Xey’sa looked over her information tablet. The human appeared to be in healthy condition, and her stress levels were surprisingly low. She’d heard stories of earthlings who woke up and started panicking, thrashing about and causing a mess where possible. Not that she could blame them. From their perspective, they just woke up in a completely unfamiliar place with no idea how they arrived or what was going to happen. The human in their containment had elevated levels of stress, but nothing unreasonable that they couldn’t manage.

Although she’d studied them plenty of times, Xey’sa couldn’t help but feel a little nervous about her encounter. This was going to be her first real interaction with a native human after all. All her years of studying xenobiology and conservation were coming to a head. It should be easy enough, and she knew all the standard procedures. Her lifelong dream had always been to help out the less developed species, and this was her opportunity to finally act upon it.

“It’s amazing that all these light years apart, life still develops in such a similar way,” Xey’sa muttered to herself. The humans were remarkably similar to the Uvel, her own species. They were about a metre shorter, with warmer skin tones as opposed to cool shades of purple and blue. They had four fingers and a thumb on each hand instead of the trifecta of digits. And unlike her own species, they put a high cultural value in clothing. But the humans and Uvel were both bipedal with symmetrical features, along with a head atop their torso. Their shapes gave Xey’sa a sense of familiarity with the aliens. 

“Whatcha thinking about?” Xey’sa jumped in place as her assistant broke her reverie. Gropni had a habit of sneaking up on others, though nobody was sure if it was deliberate or not. Her bubbly and energetic personality made her easy to get along with. Xey’sa was just thankful she had a capable assistant, even if she could get a little eccentric at times.

Xey’sa set down her tablet and walked over to the control panel of the containment unit. “Just going over the details. I’m going in to talk to her soon, and I want to make sure everything goes smoothly.” She pressed a button to lift the metallic covers around the cell. The two Uvel’s stared through the transparent casing beneath, revealing their human inside.

Chantelle looked just like her file had described. She was a medium sized athletic woman, with shoulder length hair and bronze skin. Her clothes were a tight tank top and loose shorts, which Xey’sa recognized as standard running attire. Which made sense as she’d been abducted during a morning jog. Chantelle’s containment unit was the size of a small room, with the basic amenities such as a bed and a toilet inside. From the inside it looked to be a simple padded room. Chantelle herself was wandering around, examining the walls and looking for clues about her location.

“You stay out here,” Xey’sa told her assistant. “I’m going to go in and start explaining things to her. This should be a fairly routine procedure.” 

Gropni nodded, pressing a button to activate the entrance. “You got it boss, best of luck! Just remember, humans are weird creatures, so just do what you can to make sure she doesn’t panic.” On the face of the containment cell, an oval shape of the barrier melded into a gel-like material. Xey’sa took a deep breath and walked through it, feeling the material wash over her skin and grant her passage. Once she was on the other side, Chantelle immediately stared at her, eyes wide and mouth agape. Xey’sa was expecting this reaction, so she gave the human a moment to process her feelings. 

“You’re… you’re an alien. I knew it! I was abducted by aliens!” Chantelle was in shock, but she wasn’t turning violent, which was a good sign. 

Xey’sa held up her palms. In most human cultures, this was a sign that someone meant no harm, and could help indicate peace. “That’s right, you’ve been taken aboard one of our spacecraft. My name is Xey’sa, and I’m here to help you.”

Chantelle’s eyes narrowed. “What, help us by taking over? Are you going to demand to see our leaders and brainwash them? Enslaving humanity to be your own personal pets while you rule over us all? You’re planning to turn us all into intergalactic whores for all other aliens to use and abuse for their pleasure, aren’t you!”

There was a moment of silence. Xey’sa blinked, taking in all the strange assumptions. She knew that humans had weird ideas about extraterrestrials, but this was pretty far out, even by their standards. “Um, no. We’re not going to do anything like that.” She let out a nervous chitter, hoping it didn’t sound too intimidating to the human. “The reason we took you in is actually for a medical procedure.”

