'Sacmis' (formerly 'Alien Abduction')

Chapter 17: The Virgin

After dressing Laura took some time to examine her rooms properly.

Escape seemed impossible. There was only the one entrance in the outer room - the bedroom - and no amount of pushing, prodding and stroking the keypad next to it could persuade it to open. She tried shouldering it, but only hurt her shoulder.

A search for potential weapons was just as fruitless. The chairs sat on broad bases, so there was no opportunity to remove a leg and use it as a club. And the centre table was a single surface of plastic, curving down at each end to form supports as wide as the top. 

No, she thought, the only route to freedom was Teo and - potentially - the other women, if and when she got to meet them. There was always strength in numbers and maybe they could devise a plan or find a way to overpower their captors.

The same train of thought also threw up a major flaw in her reasoning. Just suppose they did get the better of the four Alien crew, what then? It was highly unlikely they could handle the Ship (and she was beginning to concede reluctantly that she really was on a spacecraft) so they would need help from the crew anyway.

Step at a time, she said to herself. Cross each bridge when you come to it.

She heard the outer door open and Teo re-appeared carrying a tray. On it were two plates of what looked like grilled fish, two salads and some bread rolls, with two beakers of water. He laid the food out on the low table, then settled down on the floor. She hesitated for a moment, then followed his example and sat opposite him. The fish smelled delicious and she needed no encouragement to eat.

“So you eat the same food as us?” she asked after the first few urgent mouthfuls.

“Pretty much,” he replied, “meat is rare and therefore an expensive luxury, but fish are plentiful. Our DNA is so close, it’s hardly surprising our nutritional requirements are the same.”

She looked directly into his eyes, fascinated by the golden irises, with their dancing pinpoints of colour.

“Tell me about the women on your planet,” she said.

“They’re much like women on earth,” he replied, “or at least they were.”

“What do you mean by ‘were’?”

“The shortage of women has had the effect of giving them enormous power. Now, all the important decisions, all our laws, are made by women and the men have no choice but to go along with it. Anything for even the remotest chance of finding favour.”

“Get used to it, buddy,” she said with a smile, “women on Earth had to put up with that situation for thousands of years. In many cultures, they still do.”

Teo smiled ruefully. “I asked for that,” he said.

“So there are really no women in your life?”

“No.”

“But you must know some women as…friends…work colleagues?”

“You really don’t get it, do you?” he replied, “Other than my Mother, I have never even met an adult woman. Never so much as been in the same room as one. For millions of men like me, there is absolutely no chance of that happening. Ever.”

“How old are you?” asked Laura cautiously.

“In our counting - 29, but our years are a little longer than Earth’s, so in earth years, I’m 34.”

Unbelievable, thought Laura to herself. I’m talking to a 34 year-old virgin.

© Adriana Nicolas 2014