Chapter Text
In the year 5127, reality begins to be torn apart by the sudden collapse of Earth’s Replacement Sun, a reactor of incredible scale, built on the moon.
You wouldn’t recognize the humans of the 5000’s, not after three thousand years of forced adaptation with traits cherry-picked from creatures much better-suited to Earth’s new climate extremes. While humans never found life on other planets before their own was destroyed, other life had long since been aware of them.
Our humans of the future found themselves thrown thousands of years into the past, scattered across habitable planets contained within a stellar tidal pool, formed by panicked beings who hadn’t expected humans to break Everything in one go.
Essential forces, known under the misnomer of laws of physics were made corporeal, sealed, shattered, and sealed again, necessary to prevent humans from harnessing them ever again.
It’s been long enough, now, and Chaos is growing tired of being in pieces- especially since some of her pieces seem to be located outside of her prison.
Firstly, though, we’re going to Earth, now on its second attempt at the twenty-first century, to find out why a human has just found herself in orbit.
☼─────────────────∞
Maybe my mistake was blinking?
Cora had every intention of getting on the bus. It was late, winter, the sun was already down. She’d been standing at the bus stop. The bus was pulling up, and then…
She was here.
It was a white room, maybe the size of a gas station bathroom, white walls and silver metal trim. Some kind of grate overhead. Her head was pounding, the worst of it around her temples. All I did was blink!
As Cora began to pace, heart pounding, she muttered to herself. “I left work. I was at the stop. The bus was coming. I-”
A loud humming interrupted her, someone speaking too quickly for her to understand at first. It echoed through the tiny, empty room.
Cora froze, mid-pace, listening.
“I’m- We’re-”
The voice kept cutting out, like there was a problem with the system. Maybe the one speaking was nervous.
They better be fucking nervous, Cora told herself, comforted only when anger overrode her panic. There was definitely a door in front of her. Its outline, a narrow seam in the light-colored metal, finally gave her something to back away from. She waited for the speaker to continue, inching backwards after checking over her shoulder.
“I’m sure you’re very excited, or, uh, nervous, but we’re just here to learn more about your kind!”
“Seriously?” Cora looked around again. “Like… aliens?” The voice did sound strange, layered, while the room itself smelled of burnt metal and dust. She found herself considering who her captors were if not aliens- and began to pray that they really were.
“Oh!” There was a loud rustling noise, like static. “Yes, that’s correct. If you’ll stand there, there will be, a, sh- shower. Rain? No, shower. That is the decontamination process.”
She stepped forward, so tense that her body was barely operable, mumbling under her breath.
Out of nowhere came a drenching, miserable, downpour, and to make matters worse, it was ice-cold, strange-smelling, and burned her eyes, like someone had simply dumped a bucket of chemicals on her head. It was in her ears, and she could see and hear very little.
Choking ensued as she scrambled backward. Something was approaching her with outstretched hands. She’d tried to shout, swear, anything, but the downpour hadn’t stopped to let her.
All she could do was flounder until the something seized her, wiping the water out of her eyes and pulling her hair back carefully from her face.
She blinked, holding her eyes open to get a good look at who held her, now letting her go and stepping back.
Three stood in front of her. Three what, she couldn’t even begin to guess.
They were shaped like humans, faces similar, expressions recognizable, but that was where the resemblance stopped. They were a good bit taller than her, with cat-like eyes and skin the texture of suede. One, two pairs of arms apiece, some kind of green uniform with a vest. The one that came in to wipe the water out of her eyes had almost orange skin, and long ears that started out human, but continued in length like a rabbit’s. He looked irritable, too, spitting harsh words at the shortest one.
In turn, the shortest one held up a rectangular device as if he wanted to hide behind it. It was about the size of a notebook, with a glowing screen.
And when this one noticed her looking at him, he perked up.
“I’m sorry, Miss Cora! I didn’t give the signal before the officer started the decontamination process.”
She didn’t respond, assessing them through narrowed, irritated eyes, looking for seams, make-up, signs of prosthetic features, and found none.
No. She’d either been drugged, or had genuinely been abducted by aliens.
There weren’t any drugs that could do this. Cora was sure. She stared at the one who’d spoke English, frozen where she stood.
The one he’d pointed at when he said “officer” rolled his eyes, turning away with a sigh to pass towels to the one helping her.
Their legs were interesting. Cora watched a complex arrangement of joints after a knee, not unlike a dog’s leg. Instead of paws, though, they had feet like a chicken, with the same sort of talons. The suede texture grew rougher here.
Cora blinked, shaking her head and letting out a low sigh.
Her panic subsided, replaced with the awkward feeling that came with being at someone’s house for the first time.
“Can I, uh, get y’all’s names at least?” She finally spoke up, her throat still burning.
They startled when she spoke, then looked to the shortest one, seemingly the boss.
Cora watched him think, noting how his ears seemed to have been cut short, the edges much neater than the officer’s, both of them shaped like a human’s. Normal hands, a little longer torso, and below the belts, close-fitting pants were not leaving much for her to question. She’d assume they were guys.
She looked back up at his face, wondering if they’d even understood her.
He was looking around now, too.
Bewildered and disoriented, Cora looked down as the orange one tugged at the hem of her cold, wet sweater. She shivered.
This prompted an immediate, irritable statement from him. The one that spoke English snapped something back, making the orange one shake his head.
He muttered something that sounded like a sorry, pulling up carefully at the hem of her sweater.
“Are we taking this off?”
He looked over at the other, who wasn’t paying attention, then nodded.
