She didn’t know how long she slept, but the female was there when she opened her eyes.
Said female spoke to Gyan, who came over with a smile on his face.
Semeera came fully awake. “Did you figure out how we can talk?”
Gyan talked and she didn’t understand him. That meant no. But he seemed pleased about something. He waved the female forward.
She held out a black box a little bigger than the one she’d had before, tapped it, and it projected a picture of stars.
A map!
Semeera sat forward and stared at it.
Gyan pointed to a cloud-covered planet and then himself.
“That’s your planet?” She stared at it and then around it. Not that it helped. She’d only paid enough attention in college Astronomy to get the credit.
He gestured to her and then the map.
She shook her head. “I have no clue where Earth is on this thing.” She sat back and thought for a moment.
Shouldn’t they already know where Earth was? They’d snatched her off it. Or maybe that wasn’t what they were asking. But why then would they show her a star map if they didn’t want to know where she was from?
None of this made sense.
She stared at the map and Gyan’s planet. And then her attention went to their sun. It was yellow like Sol, which meant it was roughly the same size… maybe? Why hadn’t she paid attention in Astronomy class?
Gyan’s tablet caught her attention. She pointed at it and held out her hand. After he tapped on it, he handed it to her. She stared at the blank screen and hoped it worked the same way as tablets back home.
She drew four circles—one big one to represent Sol and then a small one for Mercury, one for Mars, and one for Earth. Then she drew dotted lines to represent their rotation. As an afterthought, she added a smaller circle near Earth to represent the moon.
Once finished, she pointed to the picture and then her chest. “This is where I’m from.”
Gyan studied it for a moment, but sighed and shook his head.
“Nuts. Okay.” She waved her hand over the screen, indicating she wanted it clean.
Catching on, Gyan tapped it a few times, and the screen blanked.
This time Semeera drew the Solar System—all nine planets—and yes, dammit, Pluto was a fucking planet. She still didn’t understand why the downgrade had annoyed her, but it had. She drew Saturn with rings around it and Jupiter with its many moons and great red spot, though not red since the tablet had no color, getting as detailed as she could given the medium.
“There.” She held it up and showed Gyan, who appeared impressed.
His voice held admiration when he spoke.
“I’m a graphic designer by trade.”
He urged the female to study the map she’d drawn.
A few minutes later, the female scrolled the star map and then enlarged it.
“That’s it!” Semeera recognized her neck of the galactic woods. She pointed to Earth. “That’s where I’m from. Right there. Earth.”
Now Gyan and the female appeared worried.
“What?”
The female tapped Earth, making it glow blue. She then shrank the map and tapped another spot that glowed white.
Semeera stared and didn’t want to believe what she was seeing. Just to be sure, she pointed to the blue glow and then herself. “This is me.”
Gyan nodded.
She pointed to the white glow and then him. “That’s you.”
He nodded again.
“Holy shit.” They had to be hundreds of light years away from each other. Thousands of light years. Maybe even hundreds of thousands. They’d snatched her from across the galaxy and now she was back to being scared.
Why had they grabbed her? No way had they brought her there for a cultural exchange. Not a distance that great.
She eyed them warily.
Gyan spoke in a soothing tone she didn’t trust.
Pointing to the map, she traced her finger from their planet to Earth and then tapped her chest and did it again. “Send me home.”
Head shaking and expressions of apology came from Gyan, the female, and the guards across the room.
That wasn’t what she wanted to see. They wouldn’t send her home or they couldn’t. Either way, she was stuck.
The female spoke to Gyan, who nodded, and then she left.
When Gyan said Kader’s name, that got her attention.
Kader’s deep rumbling voice came across the speakers in the room, soothing Semeera’s annoyance. But his words were curt and ended too quickly.
She looked toward the door, hoping he would appear.
He didn’t.
Gyan offered her his tablet. It was blank again.
Semeera took it and drew him. The tablet was pressure sensitive, giving her the ability to shade. And when she showed him a portrait of himself, Gyan acted as if he was looking at the Mona Lisa.
He blanked it again and handed it to her.
She drew Kader next. After him, she drew the female with the cube, the other doctors, and her quintet of guards. So far as distractions went, it was a good one. It gave her something to focus on so she didn’t start crying over the fact that she was never going to see Earth again.
Everything she knew, everything she loved, her friends, her family—all gone.
How many times had she drawn fantastical landscapes of far-off planets, for fun or for her clients, wishing she could see them? Now that she suddenly had the chance, all she wanted was to go home.
Her breath hitched, but she stubbornly refused to give in to the tears that made her blink quickly to hold them back. The last thing she wanted was for the doctors trying to collect her tears for study. And just thinking that made her sadder. She would be a science experiment for the rest of her life. In this situation, she was the alien.
Would she be held in the lizardmen’s equivalent of Area 51? Hidden from their people. All knowledge of her disavowed to keep the populace from panicking over the concept of little brown aliens from space invading.
Not that humans had much chance against these guys… physically anyway. Then again, their technology was pretty impressive too. What little she’d seen of it.
The female returned and tapped the black box she held.
