by Sophie Stern
“Shh,” he covers my mouth with his hand and kicks the door closed with his foot. “I’m only going to say this one, so listen very carefully. The people of Taneyemm are very different than people on Earth.” His voice is very quiet and I struggle to listen, but I have a feeling that this is very important. “They have certain…abilities. One of those abilities happens to be a very keen sense of smell, so unless you want to attract every damn member of the crew to your room, I suggest you keep your arousal to a minimum.”
What.
The.
Fuck?
I nod, and he releases my mouth. As soon as I’m free, I wipe the drool from my mouth and turn back to him.
“What do you mean, they can smell my arousal?” I practically screech, but he covers my mouth again.
“Okay, since you can’t seem to get this through your pretty little head, let’s try again.”
I try to shake my head because it hurts, because I’m wearing an open robe in front of this strange man, because Hal is the first person to ever see me naked and I’m completely embarrassed. Waves of humiliation wash over me that he saw me here. Why did I think I could get away with masturbating? What the hell was that? Couldn’t I have waited until later, when I was sure everyone was asleep or busy?
He ignores my fussing and starts talking.
“Do you know what a shifter is?”
I try not to roll my eyes.
Shifter: myth, fantasy, made-up-stories from old Earth days.
“I’ll take that look of stupidity on your face as a ‘yes,’” Hal says, and keeps talking. “The Taneyemms look like humans, but they aren’t. Wonder why they’re all so fucking tall? Sorry, darling, they aren’t men or women. They’re fucking dragons.”
And Hal just went crazy.
Insane.
Am I really going to fall for this stupid story? Oh, I’ll listen to him and I’ll hear whatever he has to say, but dragons?
Fuck me.
“They can shift between each state of being. Sometimes they’re human, sometimes they’re not. Most of the crew is Taneyemm, which means if they get really pissed off, they’ll go down into the arena and fight each other.”
My eyes go wide.
“Oh yeah,” he says dryly. “The spaceship has a battle arena for the dragons. Lovely stuff.”
Maybe he’s not joking after all.
“Dragons are tricky things and they don’t like to be called out on it. You’ll find out soon enough when we reach Taneyemm, but I’m telling you now because, hello, you’re awake and obviously horny. Fuck, it’s a damn good thing I found you before Jenika. She would have been riding your face before you knew what was happening.”
Do my eyes roll back in my head? I feel like they do. I get the most perfect visual of her stripping slowly before climbing up on my body, but Hal must know what I’m thinking because he slaps me.
“None of that, now. None of that.”
He frees me again, but this time, I just stare at him.
“Dragons? Really?” I ask. I tie the front of my robe as I start clucking at him. Stream-of-consciousness is not the best way to address a serious issue like this, but even though I think he’s insane, it would appear that Hal is not joking about the shifter bit.
“Alien dragons,” he corrects me.
Then something hits me.
“Hal,” I say slowly. “Why do they need human females?”
He raises an eyebrow.
“Why does anyone?”
“So they want to fuck us, is that it? They want to breed with us?” How sick is that? Am I some sort of exotic delicacy? Oh, shit. Am I going to be locked away and kept as a baby maker? Are they going to take my babies? What’s going to happen to me?
“Stop whatever you’re thinking and sit down.” Hal motions to the bed and I do as he says. He goes into the bathroom and makes me a glass of water, then brings it over. “Drink,” he says, and pushes the glass in my face.
I do as Hal commands, already finding it easy to obey him mindlessly. After years of caring for everyone around me, being able to just let him take control is pretty damn nice.
The water feels cool in my throat and when I finish half the glass, I hand it back.
“The whole thing,” Hal says sternly, and I obey. “You’re going to get dehydrated if you don’t. We have four years to whip you into shape and I don’t plan to spend it with you looking like you’re starving the whole damn time.”
When I finish the whole glass, I hand it back to Hal. He places it on one of the built-in shelves and turns back to me.
“Rule number one,” he says. “Do not freak out. Things are very different in Taneyemm and they’re very different on the ship. You are not in charge. What you want doesn’t matter. You can’t freak out about it, though, or they’ll dispose of you.”
Dispose of me?
They’ll kill me.
If I’m a huge troublemaker, I won’t be worth what I cost in food to keep. Apparently, staying awake the whole four years suddenly seems less appealing than it did before.
“Riley?” Hal asks. “That’s your name, right? Riley?”
“Yeah. Riley. That’s me.”
“Do you understand?”
“Yeah.”
For the first time, I might just be beginning to understand. And for the first time, I’m starting to wonder if staying on Earth would have been better.
Chapter 4
Hal gets me a clean outfit so I can get dressed. It’s not a uniform like the rest of the crew is wearing. No black-and-red for me. No, he brings me a long blue gown. It’s almost like a nightgown. I raise my eyebrows in surprise. This is what he wants me to wear? It’s not what I expected. I bite my tongue, though, and I’m silent as I dress.
Hal doesn’t give me panties or a bra and I don’t ask for them. Something tells me that Hal is at the end of his rope and I don’t want to go there. I’ve pushed my luck enough in my life to know that I don’t want to push this man. He can make the next four years bearable or he can make them complete hell.