Cora held up her arms, letting him peel it off. It was warm in here, but there was an air current that was still chilling her. This must be what rescue animals feel like.
As he pulled up her sweater, he was looking away, his cheeks visibly darkening.
Her sudden glee at this caught Cora completely off-guard. She’d never been particularly well-behaved, but her New Year’s resolution had been to lay off the misbehavior- and now it was November 2nd. She’d been doing too well to start again, and now envisioned beating herself back with a rolled-up newspaper.
This didn’t do anything meaningful, especially as his fingers dipped below the waistband of her equally-soaked jeans. His very warm fingers.
She let out a soft oh, startling him. He looked at her, concerned, but Cora was looking away, her ears reddening. Then, he sat, inspecting the button of her jeans.
“Okay- Let me get that,” Cora said, laughing nervously. She brushed a finger across the back of his hand as she went for the button- it was as soft as it looked. He stood.
Well, she hadn’t kept her eyes up like she’d needed to.
She pretended not to have noticed anything, kicking her shoes off carefully before pulling her jeans down, and put more focus into the mental image of whacking herself with a rolled-up newspaper as she reminded herself where she was- and where she wasn’t.
“Should I take everything else off?” Taking her jeans off had left her in nothing but her underwear.
The one who’d spoke earlier, the boss, was gone now. The orange one nodded.
She obeyed. All the while, she wondered if she were being too compliant, and what he was thinking. Folding her bra and underwear together, she placed them on the sweater he held in his arms. He was furiously doing his best to look calmly past her, then took off at a jog, trying to make it look like a walk.
They were all kind of handsome, in their own way. Cora wondered if this was on purpose.
“Oh-” The shorter one had reappeared, startled at her standing there, completely nude. He looked away, holding out what looked like a set of flannel pajamas.
Cora took them. They were indeed flannel pajamas, the kind that came as a set for Christmas. They even had little polar bears printed on them.
“So…” Cora wondered how to phrase what she wanted to ask. ‘Why am I here’ seemed a little too assertive. She settled for repeating her question. “Do you have a name?”
He paused, thinking. “Well… The sounds of our language don’t correlate easily to the English phonemes. My name should be easy enough, and you can call the other two by their job titles. The one drying you off was the Engineer and the one who tried to drown you is the Officer. You can call me Ray.”
Cora frowned. “What’s your job?”
“I’m not sure what you would call it. I lead the expedition, but I participated in a program... studying… I was assigned the human species to study, along with many others.”
Cora found this answer extremely evasive. “So… Like a scientist?”
He shrugged and nodded.
Realizing she was fully dressed again, he turned to face her. He was much lighter than the other two, a yellowish beige. His eyes were a soft pink, round and expressive. This one would be an open book, Cora decided.
“What are you guys gonna- going to do with me?”
Ray pursed his lips. “We’re just going to keep you here for a few days, orbit your planet, and do some non-invasive study.”
Two things occurred to Cora. One, she would lose her job. There was no calling out from space. Two, that didn’t matter. He was lying. She wouldn’t be going home any time soon.
☼─────────────────∞
Sitting in a sort of bedroom, Cora took stock of her situation. The Officer had brought in her soggy purse from the decontamination room, and her phone was, thankfully, waterproof- but it was useless with no signal. Cora shook her head. She had a few books downloaded on it, and a strange side-loaded version of Minesweeper that didn’t need an internet signal.
But did that really matter? There was plenty to pay attention to here, and so she left her purse tied to the rung of a ladder, and paced the room slowly.
Most of this room, her room, was taken up by a round bed, with a foam mattress and a scratchy, woven blanket.
At the other end was a black circle mounted in the ceiling. In another corner, in a recess on the wall, was something that synthesized food, per Ray. But as he’d pressed a button on the display, out came a banana, still sporting its blue sticker with the number 4011. Cora didn’t say anything about this.
The door, like all the others, was a sliding door, without a visible lock. Just as she approached it, the Engineer entered. In one hand, he held one of their tablets, in another he held a small box, and in the third he held a folded blanket. Cora recognized the kind- it was a mink blanket, heavy, pink and soft (with a tiger printed on it, of course). She felt a pang of jealousy as she watched him; four arms seemed so convenient.
He set the blanket down and patted the bed, inviting her to sit.
She sat.
The Engineer gathered her hair carefully in his hands, holding it up and out of the way before wiping at the back of her neck with something cold. He paused, still holding her hair. Cora could hear a tapping noise, like typing on a touchscreen.
When he sat the tablet in her lap, it had a paragraph in English.
THIS PATCH IS TO MONITOR YOUR VITALS. WE WILL RUN SOME TESTS. THIS SHOULD NEVER HURT. PLEASE TELL US IF IT DOES. YOU WILL LATER GET SOME MEDICINE. IT MIGHT TASTE BAD. SORRY IF IT DOES. ALSO IF YOU GET HUNGRY JUST TELL US. WE HAVE A LOT OF HUMAN FOOD.
The interface shown on the tablet looked like some kind of translation app. While the Engineer placed the patch, she tried gently tapping the words in English. Sure enough, a cursor appeared, along with a keyboard. The layout was all wrong, the keys in a strange order, but Cora was able to hunt-and-peck out a message all the same.
The unfamiliar script at the top changed as she typed. It was fascinating, full of graceful curves and loops, and flowed from right to left in the same way she knew that Arabic did.
Cora tore herself away from inspecting the letters and placed the tablet next to him.
THANK YOU FOR BEING SO KIND, it read.
