A loud growl rippled through the room and my opponent leaped out of the shadows, his tail raised above his head and the tip of his weapon angled down like the stinger of a scorpion. I managed to roll out of his way and take a glancing swing at him before skittering out of his reach. I didn’t know much about combat, but I had brothers. Rule number one when you live with boys is learning how to stand your ground. Rule two; stay out of their clutches. I was doing a pretty good job of number two when my shoulder hit a forcefield of some kind, and I was thrown to the ground.
Alien-boy took advantage of the moment and pounced on me. Literally. He pounced on me like an oversized house cat. For a moment I was tempted to scratch him behind the ear and see if that would help. He pinned all of my limbs down and made short work of my weapon with his super-white, uber-sharp teeth. The feeling of his hot breath on my skin sent chills up my spine. He inhaled deeply and looked at me with a curious expression. He closed his eyes and took another deep breath. When he opened his eyes again they were a little out of focus. He growled something, his teeth snapping a mere inch from my face.
“Yield, human,” said Siri.
I shook my head. It wasn’t fair. I didn’t know there was a forcefield. Yielding felt too humiliating. I’d rather he simply kill me. There was a good chance I was one of the last human left alive anyway. What did I have to live for?
The tail of his rose high above both of our head and I looked at the ominous tip, glinting in the light. I closed my eyes and waited for my doom.
The sound of metal crashing into the hard surface made me open my eyes again. The weapon was embedded into the floor next to my face, and my captor was looking down at me with a strange sense of satisfaction. He purred a phrase in a language I’d never heard before and then stood up, dragging me to my feet by my arm.
“You have been defeated. Your life is mine. I’ll take it whenever I choose,” said Siri.
He turned in a circle, his arms lifted high, my toes barely scraping the floor. He roared something to an audience I couldn’t see.
“The human has been defeated by Commander Rakesh. It amuses me. I will keep it as a pet and tame it,” Siri translated.
I looked up to see the lights increase in what seemed like observation rooms lining the room I was in. Above me, the creatures I assumed were his crew had been observing everything. I still couldn’t make them out clearly, but there was no mistaking the mild roar of commotion that reverberated through the room. As far as they were concerned, it was a done deal. I was his pet, and that was that.
I guessed it beat being dinner.
“Okay Rakesh, put me down,” I said.
Again, there was a slight delay as he listened to the voice I couldn’t hear. There was a quiet gasp that rippled through all of the faceless beings assembled. I’d obviously made a mistake by opening my big fat mouth.
I looked up at his face, and he snarled at me. I didn’t need to know much about alien life to know that it was a bad sign. Without warning, I was flying through the air. Instead of rebounding off of a forcefield, I hit a very solid wall and then fell to the ground.
“It will not use the Commander’s name,” said Siri, though I didn’t hear Rakesh say a word. Maybe this chick was trying to help me out after all. It would’ve been nice if she’d intervened before I put my foot in my mouth.
Rakesh stalked over to where I laid in a heap on the ground. He lifted me above his head, one large hand around my throat and the other between my legs. He walked me around the room, letting everybody get a good look at me, I assumed. It was degrading but I had no choice. I was already light headed, and there was no way I would be the victor if I put up a fight now.
“I have captured the human warrior. I will tame it, and it will assist the glorious Empire in defeating the humans,” he roared.
I almost laughed out loud. If he thought I would help him destroy my planet he was sadly mistaken. The very idea that he thought I had the ability to do so was proof of how woefully misguided he’d been. I was nobody. I had no military training unless you count reading the Art of War over the summer and watching action movies as military training. It was so clear to me that he’d picked up the wrong lady that I was almost relieved to hear his plans for me.
There was no way, even if he sucked every bit of knowledge from my head, that I could be of any use to him or his Empire. Maybe I couldn't help my people, but I couldn’t be used to harm them either.
Another alien walked into the room, this one a shade of purple. I assumed at first that it was male, although it was slightly smaller in stature and instead of the riot of hair on its head it had elf-like ears. Its skin was also covered in a soft fuzz only it was a paler pink, like the belly of a housecat. They were obviously the same species though this one was sleeker and less heavily muscled. It also wore a long jacket and wide pants in red and orange.
“This was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission. We were not supposed to mount a full attack. We have failed our mission, Commander.”
This time the voice I heard was Alexa. Despite the mechanical voice, I could tell that it said the word “Commander” with snark. This person obviously did not agree with Rakesh’s decision to attack Earth and had enough sway on the ship to be able to voice that opinion without fear of being thrown against a wall. I would have to remember that. I fought against the blackness that crept into the edges of my vision.
Rakesh put me down and turned to face the second alien fully.
“You are the Chief Tactical Officer and the daughter of the High Councilor, so I will respect you. But if you want to keep your head you will keep your idea of what is and is not a failure to yourself. I have a human officer as my pet, and we know exactly what the humans are capable of now. Mission accomplished,” Rakesh said in a slightly subdued tone.
