Dredge

by Lula Monk

  The other aliens bustling about them stopped, observing the scene Samantha and Dredge were making.

  Samantha felt self-conscious and very afraid. Her eyes flitted over Dredge, taking in his bowed arms and rapidly rising and falling chest. His nostrils flared, and shimmering fluid seeped from the corner of his mouth. If her alien – her handsome, giant, kind Glim – could become this so quickly, what could the rest of them do?

  “Okay,” she said softly, looking down at the pristine corridor floor.

  Dredge breathed in another shuddering breath.

  “Okay,” he echoed.

  He pulled her down the corridor again, more quickly this time.

  “Fucking crowds,” Dredge grumbled under his breath as they entered the center of the Hub.

  Samantha flinched as though Dredge had reached down and hit her. He never cursed. He was never anything more than a perfect gentleman. Something was definitely wrong with the Glim, and she found herself feeling genuinely worried about him.

  He was right, though. A large crowd of creatures was gathering in the Core, congregating around the auction stage.

  “I thought your said there wouldn’t be any more auctions anytime soon,” she said before she could stop herself.

  Dredge yanked her arm, pulling her away from the crowd and towards the Breeding Sector entryway.

  Strange music began to play behind them. Samantha craned her head back to see what was going on. Four beefy Cephs with phase guns stood on the edges of the stage as a cadre of human women walked up, each dressed in lewd, revealing garments, like the stripper getup Dredge had offered her after her first shower.

  Samantha froze right at the entrance to the Breeding Sector.

  The sudden stop caused Dredge to stumble. He caught himself on the wall as another round of coughing overtook him.

  The women on the auction stage – a performance stage now, it seemed – began a provocative dance, grinding against one another, their bodies writhing. The music changed and they put their mouths on each other’s bodies. Tongues grazed necks and bare breasts, traveling lower to lick at . . .

  Samantha looked away.

  Dredge still leaned against the wall, hacking the shimmering clear fluid into his hands now. Samantha ran to his side.

  “Please,” she begged him as cheers erupted from the crowd. She didn’t dare look over her shoulder to see what the women on stage had done to elicit such a response. “Please, let me take you back to the medical bay. You need to see someone.”

  Dredge said nothing. He stared at the glittering moisture in his hand as though entranced.

  Samantha reached up to brush her fingers along his forehead. Clammy. She stroked his bare head, long, rhythmic motions of her hand meant to soothe him. Her fingers brushed against something jagged, and Dredge’s hand shot up and wrapped around her own, stopping it.

  “Let’s get you back to the room,” he said softly. He looked weak, paler than usual. If such a thing were possible. He eased his grip on Samantha’s hand, adjusting his hold on her until they were gently clasping hands as they had been earlier.

  When they reached the appropriate portion of the corridor, Dredge lifted his hand to the metal. It glowed green beneath his palm, and the portal opened.

  Samantha stepped inside. When she didn’t hear Dredge enter behind her, she turned back. “Aren’t you coming in?”

  Dredge shook his head, his eyes fixated on the glowing portion of Samantha’s abdomen. “I will return soon.”

  He lifted his hand to the wall, and the portal began to close. Samantha cried out, her hand stretching out to grab him, but the portal was already too small.

  Dredge turned to walk away.

  The portal was almost closed, smaller than the size of Samantha’s fists clenched at her sides, but she still saw it, the light pulsating out in great shining bursts.

  The crack at the base of Dredge’s skull, the jagged roughness Samantha had brushed against with her fingertips, had changed.

  It was larger.

  Chapter 22

  Dredge

  Dredge struggled to breathe as he walked, his legs feeling weak beneath him. Perhaps his agreement to exercise with Samantha had been ill-considered. He’d not thought the disease that slowly ate away at his body would have been afflicted by physical exertion, but it appeared he was mistaken.

  The crowd around the stage on the other side of the Core had grown. Dredge glanced over then quickly glanced away, his thoughts on Samantha. The women on the stage were performing sexual acts on one another, cunnilingus and manual stimulation and insertion with synthetic equipment.

