by A. G. Wilde
“Trust me, bud, there was nothing private about your conversation. I’m sure your neighbors and the rest of your estate heard every word of your private conversation.”
She could swear his splotchy green skin became a little slack with embarrassment.
Geblit’s eyes darted to the other mushroom houses along the street and his skin grew slacker.
“I must get you out of here as soon as possible,” he said, activating the key control of his hovercar.
The vehicle was a large round thing in a cheerful teal color with seats in the front and the back. There was a transparent dome that covered the top that, upon Geblit activating the vehicle, rolled right back, leaving the vehicle open.
With a heave, Geblit popped her box on the passenger seat of the ride.
“So you’re taking me back to the zoo?”
“Zoo?” Geblit replied. “I’m taking you back to the exchange.”
No.
That wouldn’t do.
That wouldn’t do at all.
“Hey, do you know anything about the mines?”
Geblit’s eyes flicked to her for a second. “The mines are a very bad place run by very bad and powerful beings. You go there if you want to work and die.” He tilted his head a little. “You wish to go to the mines?”
“No!” Lauren cleared her throat. “No, I was just wondering. But there should be a place I can go that’s not the zoo or the market, right?”
“Not possible. You must be returned.”
Lauren swallowed hard.
She had to think of something else.
“What about if I pay you back what you paid for me?”
Geblit paused at that. “You have credits?”
Lauren shifted in the box.
“I could work for you. Buy my freedom.”
Geblit was already shaking his head.
“No. You must leave. My Cargga will not tolerate you in our dwelling.”
With that, he hopped into the hovercar, his two scrawny legs settling his haunches unto the seat. As soon as he settled, he spun her box around, his eyes narrowing as he looked for something on the box itself.
Lauren sighed, anxiety growing as she tried to think of something else.
“You know, I don’t need to be carried around in a box. I can walk just fine,” she spoke absentmindedly, her mind on a way to get out of this jam.
“It is what the zookeeper advised. I know nothing about your species. I have to take precautions. I do not want to touch you when it’s not necessary.”
She would have been burned by that if he wasn’t an alien and one that looked like a cockroach had sex with an octopus.
Or would it be the other way around…an octopus having sex with a cockroach? It would be the larger of the two, hence it stood to think that it would be doing the sexing.
The big balloon thing at the back of Geblit’s head pulsed as he scrutinized the box.
Then it came to her.
“You don’t want to touch me yet you were planning to add me to your mating?” She almost choked and vomited on the word.
“Hush!” Geblit’s four eyes darted to his neighbors’ houses. “You were a present for my female. I will do anything to please my Cargga.” Four eyes regarded her.
“Even though you are hideous, I would have kept you. The exchange is a horrid place for a female of any species, Torian or creature.”
Lauren surveyed him. “Hmm, I’m not a creature but I’ll take it. How…considerate of you.”
“I am considerate. Yes,” Geblit replied, turning his eyes to the box once more.
Lauren almost rolled her eyes at his arrogance.
But at least he was seeking to please his wife’s wishes. She guessed that meant he was nicer than most aliens were.
“I should have known my dear Cargga would never accept you. I should have taken into consideration the fact that you are hideous beyond belief.”
She took it back.
He was not a nice alien.
He was a bad alien.
A horrible alien.
Turning away from him, she looked out over at the other mushroom houses. It was a strange-looking neighborhood.
Beautiful.
But strange.
The mushroom houses were all cream-colored, some having many adjoining mushrooms and some with only a few. Geblit’s dwelling was one of those that had many adjoining mushrooms and she assumed that meant he was well off.
Surrounding all the houses were perfectly manicured lawns of orange grass and well-maintained gardens of various flower species she’d never seen before.
And like an edited photo, the pink sky made a great backdrop to the already colorful scenery.
It was calm and welcoming—kind of like most upper-scale neighborhoods she’d been to back on Earth.
Her eyebrows rose a little when it dawned on her that she was in an upper-scale neighborhood right at that moment. This was the upper-class of alien life.
Not bad, she thought. It almost made her forget she was at the bottom of all barrels on this planet.
An exclamation of righteous indignation hit her ear and had her swinging her head to look at Geblit.
His oval mouth was open and stretched, his eyes bugged out.
“What is it?”
“I have been bested,” he managed to get out with much, much difficulty. It was almost as if each word choked him a little.
“What do you mean ‘bested?’”
“The slimy zookeeper put ‘no returns’ on the label.”
The look on his face was of such utter devastation that she felt sorry for him. And, considering that she was the one who had no home except for the box in which she lay, that was saying something.
“What in Raxu’s name will I do?”
She could only look at him. She was at a loss for words.
What could he do?
Whatever he decided, her life literally depended on it.
She couldn’t just jump out of her box, make a run for it, and hope for the best. She knew what was waiting out there if she was on her own.
Until she got a chance to learn more about living on this colorful alien planet, she had to play it safe.
She was no idiot.