Semeera whipped her head up when a person spoke in rapid Spanish. “I know that!” She jumped off the bed and ran to the female, who backed up several steps, startled.
“Sorry. But I know that. No hablo español, though.”
A mechanical voice came from the speakers, speaking the language Gyan and his friends did. Whatever it said got them all exited and suddenly the computer was spouting Spanish.
She shook her head. “No. No. No. No hablo español. That’s all the Spanish I know, but you’re in the ballpark.”
Gyan quieted everyone and made a get-on-with-it gesture to the female.
She cycled through French, German, some other language Semeera didn’t recognize at all, but it sounded familiar. And then the other female hit it.
“Yes!” Semeera almost cried. “Sort of.”
Gyan spoke and the computer said in a British accent, “Sort of? Explain. Is this your language?”
“Well, not really. This is a dialect of it. You could use this but it might not translate everything I say properly.” Dear God, she was going to cry after all. She was talking to them and they could understand. She was so happy she was trembling.
The female said, “There are more languages in the database very similar to this one.” She tapped the box. “Is this it?”
The accent of the computer changed from British to Australian. Semeera shook her head. “Nope.”
She tapped it again. “What of this one?”
Semeera gasped. American English never sounded so good before. “That’s it. That’s my language. You found it.”
The doctors suddenly spoke at once, firing questions at her she couldn’t keep up with and it seemed the computer couldn’t eith
er.
“Wait!” She held up her hands for silence. “Just wait. Me first.”
Gyan smiled with a nod. “Of course. Forgiveness for our rudeness. Proceed.”
She took a steadying breath. “About earlier. Am I right in thinking my planet is hell and gone from yours and you can’t send me home?”
After the computer translated, taking way longer than she thought it should, Gyan said, “You are correct. Our fastest vessel would take generations to reach your planet.”
“Then how did I get here? Send me home that way. Please.”
“Unfortunately, we cannot. Your arrival was an accident. We were testing new technology that malfunctioned in a way we cannot recreate without serious danger to all involved.”
“An accident.” Semeera waffled between angry and relieved. They hadn’t abducted her on purpose, but that didn’t change the fact that they had abducted her. “What will happen to me? What do you want?”
Gyan gave her a soft smile. “You are new to us, Sssemeera. That is your name, correct?”
“Yes. And yours is Gyan?”
“Yes. Forgiveness for frightening you. We are curious. We’ve never met a species like yours before.”
“We call ourselves humans.”
“Humansss.” He said over his shoulder to the other doctor, “Change the species designation to humansss.”
“Humans is plural. Human for the singular.”
“Ah. Human then.”
“What’s your species called?”
“We are khartarns.”
“Pretty.” A thought made her smirk. “What did you have for my species before now?”
“Rope-topped bipedal mammal.”
“Oh, so your planet has mammals. Good to know.” She frowned. “Rope? You mean my hair?” Threading her fingers through her locs, she looked at them. They did resemble rope, in a way. And for a species who had never seen something like her hair before, that was the safest comparison to make.
“It is not rope, I take it?”
“No. It’s hair. Similar to fur.” She hefted her locs. “And it’s not used for what a rope would be used for. This is just a style. A way of decorating my hair based on personal preference.”
“Decorative? It is not a defensive measure for your protection?”
“Not even by any stretch of imagination. I mean, I guess someone with martial arts training could possibly use it as a weapon. Not me. The only one hurt by my hair is me when I turn my head too fast and smack myself in the face with it.”
Gyan chuckled with a nod. “I could see that happening.”
“Okay, so you’re curious. To what end? What will happen to me?” What she really wanted to ask was what were they going to do to her in the name of their curiosity.
“As you cannot be returned to your home, you will be integrated into our society.”
“I won’t cause a panic?”
“Possibly a small one. We’ll get over it.”
“Which means your people have come into contact with alien species before me, right?”
“We have.” He thought for a moment. “Yours have not?”
“Nope. You’re my first, which was why I freaked out when I first saw you. You’re a lot bigger than I’m used to.” Not to mention he was a lizard, but she would keep that tidbit to herself. No need to insult her host.
Gyan looked around. “I am of average height for a male khartarn.” He gestured to the female. “And she for a female.”
“I’m average height for a female human. Males are a little taller. The tallest human recorded is probably the same height as Kader. But he’s a major outlier.”
“Captain Kader is a warrior. Such height is typical for his kind due to physical enhancement drugs administered during his training.”
Gyan’s tone held a note of derision. Obviously, he and Kader didn’t get along. It couldn’t possibly be the age-old rivalry of geeks versus jocks, could it? That would be funny if it was. The more things change, and all that.
Gyan huffed. “Speaking of.” He tapped his tablet. “Captain Kader, a moment.”
“Yes, Doctor Gyan?” Yet again, Kader’s voice caused Semeera to relax with a soft sigh.
“We have located Sssemeera’s language and can now communicate with her.”
“Acknowledged.”
Semeera waited for him to say more. When he didn’t, she asked, “That’s it? Acknowledged?”
Gyan gave her a sympathetic look. “Captain Kader is a warrior. They aren’t known for their conversational skills.”