Today is only day one, and I don’t want to fuck up the first good thing to happen to me in years. If the worst thing I have to face is being without underwear, I think I can handle that.
Once the dress is on, I automatically turn to look at myself in the full-length mirror next to my bed. There isn’t a single window in my room. Realistically, I’m probably in the middle of the ship, but I can’t help but wonder if the lack of windows also have to do with fear I might try to escape. It’s not like I’d survive at all in space.
Maybe they just don’t want me looking out the window and freaking out when there’s just…nothing.
The mirror is on the back wall. I can see the door reflected in it and it makes the bedroom look even bigger. Twisting and turning for a moment, I stare at myself from every possible angle. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a mirror. After the last war, our house was destroyed. That’s when Father and I built our little hut.
It was the only thing we could create on our own for shelter. We didn’t have any luxuries. A mirror was out of the question, simply because we had to scavenge for everything we had. I don’t think anyone on Earth has seen an unbroken mirror in months, maybe even years.
Now I see myself for the first time in forever, and I realize that I look like an adult. I’m not a little kid anymore. When did that happen?
“You look lovely,” Hal comments, and while I’m not the best with compliments, I have to say that I think he’s right. My hair is long now. It falls past my shoulders. It’s still damp, but I can see that the color is still dark brown. My eyes look sad, but maybe they’ll brighten up. My skin is pale, almost clammy-looking, and I’m much too thin, but the gown seems to brighten me up. It’s not quite see-through, but it’s pretty close.
“Why the transparent gown?” I ask Hal.
He snickers.
“Dragons like to play with their food.”
“What?” I screech, but he just laughs.
“I’m fucking with you. Come on. Let’s get you something to eat.”
He leads me out of the room and takes me down a hall. Hal moves quietly and quickly.
“How long have you been here? You seem like you really know your way around.”
“Long enough.”
“Is this your first journey to Earth?”
“No,” Hal shoots me a sideways glance, as if he’s trying to figure out exactly how much to tell me. Whatever. We’re stuck together for a couple of years so even if he doesn’t tell me today, chances are I’ll find out everything I need to know during our time on the ship. I can be patient.
Hal seems to come to the same conclusion because after a few minutes, he starts talking again.
“I’ve lived with the Taneyemm my entire life.”
“But you’re human.”
He nods.
“That’s what they tell me.”
“You don’t really know?”
“My mother came to Taneyemm as a refugee. She was pregnant. I don’t know if she came from Earth or another planet, but the dragons took her in. She gave birth to me there, but died shortly after. I was raised by a Taneyemm family as one of their own.”
“That’s very generous of them,” I say. Raising someone else’s child? How interesting. It happens on Earth still because parents die so frequently, but I’ve never heard of someone raising a child from another species. That’s fascinating to me. I imagine his Taneyemm caregivers must have been very generous and kind. They must have been very doting.
“Yes,” Hal says simply. “They’re quite lovely. I hope you can meet them sometime.”
We turn down another hall and suddenly, we’re standing in front of a door. It doesn’t open like a normal door. This one is designed to slide sideways, as are most of the doors on the ship. I still can’t quite get used to the swoosh sound they all make. This one doesn’t open as we approach, though. Hal has to input some numbers on a digital keypad next to the door. Then he presses his thumb to the pad. Finally, the door opens and we walk into a dining area.
“Seems like a lot of work to get a little food,” I murmur, and he nods knowingly.
“Yes, but you must remember that this food has been rationed for four years and must be rationed another four. We have gardens on the ship, but if someone decided to sneak in and take more than his or her fair share of the meals, we would starve before we reached home.”
Home.
He calls Taneyemm “home.”
Will that be me someday? Will I always consider Earth to be home? Or will I change, too? Will there come a time when I stop thinking of Earth as a place that’s “mine”?
It doesn’t even seem like a stretch to believe that. Earth hasn’t felt like “home” in a very long time. No, I feel like a woman who has no home. I have nothing to return to. There is no one to miss me. There is nothing.
Taneyemm might be awful, but it must be better than what I came from.
Even if it’s a planet full of fucking dragons.
That’s a pretty well-kept secret because I’ve never even heard rumors of that one. Oh sure, people have stories about shifters, or “changers,” if you’re old school, but alien dragons? That’s a new one. I’ve certainly never heard about that in regards to Taneyemm. I actually know very little about the planet I’m going to.
As we sit down and trays of food appear in front of us, I realize I’m going to have a lot to get used to.
“What is it?” I ask, but Hal shakes his head.
“Wrong.”
“What?” I’m confused.
“Wrong. Never ask what something is. It’s rude. Do you want me to help you prepare for your new life or not?”
I nod slowly.
“Then we start now. I’m not pulling that crap where I let you run free for three years and then suddenly try to prepare you for your new life. The other girls will be woken one month before we arrive and taught what they need to know, but you? You’ve got four damn years to learn. We start now. Never ask what someone gives you.”
