Taken by the Alcari Raider: Chapter 5

Lilah

Ozias’s gaze arrowed through the hold, locking onto mine with the precision of a targeting system.

“So it’s true?” I demanded, my voice echoing off the cold metal walls. “You’re taking us to an Alcari breeding facility?”

The rhythmic panic of my pounding heart almost drowned out the silence that stretched between us. For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t answer, that he’d just turn on his heel and leave me hanging in this vacuum of terror. But then, finally—agonizingly slowly—he nodded.

“Yes,” Ozias said, his voice vibrating through the stale air.

The hold erupted. Shouts and cries bounced around us, a cacophony of fear and rebellion. I could taste the collective dread, metallic and bitter, on my tongue as my fellow captives, women of every species and background, voiced their outrage.

“Lockdown procedures engaged,” came the disembodied voice of the ship’s AI, as indifferent to our plight as the stars themselves.

“Space scum.” Jezu’s fists fizzed against the energy barrier that went up between us and door, zapping angrily at her touch. “We won’t be your broodmares.”

Ozias flinched, just for a second, the clamor seemingly too much even for him. I could see the conflict in his stance, the way his scales seemed to ruffle like feathers.

“Quiet!” His command sliced through the noise. The others fell into a tense hush, and Ozias backed through the doorway into the corridor, unwilling or unable to face us any longer. He pressed a hand against the panel beside the door, and with a hiss, the exit sealed shut.

As his footsteps receded, my mind raced. The thrum of the engines was a constant reminder that we were hurtling through space, far from any help or hope of rescue.

I slid to sit on the floor with my back against a bulkhead. Despair was a luxury I couldn’t afford—not if I wanted to get us out of this. I needed to think, to plan, to transform the flicker of terror in my chest into a blazing fire of anger fueling our escape. But the cold metal underfoot seemed to leach the warmth from my body as I leaned against the wall, trying to steady myself. The Alcari breeding facility—a place of nightmares woven into whispers among spaceport bars and shadowed alleyways. And I was headed there, not as a ghost story to scare someone else, but as the protagonist in a horror story that was all too real.

The chill of the metal floor seeped through my jumpsuit, numbing my skin as I sat cross-legged, staring at the locked hatch that Ozias had vanished behind.

The Alcari breeding facility.

“Hey,” Jezu’s voice punctured my spiraling thoughts, and I lifted my gaze to hers.

“Hey,” I started, clearing my throat, “we need to talk escape.”

“Escape?” Her brow arched as she drew closer. “You’ve seen the guards. They’re twice our size and armed.”

“Size isn’t everything.”

Jezu raised both eyebrows now.

A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. “You forget, I’ve handled unruly patrons bigger than them.”

“So what’s your grand plan? Offer them a drink and sneak out when they’re buzzed?”

“Something like that,” I said, though I was actually considering scenarios far more dangerous. “We need to get to the control deck. Once there, we can lock down the ship and figure out our next move.”

“Lock down the ship. Uh-huh.” She nodded slowly. “And just how do you propose we get past the security goons?”

I chewed on one corner of my bottom lip. “We’ve got numbers on our side.”

“Right.” Jezu folded her arms, her lips pursed in thought. “So we cause chaos, rush them, and take control.”

“We’ll need every woman in here. It’ll be risky, but better than the alternative.”

“Risky is understating it.”

“Understatement is my middle name.” As I pushed myself off floor, my legs felt wobbly, but I steadied them. “Anyone who can fight, will fight. And those who can’t... they’re our decoys.” My voice hardened. “I’ll be damned if I let these Alcari thugs sell us off like cattle.”

* * *

The hushed clink of metal against metal announced dinner before the guard even entered.

I straightened up, brushing a stray curl from my face, as the door slid open with a pneumatic hiss. In walked an Alcari guard, his scales glittering.

“Good evening, females,” he said. His eyes flicked across the room. He pushed a cart laden with trays, each portioned out with what passed for sustenance.

“Careful, that one might have a heart beneath those scales,” Jezu muttered from beside me.

“Or maybe he’s just less thrilled about babysitting duty,” I whispered back, accepting a tray from the guard’s large, clawed hands. Our fingers brushed, and I jerked back, more from surprise than fear. His touch was warm, almost human.

“Thank you,” I murmured, meeting his gaze squarely. There was something there—a flicker of empathy?—that I hadn’t seen in Ozias or any of his crew.

“Listen,” he began, leaning in slightly, his voice dropping to a whisper that barely reached my ears over the chorus of clattering trays and subdued conversations. “When we arrive at the facility, there’s a brief window. They’ll transfer you from the ship to the ground transport.”

“Transfer?” I echoed softly, my mind racing. A transfer meant movement, chaos, a potential crack in their iron grip. “How long does this...transfer take?”

