Hours had passed, and Arell was still snoozing away. Her breathing was slow and rhythmic Bradley Peterson, from his position on the shelf, looked at her, hoping that by some miracle she’d suffer a huge brain aneurism and die instantly. But of course no such thing would happen…

            “The good die young,” Bradley muttered to himself. “But pricks live forever.”

            Ordinarily, in tv shows (like Star Trek or some shit), the hero would, at times like this, would use the opportunity to find a way to escape. They’d use some tool or skill they had and short out the force field. With that down, they’d use some of the wires or some rope or some miraculous shit to climb down to the floor. Then, he’d make his way to the door, only for his capture to wake up suddenly and realize would happen. Cue the chase scene, where, at the conclusion, the hero somehow avoids the massive figure, who is stomping around like a big, dumb ape, and manages to find a device to send him to safety. Then, he’d rejoin his team, or crew, or whoever, and they’d all drink and have a big fucking orgy in celebration.

            Nice on the shows, but the reality was much more depressing and difficult. Bradley had thought of everything that the hypothetical hero could have, and nothing would help him. Even if his force field was off right now, he would be stuck. No way to get off the otherwise bare and empty shelf (and the walls were bare to, no wires or anything). Even if he did, somehow, manage to get down, he’d never make it to the door in time. Arell would wake up by then and catch him (she was no big, dumb ape). But, assuming a vessel in Arell’s brain really did burst, taking her life, how would he get to the door? What if the sensor that caused it to open didn’t see him, and it remained closed? He’d be trapped. Again, ignoring that, even if the door was wide open, he’d have to find the device that could send him back to Earth. And, even if he knew where it was, he had no way to know how to use it (surely the instruction manual would be in Arell’s native language). But even if he knew how it worked…could he make it work at his small size? What if he couldn’t turn on the interface?

            Arell was right. There was no simple way out of this.

            Some fun to break the ice, she had said…oh Jesus, what did that bitch have forming in her head?

            He had thought of several horrible experiences that were possible. Her sitting on him like she had done to the others, or being forced to help her experiment on the other “Earthies”, or seeing how far she could flick him with her finger. The worst thing he thought of is her using him as some sort of sex toy. Arell was an alien, and he had no idea what sort of traditions or norms her culture (assuming there were such things there) followed, but, it seemed like a good bet that she, being an organic creature, had sexual desires just like every other living thing. He was too small to be used as a vibrator, but he could probably fit into her “love chamber” if she so chose to put him there. Bradley loved having sex as much as the next guy, but being thrown into a vagina completely seemed much less appealing.

            Arell stirred in her sleep. Bradley tensed and looked over towards her. She had been lying on her stomach and now she rolled over onto her back. For a moment, she laid still, and Bradley thought she had gone back to sleep, but then she sat up. Her captive felt his heart begin to race. He was not ready for ‘quality time’.

            But Arell didn’t even look at him. She stared forward with a blank expression, then rubbed her eyes. When she removed her hands from her face, Bradley saw a groggy look. She then simply plopped her head back down, rolled over on her side, her back facing Bradley, and laid still. After a few moments, her breathing returned to that slow, rhythmic pace. She had fallen asleep again.

            That, Bradley thought, is the behavior of a truly exhausted individual.

            Hunger complained in Bradley’s stomach but he ignored it. Better hungry than a toy, he figured. In truth, he was becoming groggy as well. The stress of the situation had taken quite a toll on him, and he could use a nap. But the thought of being asleep during a time when Arell was awake was a frightening one. Generally, because she was so big, it was almost impossible for her to sneak up on him. Her footfalls were loud and shock the shelf a little. It would be easy to hear her coming, but he still didn’t want to take the chance.

            He then thought of the people she had captured. All of the world leaders were now in Arell’s possession. She had said that she had thoughts of what she was going to do with them, but he knew her reasons for taking them from the planet. Her appearance on Earth would reveal to many people that something incredible was happening. Not everyone would see the massive Arell, but those who did were panicked. They quickly returned to friends and loved ones, and soon rumors of a massive woman with purple hair spread across the globe, with some doubting its truth. Rumors in each country that their head of government had been whisked away would add fuel to the fire. Essentially, Arell was toying with the “Earthies”, letting them stew on fear for a little bit. Maybe she would public announce, eventually, the fact that she was now the Supreme Queen of Earth, or whatever. But for now, she was letting them use their imagination.

