by Klara Raškaj
"No, it wasn't! Your coworker could have done it, just like you said!" Maya told him. "But why have her go through all that when you could just pick up a dumb human off the side of the star stream. Who cares what happens to me right?" She turned around and proceeded to walk away. "Respect for life--my ass."
"Your gun and equipment are in the spare-parts storage," said David. "Regardless of our own grudges, we should always strive to do the right thing. I just hope you will."
But she just walked out of the room without saying another word.
• • • •
Maya sighed as she entered the bedroom in which she'd left Hungry, or rather, Nikita. However, there was no one in the bed to speak of.
She looked around until she lay her eyes on a square, human-sized hole in the wall.
Nikita stood there in front of a sink and a mirror, with bright lights shining onto his head. Humming, he'd just cut off the excess stitches he used to seal up the wound in the side of his head.
The sink was filled with blood, small meal packets, bio-absorbable stitching string, and a bloodied scalpel and cotton balls.
Once he was finished, he threw the garbage from the sink into a small container by his side, washed his hands, and walked out as the panel closed behind him, still humming the same, chipper tune. "Oh, hey!" he exclaimed. "Perfect timing! I've just finished extracting the metal clips and the mecha's claw!" He strolled over to her and gave her a peck on the lips. "I'm actually a bit disappointed you didn't try to run away again. I was hoping I'd have a reason to give you a little spanking."
She chuckled, though her eyes continued to show traces of sorrow.
He strolled over to the bed and sat down with a sigh. "Okay--what's wrong? Out with it."
"What's what?" she asked.
"You're sad," he told her. "I've already told you, I've changed my mind. If you still wanna leave after you lay the eggs, I'll let you go. I'll just find some gullible kids instead and try to convert them into my followers. It's gonna be way more tedious, but fuck it. It hurts too much to see you so sad."
Tears formed in the corners of Maya's eyes and she went over to him and wrapped her arms tightly around him.
He cocked his head back and gazed at her in utter confusion. "Oh, okay--didn't expect you to give in that easily..."
She just sniffled and buried her head into his chest.
"Come on, now," he said with a nervous chuckle as he placed her on his lap. "What's wrong?" He stroked her cheek. "Are you hungry? Want me to make you something?" He shook her lightly, his smile diminishing. "Hey... Come on--talk to me. Please, say something."
She looked up at him with a sorrow-filled gaze. "Why are you doing this, Nikita?"
He stared into her eyes for a long time, then he smiled and lay back, chuckling. "Okay...what did dear old cousin David say about me?"
"Innocent people will die," she told him.
"Next time you go talk to him, go ahead and ask him how high up the numbers in our names go," he added with a smirk.
"You've already gotten your revenge!" she argued. "You freed us from our cages, but what you want now is going to do more harm than good! You've done to him the same he did to you--what more do you want?"
Nikita raised an eyebrow as he continued to smile at her. "The same?" He sat back up and leaned his chin onto his knuckle. "Do you know what it's like having been born so...'extraordinary'--let's call it?" He leaned back onto his palms and looked up at the ceiling in contemplation. "The first few years, everything was great. Mom kept telling me how proud she was of me, and always bought me something sweet whenever I did well at my studies." He sighed and looked to the side, slightly biting his lower lip while still keeping on a smile.
"But...then she just...stopped. Whenever my siblings or cousins got good results, she kept praising and rewarding them. But Nikita didn't count anymore. No...being a good student came to him naturally. It was something he was born with. We didn't need to pay attention to his achievements. It was as easy as breathing for him." He placed his arm around Maya, pulled her closer, and smirked. "Oh, but it gets worse." He heightened the pitch of his voice to mockingly imitate the people he was quoting. "Nikita, why don't you want to pursue higher education? It'd be so easy for you! Nikita, don't be selfish! Help me fix my transmitter--you'll figure it out in no time!"
