Baston Read online

  No one else seemed to hear him. The banging and panic had gotten them some attention, and the girls started dropping around them as the pod filled with smoke. Holding their breaths would only help them if the smoke moved out quickly. It burned his eyes as he tried to see if any of the other women had ducked and covered. He squeezed his lids closed and blinked rapidly. His lungs burned with the need for air. His blood began to throb through his ears in a dull roar. He wasn’t going to be able to hold his breath for much longer, and judging from the slight discoloration on Sca’s and Cherie’s faces, they wouldn’t be able to either.

  The smoke finally cleared. He exhaled and then took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the musty air in the cargo container. Slowly, the three of them pushed to their feet. His eyes scanned the pod slowly. They were the only ones that managed to remain conscious. Bodies lay in heaps, littered on the floor. He knelt beside one of the bodies and noted the steady rise and fall of her chest. Thankfully, they were still alive.

  “Well, that was close,” Sca said. He moved over to one of the girls and pulled her arm up, shaking it. It fell right back down by her side.

  “They’re out. We’re going to have to fight them on our own now,” Baston said, surveying the sleeping beauties all around them.

  “Let’s be honest,” Cherie said with an exaggerated eye roll, “we were always going to be the ones fighting them.”

  The three of them slid down the wall and stared around the room. They began to brainstorm for the rest of their flight to wherever they were being taken. Some of their plans required things they didn’t have. Cherie suggested throwing one of the unconscious girls at them when the doors opened, but Sca shot that down.

  The little door opened again and more smoke flew in. This time it was too quick for them to cover their mouths, but Baston realized the smoke was to wake the girls up when one flew at him from a dead sleep.

  “Where the hell am I?”

  Following her awakening, there were more screaming and crying women who had been confused by the sleeping gas the aliens had used on them. The ship lurched to one side, sending a cluster falling against a wall. It righted again, and suddenly felt as though it were falling, telling Baston that it was beginning some sort of a descent. They were moving at such an alarming rate that everyone was tossed into the air, causing them to float freely for a few moments. It crossed his mind that they might actually be falling instead of landing, but then the descent stopped suddenly. Two thuds echoed loudly as the pod landed on the ground.

  “All right. We have to be ready, they’re coming.”

  “What do we do?” One of the women who’d been talking before asked.” Baston thought her name was Ruby.

  The doors started to open and he told her the only thing he could think. “Run.”

  Chapter Two – Must Escape

  When the doors of the pod opened, Cherie stood in front of the two Stillions with her hands behind her back. The goal was to appear like she was alone, when really Baston and Sca clung to the ceiling above her. Her hands behind her back would only conceal the cuffs for a minute. The chains leading up to where the men hung would give them away. There wasn’t much to hold onto on the ceiling, so they’d walked up using each other as leverage and now clung to the beam at the top of the pod.

  When the first Stillion walked in to see what was going on, Baston leaped onto him, taking him down and removing his stun gun. The second guard met the same fate with Sca, and the three of them rushed from the pods. The rest of the girls took off as well, running out of the pod and scattering in different directions. Those who were chained to each other ran away. The girls who were still chained to their metal rooms screamed as they fought to pull free from their restraints.

  The chaos was good for them, because Baston thought it would give them a better chance of escape. There was no way to gauge where they were. The less fast-moving aliens that were chasing them, the better. Guilt plagued him at leaving the chained women behind, but he had little choice. It was fight or flight, and until he knew more about who they were fighting, the flight side had the lead.

  The landscape was made of rolling purple hills and black trees. They ran straight for the cover of the dark trees, taking care to avoid large holes on the floor of the forest. With three of them running, their chains wrapped around each other. Cherie took a step to the left and wrapped herself around a tree, the chain jerking her to the ground as the others continued forward.

  “Don’t stop!” Sca yelled as a stun gun fired right above his head. They were moving fast, but the Stillions were faster. The only thing working in their favor was that there were no more than two after them, because of all the other girls running wild on their planet.

  Baston grabbed Cherie’s arm and pulled her to her feet while firing at one of the aliens. With a surprising jolt, the ray hit its target and the alien flew back into a tree with a sickening crunch. The other Stillion was gaining on them as they ran forward again. Thinking fast, Sca moved to the side of the tree and pulled his chain tight so the pursuer was caught in the throat and hit the ground.

  “Go, go!” he yelled and the three ran in a line through the black forest, unsure where they were going. They didn’t seem to have any more aliens chasing them, but didn’t slow down. It wasn’t until they ran out of the forest and into a field of fiery red grass that they stopped to catch their breaths.

  “We need to get these handcuffs off,” Cherie said as she tugged on the chains. Sca and Baston’s arms moved with the motions. The iron cuffs chafed the skin at their wrists.

  “Why would you brave this planet by yourself?” Sca asked.

  She fixed him with a glare and Baston pulled on the chain. “We have to find our way off this planet if we expect to survive. Come on.”

  “Please wait for us!” a small female voice called out faintly from a distance behind them.

