CAPTURED: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys(27)

A large wave rolled over her head and she floundered under the water for  a moment, almost giving up, too tired to care. Then she saw it.

A light!

Disbelief made her stare under the water at the bright beacon hovering  just above her head. Rescue? She didn't question the improbability of  it, just strained toward the brilliance using her last ounce of  strength. Her head broke the surface of the ocean and she blinked in the  bright glare, then blinked again as her body began to rise out of the  water. Did I die? Is this how my journey to heaven begins? Sopping wet  and pissed? Not to mention she'd always expected a much, much warmer  reception when she finally did kick it. A poster child for pure living  she wasn't.

A flopping fish lifted from the water in front of her and rose rapidly,  slapping her in the face with its thrashing tail in passing.

What the hell?

Hell had nothing to do with it, though, she surmised. She peered around  in slack jawed disbelief as she and a football field of fish, along with  other denizens of the ocean, rose out of the water, caught in some  weird anti-gravitational field. And no she wasn't some kind of science  geek for thinking that. She'd recently watched a marathon of Star Trek  films because of Cameron, a true Trekkie fan. She'd never expected the  inane fiction of the screen to ever relate to her life, but what else  could explain why she and thousands of sea critters were floating as if  weightless, drawn toward an illuminated maw whose edges she could barely  make out.

It occurred to her to scream for help, but seriously, she wasn't an  idiot even if she sucked in her choice of boyfriends. Besides, exactly  who did she expect to save her from an obvious alien extraction? In her  current situation, abduction sure beat drowning any day.

Excitement replaced her exhaustion and resignation of her fate. She was  about to meet extra-terrestrial life. Would they be green? Short or  tall? Would they appear like a wrinkled E.T. or humanoid like her?

On top of these curious inner musings, doubt suddenly piled on. What if  they were violent? Ate humans as a delicacy? Or-gasp-sold human females  as sex slaves? Megan looked down at her plump frame and her lips twisted  ruefully. I'm more likely to end up someone's main course than a sex  slave. While she didn't mind her plentiful curves, they didn't appeal to  everyone; although, she'd had more than one boyfriend claim it wasn't  her body that turned them off, but her mouth. She didn't believe in  keeping her opinions and criticisms to herself.

The slow aerial ascent took forever it seemed to reach the gaping hole  in the bottom of the craft and about time, too, because out of the  water, she shivered with cold, her damp sundress clinging to her. She  hugged her arms around her body, but it didn't help her chattering  teeth.

What are the chances I'll be greeted with a towel? Looking around at the  wide-eyed fish with their mouths gaping open and shut soundlessly, she  didn't count on it.

The bright light she'd mistaken for Heaven's doorway didn't diminish  until she and her fellow aquatic abductees went past the lip of the  ship. Then she goggled in astonishment because ringing the area on all  sides were huge vats filled with liquid, oversized fish tanks if she  wasn't mistaken-and not all of them from Earth. A purplish fluid in one  certainly didn't resemble anything she'd ever seen and displayed the  occasional black tentacle. Cool, although she wouldn't plan on going for  a swim with whatever resided inside.

As the beam she found herself caught in angled up over the lip of an  open vat, she noted something disturbing. All the other tanks were  sealed shut. Her mind quickly came to an unwelcome conclusion. If she  allowed herself to get dropped into the approaching aquarium, she'd find  herself right back in the same spot; drowning.

"Not again," she muttered. She twisted herself to look around and noted a  network of beams holding narrow walkways running above and around the  vats. She needed to get onto one of those. Using her arms and legs, she  kicked and pulled, much like she would if she were in water, if water  were a thick molasses that fought her every inch of the way. Sweat  beaded on her brow as she struggled against the beams inertia, her  progress slow, slower than the tractor beams implacable movement.