As he stood, he looked for the tablet and paused as he read the new sentence- then smiled warmly.
After a little wave, he was gone.
It was a while before anyone entered again. Cora looked up from her phone, expecting Ray, but was greeted by the Officer. His uniform was the same as the others, with a different insignia embroidered on the shoulders and a belt with a lot of pouches. He was built differently from the others, not quite as lithe with much broader shoulders. He looked strong.
Cora felt as if she were Atlas holding up the world with the effort she needed to keep her eyes above his belt.
And she failed.
Well, shit. He’d seen, too.
Cora carefully, nonchalantly pulled her eyes away, her face reddening.
“Ah,” he said, fishing a much smaller tablet out of his pocket. This one was about the size of a phone. She wondered if it was something similar. He held it up awkwardly, typing something on it before turning to the monitor. The opening below whirred and produced a syringe, the kind used for kid’s medication. This was larger, though, and the liquid inside was bronze. It shimmered hypnotically.
I’m not taking that.
The Officer turned to her and placed one hand under her jaw. His hand was warm, and Cora was struck dumb by her body’s touch-starved response to this. Against her better judgment, she practically melted into his hand, relaxing against it. He noted this, pressing his thumb gently against her cheek, as if asking her to open her mouth. He had orange eyes and dignified, elongated features that she now studied, looking for any sort of malicious intent. She couldn’t find any, completely disarmed by his warmth and rather intent eye contact.
Cora opened her mouth without thinking, surprised at how the cold the glass was as it pressed against her tongue.
His eyes narrowed.
It was bitter, and there was a lot of it. Cora looked up at him again just as he stroked her cheek with his thumb.
“Good little human.” His thumb now brushed against her lower lip. His voice was layered like Ray’s only deeper and pleasantly resonant. Hushed, too, with an element of embarrassment. He left, and the entire scenario registered in Cora’s mind.
The way he’d looked, how he’d touched her, and the expression she’d certainly been making, without thinking- she swore aloud, reprimanding herself.
As she flopped back on the bed, an odd tingling began in her chest.
After a few minutes, Cora realized that he’d left his tablet atop the wall-mounted fake-food-synthesizer. It was just within reach.
THIS IS FOR YOU, it said on the screen in small blue letters. DON’T TELL RAY.
The feeling in her chest wasn’t going away.
The overhead lights were dimming further. It would be completely dark soon. But just as it did, clusters of smaller warm-toned lights came on, mounted in the walls. The ambiance was pleasant, and made her eyelids heavy. After discovering the button that turned the tablet off and on again, Cora tucked it away in her purse and crawled into bed. The mink blanket smelled new, like the plastic it was sold in, and she found herself laughing softly, pleased as she curled up under it.
This really isn’t bad at all. She was already half-asleep.
Her dreams were intense. Cora snapped awake, heart racing, but was unable to remember anything.
She didn’t feel right. Her blood felt hotter than normal, she was dizzy, and worst of all, she was painfully, violently horny.
There was nothing to do about it. Cora hated not knowing who was watching her on that camera.
She was just as hungry, too. Accepting her discomfort with a sigh, Cora rolled out of bed and walked up to the dispenser. It had dropped something about an hour ago- a strawberry nutrition shake and two red apples. They’d peeled the label off the bottle, but the underside was printed with both the flavor and the expiration date.
They’d forgotten, once more, to remove the stickers from the apples. “What are they even trying to hide?” she muttered, growing mildly annoyed.
She ate the apples and sat facing the door, attempting to sip at the shake. The only time she’d ever drank these was after a tonsillectomy; it even had the same dark blue cap, and tasted like no school for a week.
The scientist, Ray, came in, and her mood worsened.
“Good morning, Miss Cora! How are you feeling?” He clutched his tablet to his chest, seemingly expectant. His friendliness was put-on, purely professional, lacking the warmth the others had, and this irritated Cora further.
“I’m feeling, uh, okay? These drinks always make me nauseous but that goes away after a couple minutes.” He frowned. This clearly wasn’t what he was expecting.
Standing up a little straighter, he turned to the dispenser and tapped at it. The dispenser answered with an angry tone and displayed a diamond-shaped popup. Ray scoffed, typing in a code below the popup.
It produced another syringe of the bronze liquid.
“Time for your next dose!”
Cora made a face. “What exactly does that stuff do?” Ray turned away from her for a moment. “It is to, mm, bypass the need for a quarantine! You won’t catch anything we might have.”
He was a terrible liar, and it would have sounded like bullshit even if he weren’t lying. Cora kept her expression neutral. It probably wasn’t his fault. Ray was awkward in a way that was familiar. She wished the Officer or the Engineer were giving her this dose, though. They wouldn’t have knocked the syringe against her teeth.
His hands shook a bit. The flavor seemed stronger this time.
Ray began avoiding her gaze before he took the empty syringe and tablet, leaving the room.
It had been a few hours and the arousal still hadn’t subsided. It wasn’t unheard of for her, but she had no intention of attempting to manage it, not with the camera in the corner. It would just have to be tolerated, the same way she’d tolerated it most of the year.
She glared at the ceiling.
There was a quiet beep-beep.
It was the tablet. Keeping her back to the camera, Cora pulled it out to find that it displayed a notification. She took a picture of the screen with her own phone, referring to the picture as she keyed the script’s segments into the translation interface.
SUBJECT FULLY COMPATIBLE FOR REPRODUCTION
Cora heard running and hastily shoved her phone and the tablet under the bed. Just as she threw herself into a casual sitting position, Ray burst in, the Officer behind him.
