Chapter 3: Cellmate from Hell
Samantha
I was led out of the court in handcuffs by one of the AI staff. No amount of pleading would do any good, not that I hadn't tried. The trial had zipped along so fast that I still couldn't believe what happened.
Xerlon.
The prison planet had a reputation for humanoid species going in and never coming back. I couldn't go there.
"Please," I begged the guards taking me. "I'll sell one of my kidneys, my spleen - " I could live without that, right? " - and half of my liver in order not to go there."
"We have orders," was the robotic response as I was taken to the prison hanger. Dozens of criminals were handcuffed like me waiting in lines for various ships to haul them to their destination.
One with carvings across his face and an eye missing gave me a puckered kiss while his fur tail fluffed up revealing the spikes on the end.
"No, I'm innocent. Please." My body shook as I dug my heels in, but they forced me forward. Sh*t! If it wasn't for me, that unruly Nebobite teen, Izon, would've hit that poor kid. "Damn, Izon and his rich family! Little snot deserves to be in prison, not me."
And the trial hadn't even been fair. Had his family paid off the judge?
A shiver slid through me.
I was taken to a smaller, white spaceship. The inside was crammed with cold, steel seats with forcefields to keep us from being able to stand.
Across from me, two Minbari, an alien race that resembled spiders but walked on three of their legs, embraced one another, making shrilling sounds before they were shoved inside the ship along with the rest of us. AI guards checked our chains, ensuring we were secured in our seats for the voyage. Their silver-plated faces and gears shone through their silicone skin.
They disappeared outside and the hatch closed behind them. The ship hummed and hovered to life and my stomach lurched as we flew out of the hanger.
Stars and planets screamed past my window. The space flight zipped ahead at warp speed and I felt like I was going to throw up.
My cuffs dug into my wrists. How could this have happened? I stared at the other prisoners on the ship with me and they all looked like criminals with tattoos, angry glares, and an Obermire was even muzzled. His yellow eyes narrowed on me and I glanced away.
I closed my eyes, forcing myself to swallow and breathe through my nose from his putrid smell until we landed on Xerlon. The AI guards unhooked us from our seats and shoved us out of the ship.
A bright blue sun shone overhead, and majestic mountains and cliffs surrounded us. We marched into a gray prison building. Doors clanked open as we were escorted down a row of cellblocks a few hundred feet below ground level. It was dank, and so dark I stumbled into the prison in front of me.
"Sorry," I whispered.
But the Gura only raised her spikes along her back and growled back at me.
I swallowed, shuffling my feet and trying not to gag on the smelled of blood and urine that permeated the place.
All the cell doors had iron bars with thick cement blocks that lined the walls, making it resemble a medieval Earth prison, despite the fancy gadgets the reptilian guards in this jail carried on a holster on their belt. The AI guards signed us over and left. I glanced at the jailers. Their bodies were covered with scales and they wore an army-green uniform with their tail sticking out and looked like dinosaurs. Had to be either Roulex or a Saljinn species. I never could tell either apart. Both had scaled, green skin, were cold-blooded and hated humans. And all of them glared.
In a prison shower room, I was stripped naked, wash with a weird-smelling soap and shampoo, then dress in a white prison shirt two sizes too large and pants that rode up my shins because they were too short. On the front of the shirt, the number twelve forty-nine was stamped across my boobs. Metal bands were snapped on each wrist and I flinched. I pulled at them, but they weren't connected like handcuffs. I couldn't - shouldn't be here. What were they going to do to me? I yanked at my bindings again.
The guard laughed in a gruff voice that didn't sound natural. "Those are never coming off while you're a prisoner."
I imagined the cuffs would give me a shock or something if I tried to escape. Could they also be some kind of monitor or tracking device?
I had no idea what species ran this prison. Bile surged up in the back of my throat. Something tight hit deep in my chest. I felt dizzy like I was going to pass out. "Please, there has to be a mistake. I - I can't be here."
The guards poked and prodded me forward with metal-ended sticks until we arrived at an open cell. They pushed me inside, and the barred door clanked closed.
The cell was about the size of an average bedroom with one small, barred window and a bucket in the corner. It looked like how I felt, empty. The metal door blocked my escape, and the stone walls appeared ancient. I wondered if I could chip my way out through one of them. I would need a metal object of some kind. Several cells were across the way, but I couldn't see well enough past the dark interiors. The only light was barely there and somewhere further down the hallway.
