5
Ree
I'm studiously avoiding looking at the feed and considering laying on my bed, which is really just a cryocoffin laying down instead of standing upright like it is for the rest of the harem, when the slimes make their appearance.
There's no predicting when they will pop into the tiny room to the left of my bed. I think they like the idea of throwing me off balance and so the time between their visits has never settled into a recognizable pattern. It wasn't worth the exposure to the comment feed to look at the time stamps to try to figure it out.
There really are a bunch of sick bastards out in the universe and access to a galaxy-wide internet hasn't made them any less prone to trolling.
An image of an alien troll—complete with far too many horns and a vicious sneer—bubbles up after that thought and I can't help a small shiver. Hopefully their actual buyers are more refined?
I let out a huff of breath. Unlikely.
This seems like one of the visits where they haven't really come to talk to me directly, just to get away from other parts of the ship.
There is a surprising amount of overlap between the types of conversations they tend to have when coming around to shoot the breeze and what I've overheard young human males talking about.
Except in this case, the sexual jokes are downright nasty and the casual discussion of violence fits everything I've come to assume about their culture. They have very little regard for the suffering of others and seem to actually derive a great deal of pleasure from it.
I have yet to hear any of them speak to each other with affection or respect.
It must be a horrible way to live.
It might be speciesist of me, but I can't tell one slime from another. They all look like blobs and it doesn't help that they continually change shape. I'm sure they have some obvious ways they tell each other apart, but for me it's a non-starter.
There are two of them this time. Ooze flings off of them as they walk across the floor toward me on their three limbs that remind me of tiny, sticky elephant legs.
Bile rises to the back of my throat at the sight of them, but I can feel my skin heating and moisture pooling between my legs soonafter they open the hatch and enter the small observation room. Though hate burns through me like fire and ice, I don't let it show on my face.
They won't get that sort of satisfaction from me ever again.
"Shentrea cabal should have never been allowed to rise," one of them comments.
"We're on a live feed, arid dung," shoots back the other as they settle into the seat of the controls.
The one who spoke before thinking is quaking, their body wiggling in their apparent terror, membranes sliding across their eyes repeatedly.
"I . . . I d-don't think t-that! How could you say such a thing? Taken out of context—Someone might—"
He clears his throat in a long gurgle. "I was speaking about what is said by the uninformed masses. Of course! No one on this ship has anything but incredibly deep, undying respect for Shentrea."
I realize my eyebrows are raised as he fumbles along and I wipe my face clean of expression. Then I move to the middle of the cryochambers in case they plan to bring a woman out of stasis.
My heart's pounding with more than just fear.
I vacillate between hoping they will leave the women alone and longing for company.
"How about you just start the entertainment so our slick and fabulous Shentrea viewers can see just how unique this harem is?"
When the glass of Silver's chamber slides open I can't help a surge of happiness, then feel sick I could ever feel something positive when a woman is about to have whatever dreams she held close shattered beyond repair.
But my heart's a traitor and for better or worse it has latched on to her.
Unlike Olivia, she doesn't fall, and I look back to the slime at the controls. He's slumped back in his chair like a drooping pile of phlegm. The other one is still trembling and jiggling in fear, though his eyes have mostly returned to normal.
I stand in front of her with my arms poised to catch her just in case.
My mouth is dry and I'm moving my weight rapidly between each leg. Will she like me?
