Page 1 of Taken By the Convicts
Chapter One
MELINA
“I’m going to fuck you,” the med-tech said as he slammed Melina against the wall. “Put you in your place.”
Melina pushed her fear down as far as she could and shoved back against the hard body. Collins didn’t give an inch. She’d left the safety of her office to check on her patients, forgetting about Collins.
Manager Thorne thought upgrading this brute from miner to med-tech would solve the med-center’s problems. Three weeks she’d been hiding in the med-center, the only haven she had on the prison planet of Veenith. Now she had a rapist roaming freely inside with her. No guards. No chains. Nothing to keep him from hurting her.
The med-tech pressed his hard length into the crevice of her ass while his hand snaked around to her front and grabbed a breast. Despite the cold of winter, her pants were too thin. She could feel his shaft all too easily as he ground against her.
“Get off of me!” she spat as she thrust her elbow back.
He caught her arm and twisted. She yelped in pain. The muffled roar behind her and the clanking of metal chains reminded her they weren’t alone.
“Shut the fuck up, Crusher,” Collins yelled at the patient chained to the exam table. Collins spun Melina around. Her eyes drifted past him to the massive man straining against his chains locking him to the nearby exam table. The patient’s thick muscles bulged, making him intimidating as hell. Rage. . . so full of rage, not unlike most of the men on Veenith. The Level 5 prison planet received the worst criminals in The Company’s territory, mostly rapists and murderers.
And a doctor who didn’t know how to keep her mouth shut.
“Where are you, Dr. Archer?” Manager Thorne’s voice carried from the hallway.
Collins released her immediately.
“Here,” she called out, her voice shaky. Why hadn’t she yelled before? Because Namir had taught her that screaming only brought pain.
Thorne, a no-nonsense man in his late forties, pushed open the isolation bay doors. His eyes missed nothing, but that didn’t mean he cared. Not about her or the prisoners. Only his precious ore the prisoners mined. Serilium. The key ingredient in the metal used for every spacecraft. The metal was lighter and sturdier than traditional titanium alloys, and The Company owned the planet with the greatest source of serilium, not to mention the free workforce to mine it.
Wars had been fought over Veenith as a valuable resource planet, and there was no way The Company would ever give up control of the mines. It was also the only reason she had a state-of-the-art med-center. The execs couldn’t care less about the miners except they were needed to mine the serilium. And that meant she was responsible for keeping the miners healthy.
“Leave, Collins,” Thorne said.
The med-tech sauntered out, passed Thorne, and turned enough so she’d see him grab his crotch.
“I don’t want Collins here,” Melina said before Thorne could speak.
“I don’t give a shit what you want. He has experience as a med-tech. You need him. Treat the damn miners. Get this place in order. You have several beds without chains, the inventory doesn’t match what’s on file, and I haven’t seen any research from you since you arrived. Three weeks and nothing.”
“I’ve been busy learning the equipment, and you didn’t tell me what research you wanted.”
“You have clearance to Section A of the greenhouse. The previous doctor cultivated what he considered promising specimens, plants unique to Veenith, and left them in Section A. Start analyzing them for any pharmaceutical properties. And keep out of Section B. I don’t need anyone else screwing up the food stores. We rely on those vegetables during the winter months. Staff as well as prisoners.”
“Yes, Manager.”
His eyes narrowed. “I mean it, Archer. Disobey me and you won’t like how I retaliate. Just ask the other doctors here.”
“There are no other doctors here.”
“No live ones. The last doctor didn’t know how to mind his own business. Now, get this damn med-center under control. If there’s another mine collapse, I doubt you’ll be able to save anyone who’s brought through the doors. Again.”
She winced at the memory. Nineteen men had been brought in with life-threatening injuries, and she’d been unprepared. She’d lost ten men that day.
It didn’t matter that the mine had collapsed on her second day here and she hadn’t been given access to the locked supply bins and had had no help. Oh, and she didn’t treat patients in research and development, let alone emergency cases. She’d told Thorne that, but he didn’t care. Ten mendied. Results and obedience. Nothing else mattered to the planet’s manager.
She hadn’t had a rotation through emergency room medicine since her first year of medical school. Developing medicines, performing trials. . . these were her areas of expertise. She didn’t have the experience to be in charge of a med-center.
Without another doctor here, she’d have to teach herself whatever she needed. At least she had access to a medical database. She’d been studying it every free moment she had, which helped, but it wasn’t the same as hands-on experience. Having all the knowledge at her fingertips wouldn’t help her in a time-sensitive crisis.
“Why is he in here?” Thorne said, pointing to her patient, a huge man with lateral scars across the upper part of his throat.
