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"Move, humans. The Gorken await."
We were herded out and into the corridor, shuffled forward by the guttural commands of the trolls with their leering grins and coarse laughter that scraped against my eardrums like sandpaper. Words my translator implant forced me to understand but wished I did not.
That name, Gorken, was foreign yet filled with an ominous weight, a specter that now had a form as they appeared at the end of the passage. Monstrous figures loomed like a fusion of lizards and insects, their scaly bodies gleaming under the dim artificial light. Their shark eyes were deep pools of emptiness, absorbing all hope within their gaze. Sinuous appendages extended from beneath their armored exoskeletons, moving with an unsettling blend of grace and purpose. Instead of conventional mouths, jagged slits punctuated the hard carapace of their faces, opening and closing in silent anticipation of the upcoming exchange.
My breath hitched, chest tightening in a vice of dread. We were commodities, flesh, and bone bartered across stars unknown. My mind recoiled at the sight of them, the Gorken—a harsh reminder of the vast gulf between this reality and the life I once knew.
The trolls pushed us through the threshold, into the blinding embrace of a blood-orange sun that did not warm but seared. For a moment, my eyes caught the vista of the red planet sprawling beneath the violet sky, a canvas of alien beauty that should have stirred wonder, not terror.
"Board the ship!" A troll prodded sharply, snapping me back to the grim procession toward the gaping maw of the Gorken vessel.
As we approached, the ground beneath my feet resonated with the hum of engines, a vibration that reached deep into my bones. It sang of distances unfathomable, of cold spaces between stars where Earth was but a whisper on cosmic winds.
"Into the belly of the beast, then," a girl beside me muttered, her voice a blend of irony and fear. Her eyes met mine, and in them, I recognized my reflection, a mirror of haunted resolve.
We crossed the threshold together, stepping into the dimly lit interior of the spacecraft. With each step, the door to everything familiar narrowed, a contracting portal to a past life that slipped further out of reach. But still, within the confines of this new prison, the ember of defiance within me glowed brighter.
We were marched into a large holding cell, the air heavy with the metallic tang of fear and uncertainty. The room was dimly lit by overhead lights that cast eerie shadows on the smooth, metal walls. The floor was cold and hard beneath my bare feet, sending shivers up my spine as we huddled together for comfort.
As the Gorken activated the row of glowing, razor-thin bars that blocked our escape, I was struck with a sense of foreboding that settled over me like a weighted blanket. The bars seemed to writhe and undulate in the dim light, taunting us with their unyielding presence. I tentatively reached out, my fingers stinging from the icy heat, and recoiled from the electric shock that coursed up my arm.
“Electrified,” I muttered.
I exchanged uneasy glances with the other women, knowing that our fates were now intertwined within this forbidding cell where every breath felt like a struggle against the unknown forces that held us captive. Yet, survival was the silent rebellion which no shackles could claim, and no darkness could extinguish.
Inside the heart of the Gorken craft, surrounded by strangers, I pledged to hold onto my ember of defiance, to nurture it into a flame that could illuminate the path back home.
Chapter Two
GUNNOX
Even after all I’d seen in the past few suns-rises, it still struck me as unfathomable to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with my rival clans inside the city of Huren. This wasn't a secret mission inside Huren territory to hunt for meat for my starving clan, but a collaboration of all three clans to defend Valose against outside invaders from beyond the clouds.
I’d been told that even a small group of Nuttaki, the insectoids who were once our mortal enemies, had joined forces with all three clans in the final battle to reclaim our world from the Gretolics. I imagined it was a sight to behold.
“The techs intercepted a message from the Gretolic’s spacecraft after they left here with the Valosian males and human females who had been held captive under the palace,” Sia Jakkar told us. Once ruler of Clan Huren, he now ruled over all three clans. “Thanks to Lennox and Aggar, they were able to record the majority of it, giving us the location of where our people were taken.”
Inside the Huren hangar, I stood between my clansman, Drekkor, and Murrox who was the Sia of Clan Jurigon, preparing to listen to a message intercepted by our clans’ techs.
“This is a recording of the Gretolics negotiating a trade with another alien species called a trollis,” Aggar, of Clan Huren, explained. “We believe they were headed to a trading port on Tirius after leaving here. Many munthis have passed and though a few have been returned, most have not. We don’t have a long-range spacecraft to go after them.”
“Until now,” Tyrk, the massive, horned Nomadican said with a cocky jut of his chin. He was one of five who had escaped the dinner plate of a giant alien along with me.
“Aye, until now,” Zaku, a large and very purple scaled Moktain, affirmed with a sly grin. “With full cloaking capabilities against all scanners, even Moktain tech, you will have the ability to travel undetected."
Zaku had crash-landed inside Trisess territory with his human mate, Ivy. After demonstrating his loyalty during a skirmish with the Nuttaki, Sia Jakkar had deemed him a member of Clan Huren and a warrior of Valose. Besides a strong sword arm, he had brought with him the expertise to aid our techs in building a long-range weapon, and the planetary shield that kept our world safe from any more celestial enemies.
Since my abduction, the passage of time had become a haunting specter, a relentless force I struggled to grasp fully. The world around me whispered tales of moments missed and experiences left unshared, painting a vivid picture of the life that had continued its relentless march in my absence.
Aggar tapped the sleek screen on the console before him, and a guttural voice suddenly filled the hangar.
"...no less than five-thousandths rillium for the Valosians,"the Gretolic was saying."The Mannocks are worth double that."
"Three for the Valosians and seven for the Mannocks."
"Unacceptable!"the Gretolic exploded."You will be wealthy beyond your dreams, trollis, with what I have aboard my ship, and well you know it."
"Eleven for the lot,"the trollis countered.
