"Human?" Kes thought she didn't understand the girl right. "I told you that
you wouldn't know who they are." "No, I do." Kes answered. "How?" The girl
asked curiously. "It's a long story but I was rescued by a ship of humans
that had got transported to this quadrant by mistake, they're now trying to
find their way back." Kes explained. "That's how you got to the surface, I
was wondering about that." "Wait, how did you know that we lived under the
surface?" The girl's face got very sad, "These ships once went to your
homeworld maybe a year ago and took about 40 Ocampa, that's how I learned
that I'm also part Ocampa." The girl turned her head around so that Kes
could see ears that looked almost like her own. Kes was stunned, "Where do
these ships go?" She asked. "You've probably already figured out that these
are prison ships, but they go to different slave worlds and auction the
prisoners they capture off." The girl said. "How awful, but you sound like
you know a lot about this, why?" To Kes this was beginning to remind her of
being a slave of the Kazon. The girl smiled at this question, "I have a
major reputation along this ship and most slave worlds, I've been sold nine
different times but I've killed my master each time, so no one wants me.
Besides the life of just dying slowly in this room is much better than
having to become a slave." Either choice sounded gruesome, Kes thought to
herself but just kept asking questions; "If you're a super soldier why are
you on this little slave ship?" "I was the property of the scientist who
went to Earth originally and took me, I was with him almost 5 years, he had
almost perfected me he said, then he crossed paths with this ship, they
told him payment was expected, it was only he and I on the ship so he had
no choice but to let me go." "That's so sad." Kes said, "I was a slave of
the Kazon for a month after escaping my underground homeworld, in that
short time I forgot almost all the good parts of home, I can't imagine
being a slave and lab experiment for so long." At that point the cell door
opened and in came 3 guards, one holding a needle-like thing. One swiftly
went over to Kes and held her, and the other went over to the girl and held
her. Kes tried to wrestle out of the man's grip until she heard a voice in
her head, It's alright, don't resist. Kes looked over at the girl who the
other guard was sticking a needle in her arm, injecting something, then he
came to Kes, she stopped fighting and let the man poke the thing in her
arm, it hurt just a little but not much. Then all three guards were gone.
"What was that?" Kes asked as she rubbed the arm where they had injected
her. "Nutrients, some prisoners would rather starve themselves so they just
inject it to us directly." Kes looked to the girl a moment, she was about
to turn her gaze when she noticed that the girl's eyes were getting foggy.
"What's wrong?" She asked. But in answer the girl's body began to shake
violently.