  Dredge could not bear to think that Samantha could have been a woman on that stage. The thought of Samantha with that same dead, hollow look in her eyes, her body marred by scars and bruises in various shades . . . it made his throat tighten.

  He hustled to the medical bay. A quick inspection by the first available healer confirmed his suspicions: the disease was progressing.

  “How much longer?” Dredge asked the Quadra as it punched numbers into the digipad.

  “Hard to tell in the form in which you have chosen to cast yourself. Perhaps weeks. Perhaps months.” The Quadra tapped the screen then looked up, its mouth pursed. “That is the unit of time you would like for me to use during interactions with your account, yes? Earth units?”

  Dredge had issued that request at his first private checkup. He did not want conflicting protocols to affect Samantha’s health exams. The news of the disease’s progression made him feel ill, as though he might vomit. “Yes.”

  The Quadra clicked its tongue, its many hands moving about tidying up the examination space as Dredge slipped back into his jumpsuit.

  “Are you sure you cannot give me a more accurate timeline?” he asked the healer. He needed to make sure he survived long enough to see Samantha safely birth their Glimling and arrange passage for them to Brillar. He was revolted at the reality that another Glim would mate with Samantha, but he smothered the feeling. Duty was duty.

  “Impossible to predict.”

  Tears prickled at Dredge’s eyes. He set his jaw firmly and willed the wetness to stay caged in his body. He briskly walked to the open portal. “Thank you for your time.”

  The Quadra waved two hands dismissively in his direction in farewell, the other two hands rapidly documenting notes of his examination.

  Outside of the medical bay, Dredge bumped into someone. His flesh felt assaulted, dirtied by the sudden and unwanted contact. Manners, he chastised himself.

  He breathed in deeply, prepared to apologize to whomever he had encountered, but upon seeing precisely who it was, the words died in his throat. Another odd expression he had learned from Samantha, and one he marveled at even now; to think that words were living things that could die before they were uttered.

  “Chief Officer Slep,” Dredge said bowing his head.

  Though he was the ruler of his own planet, the creature standing before him commanded more power than Dredge could ever dream. The alien who peered down at him now from its towering height, its fangs dripping with slick salivation and its abdomen vibrating so rapidly it produced its own gentle buzz, was the primary owner and chief executive officer of Galactic Continuity.

  “I was not aware you were aboard the station.”

  Chief Officer Slep retracted his fangs, his mandibles clanging together. “I arrived just yesterday, Bright One. How are you finding your accommodations aboard the Hub? Is your purchase to your liking?”

  Samantha. Dredge nodded his head. “I am quite pleased by the Earth woman’s fertility. She is already growing a Glimling now. Due in a mere matter of months.”

  Chief Officer Slep chittered. “Good. I was concerned. This is the second time I have seen you in the medical bay, and observed you walking your human around in the Rim. Is all well with the gestation?”

  Dredge self-consciously rubbed at the crack on the base of his skull. No need in mentioning that portion to Slep. “Yes, all i
s well. She actually had an idea to ensure the health of her pregnancy.”

  “Oh?” Slep’s mandibles clanged together again, his abdomen humming more loudly. “So, she is . . . pleased to be carrying your offspring? How unusual.”

  Dredge nodded. He did not like that their topic of conversation was transferring to Samantha as a person instead of Samantha as a product.

  “I assume you have heard about the most recent loss of productivity?”

  Dredge thought for a moment and then nodded. “The pit jumper?”

  “Yes. Such a sad waste. She was a favorite in the Entertainment Sector.”

  Bile resurged at the back of Dredge’s throat. “I’m sorry to hear of your financial loss.”

  “I am quite curious to hear how you keep your human so in line, Bright One. She did not try to run from you during your excursion?”

  “Not once.”

  “And she is even generating ideas to ensure the health of the fetus?”

  Dredge did not like this line of questioning at all. “Yes. She will be a good life-bringer.”

