Alien Love
an excerpt

Perhaps she’d wanted to end it all. Sometimes foresight can be a helpful gift. Tranic always thought so. His primary progenitor always knew what was going to happen seven cycles before it actually did and she was never caught off guard when something went wrong. Of course, after his secondary sire contracted the wasting sickness and died, she wasn’t the same. She didn’t do anything to avoid the meteor strike that destroyed her shuttle that time she was ring flying around the moon Galos alone.

Tranic had a hard time with that concept of self ending. Margoks did not think that way. The Margoks traveled the space ways for millennia. One was not considered a true Margok until one had seen a dozen worlds and had learned about new life. Due to the vastness of space, it could be a long temporal gap between new destinations. They had, of necessity, figured out how to extend their lives far beyond those of the pitiful Margeen, the lower caste that never left the sands of Marg to seek adventure in the stars.

In all his time traveling the space ways of the Universe, examining creatures from nine different planets, Tranic had never seen any creature behave like this. It did not attack and spit acid or fire. This species never did. It let out an aspirated cry whenever he would enter the room, point one of its two upper limbs and call out with shrill clickings and vocalizations over and over again as it leaked liquid from its eyes and pounded its head on the wall. Its hands were restrained from the time when they had caught it using its pitiful claws to open its fluid streams. It took a bit of effort afterwards to get it healthy again. Definitely it was a different reaction than they had gotten from others of its species. The others would shriek or go really quiet, rocking in place and staring in one direction. After their tests, when there was nothing new of interest for the home world, they’d return the specimens to the wild.

Since this one was acting different, the group leader two nano-parsecs away had desired to view it personally. This would be a coup for Tranic. He was nearing his requirement for tribeship and this alien would help him achieve it. All he had to do was keep it alive. But they were so fragile, this species. They required di-hydrogen oxide and protein and carbohydrates daily or they would shrink and die. The Margok considered it a sign of weakness to eat daily and only infants were allowed to do so. And the di-hydrogen oxide, Tranic’s antennae swirled in a queasy pattern. It was a vile chemical that as common on their planet as hydrochloric acid was on Marg.

Perhaps a forced memory experience would help quiet this strange specimen. The Margok had created a Quantum Mnemonic Machine that would recreate a surrounding memory environment for the user. The user was thrust back into a temporal dimension in all ways except in body. The chosen memories were always pleasant ones. It was sometimes used for amusement on the long flights between worlds.

Tranic had often used it and relived the heady days of his ascension from kindlehood. He had so many new experiences once he had been released from his clutch. Some terminal Margok patients had even requested its use for their final days. If they had proven beneficial to Marg, the privilege was sometimes granted. The Margeen were never of use to Marg.

It took three Margok to restrain the specimen to strap on the QMM. For such a petite species, barely three katas tall and with an endoskeleton as well, he put up quite a squirming fight. He even tried using his blunt mandibles to tear Qiin’s exoskeleton. He’d only managed to tear his own skin and leak his fluid everywhere. Lanerk tried to assist and waved his erect phallus in the manner that often calmed other specimens from his planet. This subject started squealing and increased his struggles.

Tranic privately suspected that Lanerk enjoyed interacting with their specimens in this manner. It was in the rules as not allowed, but there was often a long time between docking stations and the sanctioned mating sites. Lanerk was the lowest ranking Margok and so was only allowed to provide pleasure to the other Margoks, not receive sexual pleasure himself. Most ship leaders would turn a blind sensor to a quick personal pleasuring using a specimen, as long as the specimen was not permanently harmed. But Lanerk’s current actions were agitating the subject beyond the healthful parameters. Tranic flashed his blue tinged antennae at Lanerk and he subsided, reluctantly.

With the probes inserted in the subject’s cranium, the QMM was set to search for the subject’s pleasure in the recent past. Contentment, personal achievement, sexual orgasms, ambition and greed, these were also useful. In fact they tended to work better than fulfillment in many cases. The QMM let out its finalized hum. Now to set the program to create the environment for the specimen. Tranic’s manual digits activated the commence toggles. The QMM’s lights started glowing, marking the start of the memory cycle and the specimen’s muscles started to relax. The QMM was quite effective at creating the total environment for the users. It was like it was just happening for them.

Tranic signaled the other Margok to lower the specimen to the floor. It would be many long cycles before they reached the rendezvous with the group leader’s ship. The specimen was lost in the memory world of the QMM and so would only need sustenance injections at measured periods.

As Tranic secured the cell door, he realized that he was without duties for next two cycles. A quick glance at the duty roster on the wall terminal adjacent to the cell also revealed that Lanerk was not assigned any duties currently as well. As their other two shipmates returned to their assigned duties on the control deck, Tranic caught hold of Lanerk’s shoulder and delayed him until they were alone. Tranic grasped Lanerk’s receptor antenna and stroked it suggestively with his manual digits as he tugged him towards his quarters. As the lowest ranking Margok, Lanerk was obligated to obey, and Tranic had been impressed by the size of Lanerk’s phallus…

The subject was left lying alone on the floor of its cell. Its fluids had dried to a tacky coating on the floor and its naked body. But it didn’t notice the sensation or the smell. The specimen was lost in a world of memory.

It gave a small smile and said, “Play ball.”