knowing I will give him anything for what he is doing for me now. He has done more than rescue me, more than free me. He is working to undo the wrong which set me on this dark path in the first place.
“We can’t get Saya back. But you can get Ella back,” he says. “And I am going to make that happen.”
“What the fuck is that place, Warden? Where is she exactly?” I ask the question on my knees, feeling my place as well as knowing it.
He taps on one of their communication devices and shows me the headline, so I can read it for myself.
HUMAN PET FARM
BUY YOUR 100% PUREBRED HUMAN PET TODAY!
I have long been aware of the way aliens treat humans, but I will never get over it. Seeing that text, so bold and so unashamed makes me want to be sick. We are nothing but entertainment for the universe, and the universe cannot stop toying with us.”
“This is a Galactor company. They abduct human females from under protected colonies, flying scythkin flags, and they use suits to cover their true identities. Then they take them to the Human Pet Farm, and they breed them to create humans to sell to the highest bidder.”
“You’re saying my girl is down there? You’re saying she has been…” I can barely think the word, let alone say it. “Violated?”
“We don’t know what’s happened to her, but this is our best lead. The good news is, I will be able to pass unquestioned as I am scythkin. But we are going to have to make you a suit.”
“Like the ones you said they wore when they came to Patch and set everything on fire?”
“Exactly like that one.” He looks me up and down. “You’re too small to be a matriarch,” he says. “So you’ll have to be male. Give me some time.”
* * *
I stay on my knees, waiting like a good pet, giving him all the time he needs. I need time myself, to come to terms with where we are, what that silver ball below us represents in terms of human suffering and more. It feels too good to be true that I am going to get Ella back after all this time. Just knowing that she might have survived gave me hope, but this is almost too much.
He’s back sooner than I thought, holding what looks at first glance to be a big rubber suit. I think it is going to look ridiculous, but I may as well try it on.
The second my foot enters it, I know this is more than a rubber suit. It grips around my foot and changes the shape of it on the outside.
"This is freaking weird.”
“It is. Keep putting it on. We don’t have endless amounts of time.”
I do as he says, feeling the rubber gripping me all the way up my calves, then thighs, then over my hips and chest, until I am encased in this suit completely from head to toe.
I thought I would feel ridiculous locked inside this rubber masquerade, but I don’t. I feel the strength of a massive, bladed beast coursing through me. This is make believe, but it feels incredibly real.
Warden shows me a mirror. In it, I don’t see my usually helpless human form. Instead, I see a scythkin warrior, a being which has no need to fear anything in all existence.
“Oh, I like this.”
“Don’t get used to it,” Warden growls. “The suit incorporates technology which allows you to pass for a scythkin, and that means you will have excess strength. But misuse it, and I will grab you out of there, put you on your knees, and make you scream.”
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“Yeah. Fine. Whatever.”
“Scythkin do not say yeah, fine, whatever. You have to at least attempt to sound like one of us.”
“BOW BEFORE ME, SCUM!”
“Now you’re overcompensating,” he says. “Pull it back.”
I emit a low growl and say nothing.
“Perfect,” he says. “Keep that energy. And come with me. There’s no time to waste. The brood have a faster ship than I do. This could come down to a matter of minutes.”
The ship was already on approach, but now we are getting closer to the planet, it seems to be getting closer even faster. We are descending toward the planet at an astonishing rate, and I am feeling a horrible connection of hope and despair. Hope that Ella is still somehow alive, and despair that she would have suffered through the years as a captive of