            The rest of the Earthies she had, she was using for “research purposes”, her vague words for what she was doing with them. She hadn’t told him what that entailed, and part of him didn’t want to know. As bad as he dreaded spending time alone with Arell, at least he thought he had a chance of living a life, whereas her little test subjects would probably die.

            Another thing that would be good to know was the extent of Arell’s technology. Obviously she had some pretty serious shit in her possession. Teleporters, sophisticated computers that could turn an entire planet off, the fucking ship itself. And also her suit. She had said that her suit did more than show off her body, but he didn’t know what that meant. Before leaving for Earth, she had said that a lot of the weapons that the Earthies had would be offline, and whatever else would do nothing. Did the suit make her essentially bullet proof? Or was it just because she was just so fucking big? She had returned with the President unscathed and healthy, even though she had descended upon several high government locations. Presumably, those locations had to be guarded, and if they were, Arell had had no trouble coping with them. Bradley doubted that a standard hand-gun would be much use against her.

            Advanced tech from a superior race, as Arell had made more than clear during their first meeting. If Arell was to be trusted, then her race was one of the largest living beings in the universe (apparently the largest in the known universe for now), they were a highly intelligent group who had transcended from the petty wars amongst themselves that plagued planet Earth. Basically, a big ol’ happy family, Bradley supposed. What had she called the planet she was from? Avakon? Would be an interesting experience to visit that place.

            Arell had talked about physical similarities between the “Earthies” and her race, but Bradley saw some behavioral similarities. Arell had revealed that being on the ship was boring, so clearly she had a desire to be entertained, to do something, like all humans. That probably one reason she brought him up here. To keep her entertained (without killing all of her test subjects), and, perhaps, just to have someone to talk to, hinting a need for interaction. Arell fiddled with her hair absentmindedly at times, or with the handle of the zipper of her suit.  Small things like that. Whether or not Arell was aware of this, Bradley didn’t know, but he had a feeling she did. She’d been watching the planet for long enough it seemed.

            There was a Spartan soldier frozen on Arell’s ship. She claimed to have seen Rome rise and fall, Columbus discover America, and so on. If that was true, she was over a thousand years old. This in and of itself was surprising enough, but the thing that was really troubling…Arell looked young. She had the appearance of a woman in her prime years; good figure, strong body, youthful energy, and full of life. Her actions were that of a young person as well. She was bold, charismatic, and assertive. How long has she looked that way? Just how long did her people live!? How does a body go on for a thousand years and still go strong? Bradley, having been drinking his sorrows of losing his own years, felt a momentary ping of jealousy against Arell for her extended youth. It seemed unreal, but she was living proof, if what she said was true. The Spartan soldier could be a man in a costume that she had abducted, in some reenactment like they did for Gettysburg every year. But…it had looked real. The man was frozen in a pose with his sword up, as if he had been about to attack something. His eyes had been wild, fierce, almost savage. His face (as much as Bradley could see) was unshaven and he looked somewhat dirty. And, of course, he could have just imagined it, but he thought he saw blood specks on the armor…dried ones.

            Movement from her bed interrupted Bradley’s thoughts and he looked up, just knowing in his heart that this was it. Arell rolled onto her back again, laid there for a moment…and then her eyes opened, and she sat up again. She stretched her arms over her head and yawned. Her head turned over to Bradley, and the feeling of dread, knowing that the moment had come, returned, and his body tensed up. He hitched in his breath.

            No, no…he thought…go back to sleep, you look exhausted, how about another hour or two, sweetheart?

            But when that smile, that wretched smile of hers, stretched on her lips, he knew that his fate was now sealed. How he wished he could wipe that fucking smile off her face. It would be the best feeling in the world. Even better than sex at this point. That smile, not an evil, overly dramatic toothy grin, but just a simple, pretty smile was what he was beginning to hate most about Arell. It was a smile of confidence, one you had when everything was just peachy and safe, not a care in the world. It symbolized that she felt she had everything under control, that there was not a thing that Earth could do to rise against her. Bradley very much wanted to see what facial expression she’d make during a moment of fear, anxiety, or worry.

