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The alien who had allowed us in was shorter, not a Pandraxian, but I had no clue what species he belonged to. Three eyes looked like black beads as they sat over two holes in his face, assumably his nose. A fish-shaped mouth looked out of place on his narrow face.
His upper grayish body was naked and dotted with blisters, differentiating in size, some oozing a greenish puss, reawakening the bile still churning in my stomach. He waved his six-fingered hands in front of the green Pandraxian saying something I didn’t catch. I was too busy checking the room we had entered. It reminded me of an old-fashioned kitchen, complete with a wooden oven with multiple doors of different sizes. It must have been white at some point but was black and brown now.
“Don’t let her leave. She is not to be seen by anybody or talk to anybody,” the orange Pandraxian continued his orders when I tuned them back in again.
“For how long?” the oozing alien demanded, and I perked my ears because I wanted to know too.
“For as long as it pleases your benefactor,” green Pandraxian said with a sneer.
“Are you staying? How am I supposed to control… her? Is it a her?”
“Vra, it’s a her. And here.” The green Pandraxian turned to me. “Alright, calleio—bitch—here’s the deal.” He pulled a black collar from his pants and fastened it around my neck. Next, he produced a small disc and pushed on it.
An electronic jolt moved through me, convulsing my muscles, and I toppled out of the chair, hitting the floor painfully. I thought my eyes would bulge out of their sockets, but that was the least of my worries as my entire body seemed to be on fire. Muscles and nerves did what they wanted and I finally lost the battle with the bile and began throwing up. Only the bile had nowhere to go because of the gag in my mouth and tears pooled in my eyes when it came out of my nose and I realized I couldn’t breathe.
“Ah, frygg. Stupid calleio!” The green Pandraxian stepped around me. With two fingers and a disgusted expression, he took the gag off and I threw up in earnest, coughing and choking.
My throat burned, my body hurt, and tears blurred my vision. It took a big effort to work myself into a kneeling position before I managed to sit up to keep the rest of the bile down.
I wiped my mouth on the material of my nightgown by my shoulder, trying to get the acidic taste out of my mouth.
“That’s how you control her.” He thrust the disc at the other alien. “If she gives you any gruff, push that button. And you”—he turned to me—“this collar is also programmed to give you enough room to move about in a radius of five hundred paces. If you set one foot outside that circle—” He moved his fingers to indicate I would be zapped again. “The farther you go, the stronger the current. Nod if you understand me.”
Glaring, I did.
“Good.”
“Here, for your troubles.” He handed the smaller alien a purse of credits, then waved at the other two men to follow him out. “We’ll be in contact.”
“A fine mess you got me into, merrily,” the oozing alien said, pulling out a knife from his long boot. He held up the disc warningly in one hand, and the knife in the other. “I will cut you loose, but if you do anything, I’ll push this button, understood?”
“Yes,” I managed between clenched teeth and watched him cut my bindings off.
My arms were stiff and hurt when I brought them up and forward to shake the worst of the pain out as blood recirculated through my veins.
“I am Master Gitgo,” he introduced himself. “Now make yourself useful and clean this place up. I’m going back to bed.” By the door he turned. “And just so you don’t get any stupid ideas of screaming, nobody will come running if they hear you. And if they do, trust me, you don’t want them anywhere near you.” He cackled menacingly. “Also, I sleep with one eye open, so you can’t creep up on me, got it?”
“Got it,” I whispered, fighting against the acidic taste still lingering in my mouth.
“Cleaning supplies are under the sink. Get to work. If I come back and this place is not spotless…” He held up the disc.
“You’ll zap me,” I concluded.
“You’re smart.” He tapped at his head and was about to leave the kitchen.
“Hold on,” I called out, desperately.
“What do you want?” he demanded, crossing his short arms over his oozing chest. “I need to get some sleep.”
Desperate to get out of here, I said, “Listen, you don’t know who I am. I—”
He waved his arm. “Spare me. I don’t care who you are, even if you were the new empress, I won’t let you go.”
His three eyes blinked at me emotionlessly. “You’re only wasting your and my time. Get to cleaning.”
“I can give you credits, more than—”
He huffed impatiently. “I appreciate the offer, but you pissed off the wrong people. People you shouldn’t have messed with and people I don’t like messing with. They tell me to keep you here, I’ll keep you here. So I don’t end up like you, or worse.”
