Jim Arnett lounged in a reclining chair on the beach, listening to the waves crash against the shore. He frowned a minute as the setting sun glitched for a half second, he sighed and sipped his Mai Tai one last time before standing up and stretching. He thought a moment and looked back at the beach.

“Mountains,” he said, and the beach blurred a moment, instead of waves and a wide open ocean he was now standing on a spacious mountain range with snowcapped peaks in the distance. He’d been wearing nothing but his swim trunks and the icy wind caused him to shiver. “Beach,” he said, causing the peaceful coastline to return.

“Is it satisfactory?” he turned and craned his head up to see the hundred twenty foot tall form of Isstvell, her blue face regarding him with a warm expression. “Our data is expanding all the time, this is just for your personal living space of course, there is a common area nearby where several other Aelmari have recreated something called “Disneyland” for their humans to enjoy. I’m told it’s very accurate.”

“It’s very nice Miss,” he said pleasantly. He still wasn’t sure how to talk to Isstvell and Lyrei. Between their size and technological capability the two aliens were the next thing to goddesses to him, and yet they insisted they wanted to give him whatever he wanted, short of being able to leave them of course. Lately they’d been asking him about his well-being and “fulfillment,” he wasn’t quite sure what to tell them.

He’d been trying to determine exactly what the Aelmari intended with humanity now that they had more or less conquered the planet. Going by the viewscreens he’d seen there were more of their ships arriving all the time. It had reached the point where the Matriarchs had forced some to park outside Pluto’s orbit to avoid covering the Earth’s sky and further frightening the remaining humans on the planet.

From what he understood whatever extinct race had built the AI that had evolved (or devolved?) into the Aelmari had been physically small, like humans, and they’d been searching for a similar race ever since. To do what exactly? Serve man? No, whatever accommodations they eagerly provided they certainly weren’t taking orders from him, or any other humans… Pets? Not quite that either, Lyrei and Isstvell seemed unusually concerned and a little offended when he made the comparison, promising him more “agency and freedoms” once things had settled down. “Bio-trophy” was the term they used.

“Jim,” Isstvell said sweetly, “You don’t need to call me Miss or give me a title, we’re friends!”

"Do friends keep each other as prisoners?" he asked.

"You're not a prisoner!" Isstvell said firmly, "We're just in... a transitional phase of our guardianship of you." She leaned over and he was grabbed up by a giant blue hand, strong fingers curled around him and held him in place. “Now, let’s go see Lyrei!”

As usual Isstvell was “wearing” a sleek white dress with a low cut neck, whatever material it was made of seemed to shine like plastic. As he understood it the clothes were part of their bodies which they could manifest in any way they wanted. Their exact physiology confused him. Their history, such that they let him have access to it, indicated that they’d constructed and modified their bodies becoming closer to a physical form they thought would help them accomplish “The Mission.” Supposedly Aelmari were made of some kind of liquid metal but as he was deposited in Isstvell’s cleavage it certainly felt soft and warm like breasts would, if they were the size of houses anyway… as they left his room shimmered and returned to the plain white space, several hundred feet on each side, which it was when he wasn’t using it.

His world shook as she began walking through the living quarters she shared with Lyrei, and now with Jim and Clara, their other “bio trophy.” The orbs holding him in place seemed to jiggle as he was pretty sure real flesh would, and he struggled to stay on top of her cleavage, he knew from experience if he fell any further into the crack between her breasts he’d find it nearly impossible to get out again. Isstvell seemed to notice and smiled, but didn’t help him, seeming to enjoy his attempts to stay "afloat."

They entered the next chamber in the living quarters to find a dusty arena filled with cheering spectators. Clara was in the center, hefting an axe the size of a residential street as she stared down Lyrei. Clara’s cat ears twitched nervously in her pink hair, and she was slick with sweat. She was wearing dented medieval looking armor and her tail swished rapidly behind her. Lyrei stood across from her, seemingly completely unconcerned with her surroundings, she too was holding an axe and a shield but instead of a grim expression she was smiling sweetly.

“Oh you’re doing such a good job Clara, you’re much faster than you were a week ago when we first did this!” She said.

“I’LL CHOP YOU INTO SO MANY PIECES YOU’LL NEVER REGENERATE!” Clara spat, with a roar she charged forward and in a flurry of motion swiped the axe at Lyrei, who almost casually parried every blow. She smiled and turned when Isstvell entered, without even glancing at Clara she continued to block the strikes.

