Nicole Krizek (3 page)

She didn’t realize what it was at first because she was busy looking at the color. It was a beautiful and rich blue.
One of her favorite colors. “It’s beautiful…” she said in wonder.

He let some of the material drop and she saw that it was a dress. One of the most masculine men she’d ever seen was holding up a delicate dress, which he had obviously bought for her, and looking at her expectantly.

“I hope this wasn’t also in Ty’s closet…” she said with a nervous smile.

Kor gave a small chuckle. “No, I bought this for you back in town, before we left. I thought you might like something wear, other than that costume you had on.”

She didn’t know what to say.

Kor mistook her silence for displeasure. “If you don’t like the color we can find you a new one at the next port, but I heard that Earth has many oceans, so I thought you might like the color blue to remind you of your
homeworld.”

She gently took it from him and stroked the material, still smiling. “Thank you Kor, I absolutely love it.” She was feeling overwhelmed as she went to the bathing chamber to change.

From behind her, she heard Ty say to Kor: “You’ve never bought me clothes.” There was humor in his voice.

It only took her a moment to change into the simple, but beautiful, blue dress and then rejoin the men. She was met with wide eyes from them both that made her slightly self-conscious. She looked down to make sure she had it on right, then finally had to ask, “Do you like it?” to break the silence.

Ty found his voice first. “You look beautiful.” His sincerity was evident.  

After hesitating a moment she took his offered hand and smiled brightly. Ty led her out of the room into the hall, Kor following closely on their heels.

Lacy was led through the ship by the hand towards a heavenly smell. What had to be a kitchen came into view and she was surprised to see several plates of food, already out on a large table.  

“Don’t worry, Ty is a wonderful cook.” Kor said from her side.

“Although, I’m afraid that I don’t know any Earth dishes, so this will all be foreign to you.” Ty said as he motioned for them to all sit down on a long padded bench on one side of the table. It reminded her, in a way, of an over-sized booth at a restaurant. She slid in with Ty at her left and Kor sitting her on her right.

“That’s ok. When in Rome…” she responded. She gave a small laugh at the men’s obvious confusion. Thankfully, she was saved from having to explain by her stomach letting out another loud rumble. 

“Shall we eat now?” Ty asked.

“Yes please!” she replied eagerly.

Lacy tried not to think about how nice if felt to have the solid presence of the two men at either side of her, instead she looked at the plates of food on the table. It reminded her of what she would call “family style” eating, but without smaller plates to serve onto. Before she could ask how to proceed, Kor grabbed a bite-sized morsel with his fingers and slowly brought it to her lips.

“Here, try this. It’s
Frivolian meat.”

She was afraid to ask what a
Frivolian was, and thought it better to remain ignorant as he popped the piece into her mouth. It was warm, delicious, and seemed to melt as she chewed. It felt like she hadn’t eaten in ages and thankfully, between Kor and Ty, they kept the pieces coming and didn’t allow her to grab anything herself.

Finally she had to push herself away from the food. “I can’t eat another bite!” Only then did they eat.

She sat and thought that it was odd that they fed her with their fingers and only once she’d had her fill did they eat. These men were certainly an enigma.

Once they had cleaned the plates, she gathered her courage. “So… What are you guys? I mean, I know your names, but you’re not human… right?” The question made them both pause, probably to gather their thoughts. She’d been silent for so long that her question must have been a surprise.

After a moment, Kor finally replied. “We are on a mission for our planet, Arath.  I am the captain of the Adastra, a science ship. Ty is the chief geneticist on our planet.”

Wow, so the guys were important on their world, she thought. “What are you going to do with me?” she asked.

“We will take you back to our ship and keep you safe.” Ty said, without hesitation.

Being kept safe sounded like a good plan, but what she really wanted was to go home, and to pretend that the last few days had never happened. Maybe hire a really good shrink to help her convince herself that this had all been an elaborate dream.
Brought on by exhaustion. Or something.

“Won’t I be less of a bother if I’m back on Earth? Why don’t you just take me home?” she asked.

The men shared a glance then Kor slowly explained, “We cannot, little Lacy. The Galactic Council has decreed that any Earthers found off-world are not allowed to be taken back to Earth. The council is worried that they will tell other Earthers about what they have seen and influence the natural progression of your world. Even if it were allowed, Earth is very far from here and, unfortunately, we can’t spare the time to take you there.”

