Chapter 3
THREE
ADESEWA
He was definitely an alien.
"Let me guess," I said. "Your name is Sigidi?"
His energy was cool and sweet, so the label didn't entirely fit him in that regard, but it was the first thing that came to mind.
"That is in fact my name," he said. "How did you know?"
"You look like a Sigidi," I said.
To be fair, he didn't quite look like a clay golem.
He looked like a Nordic god, with chiseled features and skin that looked like deep red clay that had milk poured over it.
His short blond hair fell loose around his face, and if I had met him on the streets of my hometown, I would have done a double-take and wondered what Scandinavian country the handsome oyinbo had flown in from.
He was taller than any human man had any right to be, but he lacked the meathead mass that the other alien cyborg had.
There was a slight point to his ears that would have gathered attention on Earth, even though it was subtle.
What he did have was the exact same outfit on as the other alien male.
All of us human women had the same grey cloth outfits on, a trait I thought was just for prisoners, but it seemed like the enemy had their own uniform for soldiers, and he was wearing it, with the armored-looking trousers.
Why he was shirtless was anyone's guess, but there was no point in pointing that out.
If he thought he was fooling us, might as well let him.
His trying to infiltrate our group was a better situation than him outright attacking us.
Andrea bumped my shoulder, knocking into me as she stepped up in front of me.
"Finally a man to help us, you have no idea how hard it has been having to deal with all these women," Andrea said, a note of relief and heat in her voice that accompanied her derision. "And a handsome one at that. Where were they keeping you? Were you in a cell like us? Are there other men?"
I glanced over at the eager expression on her face and realized that the fact that this oyinbo was one of our alien captors might not be as obvious to everyone else.
I knew that I had already prepped the group to be ready to act as distractions, but she didn't look even slightly worried that this was one of those scenarios.
Still, if she was volunteering, then good for her.
"There is just me," Sigidi said, not answering most of her questions. "But do not fear. I will guide you to safety."
Andrea let out a high-pitched giggle, then took a few steps towards him and tripped over her own feet, an action that looked more deliberate than accidental. She staggered forward and landed smack against his chest, her entire upper body smooshing against him.
He stared down at her, his expression blank.
Then he reached out, took her by her upper arms, and pushed her physically away from him.
"You are uninjured, the ship is still, and the floor perfectly smooth and even," he said. "The nutrition cubes are formulated for ideal physical maintenance. There is no reason for you to have stumbled like that. Are you mentally unwell?"
Andrea's face flushed.
"I'm just lucky you were there to catch me," she said, her words hesitant as if she had planned them out but didn't know how to adjust to fit the reactions of the other person. She had an abundance of words that didn't fill her basket, but that didn't matter.
"I did not catch you," Sigidi said. "From what I observed, you did not lose your balance. If I wasn't there, you wouldn't have had any issue remaining upright."
This was the day the other fool came to visit.
"Andrea, I don't know what he is talking about; you seem very unsteady to me," I said, modulating my tone to sound as worried as possible. "Why doesn't Sigidi here escort you to a medical facility? We can circle back around to find you once we have explored more of the ship."
My plan was the only plan we had, so I had to move forward with it.
"Oh, what a good idea," she let out another giggle, putting her hand out as if she were going to place it on his chest, but he stepped sideways, angling himself out of her reach as he inched closer to me.
"I will not," he said. "The ship is dangerous to explore alone. I will show you to a room where you will be safe."
That sounded a lot like he planned to put us all back in a cell.
It was time to push him, to challenge him a little. There were a lot more of us than him right now, and even if he was stronger than any one of us, we could likely knock him down and sit on him if he proved difficult. There was only so much an individual could do against the weight of the many.
In the meantime, if he was determined to pretend to be human, we might as well see how much further that game could get us.
"And how do you know where we will be safe?" I asked. "Were you allowed to wander free while we were all trapped in a cage?"
If anything, his answer to my challenge should provide more information.
"Adesewa, don't question the man," Andrea snapped. "He's the first human guy we've seen in… has it been months? God, how long were we in there?"
