Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 47529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
My probes sweep toward her and begin relaying biodata. First of all, I note that she has not bred. That is an excellent start. Her hair has been colored a bright reddish pink not found in nature. In many Earth animals, bright colors announce danger to others. I can only imagine that this serves the same purpose. Her rather sweet face is set in a determined scowl. Probe data reveals she appears to be in her mid-twenties, and not currently in her breeding window.
Men look at her with interest as she strides past, but they do not approach, sensing the hostility she emanates. It is a pity, but I know she is not a good candidate for captivity. Something about her is wild through and through. As much as I might personally be intrigued, my brothers and I long ago agreed that we would not take any humans we could not sell. The Pet Shop is a business, and we must run it like one. The temptation to have our own pets must be resisted.
A good pet is someone with a softer temperament, someone who will take well to being looked after. I usually select from the lower ranked humans I encounter. They are usually not much to look at when they are first captured. I take them filthy, sick, and broken, and I rehabilitate them until they are gleaming with health and happiness.
Regretfully letting that target go, I refocus my attention to humans elsewhere in the target area. There are quite a number of them. There’s a promising looking male, strongly built with red hair. Natural red hair has become quite popular back on Euphoria. He does not have any of the obvious markers of having fathered offspring, though it is harder to tell with the males. Their overall contribution to the species is biologically limited to the act of orgasm.
I am supposed to be looking for a female, but there’s no reason I can’t take a good specimen like him too. There are several berths in my ship, and I’d like to fill them all before I leave. I have a waiting list of homes for anything I catch. Trade is good. Life is good.
I prepare the capture sequence, which involves releasing a cloud of psychogenic dust throughout the area, effectively erasing the senses of those close enough to see what happens. The second stage of capture happens when I deploy a tractor beam, effectively plucking the human from the surface of the planet and sucking them into my shuttle. Once I have a freshly caught human on board my shuttle, the psychogenic dust keeps them quiet long enough to get them back to the ship.
“Get your fucking hands off me!”
I hear female distress, and when I refocus my attention, I find that it is the woman who first caught my eye. She has gained the attention of three males, all of whom are emitting threatening mating pheromones.
They have cornered her in an alley, each and every one of them twice her size. They are grabbing at her, initiating coarse sexual contact without her interest or consent.
She jabs at one with her knee, making contact with the part of his anatomy he would like to bury inside her. It is a very effective strike.
He groans and collapses.
One of his friends attempts to help him. The other strikes the female across her face with an open hand and grabs her by the throat with his other. He threatens to kill her.
I am too far away to physically intervene, and I have never set foot on the planet before. But I can help, even though I shouldn’t. A thousand travesties and cruelties take place every second in this city. But my fingers are already at work.
ZIP!
I activate the transport beam, and the human is removed from the situation, beamed from that filthy alley all the way to my shuttle.
“GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF ME, YOU FUCK…”
I turn around to find the human in the small confines on the shuttle, safe and sound, but gasping for air, a red ring of human hand around her throat. Because there was no time to release the dust, she is not sedated. She is aware of absolutely everything that just happened to her, and she is not happy about any of it. Far from being relieved to find herself rescued, she is clearly still flooded with adrenaline and ready to fight.
She turns around, looks at me, and I brace myself for what feels like the inevitable scream. Humans almost always shriek when they see me for the first time. I am an intimidating creature, much larger than they are, and impossibly strange. My lower tusks cause significant consternation in most cases.
The human stares at me, her eyes sweeping down my body and then back up to my eyes.