Free Dominant Species Volume One -- Natural Selection (Dominant Species Series) by David Coy Page A

scars, she was a genuinely
lovely, young woman. She was in her early twenties, Mary guessed, and her face
possessed the strong, straight line of jaw that accompanies nearly all
beautiful faces; and her mouth, though not sensual in the extreme, was supple
and her lips full and generous. Mary rose up on one elbow with the sole purpose
of getting a more favorable view of Bailey’s beauty. It contrasted sharply with
the dismal surroundings and it refreshed her. She gently stroked Bailey’s hair.
    Mary’s
libido had evaporated long ago. The stress and shock of captivity had boiled it
away. It wasn’t possible to endure the bizarre and alien torment of this place
and think of, much less do, anything other than stay alive. With all of her
resources spent on base subsistence, sex was a luxury her body just couldn’t
afford. No more now than a dim memory, the tint of sexual attraction added no
color to Mary’s vision of Bailey.
    Oh, well, she
thought . You might have made my little
heart thump at one time.
    Bailey
whimpered and her eyes fluttered. Mary knew that when she opened them she’d
puzzle over her surroundings or just draw a mental blank for awhile as her mind
denied the reality of where she was. Mary did that herself, even now.
    You poor
thing, Mary thought. You’ll
wake up on board an alien starship in the arms of a woman, and it won’t be a
nightmare at all.
    Bailey
opened her eyes and stared out at the brown wall. Mary could see the confusion
and panic grow in those bright eyes.
    “No . . .
” Bailey said. Her voice was so soft Mary could barely hear it. Mary found
Bailey’s hand and held it.
    “I know,”
she said.
    “I’m
asleep, right?”
    Mary
didn’t respond. The answer was too cruel. She knew by her silence, though, that
the brutal answer had been given nonetheless.
    Bailey
started to pucker and her lower lip began to tremble. Mary pulled her closer;
and, when she did, she felt the walls she’d carefully built to protect and
shield herself from this world’s ugliness and pain crumble in the relentless
dull and alien light, and she cried for the first time since she’d been taken.
    She sat up and rocked
Bailey gently and hummed to her and the tears streamed down.
     
    *   *   *
     
    Phil lay
limp on the floor of the chamber and watched the wasp perched on the wall
grooming itself. His drug-induced rage had diminished, but the feeling of
abject hatred he had for the insect and this place was alive and well. The wasp
scurried in a few meaningless circles, then crawled through the two- inch
diameter hole in the wall. The hole pinched and sealed shut, closing the wasp
back into the nest or jar or the hell it came from. Phil was relieved that it
was apparently finished with his body and gone, but he felt cheated of never
again having the remotest of chance to slowly smash it flat or burn it alive.
    He
couldn’t see the heavy, irregular plate when it opened, but he heard it slide
and felt the warm, fresher air on his face around his eyes.
    The hands
and arms that reached in and jerked him out of the cell were massive and
powerful. Phil was lifted up and turned around and over like a toy, and the
world on the other side of the cell’s plate flashed by as if he were on a carnival
ride. He saw a flash of human bodies by the dozens lying limp and saw alien
hardware hanging by attachments that stretched up toward lights. The face of
one of the root-like creatures flashed by. He got a glimpse of several more of
them working next to limp human bodies as he was hefted up.
    Phil’s
body weight hovered around one hundred and ninety pounds, but he’d been hauled
out and lifted up and over the creature’s shoulders like he was a rag doll.
Draped over the immense back of the behemoth, he could see the backs of the
massive legs and the bare feet with their thick fleshy pads. He wasn’t carried
far. When the creature flopped him down on the flat-topped structure, Phil got
a glimpse of the row of ten or more cells