Taquork Market: A Gift for the General

AVA

I grit my teeth and stiffly drop my hands to my sides, staring at the floor.

“This is the final human of the lot, who was not at the previous viewing,” the guard tells the potential buyers. “It is twenty-one Earth-years old, which is equivalent to twenty-four turns on your planet. It is fully mature for a human, and adequate for any variety of use. It passed all health checks and is quite pleasing to look at.”

They both hum deeply, in what I suppose is agreement, before moving on. I let out a rush of a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.

The pair stop at a few more cages before they are escorted out, and once the door closes, the air around me fills with a quiet hum of female voices.

Kiri turns to me, giving me a kind but toothy smile. “We can talk quietly until lights-out as long as they are not giving a showing,” she tells me. “How are you feeling, Ava?”

“Oh…I’m fine,” I manage to respond, still shaky from being “shown” to the aliens. “Are those the type of guys that are going to buy us?” I ask her meekly, before remembering they skipped her cage entirely.

Kiri shrugs in response, looking back at the closed door. “Who is to say,” she replies. “Almost every race that belongs to the Coalition buys slaves. It is a great many species. I doubt a Shishthera will end up with you, however. They are notoriously cheap.”

Oh, right. Because humans are precious and worth a fortune. I still can’t decide if I find that fact comforting or not.

Only two more groups are given showings that afternoon, though Kiri tells me it will ramp up as we get closer to the auction. Kiri’s words for measuring time are different from mine, but it seems to be about a week away, from what I gather.

Between showings I learn a great deal about the Coalition from Kiri. It’s an alliance of planets under one governing sovereign known as the High Commander. As she talks, I use the rock I stole from the arena to sketch small drawings on the hard floor, something that has always worked to calm me down.

She tells me that the High Commander is a lizard-like species, pointing one of them out to me during a showing. He is known as a vicious and cruel leader.

He and his equally formidable four generals rule the Coalition mercilessly, enslaving any race or group that opposes them, stealing their land and wealth until no one can dare to outmatch their power and capabilities.

Apparently, her race was the first to launch a large-scale revolt against the High Commander, but was super unsuccessful, and her whole species was condemned to execution or slavery.

“I have heard the rebellion has become much more organized in the time since,” she tells me. “Though, I have no real way of knowing for sure.”

Kiri tells me acquiring humans is super risky because Earth is both extremely far away and also off limits due to our “primitive” technology. But once humans enter into Coalition Territory, all bets are off and we’re fair game.

So, the five of us really are a big deal.

This becomes glaringly obvious over the next few days. The daily routine remains the same. We are collared, fed, and showered. A tiny chunk of soap is handed out every other day. Then we are led outside before they parade potential buyers through the rows of cages.

Almost all of them stop and gawk at the humans. The others confirm that they receive the same attention I do at our daily gatherings in the arena.

Most of the aliens that come through resemble human anatomy pretty closely, and the closer to human they look the more they seem interested in us.

I was afraid my sketches on the floor would earn me a punishment, but the toads just made a noise of disdain at the sight, and the floor is wiped clean every day when I get back.

Our time outside together is mostly spent with me spewing the information I learn from Kiri. The others absorb everything they can in prep for what awaits us all. I am obsessed with the task of gathering what knowledge I can. I try not to get our hopes up about a rebellion freeing us.

The showings have been constant almost all afternoon for the last two days. Kiri thinks the auction could be any day now. We are currently huddled silently in our cages as what I hope are the last three groups of the day merrily browse. Each is with a toad escort that politely answers questions about the slave stock.

I learned quickly to tune out their vivid appraisals of my body. The near constant rage is too exhausting to maintain after the first couple of days.

As the lights shut off, we end our conversation and settle in for the night. As I drift off to sleep, I think of several more questions about the universe to ask Kiri tomorrow.

But I never get the chance.

I’m startled out of sleep by the clank of my cage opening. The room is still dark. A toad guard motions me out impatiently, and he clips the collar around my throat. Gabby is standing behind him, her eyes wide with fear.

I glance at Kiri who is curled up in her cage, but her bright-yellow eyes are open and watching me. “Auction day,” she whispers to me softly, earning herself an angry grunt from the guard.

I give her a tiny wave before I am hauled away by the toad, and I want to weep that I didn’t even get to tell her goodbye.