Gradually, his voice became enveloped in growls and his stare more manic and furious. "Nikita, study medicine! You'd be better at it than anyone! It's your responsibility because you were born with these abilities you didn't even fucking ask for!" He panted as he clutched his claws. He lowered his head and shook it while laughing.
Then, he lifted it back up to look at her. "I'll let you I on another secret," he said, leaning closer to the side of her face. "I'm not special at all." He shook his head and straightened his back. "My physical anomalies aren't even that uncommon. And I'm not any more intelligent than David, or anyone else of my kind."
Maya squinted her eyes in disbelief. "B-but--"
He placed his finger on her lips. "Wanna know how I got to being so smart?"
She kept silent as he moved his hand away.
"Blood...sweat...and more tears than I'd like to admit," he explained. "And the longer I kept studying so rigorously, the quicker I started seeing solutions to the problems I'd be faced with. They kept trying to use me as an excuse to be lazy and not have to climb that steep learning curve I worked so hard to overcome myself. They kept trying to take away my freedom, my life, just to make things easier for themselves." He sighed. "Do you agree?"
"W-what?"
"Do you agree with him?" asked Nikita. "After all the shit I went through...after having spent my entire childhood locked up in my room and studying--working while everyone else enjoyed their fun and games...do you agree with him that it's my responsibility to give up on my own dreams and chase other people's?"
Maya glanced away for a moment to think, the turned back to him with a stern look in her eyes. "But still...why do you wanna conquer the galaxy? What will you have to gain from it?"
Nikita smirked. "If they really think of me as some kind of omniscient god, then who are they to tell me what to do and what is best?" he said. "Doesn't really make sense to have the blind leading the seeing, does it? It's all very simple. Either they admit they were wrong and acknowledge that I should have as much freedom to do what I want as anyone else, or...they submit to me and my all-knowing supremacy--or rather...I take my rightful place as their wise and almighty leader...by any means necessary..." He gently kissed Maya on the lips and got up from the bed.
"Speaking of which, I need to start work on a couple of blueprints," he told Maya as he was leaving the room. "Don't stay up for me. I don't want you to strain yourself for no reason. I'll try not to wake you up when I come back."
Once he was gone, Maya immediately rushed to the door and waited for him to be completely out of sight. Then, she approached one of the floor maps on the walls and searched for the words "spare-parts storage." Once she'd found it, she memorized the location and made her way there with a swift step.
Soon enough, she located it, opened the panel door, and stepped inside.
The lights turned on and illuminated the neatly stored and labeled guns and equipment of various shapes and sizes, one of which was her big-barrel laser gun with "BFG" written on the side, and her metallic utility bikini with massive mechanical boots and pauldrons.
She took off her white dress and put the outfit on. Good thing she almost never wore anything tight around her stomach, otherwise she couldn't have been able to put it on from how much her pregnancy had advanced thus far.
She then smiled as she picked up the gun and rubbed her face against it. "Hey, big guy...you missed me? 'Cause I sure missed you." She kissed the barrel and placed it onto a harness on her back.
With a resolute and serious gaze, she looked down at the ground, then turned to the panel door. She sighed. "Do the right thing..."
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGH
T
Mother
IT WAS MORNING, and still, Nikita didn't seem to have arrived back in the bedroom yet.
As Maya got out of bed, she looked down at her swollen stomach and took a deep breath. She took her gun out from a storage space inside the wall, and sat back down onto the bed, waiting.
Maybe something happened to him. Her heartbeat quickened and her eyes were stricken with worry at the thought. Damn it--why did this have to happen to her? She was just on her way to the collectors' convention, minding her own business. Next thing she knew, she was naked in a cage and mated to a feral alien who regained his humanoid consciousness and decided to use her to give birth to an army so he could conquer the galaxy.
She covered her face with her palms and shook her head.
Why did this have to happen to her? Why did she have to fall so hard for him?
The panel door opened.
Nikita walked inside, stretching. "Hey," he said, yawning and smacking his lips. "Sorry--I must have dozed off while sketching up the prototypes." He squinted his eyes in confusion. "What's with the gun?"
