Chapter 1 #6
I don’t know why I am arguing with him. He’s a mind-fucking Psyon.
I’ve heard rumors about how they are capable of getting into people’s minds, and moving time, and doing all sorts of fuckery.
He calls me pet because I’m not his equal in any way besides the flesh.
I kind of get it, even though it feels like a slight as well as something kind of sweet and very hot.
There’s something about breakfast the morning after the night before that’s giving me big walk of shame energy even though I am not walking anywhere.
Fortunately for my growing sense of blushing awkwardness, there’s a knock at the door.
Freak answers it. Someone is looking for Caducaeus Stendate. Freak goes out into the passage to speak to the man. I bet we’re about to be kicked off. Or maybe the researchers have traced him here and found him, and they’re going to drag us both off, and then I’ll be experimented on…
I am catastrophizing at full speed, and things are getting worse by the moment. Mostly imaginary things, but with the recent events in my life, I feel as though freaking out is probably the right thing to do.
I don’t want to be kidnapped by an alien who tells me his name is Freak and everyone else that his name is Caducaeus. I don’t want to be an owned pet, even if the sex is hot. I’ve got stuff to do. I have an important mission to complete.
Now that Freak isn’t in the room with me, my head is starting to clear.
I could blame him for messing with my mind, but I think I let my mind mess with me enough that he doesn’t really have to do anything special and alien to me.
I got all swoony over him. I got distracted by how hot and advanced and mostly naked he is.
I have control over my own mind. He might be able to read it, but he’s not making me do anything… is he?
Then again, something definitely happens to me when I’m in his presence. He swept me out of danger on my ship and now when I am with him, I feel a kind of safety I’ve only been able to imagine of late. I used to know it, but then it was taken away from me.
Whatever the reason, now that he’s not bewitching me with his golden alien eyes, I feel more like my usual self—and myself doesn’t wait in rooms while aliens hold her captive and wait for her to accept that she belongs to them as her pet.
I sneak up to the door and listen. I don’t hear anything. I crack the door open, and I don’t see him either. They must have gone off somewhere to do something.
We’re well underway on this voyage, but I may be able to find a life pod and make an escape that way.
I pad away down the hall, heading toward what I hope is an emergency exit. A ship like this can be labyrinthian.
Fortunately, there are signs. Unfortunately, they’re not in a script I can read.
I see an alien I think belongs to the crew, given it is wearing a silver, beige, and red uniform.
I kind of like it, actually. It looks like the apparel is modeled after a sneaker.
The alien himself is a tall, gangly creature with a big head and wide eyes.
He is wearing a name tag that says Florp.
I’m not entirely sure how that is pronounced.
“Excuse me, where’s the nearest emergency exit?” I ask him.
He turns slowly and look down at me with a gaze that somehow manages to be blank and judgmental at the same time.
“Shouldn’t you be with your owner?”
“What do you mean?”
“Unattended humans are the property of the management,” he says. “Are you unattended, or are you with your owner?”
“Humans are recognized as a sentient species with the ability to self-determine.”
“Sounds like you’re unattended.” He reaches for me. I gasp and dash away. I am not in the mood to be classified as unattended. I don’t know what that means, but in some places it means ending up as Beef Wellington.
* * *
Freak
I am tending to a few matters of what might be called administration. My cover is a powerful man, and one of the officers on the ship is trying to network with me. This is one of the tricks we Psyons have up our sleeves, but it does occasionally backfire.
“Yes, of course, I will give your regards to the Economic Imperium,” I am saying, as suddenly a bell starts to chime in a way that seems rather concerned.
The officer checks the notification on his device, then lets out a long sigh.
“Sorry, sir. I’ve just gotten word that there’s a human loose on the ship. We don’t allow humans to be unsupervised on board. They have a nasty habit of getting into absolutely everything.”
I know precisely what human they are talking about. My pet has almost certainly left her quarters. I suppose I didn’t expressly tell her not to. I don’t think it would have mattered if I did. At this early stage, I have to be in close contact to have anything like control over her.
The captain is not exaggerating the response.
As we step out of his quarters, I find that the ship has been mobilized with several teams of crew working systematically to detain my little creature.
