The Galactic Bride
Chapter 4: The Pod

The ride to the main space craft felt bumpy. He was still in a daze, unsure what was happening around him until a particularly big bump caused him to fall into the women sitting next time him. She gave him a polite smile and helped him back up. Akihiko realized numbly that her two top cuspids were slightly pointed just like the tips of her ears. Still, her smile was meant to be a warm reassurance.

Now that he had come to his senses, he realized that the reason the transport was rocking was because the human military was firing on them. It was only now that he realized the only one who could speak Japanese was General Anura, and now that they were in a battle situation, she was barking orders in a strange language. From the windows, he could see a flaming helicopter falling from the sky.

"Stop shooting at them!" Akihiko grabbed the General's arm. "They're just scared."

"Silence." The General withdrew her arm and looked at him with contempt. She spouted off something in her own tongue and the woman next to him stiffen in attention.

"Forgive." The woman spoke softly. "Me forgive."

Akihiko had no clue what she was talking about. She had a thick accent and was using the wrong words. It took a moment for him to realize she was saying she was sorry. Sorry about what, he didn't know. He saw her pantomime again, breathing softly and looking restful. She wanted him to stop freaking out.

"How can I relax? You're killing people? You killed my best friend!"

She didn't understand most of it, though he was sure she was guessing the gist of it. "Can no action. Sleep." He translated that into "You can't do anything, so please try to calm down."

"But… but she killed my friend!" Akihiko told her, his voice was choking up.

He knew she understood, even if the words were a mystery her. She had a sad expression on her face. Somehow he knew that she didn't approve of how things went down and was genuinely sorry for him. But she also had a job of keep him out of the way. It must of been difficult for her do to with no way of talking to him properly.

"Forgive." She repeated and grabbed his hand. It was cool to the touch. She squeezed it and nodded her head. "No lie." Once again he had to translate that in his own head to "I'm sorry about your friend. Please calm down. You can trust me to look after you."

He wasn't sure if he wanted to like her or not. Out of everyone in the transport, she was the only one treating him like a human being. But she was still his capture. She sensed his unease and squeezed his hand again. He could tell she wanted to say more to him, but was limited on what she knew about his language. So she spoke to him in hers. Her voice was calm and smooth, which directly contrasted the battle going on just outside the window.

Before long they were docking with the main ship. It seemed it was in a high orbit so that only the jets to reach them that high. But if the transport rocked when fire upon, the ship felt as steady as a rock. It was only when he exited the transport did he realized how much of a beating they were taking.

General Anura pointed at the woman who was still beside him and shouted off something else. She nodded and pulled his arm, but Akihiko wouldn't move. He narrowed his eyes at the General, anger replacing the fear and sadness he was feeling before.

"Why'd you have to start killing people? I was coming with you!"

"My instructions were quite clear. No interference. Those people started the assault, not me. They foolishly gave their lives testing out their primitive projectiles against our ray-screens and ion canons. They deserved their fate. As for you, I will not tolerate much more of your cheek."

"You can't blame them. You just shot a kid in cold blood for no reason!"

"That fool was warned, along with the others." She looked at one of the soldiers. "Take her to the rejuvenation center. It's about time she stop wearing that disgusting animal flesh." She must of been angry because she spoke this part in Japanese, not in her own tongue. Swearing, she then repeated the order. It was quickly obeyed.

Being dragged down the hall, Akihiko turned to the women trotting beside him, wanting answers. "Why does she keep calling me a girl?"

But of course the woman wasn't able to answer. But her lack of response made him realize something. He hadn't seen a single male alien this whole time. In fact, the solders who came to collect him were all female, and those he had seen on the ship were as well. Akihiko was starting to answer his own question. Maybe these aliens didn't have males.

He didn't fully understand this, but as he entered the rejuvenation center, and saw more females, he was starting to think he was correct. The rejuvenation center was actually a medical lab, though it was as far from a hospital than he had ever seen. There were beds for patents, but also big pods that pressed against the wall. While he'd see shot injection guns, he'd also see a strange squid like creature being squeezed to producing certain liquids.

The small woman sat him on one of the beds then pantomimed for him to remove his clothes. Once again he was being stubborn. She still had a kind look in her eyes, but he could tell she was going a bit annoyed. She turned around, and shouted at everyone in the lab to leave. Well that's what he figured she was saying. They all left after her shouting match. Then she pulled off her own coat and nodded to him.

"I know what you want me to do, I just don't want to do it." Akihiko told her.

She gave a hard sigh. She pulled off her military jacket and looked at him expectingly again. When he did nothing, she kicked off her boots and removed her trousers. It was getting embarrassing now. Her face turning pink and she kept signaling that she wanted him to remove his cloths as well. When he didn't again, she unbuttoned her shirt and was standing in front of him just in underwear.

He had to admit that she was pretty, for an alien. And he was very surprised that her uniform seemed to be on par with how human clothes were made. Even her underwear in away, though it looked more like sports underwear than normal ones. She was scratching her head, trying to figure out what to do next. He couldn't blame her, he was being difficult.

Not being able to take it anymore, she pointed her finger at him and said "Naked." It was the first time she looked stern at him. "Naked!"

"No."

She stomped her foot on the floor. "Me no lie. Naked." She pulled at his sleeve. He understood that to mean: "You can trust me, just take off your clothes already."

Something about the way she was looking at him now made him feel sorry for her. It wasn't her fault all this was happening. She was just doing her job. But he still felt like he wanted to rebel in some way. Then he wondered if rebelling meant that General Anura would take it out the nice girl… or on the city below. Then again she could already be doing that.

"General Anura is an asshole, I won't do it."

She seemed to understand part of this. "Forgive. Me Help." That one was pretty straight forward.