Though Geblit and his wife thought she was hideous, she’d take being hideous over being cooked for dinner or raped ANY DAY.
Hopping out of the hovercar and forgetting all pretense that all was well, Geblit began pacing on his scrawny legs, two of his hands scratching his balloon at the back of his head, the other two wringing in front of him.
At the mushroom house across from them, she saw an alien of his kind looking at Geblit’s breakdown through their window.
“Um…” she whispered. “You’re getting an audience here.”
Geblit didn’t hear her or he was too caught up in his own thoughts to care.
“What will I do? Cargga will not be happy. I cannot exist if my Cargga is not happy.”
Lauren swallowed hard.
Nope. Cargga would not be happy.
She needed to help this Geblit find a way to “dispose” of her. A way that would be beneficial to them both.
“And to think that I ordered more of your species to be delivered at a later time!” Geblit let out a groan that garnered more spectators at windows.
Whoa. More humans?
She hadn’t met any other humans since she’d been taken. She’d always suspected she hadn’t been alone—she would have had to be the unluckiest woman on Earth to be the sole abductee.
But she’d have to negotiate with him about the others later.
Right now, her ass was on the line and she wouldn’t be able to help anyone if she, herself, was in a bad spot.
“Don’t you have any friends…nice friends. Friends who are nice like you. Preferably nice and unmarried but wouldn’t mind taking care of your hideous pet?” She tried to add all the stipulations, stressing on the “nice” part.
A nice friend would most likely tre
at her, well, nicely. An unmarried friend wouldn’t have a Cargga 2.0. And a friend that thought she was hideous would most likely not want any sexual favors.
All. Bases. Covered.
“A friend?” Geblit stopped for a second, all of his four eyes blinking at her in synchrony. “A friend,” he said with more surety as if something was dawning on him. “I have a friend.”
“A nice friend?” Lauren made sure to stress on the word again.
Geblit blinked at her and looked to the side for a second—a reaction that made her own eyes narrow.
Was he…was he unsure if his friend was nice? Surely that would be an easy question to answer.
But Geblit didn’t answer her question. Instead, he hopped into the hovercar with renewed vigor.
“I will take you to him.” Geblit’s eyes grew wide with relief. “He has a sanctuary. I cannot believe I did not think of that.”
A sanctuary?
Didn’t sound bad.
So why did she have a niggling feeling at the back of her neck?
“What’s this friend of yours called?”
“Riv,” Geblit said, starting the hovercar’s engine and backing away from his house.
Riv, Lauren thought.
Riv’s Sanctuary.
Didn’t sound bad. Didn’t sound bad at all.
If his name was something like Crusher the Terrible, then she might have started to worry.
She’d put that niggling feeling that was rising at the back of her neck to her almost being homeless on an unknown planet.
She’d almost had no place to go and might have been abandoned. Geblit was nice but she wouldn’t put it past him. His only care was for his Cargga.
That was all that niggling feeling was…
Mounting panic…
She hoped.
4
The hovercar cruised through the mushroom estate, passing more mushroom houses and their orange lawns and well-kept gardens.
It felt like she was driving through a made-up neighborhood on a movie set; it was too perfect and…amazing.
Locked in a terrarium for a year, she couldn’t help but lean out of her box as she took the sights in.
At the zoo, her terrarium had consisted of the single slab and the little stall where she could shower and go to the toilet.
There’d been no color.
Just plain white walls and that unbreakable transparent barrier between her and the outside.
She’d had no idea the world outside was so beautiful.
“What is this planet called?”
Geblit glanced at her, four eyes moving her way in synchrony before he looked ahead once more.
“Hudo three.”
Hudo III.
She’d never heard of it before but she wasn’t surprised.
Earth was so far behind in space exploration, and she’d had a year to think about this, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t the first time the planet had been invaded.
She doubted the governments of Earth even knew.
The hovercar moved smoothly down the streets and, soon, the landscape changed to singular tall white bottle-shaped houses with no lawns or fancy gardens, leaving the mushroom suburbs behind.
These dwellings were less fancy than the mushroom buildings. She could see this even as they sped through the neighborhood.
It also seemed as if Geblit was driving much faster than he had been while they were in the mushroom neighborhood.
A glance at him, and he was staring straight ahead, his four eyes slightly wide and she wasn’t sure if it was the wind causing him to widen them or if it was because he was nervous.
She’d take the latter. His large balloon at the back of his head was pulsing too.
He was nervous about this neighborhood but he’d pushed past the tall, dark aliens with blades like they were nothing?
Glancing around, Lauren’s brows furrowed a little. From the aliens she managed to see, some leaning on hovercars that looked like they were about to fall apart and others sitting on hovering boxes along the street, she could only gather that they were on the bad side of town.
Her eyes slid to Geblit.
She hoped this wasn’t where this friend called Riv lived.
For all she knew, Riv was short for Riv the Pimp.
She was trying to run away from sex with aliens, not toward it.