She brushed against other captives, their wet slimy skin icky against  hers, their lidless eyes watching her passage-and I swear they're  praying I don't make it. Revenge for her regular Friday night sushi  she'd bet. She almost didn't make it in time, the plopping sound of  tumbling fish hitting water taunting her before her fingers grasped a  cold edge of metal. She wrapped her hands tight around the beam and  heaved herself over, cursing the fact she owned a gym membership she  never used. Muscles straining, she brought her legs up to wrap around  the metal support, the sudden loss of the anti-gravitational field's  support making her almost fall as she suddenly held her full weight. Her  aching muscles screamed in protest, but she held on for dear life.

The raining plop of objects hitting water made her turn her head to  watch as the fish and other sea population caught in the tractor beam  were deposited in the huge tank. As soon as the last one hit the liquid  surface, the beam shut off and she blinked her eyes at the sudden loss  of light. She could still see, albeit not as clearly, as dim circular  lights surrounding the chamber provided only faint illumination. Dim  vision didn't prevent her from hearing the whirring sound of machinery  and the soft snick of the aquarium sealing shut followed by a larger  thunk which she assumed meant the bottom portal had also closed.

Then it was silent except for a distant hum and her panting breath. Her  arms trembled with the strain of holding herself, and it occurred to her  that her first order of business should involve getting her feet onto  firm ground.

Exhaustion brought her close to the point of hysteria at her inadvertent  pun and she giggled. Okay, maybe not firm ground but at least a surface  she could stand upright on. Hanging like a monkey, she looked around  and saw a walkway not far away if she could only make her way over to  it.

"Just like monkey bars," she reminded herself as she swung her body  towards the next strut. Her hands caught the beam and she let her legs  go so her body could follow. She hadn't counted on the fatigue in her  arms or how heavy her body would drag. Not to mention, she'd assumed a  lack of or lesser gravity in space.

Wrong!

Her hands slipped from the beam and she plummeted, her short scream of  fright cut off as she landed in an ungraceful heap on something  unforgivingly hard and blacked out.





Chapter Two

Tren, his feet propped on his main console, cursed as an alarm went off.

"What the frukx is going on now?" he mumbled under his breath as he  punched in a sequence of keystrokes on the armrest of his seat, forcing  the screen in front of him to bring up the video for the transport bay.  More than likely, one of his specimens had gotten free of the tractor  beam, not a huge worry with this latest batch. The planet Earth wasn't  known for its deadly denizens. On the contrary, their creatures tended  toward the docile side, especially the liquid faring variety.

The bay, with its huge vats, appeared in his view screen and he scanned  the room, panning the camera in several directions. He didn't see  anything, but then again, some of the critters he'd captured were quite  small. Not like the knovakian's with their forty astrometric long  tentacles. Those he'd had to sedate before capturing them for transport.

With a sigh of annoyance, he stood from his chair and stretched his  bulky frame before stomping to the elevator that would take him to the  lower level. He stopped just before entering and barked a command.  "Proceed to the seventh planet in the quadrant and then drop into  hyperspeed. Heading, the Jifnarian galaxy, third planet."

"Course locked." The smooth voice of his computer confirmed his orders.  He grunted as he swung into the elevator and jabbed the button for the  transport bay.

Going to wrestle a fish. The thought made him sigh. He'd come a long way  from his career as a mercenary. His new life as a wrangler and  transporter for rare species from undeveloped galaxies might bore the  frukx out of him, but it sure beat getting his ass shot off every time  he turned around. Of course, nothing could compare to the rush of a  mission where he outsmarted security systems, pitted his skills against  deadly guards and came out ahead. But the life of a warrior for hire  wasn't a long one hence his career change.         

     



 

However, no one warned him that retirement would mean he'd end up bored  out of his mind. He'd tried the life of leisure for a while, he'd  certainly amassed enough credits to do so, but a male could only get  drunk so many times and plow so many females before everything turned  stagnant. So he bought a ship and started a new career-acquisitions  specialist.

At least with his new business, he got to travel, fight the occasional  reticent species and kill off pirates. Those still stupid enough to  engage him that was. His reputation preceded him and now even the scum  of the universe avoided him.