Lacy felt her heart begin to race. Who the hell was the Galactic
Council  and how dare they decree anything to do with Earth? “But we can’t be that far from Earth!” Lacy said, starting to panic, “Why don’t you secretly take me back? I promise I won’t tell anyone what’s happened to me.” She looked back and forth, between the men, and saw twin expressions of sadness.

It was Kor that spoke first. “We are farther from Earth than you think, Lacy. Even aboard the Adastra it would take us nine months just to reach Earth.”

Lacy was stunned. “Nine months! How is that possible? I was only on that Bastard’s ship for about two days!”

Ty could see Lacy’s panic rising and started rubbing her back soothingly. When she turned to him he saw the tears gathering in her lashes. He wanted to break down and promise her anything to get that look of utter sorrow out of her eyes. “I’m so sorry, little Lacy. I could tell from your medical scans that the
Blattarian put you into a cryochamber while you were transported. For you it would have seemed like you had just fallen asleep, while in reality months went by, perhaps longer.”

“I’ll never go home then.” She sat quietly, staring at the table, and Ty could tell that she was trying to process what he had told her.

“I’m sorry.” Ty could see her crumble before his eyes and a part of his heart broke right alongside hers as she began crying into her hands.

He gathered her onto his lap and she buried her face into his chest, quickly soaking his shirt with her uncontrolled tears. He held her to him tightly while Kor watched, sadly, from nearby.

*****

Lacy felt as if she was falling apart, piece by piece. In a moment she had lost everything in her life. She had lost her family, her friends, her home, her possessions, even her job. Thinking about her family had her crying even harder. She would spend the rest of her life not knowing how they were, or if they were happy. Had one of them adopted her cat when they realized she was missing?

After a time, her sobs turned into seizing catches of breath in her chest and her tears stopped flowing. The men quietly sat with her,  while she tried to accept that she would never again return to Earth.

She had always been the type of person that tried to not dwell on the past, instead looking forward. Those two men were her future and she didn’t know if that was a bad or good thing. She decided that she’d rather know what they intended to do with her than make assumptions.

“Why did you buy me?”                              

Ty didn’t know if now was the right time to tell her about
Arath’s problems, but when she sat up and looked at him, her large blue eyes still damp from tears, he knew she deserved to know the whole truth. “The simple answer is that we bought you to protect you. Honestly, though, it’s much more complicated than that.” Ty said.

“I want to hear it all.” she said, determined to know.

Ty reluctantly set her down and stood up. He always had to move around when he was having a heavy conversation so he would need to be able to pace. Lost in thought, he barely noticed that Kor had shifted Lacy into his own arms and they were both watching him.

Ty took a deep breath and began. “I have to begin with a little history lesson for you to understand. Our race has a long history of violence and war. We are known throughout the galaxy as warriors, and for a time our advancements were mostly in the fields of defense and weaponry. A couple of generations ago we achieved peace in our quadrant and, thus, began other pursuits.”

Ty left out parts of his people’s history, he didn’t think Lacy needed to hear about how aggressive his race could be while he and Kor were trying to gain her trust.

“We reached an age of enlightenment, and during that time there were great advances in technology and medicine.
Both fields that were believed to be of great benefit to the people. Even with our medical advances, there had always been diseases within our race, passed down through genes. A generation ago the Arathian Council decided that medical efforts were to be focused on the elimination of all genetic illnesses. A vaccine was created to do this and it had a wonderfully high success rate. It was administered to everyone on the planet within a year. Sadly, in their haste to help the species, they doomed us all.”

Ty stopped for a moment as he thought of the day he had been given the vaccine, and how happy his parents had been that their son would not die from the hereditary disease that had killed his grandfather. It had been a day of joy.

Tragedy followed soon after.

He shook his head and continued, “The doctors hadn’t had time to properly test the vaccine for long-term side effects. After it had been distributed throughout Arath, it only took a year before we realized that we were no longer able to procreate.” He glanced at Lacy when he heard her gasp, but forced himself to continue.

“The vaccine fundamentally changed our DNA and made it impossible for us to reproduce. So far, we haven’t been able to correct the problem. We have scientists back home trying to find a solution, but we also sent out science ships, like the Adastra, to seek help elsewhere.”

