Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
She went further back to explore the rest of the ship and hopefully find a bathroom—now that she had taken care of her thirst and hunger, she really had to pee. Although, to be perfectly honest, she wasn’t sure the NeverBreeders needed a bathroom. They were perfectly smooth between their legs—at least from the few glimpses she had caught. How did they eliminate wastes?
The very back of the ship was obviously a holding area for prisoners. It looked like it could hold ten or twelve comfortably—or two or three if one of them was as big as the two-headed Trollox that had died. Ugh!
Penny was just despairing of finding anyplace to relieve herself when she at last spied a tiny, recessed door that she’d missed on her way to look at the holding area. When she let herself in, she saw a strange kind of toilet that appeared to be nothing but a long tube coming out of the floor, attached to an oval head. There was also a round metal shower stall in one corner but Penny barely paid attention to it because by now she really had to go.
But how?
She plucked the hose-like device carefully from the hook it was hanging from and looked uncertainly at the oval attachment. Was it some kind of suction device? It looked a little bit like a vacuum cleaner attachment.
Experimentally, she pressed the blue button on the wall beside the hook and sure enough, a long slit opened in the oval head and it began to suck. So it was like the toilets in the bathrooms at Hell’s Gate Station, Penny thought.
But she didn’t see any of the sanitary arrangements that were on the other suction toilets. Did the NeverBreeders press this oval thing between their crotches or wherever their waste came out? Did they clean it between times? What if they didn’t? She didn’t see any cleaning materials. The awful thing was probably crawling with germs. Ugh! And she had touched it!
Suddenly Penny had the urge to wash her hands—her whole body, in fact. She eyed the tall metal shower cylinder in the corner and wondered if there was hot water available.
“Maybe I’ll just pee in the shower,” she muttered to herself, turning to place the hose and its attachment gingerly back on its hook on the wall. “Who knows how the NeverBreeders use that thing anyway?”
“We press it to our cloaca and allow it to suck the wastes from our body, of course,” a high, androgynous voice said from right behind her.
Penny screamed and whirled around to see the biggest NeverBreeder she’d ever seen standing in the now-open shower stall, glaring at her.
Eighty-Five
“Is that you, sweetheart?” V called when he heard the footsteps behind him. “I’ve got us on autopilot now, headed back to Hell’s Gate. My own ship is docked on the far end, so—”
“You will turn the ship around and go back to Yown Alpha at once,” an unfamiliar voice said behind him.
“What in the Seven Hells?” V spun around to see a NeverBreeder which was larger than most standing behind him. Worse, the bastard had one arm around Penelope’s waist and was holding a long, wickedly sharp knife at her throat.
“You heard me, breeder,” the orange humanoid said. He was taller than Penny, which gave him the advantage over her. As if the knife wasn’t advantage enough, V thought grimly.
“Let her go,” he growled, feeling the Rage rise in him again.
“No,” the NeverBreeder guard said coolly. “I will hold her hostage while you turn the ship around and set a course for Yown Alpha.”
“Never,” Penelope’s voice was low and trembling but her brown eyes were fierce. “V’rex will never do what you say!”
“He’d better…” The NeverBreeder guard slid the tip of the knife slowly up and down the side of her neck. “This blade has been dipped in the sap of the Toxic-shock vine. If I draw even a single drop of blood from your lovely flesh, you’ll be poisoned instantly, breeder. And I assure you it will not be a pleasant death.”
“You’re bluffing,” V growled though he was desperately afraid the NeverBreeder wasn’t. He was barely holding back the Rage which threatened to overcome him—it wanted to fall like a red curtain over his vision when he saw his female being threatened. But he had to think now, had to act rationally if he wanted to get Penelope out of this alive…
“I assure you, breeder, that I never bluff,” the NeverBreeder said sharply. “Now set the course and then the two of you will be locked safely in the hold while I pilot us back to the Compound. Once we are there, the Glorious Leader will know how to deal with both of you.”
“No!” Penelope’s voice rose to a sudden shout. “We’re never going back there—never!”
She twisted in the NeverBreeder’s arms suddenly and jammed her elbow into his midsection.