“Hello!” He had the same expectant look. The Officer, meanwhile, looked a bit irritable.
Cora offered him a puzzled, polite smile. “Hi?”
Ray looked around the room, shifting uncomfortably, clearly disappointed and a bit worried, judging by the way his eyebrows furrowed as he turned, his wide eyes looking a bit teary. He turned to the Officer, giving him quiet instructions before stalking out of the room. The Officer slid the door shut behind him and shook his head.
Cora fidgeted with her hands, thinking over what the translator had given her. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”
He paused, thoughtful, before stepping closer. To the dispenser he gave a distasteful glare, but when he turned back to Cora, his expression was pleasant again. “I can.”
The Officer repeated what Ray had done earlier, getting yet another syringe. He then stepped closer, moving as if to sit on the bed. Cora scooted back, giving him space.
“I’m not permitted to tell you anything, but… Hm. I don’t care.” He held up the syringe and Cora opened her mouth in response. As he depressed the plunger on the syringe, he spoke.
“There is a crisis on our home planet. The population has been… reduced. There aren’t enough families, and the birth rate is nearly zero. The mission is to find others that we can supplement our population with. Ray is waiting for you to present as ready.”
“Ready for… Mgh- sorry. Hold on. Ready for what?” She spoke around the syringe, pulling back slightly.
“To… Well, reproduce.”
“Oh, sweet Jesus. Are you serious? What’s he expecting?” She pulled back completely, taking the empty syringe in her hand.
The Officer fought back an awkward laugh. “He’s watched some, mm, Earth media.”
Cora closed her eyes. “Do not tell me that he’s watched porn and called that research.”
“He has.”
She opened her eyes slowly. “No. And he comes in here… expecting… Have you watched any?”
He tilted his head back and forth. “Some. Not much. I had... other resources.”
Cora rubbed at her face as it heated up. “I don’t do anything like that. A lot of women don’t. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, he’s not gonna see anything like that.”
“It’s just intended to facilitate the behavior, the impulses.” He started to avoid her eyes.
“Did he not research anything else? He could have at least looked up our, uh, courting rituals or something! Hell, a lot of women would prefer you just say something!”
The Officer shifted where he sat, taking the syringe from her. “He is… Ray. He doesn’t know that we have learned the English language or have studied as much as he has. He’s…”
“Obnoxious?” Cora offered.
“Oh, yes. But please, Cora, don’t misunderstand the situation. No staff on this ship will be attempting to… have you. We have orders to bring you to our home planet.” He was watching her again, and looked sad as he did. That wasn’t promising.
She didn’t respond. After several moments of silence, he stood and pointed to the camera. “Only I can see the feed from this. You don’t have to worry about Ray watching you.” At that, he left.
Cora woke up disoriented from a short nap, sweaty and feeling violent. Violent? She wasn’t sure if she wanted to fight, or to fuck.
Was there much of a difference?
The fuck are they gonna do with me on their home planet? She wanted to scream. One was already raring to go in her chest, straining just short of her vocal cords, held back only by Cora’s abject refusal to make a fool of herself. Her pulse was loud, and every time her thighs brushed together, it set off a shuddering need that shook her entire body.
And the Officer and Engineer had been so nice to her, and she would love to- oh, Jesus. What did she want?
She squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to even entertain the idea. This resulted in her quickly becoming tense, nauseous and miserable. Fuck, I hate this.
The monitor bestowed on her a dented, lukewarm Dasani. It did not help.
In fact, it made her mood even worse. At one point, Ray poked his head into her room and immediately left. Cora could hear him shouting. After a handful of minutes, the Officer and the Engineer came in. They were speaking to each other in their language. It was rhythmic, stilted and musical, like sung Morse code.
»He wants to give her another dose. But look at her levels.«
»I know. But you know we can't argue with him.«
They turned to look at Cora. She was shivering slightly, waiting for one of them to speak to her.
To get the syringe from the monitor this time, the Engineer had to plug a small device into it. After he typed that same code, the Officer had to pass three much more insistent popups.
»She's going to go insane. I don't know how she hasn’t lost it. What the fuck is Ray doing?«
»Just go ahead and do the override.«
Cora had a sinking feeling in her chest, but then looked at the closed door. She’d heard it latch behind them- they were here, unsupervised, with the door locked behind them. In her room, with her.
“Here, little human. Just one more.” She took the syringe, knee-jerk obedient at the sound of his voice. This time, it tasted burnt, bitter, and hit like a shot of espresso. That is, if espresso were a brutal aphrodisiac.
Cora whimpered. She couldn't take much more of this. Why the fuck should I?
She whimpered. Uncomfortable didn’t even begin to describe the heat, the damp, the way she couldn’t find a way to sit that didn’t draw a noise out, one that had to be covered with a cough.
The Officer reached out uncertainly, stroking her hair. “I’m sorry. I know it’s not comfortable.”
“Then help,” she whimpered, her New Year’s resolution abandoned.
“How?”
“Anything. Anything, please,” she gasped out, her face heating up further. Oh, she was approaching unknown territory, but at least she recognized the look in their eyes.
After a pause, the Engineer spoke.
»Hey… Do you remember the... mouth thing?«
»The mouth thing?«
»Yeah. That thing where they put their-«
»I remember.«
»Do you think that would help... her?«
Cora was sure she knew what they were talking about. They looked so different from humans, but she could pick out the little expressions, the eye twitches, furtive glances, the way their cheeks darkened. The Engineer’s long ears turning purple at the ends would have made it obvious enough, even without the way he stiffly turned away from Cora, eyeing the door.