  Chief Officer Slep reached up one meaty claw to tap at his mandible, as though he were giving Dredge’s words consideration. “Would you be interested in selling her back to Galactic Continuity upon the healthy birth of your Glimling?”

  Dredge’s heart pounded in his chest, beating out a wild and frightful rhythm. The prospect of losing Samantha made him feel an entirely new emotion, one he immediately recognized as fear. It did not matter if he died shortly after he had her and their Glimling on a ship set for Brillar; he would not allow her to become the property of Galactic Continuity again.

  “I regret to inform you that I must decline your request, Chief Officer. She is a fertile human, and it is my hope that she will be able to successfully breed with more Glim on my home planet. It is my plan to bring her there if she survives birthing this first Glimling.”

  Chief Officer Slep’s abdomen stopped humming, his entire insectoid body becoming perfectly still. He crept closer to Dredge, ever so slightly, until he was looming over the Glim. Then, all at once, he skittered back, his abdomen buzzing away happily again.

  “It is with regret that I hear such words, but I understand them. It is rare, to find a human fertile and willing to breed for the duration of her existence. You have done well in your selection, Bright One.”

  Dredge’s teeth were on edge. “Thank you.”

  “And I will ensure your human remains safe during her time on the Hub,” said Chief Officer Slep. “In fact, I would be very interested to meet such an Earth woman. If she is as full of ideas as you say, perhaps she can help me devise a way to keep the rest of her kind in line.”

  With that, Chief Officer Slep skittered away.

  “Tomorrow, Bright One,” he called out over his thorny shoulder as his segmented body worked its way through the crowd. “In my administrative chamber.”

  For a long moment, Dredge could not convince his feet to move. They seemed to have melded with the slick metal of the corridor floor. He stared at the receding form of Chief Officer Slep, watching him skitter and slide his way to the Transportation and Administration Sector entryway. When the large insect’s body was no longer visible, Dredge ran as fast as he could to the room he shared with Samantha.

  A summons from the owner of Galactic Continuity could not be ignored. He would have to take Samantha to meet the creature when he sent for them tomorrow. And he would have to prepare his human.

  As Dredge stepped through the portal and into their room, his feet felt frozen to the floor once more but for a very different reason.

  Samantha lay on their bed, the glow from her abdomen pulsating gently as she slept. As he gazed up at them, his heart felt full.

  His Earth woman and their Glimling.

  Dredge would do anything to protect them.

  Anything.

  Chapter 23

  Samantha

  Samantha would do anything to escape in this moment. Anything.

  She and Dredge stood outside an open portal in the Transportation and Administration Sector. From within, she could see a large desk behind which was an insectoid lifeform, its body distinctly female, her iridescent segments flashing in the bright lights embedded in the ceiling. Receptionist, Samantha decided.

  Dredge had warned her yesterday after she had woken up from her nap that the owner of Galactic Continuity wanted to have a private meeting with her. Her Glim had talked to her at length about the type of alien this Chief Officer Slep was, from his appearance to his power.

  As she stood outside Slep’s administrative office, Samantha’s body began to vibrate with raw energy.

  She wished she’d done some kind of combat training back on Earth, something wicked like Krav Maga or whatever. Or that she at least had a weapon at her disposal, something she could use to lop off Slep’s freaky little alien head.

  Part of her told her to step back and be fair. She’d not even seen Slep yet; maybe he didn’t have a fucked-up body and face. The other part of her, the louder part, wanted to go full primal and take his throat out with her teeth the moment he stepped into her field of vision.

  She clenched and unclenched her fists at her side. Stupid girl. To even try such a thing would be begging one if the Cephalopods patrolling the hallway to gun her down into a pile of ashes. Not to mention what they might do to Dredge if they thought he was an accomplice.

  She breathed in deeply through her nose.

  Who cared what they did to Dredge? Fuck them all, and fuck the Glim too. He was complicit in all this evil buying and selling and using of human women. He was just as much to blame.

  “All will be well, Samantha,” he whispered gently into her ear, his hand warm and comforting on her shoulder.

