At some point during his spiel my glazed eyes had wandered back to the screen.
What manner of sci-fi bullshit is this?
I couldn’t even absorb it all.
I already blanked on what he was saying.
All I could think was, what the Hell was really going on here?
I didn’t have any answers.
“Answer me!”
I sealed my gaping mouth shut.
God, this guy was good.
Every time I drifted away in the sea of nonsense he threw that rudeness life-preserver to pull me back.
“What?
I don’t know.”
“We did it because, due to religious and political issues, our population is severely lacking females.
With minor physical modifications, which you’ve already undergone, human females are capable of breeding with Dak-Hiliah males.”
I closed my eyes.
It felt like my head was spinning now.
I was either going to faint or vomit.
Probably vomit:
that cold spit in my mouth was starting to turn into a dangerous prickly feeling in the back of my throat.
In a way the revelation was another life-preserver.
The situation was exactly what I thought it had been from the start.
I was in some freak’s sex dungeon.
“As I told you, the Instajants have decimated Earth’s population.
There are a meager few hundred thousand humans left.
We agreed to harvest females from earlier time periods as part of our surrender agreement.
You, Maritza Santos, were never to have any children, nor were you going to produce any permanent legacy.
Taking you was in no way disruptive to the current time period.”
This made me shake my head.
“Geez.”
“Further, since you are especially adaptive to new situations, have a positive attitude, and are young and attractive, you have been selected to be the replacement wife of Lord Elentinus.
He holds the 3
rd
seat on the Dak-Hiliah Ruling Council, and is the overseer of Earth.”
He stopped talking at this point and stared at me.
I don’t know what he expected me to say.
I didn’t believe any of it.
I would have loved to scoff and laugh at the incredible yarn he was spinning.
The only problem was the fact that he was talking with gibberish sounds and I understood all of it.
If I could just figure out what the language trick was then I could try to rationalize the rest my situation.
“I am Hor-Denay, the assistant of Lord Elentinus.
I’ll explain more to you as it’s needed, but for now I’d like to introduce you to your husband.
Are you quite ready?”
I shook my head slightly from side to side with my mouth hanging open.
“Of course not.”
Hor-Denay gave me a look of annoyance.
“Well kindly get ready.
He’s waiting for you, and I have other things I need to attend to.”
Ah, rudeness.
You’ve come to save me once again.
“What makes you think I’m going to cooperate?”
Hor-Denay stuck his nose in the air.
“I think your natural aversion to pain will compel you to cooperate.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“I also think that you’re not stupid and you’re not about to force this situation to get…uncomfortable.
Sadly, Lord Elentinus’ first human wife chose to be continually defiant.
That’s why she’s no longer with us.”
I started to feel sick again.
I had to turn away from his snide face.
“For better or worse your species is beholden to mine.
Nothing you can do will change that.
You’ll either make the best of it, or suffer needlessly and still serve Lord Elentinus however he desires.”
Hor-Denay righted himself on the chair he was apparently sitting in.
“Now then, shall we proceed in person?”
I shook my head without looking at the screen.
It was the only thing I felt capable of.
He made an exasperated sound.
“Fine.
I’ll check back with you later.”
He turned away from me and I heard clicking noises as though he were typing something.
“I’m revealing the window so you can get better acquainted with your situation.”
There was a loud piston kind of sound that made me jolt so bad I had to hunch over with my hand on my thundering heart.
The far wall behind me separated from the floor and started lifting up.
“We’re not on our home world.
Lord Elentinus resides on his celestial yacht, which orbits planet Earth.”
The screen went black, but I was more focused on the floor to ceiling window now behind me.
Just as Hor-Denay said, I appeared to be in outer space.
I could see planet Earth the same way astronauts once saw it from the moon.
It was mostly blue with some green or brown land areas.
Most of it was obscured by swaths of clouds.
I must have stared for a good fifteen minutes without thinking a single thought.
My mind felt like it shut down.
I was so overwhelmed I’d become numb.
Eventually I went back to the chair.
I sat up stiffly with my arms wrapped around myself.
My whole body felt so tense I couldn’t even lean back.