“Minutes,” he replied, glancing over his shoulder before returning his attention to me. “But minutes can stretch when properly exploited.”

“Exploited how?” My pulse quickened.

“Let’s just say the facility isn’t impenetrable,” he offered. “And the process isn’t as smooth as they’d like outsiders to believe.”

“Outsiders,” I repeated, rolling the word around in my mind like a key searching for its corresponding lock.

“Be sharp,” he said. “Opportunity is a shy astantebeast. It often slips away unnoticed.” With that, he straightened up and continued his rounds, leaving me clutching my tray.

I sat down slowly, eating mechanically, barely tasting the food.

“Hey, space-girl,” Jezu nudged me. “You look like you’ve just kissed a star and got away with it.”

“Maybe I did,” I said, half to myself. “Or maybe,” I added, “I’ve just found the map to our escape.”

“Tell me.” Jezu leaned in. Then she shook her head. “No. Wait. Let me go get Remmia and Talini.”

“Okay,” I whispered a few moments later, gathering Jezu, Talini, and Ren into the shadowed corner of the hold. “Here’s the scoop. When we land, they’ll be moving us to the breeding facility. That’s our moment. The guards will be preoccupied with preparations for transfer. That’s when we hit them—fast and hard.”

“Hit them with what?” Talini, apparently the pragmatist of our group, crossed her arms. “Our charming personalities?”

“Anything we’ve got,” I replied. “The guard who brought dinner—he’s the one who told me about the transport process. It’s risky, but it’s a crack in their armor.”

“Sympathy doesn’t unlock doors, Lilah,” Jezu shot back. “It won’t stop a blaster either.”

“Which is why we need to be clever. Talini, you’re good with tech, right? Can you hot-wire a door if we get you to a panel?”

“Under pressure? With Alcari breathing down our necks?” She chewed her lip. “I can try.”

“Try like the vacuum of space is at your back,” I encouraged.

“Remmia,” I turned toward her. “You’re fast. I’ve seen you move. You’ll be our runner, get to the cockpit once Talini springs the lock. Can you do that?”

“Like a comet,” she murmured.

“Good,” I nodded, feeling the pieces slot into place. “Jezu, you’re with me. We’ll cover them. Create a diversion, something to draw attention away from Talini and Remmia.”

“Okay, so say we make it to the cockpit,” Talini said. “Then what? Fly out of here like we’re joyriding in a stolen speeder?”

“More or less,” I answered. “But we’re not going joyriding. We’re going home.”

“Home,” Remmia breathed, the word a prayer.

We fell silent, each lost in our own thoughts of what lay ahead. I could almost feel the vastness of space pressing against the hull. Our lives had been reduced to moments, to breaths taken in the shadows, waiting for the chance to reclaim our freedom.

“Let’s go over it again,” I said after a time. “We don’t have much time, and we only get one shot at this.”

“Right,” Jezu agreed, squaring her shoulders.

* * *

The ship’s hum was a lullaby of false security, the vibrations beneath our feet a deceitful promise that we’d arrive safely at our destination. I knew better. The Alcari didn’t ferry us toward sanctuary; they herded us to the slaughter. Or worse.

“Jezu, do you still have that shard?” I asked.

“Right here,” she replied, patting the makeshift weapon hidden in her tunic. A small, hard smile flickered across her face.

“Remember, stick to the shadows whenever you can,” I instructed, my gaze locking onto each of theirs. “Stay quiet, stay quick. And remember, we’ve survived scrapes before, each of us. This is just another bar brawl on a larger scale.”

“Biggest damn bar I’ve ever seen,” Jezu said, rolling her eyes.

The ship began its descent, a telltale shudder coursing through its structure. It was almost time.

“Once we’re out of here,” Remmia murmured, her voice barely audible over the growing clamor of activity outside our prison, “what then?”

“Then, we make them regret ever thinking they could cage us,” I said. “We show them that you don’t mess with women who have nothing left to lose.”

“Damn right,” Talini agreed.

The ship touched down with a jolt that rattled my teeth. The doors would open soon. Our moment was nearly upon us.

Jezu breathed out, her hand gripping the shard until her knuckles whitened.

Remmia and Talini positioned themselves by the door.

Outside the hold, I could hear the shuffle of Alcari boots, the clank of heavy metal, the guttural language of our captors—all sounds that would soon fade into the chaos we were about to unleash.

And then the lock disengaged with an ominous click, signaling the beginning of the end—or the start of something new.

“Go!” I hissed, the door sliding open to reveal a sliver of opportunity.

We would not be breeding stock for these aliens.

And so we burst forth, a whirlwind of feminine fury, unleashing a dance of defiance under the cold gaze of foreign stars.