Page 9 of No Strings Attached

“But you work for the asshole responsible?

A tilt of his head.

“So, like everything in life, it’s fucking complicated, right?”

Bahbi nodded.

“Let’s try this: do you like or support whoever is responsible? Are you on their side?”

Several emphatic shakes.

“Are you here voluntarily?

Another series of emphatic shakes.

“Do you know what they’re going to do with us?”

A nod and a grimace.

“Are they going to eat us?”

A shake, a tilt, then a reluctant point towards the giant snail.

“They’re going to eat that guy in the last cage, but probably not the rest of us?”

A nod.

“Are they going to fuck us?”

Bahbi let several seconds slip by, then slowly nodded and pointed at her.

“Just me, huh? Lovely.” She thought for a moment. “Can you break us all out of here?”

Several more emphatic shakes.

“Even if we take you with us when we leave?”

A very slow, very contemplative shake. Bahbi noticed that she hadn’t asked about freedom for just herself. He wondered if the other captives had, as well. She thought in terms of “us” and “we,” not “I,” and she was willing to include him in the “us” and “we.” The impact of that realization generated the tiniest fissure along the fault lines of Bahbi’s reality. He had never, ever been part of an “us” or a “we,” not even among his own litter.

“That idea has some appeal to you, doesn’t it?”

A slow, semi-dazed nod.

“OK, give it to me. I’ll put your damned translator in my ear if you promise, PROMISE, to try to get me a blanket.”

Bahbi nodded, then placed his hand over his heart and bowed as low as he could.

The female chuckled, “You’re a very earnest otterman. I could almost believe you.”

The known habited worlds of the galaxy fitted everyone with translators during their infancy, so Bahbi had never seen one implanted before into an adult sentient. That’s why he wasn’t prepared when the female began to scream as the device’s tendrils made contact with her ear canal and pulled themselves in to burrow and lodge permanently in her head.

He was doubly unprepared to see her fall, screaming and writhing on the cage floor, while the Garoxian went mad in the cage next to her. Bahbi stood, gape mouthed, as the terrible scene played out and the Estranian howled with laughter from across the room.

Until she fell silent and stopped moving, then the room went very quiet.

After a few seconds, he heard, “Youuu ssseem to beee mossst ssseriousssly fucked, Traaalllian,” followed by laughter from the adjacent cage.

Bahbi just nodded, still locked in the mode of conversation started with the female and jaw frozen.I’m going to have to go in there. Oh fuck, I’m going to have to go in there to see if she is still alive.In his panic, he had forgotten all about the cage sensors in the control room.

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