Page 64 of Seven Oars
“Undetermined.” The purple belly-button light was blinking lazily from across the room.
Xorris stumbled closer to Rosamma. He smelled the worst of them, a rank sour stench of an unwashed body that was peculiar, alien, and male.
“Does she have an infection?”
“Oh, fuck, no.” Ucai visibly shuddered.“Had enough of the flesh rot with Aolis. He also hadweak biomarkers.”
“You’re right, he did! And those pus-oozing sores.”
“Not even the healing powder helped. He looked like a giant toe with a fungus infection.”
“He was a great pilot,” Keerym remarked.“Pity he smoked the healing powder more than he rubbed it on his sores.”
They all roared with laughter, their attention drifting away from Rosamma.
She scooted toward a wall and hugged herself, her metal bracelets like icicles against her clammy skin.
The pirates pawed the other women, yanking limbs and inspecting them. They laughed as they groped and squeezed body parts. The women’s cries and pleas not to hurt them seemed only to fuel the aliens’excitement.
The music became louder and more disjointed.
Lust filled the air. It was thick now, easily discernible, the dark male energy that clamored for a violent relief. The pirates created it and fed off of it at the same time in a vicious circle that spun faster and tighter.
It twisted Rosamma’s insides into a painful knot.
In a hysterical flash, she recalled how they had only recently feared Phex and his crew, thinking of them as their evil torturers…
Her eyes cut again to Phex, an unwilling, passive participant in this debasement.
His chin was up, the tilt of his head as regal as ever.
Another passive participant was Striker Fincros. It suddenly struck Rosamma how similar their unreadable expressions were. Mirror images of one another: one glowing with pure, clean pride, the other shrouded in cold, malevolent intent.
Fincros remained seated, swiveling slightly, unperturbed by the debauchery. His six-fingered hand casually caressed the edge of the tattooed seat…
The pirates pushed the women together.
“Which one?”
“Who’s first?”
There was a pause where they ceased their groping and scrutinized the writhing tangle of female bodies at their feet.
The pirates weren’t being bashful about starting an orgy per se; it was the women’s foreign bodies that gave them pause. Rosamma’s period blood and the reminder of their comrade with his flesh-eating disease created that uncertainty.
Please, Rosamma pleaded with the Universe,let it be enough to stop this madness.
The shock of the abuse erupting now, after the women had lulled themselves into a false sense of semi-security, jarred her system in the worst way. Her heart fluttered like a frightened bird, smashing against her rib cage, threatening to jump out of her chest. She closed her eyes, trying to shut out the room, desperate for a moment’s relief.
“Let the defender go first,” the Striker suddenly said.
Her eyes snapped open and latched onto Phex.
No. No. He wouldn’t. They’d have to kill him first. They would kill him…
“Great idea! I was just thinking of it myself,” Esseh claimed.
Nud and Xorris rushed Phex. He fought back, but others joined in.