It was as if a spark went off inside the human. “Aha, so that’s what you’re planning!” Her eyes were lit up with excitement. “You’re here to experiment on me. You’ll probe my anus, like in all those movies, using me as a test subject for your sick and twisted experiments. What, are you going to strap me down and use your advanced technology to explore every orifice on my body while I’m completely helpless to resist?”

“You think we- what?” Xey’sa was caught completely off guard. None of her practice conversations had gone anything like this. A light blush crept into her cheeks as the human described her worries, though thankfully her blue skin tone meant the human wouldn’t recognize it. She checked her tablet again, noting Chantelle’s vitals were changing. She had an elevated heart rate and increased body temperature. Evidently she was getting more and more worried about their situation.

Xey’sa sat down on the bed and motioned for Chantelle to do the same. “Listen to me, you’re perfectly fine. Nobody here is going to hurt you or do anything unkind. And even if we did need human test subjects, we wouldn’t treat them like… like what you described.” Things weren’t going the way she’d hoped, and Xey’sa needed to do some damage control.

Chantelle’s shoulders slumped downwards. “Oh, I guess that makes sense. I still don’t fully believe you though.” She remained standing, looking down at Xey’sa. “So what, you just snatched me up at random for a medical check? I’m not buying it.”

The Uvel exhaled loudly, piecing together her words before speaking. She’d been trained not to give the full explanation until a proper rapport was established, but Chantelle seemed like she would respond well to honesty. And part of her training was being adaptable on the fly.

“Alright then, I’ll tell you the full truth. You weren’t taken at random. Please don’t panic when I say this, but you’ve been infected by a foreign contaminant.” She pulled up a screen on her tablet, showing Chantelle’s blood levels and vital statistics. “Last week you cut your arm on a weird rock, right? That rock was actually from a different solar system. In short, you’ve got a potentially deadly infection.” 

Xey’sa paused to let her words sink in. Sure enough, Chantelle looked like she was starting to get worried. “And now it’s going to cause me to mutate, turning me into an alien broodmother to spawn more of your kind.” Her body shivered, despite the stats implying she was quite warm. “I’m going to be stuck laying eggs for your species until I’m no longer recognizable as a human, aren’t I.”

“What? No, our species doesn’t even lay eggs.”

“Fine then, I’ll be giving birth to some other parasitic species.”

“That’s not what- you’re not going to suddenly start laying eggs!” Xey’sa was doing her best to remain calm and in control. Clearly the human was having some sort of mental break, that she kept describing such illogical scenario’s. “We expect it’ll just give you a nasty fever, but in another week it could manifest as an airborne pathogen. And since humans haven’t been exposed to anything like this, we don’t want to risk any sort of outbreak. Better to prevent it from spreading in the first place.”

Chantelle nodded. This time, Xey’sa hoped, she finally understood the situation. They were going to help her and make sure she stayed healthy. There was no danger, no risk of being exploited, no sexual slavery in store.

“So you’re planning to trap me in some intergalactic isolation pod until I’m fine again? You’ll probably have to use restraints to stop me from hurting myself and gag me so I don’t scream for help.”

Xey’sa wanted to scream from the frustration. Humans were supposed to be relatively intelligent as a species. How could one possibly be this dense? “Ugh, listen to me! It’s an easy fix. We have the medicine to completely solve the problem. We’ll give you a jab, wait a day or two, and then you’re good to go. The only side effect is that you might feel light headed for an hour. Why do you have such a fixation on-” Her rant was cut off by a beeping sound on her tablet. Gropni was signalling from outside, wanting to talk with her. Xey’sa felt the shame wash over her as she realised how much she’d lost her temper. The human was probably scared out of her mind, completely at the mercy of a species much larger, more intelligent, and equipped with technology she couldn’t even comprehend. She was supposed to be patient with the human.

“Look, I’ll be back in a few minutes. Just try to stay calm, and remember, we’re just trying to help.” Xey’sa left through the same gel door she’d come from, leaving the human behind. 