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But in this she had no way of explaining. The only two things he could do was be a pest and resist, or trust the woman standing in front of him in her underwear. Resisting would solve nothing, but maybe putting his trust in this stranger might amount to something. "Okay…okay… I'll do what you say. I'm counting on you." He pulled off his shirt.

"Blessings." The woman looked relieved. She had to be going for "Thank you."

He took off the remainder of his clothes including his boxers. She looked down at him looking at him with a slight curiosity at his gentiles. That sunk the message home. It was obvious she hadn't seen many male organs before. He felt a little self-conscious now. She seemed to realize this and she gestured at herself, offering to remove the rest of her clothing for his benefit. He shook his head. The last thing he needed now was for is body to react to that.

She brought over a tray that had injection guns. She looked tentative, as if trying to think of a way to explain something. He gathered that whatever the shots were, they were going to hurt and she didn't know how to tell him that after she finally got him to trust her. Swallowing he offered her his arm. She gave him a relieved toothy grin. He noticed her fangs for the second time.

The shot felt like fire was flowing boiling his insides. In fact it probably was one of the most painful things he ever felt. But he didn't want the woman to feel bad so he sucked it up and sat still. She looked amazed at this and shook the injection gun as if maybe he didn't get the correct dose. Then before he could stop her she stuck him again. This time there was no pretending, it was agony. He gripped the side of the bed and tried not to scream.

"Forgive, forgive!" The woman was saying, and gripped his shoulders. "Fire stop cyle."

His mind was coping with the pain too much to even attempt to try to figure out what that meant. He fell on his back and circled into a ball. The woman was petting him, talking smoothly to him in her own language. Akihiko barely realized she was there. But after a few minutes of the worst pain in his life the burning sensation inside his body was starting to subside.

The woman had a scanning devise in her hands looking him over, then took a panic look "Overflow."

"Yeah… it was too much." Akihiko grunted sitting up. "I'm okay now."

"Forgive! Happy Life." He wondered on that one for a while. As she was turning away preparing one of the pods on the wall he worked it out. "I'm sorry. That could have killed you. I'm glad you're alive."

He watched her, noticing that while her body features were close to a human, her bone structure must be a bit different. Her spine poked out ever so slightly like a normal skinny human girl's would, but the vertebrae seemed a more round and than usual. When she returned to face him, she obviously caught him looking. Once again her face turned pink.

"Uhhhh…." the woman was pointing at the pod, trying to think of a way to tell him what was going to happen next. "Ummm…. fire pond?" Akihiko shrugged and shook his head. She looked a bit flustered. Obviously this was important, and she didn't want to make the same mistake as before and give him double the correct dose.

So she pointed at him, then at the pod. She wanted him in the pod. Then she held her breath and started waving her arms like she was swimming. There would be water inside covering him completely. Next she grabbed her body and started making moaning sounds. This one took a bit to get, but putting it together with the shot experience he knew it was going to hurt. When he figured that out, she grabbed his hands and shook her head fiercely, then pretended to be sleeping. Don't pass out.

This sounded scary. She knew it did and squeezed his hands again. "No lie."

"I trust you." He corrected her.

"Trush me." She repeated incorrectly.

Taking a deep breath she pulled some kind of facial mask over Akihiko's face. He rightly guessed it was a breathing apparatus. Then she led him by the hand and helped him inside the waterless pod she was preparing before. She looked at him, trying to figure out something more to tell him.

"You like me." She settled.

"I trust you." Akihiko repeated.

That wasn't what she was wanting to get across, but she she decided that was good enough. "No Sleep." She reminded him.

The pod closed. After a moment it started filling up with a liquid. It wasn't water, but was slightly thicker. It wasn't sticky, it just felt heavier. When it completely covered him, he realized it was still clear enough that he could see the woman outside of the pod poking here and there on the controls. The liquid around him started to tingle.

He saw the woman's hand touched the glass and a worried expression appeared on her face. It was up to the pod to do what it was meant to do now, she could only watch, he gathered. She was mouthing something to him, but it was hard to make out. He was noticing her teeth again.

The tingling turned into prickles. Then as if electricity was flowing his body, he felt as if he was both being burnt alive, and freezing at the same time. If those shots felt bad, this was worse. He saw the woman's hand again and reached for it, pressing it against the glass over hers. The pain was unbearable. She was mouthing to him again. "No Sleep." He could make that out. She didn't want him to pass out. That would be a challenge.

If now felt like the electricity was breaking every bone on is his body. Blood started floating out his nose and made the liquid slightly murky. He was lucky it wasn't in the breathing mask he was wearing, though he was sure he could taste blood in his mouth also.

The pain was so much he couldn't see anymore. His head was starting to get the worse of it. It felt like his teeth were being pulled out, his hair being yanked, his ears being twisted. If he focused on one thing of pain, then he'd notice his chest felt like it was cracking in half, or his fingers all popping out of joint. It was so much that all he wanted to do was just die.

He was starting to nod off. There was pounding on the glass that made him open his eyes. The woman was screaming at him. "No sleep!" He could barely hear her. If Akihiko slept, he died, he figured. He had to stay awake, even though death was a tempting offer.

The pain went on for hours. He wasn't just guessing that it was, he knew it. There was a clock on the wall behind the woman. It had strange symbols, but from how much it changed he knew time was passing. It wasn't just a few minutes. The woman at the glass was his cheerleader. Every time it looked like he was going to give in she slam the glass again willing him to stay awake.

Finally, if whether he was starting to get numb to constant pain, or if he it was starting to stop, the pain seemed to be leaving his body. The woman was analyzing the controls and took a smile. She nodded at him telling him that he was okay and it was almost over. Then she said the best thing he had heard all day.

"Yes Sleep."

And with that, he passed out.

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