings and stared at the boy in the eyes, then continued to comb my hair until he looked away.

Yeah, that's right, Buster. How I chose to spend my incarceration time is up to me and I don't care what anyone else thinks, I need clean and tidy as if my life depends on it.

I ignored the pair and I continued to quietly groom myself, then sat in quiet solutude.

Hours blurred in boredom and wariness. Food and water was delivered in bags with ringed slaves handing out to everyone in the holding cell. A fight broke out in the opposite corner and the guard outside the door arrived and shot a few prisoners and dragged their bodies out. The girl next to me whimpered as her brother whispered words of comfort to calm her down. She fell asleep soon after, held safe in her brother's arms. Her meal and water bag left uneaten.

When an alien appendage slipped nearby to steal her meal, I stomped on it and kicked it away back towards the mottled grey alien nearby, daring them to try it again. I sat in front of the brother sister pair, guarding them for another two hours until the girl woke up. The brother encouraged her to eat and drink. Once the provisions were finished with, they were no longer the centre of interest, so I went back to sitting against the wall next to them.

"Thank you," a whisper sounded and I nodded his gratitude without looking at him.

I slept and woke again for the next meal. This time no one fought over the food and water bottles, and the girl and boy next to me ate theirs straight away. I had wondered if the meal was drugged, but I was already kidnapped and couldn't think of a worse situation than I was already in, so I ate and drank without a care or concern.

By this time, I was completely resolved to being kidnapped without a chance of rescue. My BrainComp was well and truly fried and in no way forming a connection to the outside world. It wouldn't even get past trying to load the operating system once I had turned it back on. It was all firmware without software and completely useless. My head still hurt, my stomach settled once I had food and water and my grazes scabbed over once I wiped them all clean with a rag ripped from the bottom of my pants.

I was going no where fast.

Then he arrived and everything changed. Power seemed to pour off him in waves. The hostility evident by the way he looked at the smugglers in charge of the live cargoes. Tsundere was a really good word to describe how he felt to me. He had light brown hair, sea green eyes that penetrated to the soul, and Oh my giddy aunt! Dimples, and that chin...

Then I remembered where I was and it was like ice cold water was dumped over my head. I tucked my head into my knees and hid myself away, but not before I watched him look all around the whole room, pause on my face, then give a solid search for something more.

Hiding away, I heard him select a teen aged girl with long brown hair and had her dragged out of the room. The door closed and I thought that was it. Then the whole room shook with the arrival and docking of another large ship and all of the collared slaved stood up and lined up by the door, all without a word of coordination. It was scary as hell!

Scared and unnerved, I turned to the brother and sister, Mocha and Latte as I'd dubbed them in my mind. I raised an eyebrow in question.

"The customer has arrived and will be loading his cargoes shortly." Mocha answered my non-verbal query.

"OK, thank you." I gave a quiet reply.

"They will group pod us for cryostasis. Sleep, wake, unload and reload again in the next sector." He filled in a few blanks for me, his voice low and smooth.

"Oh, that can't be healthy." I mumbled a sarcastic reply and the girl next to him snorted then hid her face behind her brother.

"My name is Cia. Nice to meet you both." I nodded my head in way of greeting.

"Nice to meet you. We have no formal names." Mocha replied.

"That's OK. I've been calling you Mocha and Latte in my head for a few hours now." The girl quietly snorted again, then popped her head out and gave me a rare smile, gratitude all over her face. She looked up at her bigger brother. He was smiling down at her as they shared a moment, then turned to me and gave a small bow.

"Thank you for your kindness. We will cherish our names." By this time the slaves and stolen peoples were all lined up. The holding cell door opened, but instead of all the goods walking out, the guard held up his hand and stopped them from moving. He stepped back and made himself smaller in respectful and somewhat fearful difference to the handsome boss man who had appeared before.

Seeing the god-handsome man so soon after the last freaking moment, I scrunched up my face in concern. I didn't know what the hell was going on with my body and its physical reactions to seeing this man.

"Come!" echoed through out the room.