Deep Space

Chapter 12

Kelli and Shana were back in their cell. The Protector had been angered by what he saw as the interference of Taylor and the rest of the Federation delegation and his two attendants had suffered as a result.

Both girls had endured the whip-like Gnarriott feelers and the Protector's claws before he had tired of them and bellowed for a guard to take them away and chain them up.

At least their guard had been lenient. The two girls each wore a neck collar linked by a chain to a ring in the wall but the chains were long enough for them to move around and now the two were huddled together on the platform where they slept.

Kelli cradled Shana's naked body against her own. Her head was against her breast. Kelli ran her fingers tenderly over Shana's shaved scalp and hugged her close. Shana sobbed quietly. Neither of them tried to speak any more, the noises that came from their violated mouths and throats were more than either of them could bear to hear.

Kelli looked down at Shana's tortured breasts. In his irritation with Taylor, Gnarff had demonstrated what he would like to do with the Federation by wrapping one of his feelers tightly around Shana's breasts and then pinching at her nipples with his claws. Shana had struggled but that had just made Gnarff tighten his feeler and grip harder with his claws until she had passed out from the pain. Now her breasts were bruised and carried a red wheal around the base of each, barely less livid than the scar that each of them bore across their throats,

"Don't be scared," Kelli thought to herself, "don't be scared. We'll look after each other."

Shana looked up at her friend, taking comfort in her closeness. She was in pain but the agonies that Gnarff had caused her were nothing compared to the pain she felt inside. She blamed herself for the crash that had brought them here. She felt bad about the way she had taunted Gnarff when he came to their cell for the first time. Perhaps she had goaded him into what then happened? Her collar was chafing against her scarred throat, her breasts felt as though they were on fire but that was nothing to the guilt she felt about their situation. What made it worse was that she was sure that Kelli didn't hold it against her. She felt sure Kelli would feel that they would look after each other.

As Shana pressed against her, Kelli could feel her misery. It wasn't just the pain of Gnarff's tortures, Kelli just knew that Shana felt guilty about the crash, about being here, about all of it. "It's all right," she thought to herself, "it's all right, Shana, this isn't your fault. Don't blame yourself." Somehow Shana seemed to be soothed by her thoughts. The two of them sank against each other and drifted off into a fitful sleep.

It was perhaps two hours before the two stirred as the door to their cell opened. Kelli looked up to see Mead enter. She was elegant as when they had seen her earlier, escorting Ambassador Taylor, clad in a tight fitting purple body-suit, her white hair piled high on her head. Shana looked towards her as well.

"I came to see if you were all right," Mead said.

"I don't trust her," Kelli thought to herself.

"Me neither," thought Shana. Suddenly she realised that she had heard Kelli thoughts in her own brain. She gave a startled, throttled, grunt of understanding.

Mead misunderstood her reaction. "It's OK," she said soothingly, "I want to help."

Shana gave her thoughts form, "Kelli, can you hear this?"

Kelli looked towards her in astonishment. "Yes," she thought, "yes I can! Oh, Shana, can you 'hear' me too?"

"Yes, yes. Oh, that's wonderful!" For the first time in a long time, the two girls smiled.

"Good, good," comforted Mead, interpreting their smiles as a response to her.

From the corridor came the clatter of an approaching Gnarriott. From the bellowing, Kelli and Shana knew Gnarff was outside. They emptied their minds of the least thought, one way that they had developed to reduce the risk of Gnarff's wrath.

"Ah, Mead," he grunted as he stepped into the cell. "I see you had the same worries as me. Well done. I knew that useless clod of a guard was going to leave them comfortable."

Gnarff pulled each of the girls in turn to her feet, chained her collar to a wall ring with only two or three links slack, and then did the same for wrists and ankles, fixing them almost immobile against the metal wall of the cell. "You'll stay like that until you learn to play," he snarled. "Don't forget I'm going to have a few more toys to choose from now! If you want to go on enjoying the pleasure of my company you'll both have to become better behaved. And believe me, you just don't want to know what it's like if I get tired of you."

He turned from the silent, barely struggling, girls towards Mead. "Now perhaps I can ask you a few questions, my dear, about how the Sol3a women can be best prepared for their new lives. Then I think we can greet our visitors." He snaked a feeler about Mead's waist. Shana watched as its tip snaked down behind her and between her buttocks as he ushered her from the cell, pulling the door shut behind them with a clank.

The two listened as the sounds of Mead and Gnarff's conversation died away.

"Are you all right, Shana?" Kelli thought out.

"Mmm, yes, I guess. It's not too bad. It depends how long we have to stay like this."

"Oh, Shana, I'm so scared."

"Me too, but at least we now have each other."