At the cell door, Poppy took out her frustration on the barsand gave them a good kick. She would have done it a second time too but decidedshe didn’t want a broken foot on top of the mess they were already in.
After what seemed like hours, even though Val’s watch showedthat it had only been about forty-five minutes, they heard another tone at thedoor. Shielding the unconscious women, Poppy, Val, Andrea, Brandy and Melaniewaited anxiously. She didn’t know what the plan was if it was Demascus again,but she was not going to go down without a fight.
Poppy’s knees almost gave way when she was blessed with theconfused face of Dathrow.
“Dath!” Poppy shouted out, rushing toward the bars. Shereached out to touch him to make sure he was real.
“Poppy! What the hell is going on?” he asked. Checkingbehind him to make sure he was alone, he stepped quickly into the room andallowed the door to close. He tried to hug Poppy even though they wereseparated.
“Oh my god, Dath, you have to get us out of here.” On theverge of happy tears, she gripped him tight. “Demascus has taken all the bridesand transferred us here to go back to Earth.”
He cast a glance at the beds on the far side of the room.“Are they okay?”
“They need medical attention. I think they’re losing theirbabies.” Poppy motioned for the women who were standing to come forward. “Hekidnapped all of us and he said he’d sabotaged the computer’s matching system.”
“But why? It doesn’t make any sense,” Dathrow said, fiddlingwith the lock pad on the cell door.
“Maybe because he’s fucking crazy! It doesn’t matter why.Just get us out of here and to the medical unit now.” Poppy was gripping thebars now as if her pulling on the door would spring it suddenly open.
“I do not have authorization to open this. I need to find asuperior officer.” Glancing at the door behind him, Dathrow was obviously tornas to whether it was safe to leave them to get help.
“Be careful who you trust. There were other warriors whohelped Demascus to bring us here.” Poppy was unsure if she wanted Dathrow toleave. Hoping that she wasn’t making a mistake in letting the key to theirsafety leave, she pushed him from the cell door and motioned for him to hurry.
“Give me a moment. I will be right back with an officer whohas clearance!” Turning and barely waiting for the outer door to open, Dathrowslipped through the small space as soon as his big body could clear it.
Before it closed, she yelled, “Message Wheaton and tell himwhere we are!”
Unsure if he’d heard her or not, she lingered by the barsfor a moment longer before turning to the other hopeful brides. The ones whowere awake had watery smiles on their faces.
“Thank god!” Val let out with a relieved breath.
Melanie was pacing and wringing her hands together. “I justhope whoever he goes to is on the good side,” she said. “There have to be goodguys out there, right?”
Nodding and encouraging Melanie was something Poppy foundeasy to do in this case. “Yeah, there are good guys. And Dathrow is one ofthem,” she reassured her new friend.
The wait for Dathrow to return took only a few minutes butfelt like hours. When the door opened again, he was there, accompanied by fourwarriors. None of the men were familiar to Poppy and she was relieved to seenone of them were the thugs whom Demascus had had in his goon squad earlier.
As one of the warriors moved to open the cell door, Dathrowreached through the opening to hold Poppy’s hand.
“Thank goodness I checked this room.” Looking at the womenbehind Poppy, he whispered, “This area was marked as cargo to be transferred tothe Pleasure Sector… You weren’t meant to go home to Earth.” Hearing Val gaspbehind Poppy, he raised his voice so she could hear too. “My belief is thatDemascus had planned for you to disappear there. I believe he was going to tryto sneak you onto one of our shuttles transporting medical supplies for trade.The room next door is full of empty crates that could easily have fit two orthree of you at a time.”
“We were going to be dumped at the Pleasure Sector?” Valasked incredulously.
“As far as I can tell, that is where you were headed. As ahuman you would have fetched a high price in the brothels, once trained. Themore exotic the workers, the more money they make.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Poppy yelled.
“Poppy, I do not think we would have recovered you if thathad happened. Some of the women are purchased and taken to other sectors duringauctions. My guess is that Demascus planned for you to disappear.”
“He wanted more than for us to disappear. That dickheadwanted us to suffer.” She was now shaking with anger as she waited for the celldoor to open.
“What an asshole!” Melanie burst out, punching her hand asthough she wished it was a certain Council member’s face. “Warn a gal next timeyou plan to go for the jerk, Poppy. I would have liked to have gotten in a fewhits myself.”
“Did he hurt you, Poppy?” Dathrow asked, concerned.
Shrugging his question off, Poppy asked, “Did you get amessage to Wheaton?” She rushed through the open door as soon as the lockclicked, and gave Dathrow a full hug.
“That’s the funny thing.” Dathrow smiled at Poppy withraised eyebrows. “My band was still receiving notifications from the othership. He must have raised the alarm searching for you ladies. I was able tomessage him and let him know that you are here. They were panicking becausethey were unable to find you anywhere on Squadron One.”
Once the women were helped from the cell, the other warriorshurried in to check on the incapacitated brides on the cots.
“What is wrong with them?” one asked when he realized thatthey were not simply sleeping.
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong with them. That douchebagDemascus gave us all pills that made the ones who were pregnant lose theirbabies.” Andrea was toe to toe with one of the startled warriors. Poking hischest with her finger,