The air between them bristled with electricity. It was obvious they were enemies, which meant that she was my best ally. I made a note of that as exhaustion and the whack to my noggin forced me back into darkness.
THREE
I sat watching as the creatures passed by. Some stopped to look, others snarled, but for the most part, I was treated with a benign indifference. I wasn’t important. It was a welcome annoyance.
There was no way for me to tell how long I’d been unconscious. It wasn’t like I could check the time on my cell phone. All I knew was that there was a lot of concern over what to do about “the blue planet”. There were too many voices and too many conversations for Siri to translate it all for me. Mostly she rattled off whatever snippets of conversation being held by the aliens standing closest to my cage. “The blue planet” was the most commonly used phrase. I was excited to hear it. Even though I was miles and miles from home, it was nice to think that somewhere out there we were still giving them hell.
I watched the aliens that passed. They all seemed to be of the same species. Their coloring ranged from bright, flaming red, to a deep eggplant. The females all had the same pronounced ears and sported an array of rings, beads, and chains from the piercings. To me, they looked like pubescent versions of the large, imposing males. The males all had wild manes that they shaved, braided, and tied into an array of styles. I was just wondering whether or not those styles had any meaning when a new phrase started echoing through my head.
“No casualties.”
My heart sank as I heard those words. I knew for sure they weren’t talking about humans. Even the little I’d seen of the invasion I could tell that there would be massive destruction and devastation. I recalled a documentary about World War One that I saw once. The thing that surprised me most at that time was the number of casualties AFTER the war. The initial body count would be unimaginable but the number of people who would die because of lack of sanitation, collapsed infrastructure, and the anarchy of lawlessness could decimate the human race.
I grew sick to my stomach just thinking about it. For once, I was glad that I hadn’t eaten in a while. Being in this human-sized aquarium would’ve been wor
se if I yakked all over my shoes. I watched the crew go about their business as if this wasn’t an interplanetary war they were conducting. I couldn’t be sure, but they seemed completely unaffected by the battle that was raging back on Earth. And then it hit me. I would probably never see my home again. I would probably never get back to Earth. Even if, by some miracle, humans were to survive and humanity reclaimed the planet, I would probably never live to see it. The thought took the wind right out of my lungs and made the world spin.
“It looks sick,” said one of the females. She wore a uniform similar to the other female, but this time in a pristine white. She carried a kit of some kind strapped to her thigh and had the piercing gaze of a scientist.
“You should let me get it back to the lab and run some tests.”
“Do you even know what you are looking for?” Rakesh walked over to join her.
“We have gleaned enough biological data to make reasonable assumptions about its general health,” she said.
Rakesh looked at me briefly and then snorted his consent.
“But leave its brain alone. I need to get information out of it,” he added.
“Why don’t we just wipe its mind. Why waste time?”
“Unfortunately, we tried that with the last one and it yielded no results. We will have to convince it to tell us what we want to know unless you can come up with a mind wipe that won’t leave it brain dead, P’tah,” Rakesh said.
P’tah let the corners of her mouth wiggle for a moment and then looked back at me with renewed interest. Honestly, I was too tired and hungry and traumatized to even care anymore. The idea of just how she planned to make me tell them what they wanted to know seemed generally unpleasant and completely laughable. I didn’t know anything that would be of use to them anyway. Why did I care if they scrambled my grey matter a little bit? Nobody I knew or loved would be left alive to care anyway. I was as good as dead.
P’tah pushed my cage into what looked like an elevator and whisked us both to her lab. There, the lights were much dimmer than they were elsewhere. I couldn’t discern a light source, it was almost as if all of the surfaces emitted a soft glow that grew stronger with contact, but only in a localized way. She sat at a console that lit up as soon as she touched it and the area around her began to glow brighter.
“Human female, between sixteen and twenty Earth solar years old. Slightly elevated cholesterol, low body weight, imbalanced muscle to fat ratio,” she recited.
“Well, hello to you too, bitch,” I said.
P’tah cocked her head to the side, listening to the translation that I was beginning to realize was being broadcasted directly into her head.
“You are mistaken. I am not canine, although I can understand how you can make that mistake. Our species is much closer to those in the feline and reptilian species on your planet,” she said.
I snorted.
“I guess sarcasm doesn’t translate well in your language,” I said. “Feline and reptile?”
“Yes,” she said without bothering to turn and face me. “Felines and reptiles share a common ancestor. Didn’t you know? Did you not notice that they both have vertically elliptical pupils? That’s what first led me to explore their ancestry.”
“What?” I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Was she seriously here talking about cats and lizards while preparing to probe and examine me like a specimen in a lab?
“Your planet is truly fascinating. I mean, as a xenobiologist, I couldn’t pass on the chance to come and see it for myself,” she said, wheeling out a scary looking examining table with several chrome colored arms extending from the sides.
“Hey, you don’t have to do this, you know. You don’t have to cut me up and do weird things to me. You don’t have to kill me,” I panicked.
