by Anna Adler
She returned to Jax and placed the shoes next to the cage. Then she activated his collar, set the safety distance to two meters, opened his cage door, and stepped back. Jax stepped out of the cage and without delay put on his shoes. His eye caught the coiled item in her hand.
“What’s that?” he asked, although his dismayed tone indicated he already guessed.
“Pets have to be on a leash when out in public,” Alyssa replied. She put one end of the leash on the floor and backed away from it. “Your collar has a small ring at the front. Attach this to it.”
Jax’s eyes flashed. “Fuck that. I’m not a fucking dog!”
He hadn’t shown any aggression for several days now, but Alyssa wasn’t surprised by his reaction. This was a new condition for him, and being a wild creature, his first reaction was to lash out.
“It’s the law,” she said. “Pets can only go outside on a leash with their owner. There’s nothing I can do about it. If you want to go out, you have to put it on.”
Jax crossed his arms, fuming. “You put it on.”
“Do as I say or we won’t go.”
“You want me on a leash then do it yourself. I ain’t putting my head in the noose voluntarily, like a fucking sheep.”
Alyssa sighed, but inwardly she was amused. He was trying to salvage his wounded pride. There shouldn’t be any harm in meeting him halfway. She coiled the leash back into her hand and tapped her wristband to readjust Jax’s collar.
“No sudden moves,” she warned him as she approached. She reached out and clipped the end of the leash to the front of his collar.
He moved. Maybe the temptation was simply too great, having her within reach. He lifted his hands to grab her, but the collar read his adrenaline levels and detected a dangerous gesture, and gave him a punishing jolt. Jax winced and snarled, stumbling back a step.
“You tried to touch me,” Alyssa said in an admonishing tone. “You’re not allowed to do that, remember?”
“I just wanted to give you a kiss,” he joked, rubbing his throat.
More likely he wanted to strangle me.
Alyssa wasn’t surprised nor affected. The collar had already made him aware of his mistake, so she only said, “Bad pet.”
He shrugged. “Whatever. Are we going or what?”
She gave him a stern look. “You misbehaved. I should put you back in the cage for that.”
“Yeah, you probably should. But we’re taking that walk, right?”
Alyssa shook her head and smiled. She shouldn’t indulge him, but she looked forward to this walk as eagerly as he did. Besides, pet training couldn’t solely be conducted while the pet sat in a cage. Jax had to learn to go on walks with his owner like a proper pet, and some initial difficulties were only to be expected.
She restored the longer safety distance and gave his leash a little tug. “Fine. Come on then.”
They walked down the stairs, which took a while since Alyssa lived on the fifteenth floor. But Alyssa deemed the elevator too dangerous. Not for her but for Jax—he wouldn’t be able to keep the required distance to her, or to the other people they might encounter.
When they stepped out into the square, happy pride filled her as she watched her handsome possession on the other end of the leash. Here was the moment she’d been dreaming of! Taking her precious pet out to be seen. He was such an impressive sight with his alien eyes and scaly arms. She liked dressing him in dark colors. Today she’d given him a dark gray shirt with light blue tiger stripe pattern on one shoulder. He wore black jeans. The blue on his shirt brought out his eyes and the black went well together with the black leash. He looked so stylish he should have been on the cover of a pet magazine.
Jax looked up into the sky, squinting at its brightness. “We’re not really outdoors,” he said, calling Alyssa out of her thoughts.
“You’re right,” she said. “We’re under a dome, although it’s so high up that it’s hard to see with the naked eye.”
“The air smells recycled.”
“That’s because it is. Silenia is cold and toxic, there’s no indigenous life on the planet. Nothing above a few microbes, at any rate. This is our colony’s capital: Sky Dome One.”
“No life, no breathable air…you people aren’t here for the fun of it. You must be a mining colony.”
“Very good,” Alyssa praised, pleased with his observations. “You’re absolutely right. We have enough mineral resources to make almost everyone on Silenia a wealthy citizen. Our colony is about 300 years old. We’re dependent on Earth as a trade partner, but we’re happy here, despite the somewhat hostile environment.”
