“Thank you for your kind offer,” said Antaska, looking up at the ceiling, “but I’d like to stay here tonight,” said Antaska.
“Oh. They will be so disappointed,” said the face of Mistress Bawbaw looking down at her with a disturbingly fixed stare.
Antaska looked at her but said nothing. She felt uncomfortable.
“And … hurt ... very … hurt,” Mistress Bawbaw continued in the voice that seemed robotic despite the emotional nature of her words. “They know you spent time with Tabxi, Vorche, and Zapop last night, and they’ll think they aren’t good enough for you. Do you only associate with native Earth humans?”
“No, it’s not that,” said Antaska. There was something very strange about Mistress Bawbaw. Antaska didn’t want to go anywhere with her, but her words made Antaska feel guilty.
“Then what is it? Don’t you care whose feelings you hurt?” Mistress Bawbaw asked in a louder but still monotone voice. Her fixed stare grew more intense.
Antaska looked over to her side at Potat, curled up and sleeping. She knew Potat would know what to do. Antaska wanted to wake her up, but Potat had been clear about only waking her in an emergency. Antaska had a bad feeling about this visit but decided she would have to go if people’s feelings would be hurt otherwise.
She gave in to Mistress Bawbaw’s pressure and answered. “Of course, I care. OK, fine then, I guess I can go. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it meant that much to them.”
“Oh it does,” said Mistress Bawbaw, “it does.”
As Antaska left the bubble room, Potat made a tiny growling sound but didn’t wake. Antaska looked back at her and saw her paws twitching and scratching as if she were dreaming of a fight.
Antaska’s first sight of the cavernous room was disorienting. She tipped her head back but couldn’t see the ceiling clearly. Darkness gathered unconsumed far above the scattered torches set low in rough stone walls. The hard gritty floor stretched longer than it was wide, and narrowed in at the far side. There, in an even dimmer low-ceilinged recess, a small group of humanoids bunched together. Antaska looked and repressed a shiver. Six pairs of reptilian eyes glowed bright yellow from the depths of indistinctly seen faces and clothes.
Without speaking to her, Mistress Bawbaw walked away from Antaska and reclined on an immense block of stone against the wall. Firelight lit a soft green glow on her alabaster skin. Up this close, the huge Mistress Bawbaw looked more statue-like than humanoid. Mistress Bawbaw froze in position, still as the hard stone she lay on.
Antaska stood frozen too.
“What are you waiting for? Just go over there and join them,” said Mistress Bawbaw.
She didn’t move or speak again as Antaska walked the dozen steps it took to pass her gigantic reclining form. Mistress Bawbaw’s enormous green eyes, upward-tilted and half-closed, wore the Verdante facial expression of dreamy contentment.
As Antaska got closer to the yellow-eyed semihumanoids, she could see their faces more clearly. All of them were smiling at her and staring intently. This reminded her of the fixed gaze of the genetically enhanced human fitness instructor Eegor. Their cold, stiff faces wore lips compressed into a smile shape.
A smell like wet leaves, chemicals, and dirt added to Antaska’s impression of their alienness as she stopped within a few feet of the tight-huddled group.
“Welcome, delicious Earthling,” said a female seated in the front center of the group. “You are even more yummy than we have been led to expect. I am Iiooonaa Eeeepp.”
Iiooonaa stuck out her long, skinny blue tongue and slowly slurped it around where her lips would have been if she had any.
All six of the seated humanoids sighed simultaneously as if inhaling Antaska’s sense of confusion. She felt uncomfortable in a creepy sort of way.
Well, maybe this is normal behavior for their species, thought Antaska, trying not to judge.
Again she realized with disappointment that the space training program on Earth had not prepared her for all possible situations.
The Eeeepps continued to stare at her. Long skinny tongues licked lipless mouths. Then the mouths opened, and sharp pointy teeth glinted in the dimness. Numbness entered Antaska’s mind and then leaked into her body. She stood frozen for a few moments, like prey caught in the gaze of a snake.
“She’s like a living manikin,” said one of the males appreciatively, “so unmoving and doll-like.”
“Love the bright pink hair,” said one of the females with a possible touch of sarcasm.