Maya moved to the middle of the bed with a serious expression on his face, staring right at him.
"Oh, I get it." He chuckled as he was strolling over to her with his hands behind his back. "You're gonna shoot me, huh?"
"Not really," she replied and let the large gun rest between her legs with the barrel pointed directly at her face.
His eyes widened, and his smug grin suddenly turned into an abhorred frown.
She flipped a couple of small switches and a purple light began to glow from inside the gun's barrel.
"I can't force myself to leave you or kill you," she explained. "But I don't want to be with someone who plans on hurting others either."
He chuckled with a nervous smirk. "N-no offense, but I was just trying to be nice when I said I liked you. Let's be honest here--I'm not the kind of guy to be tied down. We still have fun, though, right?
She pouted her lips. "It's not fun for me if you don't like me back." Then, her lips curled up into a smile as she shrugged. "I guess there's nothing left for me to do but to end my miserable life." She flipped another small switch and the glowing light brightened.
Nikita jumped forward and threw out his arms, shaking his hands. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" he shouted. He cleared his throat and chuckled as he continued to approach her with slow and careful steps. "Okay, fine--I do like you... I just...like the idea of overthrowing governments more. You understand, right?"
"You've got that other chick that works with David," she told him. "You don't need me to lay eggs for you."
"True...but...she's got bony hips," he said. "You're soft and squishy."
"You said yourself yesterday you could just find kinds to convince to fight for you," Maya added with a smirk and flipped one more switch.
This time, the light didn't intensify, but a ticking sound was initiated instead.
"I'm not gonna let you have it both ways," she told him, glaring at him. "It's either me or your conquering thing. My ship probably already got raided anyway, so I've got nothing else to live for now. You've got less than ten seconds."
"Please don't do this..." he said, shaking his head slightly.
"Six."
"Maya..."
"Five."
"Ugh! What do you want from me?" he argued.
"Four."
"You're bluffing." He crossed his arms. "Fine. I'll play. Go ahead. Let's see what happens."
"Three."
"I'm not going to let you have it both ways either. You're either with me or against me."
"Two."
"The only reason I settled for you was because I had no better alternative."
"Go fuck yourself," she told him.
The glowing beam from inside the barrel grew brighter, and a high-pitch noise sounded through the room.
Suddenly, a sharp pain slashed through Maya's abdomen. She clutched her stomach and yelped as she curled up, effectively evading the laser beam that shot out of the gun and melted a clean hole in the ceiling.
Nikita's eyes widened and his chest heaved as he stared at her in terror and disbelief. "Y-you... You were serious."
Maya screamed through her teeth as she held onto her bulbous stomach and shut her eyes. The pain was dull, intense, and unrelenting.
He placed his hand on his chest, staring into blank space as if he were paralyzed.
She rolled around on the bed, grunting and moaning from the pain. "Help me, you fucking bastard!" she shouted at him.
With that, Nikita shook his head back into reality and rushed over to her.
There was a large wet stain on the bedsheets.
He pulled her up and lay her against the pillows then took off the bottom part of her metallic bikini.
She spread her legs, panting for breath while clutching the pillows by her side.
He stroked her head and face as he sat on his knees beside her. "I can't believe you'd do this. What were you thinking?"
She grabbed his throat and pulled him closer. "You did this to me, you fucker! When this is over, I'm gonna blow your fucking brains out!" She screamed and hunched over upon the onset of another contraction.
"Y-you almost got killed," he told her, gazing at her with a trembling frown.
"Now I wish I did!" she argued. "Give me the gun!"
He took her hands and held them tight. "Don't ever do that to me again. Ever. Do you understand?"
She violently shook her arms to free herself from his grasp. "I want my fucking gun!" she roared.
"I'm not giving you the gun," he told her with a resolute look in his eyes. "I'll help you--just lay back and calm down for a second."
