My hands were chained to a rusty metal wall, I hadn't seen anything but the small cramped hold I was in for the last three days. The crew of the ship I was on didn't pay me much mind, I was just a prisoner, nothing but property to be traded at the next space station. Any food they gave me was thrown down into the hold, usually right at my head. It could only generously be described as food, it was more Inch-Wyrm than anything else, I had to force myself to eat it. I hadn't been given water yet, I hoped I would soon, or I would surely die of thirst. I began to envy my crew-mates, at least they got quick deaths.
Yeah, this hadn't been the best week for me.
My ship had been attacked by pirates, who had quickly defeated my crew-mates and vaporized each of them one by one, all the while making me watch. I didn't know why they spared me, I was just a low-ranking engineer, barely 20 years of age and just starting my career. There were plenty of high-ranking people on the ship who would surely have been more valuable to keep as prisoners (both for their statuses, and their higher levels of skill), so the decision to take *me* was hard to understand. I guessed it was just lady luck playing a cruel trick on me, she always seemed to.
I wallowed in my pity, as I had been consistently doing during my stay, when suddenly, I heard the bellowing of one of my captives above me.
"SPACE-STATION 9! SPACE-STATION 9! WE'RE HERE!"
I looked down at the floor, tense and ashamed. I would likely be auctioned and sold here, a humiliating process that I never thought I would have to go through. I couldn't believe how far I had fallen in just a few days.
Suddenly, the door to the hold opened up, and in came two of my captors. They were from a race known as the Roxans, a generally peaceful race, but one which had criminals like any other. They stood tall over Humans, with grey skin and bright yellow eyes. They were far stronger than us, which meant that we were hopelessly outclassed in any fight with them, their bulging muscles were enough to tear our bodies in two with just the slightest gesture. It was no wonder my crew had lost to them.
The two Roxans darted straight towards me, I squirmed in fear as they began taking my chains off the wall, grasping them with their massive hands.
"We don't want any trouble, Human!" One of them said. "No resistance, or we beat you up again!"
I could still feel the injuries all over my body from when I had tried to escape on my first day of captivity... I did *not* want to get on their bad sides again. They pulled me to my feet and began dragging me along. I stumbled a bit, it was hard to walk again so long, especially with two knuckleheads controlling my movement.
I was taken out of the hold, and suddenly I was hit with the light from the space-station shining in through the ship windows, the first light I had seen in days... and it was ugly as all hell. Ads for various different products were flashing all over the place, each with the most garish disgusting collection of colors you can think of. I covered my eyes, my eyes were hurting from seeing the light after so long in the dark... but I like to think revulsion played a part in it too.
Suddenly, I collapsed, and was met with jeering from all around me. I was pulled back up, only for one of the Roxans to punch me back down again.
"STUPID PATHETIC HUMAN!" It shouted, I looked up at it with utter fear.
"Enough of that." I heard the voice of the captain call out.
Stepping down from the mast of the ship, the Captain walked towards me and the Roxans. She was a tall woman with green skin and pointed ears. I wasn't sure what species she was, the sector of Space I grew up in was relatively limited when it came to alien life. She had maintained a calm demeanor whenever I saw her - and that included when she held me firm, forcing me to watch my crew die.
"He is valuable to us." She stated, "You will *not* risk damaging him."
The Roxans stood to attention, humbleness on their faces.
"Y-yes, Captain." One of them said.
The Captain pulled me to my feet once again, staring at me coldly as she gripped hold of one of my chains.
"You're going to make me a lot of money, Human." She stated. "How does that make you feel after all I've done to you?"
I wanted to tell her to go fuck herself, but the fear stopped me. Instead, I just lowered my head again.
"How does it feel?" She repeated calmly, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look her in the eye.
A tear escaped as I trembled.
"It... it feels good." I lied, dying inside.
"I'm glad to know." She said, before letting go of me.
The rest of the crew began laughing at me, as I was dragged off the ship. I felt so ashamed of myself, but it was clear that my spirit was thoroughly broken.
As I was led through the space station, creatures of all shapes and sizes passed me by. I had longed to see more alien life for so long, and now I was surrounded by it. Unfortunately, I was either ignored by them or given mocking looks. As a prisoner and soon-to-be-slave, I had the lowest possible status on that station, less than vermin in their eyes. The Captain led the way with a confident strut that was the very antithesis to my nervous stumbling.
Soon, I was being forced into a small cage, a force field appearing around me. I was part of a larger line-up, with various other slaves from around the sector being put into similar cages nearby. The Roxans grinned sadistically, as various different aliens began examining me and the others. A tall muscular woman with skin that looked like it was made out of rock complained to the Roxans, saying I had barely any muscle at all.