Antaska shook herself and moved back a step. She crossed her arms and looked at the strange group. Grayish skin seemed shiny or maybe slimy, but it was hard to tell in the dim lighting. Faces, although Earth human size, bulged forward more like muzzles in the nose, mouth, and chin area. Thin upper bodies without much visible muscle broadened down to quite large bottoms, hips, and thighs. Legs hid inside baggy pants, but splayed toes on large grayish feet peeked out at the bottom. Their long, many jointed toes ended in vicious claws that made sharp clattering sounds as the Eeeepps shuffled restlessly on the stone floor.
It was hard for Antaska to believe that these humanoids belonged to her same species. They had some Earth human genes, but something else had been added--a lot of something else.
“We’re so happy you could visit us today!” said Iiooonaa Eeeepp. “It’s lonely for us down here. And it’s lonely for our Mistress too. Always waiting for her man to return from space for a brief visit with her. It’s all she lives for. Don’t you think that’s sad.”
“Yes, I guess so,” said Antaska.
“Bait and switch! Bait and switch!” a younger male Eeeepp voice shouted from among the group.
“Hush, Pooquali!” said another.
“What was that?” asked Antaska.
“Oh, nothing. He’s just a little slow. And now…It’s time to get the party started!” said Iiooonaa. “Would you like to come into our dwelling area for some fun and games?”
She fixed Antaska with an intense stare of yellow eyes split in the center by the black strip of their pupils.
“No. Thanks, but I really need to be going back upstairs to check on my cat,” said Antaska, looking into Iiooonaa’s eyes.
“Cat!!!” hissed Iiooonaa, and she spat on the ground near Antaska’s feet. The spit bubbled and sizzled. “We hate those furry, fuzzy creatures! You will come with me; I insist!”
“No, I don’t want to,” said Antaska again, but she noticed her feet were moving forward toward Iiooonaa of their own accord.
Antaska twisted her eyes away from Iiooonaa’s and looked past her into the dark cavernous opening behind the group of Eeeepps. She couldn’t see much, but the smell of dirt, plants, and chemicals seemed to be coming strongest from that direction. Then a chime sounded from within the room. A square monitor lit up as if floating within its dark depths. A face could be seen on the monitor. The face, although some distance away, looked vaguely familiar. It was the face of Eegor the fitness instructor!
“Look at me!” demanded Iiooonaa. “Look at us!” demanded all the Eeeepps.
Antaska’s eyes were pulled back to look at the Eeeepps. Six pairs of black-striped eyes projected sickly yellow beams. The beams wavered. Antaska felt dizzy and weak.
All the Eeeepps began grinding their sharp teeth, adding to her nausea.
Antaska’s feet started moving forward again against her will.
“No!” she shouted.
Antaska struggled against the pull. She dug in her heels and broke out in a drippy sweat. Still, inch by inch, her feet kept shuffling forward, pulling her toward the Eeeepps.
“Don’t fight us, or it will be worse for you! I promise,” Iiooonaa threatened.
“Mistress Bawbaw! Help! Mistress Bawbaw!” Antaska called out loud.
“Mistress Bawbaw cannot hear you,” said Iiooonaa. “She is in her ‘zone.’”
“Mistress never hears the calls for help,” said Pooquali. “And even if she did, she wouldn’t care.”
/> “Click, click, grind, grind,” the sound of sharp gnashing teeth seemed to grow inside Antaska’s head along with the intensifying glare of yellow light beaming from the eyes of the Eeeepps.
Antaska heard Eegor’s laugh coming out of the monitor in the Eeeepps back room. Intolerable panic rushed through her. She could not breathe. The logical part of her mind went numb, and her survival instinct kicked in.
“Help!” the shout burst out at the top of her voice. But it wasn’t her speaking voice. It was her telepathic voice.
Oh no! thought Antaska, at the same time that she heard Mistress Bawbaw’s mental voice saying, “Who said that?”
In a big green blur of speed, Mistress Bawbaw was over by the group of smaller humanoids.
“Mistress!” said all of the Eeeepps at once, and Antaska’s compulsion to join them shattered.
“I thought I heard someone calling for help from over here,” said Mistress Bawbaw out loud.