“Jim!” Lyrei practically sang, “Isstvell! Clara and I were just playing gladiators!”

“We’re not playing!” Clara panted as she stepped back and raised her weapon again, “Any minute now I’m going to cut you clean in-“

Lyrei casually jumped forward and, using the shield as a bludgeon, knocked Clara’s axe away. Clara fell to her knees cried out in shock as Lyrei brought her own axe up in a wide arc and with complete control stopped the blade just a hair from Clara’s neck, the catgirl gulped as just a single drop of blood dripped from a shallow cut.

“You told me to draw some blood yes?” Lyrei asked, uncertain, “I don’t wish to harm you any more than you desire-“

“N-No that’s pretty good,” Clara stammered, gulping at the blade against her throat she smiled nervously, “Since we were just playing you can put that away right?”  

Lyrei smiled and the axe seemed to dissolve into sand and blow away. The arena around them dissipated and Clara’s living chamber became the same nondescript white walled space as his, Lyrei and Clara’s armor and weapons dissipated in the same way, Lyrei manifested a similar white dress to Isstvell, while Clara was wearing a simple brown tunic.

“Clara,” Lyrei began cheerfully as she walked over and placed a hand onto the smaller woman’s head, “I do believe that in your specie’s gladiator games if the victor spares the loser there is a certain act of submission and gratitude that the loser is to perform?”

Clara’s eyes went wide, “I uhhh-“

“Hey yeah!” Jim said suddenly, “A few days ago you made me “fight” you in that thing and when I lost you shoved me straight up your-“

“I may have misremembered the rules,” Clara gulped as Lyrei loomed over her. As a Glalan the catgirl stood somewhere between 90 and 100 feet tall, but the larger Aelmari loomed over her like amazons.

The “match” with Clara had been an embarrassing excuse for her to kick him around a bit with her feet and tease him, ending with a ride in her underwear that had left him soaked… and while he didn’t admit it to Clara, he’d enjoyed the whole experience immensely. He was rapidly discovering he had certain tastes that the giant catgirl was bringing out in spades, tendencies Lyrei and Isstvell had noticed, and it seemed to him, encouraged.

Lyrei shrugged as she walked over to Isstvell, “Jim, I’ve become rather excited, come here.” She plucked the human out of her friend’s cleavage and a pair of massive blue fingers gripped his swim trunks and casually ripped them off.

“H-hey!” he shouted, pushing against her thumb.

“Just replicate some more later Jim,” Isstvell said dismissively as she crossed her arms.

Jim laughed and kept fighting against her finger as Lyrei gripped him tighter, he had a feeling he knew where this was going, the two Aelmari had also been very interested in making sure he was sexually satisfied, something they both seemed to relish and which he had to admit was one of the better perks of the current captivity.

Lyrei lifted the hem of her dress and began moving Jim up underneath, he looked up and saw a giant blue womanhood waiting for him, it was rapidly moistening and he passed her lips easily. The last thing he saw as he was drawn in was her releasing the hem of her dress. Soon he was drawn further into the warm darkness as he heard the pleasured moans overhead. He knew from experience by now that whatever was being secreted and coating him functioned as an aphrodisiac and he gasped as he felt himself become hard, even as he slid further inside the giant elf he felt her walls seem to grip and massage him.

…

Shaerra had increasingly gotten used to using viewscreens and verbal communication as more and more humans had been brought onto the worldships. As Matriarch of the first worldship to make contact with earth she’d organized the first harvests of humans as a class-A biotrophy, and had rescued a delightful couple named Brandon and Trisha who she kept in her quarters as her personal humans. They were on her desk now, dressed in what she recognized as human business wear, Brandon had been something called a “marketer” and while she’d never needed a desk he’d insisted that it would help send the right message to the human leaders.

The viewscreens in her chambers began to light up as various Worldship Matriarchs and human political leaders joined her meeting. The hope was to convince humans to willingly let themselves be taken onto various worldships en masse, as the first species they’d encountered who would give them a chance to fulfill The Mission, there was fierce debate over exactly how firm the Aelmari needed to be with the wayward tiny species in getting them to accept their new place.

“Aliens,” snarled a human she recognized as the president of the United States, “We demand you stop spraying chemicals into our atmosphere!”

