the monitors in the control and security rooms saw the ship’s surroundings for the first time as light flooded in. They were in a large room, some kind of holding bay. They also got their first glance at their captors.
A squadron of aliens marched toward the Amity. They were seven feet tall and their skin was bright red. They all carried what were unmistakably weapons of some kind. When they reached the Amity, their leader took out some sort of small device and pushed a button. The doors to the airlock opened and the aliens marched inside.
Liam watched all this grimly from the security room. It was a better place for viewing what was going on then the control room because you could see both inside and outside of the ship. Every member of the security team stood in the room with him, armed and ready to fight to the death if he gave the order.
“Will we fight?” the security chief asked, watching the aliens on the screen.
Liam hesitated then shook his head, “We might be able to defeat the aliens that have entered the ship now, but I have no doubt that there are more waiting outside. On a ship this big they probably outnumber our crew by several hundred, and there may be even more now that we’ve landed. We don’t know what we’re up against. Fighting now would only get us killed.” The security chief nodded slightly, though Liam could tell he hated the idea of going down without a fight. Liam hated it too, but he wouldn’t risk losing members of his crew in a fight that they couldn’t win.
The squadron of aliens was rounding up the crew of the Amity and herding them off the ship.
As they entered the security room Liam stepped towards them, “Who are you? Where are you taking us?” The leader only gave a slight grunt, clearly not understanding a word Liam had said.
Liam tried a different tack, “Hok-Kar?” he asked, pointing at the leader.
The leader gave a curt nod, “Hok-Kar,” he growled in confirmation, gesturing roughly with a six-fingered hand for Liam and the security crew to start walking. The security chief clenched a hand on his gun but at a look from Liam he released it and obeyed the Hok-Kar. As they walked Liam wished fervently that he had gotten more information from the Lemarians about the Hok-Kar. If he had, maybe he would know their weaknesses, how to defeat them, or maybe they would have avoided this mess entirely. He felt like he had failed his crew.
As he and the others left the Amity for the first time in three months, Liam pushed those thoughts away. What-ifs, wishful thinking, and self-blame wouldn’t help anybody. They were in this situation now, and he had to figure out how to get everyone through it safely.
As the 412 passengers of the Amity were herded out of the holding bay and through the hallways of the Hok-Kar ship with the weapons of the Hok-Kar trained on them, Liam took his place at the front of the pack. Clara and Esther managed to make their way through the crowd to him. When Esther spotted her father she rushed to him and flung her arms around his waist, clinging to him like a vice. Liam picked his daughter up and carried her, his free hand finding Clara’s and holding on tight.
They were led off the Hok-Kar ship and found themselves outside, blinking in the sunlight of an alien planet. The sky overhead was an angry red and the grass below their feet was violet. Their captors herded them toward a huge building that stood not far from the ship. It had a distinctly unwelcoming, prison-like look to it. Inside it they entered a huge room, big enough to hold thousands of people. Until they entered, the room had been empty except for one person, who stood on a raised platform at the far wall. Liam gasped aloud, and heard his gasp echoed by many other voices. The woman standing on the platform was not Hok-Kar, she was Lemarian.
Andromeda
The Hok-Kar squadron leader barked an order at the Lemarian woman and she began to speak, her voice amplified by some kind of microphone so everyone could hear her.
“Greetings, Earthlings. I see your surprise at seeing me here. I assume you have encountered others of my people before. I am also surprised to see you here. The Hok-Kar have never captured anyone from your planet before. I, like you, was brought here as a captive. I am a slave, and it is my unfortunate task to inform you that that is what all of you will now become. The Hok-Kar don’t commonly learn the languages spoken by other races. After all, they think we are all inferior to them. That is why they have slaves like me that can speak many other languages, so we can inform new batches of slaves of what lies in store for them. In a few minutes you will be taken to holding cells where you will remain until you are purchased...or until you die.” She said nothing else, but the expression on her face seemed to convey sympathy and sadness.
Single file, the crew of the Amity were herded through a doorway at the far end of the room. Liam wondered how many people from how many races had entered through this door before him, and how many of them had ever seen the light of day again. They entered a long hallway, lined with cells. The Hok-Kar guards began roughly shoving the crew members into cells. Liam tightened his hold on his daughter and on his wife’s hand so they would not be separated.
Ten prisoners were kept in each small cell. There was barely room for them all to sit. The cells were filthy and dimly lit.
Once all 412 of the new slaves had been locked up, the Hok-Kar guards marched back through the door through which they had entered the room. The clang as it shut seemed to seal the reality of their imprisonment with finality.
Esther began to cry. Liam was half-inclined to do the same himself. Instead he reached out and began to gently stroke his daughter’s hair.
“It will be okay, little star. We’ll get out of this.”
Esther sniffled, crawling onto Liam’s lap, “How do you know?”
Liam managed to give his daughter a tiny smile, “Would you like to hear a story?” Esther nodded, and Liam began.
“You know that your middle name is after the constellation Andromeda. Well, that constellation is named after a person, a Greek princess.” Esther seemed to perk up slightly; she loved princesses.
“Princess Andromeda’s mother made Poseidon the god of the sea angry by saying that she and her daughter were prettier than the Nereids, fifty beautiful sea-women. Poseidon sent a great big monster to attack the people of their kingdom.”
Esther’s crying had ceased, except for an occasional hiccup she was quiet, absorbed in the story. Liam was aware of those in his cell and the cells close to it listening as well.
“Poseidon said he would only stop the monster if Andromeda was chained to a rock for the monster to get her.” Esther’s eyes were wide, and Liam wondered if the story was too scary for a six-year-old. Then again, what could be scarier than the situation they were in right now?
He continued, “Princess Andromeda was chained to a rock out in the sea. She was very scared, waiting for the sea monster to come and eat her, and she started crying. Suddenly she saw something up in the sky. At first she thought it was a bird, but as it drew closer and landed on the rock she saw it was a boy, a boy wearing flying sandals.
“Why are you crying?” the boy asked, and Andromeda told him about the monster.
“Don’t worry,” the boy said, “I’ll protect you.” When the sea monster came to eat Andromeda up, the boy, whose name was Perseus, pulled out a special, magical item that he had.” Liam decided to leave out that the magic item was Medusa’s severed head.
"The magic item turned the monster to stone. Princess Andromeda was unchained and her people were
