“I’m sure you’re curious about what’s happening here, and I can tell you,” she said.
The other five Eeeepps, small and reptilian, gathered around her, and they all stared up at Master Meeepp.
“Yes, please tell me,” said Master Meeepp in a polite voice, once again containing his emotions.
A younger male Eeeepp spoke up. “We’re going on a trip to the Woogah planet to rescue the human pet Antaska! Eegor’s our pilot! Isn’t that exciting?”
“What!” said Master Meeepp, starting to lose his cool.
“Pooquali! Let me tell him!” the older female chastised.
She swatted at the younger male with a long clawed hand.
What is this insanity? Master Meeepp wondered.
He looked back and forth from the group of Eeeepps to his frozen-still mate.
“Now then, Master Meeepp, let me explain,” continued the Eeeepp female. “Only two of us, Pooquali and Apostrophe, are actually going. They’re younger and can handle separation from our marked territory better. And the other stresses of space travel—alien lands and alien foods. But he’s correct that Eegor will pilot. He’s studied the manual and knows how to program the route to the Woogah planet, so there’s no need for you to be concerned. We’ll be borrowing your space shuttle. Thanks for letting us use it,” she finished.
“Have you gone mad!” Master Meeepp shouted down at them. “You’re not taking my shuttle anywhere!”
The wind of his breath rustled their clothing and the lumpy rows of hair or spines on their heads. The Eeeepps stiffened but held their positions.
“We are taking your shuttle,” said the older female Eeeepp.
“We are taking your shuttle,” said all the Eeeepps at once, staring him straight in the eyes.
Master Meeepp looked down and stared straight back at them.
“You are not taking my shuttle,” he said.
“We are taking your shuttle,” they repeated. “We are taking your shuttle.”
Their gaze grew more intense, and Master Meeepp found that he couldn’t look away. Through his anger, he started to feel fuzzy. Then the room spun and blurred. His mind drifted into some far away place.
“You…are…taking…my…shuttle,” he heard his own robotic voice say.
“Let’s move,” he heard the Eeeepps say, and then it became too much effort to pay attention.
Chapter 16
For a few weeks, Potat, M. Hoyvil, and Lieutenant XoXo, the main watchers in the Jalapeno, had not seen much change to the doctor’s activity with Antaska. At the same times each day, he entered the room, checked information on computer consoles, looked at Antaska, sometimes made adjustments, and left.
The rest of the crew spent their time resting or communing with the ship’s sentient trees during the slow time. Potat tried to stay awake as much as possible, but her cat body demanded seventeen hours of sleep per Earth day.
“Wake me up if anything important happens,” she insisted to M. Hoyvil.
“I promise I will,” he answered.
After each long sleep, Potat woke up to see shocking changes in Antaska’s appearance. Her skin became browner and shinier with colorful highlights. Her bright pink hair grew even brighter and thicker, seeming to stand up all over her head. The top of her head got bigger. Most disturbing of all, a white mist appeared that clouded her grey eyes.
“Are they giving her cataracts, like an old cat gets?” Potat asked Lieutenant XoXo.
“No, don’t worry. They’re not harming her eyesight,” the lieutenant answered. “The Woogah genes they’re adding to her brain must be causing that effect. It must be related to their visual hypnotic powers. Fascinating!”
Potat hissed and snarled. She didn’t think it was fascinating at all. She felt like mewling like a sad kitten, but restrained herself. A large hand smoothed her fur. It was her pet M. Hoyvil trying to comfort her. Potat curled up into a dejected ball and went back to sleep.
A few days later, a nudge from M. Hoyvil woke Potat from sleep. She heard the sound of many telepathic voices.
“He has changed his routine! He’s removing the intravenous needles from her body! The procedure must be complete! Come see!” she heard the mental shouting of several Verdantes.
Potat opened her eyes to see huge streaks of green flowing into the room. The adult Verdante crew members flying in fast and bumping into each other in the zero gravity. Potat looked at up at the video screen showing Antaska in the bare medical room. The Woogah doctor was typing on a computer. Antaska lay unmoving on the table, with wide-open fixed staring eyes.