“Those are medical nanites Mr. President!” Shaerra explained, “Please stop trying to shoot down those drones, they are very delicate-“

“We will not be intimidated regardless of your technology!” An Asian human exclaimed, “The Glorious Democratic People’s Republic Will Subjugate-“

“That’s enough!” another human said, cutting him off.

“No, he’s right!” The American president exclaimed, “I’m with the Norks, we’ll nuke your asses!”

“Please don’t deploy nuclear weapons!” Shaerra said with the smile that Brandon had taught her was “disarming.” “The medical nanite spray is to treat any illnesses and extend your lifespans, as well as promote muscle growth and ideal aesthetics. I’m sure that you’ve noticed that many aches and pains are disappearing? That you feel better in general?”

The human leaders were silent a moment, many of them HAD been older, and over the past week as the Aelmari had sprayed the planet even older humans had found themselves feeling more youthful. The American president in particular had streaks of color returning to his grey hair even though he was well into his 70’s, which Shaerra had been told was near the end of the normal human lifespan. He had far fewer wrinkles than he’d had when she’d first talked with him as well.

“I’ve simply been using natural male enhancement!” The American president shouted.

“Rhino horn!” the Chinese leader butted in.

“A diet of French wine and cheese will make anyone feel youthful!” The French leader protested.

“Lies, those are the great leader’s medical nanites!” The North Korean leader exclaimed.

“ENOUGH OF THIS!” One of the Matriarchs, Lyanna, shouted suddenly. “You humans don’t appreciate all we’ve done for you, all we’re GOING to do for you!” She snarled, an unusually vibrant facial expression for an Aelmari, “Do you realize how many resorts we’ve built on my worldship? We’ve dedicated a space the size of one of your continents to recreation! We’ve dedicated THOUSANDS of our people to creating the perfect cotton candy recipe! The PERFECT cheeseburger! Do you know how many humans my worldship has!?” She screamed over the audio feed.

The human leaders were silent a moment, seemingly looking to the American president to respond, “Ummm…” He began slowly, “How many people have you er… kidnapped?”

“We have THIRTY!” she screamed, “not thirty million, or even thirty thousand, we have THIRTY! I have five billion people trying to play with THIRTY HUMANS! It’s not sustainable! You will submit to being cuddled and you will LIKE IT! Start ordering your people to go to our bases or you will learn of our loving ways by force!“

Shaerra mentally cut off Lyanna's audio and shut off her video screen, “Sorry about that!” she said apologetically, though the other Matriarchs glared at her. “We were just thinking that… maybe more of you humans would be ready to… join our space utopia?” she glanced at Brandon who gave her a thumbs up and a smile.

“In fact!” she said hesitantly, “My own human wants to tell you how great it is up here!”

Brandon waved his arms quickly in a gesture she recognized as “NO” but she’d already verbally issued communication, with a mental sigh she placed him in front of the human leaders.

Brandon had been the head of marketing for a small protein powder company in the United Kingdom. While he’d organized several successful marketing campaigns he wasn’t at all prepared to speak to the world leaders of the entire planet on behalf of an alien invasion that he only recently saw as benevolent.

“Uh hi, your… Excellencies,” he began with a nervous smile.

“Oh god he’s British,” a Dutch leader moaned, and a dozen other European leaders groaned and complained in succession, including the UK ambassador.

Brandon’s brow furrowed, “Now really is that appropriate?” The other humans were silent, “We’re faced with our first... second, alien contact, and you’re complaining that their leader likes the English?” The groans became even louder. “Anyways, it’s actually very pleasant on these ships, they’re very nice and-“

Shaerra groaned as mental alerts came in over the neural net that dozens of human nclear weapons were going towards the worldships. With a thought they were intercepted and destroyed.  

“Which one of you fired your nuclear weapons?” Shaerra scolded a bit louder than she’d intended. “That was very naughty!”

“Don’t use “naughty” it’s condescending!” Brandon tried to whisper but from the looks on the world leader’s faces the damage was done.

She took a minute to calm herself down, “I want everyone to agree not to use those nuclear bombs, we won’t allow you to kill one another!”

THAT caused an uproar among the gathered leaders, Brandon stepped forward, “Gentlemen!” he shouted, “Please… I know you may not take me seriously as a…” He struggled with the term, he definitely didn’t feel like a slave but he wasn’t sure he wanted to use the Aelmari’s preferred term of bio-trophy, “Captive, of the Aelmari,” he decided finally, “but I can assure you, there is no hidden agenda here, they seem to genuinely love humanity. They saved us from the Glalan attack-“

“How do we know they weren’t behind that as well?” The English leader asked.

