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  The commander of the ship glared at her but barked out orders. One of the other Siloth guards held up what looked like a clear solution in excited discovery! He pushed the syringe with the fluid into Ceely’s ear and Lauren held tight to Kaitlyn and Nat’s’ hands.

  “There it is!” The guard who had inserted the wash plucked up the worm with a set of tweezers. He carefully put it back in the container and shuddered.

  Ceely blinked and struggled against her bonds.

  The commander helped her to her feet and said something to her in Siloth, she answered him. He asked her, in English if she understood what he said.

  Ceely grinned. “I do understand you. Can I go back to the cage now? I don’t like it out here.”

  He waved his hand toward the cage and went over to the Siloth guard on the ground. “You are relieved of duty. You will not be allowed near the women. You could have killed her with the translator bug, and she is worth far more than you. Go!”

  Several other guards carried him out.

  The commander walked over to the cage and looked at Lauren. She shrugged. “I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t think you would like what he was doing, but I couldn’t contact you any other way.”

  He glanced over at Ceely who was talking excitedly to Nat. “I made sure that all the Siloth have translators so they can talk to all of you. Give orders, make demands and understand your responses. I didn’t want them given to any woman who didn’t already have one. Because if you somehow escape from the one who buys you, the chance of you finding someone with a translator to communicate with is minuscule. If you can’t ask for help, it makes it so much easier to retrieve you.”

  The Siloth commander walked away thinking he had delivered a terrible blow to Lauren. She turned to hide her expression. What he had done was solidify her resolve to find a way out. A way to make them all pay. She wanted her guns. It was like an ache inside her. A longing for retribution. And lots of ammunition. She glanced over at her cousin.

  Kaitlyn fingered the scalpel looking knife she picked up in the medical room where they took them for samples and a pregnancy test. It was hidden in a sheath she’d made from one of the blankets and bound around her waist. Hidden by her tee-shirt.

  Lauren knew they would just bide their time. Something had to give.

  The confrontation with the Siloth guard hadn’t been smart. But there wasn’t anything else she could have done and lived with it. She turned to walk toward the back of the cage. It was almost dinner time. Another thing the Siloth underestimated is how the action of that guard and their being able to save Ceely—tipped the balance of power. Now all the alien and human women were on one team. They would work together and find their freedom.

  She stood in the middle of the cage and went through the first movement of the kata. Everyone joined her except for Nat, who was sitting as close as she could get to the guards without leaving the cage.

  “THERE ARE ISSUES. DIVISIONS among the Siloth.” Nat looked at Kaitlyn and Lauren. “The original commander was shot and killed by a human when they tried to acquire the last two women.”

  The cousins looked at each other and smiled. “Makayla!” They said at the same time.

  Kaitlyn shook her head. “My sister. She will move heaven and earth to come for us. She has been mother, father, sister, and friend since our parents died. She will find some way. It just may not be soon enough.”

  “There is infighting amongst the Siloth. The guard assigned to us has friends, but most of them have shunned him as he is more worried about his own pleasures than theirs.” Nat sighed. “So, the one in charge that everyone was happy to follow, died. Now the Siloth in charge isn’t sure what he is doing. He discovered the contract for breeders was taken by a man who has been arrested on his home planet. Not earth, not any I’ve heard of. And now the commander doesn’t know what to do. There is talk among the Siloth of finding a slave market and getting rid of us so he can decide on a new direction for the crew.”

  “Ah, hell.”

  “Yes. Hell. I warn all of you. The Siloth are difficult to kill or incapacitate. At best with the weapons we have, we will be able to knock them out or hurt them, but not kill them.” Nat warned.

  Lauren added her thoughts. “Be ready for anything, always. The opportunity could come and go in a flash.” She would work with Kaitlyn and run scenarios of what could happen, and what they could do when it did—and tried to be prepared.

  It was a surprise when the opportunity landed in their lap.

  Chapter Five

  THE BURLY GUARD STEPPED on Lauren’s leg and fell in her lap. She rolled to the side and popped up, in a karate defensive stance. In one quick visual sweep she determined the guard was alone, he had obviously done something to the two guards at the door—because they were stretched out on the floor either dead or asleep. The opportunity to escape had landed in her lap.

  Drunk. On whatever beverage a Siloth had access to.

  Tall, overweight, and extremely stupid, the large, mean guard gave them everything they needed.

  She glanced at the door to the cage. It was closed and probably locked. Well, he’d given them almost everything. She needed to get the remote she saw him use earlier to access their cell. But first, she planned on kicking his red, furry ass.

  From the floor, he huffed something she couldn’t understand. Then switching to English, he muttered, “I am going to beat the shit out of you again. Then I’ll show you who's master.”

  She laughed. He had come back alone to beat on Lauren. Figuring he had been involved the first time and it was so easy, why not do it again. Only this time there wasn’t anyone else in the cage on his side. Nor was there anyone else in the prison room. It had been so easy the first time because he had his buddies to help him out. Now he was alone, and she wasn’t. Her backup wouldn’t be held back by the red hoard.

  She noticed Kaitlyn slowly shifted and moved behind him, going toward the cage door.

