Page 17 of No Strings Attached

Trak nodded. Bahbi was sure he was thinking about the dead Ulu.

“But today I realized that this terrible thing that has happened to me is nothing special. Because it happened to every single one of us in this room. Out here, apparently, it is exceedingly fucking common to have no regard for the sanctity of life.” Violet began to raise her voice, “But I say FUCK NO to that. Do you hear me? Fuck no for me, fuck no for you and you,” pointing at both Trak and Bahbi, “and fuck no for anyone else in here who wants to fight with us for freedom. We’re going to get the fuck out of these cages and get the fuck off this asteroid. Together.”

“Hmm,” Trak said, “so I guess you’re bluffing about killing Bahbi, then?”

Vi just stared at him.

Bahbi watched as Trak considered, then turned to look at him. “What do you think, kid? I’m looking at the possibilities and thinking it has to be both of us or neither of us. Do you feel like risking your ass—your life—for the highly unlikely possibility of tasting a little freedom?”

Bahbi’s entire reality had been shattered within the span of two days. His station, his place in his own universe drastically redefined, repeatedly. He didn’t have the luxury of time to consider who he was, who he was going to be, who he wanted to be, or what he was doing. But he lifted his eyes to first Trak, then Vi, and said, “Yes.”

Bahbi looked at Vi and said, hesitantly, “You’re…uh…you’re going to have to give me back my clothes.”

Trak and Vi had discussed the best course of action for a very long time before Vi had given the Garoxian a nod to releaseBahbi, and Bahbi had automatically scrambled to the far side of the cage to stay out of his reach.

Qlu had three supply ships because he liked to obtain specialty items from three different space stations in this and nearby systems. Trak had explained that they usually rotated two ships out and one ship back, but the ship that had been scheduled to have already returned had experienced some drive problems and needed minor repairs. So, there were no supply ships on the asteroid at the moment, and the repaired one wouldn’t return for two or three days.

There’d been a heated discussion then, mostly between Vi, Trak, and Acken, about the merits of either taking the first available ship and risking drive issues or waiting for longer to secure one of the more reliable vessels. Either way, it meant everyone was going to have to stay in their cages for several more days. Vi hadn’t been on board with that, at all, since it came down to trusting Trak and Bahbi’s word that they would, indeed, facilitate the escape at some later point.

Looking suspiciously at Trak, she had muttered, “I have a hard time believing that Qlu would leave himself without transportation off this fucking rock.”

“He hasn’t,” Trak had replied with exasperation, “he has a fully stocked ship in a private hangar bay that can only be reached through his quarters. Hissecureandheavily guardedquarters. We could probably bust through the Trallian guards usingthatorthatorthat,” he gestured first at the Garoxian, then at the Estranian, then at the Ophidian, “but we still won’t make it past his biometric security if he’s locked inside the quarters.”

Vi had looked at Bahbi, then, but everything they had discussed so far had been news to him. He couldn’t back Trak up at all. He had shrugged and said, “I don’t know any of this.”

Vi had kept regarding him for a moment, then said, “Give me your promise that you will free us from these cages no matterwhat, even if it turns out your friend is lying about everything, and we have to figure out our own escape.” That’s when she had given the nod to the Garoxian, who released Bahbi.

After he had scrambled over to the far side of the cage, warily eying the Garoxian’s reach, he had looked at Vi and held her gaze. Then, without thinking he knelt in imitation of Acken, and said, “I promise that I will release all of you from these cages, even if I can do no more than that.” Did she really trust him more than she trusted Trak? He hesitated for a moment, then added, “Even if it means my death.”

Vi had continued to hold his gaze for another moment, green eyes blazing, then gave him a small nod, and he stood.

Acken blew out a frustrated breath and yelled, “Surely you jest! You are going to trust these scurrying vermin and their honor to let us out of these cages? You are going to take them at their word?” He grasped the bars in front of him and let his head hang down. “Little she-beast, you really are too naïve.”

Vi swung around to glare at him and shouted, “I’m giving them the same benefit of the doubt that I’m giving you, asshole! Why should I give them less trust than I’m giving you?”

“Because,” Acken said, raising his gaze tiredly, “they know nothing of honor. They willingly enter into slavery and do their masters’ bidding. You need to get us out of these cages now. There will not be another chance.”

“For what, so we can sit cross-legged in an empty hangar and sing “Kumbaya” for three days while Qlu throws everything he’s got at us?”

Acken just glared.

Vi turned back to Bahbi and regarded him, then said to Acken while holding Bahbi’s gaze, “I don’t see any reason to believe that they wouldn’t want their freedom as much as we want our own. I don’t think anyone has given them the chance to even consider the option before. And I want to give them that chance.”

Bahbi closed his eyes and said the only thing that felt right in that moment, “Thank you.” Trak snorted.

Now, she was looking at him with a decidedly unfriendly expression. She screwed up her face and pointed at him, “Unless you can adjust the temperature controls, you’re going to bring me something to wear or a blanket each time you come on watch. Even if it’s your own coverall. I’ll fucking die from hypothermia if you don’t.”

Bahbi nodded, “I will.”

“And I’m going to keep this on until your watch is over.”

Bahbi was in the middle of nodding again when he stopped and said, “But, we’re going to have to get that blood off of you before day watch. I was ordered to do it. Alved thought I should just spray you with the hose,” he pointed over to the utility area, “and I don’t think there’s any warm water. If we don’t get that off of you tonight, the day watch will just spray you down with freezing water when they come on. If we clean you off now, you can put the clothes back on and warm up again.”

Vi sighed and said, “All right, let’s go get the water and a rag.”

Bahbi had never been in such close proximity to an unrelated female before. In fact, he had only ever been in any proximity to three females: his mother, the female from his litter, and the female from the litter he had tended.

He snaked his arm around the front of the cage to use the scanner pad and released both of them from the enclosure, then walked with Vi over to the utility area and watched her peel off his coverall. Although he had never worn clothing on Trallia and was still getting used to the way the coverall restricted his movements and rubbed him the wrong way in many parts of his body, standing here with the naked female was the first time that he had ever, in his life, also felt naked. It felt strangely intimate, and that made him simultaneously feel hot and excited in the pit of his belly, but also clumsy and awkward. He could hear Trak speaking with Acken some distance behind them, but he couldn’t take his awareness away from Vi and their mutual nakedness. She was only three hands breadths away.

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