Alien Skin Market by Lizzy Bequin
CHAPTER 20: MAUREEN
Aboard The Longshot a special cabin had been set aside for Maureen’s use. The room was cramped, just big enough for a small bed and little else, but Maureen wasn’t about to complain. After the preceding hardships she’d endured, simply having a soft place to lie down and relax was a welcome luxury indeed. Okay, so the air was a bit chilly. And it stank of machine grease. But Maureen hardly noticed these unpleasant details at all.
The only thing she really craved right now was food. Although Tristn had assured her they would be dining soon, Maureen still had an unaccountable longing for her snack of choice—a sleeve of salted sunflower seeds and an ice-cold can of Red Bull. For the time being, however, she had to settle for plain water.
Oh well, beggars couldn’t be choosers, right?
Reclining on her side on the bed, Maureen wrapped the worn sheets around her naked skin, pulled a drowsy Rawn deep into the nook of her body for warmth—God, but he was getting big—and for the third time in a row she watched the recording on the holocube Tristn had given her.
Once again a flickering image appeared: the little purple woman with shining orange eyes. In real life, the woman would be normal sized, of course. But the minuscule scale of the projection, coupled with the woman’s impish smile and pointed ears, gave her the appearance of a little digital pixie.
“Greetings, Earthling,” the voice giggled again.
Maureen couldn’t help but smile this time, which was something she’d not done very often over the past day. She listened again to the woman’s spiel, every bit as entranced as when she’d heard it the first time, several minutes before.
It was unbelievable.
The woman in the recording was Bethany Smith, the very woman whose disappearance Maureen had been investigating.
The beginning of Bethany’s story held many parallels to Maureen’s. As an investigative reporter for The Global Probe newspaper, Bethany had been looking into rumors of cattle mutilations and abductions in northern Georgia. But she had ended up getting abducted herself, and her captors sounded exactly like the creepy shadowmen who had taken Maureen.
The next part of the story was even more frightening. When Maureen learned what the shadowmen had planned to do with Bethany, it made her skin crawl. Bethany had been sold to a live meat market, a place where predatory aliens could bid on unfortunate alien livestock.
Which they would then eat.
Alive.
Maureen shuddered with repulsion. Was that the fate which would have awaited her had it not been for Tristn’s intervention?
Luckily for Bethany, she’d had some purple saviors of her own—a group of five Raksha males. That’s what the purple aliens were called, apparently. Raksha. Their planet was called Rak. That was where Bethany had been taken, and that’s where she still lived now with her five mates and their children.
Well, that last detail certainly surprised Maureen.
It didn’t bother her, per se. She definitely didn’t judge Bethany for her decision. But personally speaking, Maureen had zero interest in getting knocked up by an alien. Hell, she had no interest in getting knocked up by a human.
Still, when she thought about it, Maureen could easily understand how it might have happened. After all, her own three Raksha saviors were definitely easy on the eyes—once one got past their frightening appearances, that is. Maureen had no doubt Bethany’s guys were similar in that regard.
Yeah, it wasn’t difficult for Maureen to imagine how a woman might lust after such powerful, handsome, and exotic alien males.
Just, you know…not herself. Obviously.
But the strangest part of Bethany’s story was the explanation of her new appearance.
Yes, when Maureen studied the hologram closely, she could easily tell that the facial features matched the photos in her case file. The woman in the hologram was definitely Bethany Smith, no doubt about it, but her appearance had obviously changed a great deal. She no longer looked like a human woman. Instead, she looked like a female version of a Raksha.
The reason for this was…interesting.
And a little bit scary.
In the course of her adventures with her five Raksha, Bethany had been infected by a bacterium. Something called spirillum strulugans. Apparently, it was a fairly common disease among the aliens of the Covenant, which was the name of the loose affiliation that bound the galaxy together in a more or less peaceful fashion. Most spacefaring alien species had developed an immunity to the disease aeons ago, but Bethany’s human immune system had been unprepared for it. In order to save her from certain death, Bethany’s Raksha saviors had been forced to transform her into a human-Raksha hybrid to give her immunity.
How exactly had they done that, Maureen wondered? Bethany didn’t give any details about the transformation.
More important, would the same thing happen to her?
But Maureen already knew the answer to the second question. She’d heard Bethany explain it the first two times she had listened to the recording.
