Abducted Read online

  “Just spit it out, A.L.,” he growled.

  “It’s malfunctioning. It’s only at fifty percent at the moment and levels are dropping as we speak.”

  “What?” Why didn’t you tell me before?” Sarden demanded.

  “Well, you may recall that I warned something like this might happen some time ago. The panels in the scooping mechanism are warped and have needed repair or replacement for some time and—”

  “Repair. Fine, I’ll repair them.” Sarden sighed as though repairing his spaceship was a boring chore you put off as long as you could—like taking out the trash or dusting the stuff in the china cabinet.

  “I don’t know if repairs will work at this point.” A.L.’s butler voice sounded apologetic. “Or they may work but only temporarily. Not long enough to get us to Giedi Prime.”

  “Damn it, A.L.—you know we have to get there before the auction!” Sarden growled, his eyes flashing deeper gold. “If we don’t—”

  “I am aware, Master.” The dragonfly fluttered again. “Forgive me—I am running a full diagnostic now. Hopefully I will have more information for you when we reach the ship.”

  “Let’s go then.” As he spoke, Sarden did something to one of the instruments on the control panel. Suddenly we were whizzing forward at an incredible speed.

  I gasped, the sound ripped from me as what felt like a huge, invisible hand pressed me back against my seat. From the corner of my eye I caught my last glimpse of Earth—a round blue marble floating in the blackness of space.

  Then it was gone and I wondered if I would ever see it again.

  * * * * *

  Sarden

  I gritted my teeth in irritation as I locked the shuttle on course and steered towards the tiny desert planet the Earthlings called Mars.

  I’d known that the panels on the hydrogen scoop were warping—there was no way they couldn’t at the rate I’d been pushing The Celesta lately. But I hadn’t had time to deal with it—I’d had a lot on my mind. Like finding the right item to trade to Tazaxx for one. It had to be perfect—something special and unique or he wouldn’t even consider it.

  Tazaxx is one of the slimiest crime lords in the galaxy—I ought to know, I’ve smuggled for him often enough. But he has a weakness for beauty and for one-of-a-kind items no one owns but him.

  In the little Pure One strapped into the seat beside me, I believed I had found what I needed—something Tazaxx absolutely couldn’t resist. Only that something was actually a someone, a fact I was trying strenuously to ignore as I piloted the shuttle closer to Mars.

  There are plenty of smugglers who make their living in the slave trade, dealing rare and exotic inhabitants from distant planets to the rich, wealthy investors who collected them. I wasn’t one of them. My soul might be stained but that was one sin I’d tried to avoid.

  Now I couldn’t help it. There was no other way—not if I was going to get Sellah back. But that would only happen if I could reach Tazaxx before he held his annual auction. If he decided he didn’t want her, if she got auctioned off to the highest bidder, perhaps one who lived on the far flung reaches of the universe where he could never be found, then Sellah might be lost forever.

  No. I tightened my grip on the steering yoke, refusing to accept that possibility. I would not be too late. Somehow or other I would reach Giedi Prime in time.

  And as for the little Pure One… I shot a glance at her from the corner of my eye. She was staring out the viewscreen at the side of the shuttle, her gaze trained on her planet, now just a speck in the blackness. Her chin was still lifted defiantly but her eyes were wide and I thought I saw a glimmer of unshed tears in them as she watched her home world disappear forever.

  I would have told anyone who asked I didn’t have a heart or a conscience—a smuggler has no need of either one. Then why did I feel a stab of guilt as I watched her try to put on a brave face while I took her away from everything she’d ever known?

  I turned to face the viewscreen, concentrating on my instruments as I pushed the emotion ruthlessly away. This was the only way—I had no other choice.

  Though I felt like the worst kind of scum for doing it, Zoe would have to be traded.

  Chapter Five

  Zoe

  We got to Mars faster than I could get to the nearest WalMart from my apartment back home. Not that I go there a lot, but sometimes in the middle of the night when there’s nothing else open and you have a craving for some Ben and Jerry’s, you have to go. The nice part is, you don’t even have to change out of your PJs if you don’t want to.

  I have personally been guilty of wearing my favorite sweats and my sleepy bear t-shirt to Wally World and nobody even looks twice. Of course, the sloppy sweats and t-shirt were a hell of a lot more decent than what I had on now, which was just Sarden’s temperature regulating wife-beater t-shirt draped over my more sensitive areas. I wondered if he was going to give me anything else to wear once we reached his ship, or if I was just supposed to wander around naked, clutching my boobs and crossing my legs constantly.

  I was really tired of being naked.

  The red curve of Mars was barely looming in the windshield before we zipped around its side and came to a long, needle-shaped ship with a big round bulge at one end of it. Maybe that was the hydrogen scoop thingy Sarden had been talking about?

  We were coming in so fast I thought we would crash right into it. A scream was rising in my throat but just at the last moment, the shuttle slowed down dramatically and its nose just barely kissed the side of the huge, needle-shaped ship.

  At once, a hole irised open on the silver skin of the ship and our little shuttle was sucked inside. It gave me the creepy sensation of being sucked into a toothless mouth but before I could protest, we were in. The shuttle settled with a soft sigh and Sarden flipped off the ignition—or whatever it was that turned it off and on.

  He pressed a button and the doors on either side swooped up—kind of like a DeLorean’s. He hopped out and was about to just leave me there when I shouted at him.

  “Hey! Are you just going to leave me strapped in here or what?”

  “Oh…” He turned back, as though I was the last thing on his mind. “Sorry. A.L.—take care of her.”

  I was wondering how the golden dragonfly could manage the complicated straps holding me in place. But the dragonfly flew away—upward into the dim recesses of the metal ceiling. A panel opened and it flew inside. Well how was it going to help me up there?

  Before I could yell at Sarden’s retreating back to ask him, a long, thin, many-jointed silver arm with a six clawed hand came down out of the same panel towards me.

  I screamed, of course, because I don’t like it when metal claws come at me from out of the ceiling. I’m funny like that.

  Though Sarden had been doing his best impression of the disappearing man—or disappearing alien, I guess—he turned and came charging back at once.

  “What in the Frozen Hells of Anor is wrong now?” he demanded in a low, irritated growl.

  “What do you mean, what’s wrong? You leave me strapped down and helpless and then a long metal claw arm starts reaching for me!” I exclaimed. “What do you think is wrong? I don’t want to die! That’s what’s wrong!”

  “Die?” He looked at the silver, many-jointed arm and frowned. “Don’t be foolish—that’s just A.L.”

  “My deepest apologies.” Suddenly another flexible metal arm came down but this one was topped by a thin rectangular box with a round blinking light in the center. Almost like an eye, I thought. The same proper English butler voice that had been coming from the gold dragonfly was now emanating from the box. “I am so sorry—I did not mean to frighten you, Lady Zoe.”

  “I thought you were a dragonfly,” I told it. “What are you, anyway?”

  “I am the computing system which runs this ship,” A.L. said. “Do you not have such things on your planet?”

  “Only in science fiction movies,” I