Page 9 of Tortured

I look to Gardon. “Is it safe to wake them? We can have some of the ships that we have here go fight them and we can fight back but I think it might be wiser to bring them out of stasis so they can defend themselves if need be.”

He studies them and then looks to me. “I think mostly they’re healed. It should be good. But the one that’s…fighting her shock may need someone with her the whole time. She obviously cannot defend herself.”

I nod my head. “Get Varnak down here. Three of us will take these women up with us to the bridge so that Gardon can focus on the injured female. I don’t think he can handle all four of them alone and we need to focus on the fight. If they’re causing problems, I don’t think that we can give them the ship to run around free.”

“We could put them back in the cells.”

I glare at Zaycor. “That is not something I want to do. They are not our prisoners. They are our guests.”

He huffs out a breath and spins, stalking out the door.

I nod at Gardon. “Start bringing them out of stasis.”

He nods and begins to change the meds on all of the pods. He turns back. “It should only be a few clicks.”

Zaycor and Varnak crash through the door, grumbling. “Is this necessary?”

I glare at them both. “Of course. They are not prisoners.”

One arm comes up to smack the top of one of the med tubes and Gardon jumps. I eye him cynically.

“Are you good?”

“Yes. Sorry.” He opens the tube and the dark-haired female, still slightly under the drugs, pulls herself out and to the floor, falling into the tubes. Her legs fight to hold her up but when Varnak moves towards her and holds out a hand, she knocks it to the side and glares at him. “Do not touch me, alien scum!”

All of us wince and I say, “We’re not here to hurt you. We’re trying to help you.”

She startles, her eyes such a strange shade that shimmers like the ice planets of Venta. “How come I understand you now?” She touches the back of her neck. “What have you done to me?”

“We uploaded our language into your translation chip. We also uploaded yours into ours. In addition we’ve been studying your language while you were out so that we could understand your language.” Which was a difficult task. We knew that they spoke English so we studied that language but it was not as clear as we hoped. There were some strange blips in their language that was unusual but we did the best we could.

She glares at us and Varnak eyes her warily. I’m sure he understands that she’s the most dangerous of all of the females. All of us could tell that she was a fighter.

Her legs begin to stop shaking and she stands up taller, her bright eyes flashing, her body tense. I can see that she is strong and fierce and I can’t help but smile. These human females are more of a surprise than I thought they would be.

She stares around the med bay and I see her when she notices that her friends are still locked in the tubes. “Let them out,” she growls hoarsely, coughing.

“We will as soon as they come out of the stasis. Opening the tubes too soon can affect their bodies adversely.”

She lifts a dark brow and wipes her short hair out of her eyes. “You speak English very well. Strange.”

“We speak a multitude of languages from other planets. Yours is not the first or last.”

I hear one of the tubes open and the short one with the flaming hair lifts her arms out. The dark one steps over to her, keeping her eyes on us the whole time. She reaches out to help her friend lift her body out and stand carefully.

“Where the hell are we?” She has gold eyes and they narrow on us.

“Same place. Just recovering in the med bay.”

“I understand you. And you understand me.” She is slow to do more than mutter that. Then she lays her head down on the tube and sighs. “I’m so tired.”

“It’s from coming out of the stasis.”

She nods but I don’t think she really heard me. I nod to Zaycor and he steps to the female, his arm coming out to help her.

She flinches but her eyes study him for a second and then she accepts his help. So far, out of all of these women, she’s the only sensible one we’ve run across.

From the side of my eyes, I see another tube being opened and my breath catches in my throat when the most beautiful female I’ve ever seen anywhere in the galaxy lifts her head and hollers, “What the hell are you still doing here? Where are the other guys?” Then she attempts to stand after lifting herself out of the med tube and her legs immediately go out from under her.

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