            Arell got out of bed, stretched her legs, and then walked over to Bradley’s pen and bent forward, her hands on her knees, and brought her face to his level. A moment of silence followed this as the two stared at each other.

            “Hello Arell…” Bradley said, timidly. “How’d you sleep?” Maybe being polite would make her return the favor. He hoped so.

            “Very well,” She replied. “I slept longer than I meant to, actually. Only meant to take a nap, but…” She shrugged cutely.

            “You were out for awhile.” He stalled, hoping to put off what ever was in store.

            “About five hours, yes,” Arell nodded.

Christ! Five hours!? That’s how long he’d been sitting here!?

            “Five hours…” Bradley said, trying to hide his shock. He had a feeling it didn’t do well. “You must have been pretty tired…”

            “Well, conquering your planet was a big job,” She replied. He didn’t like that look she was giving him. It was a sly look, and that could mean nothing good. “You must be starving then, hm? After waiting so long…”

            She knew he had been trying to stall that. He just knew that she did.

            “Actually, I’m not that hungry, really…” Bradley said, trying to sound causally dismissive. Immediately after though, his stomach protested with a growl. He ignored it, though, hoping it wasn’t heard. But then the sly look on Arell’s face came back. It was beginning to become clear that that was the look of ‘knowing’.

            Damn that Vulcan hearing of hers, Bradley thought.

            “The mind lies, but the body does not,” Arell replied, the slyness appearing in her voice. “For while the mind may drive the body, the body, likewise, may drive the mind. Entwined are they, and they both speak through the other. The mind speaks the body’s desires, and the body speaks the mind’s desire. One may lie, but the other will not.”

            And now, Bradley thought, a word from Ghandi, and then a lecture from the Buddha himself.

            “What?” Bradley asked. “Are we going to start meditating now?”

            “No, I’m just relaying some good wisdom for you,” Arell said. “Body language is very important to my race. We understand it very well, and we use it often, especially to ones who are very close and dear to us. The mouth is a great communicator, but there are things that only the body can say and express.”

            “Touching…” Peterson said.

            “My point,” Arell continued. “Is that I can read your mind through your body. It’s like a window into your own thoughts. You’re trying to stall me, because you’re hoping, in vain I shall add, that I’ve forgotten what I said, that my slumber seeped it away into a corner in the farthest section of my mind, where I won’t find it. Your body tells all, and right now it is silently screaming its truth.” Bradley was silent. “I never lie, because I know my body may betray my lie. So, I speak the truth, and thus never have to fight my body.”

            I feel like I’m sitting around a campfire, he thought, with a bunch of potheads.

            Arell looked at Bradley closely.

            “You’re scared of me…” She said softly. “That’s another thing your body is telling me. You are, aren’t you?” Bradley didn’t say anything, hoping that was a rhetorical question. “I asked you a question…” Dammit.

            “If you’re so good at reading me,” Bradley said, trying to keep his voice steady. She was playing mind games, and he wished she’d stop. “Then you should already know everything.”

            “You’re trying to control it, but I hear that quiver in your little voice,” Arell said, intimately. “I can read your feelings, and your thoughts to a point, but those are only expressions. The body can express, but it can’t explain itself. But the mind can. I want to hear your mind. So…answer my question.”

            How about you jump out of this ship without a space helmet, Bradley thought, bitterly.

            “…y-yes…I’m…sc-scared of…” God, the loss of pride and dignity hurt like hell. “..of…you…”

            “Why are you scared of me?” Arell asked. She was clearly getting into this. “What is it about me that frightens you?”

            Well…you’re too fucking big for one, Bradley thought.

            “You killed two people in front of me,” He said. “How do I know that you won’t do the same to me?”

            Arell smiled widely.

            “So you’re afraid that I’ll hurt you,” She said, softly. “End your life under my foot, in my hands, or…pressed against my chair.” She chuckled. For a moment she looked at her little Earthy. Then, she reached down and pressed the unseen button and the force field fell again. Before he knew it, he was in Arell’s grip again. She stood at full height now, unbending from the shelf. “A reasonable fear, of course. I’d think you crazy if you weren’t afraid of that. You’re absolutely right, after all. Your life goes on as long as I want it to. On a simple whim, I may crush your little body for no reason other than I feel like it at any given instance. Possibly now, for example…”

            Before he could beg, it was already happening. Her fingers squeezed and suddenly he could feel all of his organs want to come squirting out of his mouth. That didn’t happen…what did come out of his mouth was a long, terrible wail of pain. The only other thing besides the great agony was a thought that repeated: I’m gonna die.