The Officer was much broader than the Engineer, definitely stronger, but he didn’t carry it in an arrogant way- his arms stayed relaxed at his sides. They were both confident, self-assured, and they were so nice to her. Yes, the entire situation was terrifying, but it’d been so long since anyone smiled at her, touched her, paid any sort of attention to her- at least, attention she was willing to return.
Cora didn’t even care what they did to her, so long as someone would just fucking touch her. The Officer stood over her, regarding her with some kind of hesitant concern.
Oh, but there was frustration in the way he looked at her. This made even more sense when she looked down. The Engineer was saying something to him, but he’d zoned out, bringing a hand up to graze his fingers over her lips. And then the Engineer turned back, looking up at the Officer, worried, his gaze sinking down to watch his thumb push gently into Cora’s mouth.
Nerves that she’d never paid any attention to before were firing off then, making her moan as his thumb pressed into her tongue. He wasn’t reacting quite as viscerally as his shipmate, but when Cora saw a tendon in his neck flex, her vision blurred and she drew her lips closed, sucking.
Dear God, his eyes. She was going to get them in so much trouble. Would it be her fault? Would they hold her accountable?
Would who?
Nothing would have mattered to her at this point, their reactions held her full attention. Cora’s heart pounded in her ears. They both wanted her so badly. She hadn’t been wanted in a while. Would they do it? Her vision blurred further as his thumb slipped out of her mouth. She whined.
For her desperation, she was rewarded. It was a different color, different texture, but a dick was a dick, and this one smelled good, too. There was no self-control left in her. “Please, can I-”
The Officer rested a knee on the bed, bringing it closer, and before he could answer her, she already had her mouth around it. He hissed, nearly falling over her.
The Engineer watched, somewhere between panic and jealousy.
Oral was nothing new to Cora, but for the first time in her recollection, she actually wanted to do it. Warm, and soft, and his responses were delicious enough that she didn’t even consider touching herself; it would only distract her. There was too much to enjoy. His little gasps, his groans, his stolen glances back towards the door as the Engineer swore at him but made no move to interrupt them.
Too much, too much.
There was a bit of a size difference, too, and she struggled with it.
He didn’t seem to mind.
The Engineer leaned over the bed. Fingers slipped between her legs.
Cora was beyond words now. She hadn’t touched herself, hadn’t even tried to since the medication began to take effect. Sensitive was too gentle a word. Everything was too much, but, oh.
The Officer was softly gasping. He was trying to be quiet. The Engineer was out of view, but Cora could hear his heart pounding close by.
It was too much for the Officer, too. Cora wondered if it had been as long for him as it had for her. So long without attention. Without fingers in her hair, without eyes burning into hers. He was leaning over her, his gasps growing ragged now.
There was a distant beep. Weakly, the Officer swore, watching Cora clean herself up, licking her fingers without even a shred of shame as she looked up at him. They both watched as she swiped a finger up her neck.
»This is… this is going to be a nightmare to explain in report, Tor.«
»We’ll blame Ray. Go keep him busy.«
As soon as the door closed behind the Officer, Cora whirled around, pulling her pants off in one swift motion.
»I can’t fuck you.«
She spread her legs slowly, watching him with what seemed to the Engineer like blood-lust. Maybe he’d only seen one kind of lust before. That didn’t matter. He’d forgotten what little English he’d learned and now she was running her hands down her body, using her fingers to spread herself further for him and he was beginning to regret ever mocking anyone complaining about heat cycles.
»I can’t fuck you,« he repeated. Her eyes were bloodshot, pupils reflecting far too much of the low light. He watched her begin to finger herself.
Transfixed, he focused on the way she curled her fingers, which ones she used, and her rhythm.
Another distant beep sounded. The Engineer hissed a swear. He knew what was happening, but now, it was too late for him. He pulled her closer. Every muscle in his body spasmed painfully as he pinned her with a hand pressed to her sternum, preventing her from turning, aligning her body with his in the way he desperately wanted her to. »Let me,« he whispered, reaching over her body as she fought with his belt buckle. His fingers replaced hers. He unfastened his belt. Her mouth was soft, warm, but so was this. This entire scenario was their fault, he was sure.
The Engineer focused on imagining his coworker catching him, catching him inside of her.
That wasn’t helping at all. He was kneeling by her head, leaning over her, focusing on copying her earlier movements, suddenly enamored with the way he could distract her. When he did something right, her tongue would stall, a moan low in her chest.
He could do this.
This was fine.
This was not fine. His jaw ached from gritting his teeth as he put his dick away, keeping her pinned to the bed. Ray’s swearing was echoing from his room across the common area.
The way she looked up at him now was- they’d given her too much. He knew nothing about what was in the formula, but he was sure they’d given her too much. The skin on the back of his neck prickled. This was instinct, speaking to him now. He had to do well, or he’d-
The Engineer shook his head. He hushed her, returning his uneasy focus to his hand, the one with fingers inside of her. She quit struggling against him as he curled his fingers gently. Straightening them, he lifted his hand a bit. There was a point where his exact position was exactly what she needed. He lost track of his surroundings searching for this point again. And again. And again. Ray could have been standing over him and he wouldn’t have noticed. Her brown eyes were out of focus, her lips going slack as her hands spasmed at her sides.
She grew tight around him, her breaths turning into gasps, then shuddering little exclamations. She was relaxing now, smiling, swearing and laughing in her language.
