Page 16 of No Strings Attached

Trak stood outside Vi’s cage and just shook his head, “Well Bahbi, not the best showing for your first duty watch.”

“Trak, she—”

“I know. I’ve been in the control room watching since she took the shock stick off you.”

“Why didn’t you help?” Bahbi was stunned.

Trak just shook his head again, “Because I had to wait for her to make a mistake if I was going to save you myself and not just hit the alarms and bring everyone running. How do you think that would have ended up for you?”

Bahbi’s instinct was to hang his head in shame, but the Garoxian’s paw around his throat prevented it.

“Don’t worry, kid,” Track said, as if he sensed Bahbi’s embarrassment. “We’ll—”

“Why don’t you skip the bullshit and just talk to me?” Violet was standing in the middle of the cage and arcing the shock stick in front of Trak’s face like a metronome. “Your friend’s life might just depend on how well the two of us can communicate.Negotiate.”

Trak eyed the female standing there in Bahbi’s coverall, at least a size too big if not two sizes, with little pink toes poking out from beneath the too-long legs. Bahbi thought he seemed amused, but he gave her a little nod and half-bow.

“Of course. Let’s chat. My name is Trak.”

“Trak, fine. And I’m Vi. Are you a slave here like Bobby?”

Trak nodded, “Of course. All Trallians you encounter anywhere except on the planet Trallia are slaves.”

“And do you like it?”

“…like…it?” For the first time, Bahbi saw Trak rendered speechless. “Uh…no. Does anyone like being a fucking slave?” Trak thought about it for a moment, then turned, pointed at Caussus, and mused, “Maybe that guy back there.”

“Great. I’m not super psyched about being abducted from my planet, held captive, and sold into slavery either. See? Common fucking ground.” She crossed her arms, “Now let’s talk about how we can change all of our circumstances.”

“All of our…? You’re serious about wanting to free all of these…creatures? I mean, I listened to you talking to them, but I assumed you had a smarter plan than that. Like, you know, only freeing the useful and trustworthy ones.”

Acken interjected, “She does not!”

Vi ignored him and kept her focus on Trak, “Yes. Iamserious. And what makes you the best judge of useful or trustworthy? What makes you capable of passing judgement on who should be allowed to be free and who should be sacrificed for our escape?”

Trak opened his mouth, held it, then closed it with a snap.

“Right,” Vi said. “That’s how that kind of thinking starts, the kind that ends up letting people like this Qlu motherfucker think they have the power to buy and sell anyone they want.”

“But…he does.”

“Wrong. Hedid. Until now. We’re going to expand his reality.”

“But…you’ve already made plans to leave the Ophidian behind. Isn’t that the same thing?”

“I never said we were leaving him behind. I just decided to ignore him for now. He’s an asshole.” She waived her hand dismissively, then turned toward the Ophidian’s cage, “Hey snake guy, do you really want to be the only one left in a cage when we get off this rock? Or are you going to put away that bullshit pride, grow some testicles, and join the team?”

“Fuuuck youuu, Viii.”

She turned back to Trak, “See? He’ll come along.”

“That didn’t sound like agreement.”

She shrugged. “He called me by my name. That’s what we Earthlings call the start of a beautiful friendship.”

The only response was a disgusted hiss.

Vi looked hard at Trak, “Look, I’ve been stuck in my own head for a long fucking time, crammed into a stasis pod wide awake for week after never-ending week. And I’ve been railing against what happened to me, utterly furious. I was taken from my planet to be sold at an auction, afucking auction, likeproperty.” She was pointing and gesticulating wildly. “But I had already decided that I wasn’t going to be victimized, that I was going to use my rage to either get out of this situation or die trying. That I was going to kill anyone who got in my way. Do you understand?”

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