Obsidian - Miranda Bridges Page 0,4
to ask, but my lips are pressed together as though stuck to a frozen surface. Anxiety snakes into me and tightens the air in my chest when I fail to move my arms or legs. The only thing I’m able to do is look around. The instant my gaze lands on a purple creature with six tentacles hovering over my naked body, I really wish it hadn’t.
Welp, that explains the probing. At least it wasn’t the penetration kind.
Where’s that Pimm person because I could use a fucking drink right about now…
“Diagnostics have been approved,” a mechanical voice answers the female one.
I scan the sterile room, hoping against hope that this is all just a nightmare. However, the creature peering into my face is too detailed to be a figment of my imagination. And my panic coils into dread at the machinery that overshadows her. I might not be able to move, but my body is fully aware as to what’s going on. Each breath I take in claws at my lungs like shards of ice, and my fingers and toes tingle incessantly.
Coupled with the headache slicing through my skull, the sensations make me pretty sure I’ve died and gone to hell. I will admit that when I envisioned hell, it did not include a purple octopus. Hysteria bubbles at the back of my throat, but my paralysis keeps it at bay.
“It appears this one has already been equipped with a translator.” The sea creature tilts my head to the side with one of her slimy appendages. “My, she is a delicate thing. I’ve never seen anything like her. Have you, computer?”
“I am not programmed to respond to that, Doctor.”
The alien physician huffs under her breath and moves beside me. She drapes a warm blanket over my body, and for a long while, I lay beneath it, acutely aware of the sensations returning to me. First my teeth chatter, then I’m able to peel my lips apart and wiggle my toes.
The fact that I’ve gained commission of my body again should calm me a little, but it doesn’t. I’m alone for the first time in my life with no understanding as to where I am or what I’m doing here.
I’m definitely in hell. And apparently it’s an alien one.
I dig my fingers into the leather surface underneath me and turn my head. My heart squeezes when I see the orange sky and planets stretching beyond the small circular window. I knew the Torags were shipping me off, but I guess I was in too much of a state of shock to process the reality. Now it’s crashing down on me like a ton of bricks.
“Oh my, there is no need to be frightened.” The doctor’s tentacles wrap around my waist and lift me until I’m sitting upright on the bed. “The thawing process can be a little daunting. However, the side effects of cryogenic sleep are only temporary, and you should be feeling well again soon. Can you tell me your name?”
When I don’t provide an answer, she just keeps talking.
“You arrived on planet Lixis several days ago for the auction. Now that it’s here, I will prepare you.”
Octopus bitch said what? Maybe my ears aren’t working, just like the rest of me.
“A-auction?” I croak out, my throat raw from disuse.
The doctor steps back and nods. “Yes, Madam Pim’s auction. She expects you to be prepped and ready to be sold within the hour. Now, if you can just demonstrate your ability to walk, I will be able to conclude my examination.”
All I can do is stare at her, seconds away from laughing in her face or spewing on the floor. I’m about to be sold at an auction? The thought knocks the air from my lungs as the walls cave in and the ceiling shrinks like a deflated balloon. And yet hysteria builds inside of me. They’re going to sell me like a pig at the market? What the fucking fuck?
“I’m going to be sick,” I manage to say before I vomit.
A plastic bowl is grabbed and held in front of me just in time.
“Another side effect,” the doctor says, moving the bowl away and dabbing a handkerchief around my mouth with another tentacle. “But this one is common and should be the last of them. Do you think you’ll be able to walk? If not, I may have to administer a medical aid, since time is of the essence here.”
The thought of an alien drugging me has me shaking