            “STOP!” He yelled. “ARELL! STOP! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, YOU’RE HURTING MEEE! PLEEEASE!”

Arell relaxed her fingers and let Bradley fall back onto her palm, which she opened to catch him. He lied there, the taste of blood strong in his mouth. The red stuff came out of his nose as well, and his chest felt broken, and twisted…even though he knew it wasn’t. The pain was great, and he cried. He cried from the pain, he cried from the humiliation, he cried for his freedom. He slowly turned towards Arell’s face, the most pitiful expression he’d ever had in his life now on his face.

It was met with Arell’s calm and charming smile.

“Please, Arell…” He sobbed, big tears rolling down his eyes. “Please…let me go. Don’t hurt me anymore…Pleas…I want to go home…”

“Awww, I know you do, little Earthy,” Arell said softly, gently stroking Bradley like a cat with one finger. “But your place is here, on this ship. With me.”

“Please!” Bradley begged. “Don’t! Don’t keep me here! I’m begging you…I’m REALLY begging you here…please let me go…”

“Shhhh…” Arell cooed. “There, there…you’ll be fine. You’ll feel better after you eat.”

“Why…” He sobbed. He was giving up, a part him fought it…but he knew he was giving up. His voice was high and full of wails. “Why are you doing this? Why me? I haven’t done anything to you…nothing…I didn’t even know you until yesterday or whenever the fuck it was…I don’t deserve this…”

“This isn’t personal,” Arell replied, gently in a soothing voice. “But, fate, chance, or whatever power you may believe in has selected you to become my Earthy. And, if you’re my Earthy, I want you to be a good Earthy. And a little pain will go a long way to fostering respect.” She lifted him close to her eyes. “You know I tell the truth, and you know that I am capable of a plethora of actions…some of would be rather unpleasant to experience. All I ask is you respect me, and things will go smoother for you. Can you do that?”

Wearily, Bradley nodded his head, tears streaming down his face.

“Can you say, ‘I respect you, Arell’?”

“I…I…respect you…Ah…ah…rell…”

“Good boy,” Arell said, patting him on the head with her index finger. She began to walk. “Now, let’s feed you, shall we?”

…

When Bradley was a kid, he used to watch tv shows like the Jetsons, who lived in futuristic towers of some kind, and had assumed that was how the future would be. Moving floors, flying cars, and meals that could pop up instantly by inserting some little capsule in the microwave, or a computer that could just generate them, sort of like those 3D printers that were being created back on Earth. As Arell carried him into the kitchen/dining room of the ship, he wondered if the experience he was about to have would be anything like that.

            The room was as white and bare as the rest of the damn ship. There was a curved island counter in the shape of “U”, and what appeared to be a refrigerator. It looked like one…except it had no doors, no ice dispenser or anything he would see on his fridge. There appeared to be no sink, dishwasher, or an oven. There did appear to be a stove, but one that appeared to be electric…maybe, fuck it, he couldn’t tell. The fridge was the only thing he’d seen so far that had any shade of color. The left side was a soft blue, the other a soft red.

Arell placed Bradley on the counter and walked up to the fridge-like thingy. As she approached it, a hologram display appeared before her, showing her a list of things. Again, it was all in her mumbo jumbo native language, so he had no idea what foods she had stored, but somehow he doubted a Philly Cheesesteak was one of the options. She scrolled through the options, stopped occasionally and considered one thoughtfully, before dismissing it and continuing.

“Hmmm…what’s something good…?” Arell mused to herself. Preferably something edible, please, Bradley thought. “Aha! Perfect!”

Arell pressed a button, then a second one, scrolled for a little bit more, then two more buttons. After that, the holograph disappeared and she walked towards the counter. On the side opposite of what he had supposed was the stove, along the edge, were an array of buttons. Arell considered them briefly and pushed one of them. The counter’s surface lit up like a copier machine and a bright blue beam slid across the surface. When it had gone all the way across, a wide rectangular, but thin, holograph sat on the surface. 