The crew of The Longshot—Tristn, Jrayk, and Vaul—had been specifically tasked with finding and saving any other unfortunate humans who might find themselves in Bethany’s position. For this reason, they had made sure the ship was equipped with everything a human might need, including a plentiful supply of medicine that would stem the disease without requiring a transformation.
“Don’t worry,” the tiny figure of Bethany told her. “You won’t be forced to change like I was. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am not the least bit troubled by my change. Sure, it was a little scary at the time, but I have learned to love it. Now I have a very happy life on Rak with my mates and my children. However, I understand most women would not feel the same way.”
As it had before, the recording of Bethany’s face darkened, and Maureen frowned unconsciously. This was the part of the recording she didn’t like.
“I guess that brings us to the question of getting back to Earth,” Bethany said. “Well, I won’t lie to you. That is going to be a problem. You see, the Raksha don’t even know where Earth is. It may not even be in this galaxy. Heck, it may not be in this universe…”
That thought sent a chill up Maureen’s back.
“…I’m not telling you this to freak you out,” Bethany went on. “But at the same time, I don’t want to give you any false hope. You deserve to know the truth, and you need to fully understand the situation you are in. The three Raksha who have rescued you are under orders to bring you back to Rak. You’ll be safe here.”
The hologram of Bethany gave a weak smile.
“And I promise we will do everything in our power to find a way back to Earth. Obviously I can’t go back, not looking the way I do,” she laughed. “And besides, I have no desire to leave my family and my new home. But I promise we will try our best to help you get back where you belong. You just have to understand, there are no guarantees.”
Even though Bethany was just a recording and could not see her, Maureen nodded. She liked this woman a lot, and she already felt like they were friends.
Bethany’s image let go a little sigh.
“Well, I’m sure you must still have about a bajillion questions, but instead of trying to answer all of them myself, I’ll leave the rest of it to the crew of The Longshot. Those guys are under orders to answer all your questions, so don’t be afraid to ask them anything, and I do mean anything. And if they give you any trouble, just remind them that they’ll have to answer to me.”
Trouble? Maureen wondered what kind of trouble they might give her.
The image of Bethany smiled sympathetically.
“Well, I’m going to sign off here. Whoever you are, I just want you to know that you are safe, and I look forward to meeting you on Rak. Remember, you are not alone…”
The image of Bethany faded out, and the recording ended.
Maureen wondered if there were any other recordings on that device. It seemed probable, but she had no idea how to activate them, so she just set the holocube on the small metal nightstand by the bed. She lay back on the mattress, pensively scratching Rawn’s belly, which elicited a drowsy purr from her furry companion.
“Well, I guess we can close the case file on Bethany Smith,” she said to herself.
It was weird to think about. Just yesterday, Maureen had viewed Bethany as a victim, and Maureen had been working to find her abductors and bring them to justice. But look how quickly the tables had turned. Now Maureen was the abducted one, and Bethany was the one who had helped save her.
Funny how things worked out like that.
Despite the difficult situation she now found herself in, Maureen felt a little tingle of satisfaction at finally knowing what had happened to Bethany Smith. For her entire adult life, Maureen had chased that feeling, that sense of closure that came with finally uncovering the truth.
It was like an addiction for her.
It had been part of her makeup ever since childhood, when both her parents were randomly murdered by a mugger. The killer—or killers—had never been caught, and that fact had driven Maureen to the brink of insanity as a child and a young teen. It wasn’t that she was afraid the killer might come after her. Hell, she wished the bastard would. Then she would have gotten her revenge.
No, Maureen had not been scared. But the idea that evil could go unpunished like that…it was unacceptable. The world was supposed to be a place of justice. There was supposed to be balance.
Maureen’s sorrow for her parent’s death, and her indignation for their killers’ impunity, had driven her to pursue a career in justice. That’s how she had become an FBI agent.
But no matter how many cases Maureen solved, it never seemed to fill the gaping hole left by the loss of her parents.
As often happened, she felt the old familiar sting of tears throbbing behind her eyes, but she refused to give in to the urge to cry.
Normally when she was feeling this way, Maureen would get up and go for a run, even if it was three in the morning. But right now, confined to this cramped spacecraft, there was nowhere for her to go. Maybe there was a treadmill or something on board? But considering she was still in her birthday suit, Maureen wasn’t too keen on the thought of wandering around.
She just wished someone would bring her some clothes.
Just then, the door to Maureen’s room whisked open, and she found herself staring up into a pair of blazing orange eyes.
“Hello again, human…”