She lifted her hand and put it on her forehead, her expression wavering as her mind returned to the reality of the situation, caught up in the twisted heat of her energy.
She shook her head as she stepped backward until her back hit the wall, then she slid down it, putting both her hands on her forehead.
I kept my expression neutral. Being trapped in a room with each other without a clock, and with our only passage of time being the number of day and night cycles as well as the physical cycles of our bodies, made things psychologically difficult.
Those of us who kept it together better than others had the ability to manage our energy states through our individual practices.
Or simple sheer determination, like Lyssa, who clung to positivity as if she had a personal vendetta against letting it go.
"Andrea, Adesewa is right to ask questions of this… man," Saoirse said, putting an emphasis on man. At least she understood and was trying to get the point across. "He shouldn't magically know his way around the ship just because he is a guy. He would have had to have seen a map of some sort."
"Yes, I saw a map," Sigidi said. "There might be complications in the route from the attack, but I will do my best to lead you to safety."
He had inched even closer to me, and was now standing directly next to me. I could feel the heat radiating off his arm a few inches away from mine. I looked up at him through my lashes and caught a glimpse of him staring at my lips before he looked back at the group.
Okay, so this one was on me.
First, I needed to test the level of my impact on him.
I reached out slowly, slow enough that he could step back, and gently placed my hand on his bare arm.
I felt his bicep tense under my touch, and he sucked in a sudden breath, like I had dropped an ice cube down the back of his shirt.
His lips parted, and he stared at my hand like it was a snake, and if he took away his gaze it would strike.
Then, just as suddenly, his entire body relaxed, and his expression went blank.
I looked back over to see most of the women looking back at me or at my hand, and I gave them a small nod, hoping they understood that I intended to take one for the team here, before I turned back to Sigidi.
"Tell me, Sigidi," I said as I stepped in front of him, sliding my hand up to his pectoral. He didn't retreat as he had done with Andrea. Instead, he looked down at me, his entire focus on me, just me.
All I had to do was keep it there, and the other women would get away.
"Tell you what?" he said.
I could feel his heart beating under my palm, and I gazed up into his eyes, biting my lower lip. His own eyes darted down to my mouth, fixating there.
I couldn't blame him.
I had lovely lips.
"When was the last time you were with a woman?
" I said, making my words breathy as I leaned my chest against him, giving him a delectable sneak feel of what lay beneath the hideous grey prisoner clothing we all wore.
This time his hands came up, lightly touching my back as if he was unsure of what he was doing.
I saw it, a flush of heat, an ache that was desperate to be stroked, but even as it burned its way across his eyes, it was chased by a sudden dullness, like someone was racing after the fire with a hose, determined to put it out the moment it sparked.
"I don't understand," he said.
His hands dropped, and he took a step back.
There was something there. Something was going on with him. The way he looked at me with interest and then sudden disinterest, it wasn't natural. There was something stopping his reactions to me before they really got started.
Maybe this was why we never saw our captors.
Maybe we were dangerous.
I didn't let him escape.
Every step he took back I took another one forward, until his back was stopped by the hard wall and I pinned him there, my hands still on him, my body still pressed against his.
"I'm asking when the last time was you fucked," I said. "When was the last time you felt the warm, wet clasp of a woman's body?"
"Why are you asking me this?" he asked, making no additional move to get away from me as he let me hold him there with my smaller body. "Are you attempting to initiate mating?"
I slid my hands up to the back of his neck, letting my fingernails trail against his skin. I could hear the shuffling of the other women, their soft whispers, but I kept my eyes on him, making sure that he was totally and completely focused on me.
"Does that feel good?" I asked.
"I have my receptors turned down," he said.
I was distracting him so much that he forgot to pretend he was human. I didn’t know what those receptors were, but I understood enough that turning them down meant he couldn’t feel how good it felt to be touched.
"Turn them up," I ordered, using my bard voice. "All the way."
"Done," he said. "But wh-"
I trailed my fingernails up the back of his neck, into the short ends of his hair at the back of his scalp.