“He must be contacting the slaver. Look sharp and be ready to move the ship at a moment’s notice.” The captain started giving orders to his crew.
Everyone gathered on the bridge and watched the screens, but nothing happened for a few tense hours. Potat stood up in M. Hoyvil’s pocket, hanging on with her claws and ready for action.
“Look there!” said Lieutenant Sosha, pointing to one of the screens showing the sky and landscape outside of the ship.
All eyes turned to see the small, flashy air vehicle approaching the medical building. As it passed through the force field, a warning alarm sounded. Then the ship landed on the roof’s flat surface. A cloaked figure got out and went down through a door into the building.
Antaska was still unmoving when the watchers in the Jalapeno observed the cloaked man enter the room. He approached the doctor and pulled off his hood to reveal a face much handsomer than the one he had worn the last time they saw him.
“Very good, Marroo. The antidote to your genetic disguise has taken effect,” the doctor said telepathically.
“It had better work,” said Marroo. “But look! There’s a line or too here.” He pointed to the side of his eye. “That wasn’t there before, so you need to fix it.”
The doctor pulled a scope from his pocket and held it up to peer close at Marroo’s face.
“That wasn’t caused by my disguise treatment,” said the doctor. “It’s the combination of aging and exposure to starlight during space flight that makes this type of wrinkles. But I’ll throw in a free injection for you since you’re such a good customer.”
Potat graciously decided to translate since the Verdantes couldn’t hear the telepathic speech from this distance. She repeated what had just been said and then related the rest of the conversation to the Verdantes.
“Aging! Wrinkles! Don’t you insult me! Just fix it!” Marroo shouted.
The doctor rushed to give him an injection.
“Now then,” said the doctor. “The genetic conversions you requested for this female are complete, and you may take her away.”
He waved a hand in Antaska’s direction. Marroo approached the table and peered down at her. He rapped a knuckle against her arm, and it made a slight tapping sound.
“Nice!” said Marroo.
His gaze moved up and down Antaska. She stared up unblinking and still except for the slight swirling of the new milkiness in her eyes.
“Beautiful work! Lovely.” Marroo reached out a hand and brushed it across her face.
Inside the Jalapeno, Potat and M. Hoyvil both growled at the same time.
“Sign here please,” the doctor interrupted Marroo.
He held up an electronic pad. Marroo turned away from Antaska. He read the screen for a minute and then pressed his thumb against the pad.
After pocketing the pad, the doctor wiped a gloved hand across his dark blue brow, then walked over and pressed something on the table where Antaska lay. The top of the table floated up into the air. A cord dangled down from the front of it. Marroo grabbed the cord and pulled the table out of the room through an open door.
“Stations!” the captain shouted mentally inside the Jalapeno. “Prepare to lift on my command.”
The Verdantes dove in zero-gravity to their chairs and strapped in. Potat dove into M. Hoyvil’s pocket.
Soon after, Potat felt the Jalapeno lift up gently and float away.
Not being able to see anything inside M. Hoyvil’s pocket grew quite boring, so she climbed out and perched on his shoulder. She watched with the others as Marroo’s small flyer carried Antaska away into the darkening night, deep out into the desert. The Jalapeno traveled silently and invisibly alongside.
A few hours later, Marroo landed in the middle of nowhere. He carried Antaska out of his flyer. In the darkness, the dim outline of a hole opened up, and Marroo carried Antaska down into its depths.
The Jalapeno’s sensors had alerted the crew well in advance of their approach to the security force field surrounding Marroo’s residence, and the captain hovered the ship a few feet outside the invisible barrier.
Lieutenant Sosha again focused the ship’s surveillance system on the room Antaska was in using the tracking chip in her ear. Potat and the others watched Marroo place Antaska in his bed. Now her eyes were closed. Marroo threw off his cloak and then sat down on the bed and removed his shoes.
