Gravity (Dark Anomaly Book 1) Page 4

  Never before had he used an outside stimulation to cause an erection. Being in a state of arousal was distracting.

  For the same reason, he stayed away from the irsen flowers that Malahki grew in a hidden corner of the gardens. The sweet juice from the flowers would make him temporarily forget about the struggle for survival on the Dark Anomaly, about the brutal murders he had witnessed most of his life, about the screams of men being ripped apart alive, and women being brutally raped when his family ship crashed here over two decades ago... One of the women was his mother.

  As much as he would welcome the oblivion, losing control over his mind around here could mean losing his life. For Vrateus, survival came with staying alert and aware at all times. All he allowed himself was a glass of berry wine on some exceptionally hard nights.

  Like the juice of the irsen flowers, the arousal blunted his awareness, which made it just another weakness to him. He never searched for extra stimulation, dealing with physical desire as it came—once or twice a week.

  Watching the videos of the different species having sex was an unfamiliar experience for him, causing a wide range of emotions.

  He knew that ognats, for example, chewed the heads of their females off during copulation. The larvae resulting from the insemination consumed the female’s body while growing inside her. The video of that was just as revolting as it sounded, and he promptly skipped it.

  Several other species he had chosen, although they looked like the human at first glance, had very different insemination processes and reproductive organs.

  Akuks didn’t copulate at all, for example. The females of the species detested being touched by males. They laid eggs in a room of their house and left for the day while the males inseminated the eggs in their absence.

  Finally, he turned on the videos of themul, his own species, which he had tried to avoid, unsure of the emotions they might bring out in him.

  Vrateus was the only one left of his kind in this place. As an eight-year-old boy, he’d escaped the bloody carnage and a brutal death by hiding on the day of the crash. He then spent years surviving out of sight of the crude and violent inhabitants of the Anomaly.

  He had stolen and begged for food, eating garbage when he had to.

  When a ship crashed that had vasai centipedes on board, they escaped, populating the deep bowels of the Dark Anomaly. He learned to hunt the giant centipedes, eating some of the meat and trading the rest for things he needed.

  During all that time, he had been gathering information on the variety of species occupying the Anomaly. Reading and learning, watching and listening, he had been biding his time until he had become strong and smart enough to take over and name himself their captain.

  He had never seen a themul female he wasn’t related to. Or if he had seen one, he didn’t remember.

  He had certainly never seen one bare or touched one.

  The bodies of the themul females in the video were of a similar shape and proportion to the human female. Like her, they were narrower in the middle, with wider hips. Unlike hers, their chests were much flatter. Themuls had between two to six young per pregnancy, and had three rows of small, dark-nippled breasts on their chest and upper belly.

  In the diagram on his tablet, the human female had two, larger breasts. And he distinctly remembered two lumps pushing against the material of the woman’s bodysuit.

  The males of one of the tribes on Nofoi apparently had their females collared during the wedding ceremony, the way Wyck had chained Lesh, his pet. The end of the leash was attached to the male’s belt.

  Something about that tradition appealed to Vrateus. He liked the idea of having his female nearby and of what the collar represented: possession and connection.

  Although, he had to admit that it would not work on the Dark Anomaly. It reduced the female’s chance of survival if he were killed. She would be trapped, chained to him, with a limited range of movement to fight for her life, and with no way to run and hide.

  When the couple in the video were left alone, they came closer to each other, bringing their mouths together. The male then licked down the row of nipples on the front of his female, making her moan and squirm. Flipping her on her stomach, the male fisted his hand in the thick white-with-black fur of her scruff, ramming his cock into her from behind.

  She threw her head back, baring her canines and growling in obvious pleasure as he pounded into her, their tails intertwined between their legs.

  The primal passion of the couple, combined with the display of their mutual pleasure, shot straight to his groin. He shifted in his bed, making room for his growing erection. This was unexpected—definitely outside of his usual schedule of about once or twice a week.

  Setting the tablet aside, he rose on his elbow and fisted his straining cock. It throbbed and ached, growing harder as he slid his hand up and down its length. The images from the video, now stored in his mind, spurred his arousal, sending him to his back with a groan. He arched his spine, pumping faster, the impending orgasm building up.

  Rolling his head on the pillow, he faced the human’s room. She was no longer in sight, Instead, he saw the outline of her form under the covers of her sleeping pallet by the wall.

  The climax hit him, stronger than ever before, shuddering his entire body. He growled, baring his teeth and lashing his tail as the release pumped out of him in thick, ivory spurts.

  After that he lay spent, wondering how much more of his measured, carefully organized life of survival was about to unravel because of one little female who couldn’t steer her spacecraft away from the clutches of the Dark Anomaly.

  Chapter 5

  SURPRISINGLY, I HAD gotten some sleep, though it was hard to tell how long I slept. When I woke up, the lights of the Anomaly continued their dance—ever-changing, yet perpetually the same.