He was in less danger now.
The Officer returned, closing the door quickly behind him.
»What did you do?«
The Engineer held up his hand in response.
»Are you sure that was the best idea?«
He stood, fishing a rag out of his pocket and wiping at his hand. »It’s fine.«
Shaking his head, the Officer knelt by the human. “Hey.”
She rolled to face him, her eyes struggling to stay open. “Hiii.”
He shook his head again, carefully wiping at a spot she’d missed. “Are you okay?”
When he pulled the cloth away, she was already half-asleep.
»Shit.«
When Cora woke up, her throat was sore. And her jaw.
For some reason.
Her brain lagged behind her body, which complained of a dry mouth and a full bladder. The latter taken care of, Cora found a water bottle waiting at the dispenser, the tablet bearing a message.
WE HAVE TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH. RAY MAY HAVE OVERDOSED YOU ON THE MEDICINE. WE NEED TO ACT. PLEASE TALK TO US ABOUT THE PLAN.
Cora stared down at the tablet for several minutes, then erased the message. Her bleary expression settled into one of annoyance.
I go out there, I’m strangling that stupid fucking scientist.
Reaching overhead, she stretched, twisting carefully, then bent down. They could wait.
I need to be in a better mood. This is what I get for getting abducted. Fucked up my routine.
Working out was hard without internet, or music. Cora squeezed her eyes shut, searching for motivation.
Her eyes snapped open. I gotta quit thinking about strangling people.
But what would Ray do, call the cops? As Cora pushed herself up into a plank, she laughed quietly.
The Officer turned to face her as she walked into the common area. Ray was nowhere to be seen.
“Cora?”
“No. I got a question.”
He looked at the Engineer, then back to her. “Yes?”
“What the fuck have you been giving me?”
He made a face. “Okay. To be honest, I don’t really know what it is- what it’s made of. I- and Ray, and- and Tor, you too, I think, have a lot depending on this mission. Ray, specifically. He’s a part of the family that was leading our planet.”
The Officer was struggling to put sentences together. He looked to the Engineer for help, but was only met with an impassive stare.
Cora shook her head. “Okay, I get it, I do. But this isn’t Robitussin. This shit is serious. My bones hurt, and I worked so hard to get my anger issues under control, only to have this stuff undo all of my hard work. It makes me feel like I could kill.”
The Officer paused, then repeated her slowly. “Anger issues?”
“Yeah. I used to be super violent.” She frowned, wondering why this seemed like a surprise to him. “When I was younger. I got in a lot of trouble. Nearly killed a guy once.”
“...killed.”
“Yeah? I lost my shit, punched him in the throat, way too hard.”
He looked back to the Engineer, who had his lips pressed firmly together, his eyes sparkling. “Our files didn’t say anything about that.”
“Mhm. What did they say?”
“Nothing- Nothing negative. There were pictures of you, with your sister- there was-”
The Engineer turned away from the Officer, trembling.
“I think someone lied to y’all,” said Cora, distracted as the Engineer left the room. A door slammed, then she could hear muffled laughing.
The Officer made an uncertain noise.
“The plan,” he said finally, shifting in his seat. “Ray is a part of the royal family. He’s under a lot of pressure. If something were to happen that would make him look bad, he’d be willing to abort the mission and claim that nothing happened. Tor- the Engineer hid his suppressants. We’ll bring you two together, this night cycle.”
“And why am I- Oh. I see. Wait. Why?”
“We can convince him to abort the mission,” said the Officer, as if this answered anything.
Abort the mission. She could go back to her job. Her moldy apartment building. Her crazy ex living on the second floor of said moldy apartment building.
Cora chewed at her cheek.
At this moment, the Engineer walked back in, shaking a small green vial. It rattled faintly. “He’s asleep.”
The Officer looked back at Cora. “Well?”
Her brain felt as if it were swinging around inside of her head, colliding with her skull. “Sure. I’ll do it.”
☼─────────────────∞
By Cora’s guess, it was almost time. She waited in her room, running a finger along the paneled metal walls. Clothes had become too much. Everything had become too much. Her vision had a red haze that was difficult to ignore. Worse, every breeze against her skin set off a crackling sensation against her body.
The lights dimmed. Cora had heard arguing, shouting, and muffled crashing for a while, but it now grew sharply louder, almost as if someone had gotten ahold of Ray and was at this very moment sprinting with him towards her door.
The door slammed open and he was unceremoniously thrown in. He hit the opposite wall with a snarl.
His eyes were bloodshot, irises glowing. As he staggered to his feet, he brushed at his uniform, straightening up and looking at Cora. “Do you know anything about this?”
She leaned back onto the bed, keeping her thighs pressed together. “You tell me, Ray.” He took a step back, his breath becoming shallow. “Oh, no.” He ran for the door, trying to open it, shouting in their language.
Cora frowned. She wasn’t sure what she wanted. She wasn’t sure what the Officer even wanted her to do.
“I thought you wanted to know when I was ready,” she said, words tumbling out of her mouth as she watched him struggle with the door.
He smelled nice. Cora wasn’t sure how she could smell him at this distance. Like fresh metal and pine. Not normally a pleasant combination, but-
Ray turned to her again, eyes wide.
She began to feel guilty. “Ray. Why don’t you come sit with me? You’re going to hurt yourself.”
After several moments of waffling, he huffed a sigh and sat down next to her.
“Tell me what is happening,” he ordered, his voice thin and unpleasant. “And where are your clothes?”
