Captured and Captivated

Chapter 12

HARPER

My jaw ached, I was starving and grumpy, and my alien rescuer had fucked off to recharge his batteries.

Those had been his exact words. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

He'd left me alone now, free to aimlessly wander his ship. It was a show of trust, giving me free reign like this. However, this was not just any ship. This was the Sannis. He'd said with a smile and a clear glint of pride in his eyes. Naming a ship and taking such care of it had been too human of a reaction for an alien. It had thrown me off guard and I'd completely forgotten to ask him the most important question of all before he left.

Why?

Why... why in the hells had he done any of that?

Why trust me with his ship?

I supposed that at this exact moment it didn't functionally matter. I was safe. (Safe? Maybe.) I was alive. Freed from lizard-probing by a rescuer of unknown provenance but probe-ees can't be choosers.

And it felt so strange to have this moment of calm. Weeks of stress and fear and chaos, now here I was on a alien spacecraft tucked away deep underground. Under the ground of a freakish alien planet unlike an I'd ever imagined. It should be terrifying. Instead, I felt oddly at peace. Maybe I had just burned out all my reserves of fear and zen-acceptance was what I had left.

So started to explore. Leave me to my own devices? Sure, lets do some snooping. The Sannis mirrored her owner. Everything was different but also familiar.

I worked my way through the utilitarian narrow hallway that connected the bridge to the ship's main living section. The lights were dim, sometimes off completely. It helped. I could almost (almost) pretend I was on some Sol station during night hours.

Most doors were locked to me- I'd run my hand over the access panel and it would flash tell-tale red- but the doors to the galley opened for me on their own.

Okay, perhaps galley might be an exaggeration. It was a small space that seemed to run triple duty with what I assumed was a food replicator standing next to a cluttered tabletop. A row of three different style of exo-suits hung on the back wall.

The replicator beeped when I turned to leave. The panel on the front slid open and a plate of food extended. Awaiting inspection. I bit my lower lip and frowned.

The plate of food smelled good. Green wedges of something that my imagination supplied could be synthetic vegetables were steaming on top of a pile of little white granules. Smelled like food. Looked like food. Very tempting.

My stomach grumbled and gave me its vote. However, the memory of my violent bodily emissions as the Krynn had tried to force feed me for those first two weeks held me back.

A third round of beeping came. It broke through my silent debate and I smiled. Earlier the alien had been arguing out loud. First when we were in the process of controlled crashing into the planet, and then later he'd been talking to himself. Saying things like yes, let her go wherever she wants to. No, she won't do that. Yes, it will be fine. Fine, blame me if you have to, you'll do that anyhow.

It occurred to me then that he might be from a species that had some sort of collective hive mind. Or he was just batshit crazy. Either way, listening his inner-outer monologues had been a welcome break from the seriousness of the moment.

"Can you hear me?"

I wasn't sure what sort of answer to expect. The replicator beeped twice. My smile grew.