No One Left Behind

"No One Left Behind" is a story written by Aoime Kouchou for Issue 19 It can be found here and mirrored here. It was also illustrated by gabrielsknife.

Summary

A science-fiction story about Alizarin, who is an alien prisoner that is trapped aboard a sex-slaver's ship.

"The charge-chuffs chafed Alizarin's wrists. The scales beneath the cold metal bands were cracked and breaking. He stopped struggling a few days ago, after a Thrihar had jabbed electric prods against his back. If he had been anything less then a Sirocco, the electrical current would have seriously hurt him."

Connections

"No One Left Behind" shares the same Stars Universe as Kouchou's other works.

Author's Notes

While this is my second SSB*B story, this one technically predates Pale Bright and Shining by quite a few months. I had the bare bones of this story hiding in my hard drive, but I had no idea what Alizarin looked like, what his species was, or any of the details of his capture. So I let the story languish for a bit, moved on to other projects, then bam! Once I had a setting going, I scraped this story up and went to town on it.

Like "Pale, Bright, and Shining," this story is kinda showing its age here and there. There are some details that have been worked out of the setting at large, some species quirks that have been retooled, and some of the science doesn't quite jive anymore. I still like it, but I'm rather partial to Python's crew. I have a few stories that followed after this one, but none of them were ever finished enough to share anywhere.

I'd like to thank again my beta-reader(s) who helped me shape this into what you see today, the lovely individuals who make SSB*B possible, and you who read this. You all are awesome and I appreciate every comment, pageview, and "like" you leave.

Artist's Notes

I almost didn't send the picture in, until I worried that people would be confused by Alizarin's description. You can find a colored version of the picture here.