Alyssa watched Jax scan the surroundings. Tall, white apartment buildings identical to Alyssa’s framed a neat, white-stone square decorated with elaborate fountains and a few, carefully fenced trees. Variously shaped benches stood here and there, some designed for sitting, others for lying down. A faint hum of the magnetic trains came from farther off, but aside from that, the peaceful silence was broken only by the sound of sprinkling water from the fountains. Surely Jax enjoyed the pleasant scenery as much as Alyssa did. This was an expensive quarter, and Alyssa was proud to be living here.
“Residential area,” Jax mused. “Where’s the actual city?”
“It’s five minutes north by magtrain,” Alyssa replied. “Beneath this square is a station complex. It’s how I go to work.”
She strolled across the square and noticed with delight that Jax followed without prompting, like an obedient pet. She didn’t even have to pull on his leash. He walked absentmindedly, still looking around.
“So what is it that you do?” he asked.
“I’m in charge of a chromium mine. It’s quite exciting because it’s far off in the Alexandrian Plateau. It’s an uninhabitable area, and automated systems that I supervise do all the work. Usually it’s not a problem, but when something breaks, it’s hard to get spare parts transported that far out. And we do have a daily quota of ore to mine.”
“In charge of a mine, huh? I didn’t know people like you commute. Don’t you have cars?”
“Only emergency vehicles—ambulances, fire brigades and such. The rest of us take the magtrain or walk. Our cities are small.”
“Hello there!” someone hollered, and Alyssa stopped. She recognized her neighbor, Peter Volkov, coming toward them with his Lurexian pet, Rush, in tow.
“Oh, Peter. Hi.” She gave Jax a nervous glance, wondering how he took this unexpected interruption.
Jax wore a curious and alert expression, his head held high. Alyssa wrapped his leash a little tighter around her hand.
“I saw the note you left in the newsroom,” her handsome, mid-forties neighbor said. “So you got yourself a pet! Congratulations. This must be him.” Peter gave Jax a head-to-toe look and seemed disturbed when Jax—disrespectfully—did the same to him. Peter’s gaze darted between Alyssa and Jax. “Um…is he…?”
“Don’t come any closer,” Alyssa warned with an apologetic smile. “Jax is untamed. I only just started training him.”
Peter’s eyes widened and he took a step back. “Shit. Excuse me. That’s really something. I’m impressed.”
“Thanks.” She experienced a throb of pride. “I have to admit, I didn’t mean to buy a wild pet, but when I saw him, I just had to have him.”
Peter nodded, his face lit with the interest of a connoisseur. “I understand completely. A good-looking hybrid specimen. Interesting scale color. Human-Lizardian?”
“Human-S’laurian.”
“A rare combination! You should take him to pet shows. Someone like him, with the appropriate training…he’d sweep the tables clean.”
Peter was enthusiastic about pet shows. His rare, gold-and-green skinned Lurexian had won many prizes.
Jax stared at the docile alien standing beside his human owner. “So this is a tame pet,” he stated, unimpressed.
He waved his hand, then snapped his fingers, trying to attract Rush’s attention, but the handsome, li
on-haired male didn’t look at him.
“What’s he doing?” Peter asked Alyssa, fingering Rush’s leash.
“Jax, that’s impolite,” Alyssa said, but Jax ignored her.
“What does it take to get a reaction out of him?” he demanded. “I’ve seen a Lurexian rip out a man’s throat over a spilled beer. What the hell did you do to him to make him like this?”
“He’s tame, that’s all,” she said. “And he’s very well trained. Don’t tease him.”
“Trained?” Jax snorted. “I’d say braindead.”
His loud, aggressive voice made Rush fidget. The Lurexian gave a little whine and cast a help-seeking look at his owner.
“This is what you want to turn me into?” Jax went on. “A mindless piece of meat like this? This makes you lunatics happy?”