“What’s he doing!” Potat and M. Hoyvil both shouted at once.
But Marroo didn’t do anything except lay down on the bed next to her and fall asleep.
Chapter 17
Antaska regained consciousness--staring into the same cloudy eyes she had seen just before her world went dark. But now all fear was gone. Her mind was filled with a soft, puffy darkness. Her only clear thought was that she was deeply in love with the man lying in the bed at her side.
They lay close to each other on a soft, luxurious bed inside a room with walls covered in red tapestry. Antaska knew this was the same man whose eyes she had looked into on the space ship, but she didn’t remember the details or anything else from before this time. And she had no awareness of how much time had passed.
The fact that he looked different than the last time she had seen him was unimportant to her. All that mattered was the intense love she felt for him. It was everything. Everything else was nothing.
Antaska looked at her skin, which was now browner with colorful highlights, and somehow much firmer than it used to be, but she was completely focused on the man and took no interest in herself.
He is my love, she thought, as she gave him a hug.
Antaska didn’t know his name, but that didn’t seem to matter. His features were pleasing but stern, and his large, cloudy white eyes were intense and compelling. She had been repelled by him when she saw him on the space ship, but she couldn’t remember that. Now he looked to her like the most attractive man in the world. Somewhere deep inside of her, some of the queasiness and repulsion remained, but the overwhelming love for she felt, and the mental fog that filled her mind, allowed her to ignore those feelings.
Marroo the Woogah considered Antaska as she lay next to him on the bed. He preferred to save his manliness for only the highest quality courtesans, and it was not his usual practice to waste his physical relations on the work slaves that he captured doing his job as a universal hunter.
“Ah! As usual, you have fallen madly in love with me,” he said to Antaska telepathically. “I am Marroo, by the way.”
Antaska stared back at him with empty eyes blinded of logic by Woogah hypnosis brainwashing.
“Yes, I know you were hypnotized, but it wouldn’t work if I weren’t so incomparably attractive. Is that not true?” he asked her.
“Yes, yes! So attractive!” sighed Antaska mentally, still staring into his eyes with her own now somewhat cloudy eyes.
Marroo stared back and felt an unusual pull. Oddly, it was almost difficult to break away from her love-filled gaze.
Hmm. This one is quite compelling, thought Marroo.
With a bit of effort, he shifted his gaze from her eyes to slide down her body dressed in slave shorts and shirt.
Compelling maybe but still just a low slave and not worthy of my attention, he reminded himself. After all, I am Marroo, most handsome and talented of all slave hunters.
He turned to a mirror hanging on the wall to peruse the high cheek bones, straight nose, and firm chin that made him so alluring to potential prey.
“Ah! I love my job!” he said, as he had so many times. “What could be better than traveling across the galaxy to known and unknown planets, discovering new sentient life forms, and capturing their women for use as slaves to the Woogahs?”
“What could be better?” Antaska repeated his words. She didn’t notice that she was now speaking telepathically as if it was the most natural thing to do.
Although Antaska was telepathic and could hear Marroo’s words, she didn’t understand a lot of what he was talking about. It didn’t make sense, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was that they were together. The sound of his honeyed telepathic voice soothed and thrilled her at the same time. So rich and melodious! The words that didn’t make sense like ‘slave’ and ‘hypnotized’ fluttered in and out of her mind like the most beautiful of butterflies.
“Yes! I love you, and you love me,” said Antaska in a dreamy robotic telepathic voice.
She sighed again. Her love from him was all-consuming, almost unbearable.
“Haha,” Marroo laughed. He was always amused when the slaves believed that he returned their feelings of love and attraction. Antaska interested him, although of course she was a low being far beneath the notice of one as superior as himself.
He turned back to face her on the bed.
“Well, you are unusual,” he told her. “You’re the first Earth human I’ve ever captured in all my career.”
“Thank you, my love! I’m so happy that I please you,” Antaska answered, staring into his eyes again.
