by Stella Cassy
I barely made it out the door before collapsing. The skin on my legs and feet burned and stung. It hurt to stay upright.
Unfortunately, it hurt worse to fall on the ground.
The pale green lizard put his arm under mine and lifted me like a sack of potatoes. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe through the pain as he walked. I'd been in worse pain, but it had been a very long time.
"He should've thrown her in the water," a rough voice said.
Greeny's chest rumbled. "Back to your station." His tone said he disagreed about boiling me alive.
"Thank you," I whispered.
He just grunted. Neither of us said anything else until he set me gently on my feet. "The doctor will care for you, human." He turned and walked out of the room without another word. At least he'd been somewhat kind.
I turned slowly, clutching my arms around my bare stomach. The room was clearly a medical bay, but it was so different from anything I was used to. Three beds lined two of the walls. The mattresses on two seemed to be made of some sort of gel. Monitors hung over each bed, and a large cabinet, filled with small bottles and boxes, dominated the third wall. The fourth wall was bare except for two doors. One was open, showing a room with microscopes and various pieces of scientific equipment. Not so different from what we'd have on Earth, but far more advanced. I wasn't totally sure I'd be able to figure the equipment out if given the chance.
I stumbled toward one of the beds and sat down gingerly after snatching a clean white sheet off and wrapping it around my shoulders.
Another lizardman with pale silver hair and scales dusted across his cheeks walked into the doorway between the lab and the beds. "Hello, there. I wasn't told I'd have a visitor."
He smiled kindly, and I found myself yearning to trust him.
I needed an ally in this mess. "Hello."
"Human?" he asked as he walked slowly toward me. "Female?"
"Am I that hard to spot?" I chuckled.
"No, but it's always polite to ask."
"I understand. I'm actually a doctor from Earth."
His face lit up. "Oh, a human doctor! That is a rare find." He slowly entered my personal space but kept his hands at his side. His eyes roamed over my bright red lower body. "What happened here?"
"I hit the blue lizard," I said lamely. "I wish now that I hadn't, but he came at me so suddenly. I was scared."
"Of course you were. What is a lizard?"
I gaped at him. "It's an animal. It has scales, a tail."
"You're describing a Drakon? One of my species?"
So they were dragons. The wings should've given me a clue.
“Dragons,” I whispered. “You’re dragons. Do you shift?”
“We have a second form, yes.” He bent at the waist, giving me a great view of his silvery wings. The scales were snake-like, soft and smooth. The wings looked vulnerable.
“May I touch your strange skin?” he asked.
“What’s strange about my skin?”
“Just so different from my own.”
“May I touch yours?”
He stood back up and gave me a delighted look. “Of course. I’d be honored.”
I nodded and he bent back over, poking and prodding my legs. I winced several times as he poked a little too hard or his claw grazed the injured flesh.
Tentatively, I reached a hand out in an attempt to distract myself from the pain of his examination. His head was bowed and most of his body covered in a deep blue uniform coverall. All I’d be able to touch was his wings or the top of his silver head.
I opted for the wings. Running a finger along the top, I was surprised by their softness. I’d expected it, but this was far softer than anything I’d ever felt. “How is your skin this soft?”
“It’s the hydration fluid,” he said distractedly. “You could use a good dose of it. Come.”
He walked to one of the beds that had the gel mattress. “Here you go. Immerse yourself in this. I’ll close the doors and find you some clothes to wear.”
I followed him over and discovered it wasn’t a gel mattress, it was a mattress-sized pool full of green water. “What’s this?” I asked.
“It’s the fluid we soak in to keep our skin and scales in top health. It will take the sting out of your burns and leave your skin fresh and clean.”
“Should I shower first? I need one in the worst way.”
He smiled. “No, the hydration fluid will wash the dirt off of you. Get in, get relief for your legs.”
I nodded and watched him lock the door to the hallway. “Nobody will bother you without my permission to open the door. I’ll be in the lab. Knock when you’re ready.”
