Survivors - Jean Lorrah [5]
Silently, the girl absorbed that. So Mr. Adin/Dare was not the gang leader; he answered to someone else. She had to leave off puzzling that out as Doctor turned to her. “Do your parents know where you are, child? They must be worried sick.”
“Parents?” the girl asked.
“Mother. Father. Your family.”
“Got no family,” the girl replied sullenly. Actually, she had no idea whether her mother was even alive, although she doubted it. Hooked on joy dust, she probably didn’t survive more than a year after abandoning her child.
“Who takes care of you?” asked Mr. Adin.
“Take care o’ myself!”
He studied her, obviously wanting to ask something else but saying instead, “My name is Darryl Adin. My friends call me Dare. What’s your name?”
“Tasha,” the girl replied. It sounded strange; no one had spoken her name since the old woman died.
“Tasha,” said Darryl Adin. “Pretty name for a pretty girl.”
“Don’t wanta be pretty!” the girl told him angrily. ” ‘Tracts the rape gangs!”
“Rape gangs!” exclaimed Doctor. “What sort of place is this?”
“Not exactly the ideal planet for shore leave,” Darryl Adin replied. Then he returned to his questioning. “Tasha, do you have another name?”
Tasha thought rapidly. This was a very, very powerful gang. It had more technic things than she had ever seen, and this man, obviously important in gang ranking even if he wasn’t the leader, wanted to take her with him. She knew what that meant, had known the moment he said she was pretty.
How was she to escape, when they had weapons to defeat a whole rape gang without any of them so much as being cut? Tasha was exhausted, and still cold despite the blanket. She couldn’t fight them, so the best thing was to cooperate. For now.
There were women in this gang, and they appeared to be treated with respect. Maybe she could gain the same respect.
Doctor had said things that suggested Tasha’s injuries would be cared for. And Darryl Adin had told her to take the girl to someplace called Sickbay. Maybe he didn’t want her with a black eye and broken rib-she remembered what the rape gang leader had said about not marking her. Druglords were particular about their women.
That made up Tasha’s mind. She was weak, tired, injured. Healing would take a few days, and in the meantime they might feed her and give her new clothes. Druglords had plenty of food and clothing-they had plenty of everything. She would take what they gave her, regain her strength-and then, as soon as she was well and Darryl Adin expected her to be delivered to his bed, she would escape.
Perhaps escape would be impossible. Perhaps they would catch her and force her to submit, or kill her if she refused.
But they would certainly kill her if she did not cooperate with them now, for she had no strength left. For the time being it was best to be very cooperative, try to fit in. Be sweet to Doctor Munson while she was in this Sickbay place, maybe learn how women got to be gang members instead of just men’s playthings. The two women were dressed like the two men, except for different colored patterns on the tops of their clothes. It had to mean they were actual gang members. The way Doctor Munson talked back to Darryl Adin, it was certain she was!
Darryl Adin had asked if she had another name. He had two names. Doctor Munson had two names. Probably the other gang members had two names, as well. She didn’t remember her mother’s name-and if she had, would not have wanted to be known by it. So she took one more legacy from the old woman who had taken in a frightened, starving five-year-old and shared what little she had with her. “Yar,” she replied boldly. “My name is Tasha Yar!”
Chapter Two
STARFLEET LIEUTENANT TASHA YAR, Security Chief of the U.S.S. Enterprise, beamed aboard from the planet Minos with a sense of profound relief. For a time, as an uncontrolled weapon relentlessly pursued them, she had feared that she and the people she was responsible for would all perish-but once again the smooth cooperation of an Enterprise away team