His pet? This, I did not expect. Usually scythkin want pretty young things. Women barely older than teenagers who are all impressed with flashy eyes and sharp blades. I have heard some women saying that they find these monsters ‘hot’. I do not share that impression. They're not hot. They’re evil incarnate. And I am a woman who has seen her fortieth birthday, is staring down her fifth decade, and does not give a shit how hot someone is if they’re also an asshole.
“You want to break me and trade me,” I say. “You want me to feel like I matter, and then you want to abandon me.”
“That’s jumping ahead several possible steps,” he says. “That would be a devastating plan, wouldn’t it.”
“It would be. But it won’t work. Because I know I could never matter to an animal like you. So you can put that collar on me, you can even call me ‘pet’. But it won’t work.”
“You’re a very intelligent woman. A very strong woman. You’re also a killer.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Very well. What you don’t know, is that you will beg for this. On your knees, human.”
I sink to my knees, obeying him because I find that kneeling is easier than resisting and then ending up kneeling anyway. I know he can make me. I will do whatever he can make me do, long enough for me to do what I need to do.
I have tolerated a lot of loss in my life, and endured a great deal of pain. Whatever games this scythkin wants to play with me, he can play them. I’m not playing. I’m looking for a way out.
This is a freighter of some kind. I could tell that on the way in, the way it loomed out of the dark of space, revealing its sharp edges and great swathes of weapon banks. But I’m not seeing a lot of security on board. I guess they figure they don't need it.
So all I have to do is get to a shuttle bay, take a shuttle, and escape. These scythkin ships have fast craft inside them. I’m betting there are probably two dozen fighters in the belly of this thing, maybe more.
“Good girl,” he praises me, as if I care if he thinks I am good or not.
I’m not listening. I’m paying attention to my thoughts, not his actions. I’m working out the angles, trying to figure out by deduction where this room is in relation to the rest of the ship. It helps distract me from the fact that his cock is really only a matter of inches from my face.
I know more about these creatures than most humans. Scythkin are used to having the element of surprise when they take a woman. Their approach is shock and awe. But I am not shocked, even if I am slightly awed. It is impossible not to be awed when you’re in the presence of a scythkin warrior. My genetics are designed to be impressed by all this muscle and danger.
He holds the collar out. It’s not what I expected. I thought it would be harsh iron or maybe spiked leather. You never know if scythkin are going to choose ancient human or advanced alien when they make aesthetic decisions. It’s neither of those things. It is smooth and thick and round… and pink.
With me on my knees, he has to reach down to put the collar around my neck. I feel it slipping against my skin, smooth, cool, and calculating, just like the creature who created it.
It clicks into place and tightens almost imperceptibly. I feel a sharp pinch right at the back of my neck. I let out a yelp of surprise more than pain.
“That’s a probe,” he says. “It’s connected to your spine via a flexible cable. The collar reads your vital signs, your hormonal levels, and various other statistics we deem relevant. You will have no secrets from me, Silver. I will know your body more intimately than you know yourself.”
“Good for you.”
This invasive collar is just one of my problems.
“I wouldn’t recommend trying to remove it. Unless you have the special tool, you risk ripping your own spine out.”
Okay. Maybe it’s a major problem. Still, I’m used to major problems. My entire life is made up of them. You could say my life is one big major problem.
“You don’t have anything to say about that?”
“Should I? What do you want? More begging? You didn't like it the first time I tried; I don’t think it would be any more real this time around.”
Warden
I love the way she looks. So resolutely rebellious. I can't tell if she’s not afraid of what the collar means, or if she just doesn't understand it. Silver does not strike me as a stupid human. She may be even more intelligent than some scythkin. The collar is going to make it impossible for her to escape, even if she somehow manages to leave the ship. It also has the added advantage of being adorable.
“It’s pink,” she says. “Didn’t think that would be your color.”
“It’s not my color. But it is yours. You are beautiful. I have never seen a human woman with such intensity behind the eyes.”
She snorts. “Are you trying to flatter me, alien?”
“I’m not flattering you. I’m telling you the truth. You are beautiful, and you are cold. You are the kind of woman who…”
“Shut up. Don’t tell me what kind of woman I am. Just get on with keeping me prisoner.”
“You are my prisoner. There’s no doubt about that. But what I do with you as my prisoner, that is up to me.”
“Are you threatening to ravage me?”
She doesn’t want to say the shorter, harsher word beginning with “r” that she really means. Humans are so obsessed with words. Specific sounds which change nothing in the real world, but change absolutely everything in their minds.
I don’t dignify the question with a response. If I wanted to hurt her, or violate her, I could have done both the moment she came off the ship. In the time I have had her in my custody I could have physically destroyed her and emotionally ruined her.
She knows I have been merciful. I don't know what they did to the IHPZ. I do know that they didn’t make so much as a dent in the unseen armor around her heart.
“I have fed you. I have pleasured you. I have shown you mercy. You will have all the things a human needs. But you will have to earn them. And the way you will earn them is through obedience. Crawl for me.”
“Crawl for you? Why?”
“Human infants crawl before they learn to walk. They are born without the ability to move at all. They are, in a certain sense, larval.”
“I don't think that’s… what that is.”
“Of course you don’t. You like to think of yourself as advanced, when in reality you are a very simple animal with very simple needs, and even simpler motivations.”
Asshole. I knew he was an asshole. They’re all assholes and monsters. Most alien species I have encountered consider humans one step above meat, if they bother to make the distinction at all.
I’ll play along. He wants me to be his pet. He wants to imagine me small, and weak and dependent. I have been all those things at one time or another, but I am not any of them now.
I am on hands and knees, moving like the animal he wants me to think I am. He leads me by the collar toward the bed where a chain waits for me. He is going to keep me like an animal, and there is nothing I can do about it.
“The old ways are the best. We have all sorts of implants and circuits and scanners, and machines you don't have words for, but when it comes to humans, there’s always an easier way. Collars. Chains. Control. That’s what you respond to.”