Cora inched closer to him. “I’m ready. I need- I need something. I need help. And… I bet you need help, too.” Her voice caught in her throat. It was hard to breathe. Was this what the Officer had planned?
She wouldn’t get anything done like this. Cora stretched her legs out before rolling over him, straddling his lap before he could move and before she could lose her nerve.
He froze, his eyes on hers. Grabbing one of his hands, Cora guided it between her legs. As his fingers brushed against her, Cora let out an involuntary moan. “Ray. You have to help me,” she whined. “Your medicine made me like this. Please.”
Ray had stiffened under her, growling faintly with every exhale. “I can’t.” He’d lost his polite tone. “I have to bring you back.”
Cora grew irritated. “I can’t wait that long. Please.”
There were two hands on her waist now. She leaned forward to press her lips against his neck. There were ridges there, slightly darker than the rest of his skin, and very sensitive, judging by his reaction. Making her way up to his ear, she whined again, quietly. He was shaking under her.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to.” His belt unfastened with a faint click.
She let his tip graze against her opening. “But it’d feel so good.”
Completely unlike anything she’d heard from him before, Ray whimpered. “I can’t. We can’t!”
Cora sighed. “We don’t have to. I don’t want to get you in trouble.” As she said this, she let her weight push him into her, barely an inch. His nails dug into her skin, his fourth hand seizing her thigh.
Without warning, he flipped her over, pinning her.
“Do you want to get me killed?” he snarled, eyes blazing. Cora tried to feel fear.
She couldn’t.
“You won’t be killed.”
“You don’t know that. You don’t know anything.”
Cora ignored him, spreading her legs. One of his hands was wandering up her thigh, creeping inwards until it brushed between her legs. One finger traced her opening, then pushed carefully inside.
“Do you realize how much danger you’re in right now?”
“Who’s in control right now, Ray?” she retorted. “I’m not scared of you. Don’t threaten me.” She probably was in danger. Ray had impressive fangs. “You gonna kill me?” Her tone wavered between need and irritation. “Or are you gonna fix your mistake? You gave me more and more and more of that stuff. You didn’t do enough research before. Why don’t you do some now?”
He wasn’t responding. His eyes wandered downwards, narrowing.
There was a chance that he hadn’t heard anything she’d said. “Um… Ray?” His eyes snapped up to meet hers. They'd become much darker. “We have a saying that means that you're at a point where avoiding the consequences isn't worth the suffering.” He narrowed his eyes again. The silence was becoming too tense. “It's called, um, 'fuck it', and you say it before you do the thing.”
Stiffly, he shook his head. “I can’t, Cora.”
She frowned, surprised at how quickly she grew offended. “Why not?”
“I’m engaged.”
“Oh!” Cora sighed sharply. “In that case. Get the hell off of me.”
The door slammed open and the Officer poked his head in, looking bewildered and rather angry.
“Shit,” sighed Cora aloud. “I can’t do it. And he really doesn’t want to.”
“What,” said Ray, standing up and yanking his pants back into place. “You don’t want to ruin a strategic union and jeopardize my grandmother’s standing with the Foshar nobility?”
He turned to the Officer. “I think that sounds like a fantastic idea, Mar!”
His missing bottle of suppressants hit him squarely in his face.
Cora flopped back on the bed, exhausted and disappointed, too tired to be entertained by Ray’s angry squawking.
The Officer buried his face in all four of his hands, leaning back and groaning loudly. Ignoring his expedition leader, he picked Cora up.
The Officer turned to leave. He carried the limp, slightly sticky human into a room about the size of her quarters. There was a large glass bowl with two drains in the bottom. Like a fancy bathtub. He pressed a button on the wall and it started to fill. He pulled a small container from a nearby shelf, and shook some white powder into a free hand. When he sprinkled it into the water, it foamed. As he set Cora down into the water, her eyes stung. Now I'm crying. Great. She didn't even have the energy to be embarrassed. The water was warm and smelled good, like grass. Cora, however, was miserable. “I don't feel any better.” She sniffled. “This stuff makes me want to tear my own skin off.”
He sighed. “I know. I'm sorry. I had no idea he had someone already.” He took her hands in his, washing them gently. “That whole plan would have gone just fine, with a minor chance of you carrying. But it would have saved you some suffering. We can find another way.” He worked his way up her arms and down her torso. If Cora weren't so tired and upset, she'd be aroused again. But the gentle circles of the washcloth were lulling her to sleep. “Also,” he spoke quietly as he scrubbed in tinier circles down her thighs, “I realize, Cora, that I never introduced myself.” Curious, Cora looked up at him, still struggling to keep her eyes open. He pulled her out of the bath and wrapped her in what was definitely a stolen hotel towel. “Ray said there was no point, because you’d never be able to say it right without the correct vocal cord structure. Try calling me Mar.”
She smiled, already half asleep. “Oh. Like the ocean. That's good. That's a good name.”
☼─────────────────∞
Cora woke up to the sound of shouting. The lights were already on, a de-stickered banana and two cooked sausage patties on a plate awaiting her. The patties had scorch marks on them, meaning they were cooked on a hot surface and not in some alien microwave.
Her head felt clearer today. She ate, listening to the yelling. It seemed to be arguing, a back-and-forth of two different melodies. She recognized the neurotic tones of Ray, guessing that he was arguing with the Officer, Mar. The Engineer didn't seem like the arguing type.
As she brushed her teeth in the tiny washroom connected to her quarters, Cora looked around. It really looked like the bathroom on an airplane, minus a mirror. She rinsed out the sink basin before sticking her head into it, wetting down her hair and brushing it out. She had thick, dark, curly hair that did not like the soap they’d given her.