“They weren’t,” Brandon said firmly, “my hometown saw several Glalans land, and they’re nothing like the Aelmari.”

There was grumbling at that but most of the world leaders had seen the footage and analyzed it ad nauseum. Earth military leaders and psychologists had firmly established the Glalans as a separate species, though their use as a false flag for the Aelmari was a popular conspiracy theory on remaining human networks.

Brandon cleared his throat, “I know that there is some… hesitance,” he said finally, “My girlfriend Trish and I… we have discussed the matter at length, and believe the Aelmari to be genuine in their statements when they say they wish to protect and cultivate humanity.”

Shaerra beamed excitedly and held both of them to her breasts, knocking the wind out of them as they were snuggled.

“Be that as it may,” one of the dignitaries “these abductions must end! Nearly fifteen percent of our planet’s population is now up on your worldships-”

“Adoptions!” Shaerra stressed as she put her humans back down, “they’re not abductions, they’re adoptions!” the other matriarchs chimed in in agreement.

“You can’t expect us to just leave earth!” the President shouted, “this planet is our home!”

“B-but it’s so dangerous and uncomfortable!” Shaerra protested, “there are predators and hazardous weather down there! Mr. President what if one of these “lions” were to come into that room right now?”

“A lion?” The president asked incredulously, “I’m unconcerned.”

“Maybe we could clean Earth up, and some humans could come back to it now and then as a vacation or something?” One of the Matriarchs suggested.

“I’ve had enough of this, return our people or face the wrath of humanity!” the president snarled, the other world leaders murmured agreement as the viewscreens flipped off.

“Oh by the stars that one issuing the threats is so cute!” one of the Matriarchs said, thankfully once the audio had been cut.

Shaerra closed the viewscreens to the other Matriarchs and huffed, looking down at her own humans, “Why is this so hard?” she asked them, “I always thought finding a species like the forebearers would be a day for celebrating, but it’s been so difficult getting anyone to cooperate!”

“Well,” Brandon said hesitantly, “maybe stop that broadcast saying you’re coming down to “harvest” humans? It doesn’t test well.”

“Yes of course,” Shaerra muttered quietly, she’d meant to do so… had she ever forgotten anything before? Stress was an alien concept and she wasn’t sure she appreciated it. “Why don’t you and Trish go swimming or something?” She lifted the two of them off the desk and left them on the floor with one last affectionate squeeze, “I have another meeting.” The two humans regarded her a moment before beginning their trek to their own chamber in the living quarters.

The viewscreen brought up Lyrei and Isstvell, two of the Worldship’s finer scouts. With the most experience with bio-species they’d been her second in command’s choice to rescue a human from one of the remaining Glalans, strangely they’d also taken the Glalan as a biotrophy along with the human, one of the reasons she was contacting them.

The viewscreen to Lyrei and Isstvell’s quarters showed the two Aelmari sitting on a pristine white couch on either side of a much shorter catgirl, who was nervously glancing up at either of them. On a small white table in front of them their human, Jim, stood wearing a plain pair of human clothes, he seemed… wet, and a bit flushed.

“At least one human seems to be enjoying our hospitality,” she thought to herself.

“We’ve brought our biotrophies to speak with you as you asked Matriarch,” Isstvell said.

“Good,” Shaerra said, eyeing the two of them, “I have a task for you, I have been reviewing human historical files and there seems to be a curious phenomenon often reported by many peoples across the planet of humans being taken offworld by extraterrestrials.”

“Oh yeah,” Jim said with a bit of an embarrassed look on his face, “that’s a sort of myth that-“

“We have analyzed the atmosphere and found emission chemicals that indicate that spacefaring craft had visited earth before the Glalans reached it,” the Matriarch explained, “Furthermore, we believe that the Great Pyramid of Giza was once used as some manner of fueling station. We have already recruited an expert in this matter, a Mr. Tsoukalos, and he has become one of our most vital human advisors."

“Really?” Jim asked, shocked. “I owe so many people apologies…”

“Of course,” the Matriarch said as though she’d told him it was going to rain that day, “what this means is that there is potentially a population of humans offworld somewhere, and we do not know what condition they are being kept in. It is vital to The Mission that we find this human population and protect and cultivate them."

“Kidnap them you mean?” Clara asked, crossing her arms.

