Catnipped

by Olivia Myers

  Argo nodded appreciatively. “As to your question, you will soon see. I regret that I am not at liberty to discuss that. The truth is, I don’t know where half of them end up.” His eyes trailed after the ones still in clothing and my mind flashed back to the bodies being dumped out on the warzone below.

  It occurred to me then how quiet it was in the ship when the chaos on the street had been all consuming.

  “Please remove your clothing.” Argo fixed himself at the center of the room, while the guards stood at either side of us. We looked at each other. The seventeen-year-old started to plead, “Please! Please let me go.”

  The guards raised their weapons, but she ignored them and threw herself at Argo, who caught her in his arms. At least what was left of her, after both guards fired.

  “No!” Argo yelled and it echoed back over the cavernous space, rattling the glass. “I said not to do that! She was frightened. She was not attacking me.”

  “We are doing our job,” one of the others said.

  “Perhaps,” said Argo, laying the girl’s body on a square of the floor. “But I am doing important work as well, and you could have destroyed a viable breeder.”

  Breeder. I felt faint. That’s what they wanted. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. They wanted women of childbearing age so they could impregnate us. But I was already pregnant and when they found out, they’d kill me. They’d dump my body on Manhattan with the others.

  I’d just have to hide it. It wasn’t obvious from the outside yet.

  I began undressing. It was important to cooperate. No matter what, my life was over. I had to accept that and live for my baby. I had to find a way to save her. That would be my goal. Whatever it took.

  Argo sighed and pushed a button. The dead girl’s body shimmered and disappeared.

  Two other women followed my lead and pulled off their clothes. The last ones cried and took much longer, but eventually did it. Argo motioned to the exam tables.

  “I will be asking you a series of questions,” he said, reading from an object that looked like an electronic tablet. “Please answer truthfully and to the best of your ability.”

  “How do you speak English?” I asked.

  Argo glanced up from his tablet, surprised. “I don’t. But everything I say is filtered through the onboard sensors and translated into your language or the best equivalent possible. What is your name?” He stepped toward me.

  “Rachel.”

  Argo stared at me for a while then went back to the center where he ticked off his questions.

  “If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” please stand and you may re-dress. Are you over five-foot-six? Are you over one hundred and thirty pounds? Are you under thirty human years? Are you physically fit?” Argo paused as three women rose and rushed to put on their clothes. Two were clearly petite, but the other… I wanted to tell her to stay seated, that she was rushing toward death not freedom, but maybe that was what she wanted. Or maybe she had some unseen illness. How was I to know?

  Argo continued. “Have you ever had a miscarriage? Is your cycle regular? Are you pregnant?” He paused again.

  I held my breath. I was certain if I got dressed I’d end up dead, and so would my baby.

  “Stay still please. This will only take a minute.” Argo picked up a long tube and a blinking handheld device. He passed the device over the woman next to me then pressed the tube against her arm. She jumped a little and the tube rapidly filled with blood.

  “Pass. Go stand by Neflin.” He gestured to one of the guards who looked her up and down as she cowered.

  Argo moved on to me. He did the blood first this time and it stung, but I did my best not to move. Then he passed the device over me and hesitated. Did it tell him the truth I’d hidden? I waited.

  His eyebrows raised and he repeated the gesture then leaned down over me. “Open your mouth, please,” he looked inside. I was surprised to find that he smelled like freshly mown grass.

  “You did not re-dress,” he whispered as he pretended to examine my ear.

  “I know where they go,” I whispered back. “To their deaths.”

  It was my last possible recourse.

  He considered me, brow furrowed like he was trying to work out a tricky puzzle. “Please stand by Neflin.”

  I hurried to do as I was told. The other woman stared at me like I was a traitor. She was probably twenty or so, pretty, with short blonde hair and large breasts, which she kept one arm over. I guessed she couldn’t understand my complacency, but I wasn’t complacent—I was determined to escape. I just needed to take it one step at a time. Step number one was not being killed.

  “Here comes the next group,” Argo said, motioning for us to leave through the other side.

  I glanced back at the next group made up of five women, all huddled together, crying and hugging. I wondered where they would end up. But Neflin shoved me from behind and I followed out the door and to the right. Away from death, but toward the unknown.

  ***

  We ended up in yet another pristine room with white padding along the walls. There were about fifteen of us there, each separated into a ten-foot square area. It looked weird, but as soon as I was deposited in mine, I realized there were again invisible force fields keeping me inside. It was a tiny, see-through cell. Most of the women were crouched on the floor, rocking and crying, hiding their nudity as best they could. Some were standing, like me, searching the room and their cells for weak spots. There were none.

  Slowly, the room filled up, with a final count of thirty. It was a good sampling of women from a wide variety of races with a wide variety of physical characteristics. The only common denominators seemed to be our age and that we were all on the larger side.

  Suddenly one woman began to scream, pounding on the cell. “Let me out! I refuse to do this! I refuse!”

