Sometimes I remember who I am.
Sometimes I can see home, right there, in front of me, but I know it's not real, just my fevered imaginings.
Most of the time I wish I was dead.
"I'm just a girl!" I would scream out, but no one would listen to me, no one understood the language I spoke.
I am a teenager from Earth, my pod number is 2286 and my name is a distant memory. I am female and around the age of 18, now, but it is impossible to tell. I was taken at the age of 15, that I remember clearly.
They came to me in the night, breaking my window and dragging me out into a blinding light. Then there was a ship, like none I'd seen before. A glowing silver orb that opened and I was pushed inside by my kidnapper. Then there had been jolting movement and then it stopped. Then the door opened once again and I was dragged out into another place. A terrible place.
I had been blindfolded and there had been pain all over me and I had screamed. Then I was alone, in the pod that was now my home. For the last three years. A place I'd felt safe because every time the door opened and I was dragged out, they would take me and beat me and do... terrible things to me.
They were by no means human. They had blue skin and four eyes. Their figure seemed human, but distorted by longer arms that came to their knees. They wore strange boiler suits in black and beneath the boiler suits was thin but tough blue skin that you could see their organs beneath. Their teeth in their wide mouths were like a sharks.
I had been in my pod for a week straight, now, but knew that at any point they would remove me and do things to me again. My body ached from the last time, still, their clawed fingers had left deep welts in my skin as they'd reached completion.
I was curled on the soft cushion that was my bed when I heard a noise outside of my pod. My eyes flew open and I braced myself for something horrible when the door whooshed open. In came one of the aliens that had chosen me many times before, his suit much more decorated, so I supposed he was in charge. He grabbed hold of my long hair, pulling me up. When I was on my feet he took hold of my upper arm and shackled me, my hands behind my back. Then he tied a blindfold about my eyes.
For a terrible moment I thought that he was going to do things to me again, in a different way, a way I had no control. But he took hold of my arm and dragged me from the room. I walked, my bare feet feeling the cold ships floor with every step, my naked body shivering with fright and the cold.
I heard other noises around me, others walking, some whimpers and sobs. No sound escaped my lips. I hadn't spoken in three years. I'd given up trying to communicate after the first month here.
I realized there must be others here, too. Others like me. The alien guiding me ran a claw down my cheek in what might have been a loving way, but to me it felt anything but.
Then we suddenly stopped. A voice spoke and there were chorused replies around me. Then I heard doors open and the sound of hustle and bustle of loads of people going about their business filled my ears. I was led forwards and down a ramp, cold wind pulling at my body and what felt like cobble stones beneath my feet. Then the alien leading me took off my blindfold and the sudden light stung my eyes, but I eagerly looked about me, hoping to find myself home.
Around me there were other aliens, of all shapes and sizes, all different dress carrying strange things and talking different languages. We appeared to be at a market, telling from all of the stalls around. We didn't stop, I was pulled along into the crowd. I looked behind me, seeing girls and boys my age and older being pulled along, their blindfolds still in place. For a brief moment I wondered why I was allowed to see, but this thought was pushed from my mind as we pushed past a huge alien, its arms bulging with muscles.
The aliens were starting to stare. I felt horribly like a freak show as I was led through them and to the center of the market. There was a fenced off area into which I was led. In uniform lines were posts with chains on. I was led through these to the furthest corner, where the alien threaded the chain through my bound hands.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man, dressed in a tweed jacket and red braces. He had a bow-tie. His eyes were thoughtful and kind. They were... old. My thoughts were pulled from the strange human-looking man and back to the alien at my side. Then it spoke to me, running its claw down my cheek. And for the first time I understood what it said.
"It is such a shame to give up such a delicate beauty," he said to me, grinning to show his sharp teeth, "if I had enough credits to buy you myself, I would have you in an instant. You were always my favorite."
Around me the others were chained to the posts, all but four, who were led to the podium in the middle of the posts, where a short, grey alien stood, a microphone in hand.
"A job lot of fine specimens!" he said into the microphone, though I knew there was no way he was speaking Earth English.