“I’ll not be lectured on my treatment of humans from a member of a race that wanted to blow the planet up for iron ore,” Shaerra replied tersely, “Humans are already coming around to things anyways, right Jim?”

Lyrei and Isstvell grinned at him expectantly, “Uh, well it’s not as bad as I thought being abducted by aliens would be,” he admitted.

Shaerra took that as a positive and moved on, “I would like you two to take your Glalan to some nearby systems and find out if anyone has taken any humans from this planet, many species are reluctant to talk to us so the cat may be useful as an intermediary."

Clara’s ears twitched, “Finally! A chance to get out of here and stretch my legs a bit!”

“Am I going too?” Jim asked. He was eager to see more of galactic society and had idly been having daydreams of Flash Gordonesque adventures among the stars.

“I’m afraid not,” Shaerra said firmly, “we need to keep every human accounted for, I can’t let one leave the system on a potentially dangerous mission.”

“B-But Matriarch,” Lyrei protested, “We believe it is vital to our human’s mental health and fulfillment that he be allowed to occasionally participate in-“

“And perhaps we can allow that once we have adopted more humans and the population is stable,” Shaerra explained, “but that’s not where we are right now. Please prepare yourselves a vessel at the fabrication bay and begin this task immediately.”

The viewscreen flipped off and they were silent for a moment.

“Well shit,” Jim muttered, he felt a hollow sense in his chest, “Are you guys going to have one of your friends watch me while you’re gone?”

“Oh, we’re still taking you with us,” Isstvell said as she picked him up off the table.

“W-what?” he asked, shocked, “Isn’t that woman your queen or something?”

“The Matriarch is our superior yes,” Lyrei said with a smile, “But The Mission requires us to place your happiness and satisfaction as our highest principle, and we believe this may allow us to override a Matriarch’s orders.”

“Shouldn’t you guys put that to someone else’s judgment or something?” Clara asked, “it sounds like you’re committing treason.”

Lyrei and Isstvell stopped and glanced at each other, from the looks Clara and Jim could tell they were doing their instant communication over the Aelmari neural network.

“I don’t think anyone’s ever disobeyed orders before,” Lyrei said finally, “I guess we’ll see what happens! How do they handle treason among your people Clara?”

“Death I guess,” the catgirl mused, “but I don’t know your laws, maybe there’s a loophole.”

“Clara,” Isstvell said as she stuffed Jim roughly back into her cleavage, “We’ll allow you to design our ship and take the lead on this… don’t make me regret that decision.”

…

“And it needs Aelmari plasma cannons!” Clara said excitedly, squeezing Jim in her hand as the nanites constructed a ship in front of them, Clara’s design choices included a sleek and black spiky look. She was wearing a small silver circlet around her head which allowed her to control the Aelmari’s technology in the same way they did. “Do Aelmari make missiles? I know they’re not very efficient but I just love the way they look with exhaust trails and-“

“We’re not giving you Aelmari weapons on this… monstrosity,” Isstvell said, “keep it within the bounds of what a Glalan would be seen flying.” Clara pouted as the ship shimmered a few times, signaling that the construction nanites were finished.

“Now for disguises,” Clara said, a set of armor appeared on her as the nanites swarmed over her body, constructing it to her specifications. It reminded Jim a bit of the armor she’d been wearing when she first landed on earth, only cleaner, with ornate carvings near the knees, and what looked like a few slots that he guessed housed weapons.

She glanced up at the two Aelmari and frowned, “Don’t take this the wrong way knife-ears, but nobody is going to say a word to us if they think the two of you are around. The nanite cloud began creating dingy cloth trenchcoats which covered the two Aelmari’s sleek forms, and a plated armor underneath covering their chests. A set of opaque gas masks formed over their faces, obscuring their features from view.

“Don’t take those off,” Clara warned, “one look at blue skin and our welcome is going to wear out real fast where we’re going.”

“And where are we going exactly?” He heard Isstvell’s muted voice ask.

“There’s a planet called Marrek a few hundred units out,” Clara explained, “I know someone there who deals in black market stuff, and if there are humans being traded she’d probably know.” She grinned at Jim, “I’ll just tell her I’ve captured this adorable human slave I’m looking to sell.”

“Couldn’t I just be like, your business partner, or something?” Jim asked as the nanites washed over him and began changing his clothing as well. After a second all he was left with was a body hugging shirt and set of short shorts in a material that felt like spandex. “Oh come on, you’re joking?” he asked the giant catgirl who was admiring his body.