  Lauren backed up a bit and shifted to the side. Keeping the guard’s back to Kaitlyn yet moving so he wouldn’t notice the others in the cage as they carefully shifted out of his sight and stood.

  She flashed a hand signal at Kaitlyn. Both their dads had been ex-military, plus her grandfather had been big on all things survival. Lauren and Kaitlyn had been taught how to communicate with hand signals before they could talk. Growing up, they took the basics and with Makayla, continued to develop their skills. It had come in handy getting rid of unwanted suitors or warning each other about snarky pageant competitors. Now it might save their lives.

  She signaled to Kaitlyn to let her handle this for a minute. No one needed to interfere. Everyone moved back and away from the drunk and furious guard who was spouting nonsense.

  “I am your master. You do what I say, what I want. On your knees girl.”

  Lauren grinned. “You never tell an earth woman that you are her master.” She dipped and twirled, and hit him with a fierce volley of kicks and chops. She kicked his ass and in seconds he was unconscious on the floor of the cage and she had his weapon. She pointed it at him and considered pulling the trigger.

  “It won’t kill him,” Nat said as she made her way to Lauren’s side. She looked down at the Siloth and sighed. “With a twist of your wrist, you can send a stream into him. It is a hot current of pain that will make his body numb and dizzy. A long enough stream will take days to wear off and possibly burn him. He won’t have use of his arms and legs, and when it heals it itches. The Siloth are very difficult to kill.”

  “Shit. How do you kill them?” she asked.

  Nat frowned and it was Sissy who answered. “You have to cut off his head. Shoot him right in the heart. I’ve seen them killed with the silver cane you have. But they were shot right over the heart.”

  Lauren groaned. “I am probably going to regret this, but I didn’t plan to kill him. I don’t think. What are we going to do with them?”

  Kaitlyn came over and leaned down, “Cover me. He locke
d the cage and we need the remote.”

  Lauren looked at Sissy and Nat. “Do you know how to shoot this?”

  Nat shook her head no, Sissy nodded.

  “Can you use it to make sure he doesn’t hurt any of us? Just keep him out and in the cage?”

  Sissy grinned and held out her hand, Lauren passed off the silver cane and bent to help Kaitlyn. She stayed out of the weapon’s trajectory. Just as they’d been trained when working with guns.

  They found the remote and opened the door. Nat checked the two guards and discovered they weren’t dead, just unconscious. So, while Sissy stood guard, Kaitlyn and Lauren, with help from the other girls, drug them into the cage with their drunk and unconscious friend. They quickly transferred everything they wanted from the cage and after removing all the weapons and remote devices from the other two guards, locked the door.

  Standing on the other side of the cage they looked at each other.

  “Now what?” Ashton wondered. The poor green-eyed girl with the pretty bobbed haircut was biting her nails. Again.

  Kaitlyn walked over to the door leading into the hall and looked out. “It’s clear. Sissy come stand here and shoot anyone who comes in. Don’t go into the hall or do anything until they get in the room.” She cocked her head. “Does it make a lot of noise when you shoot it?”

  Sissy, Nat, and Ceely all shook their heads and said, “No.”

  Sissy added, “It is very quiet.”

  “Okay. Does anyone else know how to shoot one?”

  Tallie moved up. “I was trained by my father.”

  “Good. Help Sissy. Kaitlyn and I spent a lot of time looking at the ceiling yesterday afternoon when we were all getting our reproductive organs reprogrammed.” She winced. That had hurt like hell and pissed her off. Kaitlyn said they needed to keep from having sex with anyone and they wouldn’t have to worry about it.

  Kaitlyn bumped her arm and whispered, “Don’t think about it. We’ve been saying no for twenty-two years. We just keep saying no and fight to the death if they don’t listen. Easy.”

  She smiled at her cousin. “Yeah, easy.” She looked at the other women. “We think if we can get up there, we can move around the ship from inside the ceiling. That way we can listen to them, find things we need, maybe cause trouble. If we can do that, then we’ll try and jam the door so they can’t get in. They will hopefully just worry about us later and we will have some time to figure out the next step.”

  For a moment everything was quiet. Randi looked up at the ceiling and walked over to the table the guard had tied Ceely on. She climbed up and pushed on the ceiling panel. It moved, so Lauren climbed up to help. They took out the panel and stuck their heads in to look around. Then turned and grinned at each other.

  They both ducked back down.

  Lauren beamed. “It seems perfect. Like it was made for us. I think two of us should move around a bit up there. First in this room to see how much noise we make.”

  Rachael nodded. “Randi would be better at that. She can check out the technology up there, and I’ll see what they have in here. If it were me, I’d put video monitors in the prison, but what do I know. They didn’t seem to have them before. No one has said anything.”

  Nat spoke up. “They may not have thought about it. The one who was normally in charge is dead, remember. The new commander appears to be dealing with a revolution of sorts. He may not have thought about it yet. But you are right, I would bet there are cameras.”

  Kaitlyn spoke up. “So, Randi and Lauren, take one of the silver canes with you and have Sissy show you how to use it first. The rest of us will go through this room and see what is in every closet and storage cupboard.” She turned to Lauren. “Water and food.”