  I had eaten some of the food that Vrateus had brought last night—a mouldy smelling stew garnished with some leaves and a few pieces of sour fruit that looked like spotted tennis balls.

  Thankfully, my stomach felt much better this morning. The food, as unpleasant as it was, must have agreed with it.

  Getting up from the sleeping pallet, I picked up the box with the toiletries Vrateus had given me and headed to the wall with the door in search of the bathroom.

  Our conversation last night didn’t go well. Maybe, he was too tired to think logically? Now, that he’d hopefully had some rest, he surely should be able to see that what he planned to do with me was wrong.

  Had he been away from the real world for too long? That might impair his understanding of the common laws and morality.

  The Anomaly turned out to be nothing like what humans had expected. Not once during our mission had the theory of life existing inside it been brought up.

  I’d read reports of ships disappearing in this area during the early days of space travel. The last disappearances of live beings had happened centuries before humans made contact with the other species populating our Galaxy.

  How long had this crew and their captain been surviving here? What generation of survivors must they be?

  The word errock finally triggered my memory. It was the name of one species I had learned about in the academy. Errocks were a civilized nation, living on Hexol, one of the planets of the Federation. No wonder I didn’t recognize them when Wyck and Crux barged into my ship. The pictures I had seen of the errocks were those of well-groomed politicians and scientists, dressed in sleek, tailored suits or lab coats. None of them looked rugged and wild like Crux, Wyck, and the rest of this feral bunch. I was certain their out-of-control behavior would not be tolerated on their home planet, either.

  Whatever this place was, my priority remained finding a way out of here.

  My mission commander must have sent a search party when I had failed to return to the station yesterday. However, I couldn’t realistically expect anyone to rescue me. At the very least, I needed to find a way off the Anomaly to meet the search party outside of its gra
vitational field.

  I found the bathroom door next to the entrance of my room. It slid open the moment I touched it. The water in the shower turned out to be barely lukewarm, not inviting me to linger. Still, I managed to wash and rinse my hair before it stopped running. My five minutes had run out.

  Finding a towel, I dried myself then slipped back into my bodysuit.

  I was combing my hair with the ornate comb I’d found in the box with the toiletries when the door to my room opened and Vrateus entered, carrying another tray with food.

  “Good morning.” He stopped by the door, closing it quickly, then gaped at me with a curious expression on his face.

  “What time is it?” I asked, since there was no time-keeping device in this room.

  He kept staring at me, following the movement of my comb with his eyes.

  “It looked just like a real tail,” he muttered under his breath, setting the tray on the table.

  “Tail?” I touched my hair, confused.

  “Never mind.” He shook his head on his way out.

  “Wait.” I rushed after him, stopping him by the door. “Can we talk for a minute, please?”

  “About what?” He gave me a suspicious glance.

  “I’m afraid we didn’t start off well.” I clutched my hands together in front of me, determined to give diplomacy another chance. “I’d like to apologize for our misunderstanding last night.”

  I took a pause, waiting for an apology from him in return, but it never came.

  Well, he had obviously been away from civilization for too long. A lack of manners could be expected.

  “Anyway,” I continued as he just stood there in his usual position, his hands folded across his wide chest. “I offer to organize a rescue mission for everyone on the Anomaly, in exchange for your help in my departure from here.”

  “Departure?” he scoffed. “There is no leaving this place.”

  It appeared he was intending to keep me prisoner, which was disturbing. I needed to clarify that.

  “I believe I may have the means to leave—”

  “You believe?” he smirked, taking a step closer and leaning my way. “You still don’t understand. Do you? The Dark Anomaly sucks things in. It releases nothing or anyone. Ever.”

  Fighting the urge to shrink away from him, I stood my ground.

  “Well, has anyone ever really tried to leave?”

  “Plenty of times.” He huffed a sad laugh. “All have crashed right back here—smeared on the wreckage along the edge of the disk.”

  That gruesome description gave me pause.

  “How long has it been since the last attempt?”

  “A few years now,” he said, then specified, “Anomaly years.”

  “Are those different from the universal year definition of the Federation?”

  He nodded. “According to my calculation a year here equals about three hundred universal years.”

  “What?” Shock suddenly made it difficult for me to draw a breath.

  “I should probably get you a watch,” he muttered, running his hand through the thick fur on his head.

  My insides chilled as I made a quick calculation in my head. “If one year here is about three hundred universal years. Then during the day I’ve spent here, almost a year would have passed there?”

  “About ten months.” He rolled back a shoulder. “Give or take a few days.”

  A universal year was an equivalent of an annual rotation of an average habitable planet of the Federation. It equalled a year and eight days on Earth.

  If ten months had passed since my disappearance, any rescue efforts would have been over by now.

  I most likely had been declared dead...

  “Are you sure?” I struggled to stay upright as my knees shook.

  I begged for this just to be another misunderstanding. It wouldn’t be hard to believe that Vrateus had made a mistake in his calculations.

  Deep in my gut, though, I feared he was right.