  One of the few guards flanking the room walked slowly to her cell where she pounded her fists at him, unable to touch him, not that it would have done anything if she had. The guard laughed and touched something on his belt, then the invisible wall. Orange gas flooded the ten-foot cell, pooling around the panicked woman. When it cleared, she stood frozen, a scream etched on her face, fists raised in the air. The guard punched a couple of more unseen buttons, rearranged her limbs at her sides, tapped her chin so that her mouth closed, and tucked the woman under one arm before carrying her away.

  Several of the others started crying harder and cowering. It was a lesson for me, though. Under no circumstances could I panic or reveal my anxieties. I absentmindedly stroked my belly as I surveyed the room, trying to understand as much as possible about this alien world.

  I observed Argo and another doctor taking notes on various “specimens,” as they referred to us. I noticed Argo steal several glances at me as well. The other doctor seemed to have control of the cells on the other side of the room. One by one, the women were escorted out of the room. After a couple of hours, they returned, one by one. Those that returned had far off looks, or cried uncontrollably. Not one seemed to have kept her composure, and that terrified me.

  Eventually it was my turn. Argo escorted me, which seemed unusual as it was typically one of the ever-rotating guards. He steered me by my elbow toward the door while a returner passed going the opposite direction, limping. Bruises had started to form on her lower abdomen, and she sported a black eye and split lip. She seemed to be hyperventilating.

  “What happened to her?” I asked in a whisper.

  Argo’s grip on my elbow tightened. “We ask them to be as delicate as possible because we know you are a weaker race, but sometimes I suppose male Vendi may get carried away.”

  I swallowed hard. Breeding. We were already being taken to breed with Vendi? “I can’t,” I whispered as he led me to the hall, one of the guards shooting us a disapproving look.

  “You are capable according to my scans,” Argo said, pausing once we’d made it a bit further away.

  “The baby. It�
��ll kill the baby.” I begged with my eyes, getting as close as possible to Argo head on. He couldn’t ignore me if I was this close. He couldn’t.

  Argo searched my eyes and sighed. “I jeopardized the entire project because of your condition. But don’t worry. I can terminate it easily without pain to you. Then the project can continue unhindered.”

  All of the horror I’d witnessed in the past few hours, all of the screams and blood and terror came washing over me in that moment and my entire body shook. Argo caught me in his arms and lifted me easily, cradling me like a baby. “Rachel. What is wrong?”

  “I don’t want to lose the baby. I’ll do anything to protect her, please!” I beat my fists against his massive chest in desperation even though I’d been so good at keeping it together. He ran with me down the hall and I wondered if he was taking me to a guard to have me shot, but all I could do was sob on his shoulder. His grassy scent filled my nostrils, calming me a little as he finally set me gently down.

  When I looked around I saw that I was on an exam table in the room with the glass doors on either side, only we were the only ones around.

  “What… what’s happening?” I sniffle. “Wait. Don’t kill my baby.” I scooted back on the exam table, pulling my knees to my chest protectively.

  Argo stopped moving toward me and glanced around. “Shh. Rachel, it’s okay. I’m sorry I scared you. The few females left in the Vendi race have no attachment to the young. I misunderstood your desires. But you said the child you are carrying is a female? Is that correct?”

  “Yes. I had an ultrasound the other day, and a test confirmed it.”

  Argo began to pace as I relaxed a bit on the table.

  “I think I can use this to our advantage,” he said finally. “If I can convince the Councilate that it would be an intriguing experiment to raise a human as a Vendi…”

  “What? No! You can’t have my child.” I jumped off the table and grabbed Argo’s wrist.

  We both stared dumbly at the gesture.

  “You are a human sample,” Argo said, snatching his wrist away. “I am a doctor and so I understand that you have feelings, but do not take me for a fool either. Be appreciative that I have done what I can.”

  “I am a person, not a sample.” I grabbed Argo’s hand again and held it over my thrumming heart. “I’m scared and with child. My home, my boyfriend was taken from me violently by your people, and I was captured like an animal and only spared from death because you thought I might be a good vessel to bear your own children. You would send me to be raped and take the child, and then what? Rape me again until I can no longer produce offspring? Perhaps your calculations didn’t count on me having feelings.”

  Argo stared, unmoving, and when I finished my tirade, I stared right back, breathing so hard that my chest rose and fell beneath his massive hand.

  “I have little power,” he whispered, drawing closer, but not moving his hand. “Rachel, I can argue this idea and possibly stop them from… raping you as you say, until you’ve at least had the child. You would have your own room and be cared for. Or I can take you to a room like I am supposed to, so that a Vendi can try to impregnate you. This process would be repeated several times a day with different Vendi until you test positive for impregnation.”

  “But the first way only delays the inevitable,” I said, my voice small.

  “It buys you time and the life of your child. We are a powerful race, Rachel.” Argo shifts uncomfortably between his feet. “Your child would not survive the first two days and if you bleed out it will be seen as weakness and we will be forced to replace you with another viable subject.”

  The quaking in my body started again, and Argo pulled me in to his arms, holding me until it subsided. “I am sorry, Rachel. I do not like it, but this is the only way for our race to continue and you are one of the few humanoid races that are compatible.”

  “You didn’t have to force yourselves on us. Look at you guys,” I said with a laugh. “You could get a million willing subjects just by walking into a bar.”