"Sorry about that." Said the Captain, "He was an engineer on his old ship... physical strength doesn't generally come with that profession."
The lady scoffed and quickly moved off. One of the Roxans approached the Captain, confused.
"Why are we selling *this* one as a slave, anyway?!" It asked, "Others would have been *far* more suitable..."
"Let *me* worry about that." Said the Captain.
The Roxan obediently nodded its head, stepping back.
I stood in my cage, the anticipation was killing me. This was going to be me for the rest of my life, a slave to be bought and sold at my master's whim. I wished I could have just died then and there.
A tall, authoritative looking woman in an all-black Uniform walked towards me, eyeing me curiously. She looked like she was the same species as the Captain, but all-red instead of green. She turned to the Captain, a grin on her face.
"Hello, my name is Commander Garzell, of the Starship Zen."
"A long name." Said the Captain, her usual icy demeanor unchanged.
"Quite." Said Garzell, a small smile on her face. "Can you tell me more about this slave?"
"He's a Human, one who served as a mechanic on a star ship before I attacked it and slaughtered his entire crew."
"Hm... I could use a mechanic." Said Garzell.
"It'll cost 500 SCs." Said the Captain.
So that was how much I was worth... the amount of money it would have taken to buy an *automatic barber*! I pouted as they negotiated, Garzell managed to haggle the price down to 380 SCs! I was a real bargain. The cage evaporated before me, as Garzell took hold of my chains.
"We can help you with him if you like." Said the Captain.
"Oh don't worry" said Garzell, "I can handle him."
She was quickly proven right, as she effortlessly managed to pull me away from my cage and towards her. She began walking away as I followed along behind subserviently. The two Roxans laughed at me.
"See you around, slave!" one of them laughed.
The Captain gave me a sarcastic salute, a vague hint of a smile now on her face. I was still traumatized by what she had done, and while I was cowed and beaten at that moment, a part of me deep inside vowed vengeance against her... one day... when the time was right.
That time of course, was definitely not now. I was being dragged along by Garzell, struggling to keep up with her pace. She looked back in amusement at my troubles.
"Too fast for you, slave?" She asked, chuckling.
"Just... just a bit." I admitted, fumbling about like a fool.
The Commander slowed her pace, allowing me to keep up better.
"There we go." She said, "Don't want my newest slave to have *too* much trouble this early on.
"Thank you, Commander." I said.
She frowned back at me, her voice adopting a threatening tone.
"I won't punish you this time since you're new to this, but it'll be good for you to know for the future that it's the general custom for a slave to call their owner by their proper title!"
I grimaced. "Y-yes, M-Mistress." I said, forcing the words out.
"That's a good slave." She said.
We began nearing the ship where I would be spending my foreseeable future, the Starship Zen.
"A very pretty ship... isn't it, Slave?" asked Garzell.
"Yes, Mistress." I said, holding back the temptation to tell her that it was the shittiest ship I had seen in my life.
It was a real rust bucket. An old war ship that had been reconfigured and modified many, many times over what must have been decades. The design had originally been sleek, but after all the progress the ships had gone through, it looked outright clunky, exacerbated by the modifications. Thrusters were scattered about all over the exterior with little thought, laser cannons had been placed in areas they should never be placed. Various parts of the hull had clearly been destroyed and replaced by pieces of scrap metal. I hesitated to go aboard lest it exploded the second it took off. Of course, I had no choice in the matter or I would have ran far away. The ship was positively tiny next to the ship I had previously served on, I wondered how big the crew could possibly have been.
"We have a small crew." Said my 'Mistress' as if she could read my mind. "You're going to be spending a lot of time with them all, so I hope you get along."
"A-are they all slaves too?" I asked.
"We have only one other slave aboard." She said, "Most of my crew are here willingly."
I found it hard to believe somehow, but I wasn't going to say that. The Commander took me aboard the ship at the main entrance, where we were met by a woman who I could identify as a member of the Thalde, a race of beings who reminded me a lot of what Earthlings knew as Reptiles.
With scaled skin and long forked tongues, the species had always intimidated me a little. This particular member was harder to be afraid of though, she was wearing a pair of ill-fitting glasses and looked incredibly flustered, combined with her relatively short stature and small button nose, she looked kind of adorable. She smiled warmly at Commander Garzell, briefly glancing at me, a look of guilt flashing on her face.
"C-commander Garzell... it's good to see you again..." She said.
"It's good to see you too, Boria." Said the Commander.
"I see you picked up that new slave." Said Boria, hesitating a bit.