On the other side, Gropni had a rather excited smile on her face. “Quite the imagination on that one. She really expects us to start probing her anus, along with other fun stuff I’d never even thought of.”

Xey’sa rolled her eyes. “This isn’t the time for jokes. We need to figure out a way to get through to her. The medication can have worse side effects if the subject is stressed out, so we need to get her calm. We’re not even lying about anything.”

Instead of responding immediately, Gropni scratched at her shoulder, a unique tick she had whenever an idea was brewing. “What if that’s the problem? Telling the truth might not be the way to go with this one.” Xey’sa looked over and saw a grin starting to form on her assistant's face. “She’s expecting a cruel and devious species that abducts humans for their own gain. What if we just gave her what she expects?”

“I just told you, this isn’t the time for jokes.”

“And I’m not joking. She doesn’t understand the situation because it’s so far from what she expected. If we act like things are more in line with what she’s imagined, there’s a good chance it would help calm her down. And of course she would never be in any real danger” 

As bizarre as it sounded, Gropni’s plan did make a bit of sense. If they could create a fake situation that was more in line with what their patient expected, it might end up easing her stress, as counterintuitive as it felt. “I mean, I guess it’s worth a shot.” As soon as the words left her mouth, the totality of what their plan would entail started to hit. “Wait, how are we even going to make this work? You heard her, she’s expecting these weird sexual and perverted punshments, for whatever reason.”

Gropni didn’t respond. Her smile only grew larger and larger. Xey’sa’s hearts skipped a beat at the implication. “Gropni, no.”

“Come on! You gotta admit, it sounded like she was into the idea.”

“She was very clearly stating she did not want any of those things to happen.” Xey’sa couldn’t believe the conversation she was having. “And besides, I’m pretty sure it would break just about every law of undeveloped species. If anyone found out, neither of us would be allowed to work in conservation again.”

Gropni rolled her eyes. “You know, for someone who’s supposed to be the smart one between us you can be really dense at times.” Then, all at once, she perked upright. “Oh, I know what we can do! Let’s use the Flickerlight on her! If she falls under, then you know it’s okay.”

The Flickerlight was a device used to calm wild animals. It was essentially a panel that lit up in a specific pattern, with lights flickering around in a way that mimicked hypnosis, hence the name. If an angry Rarscharg was caught in a fence, the Flickerlight would put it into a trance of sorts, allowing them to safely free it without risking it attacking. However, the Flickerlight wasn’t an all powerful mind control device. When it came to sentient species, it would sometimes cause the target to zone out for a few seconds, but nothing more than that. The slightest amount of resistance would snap anyone out of their daze. 

Of course, Xey’sa had heard rumours about people using it to spice up their sex lives with consensual hypnotic trances. But they were just rumours, and surely not something anyone would actually do.

“You can’t honestly think the Flickerlight will do anything,” she finally responded. “You know as well as I do how many studies have been done. It doesn’t work on anything capable of speech.” The humans weren’t the most intelligent species, but they were well past the threshold of sentience. Chantelle would only look at the Flickerlight and wonder if they were trying to hurt her eyes. 

Gropni had a bit of a knowing smile. “Trust me, I know how the Flickerlight works better than you do. If you’re so confident it won’t work, there shouldn’t be a problem, right?” She walked up next to Xey’sa, grabbing her hand and pressing their bodies together. “Here’s what I think our best shot is. We go in there together, pretending to be the evil perverted aliens Chantelle thinks we are. Tell her the flickerlight is a mind control device that takes away her free will. If we use it on her and she breaks out, no harm done, and we’re back to square one. But if it does work, and she goes into a trance…” She trailed off, leaving a clear implication.

Xey’sa felt her mouth becoming a bit dry. “Then it’s clear she’s not even trying to resist, and we can act out all those sexual fantasies that she described.”

“What? No, then we give her the medicine. That’s the whole point of this you dork.” A deep blue crept back into Xey’sa’s cheeks. She wanted to yell at Gropni for her teasing, but her assistant did make a good point. Their whole objective was to give Chantelle the medicine, and even if things got weird, it was important not to lose track of that.