It was a long time before I could even think again, but when I did my eyes widened in realization.
If I was in outer space then why wasn’t I weightless?
This made me smile.
You screwed up, you freak.
I’d just seen through his elaborate rouse.
It was all a lie, and now I had proof.
My triumph faded just as fast as it came.
I closed my eyes and put my face in my hand.
Obviously, if they had the power to make me learn a language I’d never heard before they’d probably figured out other things, like artificial gravity.
“Damn it.”
Why did he have to talk in freak-speak?
Why did I understand it?
Everything else could be explained away if it wasn’t for that one crazy issue.
I started crying.
I couldn’t help myself.
It was like a Mack truck had run over my spirit and then backed up to make sure I was crushed.
Why me?
Why now?
Everything had been going so good.
I’d finally finished my Hellish tour with the Peace Corps.
Yes, it was more Hell than Heaven, and I thought I’d never make it through a full tour, but I did.
I did, damn it.
I finally got to go home free and clear after doing some truly meaningful work.
No more flies on my face, in my food, up my pants legs.
No more sweat stink hanging in the air.
No more hollowed out faces crying out in agony from AIDS.
I deserved better than this.
***
I figured I’d felt sorry for myself for about three hours.
After that I moved on to the next stage of grief (or something).
I was ready to get this freak show on the road.
I still didn’t believe any of it, but Hor-Denay had laid out the scenario for me.
I understood the rules that he’d agreed to follow.
I could play along based on that until I understood what was really going on.
Sobbing and moaning in this room was getting me nowhere.
“Hor-Denay,” I said to the monitor.
“I…I’m tired of waiting here.”
There wasn’t any answer for a little while, but then the door slid open and I practically jumped out of my own skin.
Hor-Denay stood in the arched doorway.
I huddled my arms around myself.
The huge figure made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
He had on weird clothes, like a black mesh body suit with metal-looking accoutrements molded to it, forming jagged designs.
Either the suit accentuated his broad shoulders or he had horns growing out of them.
“You kept Lord Elentinus waiting a long time.”
The weird language he spoke was as clear now as it had been when he’d spoken to me through the monitor.
“This is not acceptable.
You’re being granted leeway because you’ve yet to get acclimated.
That leeway is going to quickly run out.
Do not try my master’s patience.”
I had to try to hold back tears while I stared at him.
Regardless of what was really going on here, I was more scared than I’d ever been in my life.
I hated this fear.
It all boiled down to one primal terror:
the fear of being raped.
The things I saw in
Africa
didn’t help matters.
If I got backed into a corner I’d turn into a screaming, scratching, kicking wild woman.
I didn’t want to see that person come out of me.
Hor-Denay pursed his black lips and looked downward.
His voice became softer.
“Look.
Lord Elentinus is not an especially cruel man.”
I realized something in my terrified face must have touched him.
“He’s not going to harm you if you don’t give him cause, and he will show a measure of patience.”
Patience?
That word gave me hope.
Hor-Denay resumed his former stern glare at me.
“Your first meeting will set the tone for what follows.
Don’t you dare confront him.
Confront me, if you’re so inclined.
When you’re with Lord Elentinus, conduct yourself with modesty and grace.
Don’t be snide or sarcastic.
Don’t try to be clever either.
It’s best that you try to say as little as possible.
He knows you’re frightened.
It’s acceptable for you to show that fear.
Don’t try to hide it with false bravado or anger.
Defiance
is never acceptable.
You’ll receive harsh and swift punishment.”
He took a little black rectangular thing out of a small satchel on his hip.
When he pressed a button on it, there was a WOOM sound and a bright pink laser glowing rope thing appeared.
It started on the top of the black rectangle, went down to the floor, and spread from his feet to mine.
When I looked down I realized the laser rope went up my body towards my throat.
When I reached up I felt a fuzz of static, but then touched a collar.
It was solid and too tight for me to fit a finger under.
A new panic attack started to build inside me.
“You’re always wearing this collar even when you can’t see or feel it.
It’s composed of a force field that Lord Elentinus or I can activate at any time.”
He tugged it and I was jerked off balance.
I had to grab on to the console to keep myself from falling flat on my face.