Kidnapping Keela (4 page)

Keela looked at Lory and she realised immediately that even the FBI agent was looking at the two men with similar thoughts. Once the woman had put the tray in the middle of the room everything suddenly happened very quickly. Lory grabbed the man standing closest to her and smashed his head on the door frame three times till he became limp in her hands and she simply dropped the unconscious man onto the ground. The other guard threw himself at Lory and they exchanged a few hard blows and kicks. As the surprise effect had passed, Lory did not have an easy time of it with this well-trained man, although she was clearly well-trained in close combat herself. Both the agent and the alien seemed to be natural fighters. They dealt out blows and took blows. Both of them were already bleeding from their nose and mouth, and they were breathing heavily. Keela exchanged glances with Charly and Amber and both of them gave one brief nod, then, yelling, the three women threw themselves at the guard. Charly climbed onto him from behind whilst Amber and Keela helped Lory by kicking and thumping him until he fell to the ground.
 

Once both of the guards were lying motionless on the ground, Lory turned to the other women. The woman who had brought the tray was standing in the middle of the room, her mouth agape and her eyes wide and she seemed incapable of saying or doing anything.
 

“We have to act quickly, before anyone notices what’s happened,” said Lory, and the women, including Ayakala, her daughters and the girl, followed Lory outside. Only Bebenile and the woman with the tray stayed behind.

There was no one to be seen in the yard. Everything seemed to be silent and deserted, but they knew that there were more guards in the hut next to the entrance, not to forget the two guards outside the gate.

“We’ll try to find another exit. I think we should be able to get over the wall over there,” whispered Lory and they crept quickly across the yard to the side opposite the gate.

Keela’s heart was beating wildly. She was glad to have escaped from the cramped hut but she was also concerned about how they were to get out of here. Ayakala was right about the fact that it was going to be hard to escape from the town. A trip through the desert, without water and without even knowing where there were any other places, was complete suicide. Only the spaceport remained and that was carefully guarded. They did not even have any money to bribe anyone with, let alone to book a journey.

Suddenly loud shouting and footsteps could be heard behind them.

“Shit! They’ve caught us,” cried Lory. “Come on, girls. Faster!”

They ran as fast as they could. They were actually able to climb over a barrel and onto the roof of a hut and from there get over the wall. Keela had a stitch in her side, but she took no notice of it. She climbed speedily from the barrel onto the roof. She took the risk of looking back. Ayakala and her daughters, as well as the small girl, had stopped. They clearly thought they did not stand a chance any more. There were at least ten men behind them - four were dealing with the women who had stayed behind and the other six were following Keela, Charly, Amber and Lory.

Keela nearly slipped and fell off the roof, but Amber, who was the last one, and behind her, caught her and held onto her till Keela had found her balance again.
 

“Are you OK?” asked Amber, worried.

“Yes, thank you,” answered Keela, breathless. Her heart was racing wildly and her stomach felt knotted.
 

“Hurry up!” shouted Lory, who was already sitting on the wall.

Lory jumped and was out of sight. Behind Keela and Amber the first of the pursuers was climbing onto the roof. Charly jumped next, then Keela, and Amber reached the wall, too. Keela’s heart leapt when she saw how far it was to the ground, but Lory and Charly were gesticulating wildly to her to jump.
 

“Shit,” murmured Keela.

She closed her eyes and jumped. Amber landed with a quiet, “Ow! Fuck!” next to her.

“Come on!” Lory urged them to hurry and ran with Charly along the narrow alley that they had landed in. Keela and Amber picked themselves up and followed them. They ran without looking round. The adrenalin rush gave them strength and they took no notice of either the stitch in their side or the burning heat. They just wanted to get away - away from these vile aliens and away from this damn planet. The latter was sure to prove very difficult.

Keela could hear the men but she did not dare turn around. It was impossible to guess how many men were after them. Lory disappeared into a side street. Charly followed, and as Keela and Amber reached the alley Lory and Charly were nowhere to be seen.
 

“Where have they gone?” asked Amber, panicking.

“No idea!” answered Keela breathlessly. “Just keep on running. They’re behind us.”

