A Dangerous One

A poking and prodding feeling woke me up.

At first, I was disoriented and confused. The room I was in was unfamiliar. My room back at home was hewn straight from the trunk, with a floor, ceiling, and walls made of the deep brown wood. The walls and the ceiling of this room was a silvery chrome, and the ground was tile.

When I remembered what had happened to me, I sat up straight and hissed. The memories of running, screaming, silver slaver ships, and fire raced through my mind.

I paused for a moment, and hit replay on that particular memory of fire. What had happened back there? Why had I burst into flame, and why was I not burned? Questions filled my mind.

I was brought back to reality by a sharp prod in my side. Turning quickly, while simultaneously jerking myself away, I bared my teeth at the intruder. The chain that had been clamped around my ankles kept me from going very far. I reached for the dagger strapped to my thigh on instinct, and scowled when I only felt bare skin.

A small woman cowered at my fierce glare and threw me a scared look. I softened when I saw her frightened face, but kept my position in defensive.v

The diminutive woman as short, four feet at most. Her dark, nut-brown skin was smooth, and her black glossy eyes watched me. White hair fell to her shoulders in a straight line. Her hair was startlingly bright against her skin.

In her hands, she clutched a bag. Shakily, she said something in a strange language. I gave her a confused look, and she briefly smiled before switching to my native language. "What is your name?"

"Aidan," I answered hesitantly. "Where am I?"

"Auction Site 43," she said. "I need to prepare you for sale. Please, do not resist my efforts, or we both will be punished."

I decided I would let her prepare me, while I tried to get more information from her. There was no way I was going to be sold to the highest bidder like an animal. I needed to formulate an escape plan, and for that I needed to know the layout of the building I was in.

The woman hesitantly approached me. She opened the bag she had clutched in her grip. She pulled out various tools that I did not recognize. One of them was a palate of color made of crushed powder. She pulled out a small brush with short, fine bristles and dipped it into the powder.

Then, she applied the powder to my eyelids. She went back and forth from the crushed powder to my eyelids. I stopped paying attention to her efforts. "So, where exactly is Auction Site 43?" I asked innocently.

"Deep space."

Well, that threw wrench in my escape plan. To get out of deep space, I would need a ship. I have never driven one before, and I don't even have a basic understanding of how to drive one.

Maybe, a Watcher would learn about the auction and come to bust it. Auctioning slaves is illegal in most galaxies, right? It is in my home galaxy, Andromeda, but I have no idea if I'm still in the same galaxy. 
 All I have now is my hope that a Watcher will come and save me.

Watchers are the various beings who police the galaxy. Regular watchers just keep other aliens from trafficking drugs and people, and to hunt down bandits. Ultima Watchers watch over the whole universe, and keep track of the regular Watchers. Ultima Watchers were extremely powerful.

The woman put away the crushed powder and brushes she had been using. She gave me a cursory look and nodded, satisfied. "You need nothing more. Your lips are already a red color, your eyelashes are long, and your skin is smooth and even. I would say you were lucky, but the more beautiful the woman, the harsher her life will be, and you are the most beautiful I have ever seen."

I flinched at her words. Never had I looked in the mirror and considered myself a great beauty, although my clan-mates had insisted I was one. To be beautiful seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. On my home planet, I made you more likely to be noticed and wanted by the men. At an auction site, it seemed I would have a worse life with whomever bought me.

"What about clothing?" I asked as I stood up. I had just noticed my lack of covering. My full, perky breasts stood out proudly from my chest. A slim waist tapered down from there, a smooth, flat stomach following. My hips flared out slightly to gently rounded buttocks, and then on to smooth, slim thighs and calves.

"I am not supposed to dress you."

My forehead crinkled in confusion. "Am I supposed to be viewed naked?"

"Yes," she stated calmly.

I growled low in my throat. I am not keen on being seen naked by total strangers, but I can see no other options. My body was shaking from barely restrained anger. First, I was kidnapped from my home. Then, I learn about how life is harsh for the prettier slaves. Now, I will be forced to stalk around naked in front of slavering aliens? I don't think so.

Growling, I jerked the chain around my right angle. It squeaked in protest. Gritting my teeth against the slight pain of the metal pulling my skin, I yanked again. The chain broke with a loud clatter.

A startled gasp drew my attention back to the woman. She had a hand over her mouth, and her eyes were wide with fright. "You must stop, or you will be punished!" She yelled.

That was when I noticed a low hum in the air. A piece of the steel wall slid away to reveal a room beyond. In the room were several armed Retiloids, reptilian aliens with scaly bodies and crocodile-like heads.

I gave the other chain around my left angle a mighty jerk. It broke free and I leaped away from the woman who reached for me.

The Reptiloids filed into the room, eyes on my swaying breasts. One of them made a remark in a guttural language and the others began to grunt with their rough laughter. I hissed at the noise grating in my ears.

They began to come toward me, and I backed away with a growl of warning. Laughing at my show of aggression, they kept coming. "If you cooperate, we will have no need to hurt you," said the largest one.

"We can leave no marks on her, Thagtor, it was forbidden. She will bring a huge price and cannot be marred," said a smaller one.

I paid no attention to the fact that I could now understand their harsh language and focused on escaping through the hall I could see beyond the newly revealed room. Backing up a few more steps, I ran forward and leapt over the Reptiloids in one monstrous leap. Landing hard, I sprinted across the room and into the hallway. I could hear the echoing cries of frustration and anger from the Reptiloids behind me.

I didn't even think about the fact that I had no way to escape the station. I just was desperate to escape.

My feet made hard slaps against the hard floor as I pushed myself to higher speeds. The hall ended abruptly at a large, cavern like room. I ran into it without a second thought.

I realized my folly the moment my eyes could see what I had run into.

The room I had run into was filled with cages anchored to the ground. In the cages, various creatures huddled around each other. Some cages had beings of the same species in them, and others had only one alien in them. I saw only four other Adliat, and they were all in separate cages.

Aliens walked around the cages and looked into them curiously. Some haggled with the men watching the cages over a price for a slave inside.

The commotion coming from the hallway made by the Reptiloids screaming and yelling drew the attention of the aliens buying or observing slaves to the hallway where I was standing, stark naked. I blushed scarlet as several aliens made appreciative noises.

"Aidan! Run now!" came a scream from above.

I looked up and saw a clan-mate, the silvery-blue haired Adliat woman I had saved from the Adliat male. I couldn't just leaver her hear to a terrible fate among the slavers.

Gathering my leg muscles, I jumped into the air, over the heads of the watching aliens, and landed on the roof of her cage. I grabbed two of the cage bars with each of my hands and wrenched them apart into a hole big enough for her to escape through. She gaped at me for a moment as my newfound strength bent the metal, then crawled out.

By this point, the surprise of the alien buyers around us had worn off, and they began to yell and head towards us. "Capture the slaves!" screamed one, a particularly ugly one with spikes all over his body.

I hissed at the oncoming crowd and leapt to another Adliat's cage. I repeated the process of breaking her out, and the other Adliat female broke out managed to bend the bars with the caged one's help.

Just as I was standing up, a huge explosion rocked the station. Sirens began to wail as the air filled with screams. It took me a second to understand what they were saying.

"Ultima Watcher are here!"