Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“It was always going to end this way,” Kronos says, gloomily fatalistic. “We never really had her under control.”
“We could go to an inhabited planet,” Sharp suggests. “Somewhere safe that has no major predators, no human sellers, and a peaceful culture. Somewhere we can work out our relationship between ourselves.”
“It won’t be peaceful with us there for long,” Boss points out. “We’re restless. All of us. All four of us,” he adds more pointedly.
“I want you to tell me what happened in the days before I disappeared,” I say. “I want to know why you’re saying this was never going to work.”
“You were obsessed with saving humans from alien fates. It was our fault. We used to do a lot of human rescues where we could. When we met you, we decided to keep you and breed with you,” Sharp explains. “You were similar enough in temperament to us that we all felt drawn to you, and that your genes would provide our offspring with necessary strength. But you became obsessed with freeing humans from their owners. It was very dangerous. We tried to stop you, but you always found a way to get into trouble.”
“Sounds like me. Story checks out. Continue.”
“That’s it. You disappeared,” he says. “We thought you had been captured while trying to save other humans and gotten yourself taken away. You were not easy to trace.”
I think about that.
The idea of women being dragged off the planet and given to aliens who fuck them or eat them or what the fuck ever still horrifies me. I was prepared to lose my life for it when I had a good job and a comfy apartment, and I still am now.
“She’s got that look in her eye,” Kronos sighs.
“Can’t we just stop the illegal human trade and be done? I know the aliens doing this are doing it with human help. Here’s what we need to do. We need to go back to Earth and we need to hunt down the people who are supplying wild caught humans to aliens. Oh, my god! Okay. Here’s a plan. I go back to Earth and I go to the contaminated ground. And I get myself caught. And then I’ll be inside the smuggling ring, and I can bring it down from the inside out.”
Boss snaps his fingers and points at me. “That’s pretty much what you said on the day before the day you went missing.”
“Did you guys try to stop me?”
“Of course we did. It’s a mad plan. Getting caught as a wild human doesn’t get you any closer to the people enabling the alien trade.”
“Okay,” I say. “So. I must have gone to Earth to execute that idea and they must have wiped my brain when they realized I knew too much. They could have killed me, but I bet they wanted to test their tech on me. See how well it would work. And it did work. Until you found me. Which means…” I stare at Boss. “They might be looking for me now? I might know too much. They might have had me under surveillance.”
“They might. They won’t find you.”
“But what if we let them find me?” I open my eyes wide. “What if we let them get me, and then we see what happens. We can get them, if they get me.”
Kronos, Sharp, and Boss all exchange looks that I can only describe as concerned. They’re the sort of looks people give each other when they like you a lot, but they think you might be losing your mind.
“You’ve also suggested this plan before,” Boss says. “About four years ago.”
“But this time it could work,” I say. “We must have messed it up somehow. You must have not known where I was.”
“We did not know where you were. We knew you’d run off, and that was it.”
“Well, this time, what if I tell you?”
“No,” Sharp says. “You cannot risk yourself again. This obsession with freeing humans from the alien trade is going to get you killed.”
“But there’s humans being sold to the alien trade.”
“There’s always bad things happening in the universe. You can’t try to fix them all. You have to find your own happiness where you can. We want to start a family with you, pet.”
“Then why aren’t I pregnant?”
“What?”
“If you’ve been fucking me all this time, how come I never had a baby?”
“We don’t know,” Boss says. “But sometimes it takes time.”
“We were going to take you to the human pet vet to be checked out before you disappeared,” Kronos says.
“We should do that,” Sharp says.
They start talking amongst themselves while I try to come to terms with things.
They don’t get it. They tell me to just be happy and selfish, but I can’t find happiness when I keep running into other people in pain, people who could easily be me. People who sort of are me. I’ve been stolen too, and even though I guess I kind of like the aliens who ruthlessly dominate me, I don’t really have a choice in the matter. I’m ambivalent about my own life, and I am damn sure I need to save the other humans. I need to stop aliens from swooping down and stealing us from the world below. I’ve got to do it, no matter what.