At least he thought it was a holograph, it was blue and translucent, but Arell picked it up and placed it aside. Then, she pressed another button and the bright blue beam slid across again. When this was done, something else appeared…something that looked like the holograph of a butcher knife. Arell picked this up too and placed it on top of the rectangle.

Okay…she can conjure a cutting board and knife…noted, Bradley thought, glumly.

A compartment on the blue side of the fridge opened, and from it, Arell withdrew a plate (which also looked like it was supposed to be just a holograph) that contained…stuff. Two different types of…stuff. One was a pile of what looked sort of looked like red pine cones posing as fruit, and the other looked like an onion or a turnip that had grown several arms. As Arell placed these down on the counter, he saw the red part of the fridge brighten, and a soft whirring was emitting from it. When its compartment, Arell brought out a slab of some kind of meat that Bradley wasn’t sure he wanted to touch.

He had no idea what it was. But it was dark brown and yellow. His dad had once cooked hamburgers that he had placed cheese inside of, but that’s not what this looked like. It was a combination of dark brown and bright yellow. It was hard to explain, the colors weren’t mixed, forming a new color…but at the same, the colors were smeared together. Arell lifted the plate to her nose and inhaled deeply, her own stomach letting out a grown of anticipation. To Bradley, it sound like a distant earthquake.

“You’ll like this,” Arell said. “It’s the meat from a Ragavaron, a delicacy on my planet.”

“A Rah-guh-var-run?” Bradley repeated slowly. “What’s that?”

“The biggest thing in the universe, next to my race.” Arell explained. “They live on a planet at the edge of the Avakranian Solar System, the system that holds my home planet. They weren’t the only living things. A race of more intelligent, but smaller creatures existed, but they were plagued by the Ragavarons, which were dumber, but much bigger. They had very sharp claws, since the other race tried to burrow into the ground to escape them. The beasts simply dug madly until they caught up with them. Their teeth were also quite sharp. They were meat eaters, and they ate other creatures on the planet, but the intelligent creatures were the favorite. My race showed up, this was many, many years before your planet, and in less than three months we had those dumb maggaatrites on the run, and we were eating THEM.”

“Magga…what?” Peterson asked, confused.

“Forget it,” Arell waved this away. “That’s my native tongue slipping in. Anyway, we now regularly hunt them for sport and food.” She made a gesture down across her body. “These suits were actually modified to sustain bites from the Ragavarons, much like you Earthies have shark suits against shark bites.”

 “Great…” Bradley said, glumly. Good luck hurting her with that on, people of Earth. “How big are we talking about? These…Rah-guh…whatevers?”

“Oh…about one hundred and fifty feet, give or take,” Arell shrugged. “When standing on its hind legs anyway.” She reached for the knife and cut a section of the meat. It sliced through so effortlessly, it was as if Arell was using a laser. She offered the small chunk to Bradley, who looked at it skeptically…and a bit worriedly.

“What if I can’t eat this?” He asked. “What if I get sick? Or if it’s poisonous to me?”

“If it’s not poisonous to me, it’s not poisonous to you,” Arell said, patiently. “We have identical digestive systems, remember?”

He wanted to argue, wanted to reject that piece of “meat”…but the pain in his chest, the humiliation…as still far too fresh in his mind. Remembering that sharp, agonizing, horrible pain, he immediately reached out and seized the meat. Taking a deep, quivering breath, he bit into the meat…

And found it utterly delicious.

His previous fears now harshly cast aside, Bradley began to eat the meat like a madman, the juice dripping down his cheek and dripping to the surface of the counter. The meat broke into chunks and fell too, and Bradley dropped to his knees and ate them off the counter with his bare hands like a savage who hadn’t eaten for days. In those moments, he forgot about Arell, who stood watching him, smiling as usual. Her little Earthy had now been fed.

She turned away from Bradley, as he literally tore into his meal, and began to cut up some of the pine cone looking fruit. When the meal was done, she was as clean as you please, having not gotten a single bit on her fancy suit. Bradley, however, looked as if he had killed something with his bare hands and had eaten it raw. His clothes were stained.

He asked for seconds…