Shit.
Was this sanctuary some sort of alien crack house?
It could be argued that such places were sanctuaries for some on Earth.
Beggars couldn’t be choosers, but damn, she wanted to choose.
She would ask Geblit but it felt as if even mentioning it would make it true, so she kept her mouth shut instead and waited, praying they would leave this section of town quickly.
It seemed Geblit wanted the same, for as soon as a large, flabby alien hailed them from across the street, Geblit’s four eyes widened even more and the hovercar sped up, shooting down the narrow road and leaving dust in its wake.
In a few minutes, the bottle-shaped houses faded into the background and they were on a flat plain leading to an open savanna.
Here, tall yellow-orange grass swayed in the wind for as far as she could see.
Lauren’s eyes widened as she took in the view, sitting up in her box just so she could see better.
Off in the distance, there were large grazing animals that looked like cows. She knew they weren’t cows, of course, they just looked like cows because of their mannerisms. They took no note of the hovercar, too busy chewing slowly, their heads dipping to the grass as they pulled the blades into their huge maws.
This was so different from being in the zoo that her mouth fell open in awe.
Out here, the world felt free.
The hovercar passed one of the animals close by and she realized it looked like a very chubby brown hippo, except it had large, oval protrusions running down its back. It had no tail either.
Leaning over the hovercar, she let her hand brush against the tall grass as the vessel flew over the savanna.
She was pretty sure she looked like a dog with its head out the window, enjoying the cool breeze. Maybe she was becoming a pet. But, for the moment, she allowed herself to enjoy it.
She’d been trapped in a glass box for a year. She deserved this.
And it was nice.
With such an amazingly beautiful scene in front of her, she could almost forget her circumstances.
If this Riv lived in a nice place like this, he was bound to be a lovely fellow. And it seemed he lived quite far out on this plain.
They’d been traveling for a while now and she hadn’t seen any houses or bits of civilization. She could only assume this Riv was a country boy—or country-whatever species Geblit was.
“So, tell me about this Riv,” she said, bringing her hand back into the vessel. Touching the grass had been nice at first but the constant brush of the blades against her hand was beginning to sting.
“I do not know much about him. But he owes me a favor,” Geblit replied.
Not the answer she was looking for. Not the answer she was looking for at all.
“You don’t know much about him?”
Just perfect, she shouldn’t have expected more.
“Is he a good person at least?”
Geblit only glanced at her, his four eyes blinking before he refocused ahead. The action made her want to close her hands around his skinny little neck and shake him.
“Nice? Is he nice?” she pressed.
Geblit glanced at her again and blinked away.
“Riv is…” But he stopped there.
His hesitation was doing wonders for her adrenal gland.
It was suddenly getting great exercise, meaning that it was pumping adrenaline into her endocrine system as if his hesitation was steroids.
“Riv is what?” she pressed.
“You do not need to know.”
Again, she wanted to wrap her hands around his skinny neck and this time she’d s
queeze it till she got some answers.
Thing is, she did need to know. She was the one in a box like some pet being carted off to God-knows-who on a strange planet in God-knows-where.
“I know you don’t owe me jack, but the least you could do is tell me.”
“You know, for a pet, you do ask a lot of questions. I expected you to have lesser intelligence.”
This little…
Strangle him!
Geblit glanced at her once more. “Your species seems almost as intelligent as mine is.”
“That’s because I am. Humans aren’t idiots. I don’t know why you aliens think that.”
Geblit made a funny noise in his throat. “You’re human…from a Class Four planet. Usually, beings from such planets are uncivilized, dimwitted animals.”
She figured that’s what they thought. The terrarium they had put her in was proof.
“Well, we aren’t.” She turned to face the front of the hovercar, folding her arms as she did. Talk of Earth only made her think of the life she’d been ripped away from.
Her mother and stepfather who’d probably now accepted that they were never going to see her again. The people at her job, her coworkers…she was sure the bank had quickly replaced her and she was probably just a vague memory there by now.
She thought of her one-bedroom apartment that was like an expensive shoebox that she called home. She thought of her grouch of a neighbor on one side who used to complain about the least noise and the deaf old lady who lived on the other side who used to turn her radio up too high…those two never got along and she was always in the middle.
It hadn’t been the greatest of lives but it’d been her life.
Now, her life involved being bought and sold for sex.
“And why would you want an uncivilized dimwitted animal to pleasure you and your wife anyway?” She sliced her gaze to Geblit. It was hard not to think of the mechanics of sharing a bed with him and his wife and the thought alone made her want to puke again. “Who would want a barbarian in their bed?”
She cocked her head at her utterance.
She took it back.
She wouldn’t mind a barbarian in her bed. Or two.
“I heard a rumor.”
That caught her attention and her gaze snapped to Geblit.
“What rumor?”
“That your species, though dim, is pleasurable in the sheets. You were taken for the Tasqals originally. They only have the best sex pets. I thought you would be a good purchase.”