“What do you hope to find?” She asked quietly.

“There’s a legend on our planet, that we were created by another race, long ago. It was said that the race seeded many other planets in the galaxy. We hoped that if we found another such species, that our DNA would be close enough that we could somehow use it to save Arath.”

Kor finally spoke, “We have been searching for several years without success and we were beginning to lose all hope.
Until we saw you.”

Lacy turned to look at him. “I don’t understand.”

“Think about all the aliens you’ve seen so far, and how diverse they are. Now, think about how similar we look to you.” Kor explained, “Ty and I don’t think its coincidence. We think Earthers, like you, may be our distant cousins, so to speak.  The hope for our species’ future.”

She looked at him, her eyes wide, then finally said, “Ok, let me get this straight. You think Arathians and Humans…
Earthers, might have both been created from this master race, which is why we look so alike, and you want to use my DNA so you can reproduce?”

Ty came closer to sit on the table near Kor. “If your DNA is compatible, we want to use it to fix the problems we have with our own DNA, which, as a result, should fix our reproductive problems.”

“You’ve both been given the vaccine, I’m guessing?”

The men shared a sad look before Kor answered, “Yes, we were both given the vaccine. I was thirty-two years old when it was administered throughout Arath.”

Lacy looked to Ty but his response was slower. “I was given the vaccine when I was twenty nine, and Arath realized the side effect shortly after. That was twelve years ago.”

Lacy thought that Ty was finished on the subject of his vaccination, but he surprised her by taking her hands in his own and continuing.

“I, along with our world, was incredibly disappointed when we found out about the reproduction problems. You see, I’ve always wanted children. It was my goal to find mates that I would love, and build a family together. Once we found out that the vaccine had made us all sterile… I was devastated. It’s what prompted me to focus on genetics and join in the hunt for a cure. I want it as much for myself as I want it for the rest of my race.”

Lacy sat quietly trying to process everything the men had just told her. Ty seemed so sad when he talked about what happened to his race, and wanting
children, and she couldn’t help but feel empathy for those men who had dedicated their lives to saving their species. She realized that she wanted to help them in any way that she could.

Really, it was an easy decision.

She could either help them and their entire race by offering up some of her DNA for study, or say no and possibly condemn an entire race of beings to extinction. The thought of the latter made her nauseous.

With her mind made up, she looked Ty in the eye and asked, “What can I do to help?”

“You mean you’ll help us?” Kor asked.

The poor man was afraid to hope. It reinforced her resolve. “Yes. I want to help you, you and your world, if I can.”

Kor suddenly grabbed her from behind and crushed her to his chest in a massive hug. “Thank you.” he whispered. She looked at Ty’s smiling face for a moment before he also caught her in an embrace. The moment he released her, he asked, “Can we start now?”

Lacy thought that he looked like an excited child and she couldn’t help but let out a little laugh. When she nodded, she was once again scooped into Ty’s arms, away from Kor, as he practically ran to the Medical Center.

*****

“So…how are you going to extract my DNA?” Lacy asked as she once again found herself sitting on the table in the Medical Center. Her overactive imagination was going crazy, trying to picture what kind of sample he was going to take. Were the stories of alien probing true? Was he going to probe her
now
?

Actually, there was one kind of probing that she wasn’t against trying. Just the thought of the bulges in Ty and Kor’s pants caused her cheeks to heat in a blush and her pussy to start throbbing. It had been a long time since she’d had a good probing,
any
probing actually, even if she ignored the months in stasis.

The last time had been nearly six months before her kidnapping, and it wasn’t anything worth remembering. The man had fumbled through the motions and she had faked it to get it over with. Her instincts told her that wouldn’t be necessary with Ty or Kor. They probably had great probes that were proportional with the bulges of their muscles, clearly defined by their tight-fitting
flightsuits.

When she looked up she saw Ty looking at her expectantly, and she realized that he had been talking to her. Lacy shook herself out of her mental vacation and told her libido to cool down. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

He smiled at her patiently, then repeated, “I said that I only have to take a blood sample from you. It will be quick and painless, I promise. Would you mind laying down and giving me your arm?”

“Oh… Okay.” She said. She had her doubts about it not hurting though. Needles always hurt and she was sort of a baby when it came to them, but she resolved herself to not whimper, or faint, in front of Ty.