“You’re playing the part of merchandise and you need to look it!” Clara insisted. “You should show off that little body more.”

Jim rolled his eyes as he realized a tattoo was appearing across his forearm in dark pink alien lettering, “Really? What’s this say? Property of Clara?”

“Something like that yeah,” she admitted with a smug grin. A part of him was annoyed with himself that the smile she gave him was turning him on a bit.

“Come on, ditch the tattoo at least?” He pleaded. Clara smirked, but to Jim’s relief the pink lettering faded and disappeared as the cosmetic nanites dispersed.

The four of them boarded the ship, Jim still being held in Clara’s hands, she stopped in the main cargo bay of her impressive looking starship and paused, “Only room for one big girl up in the cockpit,” She said with a smile, “You two can ride out the journey here.”

Lyrei and Isstvell looked at each other momentarily through the gas masks hiding their faces, Jim realized they were speaking to one another via thought again. Finally One of them, Lyrei he though,t looked to the two of them.

“It’s adorable that you two want some time alone! We’ll stay back here then, don’t get too rough on Jim on the way there Clara!” her voice called cheerfully.

"Jim had best be in PERFECT health when we arrive on Marek," a sterner voice called, that was definitely Isstvell.

Clara muttered something in affirmative and walked into the cockpit of the ship, the pneumatic door hissed shut automatically behind her leaving the giant catgirl and her tiny human alone. Clara simply hit a few buttons and the ship began to lift off and fly out of the Aelmari Worldship’s docking bay and into the surrounding space.

“My very own ship,” Clara said at last as she flopped herself into the captain’s chair, “and all I had to do to get it was be some knife-ear’s pet.” She regarded Jim a moment, “So what do you think human? Should I vent the cargo bay and blow this sector?”

“Do you… think that would work?” Jim asked hesitantly.

“Aelmari aren’t going to be killed by a bit of vacuum, but by the time they got back on that worldship we could be halfway to Glalan Prime,” Clara mused.

“I think they’d catch us again eventually,” Jim said.

Clara laughed, “Yeah I think so too, it would be funny though.”

Clara and Jim chuckled together for a moment, the two of them had developed an… odd relationship over the past week of their “captivity.” The Aelmari were strange, and as kind as they were and as much as he tried to learn about them, their species was operating in realms he didn’t completely understand. Clara’s world, and the things she talked about by contrast, seemed like something he could wrap his head around. Relative to the blue elves she could have almost grown up down the street from him. It went both ways, Clara was able to understand much of life on earth pre-invasion, and sometimes when bored the two would compare entertainment media from their respective planets. Jim had to admit that Glalan movies, once you got past the entire cast being catgirls, were actually pretty good.

“Speaking of funny,” Clara said with a grin, “When I was using their thought-thingy to design this ship, I added a few fun extras to the cockpit!” she pointed and Jim sighed as he saw what looked like a brass cage built into the ship’s dash, in ornate cursive lettering in English and in a language he guessed was Glalan “Jim” was inscribed.

“I really wish they’d let me design the ship,” he muttered.

“Oh, that’s not the best part!” Clara said as she stood up. A small chain dangled from the ceiling, delicately she turned him over and clasped his leg into a shackle at the end, leaving him dangling from the top of the cockpit like a demented pair of fuzzy dice on a rear view mirror.

“Clara this thing is making me dizzy!” he shouted as the blood ran to his head. Clara responded by playfully batting at him, almost like a regular cat would, causing him to gently sway back and forth. Finally the world stopped swaying as he finally was left hanging again, Clara had a hungry look in her eye as she licked her lips.

“You don’t have any Aelmari around to save you now,” she teased, “I could just eat you right up…”

“Oh ha ha,” he said with a smile, but his mockery was cut short as she unclipped the chain and lowered him into her mouth. It was warm and wet, he was caressed seemingly from all sides by soft flesh. He panicked as he heard a giggle come from her throat below him and her tongue arched up, pushing him further back into her throat. He felt the muscles constrict around him and began to squirm furiously, was she really going to swallow him!?

He felt himself pulled upwards by the small chain he'd forgotten was still fastened to his leg. He breathed a sigh of relief as he was once again dangled in front of Clara’s grinning face.

“Oh relax, like I’m really going to eat my best friend.”

“Best friend?” he sputtered, “you have a weird way of showing it!”