Aliens started to converge around the fences, looking in at the four blindfolded people.
"hall we start at fifty credits?"
This was an auction. We were being sold. I had been dragged from my home to this alien world to be sold to the highest bidder. My heart turned cold and I tested the chains I was attached to. They were sturdy.
The first lot of people sold for eighty four credits. I saw many sold and taken away by strange aliens. Many were sold as a group, until there were but ten of us left. Only I was able to see. To my left I saw the man again, he looked pained as he watched the last lot being taken away.
After that the other nine were sold one by one, the auctioneer claiming that they were more valuable, more special than the others. Then there was just me.
The alien undid my restraints and pulled me to the center of the fenced off area. There were some stark differences between me and the others sold. I had long hair, whilst the others had been cut short. My eyes were also blue, something different to the others who had had dark eyes.
"This is the most prized lot!" pronounced the auctioneer, "Just look at her! Such an Earth beauty! She has traveled three light years to reach this place and such a grand thing! This is no slave for doing work, this is a slave for prize possession! Starting at one hundred credits! Such a low price!"
The bidding's went higher and higher and I felt I might be sick. I looked to the alien who held onto my arm, clearing my throat and speaking in my unused voice.
"Please," I croaked in a language that I knew was not English, "please release me. I don't want to be sold!"
"You speak Krisptick?" he asked, his eyes widening.
"Please," I begged, "please. Save me!"
"All this time," he growled, "I told myself it was all right to sell you. You aren't an intelligent life form, I would say. But you speak a proper language. Now I am not so sure."
"Then save me!" I whispered.
"Too late."
"Sold! To the male in tweed! For one thousand and forty three credits!"
I looked to see the man I had spotted earlier walking into the fenced off area, taking hold of my upper arm and pulling me to the podium. He handed over some small disks to the grey alien and then took me from the arena. I struggled against his grip, but he held me tightly.
"Stop struggling," he said to me in English, "I'm trying to get you out of here."
I stopped my fighting and looked at him in bemusement as he led me through the crowds of admiring aliens.
"Are you human, too?" I asked in a tiny voice.
"Far from it," he said seriously, "but let's not talk about that here. I need to get you away from here."
"Oi! Mister!" shouted a voice behind us.
The man stopped and turned.
"Yes?" he said, a strange smile on his lips.
It was the alien that had had hold of me.
"She's special," he said, nodding at me.
"That's why I chose her," said the man cryptically.
"You forgot to get her branded," said the alien.
Before I could flinch away, the alien had grabbed my arm and pressed something against my skin which burnt my flesh. I screamed out, but no-one turned to look. When I pulled my hand away it had a oval on it with a symbol inside it which looked like a strange 'B'.
The man who had bought me gently pulled my arm and dragged me through the crowds. I glanced back once at the face of the alien that had trapped me and raped me. Then I turned away and resolved to never look back. Good riddance.
Then we came to an abrupt stop, in front of a large blue box with the words 'Police public call Box' on it. The man looked at me and smiled, opening the door and pushing me inside gently. I went in and stopped.
"It's bigger on the inside," I whispered.
"Yeah," said the man behind me, closing the door, "itn's she great?"
I nodded, looking around in amazement.
"Oh, by the way," said the man, stepping around me and jumping up onto the platform in the center of the room where there was a control panel, "I'm the Doctor."
I looked at him, thinking that he didn't look like any doctor I ever remembered.
"Who are you?" he asked, leaning on the panel.
I felt my throat constrict.
"I don't remember. All I remember is it started with a 'T'. What's going to happen to me? Why did you buy me?"
Suddenly he looked sad, then smiled.
"Because I need a friend," he said.
"Do you not have any?" I croaked.
"Not anymore... they had to... go."
I looked at him and his deceptively young face showed the weight of the ages.
"What now?" I asked.
"Well, first I think you need some clothes, because I don't often have naked women in the control room, it scares me. Except this one lady called Pocahontas, now she was a naughty girl. Liked doing cartwheels. Now, let's get this show of the road!"