Looking out the view port gave me comfort. It had been a terrifying three days since the raiders swooped in out of no where and dragged us behind them in some sort of tractor beam. A full day of zipping through known and then unknown space like some tail on a cheetah only to end in a blaze of light and disorientation that left me feeling jet lagged. None of us knew where we were going, and could only wonder what would happen when the alien ship turned their attention to us.
It's now been 48 hours of waiting for the inevitable. Our ships systems have been slaved to the aliens and we are in forced free fall. I never liked free fall even in training.
Could it be only a year ago I signed on for this mining trip to the outer rim? My crew mates and I are all geologists, nothing exciting about us... just a band of asteroid miners trying to stake a claim and make it rich. I would give my share all back right now for a night of gravity filled sleep somewhere, any where else that I could recognize the star systems.
I looked around to the other geologists with me, we
were all scared and confused. What was going on. Now that my fear has taken
hold anger has set in, darn them. Just then the ships slowed a little,
we all were jogged out of our day dreams. I jumped up to look out of the
portal to see where we were. there was a big blue planet closing in fast....Now
what I thought......
We landed shortly after, we could hear noises outside
of the ship but couldn't see anything......
We stared blankly at each other. What could these aliens want with a simple mining ship and her crew? The noises from outside began getting closer and louder... still no sign on of the aliens though.
Then it came, a large thump, and the unmistakable sound that they were drilling into our ship.
The drill makes a horrible screeching noise as it attempts to penetrate the titanium hull of our ship. We can make out the dull glow at the epicenter of the drilling point. I watch the others out of the corner of my eye, they are still young in the scheme of things, he is in his late 30's and she just celebrated her 30th a week before the aliens snatched us from our mining quadrant.
Suddenly, the point of the drill completely pierces the hull and breeches our ship's atmosphere.
With the systems down and no way to read the atmosphere on the surface, the best we could do was to guess. The atmospheric pressure might make it a moot point, but we could at least be sure that we had air. I quickly scanned the faces of my colleagues to make sure everyone was wearing a PAU. We looked like some sort of odd assortment from an intergalactic zoo. If we hadn't all been terrified, I would have laughed.
The wall of the ship gave way under the pressure of
the drill. There was no whoosh of escaping air so at least there was some
sort of atmosphere on the other side Then we saw them strange metallic
shapes, waist high with numerous appendages ending in frightening shapes.
"What do you want?" Lorraine sobbed
"Don't come any closer" ordered Thompson in a show
of bravado
They moved swiftly and we found ourselves grabbed
in viselike grips. They started backing out of the ship dragging us struggling
with them like a fish on a line.
Suddenly the truth hit me "They are machines! some
sort of robotic creatures" I yelled at the others
As the alien bots pulled us across their home planet terrain I noticed something most unusual about them. Have majored in robotics mining science and gotten my Ph.D. in the same field I am quite familiar with robots. They had the two standard flex arms with rubber coated claw grippers, however there are almost a dozen other appendages! Sensors of a sort I suppose, perhaps infrared and normal light vision on the two that almost appear as eyes on the top of the bot, another appears to be an atmospheric sensor (nose?). One or more appear to be weapon grade materials, perhaps laser or phaser, I hope we don't find out.
I got my first good look at the ship that had snared
us. Huge didn't even start to describe it. It was massive and of a totally
alien design. We were pushed and dragged into an airlock which told me
that there was some sort of life forms inside. After all, robots don't
need air.
My companions and I were then taken down passageways
made for much larger creatures than humans. Finally we were taken to what
seemed to be the very lowest level of the ship. It was dimly lit and it
took awhile for my eyes to adjust but there was a constant shuffling noise.
It was with a huge shock I at last made out my surrounding. There were
hundreds, perhaps thousands of others here. Some were species I knew, many
were not and they all seemed to be in the same restraints my shipmates
and I were being locked into it was a SLAVE SHIP!
A Slave ship, Oh, that's just great. This is what I
wanted to do with the rest of my life. Now that we knew what was going
on we needed to make a plan. The others didn't look like they were ready
to think yet. Scared and tired and cold, yeah we were cold. There wasn't
much heat in this ship is there? I wonder why.
As we were walking off our ship and into the area
where the others were being held, I saw two aliens I knew, they were of
the Kalminda species. Fierce fighters and not to be taken by slavers, I
started getting worried now. Once we were inside the robots left us so
I walked over to the Kalminda's and started talking. They were very passive,
Wow that's not good. Great passive Kalmindas
One of them finally started talking back to me, I reminded him he was a Kalminda and he got angry at the realization that HE, A Kalminda was on a slave ship. Good that's what I want. So we started talking and making plans. I have no intention of being sold as a slave.
A few hours later there were others walking in, some I knew again, others I didn't. One of the aliens I didn't know walked over to me. He introduced himself as Murtik, of the species, Grantac. I told him I hadn't heard of it and I was Tisha of Earth. He said he had heard of earth and of the smart and strong woman we had there. Is he hitting on me? I asked him. No, he said he wanted to know if we had made a plan to escape yet. Then he explained that His people made this ship and these robots but that slavers attacked them and took everything and...........