We collect the other three humans from the far side of the room. Then we are weaving through halls I’ve never seen before and shoved through a sliding glass door into a tiny room with bright lights.

It reminds me of a waiting room, with several doors in the wall behind us, and a few very uncomfortable-looking stools in a line against the perpendicular wall.

The guard leaves us without a word, and the five of us stare at each other with wide eyes. No one knows quite what to say.

“Kiri says it’s auction day,” I finally manage to utter.

“Fucking finally,” Luciana exclaims, lowering herself onto one of the tiny stools.

Steph bursts into tears and Jia wraps her into a hug, glaring at Luciana.

“How can you say that, Luci?” Jia demands. “We’re going to be sold as sex slaves!” she mouths silently to us over Steph’s shoulder as she shakes with terrified sobs.

“Maybe not,” says Gabby thoughtfully. “My neighbor told me some rich alien bought a slave to be his wife. Of course, it was a giant scandal, and they were shunned from society, so…”

“Not. Helping,” Jia tells Gabby through gritted teeth.

“I’m just sick to death of these cages,” Luciana says. “At least things are changing.”

One of the doors slides up and all conversation dies as a tiny leprechaun-like alien strides confidently toward us with a grin on his face.

“Hello, pretty humans!” he exclaims, still smiling wildly. He sounds friendly, and yet his pointed teeth definitely give me pause.

“Hi,” squeaks out Steph, surprising all of us at being the first to speak.

“My name is Stoponi, and I am here to prepare you for the auction, yes? We will make you so tempting they will be dumping their credits onto the stage.” He loudly claps his hands once, and I jump at the noise.

“Follow me, humans!”

He turns swiftly and moves back through the door without a backward glance, and after a long pause we scramble after him.

What follows is the weirdest spa day ever.

They remove our collars before we are bathed in deep tubs of warm water. They’ve been filled with fragrant oils, leaving our skin soft and shiny. The thirty-second showers we had keep the stink away but not much else, and it feels amazing to soak in a tub.

I scrub my hair clean and scrape the grime out from under my fingernails, taking full advantage of the giant tub.

Once we are clean, Stoponi intently studies each of us individually, completely naked I might add, before he issues orders to his team.

“Keep her face clean of cosmetics,” he says about Steph. “The speckles are sure to be charming. But curl her hair more, make it float around that beautiful face!”

Her attendant merely nods, leading Steph out of the bathing room.

Previously, he ordered Luciana to be oiled up with the “gold shine,” whatever that is, before I am presented next for observation.

He stares at me, his hand cupping his chin as he looks me up and down. There is nothing predatory about his gaze, which puts me a little at ease.

“Your skin is pale while the tiny bits of you are dark,” he tells me, gesturing at my chest, and I blush at the frank description. My nipples are small, but are indeed dark, and stand out against my pale skin.

“I’m sorry,” I reply meekly, not sure what he means.

“No, no, no,” he says briskly. “It is very visually pleasing.” His tone is one of assurance, and he gives me a bright smile, once again flashing those creepy, creepy teeth.

“Make them darker,” he tells my attendant. “And apply the discreet clamps to keep them alert.”

Gabby, who is the next in line, gives a loud snort-laugh. I shoot her an incredulous look.

“Oh, just wait until I get my hands on you, lush one,” Stoponi shouts her way, which shuts her up quickly.

“Heavy and dark cosmetics,” he focuses back on me, whirling his finger in a circle at my face. “Play up her pale, pale skin.”

With that, my attendant leads me to a private room.

He rubs me down with a lotion that seems to erase the subtle discolorations that litter my skin and also seems to make it a shade fairer. He dusts my nipples with dark shadow before applying tiny silver clamps that sting but keep my nipples hard and perky.

Ugh.

My hair is swept up into a high pony, and curled until it hangs down my back and between my shoulder blades.

He applies black shadow in a mask-like appearance around my eyes, and bright-red stain on my lips.

“Done,” the man states simply, pressing a finger at the base of his pointed ear. “Room three awaits approval,” he says, before abruptly leaving the room.

After a few minutes, Stoponi sweeps into the room to give his expert opinion of my appearance.

He unfortunately tsk-tsks in disapproval at the sight of me and approaches with makeup brushes to correct whatever faults he sees.

I thought I looked pretty good, but I guess I don’t know what floats these aliens’ boats.

