It was a night of hell for Dina. The lights were low and the room was still except for the occasional cry or sob. She could hear it echo off the walls, punctuated by the high-pitched scream that rose up in the distance. Some of them were men, some were women. She had no doubt that the women were being raped the death, torn open on barbed cocks by aliens too impatient for Lumme’s and Harmmon’s surgical alterations.

She felt sick listening to the screams. There was nothing she could do, nothing at all. She was trapped, trapped in an open cell, unable to escape the aliens that would hunt her down and torture her.

Dina lifted her head and looked at the opening of her cell. It would be the easiest thing to just step outside. She considered it more than once. She didn’t know the ship or the layout, which meant she would be wandering the hallways until she stumbled on an alien.

The idea of being impaled on a barbed cock sent a shiver of spine.

No, she would remain in her cell.

Turning away, she pressed one sweaty arm over her ear and tried to drown out the sounds of screams. It didn’t work but there were brief moments when her flesh muffled out the terror. She closed her eyes tightly and prepared herself for long hours before she could sleep again.

As she laid on the bench, her thoughts drifted aimlessly, bouncing between her time with Melodi and the days leading up to her fateful trip. But then an errant thought of her marriage brought a far worse memory to the fore: Korin’s death.

Before she could stop it, she was recalling the video with unwanted clarity. Her memories came as flashing images, highlighting the worst of the fight as she saw him beaten by the rod, the look of terror on his face, and the his still body at the end. She tried to pull her thoughts away from it but her focus snapped back to that terrible moment when she lost him.

Desperate, she rolled over and shoved both hands between her legs. The raw opening of her sex protested but she morbidly shoved her fingers into it, blasting away the memories with sharp agony.

She fingered herself roughly as long as she could, ripping apart one horror for the short-term benefit of excruciating pain.

Finally, it got too much. Her entire body shook from the agony. She yanked her fingers from her pussy and slumped back. The relief was immediate, like the afterglow of an orgasm.

She needed to sleep. She needed to forget her husband’s death.

The memories started again, playing through the fight. The dread rose inside her, gripping her lungs in icy claws.

Sick, she shoved her hand back into her pussy and fingered herself violently. This time, she wouldn’t think about her husband before she willed herself to sleep.

Ten minutes later, she slumped back again. “Damn it.”

Her mind kept going back to Korin, no matter how much she tried. She closed her eyes and sank into the memories, wallowing in the sorrow that filled her as she pictured her husband’s still body on the ground.

In desperation to avoid her husband, she focused on the blue-quilled alien instead. He didn’t panic like the others. In fact, he seemed to be the only one in charge. He had the controls for peeling back the armor and putting it back.

Dina frowned. She didn’t know if it would be useful to know, but she saw him entering the commands. There were symbols on a keyboard, she had enough lessons to understand them.

She sat up, her eyes aching as she peered into the dark. It would keep the nightmares away for a little longer. She just needed her tablet.

It was out on the table beyond the opening of her cell.

Every since they removed the barrier, she hadn’t dared to step outside. She didn’t want to be a threat, to provoke them.

The tablet was only a few meters beyond it.

Memories of Korin began to rise up, crawling from her subconsciousness. She blinked past the tears and pushed herself up off the seat. Her heart bet faster as fear surged through her. Her bare feet padded on the ground as she leaned against the side of the cell and peered outside.

Like her own cell, the barriers sealing the other women had been opened up. Just like Dina, though, no one made an attempt to escape. There was too much horror outside of the cells, too much chance of a short, brutal life.

She didn’t know what kept her from racing out and committing suicide though. It would be a sure thing… maybe. With her surgical alterations, she suspected that it would be years before she actually died.

Korin’s death hovered in the back of her head.

Taking a deep breath, she reached out for the tablet but it was out of reach.

Some of the other women were awake, staring with broken eyes into the cell. None of them responded as she took one hesitant step and then another. Staggering forward, she leaned across the table and snatched the tablet.

She was convinced that they would be coming for her.

Dina smacked the tablet to her bare breast and fled back to her cell.

No alarms went off, no marching filled the air.

She curled up on the bench, staring over her shoulder for someone to come for her. She could imagine what tortures they had.

After a long moment, she finally relaxed. Setting the tablet down on her knee, she brought it up and went to the video with her husband’s death.

Her eyes burned with tears as she watched her husband joining the fight. She fast-forwarded it past the violence to focus on the blue-quilled alien. When she got to the scenes with the alien tapping on his arm, she stopped and started to puzzle out the various symbols he tapped.

As she worked, she knew it was pointless. She would never need to know how to form the armor or to remove it. She was just giving herself false hope by trying.

Then the image of Korin’s still body flashed across her mind.

Biting her lip, she rewound and tried again. She didn’t have paper but she found a note-taking application in the tablet. Soon, she had a series of letters that made up the command to remove the armor. The command to reform it was missing letters.

It took her a bit longer to find a dictionary application. It was higher level than her education, but she found a few words that could be command to restore the armor; they had the correct first and final letters.

Finally, she leaned back with a faint rush. Korin’s death wasn’t entirely in vain. She had something. Maybe it would help her later.

More importantly, it gave her enough relief so her eyes could close and sleep finally came.