Like a rabid dog, she leaned over and sunk her teeth into his wrist.
He flinched but kept his grip tight. "I know what you're going through. I know what it feels like to want something so desperately that you can't help but scream and try to force your way through the wall," he told her. "But there's always an open door somewhere in the room. You just need to step back. Step back...just for one second." He groaned through his teeth and rolled his eyes. "I said I was gonna help you!"
She let go and leaned over to his face with a sharp glare pointed directly at his eyes. "What's gonna help me is either these little shits getting out right now or somebody putting me out of my fucking misery, so sorry if I'm having such a hard time believing you!" She leaned back and screamed through her teeth while gripping her stomach. "I swear, I'm gonna fucking crack your skull open like I'm gonna crack these fucking eggs when they all come out if you don't get away from me," she growled. "My dealer said you could break rocks with these boots."
"I swear I can make it hurt less and make them come out faster," he said. "Stop being so stubborn and let me help you!"
"Were you dropped?" she argued. "You chose your petty fucking revenge plan over me! Of course I don't want your help! I never wanna fucking see you again! Maybe you talk normal and walk straight now, but you haven't changed one bit since you got that robot arm's claw jammed into your head!"
As another wave of pain was coming in, Maya growled and shook her head, digging her nails into the pillows. "Get out of me!" she screamed as she banged her fists against the pillows.
Nikita nodded and lay down beside her, staring up at the ceiling.
Maya turned her head to look at him with a furious and confused gaze as she panted.
"No," he said and looked down with a soft frown. "I'm worse."
She tossed her head around the pillow as she tried to contain her screams.
"Why did you stay?" he asked. "You could have escaped last night when I fell asleep. Why didn't you try to leave again?"
"Because the universe hates me and made me love you for some fucking reason," she argued.
"Yeah," he chuckled and smiled for a brief moment. "Stupid question."
She glared up at the ceiling and groaned.
"I remember this one time... I cut myself
real bad when I was trying to cut up a piece of bendy metal. My hands were still too small for the tools," he explained. "My mom went to disinfect the wound and patch me up... I hit her--almost clawed her eye out." He looked up as tears formed in the corners of his eyes. "She just smiled at me and kept going. I stood so still... I just...couldn't stop looking at how much her face was bleeding."
Maya continued to take short, rapid breaths, clutching her stomach and the pillows back and forth.
"I've always wondered...how could she have had so much restraint?" he said. "I couldn't help but lash out because my skin stung a little...and she stayed there and took care of me while her blood dripped over her eyes. And you... You were so nice to me despite everything. And I was no one to you." Then suddenly, he turned to Maya and smiled. "But yeah, your boots would probably kill me, so I'll have to cheat a bit. Hope that's okay."
"Wait--what?" she yelped.
He took out two metal rings with glowing blue lines in the middle from underneath the pillows and quickly locked them around Maya's boots, around the area just before the heels started, then turned them on by typing something onto the tabled he'd also hidden along with them.
The lines glowed as the rings weighed down Maya's feet to the point where she couldn't possibly lift them with her strength alone.
"When I get my gun back, I'll kill myself, and then I'll kill you!" she argued.
"I don't think that's gonna work," he told her with a chuckle as he put the tablet away, crawled over between her legs, and rubbed his palms together. "But anyway, let's loosen up that pussy so the little guys can have a little more breathing room, shall we? Oh, wait!" He rushed over to one of the walls and opened up a panel. He took out two white gloves, closed up the panel, and returned to sit between Maya's legs. He gave her a wide grin as he snapped the band at the end of the second glove against his wrist after putting them on. "Dr. Fister, at your cervix!"
She put a pillow over her face and screamed into it.
Nikita then gently glided two fingers through her slit, spread them, then took them out while keeping them still. "Okay--we've got about eight centimeters of dilation," he commented. "Let's start you off with some oral stimulation." He stretched his back and arms, then lay down onto the bed with his face in front of her crotch.