"Are any of you injured?" a short, curvy woman with close-cropped reddish hair asked from near the back doors as Melissa and her friends piled into the van.
"I've got a scrape on my elbow," Amanda said. "Other than that, I think we're okay."
"I'm an EMT," the short-haired girl said. "Let me take a look."
Amanda nodded and sat down, lifting her arm so the woman could examine her.
"Not that I'm complaining about you being here, but who are you people?" Melissa asked the blond woman who had leaned out of the van and spoken earlier while the driver sped off.
"My name is Lynn Vanion," the blond woman said. "I'm a reporter, although these days I use the term very loosely... it's difficult for mainstream periodicals to take me seriously. I tend to write more for conspiracy theory-oriented publications these days."
"Conspiracy? What kind of conspiracy?" Brooke asked. "Do you know what the woman with the gun wanted?"
"Her name was Lucinda," Lynn said. "She was sent to silence you three. Your investigation worried her superiors."
"Who are her superiors?" Melissa asked.
"I don't know all of them," Lynn said. "And the ones I do know of... some of them I don't know by name. And if you don't know somebody's name, you can't very well call the cops on them. Especially since the cops are probably who called in Lucinda in the first place, in your particular case... the conspiracy is pretty far-reaching."
"What conspiracy?" Melissa pressed. "What have we gotten ourselves into, exactly?"
"Your missing friends and relatives... they were abducted by the Sex Star," Lynn told her.
"Who's that?" Brooke asked.
"Not who. What," Lynn corrected. "It's a space station. The Commander -- I don't know his real name -- designed it so he can abduct women and force them to have sex with him."
"Sounds like something out of a bad sci-fi movie," Melissa said.
"Hey!" Amanda protested. "There's no such thing as bad sci-fi!"
Lynn directed her comments to Melissa, ignoring Amanda for the moment. "It's all true," she said. "They force the women they take to compete against each other, and the winner is offered a choice whether to stay or leave."
"A choice? Yeah, right. Like someone would actually choose to stay," Melissa said.
"There are numerous powerful aphrodisiacs in use aboard the Sex Star," Lynn said. "Their effects are cumulative... in other words, with enough exposure to them you never stop being horny. The entire purpose of the Sex Star's existence is to make women want to be raped. So yes, women actually choose to stay. Most of them do, in fact."