  “What’s going on in here?” A male voice asked from behind Argo.

  Argo’s expression changed from shock to cunning in seconds. He spun around, holding onto me, his hand over my heart slipping down to my breast, the other between my legs. The shock on my face must’ve been perfect because the guard’s expression changed to one of humor.

  “So the doctor wanted a turn as well?” It was Neflin. “I saw you favoring that one before. Now I know why.”

  Argo rocked forward with his hips in a rhythmic motion from behind me. “A little privacy, Neflin,” he panted.

  Neflin winked and left the room. The second he disappeared from sight, Argo let me go and I spun back around to face him, my cheeks hot. I was torn between gratitude for covering for me and anger for touching me.

  “Rachel, I am sorry, I had to think quickly and I—”

  “I understand. Thank you, Argo. Thank you for everything. I know you didn’t have to do any of this, but you did. Please know that I’m grateful.”

  Argo cleared his throat. “Very well. We had best get you back to your cell so I can speak with Representative Klemor. Do me a favor and attempt to look… ravaged.”

  His lips stretched in what I thought was a smile. I might have smiled back, if I hadn’t been so disturbed by everything else happening.

  Argo walked me back down the hall, holding my elbow. I kept my eyes down, but couldn’t help stealing glances at various rooms as we walked by. I hadn’t been in a state to notice on the way down, but each room had a clear door, allowing a perfect sight line inside.

  Each held a different Vendi male, nude. I couldn’t help but notice the rippling muscles on each one, and their oversized cocks. Under the right circumstances, Vendi could have been amazing lovers. But this…

  At least half the rooms had a human woman in them as well. I stopped looking after a two halls because it made my stomach turn. But as we neared the next turn, one of the doors opened, revealing the sound of a sobbing woman. I glanced over and the Vendi was dragging her out of the room by the leg, streaks of blood smearing along the floor from her insides.

  I stopped and Argo nearly smacked into me as the Vendi hurled the girl into the opposite wall where her head hit with a sickening thud and she slid down, leaving more blood from the crack in her skull. I threw a hand over my mouth as I heaved. The Vendi looked over and grinned, stalking toward us. Argo stiffened behind me, but even he seemed puny compared to this monster.

  “That one was defective,” he said in a gruff voice. “But yours looks sturdier.” He reached out and grabbed my hair, yanking me away from the safety of Argo.

  I bit my lip hard to prevent myself screaming, but begged Argo again with my eyes.

  “She is being returned to her unit,” Argo said, calmly. “That is the protocol after each pairing. You will be brought another in due time.”

  The Vendi did not let me go. He lifted me by my hair and squeezed one of my breasts until I thought it might pop like a balloon. I cried out in pain. “I like the sounds they make,” he said. “Screw protocol. The idea is to fuck them until they give us young, so fuck I will.”

  “You will return the subject to me. I have authority here and if you do not comply, I will have you removed from the study.” Argo stepped in his path as he attempted to carry me back to his room.

  “And what are you going to do about it if I fuck her first?” he asked, pushing past Argo. The blood soaked room bounced in my vision as he carried me toward it. I tore at his arms and anything else within reach. Then I was flying through the air, and all I could do was throw out my hands to help break my fall. My whole body was jarred and then I was lifted again from behind and tossed on my stomach on the cot in the room.

  “No!” I screamed, pushing myself over to see what was coming at me. Now I understood why Argo expected me to miscarry within the first forty-eight hours. That was if I didn’t die outright.

  The Vendi stalked towar
d me, holding his erect cock like a weapon. But he stopped halfway into the room. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell to his knees then with a huge thump onto his face on the floor.

  Behind him stood Argo, already pocketing a large syringe. He stepped over the Vendi’s unconscious body and offered me a hand. “Are you all right, Rachel?”

  “I think so,” I said, taking his hand. “Are you going to get in trouble?”

  Argo smiled again. “He was not following protocol.”

  We walked back to the room with all of the women’s cells, and Argo deposited me in my own space again. Then he hesitated, splaying his hand across the invisible wall. “Do not be afraid. I will go speak to the powers and I will come back for you before the next round reaches you.”

  I nodded, understanding, and slid down to the floor to rest. Argo’s presence did make me feel safer, I realized when he left. So I curled into a ball as best I could and watched as others paraded from cell to hall and back again in a sick sort of dance, wondering how many of the Vendi in the rooms were like the one who’d tried to steal me, and how many were more like Argo.

  ***

  I must have fallen asleep on the ground because the next thing I knew, Argo was shaking me awake. “Rachel, good news. The experiment was approved. Come with me.”

  He helped me to my feet and led me back down the halls to an empty room. All evidence of the Vendi he’d drugged and the woman he’d brutally murdered was gone. Not a speck of blood remained.

  The room was only about double the size of the small cell, but it was slightly more private. I sagged against the wall in relief. I was being spared any more sexual assaults at least for the next six months.

  The only things inside the room were a cot and a smooth metal panel with a touch screen. Argo showed me which button opened a panel on the bottom, where a chamber pot slid out, and which opened a panel above that dropped down a thin tent. Apparently if I stepped inside, it would automatically cleanse my body.