Page 36 of Stowaway to the Stars: A Duet
When she reached their room, she flinched as she opened the door in the wall. It made the usual sound, and she waited for a moment before stepping inside. A-rec was still asleep, thank God. The man (alien?) slept like a damned log. Something she once thought was annoying, especially in the early days of her living on the ship, was now a blessing.
The closet. She knew what he kept in the closet.
She used her thumbprint to open the closet near the door.
There it sat, mounted on the wall like a trophy.
The stun gun.
She recalled the earlier conversation she had had with A-rec and how he explained that it was against his people’s rules to use lethal force on another. That didn’t mean they went without weapons, of course. They were fans of the taser and stun guns.
She carefully lifted the weapon off the wall mount…and nearly dropped it on her toes in the process. God damn, this thing was heavy! How the hell was she supposed to carry it all the way there?
A light bulb lit up in her head, and she reached up for the towels on the shelf above. It was almost impossible for her to reach, but somehow she managed to grab them by the tips of her fingers.
She struggled to fit the gun on the towel and breathed a sigh of relief when she was able to let go of the damn thing. It had to have been almost a hundred pounds on Earth. Actually, she was pretty proud of herself for being able to lift it at all.
She grabbed both ends of the towel to create a kind of makeshift baggie and pulled with all her might. This was certainly a lot easier than carrying it in her arms or over her shoulder.
She dragged the weapon across the floor as quickly as she could manage…which wasn’t very fast at all. Fuck.
But still, she wouldn’t give up.
When she finally rounded the hallway that would lead to the closed off area that held the transportation pods, she slowed down. She dropped her hold on the gun and tiptoed to the corner.
There was not one, but TWO guards on duty.
Okay, so the odds were certainly not in her favor.
Here goes nothing…
She turned and unwrapped the gun. She carefully hoisted it up into her arms, using her hip as leverage. She paused for a moment and admired her distorted reflection in the chrome walls of the hallway. If she squinted, she kind of looked like Ripley from the ALIEN franchise. Except there was NO WAY she could carry this stun gun with one hand and a child on her hip. She shuddered at the thought.
She took a deep breath and then stepped out into the hallway.
“Hey,” one of the alien guys said. This one was green. “What are you doing here? And where did you get THAT?”
Darcy didn’t want to give them too much time to think. In fact, talking was probably a bad idea altogether. So she simply aimed and fired.
The first one, the one that spoke, dropped to the ground.
“HUMAN! What do you think you’re-”
The second one dropped so hard that the floor shook.
Fuck! Darcy dropped the stun gun at her feet. Okay, that was a lot easier than she had originally thought it would be. Was it bad that she decided to shoot first and ask questions later? Probably. But it was what it was.
She stepped over them and pressed her palm to the door. She was surprised when it opened. Were these guys so cocky or what? If they wanted to keep her out, they should have banned her handprint.
The door opened with a WHOOSH, and she stepped inside.
The room was dark. The only light came from the glowing red lights on the transportation pods and the strangely luminescent blue that illuminated the contents of the pods. The girls floated in their prison, eyes closed and mouth relaxed as if they were in a state of deep sleep.
Eight storage pods lined up against the walls of the space. It was like something you’d see in a horror movie back home. Darcy blinked a few times, hoping she’d wake up and this would all be some horrific nightmare.
Darcy hesitated. What exactly was her plan? Wake them up, tell them everything, and then just deal with the consequences later? She wasn’t worried about the consequences… She was worried about the women.
How would they react when she did this? They would be terrified, she knew. Would they scream and cry? Probably. Was she equipped to handle this all on her own? Maybe she should have thought this through a little more… She had no clothes or food for them. What the fuck was she thinking?