  Baston turned to see Ruby and Tesla had somehow kept up with them, with two Stillions on their heels. Tesla had a trickle of blood running down her face and Ruby was limping slightly, her clothes torn.

  They were running right towards them, drawing attention to them. It was everything Baston had been trying to avoid, but he didn’t think he could ignore their calls for help. As he moved towards them, Cherie grabbed his arm.

  “Leave them, they’ll slow us down.”

  Baston was already pulling Sca and Cherie towards them with the chains, and she wasn’t able to stop him.

  They were still several hundred feet away when Ruby dropped to the ground, shaking, and fell onto her back. The stun guns the Stillions had were pretty brutal. Baston stopped walking towards them, and backed away. They needed to hide or get far away before the Stillions saw them.

  “Ruby!” Tesla yelled as she stopped running, allowing the Stillions to overpower them. Her friend being shot had derailed her will to live, he guessed. He saw the Stillions drag her back with them and pick up the stunned girl from the ground.

  He hoped the girls were wrong about what the aliens wanted with them. Baston wanted to help, but he also wanted to get away.

  They ran for a long time, and the suns of wherever they were started to rise. They paced themselves this time, not running as fast as they’d been so that they didn’t tire themselves out. Baston kept his eyes open for anyone after them since they were completely exposed in the fields. Up ahead, he saw tall black walls with flags on top. It looked like some kind of fortress, and outside was a small cargo ship.

  He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but the ship looked empty.

  “We need to take that ship.”

  “How do we know someone isn’t waiting for us in that building?” Cherie asked. “They can shoot us quite easily from up top.”

  Baston looked up and saw what she was talking about. It would be easy for someone to hide behind the large towers at the top with a gun and pick them off easily.

  “It’s worth a shot,” Sca said as they slowly advanced towards the small ship. Each of them crou
ched down, as if it would help them hide in the open. As they moved towards the ship, Baston looked up at the top of the fortress to see if anyone saw them.

  From what Baston could tell, it was an older ship, maybe by three years. It looked like someone’s personal cargo ship. Someone could have been delivering something to the fortress, although he couldn’t imagine what. He remembered his father’s ship had been similar, just quite a bit older.

  He touched the ship and felt it was still warm.

  “They’ll be back soon, get in,” he urged Cherie and Sca.

  They didn’t hesitate to jump up into the ship, Baston close behind them.

  “Hey! Hey!” Someone ran out of the fortress, yelling in Lingonian. He glowed like Sca, and Baston hoped he hadn’t seen him. His friend wouldn’t take kindly to stealing from his own. “You take my ship?”

  The little man was very upset. Baston knew they didn’t have a choice, but he felt some remorse.

  “I’m sorry.” He only knew a little of his best friend’s native language. “We have to.”

  Taking some money out of his shirt he threw it at the man and pushed him away from the ship. It wasn’t a hard push, but the little man’s face turned bright red and he started screaming angrily at him. It was a wonder he had any money left. He was surprised the Stillions hadn’t taken it when they searched them for weapons, but it must not have been valuable to them. It would be valuable to this man. The currency for each planet was different, but there was an exchange system in place.

  Baston climbed into the ship, knowing Sca had seen the man. He could feel the tug on the chains as his two companions watched the exchange.

  “At least you gave him some money,” Sca said, his jaw tight and eyes narrowed.

  “You know we don’t have a choice.” Baston slid into the driver’s seat and took off. The ship shuddered a bit and for a moment Baston was worried it would take a dive. It straightened and sailed up.

  He didn’t let out a breath until they were safely in space and the ship’s oxygen and gravity shields had come down. He didn’t see a ship come up after them from the purple and red planet, so he felt safe for the moment. He had no clue where they were in the universe. It was impossible to know how far the Stillion ship had taken them. The onboard map was old, so it would only show planets close to their current location.

  They flew for a while without seeing anything. The distance between some planets could be hundreds of light years in some cases, and he wasn’t even sure the ship they’d stolen was capable of travelling at that speed. He looked around and saw a button with a piece of tape underneath it. The tape had the word warp scribbled on it. This meant that the owner of the ship had installed the warp on his own, or had it added after the ship was manufactured. This also meant that it had a fifty percent chance of working. Someone cheap may not have gotten the best mechanic to do the job.

  “I’m going to find something to get us unchained,” Cherie said.

  She was a demanding little thing, and different to the women he was used to coming out of those pods. They were mostly demure and did what they were told, but Cherie did what she wanted. He smiled as she hopped up, trying not to look at her ass.

  Baston fought to keep his hands on the controls as she tugged, trying to get to the back of the ship. He wanted free of the handcuffs as much as she did.

  After a lot of noise and more tugging, she came back up with a large pair of wire cutters.

  “That’s perfect.” Sca took them from her and set about cutting the cuffs from each of them. Baston was relieved to be able to move freely once again, and stretched his arms above his head.

  The ship shuddered a bit and jerked, showing him that there were some hiccups in its travel abilities. He hoped the old man hadn’t used it for on-planet travel only. If that were the case, they would be in trouble.