Wringing her hair out over the sink, she began to wonder how they’d managed to build an exact replica of the bathroom one might find on a train or airplane.
Cora returned to her food, now able to eat. The sausages were warm enough and she ate the banana without complaint- she hated bananas, but clearly, the idiot scientist had acquired a lot of them for her. She got one with every other meal.
The yelling seemed to have stopped. Cora peeked out into the central area. Ray sat alone.
“Hey, Ray?”
He jumped, then relaxed. “Oh, human. What do you need?”
She stepped outside her room, closing the door behind her. “I had a question. Where do you get the food you feed me from? I know it isn't synthesized.” He brightened at this. “Good observation! I get it delivered.”
Cora deadpanned. “To,” she stuttered, her head starting to hurt a little. “To space?”
Ray laughed. “No! No, I have your 'Wal-Mart' deliver it to your apartment, then we simply transport it up here! We've started trying to taper you off, though, because soon we'll be leaving orbit and can't do that anymore.”
Shampoo immediately came to mind. And rice. Cora doubted there was rice in space, and all the soap that she was given was powdered. “Could you add something to your next order, for me?”
Ray seemed pleased with her request. “Of course!” He paused, rubbing his head. “I want to thank you for stopping… yesterday. Also! To ensure that we have no more fiascoes, none of us are permitted physical contact with you.” Ray’s voice shook as he spoke.
“Is that what the yelling was about?”
He huffed a sigh. “Yes, there were some differences of opinion.” His tone was final. Cora didn't push, and returned to her room.
Her phone, which died sometime before she’d gone to sleep, was plugged into the wall. The Engineer must have snuck in at some point. She picked it up, holding the power button. He'd come in late last night, spliced her charger cable into the a wire coming from the wall, then plugged her phone in. How did I not hear that?
As she was reading, the monitor let out its familiar whirr-clank. Ray popped his head in. “You need to take that. The withdrawals are allegedly worse than the side effects.” Another syringe. Cora missed having Mar give it to her. It was awkward to do it herself. She returned to her reading, lazily sipping at it. The taste made her stomach turn, giving her the shivers. This sucks.
Later, a faint rattling woke Cora from her nap before the ship’s lights had come back on. It sounded like the mechanism in the panel was stuck. The rattling continued, along with rustling. In the dim light, she realized that the recess in her wall was missing. The back plate had been removed, and a hand was placing a plate of food.
“That has to be difficult.”
The plate froze.
“It’s okay, go ahead.”
The hand dropped the plate and quickly closed the opening.
Why bother? Cora had a feeling that this wasn’t how their mission was supposed to go. As she chewed on the odd sausage patties, she theorized. I think, she told herself, that they were supposed to keep their distance from the start. These guys are probably really similar to humans and just couldn’t do it.
Maybe more of them were like that? It didn’t make sense to find sentient, consenting specimens only to treat them like rescued wildlife. Well, consenting wasn’t the right word. Ah, yikes. Cora was thinking too much, and she’d begun to upset herself.
And there was still the problem of her condition. She felt like pure shit today, the whole-body tingling making it impossible to focus on anything. Her resting heart rate was too high. It all felt wrong. The fake-food-synthesizer beeped, dropping a syringe.
Well, at least it made something.
Feeling bored, Cora poked her head out. The three were sitting in the common area, pointedly ignoring each other. “Hey,” she started. “If I refused to take this, would someone have to hold me down?”
They all looked up at her, concerned.
Ray tried to answer. “Well, yes, bu-”
She cut him off, remaining expressionless. “And force it down my throat?”
The Engineer snickered. Mar had turned away.
Hesitant, Ray nodded. “I- well, yes, we would. But-”
“That’s hot.” Cora grinned and ducked back into her room. She wouldn’t do it today, of course, but the option comforted her.
But as she swallowed the contents of the syringe, something happened. Cora couldn’t tell what it was, but it felt… bad. The sense of wrongness she felt in her body increased exponentially.
It wasn’t anxiety. She felt rabid, if that were possible. The fine hair on her arms stood on end and the room spun.
Sitting down, Cora took a few calming breaths, in through her nose, and out through her mouth.
This did not help. Laying down didn’t do much, either.
She wanted to bite. Something. Anything. The word rend kept coming to mind.
For what felt like hours, Cora did her best to ignore the overwhelming sensations until an unfamiliar tone distracted her. It was the small tablet from the Officer. It had a message, brightly colored with warning triangles that flipped from yellow to red.
Translated, it said SUBJECT DATA NOT FOUND.
Ray opened the door, looking irritated. “Now, Cora, don’t start being difficult just because-” He gently pulled her hair away from the monitor patch on her neck, clearly surprised to find it still there. “Oh. Hm.”
She felt like this was not a good sign. “What’s wrong?” She wanted to bite at the hand holding her hair.
“I’m not sure.” He called out and the Engineer appeared. They had a quick exchange, with a lot of shrugging from the green-eyed fellow. In the end, he simply stepped forward and rubbed at the patch like it was a peeling sticker. The tone sounded again.
“That’s… hm.” Ray stopped himself, turning to his colleague.
The Engineer shrugged again and began to peel the monitor off. He left the room and came back with another, applying it the same as before. The icon on his tablet turned green.
“There we are. Thank you.” Ray grabbed the Engineer by one of his arms and pulled him out of the room. The door shut, leaving Cora alone and unsettled.
☼─────────────────∞