He came towards her, carrying a small metal cylinder device that was clear in the center. He took her arm carefully and placed the device against her skin. She tensed, but only felt a small pulse before a red bead of blood hung suspended in the clear part of the tube. She stared at it, oddly hypnotized, until he turned away and placed the device in a hole that opened in one of the walls.

“How long will the results take?” She asked, sitting up.

“Not long at all. The results should be back tomorrow morning, then I’ll be able to map your genome to see if you’re a match.”

“Okay.” she said. Absently, she tried to think about how she would pass the time until then. As if he had sensed her thoughts, Ty turned to her, holding something, and then offered it to her.

“I have something for you.” He said as she took it. It looked vaguely like an e-book reader she had owned back on Earth, but it was transparent. She had no idea what she was holding.

Ty explained, “It’s called a tablet, and it’s a device that holds data. This one is loaded with all kinds of information. I thought, since you’re new to space
exploration, that you might like to read up on planets, beings, or whatever came to mind. It also has a writing feature which allows you to write your own thoughts.”

“Thank you, Ty.” She was beaming.

It really was a thoughtful gift. She was excited about digging into the facts of her new reality. She also liked the idea of recording her thoughts. She’d kept a journal back home, and wrote in it when she was feeling perplexed and needed to think things through. Being thrown into space and meeting two hunky aliens felt like the epitome of a journal-worthy topic.

She touched the screen and was surprised that she could read it. “How do you know English?” She asked, puzzled.

He laughed at her amazement before explaining, “Your planet broadcasts everything on waves that travel out into the galaxy. Sooner or later, anyone traveling around is bound to pick them up, so we’ve been able to learn Earth’s dialects, English included.”

“Wow!” Lacy said, immensely impressed. “I never thought of aliens being able to hear what’s going through our satellites.”

“Yeah, it’s no trouble hearing broadcasts from Earth. Actually, it’s often harder to block them out than to hear them.”

Lacy smiled at the implication. Earth sure did love its communications systems: internet, phones, cable, she was sure that aliens must have thought humans a little crazy.

After being shown how to use the device, and being herded out of the Med Center so Ty could work, she found a room with a large lounger to sit on. She started to sift through information and couldn’t believe the wealth of content contained in this one tablet.

It covered topics such as: anatomies of all the known races in the universe, scans and data about planets, suns, and nebulas, classifications of spacecrafts, technologies, but the largest section, by far, was on the Arathians. At a glance she saw: anatomy, demographics, arts, politics, language, societal relationships, and there was even a section on fashion.

Given that it seemed like the most relevant topic to her current situation, she started with the Arathians. She read a short summary of the race’s history, one that included a lot of violence, but then found that they united their world and worked together to protect weaker planets from races that would take advantage with less noble intentions. It seemed that protection had become instinctive to them. It made sense to her as they’d rescued her, and continued to treat her so well.

Lacy began wondering about the roles of females on their planet. Most of the information had mostly mentioned males. She was shocked to discover that, unlike Earth where the ratio of males to females was roughly one to one, on Arath the ratio was four to one!

Due to the greater population of males, society had evolved differently from that of Earth. Arathians now grouped themselves in familial units, which usually consisted of one female and up to three to four males, but it was common for males to mate with each other, first, before finding a compatible female.

Lacy sat down the reader and tried to wrap her mind around having, not only one husband, but four husbands! In her experience, men were kind of a pain in the ass. What woman would want more than one? Then, she pictured Ty and Kor, and the thought of multiple sexual partners didn’t seem so objectionable anymore.   

To take her mind off the subject of men, she dove back into the information on her tablet. The anatomy section intrigued her, so she looked to see just how similar they really were to humans. After reading for a few minutes, even with her limited scientific knowledge, she could see how Arathians could be distant cousins. The similarities were astonishing!

Even though they were close to human anatomies, she did see some interesting differences between human and Arathian men. Like the fact that their senses were more acute, they were hairless below the their heads, they didn’t have extra and useless organs like appendixes, but the most interesting difference was that the Arathian penis secreted its own lubrication along the entire shaft..

Now that gave her some ideas...

She closed out of the Arathian section quickly and began looking at various other species of aliens. She was amazed at the diversity the universe had to offer. Apparently the creatures that attended her auction were not the strangest in existence… Some were downright freaky!