  “So,” Cherie came and leaned over him with an arm on his shoulder. He couldn’t help but notice the ample breasts showing from the top of her shirt. Swallowing hard, he focused back on the path and getting them far away.

  “So?” He replied.

  “Where are we going? Do you have a plan?”

  “Honestly, I have no clue where we are. I don’t know where we’re going and I really don’t know if this ship can get us much further.”

  “Great,” she said and moved away from him to sit in the passenger seat. “Just great.”

  “It has to be better than where you were headed, sweetheart,” Sca said. “You were going to be some rich man’s live-in whore. It isn’t as glamorous as it sounds.”

  “I would have escaped. I know how to survive.” Cherie snapped back.

  “He would have strapped a collar on you that would have killed you if you tried. The people Titan delivers to do not care if you live or not. You’re there to serve them.” Sca continued.

  “That’s enough, Sca. She isn’t going to be anyone’s slave anymore if we can help it. We rescued her.”

  “You saved me because you had to, I was attached to you,” she said.

  “We still saved you,” Baston said. He knew she was right. They would have been out for themselves had she not been attached to them.

  The ship made a loud beeping noise and a light flashed up on the display. A downward arrow blinked at him.

  “What’s that mean?” Cherie asked.

  “It means we’re low on fuel. We’ll have to stop at the first planet we come to, no matter what,” Baston said. The thought didn’t fill him with the most confidence. According to the onboard map, there wasn’t another planet close enough.

  “We’ve got to try to go warp, or we won’t have enough fuel to get us through to the next planet. It’s too far from here.”

  “What happens if we don’t make it?”

  “We pray for fuel reserves in the back, or we fall through space forever,” Baston said. The thought didn’t really give him any pleasure. There was no telling how long they will fall before dying of oxygen deprivation.

  “Great,” Cherie said and hit her head back against the passenger seat. “Dying with two buffoons in who-knows-where. Just how I thought I would go.”

  “Sca, go see if we have any reserves back there,” Baston said. Someone had to take charge of this operation.

  The ship only had two sections if it was the same as others he’d seen. It would have a back cabin with supplies and bunks for sleeping, and the front of the ship where they were sitting with four chairs and a control panel. It was the simplest ship on the market and perfect for one traveler.

  “No reserves,” Sca said, coming from the back of the ship.

  “Okay, strap in. It has a warp button, and we’re going to have to try it,” Baston said, strapping himself in. He really hoped whoever had installed it knew what they were doing. Once they were ready, he pushed the button. After a slight delay, the ship surged forward and they were headed to the closest planet.

  “I hope wherever we’re going is friendly,” Cherie said.

  “We need to be prepared to fight, no matter where we go,” Sca replied.

  “He’s right, hold on,” Baston said. He hoped they wouldn’t have to fight, and could just get the fuel they needed to make it back to Sarta.

  Chapter Three – Hostile Territory

  Baston took them out of warp right before they entered the orbit of the planet. It was large, yellow and had three rings. The old-fashioned fuel needle was something you wouldn’t see on any new model, and it was dangerously close to the empty side.

  “We have to land now, hold on.”

  Taking the ship down to the planet, Baston hoped they’d have enough fuel to make it. He wasn’t keen on a crash landing. Slowly, they descended through the atmosphere towards the ground. Large mountains shot up into the sky, with skinny trees protruding from the top. A bed of grass spread from the bottom of them and he could tell it was green, meaning life could thrive on the planet. The ship sputtered as he let it down, and slammed itself into the ground.

  Imme
diately, they were surrounded by a race of humanoids with various weapons. They looked like Earthlings except for their bright-red skin. They wore strange masks over their faces, making them look intimidating. He noticed the weapons attached to their hips with straps.

  One stepped forward as Baston exited the ship, and spoke to him in a language he didn’t know. He heard the harsh tone and saw the man was pointing a large knife towards him. He wondered if he should say they came in peace. He realized to these people, they were the alien invaders.

  “I don’t understand,” he said, holding his hands up so they didn’t think he had a weapon.

  The same one moved forward and pulled him from the ship while two others pulled Sca and Cherie down. They poked their spears into their backs, forcing them to join Baston on the ground.

  They continued speaking in a language none of them understood.

  “We don’t speak your language,” Baston said, knowing they probably didn’t understand.

  They urged them forward, away from the ship and towards the mountains. There were too many of them to fight, so they continued forward and went into the side of the mountain with all the masked aliens behind them

  They yelled for someone when they stopped outside a large gate, and it opened. A large man came out who looked like the rest of them, only he wasn’t wearing a mask. His ears were slightly pointed and he smiled with large blue teeth. There were dark tattoos all over his body and he wore only a cloth at his waist.

  “What brings you here? We thought you were our enemy, Jaca, but you do not look like them.”

  “We are running from Stillions and need to get fuel for our ship,” Baston said.

  The leader looked at him for a minute and then laughed. He spoke to the rest of the group in their language and they all laughed as well. Some of them were bent over with the laughter.

  “What the hell is so funny?” Cherie snapped.

  The leader held his hand up and everyone fell quiet.