  And just like that, all her energy drained away. In its place flowed tension, knotting her muscles and drawing her tight as a bowstring. She felt like her body would shatter into a million tiny pieces.

  Try as hard as she might to hate Dredge, no matter what awful things she tried to make herself think about him, she couldn’t do it.

  She didn’t hate Dredge. In fact, she was pretty sure she even l—

  Liked him. Yes, liked him. Not the other word.

  He bent down and planted a kiss on the top of her head. “I will be by your side the entire time.”

  Samantha’s body began to shake. The Glim became more and more human every day. Never in a thousand years would she have imagined a week ago that he could have done something as tender as the kiss he’d just given her.

  She looked up at him. “Thank you.”

  He favored her with a smile. “Do you remember all that I told you?”

  Samantha nodded. He’d spent hours explaining to her about the do’s and don’ts of their trip to Chief Officer Slep’s office.

  As the receptionist motioned for them to enter, she felt over-informed and under-prepared.

  “Please,” hissed a voice from the corner. “Sit.”

  Samantha breathed in sharply as a large alien emerged from the shadows. He stretched up to his full height, almost ten feet. He looked like an ant-scorpion hybrid, complete with claws and a vicious looking barbed stinger on his tail. His body was segmented more than either of those insects though, and thick sharp spines grew from the hunks of shell that served as his shoulders.

  Dredge pulled at her arm, forcing her into the seat beside him.

  Chief Officer Slep sat in the single chair opposite the table from them. He brought his massive pincher claws together and steepled them beneath his mandibles.

  “I have asked you here today, Earth female, to discuss a business proposition.”

  Dredge leaned forward in his chair, the muscles in his neck tense. He had lifted the collar of his jumpsuit before they left their chambers, but Samantha could still see his light pulsing wildly from the crack on the base of his skull. “We already discussed this, Chief Officer.”

  Slep leaned back in his chair. “Remain calm, Bright One.
All Galactic Continuity’s sales are final. We will not seek to take the Earth woman from you.”

  Samantha’s breath caught in her throat. She had not even realized her ownership had been a matter on the table, so to speak. She cut her eyes at her Glim; he was still coiled tight as finely-tuned piano wire, ready to snap on the insect alien in front of them. She rested her hand on his forearm and was pleased to see that he relaxed somewhat.

  She steeled herself, turning back to the ant-scorpion creature. “I am eager to hear your thoughts, Chief Officer.”

  “Is it true that you are pleased to be carrying the Bright One’s offspring?”

  “Glimling,” corrected Samantha. Whoa. Dredge was rubbing off on her. She cleared her throat. “I am very pleased to be having his offspring, yes.”

  Slep made an approving noise. “And you do not feel any desire to return to your home planet?”

  Uh oh.

  She desired very much to return to Earth. She dreamed about it every time she closed her eyes. Well, she used to. Recently she’d been dreaming of the faces of the women she’d seen on the auction block. She straightened her back.

  With those women at the forefront of her mind, she said, “I have no desire to return to Earth.”

  “I take it you are pleased to be in the perpetual and eternal company of the Bright One?” asked Slep.

  Her heartrate amped up a notch. “Absolutely.”

  Warm, powdery fingers laced through Samantha’s. She looked up at Dredge and felt as if she would drown in the grateful look in his eyes.

  Slep made a sticky sound in the back of his throat. He flexed his fangs. “I need to know what brought about this inner sense of resolve. What makes you so beholden to the Glim?”

  Samantha thought about it for a moment. She knew she needed to stick with Dredge for now, until she had all the pieces of her plan solidly laid in place. But as the Glim squeezed her hand comfortingly, she knew there were things about Dredge that would make it hard for her when the time came to betray him.

  He was kind, for one. Patient when she was pestering him with questions. He was accommodating, gentle. He was an excellent lover the one and only time they’d mated, but she’d never tell Slep that. She also enjoyed the way his face lit up when he told good stories about his planet, Brillar, and she anguished with him when he related the many, many tales of death the disease had brought to his people.