Page 12 of Her Alien Savior
“Is that normal?” Riley hesitated before resuming her work on the injury around my neck.
“The elder root is normally used to, uh, ease a necia warrior’s rut... all his muscles should be immobilized. All of his muscles...”
“So, the fact that he’s still awake, and,” she cleared her throat, “primed for rutting?”
“He is quite the warrior,” Shen-La answered with praise. “It’ll be a shame if this injury permanently damages his glands, if this is what is possible through elder root, and the few working glands can still manage this. I find myself uncommonly interested in offering him a bath to assist him when the elder root wears off.” The medic grabbed a glove, slipped her hand within her pants, and proceeded to milk her scent with a shiver.
“What are you doing?” Riley appeared appalled, and I watched the exchange curiously. It was common for necia warriors to regulate their chemicals with pleasure, so it wasn’t unusual for a warrior to be triggered by the sight of another’s arousal.
Medic Shen-La removed her hand from her pants with a grunt. “I’m preparing a sample for Commander Direl to know I offer to bathe him when he is ready.” I chuffed at the thought of bathing in the medic’s juices. It was a generous offer that many male warriors would gladly accept, but I found myself growing irritated that she would offer to allow me to bathe her in front of the human I had imprinted on for rutting. It would be considered an insult to Riley in my culture, if Shen-La had considered humans an option for such a thing.
Humans were more like repressed animals that needed our protection, and most warriors would not consider them worthy of mating, or even a challenging cock sport. My agitation grew at the thought, and my breathing labored as Shen-La’s gloved hand reached out to give me her essence. I couldn’t smell it with the effects of the elder root thankfully, but her finger pushed into my mouth, rubbing against the gums of my fangs where I could taste her flavor even through the numbness.
Riley had grabbed the medic by the wrist and pulled it from my mouth. I wished to spit, but was only capable of a growl. Shen-La’s juice would remain with me as an extended invitation when I regained my full faculties. There was a deep heaviness that ached in my gut knowing if I was in rut… I would be without a mind to stop myself from returning to Shen-La to heal myself and make good on the offer. I should be grateful, but a strange sensation heated through my chest that had nothing to do with my charred skin.
Chapter seven
Riley
ThemedicalstaffonEarth took oaths to do no harm, and I didn’t know enough about necia culture to know what the hell Shen-La was doing, but I didn’t like it. Everything in me screamed to scratch her eyes out for shoving her tainted fingers into the incapacitated warrior.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded. “You don’t have his consent.”
“Ah, of course. I should explain. Human customs are so different.” Shen-La withdrew her hand, and I let go of her. I couldn’t keep the scowl off my face as I waited for her answer. “It is highly likely that due to the commander’s disgraced status, no female on this ship would offer themselves to him. I’m giving him my scent so he’ll know I would help him reclaim honor and assist with his healing. If he goes into rut, his instincts will find me. I’ll be able to help him.”
“You’re telling me that he’ll know your scent now and—“
She interrupted me to finish, “He’ll know I’ll help him, whether that’s if he needs to rut, or otherwise. It’s my offer of loyalty. He was once the second of the king himself, and I believe King Sylve is being too harsh.”
King Sylve, I gritted my teeth. Some king he was, blackmailing me to help him. Now, I even had some kind of nanobug tracker in my bloodstream. He told me to tell Direl to cooperate for my sake, but I wouldn’t drag him into this. This was my problem, and I would figure it out.
But, I also didn’t want Shen-La to be sticking her fingers into Direl’s mouth with her slime either. Something stirred in the pit of my stomach at the idea, and I put the last of the ointment on the injuries with a little more aggression than I probably should have. What was next?
“Now, I’ll program the nanomeds to detect if they are near the glands, dissolve any dead tissue, then have the ones that didn’t self-distruct in the process to convert to surrounding tissue.”
“The ointment was full of nanomeds? So, he’ll have computer bugs in him now?” My eyes widened in shock, wondering if I did the right thing forcing him to be medicated.
“Not the same thing,” Shen-La assured. “These nanomeds are biological, and the small part that isn’t, safely expels from the body through the urine when their task is done. The mechanical part is merely a sensor and contains specific code to write what the biological component will do among a set of typical medical purposes. It can only destroy cells that it senses are already dead tissue, and once it does that... the biological component is spent. That’s why there are trillions of nanomeds in the ointment, the first layer will seek dead tissue, and will attach itself to guide the tissue out of the body through the blood stream, to the kidneys, and out the urethra like any other instance of self-maintenance. The next layer will seek to replicate surrounding cells, rebuilding tissue and stopping any bleeding, as well as blocking any infection by creating a barrier. It’s all quite safe.”
“No trackers,” I asked, needing to be sure. Not that her answer would confirm anything.
“Not that I’m aware of. I’ve never had any scan come back with any data signals once the process was complete.” Her eyes darted back and forth indicating she was working through the code in her contacts, linked up to her brain implant.
That was something not offered to human exchanges, since most of Earth already had our own implants, but it definitely wasn’t as advanced at what they had. Our infrastructure was just barely touching the surface of what brain implants could do for humanity. The most that was offered to us was an upgrade to include language translation between known species.
It was all very fascinating, and I considered asking her more about it, but thought better of it when I thought of her fingers in Direl’s mouth. I cringed.
There was still a lot I didn’t know about the necia warrior’s culture, let alone the trill culture I was supposed to be exchanging with.
Shen-La snapped her attention to the door, but there was no one there. “Excuse me, I’ll return shortly. I’m being summoned to the command deck.”
The chair Direl was in, leaned back, turning into a bed. “Perhaps he’ll fall asleep while his body heals,” she added then strode out of the med bay. The alien warrior grunted, and I couldn’t help but stare at him, at his wounds, and then his fingers which twitched at his sides. Compelled forward, I placed my hand in his, and squeezed as warmth spread up through my arm, shocking me.
His amber eyes watched me, and I leaned in, to whisper, “Did you feel that?” Of course he didn’t, that was ridiculous, plus his whole body was practically slathered in numbing cream, apparently filled with nanomeds. His fingers twitched in mine again, and I pretended that perhaps that was a, ‘yes’, even though he was already having muscle spasms before I asked the question.
I continued to talk to him, “I know you should sleep and heal, but I wanted you to know that I’m thankful you helped get me out of that room, even if I can’t exactly escape this ship with tracking bots in my blood. You probably won’t remember any of this, but if you do, and I can’t believe I’m even offering this, but you don’t have to uh, rut, with her.” I cleared my throat, not sure why I was even doing this. Certainly, I didn’t like the idea that if he was ostracized by his tribe right now, that Shen-La would be his only option for releasing whatever chemicals this big brute of an alien needed to survive, or something.
But, I licked my lips before turning my face away from him to finish what I was trying to say, “I’m thankful is all, and if you need to rut— What I’m trying to say is, I wouldn’t mind if you needed to— Ugh, whatever, it doesn’t have to be the medic, is what I’m saying. She kind of just forced her slime on you, and I think you should be given a choice.