“Hmm…” she said as she tapped an erection that was very visible through the thin shorts she’d put him in, “I see you’re just hating the way I treat you. I remember what happened when they put those truth-or-shock collars on us you know.” Seeing his embarrassed expression she leaned back in the captain’s chair and slowly lowered him down to her chest where he rested comfortably on the molded breasts of her armor. With one hand she unclasped the chain from his ankle and clipped it back to the ceiling.

“It’s… not the worst,” Jim admitted quietly.

“And just so you know, yes I do believe you’re my best friend Tiny,” she said, “I don’t think I have any other friends that would risk their life for me, or get between me and an angry Aelmari.”

Jim thought it over, the two of them had gotten close due to the bizarre circumstances they’d endured together, and even though she’d been part of an invasion force… well he enjoyed her company.

“I think you’re my best friend too,” he said strangely, it was almost a surprise to him, but it was true.

“Happy to hear it!” Clara said with a smile, “now like I told the blueskins back there, I know someone on this planet who would be the person to talk to if there was someone trafficking humans. Just a warning, she might get a little… grabby.”

“Grabby?” he asked with a frown.

“Hey, remember we’re supposed to be undercover as slavers!” Clara said, “Or pet dealers… I don’t know, however you want to label it, but humans are already cute and you’re cute even for a human, and a male too! So I think you’re probably going to get uhhh, poked and prodded a bit.”

“Do they not have a lot of males where we’re going?” Jim asked uncertainly.

Clara laughed, “Oh I forgot, your species doesn’t have a lot of experience with this sort of thing. Most sexually dimorphic species have a pretty uneven gender ratio, males don’t usually leave their home planets and there aren’t going to be ANY on some backwater like Marek, so even a tiny one from a weird species like yours is going to pick up a lot of attention.”

“This just keeps getting better and better,” he muttered.

“Hey now!” Clara said with a smile, “I’ll be right there the whole time, and I won’t let anyone hurt you or run off or anything! We’ll also have the blueskins at our back, and they probably have enough firepower by themselves to level half the spaceport. Just try to enjoy the experience.”

“So how long is it going to take us to get to this place?” Jim asked, looking at the stars streaking by the cockpit windows. He supposed he’d technically been on a spaceship for a week now, but… seeing the cosmos fly by from this vantage point, he felt THIS was how a space adventure should look.

“Around twelve hours,” Clara said, “the Aelmari didn’t let me put any of their weapons on this thing, but I did shove one of their dimensional drives in it and it didn’t set off whatever block Isstvell put on me when I was designing it. This same trip took my people’s ship a good three weeks.” She tapped a few buttons on her console and a small, to Clara at least, viewscreen folded up, to Jim it could have been from the local megaplex. Unlike the Aelmari ones he was used to, this wasn’t a holographic display but looked almost like a standard computer screen he’d have seen on earth, and not a particularly nice one at that.

“I’d better set up our meeting,” Clara muttered as she typed in what Jim thought must be something like a phone number.

“So who is this contact of yours?” Jim asked.

“Well,” Clara said, a bit embarrassed, “she’s kind of an old family friend, just try to act like I’m scary and intimidating okay?”

The screen crackled to life as someone on the other end answered. The woman who appeared was wearing a red robe, and where Clara had a set of catlike ears and pink hair this woman had foxlike ones protruding from long red hair a shade of which that wouldn’t be out of place on earth. She looked to be in at least middle age, but it was hard to tell.

“Clara!” the woman said with a warm smile, “I must admit, I’m happy to see you’re alive! Oh your mother is going to be so relieved, I heard that the Glalan expedition was lost? What happened dear? Were the primitives more powerful than you expected?”

“Hi Auntie Lucia,” Clara said, “Uh, the expedition ran into an Aelmari worldship while we were on the planet and-“

“Auntie?” Jim mouthed at Clara but she ignored him.

“Oh by the stars,” Lucia said, “You poor thing! I’m surprised anyone is left alive at all! They’re very unforgiving when you mess with their precious primitives you know. How did you escape?”

Clara licked her lips and looked down at Jim, “I outsmarted them!” she didn’t say anything further and there was an awkward silence.

Lucia’s brow furrowed, “I see… and that armor Clara, it looks very expensive, if your expedition was wiped out-“

“Well I got lucky you see,” Clara stammered, “I sort of stumbled across a group of traveling Space Moths who smuggled me away from the primitives, and then they gave me some credits to get back on my feet!”

