friend if she had to.
The sight she saw was surpassingly odd.
Shurla was down on the floor and she was surrounded by at least four little bald men, all of them wearing identical silver jumpsuits and white boots.
“Hey! What are you doing? Leave her alone!” she shouted, hoping to scare them away from Shurla. After all, even though there were four of them, they were all really short. With their bright orange skin and matching silver jumpsuits, they looked a little like demented Oompa-Loompas.
The little men turned as one and Penny was no longer sure they were men. Their features all had an androgynous cast and they didn’t appear to have any secondary sexual characteristics—there were no beards or breasts or any kind of facial hair to show which sex they were.
“Look, Joone,” one of the Oompa-Loompas said to another and pointed at Penny. “Another female who appears to be of prime breeding stock.”
“She has only two mammaries, Spoone,” the other replied, frowning at Penny.
“Yes, but observe the size of her hips and behind,” the first one protested. “Her pelvic opening is broad enough to bear many offspring with no complications at all, indicating extreme fertility.”
“Hey!” Penny said again, but rather uneasily this time. What were these weird little guys—if they were guys—talking about? She’d heard plenty of derogatory comments about her “childbearing” hips and big ass before, but she’d never been discussed like this. It sounded like they were evaluating her like she was some kind of broodmare.
After a moment, the Oompa-Loompa who was apparently called Joone nodded.
“Yes,” he said. “Let’s take her. Our Glorious Leader will be pleased when we bring home another of prime breeding stock.”
“Now, wait a minute,” Penny said as the four of them began to advance on her. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
“Do not fear, breeder,” one of them said. “We will take you away to a much better life. A life of luxury where you will want for nothing.”
“No thank you,” Penny said, still backing away. “I’m not going anywhere with you, no matter how ‘luxurious’ you claim it is!”
She saw with dismay that she had backed herself into the stall she had just come out of. If only she’d thought to dodge around them and run for the door! They might be small but there were so many of them!
She tried to slam the stall door shut but many orange fingers wormed their way between the door and the latch and the strange bald Oompa-Loompas forced the door back open.
“Leave me alone!” Penny shouted at the top of her lungs. “Get out of here and leave me alone! Help!”
But this time no one came to her screams. The four little men crowded into the stall with her and Penny suddenly felt a sharp jab in her upper thigh.
“Ouch! What was that? What did you do?” she cried but almost at once her limbs began to feel heavy. “What did you doooo?” she repeated but this time her voice sounded like Shurla’s had—draggy and slow, like a toy whose batteries are running low.
“Don’t worry,” either Joone or Spoone said softly as they lowered her to the ground. “Your new life as a breeder for the Glorious Cause will be magnificent. You’ll see.”
Penny opened her mouth to ask what the hell they were talking about, but this time no words came out at all. She realized she was frozen—as completely frozen as Rive and Y’lla were back in the shuttle at the other end of the station.
But at least they got frozen doing what they loved, she thought irrelevantly. There’s nothing fun about being attacked by rogue Oompa-Loompas in a strange alien bathroom…
She had a moment to realize that her thoughts weren’t making much sense and then she lost the ability to think anything at all, as everything went dark.
Seventeen
V was in the box again. He spent most of his time there, since he refused to obey.
The box was a little shorter than he was tall—a rectangular prison so small he could neither stand up all the way, or sit down or even crouch—he was stuck in an almost-standing posture which made his muscles scream with fatigue after only a few minutes in the torturous position. When V was crammed into it, his broad shoulders touched the sides and his head touched the top, causing intense feelings of claustrophobia, which he fought off grimly.
It was completely dark inside, with just a few air holes near the top, by his face. V pressed his