Yup, definitely some animosity there. “You keep calling him captain. Should I do that too? Do you have a title I should be using?”
“It is customary to use our titles with our names. Only family and mates drop titles. Also those who wish to be insulting. My title is doctor.”
“Doctor Gyan then.”
“Correct. And your title?”
“I don’t have one. Not really. Humans have formal address, but it’s really not worth explaining. Just Semeera is fine.”
“What was your occupation?”
“Graphic design.” She gestured to his tablet. “All those pictures I drew are…” She sighed. “Were my occupation.”
“It can be again. Talent such as yours would be prized among the artisans. And to reflect that, we shall call you Artist Sssemeera from now on, if that title does not displease.”
“Artist Semeera works for me.”
“Excellent. Artist Sssemeera, I hope you will continue to indulge our curiosity a while longer. We have many questions.”
“Same here.” She headed back to the bed and sat with her legs dangling over the edge. “Go for it. What do you want to know?”
“Is the clothing on your legs bonded to your skin?”
“My jeans? No. They’re just tight because I gained weight recently.”
“Would it be insulting to ask you to remove them?”
Semeera shrugged and hopped off the bed. After removing her sneakers, she shimmied out of her jeans, happy to have them off. She took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. “Freedom.”
“They do appear constricting.” He cocked his head to the side and peered at her waist. “And those?”
“Panties. And they stay on.” She hoped would deter him from arguing.
“Ah.” Doctor Gyan’s tail swished quickly. “A protective covering for your genitalia.”
“Sure. Let’s go with that.”
“They are not?”
“They’re made of cotton and too thin to protect me from much of anything. It’s a modesty thing. I’ll assume since your people wear clothing, you know about modesty.”
“We do.” He flicked out his forked tongue and then said quickly, “You do not have to worry that we will force you to do anything you find uncomfortable, Artist Sssemeera. If our curiosity crosses a line, you need only tell us so and we will desist.”
That made her feel a lot better, actually. Their study of her had limits she could set. She didn’t mind being cooperative, given that knowledge. Not enough to strip down naked, but she wouldn’t get upset when one of them went after her crap once she had a bowel movement.
She tossed her jeans aside, deciding her upper-thigh length shirt was long enough to cover her, slipped her feet back into her shoes, and resumed her position on the bed, ignoring the way Doctor Gyan’s gaze kept sliding down to her crotch. Not ever going to happen. He would just have to use his imagination. “What else?”
Doctor Gyan jerked his gaze up to her face and straightened while clearing his throat. He snatched the tablet the other doctor held out to him. “Yes, let us proceed before the day gets away from us.”
“Speaking of which, how do your people tell time, and how long have I been here?”
Chapter 6
Kader finished his duty day by sheer force of will. He’d wanted to rush to the infirmary the moment Gyan relayed the discovery of Semeera’s language. Only the knowledge he had no business there kept him abo
ut his tasks as the ship’s captain.
His presence in the infirmary would be a hindrance, as well as be seen as suspect. If only he’d paid more attention to the past scientists and showed even the slightest interest in their projects, then his interest now wouldn’t be so out of character. He wanted to see Semeera.
More than see her. He wanted to speak with her. Learn more about her. For his own personal satisfaction, not science. Thoughts of her had crept into his every unguarded moment. How had one tiny female become such a distraction to him?
Him. A warrior who was unrivaled in his generation. Set to become one of the youngest superiors in recorded history, leading warriors of his own—until his promotion. And that could be the issue. He wasn’t on the battlefield or even training, as a warrior should be. He had too much time on his hands with this mindless duty, time to daydream about a small brown alien with large eyes and round pupils.
But his daydreams had led to a purpose for visiting the infirmary now. He was about to abuse his power as the ship’s captain, and there was nothing Gyan or anyone else could do to stop him. Soon he would have Semeera all to himself to fully explore why she drew so much of his attention.
He entered the infirmary and stopped short at the sound of laughter. Semeera’s laughter. His nostrils flared, and he flicked his tongue, scenting her happiness. The sweetness of it drew him forward on silent feet to find out what had caused it.
She sat on the bed where he’d left her, minus half her clothing.
Kader’s tail snapped to the side in annoyance that she had bared herself in such a way. Why had she removed the covering? Had Gyan told her to? If the doctor had in any way made Semeera feel uncomfortable or pressured, Kader would gladly cave in the male’s skull.
Semeera said in an amused tone, “It’s not poison. It’s chocolate. Specifically, a dessert known as a s’more.”
Quagid sounded incredulous. “You eat this… chocolate on purpose?”
“Yes. Humans love it.”
“Such as that is poison to our kind. A painful poison.”
“Your loss.” She thought for a moment then pouted. “Mine too. Damn. I just realized I’ll never have coffee again. Or soda. Or hot cocoa.” She smacked the bed with her fist and mumbled something the translator didn’t pick up. After a huff of annoyance, she said, “At least I wasn’t so addicted that I have to worry about caffeine withdrawal… I hope.”
Alien Mate Experiment Page 6