Beads of sweat rolled down my back. I was never getting out of this place. That realization sank into my gut. I blinked back tears. My life was one huge sh*t-storm.
"Prisoner Twelve Forty-nine?" a rough voice asked from the door.
I jumped and spun. "Um...I'm Samanth - "
"Here, you are no one," he snapped like he wanted to bite me. His friend next to him examined me like I was an abstract painting he was trying to figure out. "Here, you are ours to do with as we please."
"No!" I crossed my arms. "There is no way I - "
"She's got wide hips," the other alien said, "might make a good breeder."
"Wait - " My skin grew cold and I shuddered with revulsion. Surely I hadn't heard them right. It had to be a translation error.
Another reptilian guard shuffled forward. "Throw him in."
"Him...who?" Another prisoner? I scuttled backward.
The door opened and four of the aliens carried in an unconscious, huge, winged creature. He was covered in blood, and his feathered wings shook. Why had they put him in here with me?
As the guards turned to leave, I rushed forward, and they raised their laser guns at me.
I stopped. "Wait. Why is this creature in here with me?"
Please don't say that it eats meat and I'm its snack.
The reptilian grinned.
My stomach rolled at how monstrous their scaled faces looked. It reminded me of a velociraptor grinning.
The guards turned and left, the metal door closed behind them.
And I was left alone with whatever this was. I turned to the winged form. "Hello?"
The being shifted, one of its wings dropping down, revealing its - his body. He was definitely male and definitely not human. He had a head of dark hair and light skin that had an almost bluish undertone. And horns. He had freaking horns that jutted up from his head in a corkscrew pattern and ended in blunt points like they'd been filed down. What did they look like normally?
Looking closer, I realized his wings might not be actually black, but they were so covered in blood they appeared to have a shiny black sheen.
I skirted around the body to the door, my heart pounding, and hoping this guy wasn't going to eat my spleen. I had said I'd sacrifice it to get out of prison, but I hadn't meant it. Not like this.
"Hey, somebody tell me what the hell is going on." I slapped my palm against the metal bar, then hissed when pain radiated across my hand from an electrified charge. "Hey!"
A rustle sounded and I froze, unable to turn around. I hadn't seen the winged guy's face. Just his horns and the back of his head.
I needed to get a grip because neither of us were going anywhere for as long as the Roulex wanted. With my throat closing up, I faced him, my hands balled into fists.
His wings ruffled and his back muscles rippled as he groaned. Maybe he won't notice me or care. I flattened my body as best I could against the bars of the door. A zap on my backside sent me leaping forward toward the winged guy.
Laughter echoed behind me. The stupid guards had sent some kind of electric charge into me. But now I was a mere arm's length from the creature. The cell suddenly seemed even smaller than it had before. I sucked in a breath as he pushed up and rose to his feet.
He blinked. One silver eye was almost swollen shut. Bright, bluish blood trailed down his cut chest and ribbed stomach. Gashes and cuts crisscrossed across his body. He wore thin, prison pants over his - um -
I jerked my attention back up to his chest.
The wounds appeared slightly healed now. They sealed as I stared at them. The blood flow slowly stopped. He heaved like he was coming out of some deep, pain management mojo or something. Deep lines marred his ankles and wrists, that's when I noticed he wore matching cuffs to mine. So, he was a prisoner like me.
He cringed, moving more until he was nearly standing.
Oh, my god! He was massive as he bent at an odd angle to keep his horns and head from hitting the low ceiling. He looked like...like a freaking angel. Well, minus the horns.
My heart lurched.
I shuffled to the side to get around him to the other side of the cell and put what distance between us in this small cell.
His arm shot out, grasping me around the throat and hauling me up in the air. I kicked at him, clawing at his hand. His good eye snapped open, dilating like a cat. I screamed - or tried to.
Nope, this guy was no angel, he was a f*cking devil.
Hours later, I knew Angel - the nickname I gave my prison mate - wasn't sleeping from his erratic breathing anytime I drifted within a foot of him, yet he wouldn't answer any more questions. I'd hoped finding out why he was here would help me figure out what I was doing in this cell with him. Why was I stuck in here with this alien? What did the Roulex want to accomplish? Or was this merely a holding cell until they could harvest us for our organs.
Unable to sit still, I paced back and forth in the tiny five-by-eight foot cell The stench of blood and urine clung to the air. Maybe if I offered a kidney and my spleen again, they'd let me go.