“Right, of course. We’ll just pretend that we’re going to sexually experiment on her.” She was stammering over her own words, trying to regain some composure. “So, um, how should we start it out? I’ll admit, I’m not sure what we should say to the human to get her to believe us.”

There was a loud sigh from Gropni. “Well, obviously you’re not going to be doing most of the talking. Just follow my lead, and please try not to blow our cover.” Xey’sa wanted to shoot back that she was still the one in charge, but Gropni was already heading back into the containment unit, Flickerlight in hand. All Xey’sa could do was follow her in and do as much damage control as possible.

The moment Gropni entered the containment unit, she began her theatrics in full earnest. “Greetings, pathetic human! I’ve heard that you’re far more perceptive than most of your kind. It’s almost a shame what we still have to do to you.” She leaned in close, her body towering directly over Chantelle’s. “Almost. I’m still going to enjoy this greatly.”

Chantelle’s demeanour shifted in a heartbeat. Her vitals rose, but rather than looking frightened, she became more animated and excited. Xey’sa could already hear the smug I told you so from her assistant later. “Aha, I knew it! You won’t fool me that easily, you invaders. I’ll never go along with your plans willingly.” It was obvious she was both more familiar and more comfortable with hostile extraterrestrials. Although Xey’sa had no idea why she was behaving in such a way.

There was a tense hissing sound from Gropni. It was actually the Uvelian equivalent of a sneeze, but they knew humans found it intimidating. “My dear, I’m afraid you won’t have a choice in the matter. Our fiendish plans are more devious than anything your brain could ever comprehend.” She paused for a moment, and Xey’sa wasn’t sure if it was for dramatic effect or because she had no idea what to say next. “But, um, since you’ve proven yourself to be clever, I’ll give you one chance to guess what we’re going to do with you.”

Chantelle’s gaze darted back and forth between the two of them before. “You’re going to harvest my body fluids to power your ship, aren’t you. Strap me down and force me to cum over and over again until I lose my mind from orgasms. Once I’m squirting almost non-stop you can use it to fuel your machines. Right?”

The two Uvel’s were stunned into silence. It was several seconds before Xey’sa was able to speak up. “Using your cum as fuel? You think we’re somehow going to use your sexual fluids to fly a spaceship? That’s-”

“Exactly what we’re planning to do!” Gropni cut her partner off and jumped right back into her domineering persona. “Yes, we’re going to do exactly that. We’re going to use your orgasms to power our intergalactic travel ship.” She scratched at her shoulder again. “Although, if we’re using your body fluids it might be better to keep you on the edge. You humans leak when you’re aroused, correct? It might be optimal to have a steady flow from your arousal without ever letting you climax.”

Chantelle let out a loud gasp. “Oh no, that would be equally horrible and I would hate it just as much!” She shook her head. “In any case, I’ll never submit to you fiends. You’d need to have some sort of brainwashing device that melts my mind and forces me into being your perfectly obedient Xenoslut.”

Working in a scientific field, Xey’sa was used to hearing new words for the first time. She had to admit that ‘Xenoslut’ was a new one. It was evident that Chantelle was responding positively, so she figured they could go along with this for a little longer. There was no way the Flickerlight would actually work. “Well, human, it just so happens that we do have something like that. The perfect tool to turn you into our… Xenoslut.” Gropni turned to her, facing away from the human, a giant grin on her face. Xey’sa did her best not to blush again. “My assistant here has something that should move things along.”

Gropni bounced in excitement as she pulled out the Flickerlight. The device emitted a low humming sound as it booted up. “Behold, earthling, something far beyond the puny technical prowess of your species. Staring at this will rob you of your own free will, forcing you to willingly obey our every command.” Although Gropni was excited as she spoke, it took all of Xey’sa’s willpower not to comment on it. A snarky so long as you don’t try to resist it in the slightest went unspoken.