“I’m sorry,” I say quickly, and I pick up my fork to begin eating. It’s been so long since I had real food that I devour the whole thing quickly. Everything tastes good. Hal looks surprised, so I assume this is supposed to be “bad” food. Hey, when you’ve been scavenging on a broken and bleeding planet for years, anything would taste better than fried rats.
Anything.
Even the few times I’ve been able to grow vegetables, they’ve always been limp and tiny. Nothing like the food my mother used to grow before the war.
Nothing like that.
“Okay,” Hal says, finishing his own food much more slowly. “So, in the future, don’t act like you haven’t eaten in a year, okay?”
“But I-“
“I know, darling,” he holds up his hand. “That’s why it’s called ‘acting.’”
When he’s done, he gives me a brief tour of the wing we’re staying in. The ship is huge with multiple floors and staircases and elevators and rooms. I’m not allowed to go to the battlegrounds, which I think is a bit ridiculous, but apparently I’m not supposed to know they’re dragons.
Hal says he only told me so I would stop touching myself all the time. I don’t know how long that’s going to last for, but we’ll see. I’ve never had sex, but masturbation seems as good a way as any to pass the time and relax. When you have nothing left to live for, sometimes an orgasm helps.
We end up back at my room and he gently pushes me back inside. I turn to him, knowing what’s about to happen.
“You’re going to lock me inside, aren’t you?” He nods, almost sadly.
“Sorry, honey. House rules. Can’t have you wandering about, touching things you ought not to.” He wags his finger toward my nether region and raises his eyebrows. “Including that, darling. Including that.”
“Hal?”
“Yeah, Riley?” He turns back to me, and once again, I’m caught off guard by how handsome Hal is. He’s not really what I expected. He’s much smaller than the Taneyemms are, but still has a few inches on me. I’d guess 5’9”, maybe 5’10”. In the human world, he’d be considered a giant. Next to the others on the ship? He’s tiny.
“How come you get to wander around? Do you get locked up at night?”
“I’m not an Earthling, Riley. Never have been. The Taneyemms trust me because we grew up together and I have earned their trust. I’ve proven myself time and time again. They might not understand everything about me, but they value honesty above all else. Once they’ve learned you can be trusted, once you’ve proven that to them, mind you, then maybe you’ll be able to walk around on your own, okay?”
“Four years is a long time, Hal.”
“Not nearly as long as you might think.”
Then he pushes a button and my door closes. I don’t even bother walking over to it. I’m sure that it’s locked, and besides: I’m tired.
I don’t feel the need to say “one last goodbye” to my Mother Earth or anything like that. Instead, I take off the gown and place it on a shelf, then climb under the blankets. Everything in my room is white but the dress and the painting, and I feel a bit like I’m trapped in a cloud.
When I close my eyes, my father’s face swims before my eyes, and I cry myself to sleep because he’s gone and now, so am I.
Chapter 4
A soft beeping noise in my room wakes me and I open my eyes, but don’t move. For a moment, I’m not sure where I am, but then I remember.
Father is gone. Dead. Soon Earth will be, too. The last few humans will die and the world will burn. It’s already burning.
When the last scavengers have all they need from the planet, when they’ve taken all the resources they can harvest, the Earth will be destroyed, blasted apart.
I wonder which planet will be responsible for that.
Slowly, I sit up in my bed and look around. The lights are on and I wonder if it’s all automatic. My room is small, but cozy. My bed is o
n one side and there’s a small space to stand between the side of the bed and the wall. At the head of the bed, there’s a full-length mirror and a nightstand. On the opposite wall is a painting next to built-in shelves. At the bottom of the shelves are several drawers.
Of course, there’s also my bathroom, which I realize I need to use.
Running water has never felt so good, and I spend much too long in the shower. I want to relive the pressure that’s been building between my legs, but I heed Hal’s warning and get out on my own, brush my teeth, and come back into my room.
When I emerge, Hal is there.
“Dammit,” I say. “Are you ever going to see me when I’m not naked?” I reach for the blue gown I wore yesterday and he’s patient as I dress myself.
“Come on,” he says. “Time for breakfast: then your lessons.”
I scarf down the food just as quickly as I did the day before. When I’m finished, I ask him if we’re already in space and he just laughs.
“Yes. We left right after Elf and Tank brought you on board.”
I never even felt the ship lift off. Strange. I wonder what kind of technology this is that the ship floats so smoothly.
After we’re done eating, Hal brings me to a room I haven’t seen yet. It’s very sterile-looking and there’s a long, mid-height table standing in the center of it.
“What kind of lessons are we talking about, Hal?” Suddenly, I’m feeling a little suspicious. I had pictured having lessons on etiquette or maybe even the language. Staring at this table, though, I’m wondering if the lessons are going to be a bit more hands-on than all of that.
A woman turns around from where she had been standing at the other side of the room, messing with some bottles and tools that I can’t quite see.
“Hal! Darling!” She kisses him on each cheek and I’m caught off guard, once again, by how affectionate everyone is here. The woman turns to me, and I take her in. She reminds me a bit of Jenika. She’s tall with dark hair and tan skin. Her eyes are big and wide. I feel like a tiny little doll compared to her.
“I’m Riley,” I say, and she squeals and claps her hands.