“Ah!” screamed Amber suddenly and Keela stopped to look round for Amber.

Amber had fallen and was trying to pick herself up quickly but their pursuers were closing in.

“My foot,” groaned Amber. “Quick! Run! Leave me here! I’m not going to make it anyway. Run! You still have a chance. I’ll try to hold them up.”

Keela hesitated. She did not want to leave Amber behind on her own.

“What are you waiting for?” cried Amber in despair. “Run! Save yourself!”

Keela shook her head. Her decision was final. She was not going to leave Amber in the lurch. Amber had rescued her when she had nearly fallen off the roof. Furthermore, she probably had no chance of escaping now anyway. Lory and Charly had managed to. But whether things would go any better for them was questionable. The men reached them and one of them grabbed Keela roughly by the arm. Amber screamed in pain as two men pulled her to her feet.
 

“Hey, you ass-holes! Can’t you see that she’s injured!” Keela screamed, beside herself.

A man, who seemed to be the leader, shouted at the two men holding Amber and he lifted the injured girl into his arms. At least one of these sods seemed to be a bit decent, thought Keela. She did not try to resist as she was led back to the compound. The man carrying Amber left the group as they reached the gate.

“Where are you taking her?” Keela demanded to know.
 

The man stopped and turned round to her. He looked at her sternly, then his dark expression became somewhat softer.

“To the healer. Don’t worry, I’ll look after her.”

Keela nodded. What else could she do? She knew that in this situation she should be happy that someone was tending to Amber’s injury. The man turned round again and stomped off with Amber.

***

Somewhere at the edge of the Kanavirius System

1st day of the month of Jakus in the year 7067

Federation Time

It was a week before they finally received a signal from Princess Solima. Marruk was losing patience and his irritability had meant that during the last few days his crew had kept out of his way as much as possible. No one wanted to be his sparring partner in the training room any more. That morning he had injured four of the men so badly that they all had to spend several hours in the medical unit. Now Marruk was standing on the bridge with an expression of grim determination, his hands clutching the railing so hard that his knuckles turned white.

“How long?” he snarled.

“If she is, as we suspect, on a planet in the Kanavirius System - and does not move away from there - then we could reach her within eight or nine days,” replied Kolisz, his navigator.

“If anyone has laid a finger on her he’ll pay for it dearly. I’ll torture him for so long that he’ll beg me to kill him. And it’ll be a damn long time before I grant him that wish!”

“We’ll find her,” Berka, Marruk’s brother, tried to console him.

“If I should be killed whilst freeing her then I want you to take revenge for me against Solima’s kidnappers. Make these sons-of-bitches suffer!”

“You have my word, brother,” snarled Berka solemnly. “I will do it with the greatest of pleasure. These monsters deserve a slow death.” He thumped a pillar next to him. “Damn it! She’s still a child. Who …”

“Prince Marruk!” interrupted Kolisz. “I have a more exact location for the signal. In all probability Princess Solima is on Xevus3.”

“Then without a doubt she is to be sold at the slave market there,” said Berka. “That’s good.”

“Good?” bellowed Marruk, beside himself and ready to grab his younger brother by the throat.

“Think about it, brother! If she is being held prisoner there until the auction then no one will have touched her yet. They’ll get a better price for her if she’s untouched. I know that the next auction takes place in nine days’ time. We can do it!”

“Lukova! Get everything out of this baby that you can. We have to reach Xevus3 within eight days at the latest,” ordered Marruk with grim determination.

“Ay, My Lord.”

***

Kanavirius System, Xevus3

Betzlawk

8
^th
day of the month of Jakus in the Year 7067

Federation Time

To Keela’s immense relief her attempt at escaping did not have serious repercussions. The men did seem to be angry, particularly the two guards that had been attacked by the women, but nothing more was done other than locking them into the hut again, accompanied by swearing and some rough handling, but otherwise it was unspectacular. Ayakala and the other women seemed sad that Keela had not made it. Solima came to her, once Keela was sitting on the ground, and she put her arms around her.

“I’m sorry,” she said sadly.

“What are you sorry about, darling?”