Peter put a protective arm over his pet’s shoulders.
“Jax!” Alyssa hissed, and beamed at Peter. “Jax and I better continue our walk. It was nice seeing you.”
She tugged at Jax’s leash and quickly walked on.
“Don’t fucking yank at that thing,” Jax growled as he sauntered after her. “I’m too fucking pissed.”
“Jax, I know this is new and shocking to you—”
“The only thing shocking here is your blindness. How can you treat your fellow creatures like that?”
Alyssa frowned. “Like what? Give them food and shelter? A loving home?”
“Keep them prisoner and break their will so that there’s nothing left but an empty husk.”
“I’ve never heard of a Silenian abusing a pet.”
“No, because your pet training centers do the abusing. By the time you get your hands on your ‘pets’, they’re meek and harmless, as if born that way. And I bet the ones born in captivity don’t know any better.”
“Our pets are happy and comfortable,” Alyssa said. No abuse was going on at Interstellar and the other facilities. It was unthinkable. Pet training might seem harsh, but it was done in the best interest of the creature and its future owner. “You’ll be happy and comfortable, too.”
“That’s what you want?” he exclaimed, gesturing back at Peter and Rush, who were continuing their walk in the other direction. “You want to turn me into a mentally castrated lump like his Lurexian?”
“No!” Alyssa turned to face him. “I want a companion who talks to me and reacts to things. Like you do. I like you the way you are.”
Jax only glared at her.
“Jax, we’ve had a good time this past week, haven’t we? I haven’t tried to crush your spirit, have I? I’ve enjoyed your company. That’s what I want. Just the two of us, having fun together. I want the rest of our lives to be like that.”
“You want to fucking marry me, or what?”
Alyssa blinked, confused. “No, we don’t marry our pets. I just want your company. Of course I might get married to a man at some point, but it would never change my feelings toward you. You’d always come with me, wherever I went.”
Jax’s fingers curled into fists. “So I don’t count as a man?”
“You’re a pet. It’s different.”
He scoffed and shook his head. “You’re fucking nuts.”
“Jax…”
“Spare me.”
The boom of a shuttle launch filled the air. The launch pad was several klicks away from the city, outside the protective dome, but the sound of the liftoff carried here nonetheless. Jax turned to observe the bullet-shaped shuttle heading into orbit, trailing flames and billowy, white exhaust.
“That’s the nearest spaceport?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He stared at the diminishing shuttle with a thoughtful expression. “Have you ever been off Silenia?”
“Of course,” Alyssa said. “I’ve been to the orbit several times. For fun. The annual celebrations of the company and such, a few birthday parties…it’s nice to see the planet from up there.”
“That’s not what I meant. Have you ever visited a trading outpost or another colonized planet?”
“No. I haven’t had any reason to.”
Alyssa wondered what the point of Jax’s questions was, but then he switched the topic.
“How about we walk on? You can tell me more about this place. I’ll be nice.”
His rapid change of mood made Alyssa suspicious. She expected him to be more upset about Rush—she understood why a vigorous, temperamental pet like Jax found a mild creature like Rush offensive. Alyssa wanted to make clear to Jax that although she intended to train him, she didn’t want him to turn passive. She loved his spirit. But Jax had already forgotten about it, and now he seemed to be in a good mood again.
“Come on, let’s walk,” he insisted, pulling toward the spaceport.
“All right. But not that way. Let’s go look at the fountains.”
Alyssa led Jax to the center of the square where elegant metal sculptures sprouted water into impressive heights. Alyssa loved the fountains and hoped to see Jax impressed by them.
He grinned and winked at her. “So you like playing with water.”
Alyssa chuckled at his allusion to their sexy bathroom ritual.
“The fountains run in several layers,” she said. “They continue three floors underground as waterfalls and decorative streams. I think it’s beautiful.”
“I thought you said the magtrain station was below us.”
“Yes, exactly. The waterfalls and fountains are part of the interior decoration. You can look down into the station area from that railing.”