Hmm, he wondered. Why am I so pulled to this one?
“You do please me,” he admitted. “I find your skin’s color and unusual softness very attractive. Most of the alien women I capture have skin in shades of green, blue, yellow, or orange--all the different colors of the rainbow--but your skin is a brown shade I’ve never seen before.”
“Oh! Thank you!” Antaska sighed as if thrilled by the compliment.
“Yes,” Marroo continued. “It also different than the skin of our Woogah females. They are pure and spend their lives underground out of the sun, so they’re paler blue than males such as myself who work on the planet surface or spend time in space where starlight darkens the skin.”
“Your skin is perfect, my love!” said Antaska, but Marroo noticed she was still staring into his eyes and not looking at his skin.
“Thank you,” he answered, somewhat flustered.
Marroo reached a dark blue arm around her and rubbed his hand on the skin of Antaska’s back beneath her slave shirt.
“Ah, yes! It feels as wonderful as it looks,” he said. “Did you know that many of my alien captives have skin that’s fuzzy or furry? That’s completely unacceptable to me! And some even have the hard shell-like body covering of humanoids evolved from insects. Of course, they’re slaves anyway, so it doesn’t really matter what skin they have. But your skin has such softness and touchable texture--even after cockroach genes were added to make your body stronger and longer lasting.”
“Wonderful!” Antaska agreed.
Marroo watched her gazing upon him with the eyes of love. He looked beneath the slight cloudiness that now swirled in her eyes deep into the light gray color. Deeper and deeper.
“You are now fully hypnotized,” said Marroo.
“You are now fully hypnotized,” Antaska repeated.
“Haha! That’s not how it works,” said Marroo.
As their eyes locked in a long stare, Marroo realized that despite her inferiority, there was something about her that attracted him strongly.
“Well,” said Marroo, “You’ve convince me. I’ve decided that just this once, I’ll break the rule of not sparing my valuable manliness on a work slave. Today is your lucky day!”
“Yes! My lucky day!” said Antaska in a thrilled mental voice.
Marroo leaned in close. She leaned toward him at the same time, and their lips met. As they started to kiss, ever so lightly, he fe
lt something powerful pass through him—from her to him, from him to her. It was a strange feeling of connection he had never felt before and almost frightening.
He pulled away from the kiss and started to remove his shirt, but before he could pull it over his head, a communication chime sounded from the console next to the bed. Annoyed, he pressed the button to answer the call.
“Hello, slaver. I’m here to collect my merchandise,” said the caller out loud through the intercom.
“You’re an hour early, but come right in,” answered Marroo with attempted politeness. “Your new slave awaits you.”
He pressed a button to end the call.
The few seconds that Antaska waited for Marroo to get off the call felt like an eternity. Finally, he turned back to her.
“You are my love,” said Antaska to Marroo after he pressed some more buttons on the console.
“Yes, I am your love,” he answered, “but now it’s time for you to go spend time with the other man you love.”
Antaska did not understand his talk about another man, but she wasn’t worried. Her mind and heart were too full of the love for him to have room for anything else.
Then a door in the room lifted open, and another man stood there. Antaska noticed that he had thinning gray hair and was older, thinner, and less attractive than the man who was her love. Uninterested, she looked back at Marroo.
“Hurry up and make the transfer. I don’t have all day,” Antaska heard the old man say telepathically to Marroo.
“Yes, yes. Time is money,” said Marroo.
He turned back to Antaska and locked her in his cloudy gaze. She fell into his eyes, pouring in her soul with complete abandon. With a surge of joy, she felt the strength and power coming from him. It entered her mind and took complete control of her thoughts. She welcomed him and did not resist. A cloudy darkness filled her again, just as in the space ship when he captured her, but she couldn’t remember that or anything else.
New thoughts were born, formed by the powerful hypnotic gaze that had entered and taken over Antaska’s mind.
hypnoSnatch (Xeno Relations Book 2) Page 12