He left me after taking a folded piece of clothing out of the bottom of the large medicine cabinet. I shook it out to discover a set of coveralls just like his. They’d be way too big, but at least they’d cover more of my skin than my bra and panties.
Ugh, they needed to go in the trash bin. I knocked tentatively on the door the doctor had disappeared through. “Doctor?”
He opened it with a smile. “Yes?”
“Do you have somewhere I could throw these away? And perhaps a towel to dry with when I’m through?”
He tapped his forehead with a laugh. “Of course.”
The trash ended up being a chute in the wall opened with a knob that was slightly hidden behind one of the beds. He pulled a towel from the same spot he’d grabbed my uniform. “My name is Oslow. Here is a towel.” With a slight bow of his head, he left again.
I put my hand in the water first. It was cool, and I worried I'd get cold, but if it gave me relief I didn't care. Once the panties and bra were safely down the trash chute, I climbed onto the platform and slipped into the water.
My moan covered the sounds of the water’s splashes as I settled in. He was right about the soothing quality. My pain disappeared instantly. I wasn't sure how long I was supposed to soak in the water, but I planned on staying until I couldn't stand it anymore.
Floating silently in the bed-pool, I tried to clear my mind and assess the situation. I was on a ship with dragon beings that were interested in selling me. To make sure I was compliant, I'd been threatened with being boiled alive, but then taken off at the last minute. He'd had no desire in actually doing lasting damage.
I hoped.
I had no way of knowing if he would've stopped if I hadn't promised to do anything he said. If I made one wrong step, would he take me right back to the kitchens again?
My tears mixed with the soothing water. The bath was ruined. It felt amazing, but my mind was too damaged. No amount of green water would heal that.
The towel I used to dry off was scratchy, a stark contrast from the soft water. I hated to put the uniform on without underwear, but it was better than putting the nasty underwear back on. It was gone anyway.
To my surprise, the uniform fit like it had been made for me, but I would've sworn as I put it on that it was huge, big enough to fit one of the buff male dragons. I wished I had a mirror to see myself in. I figured I was probably pretty cute in it.
The doctor, Oslow, returned as soon as I knocked. "All right now, let's get you to bed. After a good night's rest, you'll be good as new."
He led the way down the hall and up a flight of stairs. "All this technology and you don't have hovercrafts for us to ride?" I tried to joke on the way to the room.
"We have two good legs and limited space to exercise. We walk everywhere we can when in space."
Well, that was me put in my place. He was absolutely right, of course. "Do you not have an exercise room?"
"Of course, but it's mostly used by Drakon allowing their other form out to play."
"What do the other forms look like?" I was dying to know what sort of dragons they turned into.
"That's for another tour. We're here." He pressed a gold square on the white wall and a hidden door opened. "This is to be your room for the duration of your stay. You may not leave your room unless you have permiss
ion from Captain Hielsrane.
"So he has a name. He's the blue one?"
"Yes, Illion Nevrin-Hielsrane. He was awarded this mission, ship, and crew with his prowess on the battlefield. He will make the ultimate decision about your fate."
Great. I wished I'd thrown a chair at someone else.
I entered the room and turned to thank the doctor, but he was gone, and the door was closed. An identical gold square was on the wall beside where the door should've been. I pressed it, and the door opened again. Doctor Oslow's words echoed in my mind. I could leave the room if I wanted to, but he warned against it.
I'd wait here.
The space held only a toilet and a bed. The coverings on the bed were soft and welcoming. Thank heavens for small blessings. I curled up on the bed and wrapped myself in the blankets until I felt like a small child hiding from the world.
My mind betrayed me. I wanted to sleep and forget everything I'd been through, but all I could do was cry and relive through the traumatic events since I was taken from my street.
I couldn't remember how long it had been since I'd been in pain that severe. It had to have been when I was sixteen and nearly overdosed.