“Interesting,” Jax said.
Alyssa walked him to the railing and they peered down. Below was a spacious underground station with its glowing announcement boards and coffee shops. A grin spread on Jax’s face as he scanned the area. Alyssa saw the gears turning in his mind, but realized too late what he planned. In one fluid motion, he unhooked the leash from his collar and vaulted over the railing, dropping into the pit below.
“Jax!” Alyssa cried out. “Stop!”
She leaned over and saw Jax in the station hall below, sprinting toward the magtrain platforms. Alyssa swung her legs over the railing and dropped to the floor below. She was athletic and capable herself, but nothing compared to Jax. He had already disappeared. Luckily, she only had to follow the startled looks of the commuters.
“Escaped pet!” someone yelled. “Watch out!”
“Jax!” Alyssa screamed. “Come back!”
She ran in the direction of the commotion. She knew Jax wouldn’t be able to harm anyone. His collar would punish him if he went within two meters of another living being. She also could have stopped him any time; all she had to do was activate the pain on his collar with a simple touch of her wristband. But that would only teach him that she could hurt him, and she didn’t want to give him such associations. What Jax needed to learn was that running away didn’t work, not on Silenia. His collar, as well as the chip implanted in his neck, was tripping alarms everywhere now. City security would be upon him within seconds.
Alyssa needed to stay on his heels so she could reclaim him. She ran as fast as she could, calling out to Jax with whatever breath remained to her. The Silenian citizens dived out of the way. Like Alyssa, they knew security took care of all problems, so they need not get involved.
Alyssa heard Jax’s scream of pain somewhere below, on a train platform.
“Jax!” She dashed for the escalator.
A few citizens rushed away from the platform, muttering to one another. Alyssa saw Jax pinned to the ground by two sturdy restrainer bots. He struggled ferociously against their grip, which caused them to punish him with electric shocks. His screams of pain wrenched at her heart.
“Stop it!” Alyssa ordered. “Let him go, he’s mine.”
Three security guards also ran to the scene.
“It’s all right, Citizen, we’ll take care of this,” one of them said to her and blocked her path.
Alyssa shot the man an angry look. “Get out of the way. He’s mi
ne, I want him back!”
“You’ll get him back in due time.”
One of the guards was reporting the incident to his wristband and another one kept an eye on the bots. But they didn’t take them off Jax. The bots hauled him up, twisting his arms behind his back so hard Alyssa feared they might break.
“Stop that!” she cried out. “You’re hurting him!”
“There’s nothing we can do, Citizen. The bots are programmed to do that. We have to let them run their course.”
“What? Why are they doing that?”
“An escaped pet needs to be taught a lesson.”
The bots dragged Jax off the platform. A staff entrance hissed open and they took him in. Alyssa’s eyes widened and she charged after them, but two of the security men grasped her arms and held her back.
“No!” Alyssa screamed, thrashing in their grip. “He’s mine! Give him back to me!”
The door closed behind Jax and the bots. Alyssa screamed louder and the guards released her. She ran to the door, but it had no handles, so all she could do was pummel it with her fists.
“No! Jax!”
She heard his hoarse screams of pain from the other side. She couldn’t get to him. There was nothing she could do.
“They’re going to kill him,” Alyssa sobbed. Despair sucked the strength from her limbs.
“They’re not going to kill him,” the security guard behind her said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You’re here, so all they’re doing is teaching him a lesson.”
“They’re hurting him!”
“A little pain is necessary,” the man said in a sympathetic voice. “It’s for the best. Don’t worry. After this, he won’t run away from you again.”
Chapter 8
Station security, along with their bots, carried the unconscious Jax back to Alyssa’s apartment. After the torture session, they knocked him out to make him easier to transport. Alyssa was in shock, showing the way to her apartment in silence. She hadn’t realized they would brutalize her pet in that way. She thought they only restrained their captives, like they did when the occasional Silenian went on a rampage.