Page 5 of Jessica's Mates
Brooklyn’s guy had to be the sweetest thing ever. Makee was mute and spoke through sign language that Brooklyn had taught him. She had shown us new girls how to say hello and different signs. He could understand us, but he couldn’t speak. Elle had really started to talk to him a lot. And just watching Brooklyn’s face light up every time she saw one of us going out of our way to talk to him made me cry. Hell, I was emotional and moody. Maybe I was getting my period. That had been fun already. I got it the first week I was here. It was kind of the way I had worked out days here.
“I need to talk to all of you,” I told them. The talking stopped, and they all watched me now. “It’s important and I think now… I’m ready.” I had to be.
“Let’s get dried up and meet at the table for some food. Is that okay, Jessica?” Quinn asked and I nodded. That gave me time to work out how to start this.
This was hard, I knew they didn’t really like me. Hell, they didn’t even know the real me. I did this, I caused this rift between us all and I couldn’t live another day with it here. I cleared my throat.
“I know I have been rude and unkind to you all at times, especially on our way here. That’s not who I am, and it's not who I want to be. I'm sorry I've been so emotional, but the truth is, I did it for everyone's safety. At first, it was to save myself and you all, and then to save K’Tem.”
They were all quiet, nodding, waiting for me to continue. I didn't think this would be hard, but I really had treated them badly and I wanted to make sure they knew how ashamed I felt.
“When we were at the government facility on Earth, I wanted out. I didn't want to be here. I asked Agent Booker to let me leave.” I watched as their mouths dropped open. “He took me to a room where I assumed was the next step to being off the crazy ride, but what I didn't expect to see was eleven other women. The women that had left before me.” I choked back a sob. I didn't want to know what had happened to them after I left. Did they leave?
“What do you mean they were there, even Grace?” Luna asked. Grace was the woman who was last to leave, before I tried. Then they brought in Quinn to take her spot. I nodded and the other girls gasped.
“Do you think… No! I don’t even want to think about it, they’re okay. They're fine, right?” Hadley asked. I could see the tears in her eyes as she looked around to all of us. I didn't know the answer to that. I wanted to believe they were all alive, but if I had to be realistic, I didn’t think they were happy and back living their own lives.
“How come you didn't tell us until now?” Quinn seemed shocked, just like everyone else, but I could hear the anger in her tone directed at me.
“Agent Booker threatened me if I told you. I saw the women in there and they were begging me to go back with you all, to get on that ship and get married. I was scared, he showed me his gun, it didn't matter if we signed an NDA. We weren't getting out of this, it was either marry an alien or…” I started sobbing and I felt someone's hand stroking my back.
“It's okay, Jessica, you did what you were told to do. I don't know what I would have done in your position. And you have carried that for all this time, and here we are thinking everyone left and went home. But you knew all along that wasn't the case.”
I nodded and sniffled. “I wanted to tell you, but any time I felt like I could, I would remember the girls in the room. If I told you, would something happen to them because I didn't keep my mouth shut? Would Booker kill them because I spoke up? Or kill me? I pushed you all away. I wanted you to hate me, avoid me, so that I wouldn't slip up and tell you. Pushing you all away to keep the others safe. But we are safe now…”
There wasn't a dry eye at the table; all of us were crying now. The mates had no idea what to do with all their females crying. They fussed and brought us food and water. But no matter what they did, we cried it out. Sometimes it’s the only way to get past something.
For me, it was healing.
Chapter Six
K’Tem
It only took eight hours in the smaller craft to get to mine eighty-seven. As I stepped out and into the humid air that was Aaryzn, it was when reality really hit me. I was here. My feet were on the same soil as my fated. I felt a huge sense of relief; I was so close. My hearts beating in overtime at the thought of having her soon in my arms. I just had to track to where she was and that was now the difficult part.
I turned to see some prisoners unloading food and drinking water from the cargo bay. I questioned why we had drinking water transported here when there was an abundance of water on Aarzyn.
“The water is for the M’Mori only. Where the mines are, the water has been contaminated. Sometimes the prisoners run off in search of fresh water, but we always find them and bring them back. They all have trackers, so we don’t lose any. Sometimes I let them go close to the natives… just for fun. To see what they would do.” He chuckled, but I didn’t laugh with him. What the hell was he saying? He let prisoners close to the Aashi to see what they would do? Did he mean the Aashi or the prisoners?
He tilted his head, waiting for my response. I nodded at his words, although I didn’t agree with them. I saw then they were unloading cages full of slaves.
I felt a hand on my shoulder as I watched the males from a planet I only knew from my books during my schooling years… Zalli. The males were similar to the human males on earth, they had the protruding nose, two arms and legs. Yet, they were colored differently to humans. I knew from my books that the color came from the different tribes and places they lived on Zalli—like the Aashi—except these were much easier to tell.
I saw blue and green males in chains moving out of the small cage, being forced to walk as a soldier used a holo-wand on them. The holo-wand was charged with an energy that would burn and scar the skin. My feet moved towards them, I wanted to stop the guard for his treatment towards them.
“Ah, these warrior males are strong. You watch them out there working. You will see. They are better than any of the shit they send us from Xurdo.” The soldier was referring to the planet that housed hundreds of thousands of prisoners. Xurdo Prison Planet. It would be where I ended up if I were caught leaving my post.
I just hoped that R’Nam could make it look like I traveled back, and no one would ask questions or come looking for me. Which meant I would be leaving all my weapons here. They would be tracked. I didn’t have a tracker on me other than my M’Mori government issued datawatch. All M’Mori carried one, which was also a translator for those who chose not to get the implant later on—if you could afford one. Having a brother who was good with tech meant my whole family had the implants. So, I would leave my datawatch behind because I would understand the Aashi language, but I wasn’t able to speak it fluently. I would take only my datapad with me for the trip I had ahead. I had the human language of English programmed in there, also the Aashi language, in case I needed to speak with them and I needed a better translation.
I heard a guttural call and looked up as one of the blue males was on his knees, the soldier was now holding the holo-wand to his neck. Everything in me screamed to go to him, stop this brutality, this taking of warriors from their planet and enslaving them here, to live their lives in the mines. Then, if they survived that, sent to Theros Six to fight in the gladiator rings for the remainder of their lives.
I just hoped that with all the information I had supplied R’Nam, he would be able to somehow stop this from continuing. I couldn’t take this anymore. I turned and followed soldiers to where my sleeping quarters were. I would rest this night and begin my journey in the early hours of dawn.
I had packed my bag. I included eight days worth of food. As M’Mori, we were meat eaters and I knew the Aashi were mostly vegetarian. So, this was something I would need to get used to. I knew what was edible here on Aarzyn, so once I ran out, I would be able to eat the same foods my fated does.
My gun was with me for now. I didn’t want to leave that behind in my quarters. It would hint to something being wrong and I didn’t want that. I wanted time on my side. I ate a quick meal with two other soldiers who were bragging about how much damage the holo-wand had done to the Zalli warrior’s throat last night. It made me sick that these were the types of people that the M’Mori could become. That anyone could want to inflict that kind of pain on anyone.
“You’re in Section A, do you have the mine downloaded on your datawatch?” I nodded to the supervisor. I did have the map downloaded so I could make my way out of here. I would get to Section A, but once there I would leave my watch and gun.