“I was calling for help,” said Antaska. “Thank you.”
“No, not you, it was a real person calling,” said Mistress Bawbaw.
“Yes, I was yelling ‘help,’” said Antaska. “They were trying to make me go into that room.”
“No, she’s lying Mistress,” said Iiooonaa. “We never touched her.”
“Are you telling lies about my Eeeepps?” asked Mistress Bawbaw, leaning over Antaska.
“No,” said Antaska, and she started backing away toward the exit.
“You won’t get away that easily,” said Iiooonaa, and she lunged forward, sprang up into the air, and bit Antaska on the side of her neck that was exposed above her tan ship suit.
The bite was excruciatingly painful. Not only sharp teeth but also burning amino acids entered her flesh. Antaska screamed. Blackness blurred behind her eyes, but she fought against fainting.
“Iiooonaa! That’s not nice,” said Mistress Bawbaw.
“But Mistress, she bit my friend Eegor, so I had to pay her back,” said Iiooonaa. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a bite for a bite.”
“Yes, I think that’s fair, but I doubt M. Hoyvil will agree,” said Mistress Bawbaw with an exasperated sigh.
Antaska turned and ran to the exit tube.
“Humph! She is so rude!” said Mistress Bawbaw, turning back to Eeeepps. “What was going on here?”
“She was being mean to us, like the stuck up Earth humans always do,” said Iiooonaa.
“Can you make her come back, Mistress?” asked Pooquali.
But Mistress Bawbaw had turned away, listening to something that the Eeeepps couldn’t hear.
“Baby M. Bomp is crying, I must go check on him,” she said to the Eeeepps.
“But Mistress, won’t his human babysitters take care of him?” asked Iiooonaa?
“Yes, they are completely devoted to him and do a wonderful job,” said Mistress Bawbaw, “but they can’t hear his telepathic cries, and I can’t resist them.”
As she walked away from them, she could hear the sighs of the Eeeepps fading behind her, but they were no match for the call of baby M. Bomp.
Chapter 6
Watching from the Eeeepp’s video console on the wall inside their grotto, Eegor saw Mistress Bawbaw turn and leave. He watched the Eeeepps wait for the sound of the closing tube door and then, in a slithering stampede, rush back into the deep, dark inner cavern. They bunched together in front of the console with Iiooonaa in front center. Eegor glared out at them.
“You idiots! What is wrong with you!” he shouted. “You can’t even do a simple thing like molesting a weak loser like Antaska?!”
The seven and a half foot tall former fitness instructor snarled and curled his hands into tight fists. His circled the fists in the air in rapid punching motions. Then he stood up, turned sideways, and began pounding a punching bag hanging close by, giving the Eeeepps a clear view of hard bulging muscles and unveiled ferocity.
Some of his fury spent, he sat back down and faced the Eeeepps on the screen. He was pleased to see signs of fear in their faces. Wide eyes and stiff snouts with the usual smirking smiles wiped off.
Eegor blamed Antaska for his current troubles, and the Eeeepp’s failure to get revenge struck him like a deep and painful blow. Now his anger turned on them, and he longed to pound on their slimy lizardy bodies instead of the dry punching bag. He lashed out at them in the only way he could--verbally.
“You miserable, worthless excuse for humanoids…,” he began.
Hot rage filled him, and words failed him. He howled like a wolf and stood up, snarling and growling and aiming hard air punches toward the Eeeepp’s faces on the console monitor.
Although safe from harm in their separate location, the other Eeeepps crowded behind their leader, Iiooonaa. She raised her thin but powerful part-reptilian arms, flexing her sharp-clawed fingers as if in defense, and stared at Eegor with bulging yellow eyes. Finally, after another minute, Eegor sat back down, breathing heavily.
“Well,” began the spokes-Eeeepp, Iiooonaa, “we understand why you are so disappointed and upset. We’re very disappointed too.”
“Do you really understand? That low-life bitch has ruined my life! You things have failed me, but I’ll get revenge if it’s the last thing I do--with or without your help!” said Eegor.
“Don’t give up on us!” entreated Iiooonaa. “We aren’t going to give up on you even though we see that you could be dangerous. Because even in you rage, you are so yummy and delicious.”
