I quickly closed my eyes when I heard the hiss of the hydraulics as the doors opened to the area I was being held. I knew that they knew I was awake. With all of the monitors that they had me hooked up to, they probably knew that I was conscious before I did. Honestly, though, I was too tired to care one way or another.
"Have you gathered any new data?" one of the lizards asked another. Now, I'm sure it was an insult to the lizards on Earth to be compared to these things, but I really didn't know what else to call them. It's not like they stopped to introduce themselves or their species before they started to experiment on me. That would have been the polite thing to do. Nope, they definitely could not have done that.
"It takes approximately seven standard months for the blunt claws on her fingers to regrow and even longer for the ones on her feet to do the same thing. They also do not grow back as smoothly as before. I just don't understand this species. They have absolutely no way of protecting themselves. Even their outer layer reacts to the slightest stimulus! I don't know how they managed to survive for so long, let alone populate an entire planet," said the second lizard. The pure disgust in his tone made me want to chuckle. Not my fault they found me lacking. Maybe they should just put me back where they found me.
But I was not that lucky.
From what I have come to realize on my endless days strapped to this bed, there were two different types(?) categories (?) professions… yeah, let's go with professions, to the lizards.
There were the six that I knew by sight, and I was pretty sure that they must be the hired muscle, aka, the guards. Dressed in a weird type of silver armor that I had never seen before, these things with lizard features, were clearly not the most intelligent of the lot. They had a striking resemblance to the Komodo dragon, including the long globs of drool hanging from their mouths.
I cringed every time they came near me, expecting the slime to drop onto my skin and burn me like acid or something.
Yes, I know, it probably was not that bad, but hey, I've been abducted by fucking aliens. I think I was allowed to exaggerate now and again.
Anyways, on the other side of the glass, too important to risk their health interacting with a specimen like myself, were what I could only call the scientists. They were the ones that seem to run everything around here from what tortures they were planning on putting me through on any given day to ordering around the Neanderthals of their species.
Now, if you were going to ask me how on Earth I got abducted… get it… on Earth… ah I crack myself up sometimes…. Anyways… if you were wondering how I managed to get myself abducted by the gecko from that insurance commercial, I can honestly tell you, I have no idea.
The last thing I remember was sitting out on my lake one night, enjoying a cup of hot chocolate and looking at the stars, and the next thing I knew, I was here, laying on a cold slab of metal, held down by even colder cuffs.
Have I mentioned how much I hate the cold? Well, if I didn't hate it before, I do now. They don't even give me the decency of a blanket or any type of clothing. I have no idea how I got into this mess, and I have no idea how I was going to get out. One thing I did know? When I did, there was going to be blood.
Anyways, back to Beavis and Butthead here that had clearly drawn the short straw. They approached the slab where I was being held down and Beavis looked down at me. I quickly open my eyes, not giving them the satisfaction of seeing me in a weakened state, and Beavis jumps back startled.
I smirked in response.
Oh sure, the naked, 5'2 human, strapped to an exam bed that had not eaten in God only knows how long was a credible threat to the 6-foot-plus lizard with teeth that still had chunks of whatever meat they just had for lunch in them.
I assumed it was lunchtime, a clock would be nice, but I am guessing that that is just not cost-effective. Why spend a penny more on a specimen than they had to right? I'm sure the lab rats back home didn't get a clock either in their cages… why should I be different.
Beavis was not impressed with my smirk and moved to strike me in the face, but one of the scientists stop him quickly with a hiss.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the scientists can dissect me every day without anesthesia, run any and all tests that they can possibly do, and I think they have even removed my heart a few times… Luckily for me, they realized that I would need it for them to continue on with their experiments…
But if one of the meatheads so much as touched me in any way other than what the scientist deemed to be acceptable then their ass was grass.
Literally, that was how Curly died. He took a swipe at me with his claw and before he could reach my skin, a laser came out through the ceiling and killed him. The poor baby. I should probably be upset with seeing his green blood and purplish guts coating the room that was my prison… I should have been sick to my stomach when some of those unidentified parts covered me, but honestly, I was pretty sure that I had smiled the whole time.
Yeah, I probably should mention that I have failed my fair share of psych evaluations, but what is a girl to do? Not my fault I am considered a highly functioning psychopath… yes, yes, yes… there is such a thing, but we are considered more atypical than your everyday psychopath.
We don't tend to go on murdering sprees because it was too much effort to plan and execute without getting caught. We still didn't have a high level of empathy or enjoy anything overly touchy-feely, and we were very, very conscientious about what was ours.
Some might even go so far as to call us territorial.
But I digress… where was I? Oh yes, the meatheads were not allowed to touch the goods, but they could hold me down. Not too sure why they would need to, it was not like I was going anywhere.
Trying not to stare at the shiny silver ceiling that reflected me back in all my glory, I wondered what was on the docket for today…
It took to the count of 2,000 before I realized that something had gone haywire and that I was going to get a brief reprise from whatever their plans were. With how Beavis and Butthead were looking at the ceiling where I knew the laser came out to open me up, I could only assume that the laser was not working properly.
Meh, no skin off my back… literally… ha! I must be the only psychopath… sorry, high-functioning psychopath with a sense of humor.
Well, unless you counted that clown. But I was pretty sure that man was not high functioning in the least.
After the two meatheads left me alone and the lights turned off, I started to doze off. I needed my strength for whatever was going to come next.
I had yet to say a word to them, I refused to give them so much as a scream. But that didn't mean that I didn't talk to myself in my head… but this time, I was too tired to have a conversation with myself or let a song get stuck in my brain. I was in a complete state of blissful ignorance until I felt something in the dark slither across my cheek and into my right ear.
If I could have moved, I would have… but as it stood, I could only lay there, helpless. The thing glided out of my ear as soon as it entered and then I couldn't feel it anymore. But it definitely left something in that orifice… I could feel the hard surface of something that felt like an earbud… I froze, not knowing what to do. Was this a new thing that the scientists cooked up? But how and why? They didn't even turn the lights back on….
"Hello Human, my name is L11042, and I can save you," came the disembodied voice from within the earpiece. It sounded like one of those voices that first came out when AIs were becoming popular on Earth. I half expected him to say, 'Turn right, here'.
I scoffed at the voice, not putting much credence into what he said. If he could save me, why didn't he do it a long time ago? Why wait until now?
"You don't believe me," the voice came again, clearly hearing my scoff.
"I don't believe what I don't see," I replied, speaking out loud for the first time in a long time. And then it struck me… the voice was speaking English… how could it be speaking English?
"You have seen me, but I am as much a prisoner as you are," it said again. The more it spoke, the smoother its dialect became.
"So how do you suggest we help each other?" I asked, willing to hear him out. It's not like I was in a rush to go somewhere anyways.
"I will free you, and you will free me," the voice came again, this time, a tinge of creepy came with it.
"I can agree with that, on one condition," I replied, my head starting to whirl at the possibilities.
"And what is that?" he asked, his voice holding a curious note to it.
"Can you fly this ship by yourself or do we need the crew to do it?" I asked a question in return.
"If you free me, I can fly it myself," came the instant reply.
"Good," I said, a smile making its way onto my face. I stretched my neck as much as my position would allow.
"What is your condition?" the voice asked again.
"I'll tell you when you're free," I replied.
Do you know what the difference between a high-functioning psychopath and let's say a serial killer was? The amount of abuse they were put through early on in life. I might be almost 20 years old, but I think this would count… wouldn't you?