Part 5
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Title: (In case you forgot by now) A Bad Day, Followed by Another Bad Day, Followed by 88 Bad Days
Beka sighed as she stirred the soup so it wouldn't burn. She was the property of Igmar Planck, and not very happy about it. Igmar liked to look important. He wanted to impress his clients and business associates with his fine house and all the servants he could afford. Unfortunately he was cheap and it was cheaper to own a person than to pay them a salary. So he bought slaves to be domestic help in his very nice house.
Beka did not appreciate that it was a very nice house. She was too busy being angry that she had been sold into slavery and now found herself working in the kitchen of a big green goo ball. It had been a month since she had seen her friends. She'd been the first one to go so she didn't even know what had happened to them. When she'd first arrived at Igmar's home on Mystate 2 she was sure someone would rescue her soon. She kept waiting for Dylan, Rommie, Tyr, or even Harper to come.
She had decided it was time to go now. She was tired and sore and bruised from working all day and the harsh discipline of the head of the kitchen, Lou. He had locked her in a closet for 2 days the first time she broke a glass, he had burnt her with a hot pan when she made the chicken a little extra crispy. He made it quite clear who was in charge and who could be bought and sold like animals.
So Beka plotted her escape. She would need a ship, and a way off the grounds. Or she needed to contact Andromeda. The documents that held the Andromeda crew as slaves were iffy at best. They would hold up as long as their masters had them, but if they escaped no slave retriever worth his salt would bother to bring them back.
She knew what she had to do. The question was how could she do it. She glanced over at the burner next to her. Mary was taking rolls off a sheet and snapping the fingers on her other hand. She had a nervous disorder that caused her to be constantly twitching or snapping her fingers. Igmar had ordered Lou to keep her in the kitchen so no one would see her. It was very undignified to be served by the snapping girl. Beka looked at her. They were about the same height, she was a little thinner, a red head, and at least 5 years younger, but from the backā¦
"Mary?"
"Yes Beka?"
"You ever dye your hair?"
"No, may I ask why?" Mary was incredibly polite for a girl who had been treated like garbage for so long.
It was well past midnight as Beka carried an armful of lemons up to the washroom. Mary was there, snapping away. She was going to help Beka escape. Beka set down her supplies. It was a simple enough plan, cut her hair short, like Mary's use her nano bots to go red and use the lemon juice to lighten Mary's curly red hair to be like Beka's. Because Mary was the one who went to the market everyday no one would say anything when they say her leave the house tomorrow morning.
Beka poured the juice over Mary's head. "Why are you helping me Mary?" She asked. As she thought over her plan she realized how much danger Mary was putting herself in.
"So you can escape"
"But why? I mean I've only met one other selfless person and he was from 300 years in the past"
"You don't belong here. You belong back in the life they took you away from."
"What about you, I mean they are going to figure it out and you'll still be here."
"I wasn't born with this twitch you know. I am from a planet that is raided or attacked 3 times a day at least by Magog. I have all this adrenaline coursing through my body all the time because I needed it to survive. But here I don't need it, I'm not running, I'm not fighting, I'm safe. So I have the twitching. I twitch, but it's not so bad here. It's the best life I've had. I'm the little twitching girl who gets kept out of sight and no one bothers with. " Beka wasn't sure what this had to do with helping her escape. The girl continued, "But you are not me. You've told me about your ship and your friends and your mission to save the universe. That sounds like the best life you've ever had. So I think you deserve to go back to it."
The transformation was complete. Mary was a blond and Beka was a red head. She handed Mary some gloves, "To help quiet the snapping" she explained. Mary took them and went back to Beka's bed. Beka went down to the kitchen to the cot Mary slept on. Mary left for market everyday as soon as the sun was up. She just passed the one gate guard who buzzed her out. If she kept her face down he would buzz her right through the gate and she would be home free. After that it would be a simple matter to disguise herself as a brunette, send a message to Andromeda, and wait for her ride.
She couldn't sleep; she just wanted to get out of here. Back to her ship, back to her friends, she wanted to put all this slavery stuff in her past. She just lay on the cot and waited. Eventually her mind wondered to weird places like, "Why doesn't Harper ever take his shirt off" and "What was Tyr like as a baby? I mean, was he always so serious, did he play and learn to ride a bike at some point?" Then morning came.
Up with the sun Beka started snapping. The basket was right where Mary had said it would be. Beka picked it up and headed for the front door. That's when she heard Igmar. "Hey, Uhm, uhm, Twitchy" Beka's breath caught in her throat damn she had been close. She took a deep breath, if he didn't know Mary's name, maybe he wouldn't know her voice.
"Yes sir?" she asked in a fake English accent
"Yeah, get some extra oranges today. I'm in a citrus mood"
"Yes sir" A citrus mood? What the hell dose a citrus mood feel like? Not that it mattered. She nodded and walked towards the front door again. She felt the blob looking at her. She was forgetting to snap! She snapped up a storm and threw in a head jerk for good measure. She saw Mary coming down the stairs, looking directly at her feet to avoid showing her face. They passed each other and exchanged glances and small smiles. Igmar pinched Mary's butt as she walked by. Mary was apparently pretty observant because she pulled off a fine, "leave me alone, It's too early" mumble
Beka walked through the front door and she was outside. If she actually liked weather the weather today would have been perfect. The gatekeeper buzzed her through as she pretended to have a coughing fit and she was free! She walked to town to send her message.
Dylan easily matched the green blob man he had seen to the file image of Igmar Planck. When they contacted him and found out she was gone Dylan thought he had reached another dead end. He was incredibly surprised to receive a message from Beka herself not ten minutes latter. "I'm ready to be picked up now mommy" is all it said.