  Lauren nodded. “And clothing. Anything that looks like a manual that Donna can study.”

  Donna piped up. “It won’t be in English, but it won’t matter. Someone can read it to me. Or I’ll just look at the pictures.” She grinned. “Be careful. Stay together and watch each other’s backs.”

  ONCE THEY PRACTICED moving around in the space above the prison room, Lauren and Randi decided to follow the hallway toward the elevator. Taking little side trips over the rooms on either side of the corridor, they found places they could lay easily and spy through small holes in the ceiling. One would watch the hall while the other moved, calling out to have them stop if someone entered their field of vision. No one was really moving around in this area, so they got where they wanted to go pretty fast.

  They found a stash of food and water in the first room. They would take some of that to the prison room on their way back, the same with the clothing they found a few rooms down.

  Their goal today was the elevator. Lauren and Kaitlyn had discussed this last night. They thought the prison cage was in the bottom, least used area of the ship. The medical room was up one floor and there were more Siloths and rooms there, but it felt as if the real heart of the ship was on another floor. They had no idea how many floors this ship had, but they didn’t think they’d seen what they needed.

  They made it to the elevator without incident. They didn’t want to ride up the shaft on the top of the box, they hoped for another solution. They were surrounded by wires and tubes. It had been hot and stuffy in the space above the ceiling, now it was cooler.

  Randi and Lauren leaned over the shaft and looked down.

  “This is the bottom,” Randi noted.

  Lauren looked up. “I can see the bottom of the elevator box and what looks like three floors before where it is sitting.”

  “Okay. Now what?”

  She sighed. “Did you see the ladder on the inside of the shaft, running beside the doors and up past the ceiling entrance of each floor.”

  The geeky girl snorted. “Got that. Do we stop at each floor or go straight to the top?”

  “The elevator is at the top, I think. So, we can’t access that floor with it in the way. I don’t want to stop at the medical level. Not yet. We’ve seen some of what that floor has to offer. I would like to check the one right below the box. If we are on level one, then it would be level four, with the fifth one being where the elevator is currently parked.”

  Randi studied the inside of the shaft. “There isn’t much room. The ladder runs next to a big pipe that sticks out a bit. If we suck it up the elevator might pass us without scrapping off our flesh.”

  Lauren hissed, “Thank you freckles, for the heart-warming visual.”

  “Not a problem.” Randi said, “One thing I noticed is there weren’t any other guards or Siloth on this floor. I know we didn’t check every room, but when the elevator moves, we need to get back to the prison room as fast as we can.”

  “I agree.” Lauren popped out into the shaft and started climbing. She knew Randi was right behind her as every time she slowed down to look through a hole or listen, the curly brown-haired woman would touch the back of her leg as if to say, I’m here.

  A few moments later they reached the fourth level and stepped off into the ceiling maintenance area. This one had a lot more pipes and wires running through it. The two started scooting along and came to the first peephole into one of the rooms. It was dark, with only a small light fixed above the exit. It was just enough light to tell if anyone was in the room but not enough to see what was stacked on the tables. Randi shined the light she found in the prison room, illuminating trays of what looked like the fancy ear communicators the Siloth wore.

  “Hey. Score,” Randi said excitedly and dropped into the room.

  Lauren was right on her heels. “Why score? What do you see that I don’t? We don’t need these, do we? Or I guess we could try to get two to work so we could stay in contact with the prison room when we are exploring.”

  “Ummm. Yeah, we could do that. And I can take a couple of them and mess with the frequency. Maybe pick up what the commander is saying, or someone. A way to spy without being there,” she offered.

  “Awesome. Let’s do that and get back to the room
. We can try again tomorrow since we know we can move around in the ceiling. We need to figure out how to lock the prison room door, so we don’t get visitors.”

  THEIR LUCK HELD AND they got back to the first level without issue. They made their way back to the room where earlier they found water tubes and the same nutrition bars they’d been eating since they were brought on the ship. Randi and Lauren filled a couple of rucksacks with the food and drink, as well as some of the Siloth uniforms they found. These were clean, and they might find some way of modifying them. It would be better than running around in booty shorts and a tee-shirt. All the shoes were way too big. With the sack full of communicators, they had made quite a haul.

  Randi was sitting in front of a panel, studying the wires.

  “What?” Lauren asked as they shared a water bottle and one of the nutrition bars before they pushed their treasure a couple of rooms over to their home base.

  “Next time we need to bring someone who reads Siloth. If anyone does, I need to know what some of this says.”

  “Agreed. But what are you thinking?”

  “I think these wires have something to do with their communication system. These others are electrical for the ship. If I’m right, we can make it difficult for them to talk to each other unless they are in the same room. Or cut off the electricity so things like the elevator won’t work. If I’m wrong, I could screw up the life support system.”

  Lauren studied the wires. “Didn’t you decided the life support system had red wires and pipes?”

  Randi shrugged. “It’s a guess. Probably.”

  Lauren could hear the hum of the elevator. “Let’s leave it today, see if we can hear anything on the communicators, and worry about messing with this later. We need to go.”