It is a matter of minutes before they have her in hand, having chased her through the halls and brought her down like a wild animal, using a large, soft net.
I come upon the scene as they are trying to disentangle her without losing their fingers. She keeps lashing out and biting and though her teeth are blunt, they dissuade most of her captors.
“Let me go!” I hear her shouting. “Stop touching me with your gummy hands! What’s my crime anyway? Trying to leave?”
One brave soul is tasking himself with the attempt to extract her. She is doing her best to remove his fingers with her teeth. She can be quite a feral little thing when she wants to be.
I have a pang of sickness seeing her like this.
I don’t want to keep her in the same kind of captivity that I found myself stuck in.
I wonder, briefly, if what I am doing is wrong.
Then I dismiss the thought. If anything, this shows I am right.
A human female on her own is going to be taken by someone at some point.
The only real question is when and by who.
“Stop biting, please,” the crewman says, speaking through gritted oral nubs. I am sure that it doesn’t feel pleasant to be bitten by a human. They are quite efficient biters, even without many canines, and relatively small mandibles.
“That’s enough,” I say, stepping into the fray.
I quite literally have my leg in the way, which results in it being bitten by my feral little pet. I’m surprised by how hard and sharp a bite it is. It doesn’t break my scaled skin, of course, but it is impressive nonetheless.
She is a naughty thing. I do wonder if her flooded ship has anything to do with her temperament. Had she managed to annoy the wrong person? I wouldn’t put it past her. I wouldn’t judge her either. That’s a talent I also share.
I reach down, grip her by the back of her neck to immobilize her, and slowly pull the net away from her limbs. I am gratified to see that she has the scruffing reflex. That’s one way to keep her properly under control, though it does require me to be physically touching her.
I am going to have to find a way to contain my pet until she is well trained. A cage, perhaps. Or a collar with a lead that can be fastened to a wall.
“Behave yourself, pet,” I growl, smacking her pleasingly round rear just hard enough to make her yelp.
“I’m not an animal! I’m a person!”
The crew and I exchange looks. People are, of course, animals. But they do hate hearing it.
“Of course you are,” I say soothingly. “But you’re causing a panic on the ship, so it is time to go back to our room. I don’t want to hear any arguments.”
“He’s not who you think he is!” She panics and starts throwing accusations around wildly. “Don’t you think it’s weird he’s in his underwear?”
The crew look at me, and for the first time, notice that yes, I am technically only wearing what most would call underwear.
In the eyes of the others, I am wearing business attire.
Each of them sees slightly different details, but overall they can be certain that I am looking refined and appropriate.
I don’t even look like a Psyon to most of them.
Unfortunately, the illusion breaks when it is pointed out. I am going to have to train her not to do that. In certain circumstances, that could be wildly dangerous.
“Let me take my pet back to my quarters and get into more suitable attire,” I say. “I did not have enough time to dress properly when I realized she was missing.”
They accept this, because of course they do. My influence is already back upon them.
I pick my pet up, throw her over my shoulder, and carry her back to the cabin.
I might have to stay with her here until we depart if she’s going to try to escape.
I would have thought she’d be pleased to be part of this expedition with me, but my powers seem to be slightly slippery where she is concerned.
Humans really are a particular kind of animal.
I put her down in the room, shut the door, and turn to face a barrage of questions.
“What the fuck can you do? Is it some kind of psychic power? They didn’t know you were in your underwear until I said it,” she says. “I saw that on their faces. And there’s more, too. You can fuck with minds, can’t you? I want to know what, and how, or it’s not fair!”
She is not the only one with questions.
“Why were you trying to leave the ship?”
“Because I want my stuff from my ship.”
“The flooded ship that will have almost certainly destroyed everything inside it that was organic or electronic, which is most things? The ship that is, right now, well over three lightyears away?”
“Yes,” she says.
“That ship is a death trap. It has almost certainly been destroyed by the station fire department. I’m sorry, but what you had has been lost.”
Her face crumples, though she tries very hard to straighten it out and seem brave.
“What did you want from it?”
“Books.”
They’ll be space mulch by now.
“We may be able to find other copies.”