“How many credits did they give you?” Lucia asked, her eyes narrowing, “Is that… YOUR spaceship Clara?”

Clara was at a loss, “I umm, that is to say I-“

Jim rolled his eyes and tried not to laugh, “Uh excuse me,” he cut in, “My ummm, Master, she stole many valuable and rare jewels from my planet and she traded them to other aliens for this ship, she was so terrifying!”

“Oh my now what is that!” Lucia said excitedly, her face filled the monitor as she leaned in closer. “What an adorable little biped!” the fox-woman exclaimed as Clara held him up under the arms and put him closer to the screen, “Was this one of the planet’s inhabitants? What are you called?”

“Humans ma’am,” Jim said in what he hoped was a meek tone, “Clara- I mean Master took me with her when she left Earth.”

“Yes that’s how it happened,” Clara said quickly, “but I’ve grown… bored of him, and I’d like to sell him. Could you arrange something like that for me?”

“Hmm…” Lucia muttered, looking him over, “He’s quite cute and certainly very rare, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like him around here… What’s your name precious?”

“Jim Ma’am,” he said.

“Well Jim, is there anything I should know about your species? Poisonous? Mind control powers?”

“No, what you see is what you get,” he joked.

“Well I haven’t seen EVERYTHING yet,” Lucia laughed, and through the screen he felt the fox-woman’s eyes going over his body, “I must say Jim, you’re taking being enslaved and sold off rather… well.”

“Well yeah,” he said, not sure how to respond to that, “I’m just excited to be away from Clara, she’s so cruel.”

“Really now?” Lucia mused. She regarded Clara for a moment, “Clara… are you sure this is something you want to do? Trading in sentients is a very ugly business even by my standards. If you insist I will put you in contact with someone who runs in such circles, but I warn you it’s not a decision to take lightly.”

“W-What?” Clara asked, a bit surprised, “I’m a murderous space marauder now Auntie!”

“I can see that,” Lucia said tersely, “but somehow I don’t believe my eyes. There is something else going on here. You simply don’t come back from a failed raid with millions of credits in new gear and in your own starship, no matter how much charity you receive from Space Moths. We’ll discuss the matter on your arrival.”

Lucia’s expression went warm and she looked down at Jim, “And for you little human… well I’ll have to conduct a physical on you when you get here, a fertility check perhaps? I’m looking forward to it… who knows, maybe I can convince Clara to part with you at a reasonable price and we can forget this whole buyer nonsense.” She winked at Jim and the viewscreen clicked off.

“So that’s your aunt?” Jim asked, “Is she the same species?”

“She’s from Glalan Beta,” Clara said, “they have a bit of a different look there.” Clara sighed, “She’s kind of a friend of my mom’s.”

“Foxes and cats,” Jim mused, “what a universe.”

“We’ve talked about this Jim!” Clara said, “I don’t look like a cat your cats just happen to look a bit like us! It’s not nice to compare someone to a domestic pet animal!”

“I wouldn’t know anything about being compared to a pet,” Jim said, trying not to laugh, “Anyway, did you really want me to ride all the way there in that little cage?” he gestured to the overly ornate dashboard fixture.

“Well I could just hold you,” Clara said sweetly as she traced a finger over his head, ruffling his hair. “I made sure the ship’s computer had some of those space adventure films you like, we’ve got some time to kill.”

“Sounds great,” he said as she brought up a list of films on the viewscreen. “It’s so weird, I’m actually here on a space adventure, and I’m killing time by watching old sci-fi movies.”

Clara shrugged, “until you get where you’re going space travel isn’t all that exciting, sorry. What did you think it was going to be like?”

“Well I imagined myself in the captain’s chair,” he said wistfully.

Clara’s face flashed a mischievous look suddenly, “You can still sit in the captain’s chair.” She grabbed him and stood up. Turning around she gently placed him on the seat cushion. “What are your orders captain?”

Jim knew Clara well enough by now to know what was coming but he played along anyways, “Are there any nearby celestial bodies worth exploring?”

“Just one,” Clara said with a giggle as she turned around and settled back into the chair, covering Jim’s struggling form with her butt. She ground herself into the soft seat and sighed. Idly she looked at the viewscreen and selected one of the movies Jim had insisted was “a classic.” She squirmed as she felt him move and shifted her weight on him with a low giggle as the credits began to roll.