“That it didn’t work.”

“You don’t need to be sorry. Perhaps it’s better this way.”

Solima nodded.

“Definitely! When my father comes to rescue me then he can rescue you, too. That is definitely better than you wandering around the town on your own. My father is very powerful and strong. He’ll kill all the wicked men here.”

Keela’s heart ached at the sight of the girl’s determined expression. She seemed to believe so firmly that her father - her hero - would rescue her. Keela considered that to be pretty much out of the question, but she did not dare say that. She did not want to take away the girl’s hope.
 

“Believe me,” Solima assured her, as if she had sensed Keela’s doubt. “I have a transmitter in my arm. Because of that my father can follow me and find me.”

“OK then, let’s hope your father hurries,” replied Keela with a smile. She felt very sorry for the poor girl.

Late in the evening Amber was brought back. Her foot was bandaged and she was limping, but she seemed to be fine.

“I was worried about you,” said Keela, quietly, because the other women and Solima were already asleep. “Did that man or anyone else force themselves on you? Is everything OK?”

“No and yes. No - no one forced themselves on me, and yes - everything is OK,” Amber confirmed. “Everyone was actually very nice to me. The man who took me to the healer says very little but he was not rough with me, and the healer was very nice. He just looked a bit strange. He was small and round with blue patches all over his skin and he had four eyes. At first that shocked me but he was so polite that I could somehow cope with him OK. I mean, he can’t help what he looks like. He probably finds people like us ugly,” she laughed.

“Yes, probably,” Keela agreed.

She was relieved that Amber was fine.
 

“I found out from Kovin - that’s the man who took me to the healer - that the auction is taking place in two days’ time. He’s not prepared to help us but he did let me know that we’ll be accompanied by ten guards and that the auction will take place in this compound. Hundreds of visitors are expected and apart from us there are about another fifty men and women imprisoned in the other huts, all of whom are going to be auctioned off.
 
Amongst them are also the other women from our space ship. So there’s going to be a lot going on. Perhaps we’ll be able to escape.”

“To be honest I don’t think we’ll manage it - just as I don’t believe that Solima’s father will rescue us.”

“Solima’s father?”

“Oh, yes, of course, you weren’t there when she told me. Well, Solima has a sort of transmitter in her arm through which she’s traceable by her father. She absolutely believes that he’s following her and save her. And she thinks that he’ll free us, too. But as I said - I don’t believe it.”

“You’re probably right,” Amber agreed, frustrated. “Damn it! Who would have thought that I’d ever be abducted by aliens and sold as a slave on a foreign planet? I mean, hey, how big is the chance of being abducted by aliens? There’s more chance of winning the lottery - but
no -
I have to go and pick the alien abduction option.
Great
!”

“Now that I know that I’ve picked the main prize I feel a whole lot better already. First to fourth prize: a trip into space to a galactic slave market to include being auctioned off. Only unfortunately with no return ticket. If I’d known before that it was a one way ticket I’d have turned it down straight away,” replied Keela sarcastically.

“Let’s try to sleep. If we have any chance at all, then it can only be on the day of the auction,” said Amber as she yawned.

“You’re right and I’m already so tired that I can hardly keep my eyes open. Sleep well!”

“You, too.”

Chapter 3

Kanavirius System, Xevus3,

On the streets of Betzlawk

10
^th
day of the month of Jakus in the Year 7067

Federation Time

“Damn it! Does it have to be so crowded? We’re going to be too late,” snarled Marruk impatiently.

Together with his men, Marruk pushed his way through the overcrowded streets of Betzlawk. Most of all he would have liked to declare an attack and fight his way through the crowds with his sword until he found his daughter. But it would not help Solima if the Black Guards seized him and put him in the prison bunker. They had reached the spaceport of Xevus3 in time but there was such a crowd that it had taken hours to dock and still more hours to get through customs. All attempts at bribery, persuasion and even intimidation had not helped them to get through more quickly. The auction had already been happening for two hours and they could not get through the town. The auction was not the only attraction today: there was also a gladiator fight and a wakazabu championship. Wakazabu was a card game in which high stakes were often played.