"Fuck, Xyrek, go get them," Sloane cursed. "And bring Tucker and his prisoners back down here with you."
The last part was muffled as I was already racing to the elevator shaft, past a startled-looking Zaarek. Up was a lot harder than down, but I made my way in record time, just fast enough to meet the females as they stormed through the entrance.
"Where are they?" Luph rushed by me.
"Are you okay?" Alice jumped into my arms, holding me. Nothing had ever felt better.
"You shouldn't go down there. You shouldn't see this," I warned her.
"I need to," she said, and there was something in her eyes I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
ALICE
Forget everything I said before.Rage and hate, the kind I had never felt before, fueled me. I was ready to kill the Ohrurs myself. Single-handedly. I wouldn't have hesitated to execute them. What they had done… it was beyond comprehension.
We freed three hundred forty-nine women from the cages. Half of them were visibly pregnant. We weren't sure about the others yet. Even Luph's ship wasn't big enough to accommodate all of them. We would have to ask the Pandraxians for help, since they seemed our only allies. Plus, a large number of the women were Pandraxian because, as I was later told, they were the strongest, next to Pronex women, and could give birth to the enhanced cells they had been impregnated with. They didn’t use Pronex women as much because they were harder to capture and put up too much of a fight. At least that's what one of the Ohrurs who was willing to talk revealed.
And we hadn't even seen the worst of it yet.
Our first priority was to make these women as comfortable as possible, which wasn't easy. We spread them out over the first and second floors. Sloane grudgingly recalled Vraax and Raasla from their scouting mission, saying we would have to rely on radar for a while. Then it was all hands on deck.
To say the women were in a state of shock was an understatement. They were traumatized. About twenty of them were human, another hundred or so I had no idea what species they belonged to, and the rest were Pandraxian.
We worked hard and set every cleaning drone loose to make each quarter livable and allow the women some privacy. Most had to share a room, but a few who were about to give birth were lucky enough to get their own quarters. Birth to what? We didn't know yet, but we had our suspicions.
It took hours to get them all settled down. Two rooms were still left for us to explore. Zaarek kept watch in the corridor, but nobody peeked out. They were either too weak to open the doors or too frightened.
I set the drones I controlled to the task of restoring power while Nova and Nock broke into the database and shot the forcefield down for good. Tucker watched all the prisoners we had, including Possedion, Moddekdum, and Craygh, in the conference room.
After hours of work, everybody was finally settled enough to explore the remaining two rooms. Zoe and Luph stayed behind to keep an eye on the rescued women, and Nova and Nock worked on contacting any Imperial Forces who might be in the area. Hannah and I decided we wouldn't be left behind while the men and Sloane moved to explore the last two remaining rooms.
"You two stay back until I say it's clear," Sloane caught Hannah and me with an intense stare.
"Yes, ma'am," Hannah replied straight-faced.
"I mean it," Sloane narrowed her eyes.
"Don't worry. We will," I promised. My bladder was throbbing, not because I had to go, but because fear was clawing up its way inside me. Naked, primal fear of what we were about to discover. It would be bad. I could feel it in every cell in my body. My stomach clenched, and my heart beat so hard, I was sure the others could hear it.
Noodar opened the door, and we watched Sloane lead the others inside. Hannah's hand reached for mine.
"I have a bad feeling about this," she whispered.
"So do I," I admitted.
Our fingers interlaced and squeezed. We waited for an eternity until Zaarek poked his head out; looking grim, he waved us in.
Hesitantly, we followed him, never letting go of each other's hands.
Rows and rows of more cylinders filled the room. These weren't standing, though, but lying down. A lot of them were empty, but the ones that weren't were occupied by men who looked like Darlams or Space Guardians.
Their hair was short, and they were all naked. Tiny drones swam with them in the liquid, moving through hoses and cords attached to them. They all looked like they were sleeping.
"Bryrek." I heard Xyrek's voice. It was laced with so much pain that I let go of Hannah's hand and rushed to his side.
"You know him?" I asked, grabbing his waist and holding on to him for dear life.
"He looks like Bryrek," Zaarek said, appearing at our side.