He applies lighter highlights around my eyes and a few intricate designs in white on the black makeup across my brow. He adds even more contours and shadows around my face before finally nodding in approval.

He turns away and activates a panel in the wall that opens to expose a rack of gauzy white outfits. Impatiently flicking through them, he eventually settles on a long dress.

He brings it to me and helps me pull it over my head, adjusting the thin fabric over my body.

“You will be a marvel, my pretty human,” he tells me. As the dress finally settles into place, I’m turned toward the mirror.

The hem of the dress brushes my ankles and has a long slit up one leg. It boasts a high turtleneck and cap sleeves, and I would find it very elegant if it wasn’t totally freaking see-through.

You can see everything, the dark patch of my pubic hair along with my nipples straining through the thin fabric.

I merely nod, plastering a smile on my face. I’m in no position to complain, and all the outfits were equally see-through.

He leads me down the hall and clips a pair of silver bracelets around my wrists before lightly shoving me back into the waiting room.

Luci is already there, and she is literally painted gold from head to toe. Gold shine was apparently very self-explanatory. It’s subtle, but her rich skin shimmers in the light.

She’s also in a dress of the same sheer-white fabric, but hers barely covers her ass and dips into a low vee that shows off her cleavage.

I give her a look as I make my way across the room, and she rolls her eyes dramatically.

“Don’t even say it,” she orders me sternly.

“You are very shiny,” I tell her, fighting back my grin.

She opens her mouth but is distracted by Gabby flouncing into the room with a dramatic huff.

They’ve shoved her curves into a sheer-white bodysuit that looks as if it’s painted on her body. The cut is high on her wide hips and her generous chest is practically spilling out of the strapless top.

She’s been made up so that her skin appears even darker, but they altered the color of her eyes to be a very light gray instead of her natural brown. They stand out dramatically.

Her tits are pushed up to practically her chin, and she puts her hands on her hips defensively as the three of us study each other silently.

“I hope these assholes know what humans really look like, because they’ve certainly done a number on the three of us,” she finally states, her tone laced with irritation.

I crack up, because she’s so right. We look nothing like ourselves.

“False advertising, for sure,” I agree over my laughter, and the others join me with their own amusement.

Luci laughs so hard she has to sit down, but then gasps and jumps up just as suddenly, looking over her shoulder to make sure the gold hasn’t rubbed off onto the stool.

Her over-the-top concern for her ridiculous gold skin staying pristine makes me laugh even harder. Gabby eventually gets enough control of herself to assure Luci her ass is still nice and gold.

Over the next hour Jia and Steph join us. They are equally styled to the extreme, dressed in completely sheer-white clothing.

Steph is outfitted in a tiny bikini-like getup, which shows off the freckled skin of her chest and abdomen. Her vibrant-red hair is curled into tight ringlets that bounce in a cloud around her face.

Jia’s shiny, black hair is slicked back and hangs straight down between her shoulder blades. Her face is heavily contoured to show off her high cheekbones to the extreme.

“They put prosthetics on my ears to make them pointy,” she complains, hiking up her skirt and sinking heavily down onto one of the small stools. “I look like a damn elf.

Indeed, Jia’s ears have a subtle sharpness at the peak, which enhances her angular appearance.

I’m about to comment on the matching bracelets we all wear, but the words die in my throat when the door slides open to reveal a toad guard.

He grunts at the sight of us, and I supposed he sounds pleased.

“Come,” he barks at us, and turns back into the hallway.

We are escorted down the hallway and outside to what can best be described as a helipad.

A sleek shuttle sits in the center, humming with power, waiting to transport us to the space station where the auction will take place. Thanks to Kiri’s knowledge, I was aware that slave auctions don’t happen on the surface of any planet. “International waters” is the best Earth equivalent.

My stomach lurches as the shuttle takes off at incredible speed, and mere minutes later we’re approaching an enormous space station. My palms sweat and the neck of my gauzy dress suddenly feels impossibly tight.

This is it.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” I choke out, blinking back tears.

Jia, beside me, grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze. Then she turns to her other side to grab Steph’s hand as well.

The other girls follow suit as the shuttle moves into the space station, lurching to a stop as it enters some sort of docking bay.

“Give them hell, ladies,” Gabby tells us grimly as the shuttle door slides open to our fate.