  The clothes Vrateus and his crew wore, his weapons and other objects around me weren’t theater props. They were old. Really, really old.

  From what I knew about the cultures and history of the nations of the Federation, the comb I used to brush my hair must be from at least a millennium ago. Vrateus’s handguns were probably at least a few centuries old.

  Even the interior of the ships I’d seen so far, all seemed severely dated in décor and finishes. Though most were in much better shape than they should be, considering their age.

  “Are you sure, Vrateus?” I repeated meekly, grasping at straws.

  “Nothing can be for sure as far as the Dark Anomaly is concerned,” he bit off. “One thing is certain. You cannot leave it.”

  I HARDLY ATE ANYTHING that morning.

  Over and over, I sifted in my mind through everything that humanity had discovered about the Anomaly, including the knowledge shared with us by alien races.

  Somehow things didn’t add up. I knew its gravitational field was extremely strong. Yet here I was, not crushed. In fact, the gravity here felt no different from the artificial gravity we had at my research station or that of Earth.

  Did the pull of the Anomaly mostly apply to metal objects? Was that why the asteroids moved by freely when our probes ended up being sucked in from much further distances?

  We had explored that possibility before, though. The nature of the gravity had proven not to be magnetic. The probes made entirely of the newest strongest plastics ended up sucked in just as well.

  “Nothing can be for sure as far as the Dark Anomaly is concerned.”

  Was that why the humanity still had so few results, even after decades of researching this mysterious abnormality in space. There had been so many inconsistencies observed, nothing was definite.

  Around lunch time, Vrateus came in again. In addition to bringing food, he also rolled in a rack of clothes. The bright colors of the fabrics rivaled those of the lights outside the glass of my room.

  “Choose something else to wear tonight,” he said. “I’ll come for you after dinner.”

  “Hold on.” I shook my head resolutely. “I said I’m not doing this. I’m not changing, either.”

  He stopped, sliding his gaze down my body once again.

  “Would you rather wear this? Do you want them to associate their sexual pleasure with your regular clothes? You know they will only salivate more over you every time they see you dressed like this. Is that what you want?”

  His words sent a shudder of disgust down my back.

  “I don’t want their sexual pleasure to be associated with me, in any way.” I frowned.

  “That is, unfortunately, not an option I can give you.”

  His morose composure frustrated me even more.

  “Why not? What would happen if I just stayed in here tonight?”

  “If you don’t show up, they will come for you. Errocks wouldn’t dare enter this room, but everyone else won’t hesitate to break in.” He heaved a sigh. “Once they get out of control, they won’t stop with raping you. Every trace of your body will be gone before morning.”

  I fought the horror descending on me. It couldn’t be true. He’d said it to intimidate me. He was using my fear to get me under his control.

  People of the Federation didn’t rape and eat each other. The very notion was beyond my comprehension. Sentient beings didn’t act like wild animals.

  Did they?

  The image of Vrateus shooting one of his men came to mind again.

  I remembered the grip of the alien’s chitin covered hands on my ankles, the sinister glint in his black beady eyes. What would he have done had Vrateus not stopped him then?

  Even if the search for me had been called off, I needed to get out of this place. And I might have an idea how I could do that.

  My ship had been damaged possibly beyond repair, but my spacesuit should still be functioning. The way it was constructed, the suit was basically a little spaceship of its own. I could use the
spare fuel cell from the ship to power the suit and leave the Dark Anomaly. A carefully calculated trajectory would send me back toward Omphi and several trade routes that passed by the water world. Once beyond the energy field of the Anomaly, I would send out a distress signal. Someone would intercept it and come to pick me up.

  Then, I would organize a rescue mission to save these poor wretches here. Brutal and uncivilized, many of them might still be sentient beings, therefore falling under the law of the Federation. Their lives were precious, even if they didn’t realize it.

  Surely, their Captain would welcome the opportunity to rescue his people.

  “You see,” I started, carefully. “This situation here could be resolved easily if you just let me go.”

  “Go where?” He stared at me with confusion.

  “Back to where I came from. Just let me get back to my ship—”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” He threw his hands into the air. “Not this again? As much as I’d love to get rid of you, you’re stuck here now. Forever. And I’m stuck with you. Do not make me regret my decision. Do what you’re told. Get dressed and be ready to get naked out there.”

  Anger rose in me, fueled by indignity.

  “As a figure of authority,” I squeezed through my teeth, struggling to keep any kind of composure. “It is your responsibility to ensure my safety from the people under your command.” My self-control finally snapped under frustration and desperation, and I yelled at him, “You’re giving me to them with no effort to protect me!”

  He stared back at me, in shock.

  “How can you not see it?” His voice rose, too. “I am protecting you. This is the only way to keep you alive.”

  He obviously had no desire to exercise his power on my behalf.

  “No! This is clearly forceful exploitation and abuse.” I shouted, my hands shaking. “It’s immoral. And illegal. You’re breaking a lot of interplanetary laws. Which makes you a filthy criminal.”

  Rage flashed bright in his eyes.