“Kill you? No, you must be healthy in order to be useful to us. Besides, the Commander would have my tail if I killed his pet. You don’t need to worry, young human. Nobody aboard this ship would dare to harm you unless they wanted to end up in bloody combat with Commander Rakesh.”
“And that’s bad, right?”
P’tah laughed a deep, throat sound and then licked her lips before answering.
“He’s young and can be quite foolish, but he is brave and strong. Stronger than most of his age. It would be foolish to pick a fight with him over a human pet,” she said. “Besides, it’s what’s in your head that we need. We have enough of your biomedical data and research to learn all that we need to know about your species.”:
“In my head?”
“Your knowledge of human tactics and weapons. Your military knowledge.”
“But I don’t have any of that. I mean I know a little about the military, but not enough to be useful.”
P’tah stopped and glared at me. It occurred to me that perhaps I’d said the wrong thing. If I wanted to live, I needed to give them a reason to keep me alive.
“I knew he was wrong. So, tell me, human, what science do you specialize in?”
“Science? I was never any good at science.” Another scowl from P’tah alerted me to how close I was to being declared useless. Still, lying about having scientific expertise would likely land me in deeper water as soon as she realized I was shit in a laboratory and bad at math.
“Law, I studied law,” I offered.
“Law?”
“Yes, I studied law.”
She bristled, literally, with the hairs on her skin standing on end.
“I do not like jurisprudence,” she said stiffly and then turned back to her preparations. “It stands in the way of progress.”
“It’s the backbone of any great civilization. It governs how we treat each other,” I said, trying desperately to remember what I wrote in the essay section of my college applications.
“It’s useless,” P’tah growled, “and you’re useless, too.”
Tears threatened to fall as I tried to think of a way to change her mind. How could I convince her that I wasn’t useless? What did I have to offer?
“But I am human,” I said softly.
“So?”
“Know thy enemy.” Thank you, Sun Tsu.
I could see the gears in her head begin to turn as the words were broadcasted into her brain. She was a scientist at heart. Apparently, no matter what your species, scientists all over the universe all think alike. Learning the anatomy of a creature is one thing, but having the chance to see one in action and learn how they behave is another. I thought of the rats in laboratories, forced to run through mazes and fed all kinds of things to test their performance and endurance. Did I want to live if it meant living like a lab rat?
I couldn’t be sure, but death was too final for me to embrace it. Not yet, anyway. If there was any way I could continue to live, I was going to take it.
“You are social creatures…” she said.
“You weren’t expecting us to fight back once you invaded. That’s why you were caught off guard. You weren’t expecting that we would be able to put down our petty bullshit and mount an offensive, but we did.”
“It wasn’t an invasion, it was a test. We are a scouting party.”
“Oh.”
“But you are correct in assuming that we were not expecting such a strident response. That level of coordination and global cohesion is unprecedented.”
“Social media changes everything,” I said with a wink.
“Social...media?”
“That’s what I’m saying. There is a lot about humans you don’t know and don’t understand. I can’t tell you anything about our weapons except that we have a shit-ton of them,” I scooted closer to the glass. “But, I know a whole lot about being human.”
P’tah didn’t say anything but her tail swished back and forth vigorously. If she was anything like the cats on Earth that was a good sign. It meant she was intrigued and excited by the opportunity. I was pretty sure I could count on her support. Now, all I had to do was convince Rakesh to take good care of his new pet.
We sa
t in silence for a few minutes before the pain in my stomach alerted me to a very immediate problem.
“By the way, I haven’t eaten since I arrived. Do you have anything that would be edible?”
P’tah opened my cage, dissolving a small portal for me to step through, and then pointing to a seat. I sat obediently and she handed me a thick green packet.
“You will not enjoy the taste, but it has everything in it that a human body needs for health. I synthesized it with the hope of keeping some of the other specimens alive longer. They didn’t last as long as I thought they would,” she said.
I ripped open the corner and squeezed the contents out. It was a thick syrup that smelled sweet but looked like a failed science experiment. I closed my eyes and tasted it. To my surprise, it wasn’t bad at all. It certainly wasn’t good and didn’t qualify as food. But it was palatable.
“Will you join me? Eating is usually a social exercise for humans,” I said, indicating the chair closest to me.
P’tah looked at me strangely but made no move to come closer. I assumed that was a polite no and kept sucking the sludge out of the packet.
“You will find breathing to be difficult for you in a few minutes. I am working on a solution. Eat quickly,” she said, without looking up.
FOUR
“These are yours.” P’tah handed me my handbag.
The small clutch had all that was left of my worldly possessions, and possibly my world. A small bottle of perfume, my wallet, phone, and a few cosmetics for a quick touch up.
“The cosmetics can be synthesized but I think you will find that such coloring won’t be appealing to the Commander,” she said.
I took out my phone and, amazingly, the battery wasn’t dead. I powered it up, mostly out of reflex, and because it was my last connection to the world that had drifted away from view. To my surprise, there was a signal.
“Connecting to your data network was easy enough. We used the language banks to program your implant.”
A Pet For The Commander: The Complete Series Page 2