After that, I'd gotten clean, checking myself into rehab and following the program religiously. I'd obtained a scholarship for recovering addicts and made the most of every opportunity I could find. Scholarships, grants. Plus, I worked my butt off at the hospital and the college. Then the night I graduated, all my hard work finally paying off, I'd been kidnapped by small, fuzzy, white aliens.
My sobs lasted until consciousness finally left me and I slept.
“She’s overdosed.” The paramedic's voices drifted through the fog of my brain. I'd been on the streets since I was eleven, my mother disappearing with her drug dealer one night. The landlord had given me a week to find somewhere else to go or else he was going to call protective services. No way was I going into that mess. I'd heard the horror stories, seen the bruises on the kids at school.
I'd found a way to get by on my own. Picking up odd jobs had kept me fed. The local restaurants let me clean in exchange for food, and a dry cleaner let me sleep on a cot in the back room if I operated the machines for a few hours every night so he could go home and sleep.
He'd helped keep me away from the people that would've exploited me and taken away what little innocence I had left. For a while.
There wasn't much pure about me by the time I started running drugs. I'd done a lot of things for a lot of reasons, but my biggest regret was trying heroin for the first time. I'd done it to prove to a customer that my product was legit. He hadn't believed such a young girl could possibly be toting valuable product.
Oh, I was. My supplier loved me. Nobody stopped a cherub-faced pre-teen, nobody questioned what I was doing. I was the perfect dealer.
Until I almost died.
7
Illion
The ceiling of my room on the ship was boring. No matter how I tossed and turned and fluffed my bedding, I ended up staring straight up at the ceiling.
Damn that woman. I threw the blanket off of me with a groan and sat up. I’d just go see Doctor Oslow to make sure she was healing. I didn’t want to leave any lasting damage on my valuable bartering piece.
I didn’t bother with a shirt. My room was just up the stairs from the medibay, and Oslow had seen my bare chest many times. He’d been my doctor since birth. I’d been pleasantly surprised to find him on the ship when I boarded. My crew had been pre-selected for me by my Uncle Lehar at the request of the royal family. They were funding the missions and paying for the temporary crews. Real crews were earned through hard work. You couldn’t have a permanent crew that didn’t want to be there. They had to choose to follow you as captain.
“Oslow?” I called after peeking into the room and seeing no human prisoner sleeping on one of the beds. I’d fully expected to see her floating around in the hydration fluid, the tips of her breasts sticking out of the water as she healed.
My dick twitched at that mental image, but I pushed it away. No time for that. Oslow wasn’t there. I checked the entire bay, but it was deserted. “Computer, locate Oslow.”
The smooth voice of the AI responded instantly. “Oslow Hielsrane is in his personal quarters. His breathing and heart rate indicate he is asleep.”
“Locate the human female.”
“Leticia Oslo is in her personal quarters. Her breathing and heart rate indicate she is asleep and having troubling dreams.”
Huh. I hadn’t known her name. Leticia.
“What room is Leticia in?”
“B-Seven.”
Her room was directly beside mine. I didn’t think that was a coincidence. Oslow was a sneaky bastard.
"Pull up Leticia Oslo's medical file."
A screen appeared on the wall to my right, full of data. I didn't understand all of the numbers and categories, but her medical status was clear.
Species: Human
Subspecies: Breeder
Medical status: Normal
She was a breeder. That was excellent news. "Show any notes entered by the doctor," I commanded.
Several pages appeared. Mostly it was Oslow rambling on about humans and their dietary needs, reproductive organs, and other medical jargon. I noted that she'd never given birth and that she had told Oslo she'd not been sexually mistreated by any of her captors. She had admitted to being scared of the possibility.
As a breeder, she'd bring top price at auction, and her likeliest outcome would be a Drakon. Drakon men treated their breeders like Queens. She'd be fine.