For her part, Chantelle looked to be horrified. “So you’re just going to brainwash me? You’re going to turn me into some mindless drone that can only follow orders?” Her body shuddered as she spoke. “You truly are the most vile invaders possible.” Despite her resistant words, she stared directly into the Flickerlight. “I bet it won’t even have an effect on me. My mind is too strong, I won’t fall so easily.”

The Flickerlight was turned on. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Human.” Gropni continued her monologue while the lights began to flash. “This is an extremely powerful device, one that can can render anyone who stares at it completely helpless to resist orders.”

Xey’sa had to roll her eyes at that. The Flickerlight’s only practical use was calming down wild animals and guiding them out of populated areas. Anything with a brain larger than an apple would be completely unaffected. In all likelihood, Chantelle would be asking them when it was supposed to kick in. Then she’d have to answer some very awkward questions. 

However, Chantelle didn’t start questioning why it wasn’t working. In fact, she was staring directly into the shimmering lights. Her body was still and her eyes unblinking. Xey’sa couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “No way. That’s not… there’s not a chance it’s working that easily.” 

Gropni shrugged her shoulders. “I told you, humans are weird.” She snapped her fingers in front of Chantelle’s face. She didn’t flinch at the movement. “Hey, you in there? Are you listening to us?”

“I am listening.” Chantelle’s voice was monotone, lacking any of the life or energy from before. Her mouth hung open between sentences. “I will listen to whoever speaks to me.”

This was impossible. The Flickerlight had no power to enforce actual mind control. “Let me see that for a second.” Xey’sa went around to stand next to Chantelle, facing the device. It was pretty to look at, and she found her mind drifting off for a brief moment, but she quickly blinked and shook her head. “This doesn’t make any sense. The slightest bit of willpower would break apart the trance. Why is she still under?”

There was a giggle from the mischievous Uvel. “Are you really sure that was the best idea? If I’d somehow made a brand new high tech brainwashing device, you’d be completely under my thrall.” She continued laughing while Xey’sa rolled her eyes. “Look, you’re smart. You’ve got way more book smarts than me. But trust me when I say this little toy sees a lot more use than you think.”

Xey’sa thought back to the rumours at home. People voluntarily going under, letting themselves be entranced by it. “How is that even possible? Anyone can break out of the trance whenever they want to.”

“That’s exactly why it’s great. Anyone who wanted to would be able to break free.” Gropni set the Flickerlight on a stand, letting it play in front of Chantelle while she moved closer to her partner. “Imagine you see a house surrounded by a gate. The gate is closed, but instead of a lock, it’s held in place by a simple piece of tape. Would you open it up?”

Xey’sa pondered the question, trying to think of a trick. “I guess so. If it’s just ordinary tape, you could just push it open, right?”

“You could, but I doubt you would. After all, who goes around opening gates for no reason?” Xey’sa opened her mouth, but she was cut off. “And I’m not being pedantic about the metaphor. Even if you can open the gate, you typically need a reason to. If you were trapped on the inside and wanted to escape, for example. But what if you were on the inside and you were perfectly comfortable there? Why not just leave the gate closed?”

Her eyes turned back towards the human, and Xey’sa followed her gaze. “Now imagine you’ve never seen a piece of tape before. These advanced beings from another dimension show up and tell you it’s the most secure thing in the world, and you could never break it. You figure they could make something like that if they wanted, and have no reason to believe it’s not what they said.”

As difficult as it was for her to imagine, Xey’sa was starting to understand. “So she’s not even trying to break free. She doesn’t think she can, but she’s also not putting in any effort.” Her thoughts were racing at record pace. “Following your analogy, if she was genuinely frightened and panicking, it wouldn’t work, right? Once you actually push against the tape it all falls apart.”

Gropni nodded. “And that’s how we know everything’s okay. If she comes out of the trance all panicked, we can do things your way again. But until that happens?” She licked her lips in anticipation. “You remember what we came in here to do, right?”

Xey’sa nodded. “Give her the proper medication to fight of the alien infection.”

“What? No, then we turn her into our personal Xenoslut. That’s the whole point of this you dork.”