Page 24 of No Strings Attached

Vi had thought and said, “Espionage? Really? He’s a giant, banded snake. I’d bet you could see him a mile away.”

The snake had laughed a creepy, hissing laugh, then disappeared. Vi and Bobby had gasped in shock.

Acken had leaned down and intimated quietly, “They can camouflage.”

The snake had reappeared and Vi had looked at him hard. “I want you to promise not to camouflage around the rest of us unless you’re doing it to thwart a threat or attack on us. Will you?”

“Yesss.”

Vi had turned to Bobby, “OK, let’s let him out.”

Bobby had pressed his hand to the scanner and the door was pushed open by the snake emerging. Vi had watched him uncoil and slither out of the room, astounded when she realized that he must be about 25 feet long. She had shivered uncontrollably.

Then the three of them had walked over as one to stand in front of the last occupied cage.

Vi had whispered, “If it were me, I would want you guys to kill me instead of waking me up.”

Acken had nodded down at her and said, “Say the word, Vi, and it will be done.”

She had turned to look at him, astonished. “You would just…do that…on my command? It’s not a very honorable thing for us to do.”

Acken had nodded again and said, “Agreed. There is shame in killing one who is not an adversary, is undefended, or does not pose a threat. But I believe this would be a mercy killing and,therefore, not as shameful.” He had thought about it and added, “Besides, a warrior’s heart must be large enough to carry a little bit of shame and still command the warrior to honorable deeds.My heartis very big.”

Vi had beamed up at him, patted his giant arm, and said, “That’s something we’d all agree on. Your heart is enormous.” She had looked down then and bit her lower lip. “You know what? This is too much right now. He’s turned off, brain and body. We’ll just find his user manual or something so that we can make sure his machine is in good order, and we’ll think about it later, OK?”

Bobby had asked, “Should we leave him here?”

Vi had thought for a while, then said, “Yes. But let’s open his cage. If something happens that causes him to wake up, we don’t want him to think he’s trapped. Sound good?”

They had both nodded, relieved to leave it for a later time.

Now Vi was standing before the assembled Trallians. At her request, Caussus had started searching the cavern and its many, many rooms, for clothing for all of them. To her surprise, he had found bins that contained the clothing that some of them had been captured wearing. Acken wore an enormous white fur kilt that matched his mohawk, with a leather belt and sheath, but his sword had not been found. To her shock and amusement, Friend sported a white, ruffled, Victorian collar around his neck that he had been delighted to recover. Caussus himself wore a gaudily floral-patterned silk kimono-style robe with matching slippers. Kompi, incredibly, wore a huge onesie, complete with backdoor.She wondered,is he an infant of his species? Is that why he didn’t talk? If so, good god, how big would he get?

Vi herself stood in front of her 40+ Trallian captives in her own native garb: black cargo shorts, a tight pink t-shirt, and Teva sandals. She and her crew looked fucking ridiculous, and she couldn’t be happier. She basked in the feel of having a bra and panties again, then gathered her thoughts.

Pointing to the tree that still held Qlu and his unusual gag, she said, “That asshole there is no longer in charge. We are in charge now.” She gestured to the nine males gathered informally behind her, 10 if the snail was around and was…male. “Any questions so far?”

Someone asked, “Which one of you is in charge?”

Vi answered, “All of us.”

But Acken stepped forward and said, loudly, “Sheis. She is our queen.Yourqueen.”

Vi looked into his eyes and muttered, “Yeah, Queen of Wonderland, maybe, or Oz.”

She turned back to the Trallians, “In any case, none of you will be considered slaves from this point forward.” This was met with quiet murmuring. “We are in charge, but you all will be eventually given freedom and independence. With that said, you will all be kept captive for a little while as we make our plans. We don’t know you, yet; the only members of your force who have earned our trust for now are Bobby and Trak, behind me.” She gestured back at them.

“So, we will take you to the bunk room, which I understand has all of the facilities you might need for a few days, and we’ll make sure that there is ample food. You might consider it as some welcome downtime after whatever hard work Qlu has subjected you to. I’ll come to visit you each day to speak with you and answer questions. But for now, that’s the way it has to be.” She clapped her hands in conclusion.

“Now,” she said, “I want two groups to form to the left,” pointing, “and to the right of me. The first group should be anyone who has done any meal preparation for Qlu and his visitors.”

Five Trallians came out of the throng and stood to her left.

“The second group should be anyone who has handled this asteroid’s security system programming.”

Three Trallians came up to stand to her right.

Vi nodded at Acken, who bellowed, “FOLLOW ME,” to the remaining Trallians, and they filed out. To her surprise, the snake guy slithered over and took the rear-guard position as the last Trallian exited the cavern.

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