“Yes, yes, yummy, yummy!” said the other Eeeepps behind her.
“Ick!” said Eegor.
The other Eeeepps barred their teeth and chattered them.
Eegor snarled back at them.
“Relax,” said Iiooonaa, waving her grayish long-clawed hands in calming motions. “We didn’t get her this time, but I have a backup plan.”
“It had better be good!” snapped Eegor.
“Oh, we’re good, we’re real good!” said Iiooonaa, with a big sensuous lick of where lips would have been. The other Eeeepps licked where lips would have been too.
“Ugh! Can you stop that for one minute!” shouted Eegor.
“Stop what?” asked Iiooonaa.
“Can we just get on with your backup plan now?” he asked.
“Yes, we can,” answered Iiooonaa, in a voice that was back to business. “Even though our prey is leaving the Verdante planet soon, there are still possibilities. We happen to have connections who will be on the same ship as Antaska on her trip into outer space.”
“You do?” asked Eegor doubtfully.
“Of course, we do!” answered Iiooonaa sounding somewhat offended. “Mistress tells their Verdante Masters and Mistresses to make them accept our friend requests on SpaceFace.”
“They accept, but they don’t really want to be friends with us,” said one of the Eeeepps in the back row with a sniff.
“But they’ll talk to us when we send them a naughty message about Antaska,” said Iiooonaa through her smug reptilian smile. “We’ll tell them how to harass her and bully her with our passive aggressive tricks, and they’ll do it. Earth humans love to do that kind of thing. No matter how far she travels in this universe, she’ll never escape our wrath!”
“Haha, haha, haha, haha!” All the Eeeepps laughed at once.
Eegor squeezed the arms of his chair in powerful fists and cracked his neck from side to side, making loud popping sounds. His pale skin grew paler and almost greenish. Veins bulged in his face and on bulging muscles everywhere else. Losing control, he lunged forward toward the video screen. Although still in the safety of their grotto, the Eeeepps shrunk back.
“Passive aggressive! Do I look passive aggressive to you?!” Eegor shouted as close as he could get into the faces on the screen.
Then he twisted his whole body around, leaped in the air, and kicked the punching bag hanging from the ceiling with both feet. The bag burst open, and fabricated feathers filled the room, twirling like agitated snowflakes that refused to se
ttle down.
Eegor, feeling much calmer, stood amid the swirling whiteness. Feathers stuck out of his hair and draped his shoulders.
“It’s nice that you’re willing to harass her to the end of the universe, but this passive aggressive stuff isn’t good enough. You promised me torture and rape and maybe death. That means real physical pain, not this emotional crap. That bite was good, but it’s not good enough. You get what I’m saying?”
“No SpaceFace?” asked one of the Eeeepps sadly.
“Now, Eegor,” said Iiooonaa, “I know you want physical pain, but emotional abuse can be much more painful to the victim and much more enjoyable to the perpetrator. Don’t knock it until you give it a try. And violence has its limitations, as you must have learned by now. It’s often a one-time thing that someone (like you) gets punished for. Then the victim is free to recover and feel vindicated.
“The beauty of passive aggressive harassment is that it can continue indefinitely, and there’s usually no punishment. What I call ‘subtle harassment,’ involves doing a lot of small, sneaky things that the abuser can explain away as something else. But the victim knows what you’re doing and suffers. A victim who complains will be made to look like a crazy loser.
“It’s my own personal creation inspired by my studies of the ancient Earth humans right before their downfall. And the best part is that we can arrange things so that Antaska will suffer for the next one hundred years. She will be harassed for the entire length of this trip, and maybe even longer. It’s a brilliant plan, if I do say so myself,” said Iiooonaa, finishing up her sales pitch.
“Whatever. I guess you can try it since there don’t seem to be any other options,” said Eegor, “but it had better work.” He lifted up a lip on one side in a half-menacing, half-disgusted grimace.
“Cool!” said Pooquali, and he and another young female Eeeepp standing behind Iiooonaa imitated Eegor’s grimace on their snout-like faces.
Eegor laughed. “What do you people have against her anyway?” he asked.
hypnoSnatch (Xeno Relations Book 2) Page 4