Page 10 of Alien Abduction for Professionals
“Females can take a while when trying on clothes,” the Brontes said, looking unconcerned.
We declined. If hisrefreshmentswere the same quality as his stall, we'd likely end up with food poisoning.
"Maybe ping her communicator," Xil suggested. "Just to check if she needs help deciding."
My present for her was already coming in handy. I'd made the right choice, even though it had taken me forever to decide.
I dialled her communicator's ID and waited for her to respond. I hadn't shown her how to use it yet, but all she had to do to pick up a call was press one very obvious button or use voice control. I'd made sure the device had human English installed as a language.
"The changing rooms are data-insulated," the Brontes told me. Was that a smirk on his thick lips? "We don't want customers to be disturbed while trying on clothes. It's an intimate process, after all."
That didn't make sense to me, but I didn't know much about fashion. I bought my clothes in bulk and put on whatever was on top of the stack in my wardrobe. Now that we were part of Professor Katila's case study, we had to wear slightly more formal clothes, but Trish had assured me that my black garments would be fine.
We waited for a little while longer until I couldn't stand it any longer.
"I'm going to check on her," I announced and headed off to where we'd last seen Trish. She'd disappeared behind the stall, but when I scanned the dirty, rubbish-strewn area at the back of the shops, there was no changing pod. Strange. A few doors led away from the main shopping area into the belly of the space station, but those were out of bounds and likely locked. She wouldn't have gone into one of them. So where was Trish?
I called out to the others, but they were already close behind me.
"Where is she?" Matar asked and sniffed the air. "I can smell her scent, she's been here, but where did she disappear to?"
"Let's ask that Brontes," Xil growled. "He can lead us to that mysterious changing pod."
A strangely muffled cry made me look up just in time to see a silver pod disappear through a hatch in the ceiling.
Someone had taken Trish.
I exchanged a look with the guys and without another word, we broke into a run.
It took us way too long to reach the nearest elevator. It took even longer for the warden to understand why we wanted to go to the platform above even though none of the shops there were currently open. By the time we finally burst out of the lift, my heart was racing. My fangs were fully extended, ready to rip into whoever had taken our Trish.
I checked my communicator. "Five life signs further ahead. One of them human."
We ran as fast as we could, Xil in the lead, Matar and I flanking him. Matar's tail was wrapped around his waist so as not to get in the way, but I knew he'd use it to fight our enemies as soon as we got close. The three of us had trained together. Yes, we'd been traders before we'd started our Alien Abduction for Beginners course, but that didn't mean we didn't know how to fight. On Kardar, every youngling learned how to defend themselves. Hatcheries taught combat skills in addition to academic subjects. With three sentient species living on the same planet, there had been many wars in the past. Right now, an unsteady peace kept everyone in check, but I was sure that one day, Kardarians would have to fight again.
The platform lay deserted, only a few lamps illuminating our path. Empty stalls, the tables covered in grey fabric, gave it a ghostly feel. Dust covered the ground. I didn't know why this platform was no longer used, but it was the perfect hideout for whoever had stolen Trish from us. It was lucky the elevator warden had agreed to take us here. Involving the station security would have taken way too long.
We sprinted in silence, faster than we'd ever run before. Finally, a silver pod glinted in the distance. My fangs poked my bottom lip as adrenaline pumped through me. Battle lust threatened to overwhelm me even though we hadn't even seen the abductors yet.
While running, I took a look at the communicator again. The life signs were moving away from us, but we were faster. It wouldn't be long before they came into sight.
Beside me, Matar was breathing hard, and I felt exhaustion creep up on me, too. None of us did much exercise. Now I regretted that. We'd done some weightlifting before we'd abducted Trish - the course had recommended for us to look our best so to attract our female - but that was a while ago now. I swore I would do regular cardio as soon as we were safely back on the Jade.
Finally, four figures came into view. Large, bulky, bipedal. It was too dark to see much more than that. I increased my speed even further. They weren't going to get away. One of them carried something on his shoulders. Trish?
"Ari, dial Trish," I commanded my communicator. I usually preferred manual input, but I wanted to keep my eyes on the abductors.
A traditional Kardarian folk dance started playing in front of us. Yes, they had Trish with them. I was glad I'd already set up her communicator.
"Stop!" Xil roared as soon as we got close enough for them to hear us.
They didn't even turn around, just kept running. Where were they even going? There was nothing up here. If they wanted to take them to their ship, they'd have to use one of the elevators, but they'd passed two of them already without stopping. Not that I wanted them to take a lift. I wasn't sure if the warden had alerted security. There was no time to check.
Once we got closer, I finally recognised the aliens. Tarpartians. Yuck. Since they hadn't actually developed spaceflight yet, there weren't many of them. They had the advantage of their planet having an extraordinarily strong gravitational pull, which had led many a spaceship to crash land on Tarpa. Scavenging parts and repairing ships, they'd somehow managed to reach nearby space stations. While they weren't very bright, they'd soon become known to be excellent bodyguards. They were loyal, tough, greedy and lacked morals. They'd do pretty much anything for the right incentive, like abducting a human. I doubted it was them who'd had the idea. They were just lackeys for whoever had really orchestrated the kidnapping. Had this been random or had they wanted Trish for some reason? In most places, humans weren't known at all since the only ones travelling the galaxy were those who'd been abducted. Peritus was making its first small steps towards the stars, but it would still take a while for them to be able to reach their closest planets, let alone a space station like Kitt-Y-6.
No, it had to have been random. That changing room had been a trap for the first person to step into it.
"Stop right now!" Xil bellowed once more.