The thought of a Drakon man buying her made me irrationally angry. I'd found her. My possessive feelings were unwanted. Owning the tiny human wouldn't help with the recovery of my planet and it certainly wouldn't help me win this mission.
The short trek back to my quarters stretched out as I strolled, unsure if I should check on my new slave. She’d been through quite an ordeal, at my hand. I considered trying to start over with her, extending a peace offering. There was no reason for her to think she’d be treated so roughly again as long as she respected my authority as captain.
I pushed the square that would open her door but hesitated before going in. She was clearly asleep, only her face peeking out of the heap of bedding. I stepped forward before I could stop myself, curious about the tortured expression on her face. Something about her dream was hurting her emotionally.
When I was close enough to see the single tear drip off of her tiny nose, I stopped, suddenly feeling like an intruder. If her painful dream was the result of my harsh treatment... Well, I didn't want to know. I backtracked out of the room and shut her door. She'd be out of my hair soon, and that would be one problem solved.
My bed was no more comfortable than it had been before I'd intruded on the little slave. Eventually, I drifted off to sleep, the knowledge that the fragile human slept in the room beside mine heavy on my mind.
My mood the next morning was less than pleasant. My lieutenant was the only person that would speak to me. Every time anyone tried, I barked orders at them. If they wanted to snigger and whisper behind my back, I'd give them something to whisper about.
Coovoo was still several rotations away. The ship did most of the work itself, leaving the inhabitants to our own devices. We took shifts monitoring the control panel, but unless we were landing or fighting, all we had to do was set coordinates and make sure nothing broke down.
I spent most of the morning in the exercise room. It was the biggest room on the ship, with good reason. It had room for one Drakon to shift into their other form for a small flight around the room. It was a pitiful exercise, as we usually craved long flights and daring maneuvers while in Drakon form, but at times the desire to shift was too intense, and the exercise room gave us a place to do so. Any room on a Drakon ship would hold one of us in our Drakon form, but it would be a tight squeeze.
That morning I needed to burn off a different kind of energy, so I used the runn
ing machine set at a fast pace. Soon I was focusing on my breathing and keeping my legs moving quick enough to keep up with the belt I ran on. If I had a misstep I would end up in the medibay myself. It had happened before.
When the intense run proved inadequate to quiet my mind, I moved to the punching bag. Letting out my aggression onto the stuffed lump would do the trick.
Except it didn't. I roared in frustration and stalked to the shower.
The image of Leticia Oslo's nearly nude body entered my mind unbidden as I stood under the hot spray of water. My dick, which had been itching to harden at the thought of the woman, finally did.
I grabbed it and groaned. What was it about her that had me so attracted? I'd never been popular among the snobby women on Thirren, but there were always slaves eager to please a Drakon warrior. I'd never gone wanting.
My hand moved slowly up and down the shaft of my cock. My mind was on the soft skin and long black hair of the human woman. I couldn't help but imagine how tight and wet her pussy would be. The speed of my strokes intensified as I imagined her underneath me, writhing in pleasure, my dick stretching her and filling her like no one ever had before. She'd only ever had human men, I was fairly sure.
My semen squirted out so hard it hit the wall and I had to rinse it off before finishing my shower. I'd hadn't pleasured myself quite so vigorously since just after I'd reached sexual maturity and was too embarrassed to seek out a willing female.
I dressed and made my way to the bridge. "Status?"
Lieutenant Chase nodded at me. "Nothing to report. The path to Coovoo is rarely traveled, as you know. We haven't encountered any other ships since the freighter." It was as I'd figured. Until we neared the planet, our trip was to be uneventful. The broken-down freighter had been a nice distraction on an otherwise boring journey.
I sat quietly in my chair on the bridge for several microns, longing for something to take my mind off of the person in the room next to mine. My mind kept replaying the sight of her bright red skin as she collapsed just outside the kitchen door. It had taken all my willpower not to pick her up and carry her myself.