Part One:
On some worlds, I would dance to music, or sing. Sometimes my boss will have me wear what I would call elegant clothing and do gentle things, like play piano or read a story from my library to an alien audience. Aliens seemed to always love human language, the spectacle of a human itself, too.
Depending on the type of alien audience, though, is what my performances depended on. No matter where we went, I often acted as a well-groomed, well-trained pet, and all it took was a kind please for me to obey. I did whatever simple task was asked of me because my boss was just so kind, all the needs and wants I could ever have were met, and more importantly, all the adventures I dreamed about were granted to me too. And if I stay under his care, I’ll always be the age I was when he first picked me up off Earth.
My boss was considered a lord among many galaxies’ stars, and over time I understood why. He has me call him Captain Isaac, because his alien name is much too difficult for me to pronounce, but he’s known by a different name on each planet.
Today we visit the planet Oceana, not far from Earth and not too different either, save for the balance between land mass and ocean water is nearly equal and the developed species and some fauna are strange. The plants grow larger, bugs are huge (and the stable food source here), and there’s more oxygen.
I’m naked in a cage today, a loose leather collar connected to a chain is around my throat. It’s only for the showings, I get breaks in-between of course. Every few hours, not that it’s too exhausting to walk around a cage and scream at the aliens that get too close. I don’t even have to try, I could simply loudly recite the recipe to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, not that anyone aside from Captain Isaac and his… Our, crew would understand. But that doesn’t make it feel any less demeaning. Captain Isaac can shape-shift into and communicate in the native species and language of any planet, but I’m still simply human. And some aliens have different thoughts on the tales of humans, so we play into such stereotypes.
The rest of the crew are like Captain Isaac and can at the very least shape-shift to fit in, or are simply from extremely popular alien worlds, where it’s common for their species to go around to other worlds and perform. I’m quite the oddity, though, and while I can get along with some of them, others still think me lesser. Like a pest or simply a show animal, as much as I wished that feeling would be kept to the alien audiences we visited.
Their performances are much more work and time consuming, but I’m always the main attraction. Captain Isaac has never forced me to do anything lower than sit naked in a cage for a few hours at a time, and he always asks permission of me before so, and never out-right expects me to do so. For this, I’m thankful.
This planet is warm and humid and the creatures are like lizards, which makes their herds of giant bugs as the stable diet make more sense, in a very comical way for me. I’m not acting as vigilante and wild today as I normally do, it’s days in the cage that I either love or feel sad during.
I suppose today I simply feel sad, or home sick. My name is Mirella. Strange name, yes, but who here would care?
Another tour comes near, anyone with a ticket into the carnival can explore the shows, rides, and games as they please, but only those that buy tickets to the special tour are able to find out special information about the carnival.
Not special like in what us performers and workers know, but special like how certain things work, how the food is made, where we get certain supplies from, where some of our performers and workers are from planetary-wise and what their original names are if they want to give their names.
J is giving today’s tour, he’s one of the only aliens I work with who has a hate-love relationship with me, I think. The rest either love or hate me, in one way or another, but he’s always up and down with me. If I knew any better, I’d complain that he acts like an ass hole brother to me, but that would just piss him off. It’s always hard to know when you can or can’t joke with him, sometimes it seems like someone shoved a stick up his ass one day and left it up there too long. He has way too many flaws to point out too. But I will say that he’s good at communicating, interpreting, and can be a make-shift guard when the need arises.
When the tour finally comes around to me, he introduces me in the alien language, but I know my name when I hear it. “This is Mirella, Mirella is a female human who is from the planet Earth, we saved her from the hands of wild Earth animals…” Blah blah blah, I memorized the fake spiel they give to every audience, again, changed slightly depending on the audience’s culture and bias or understanding towards humans. I hiss at my audience and jump towards them, standing directly behind J, and reach my hand out at a shorter one that I think may be an adolescent. J tells them things they may already think, “Humans have a violent nature at times and are often angry, but this one is generally very calm, she genuinely does not like being looked in the eye though- so please be careful.”
It’s hard not to laugh, and I grin maliciously to keep myself calmer. Captain Isaac helped smudge dirt on me this morning and J helped to mess up my hair. J in his natural form kind of freaks me out, but he’s almost handsome as a lizard person, though I think I like him best when he shifts into a human form, not that he does so very much. The leash around my neck is way unnecessary, but J suggested it just to get on my nerves, and when captain Isaac agreed that it would look better, I just had to give in.
It doesn’t keep me from reaching my hand through the bars though, which I decide to do again, and almost touch one of the lizard people, not that I want to. J is seemingly taking longer than usual and I notice, but have no clue why. Did I so something to anger him?
“Hurry the fuck up, J!” I screech awkwardly, wanting to keep up with the whole act without being figured out as capable of coherent speech, even if in a strange language to these creatures, which still stare and gasp at me. I can only scare an audience for so long, and I hope they get bored soon before I wear out. I lean in closer to the bars and put the weight of one of my shoulders against a bar.
When the bar breaks from a tiny accidental nudge, I’m the one left gawking while being gawked at. I try to fix it hastily, by pulling it back into place, but end up pulling the entire bar into the cage with me instead, the entire audience steps way back, a couple even run away, a few members look scared shitless. And yet I’m still there, squatting in this alien carnival cage like a loon, holding a metal bar in front of a gap big enough for me to fit through.
“Mirella!” J yells at me angrily, I hiss at him and semi-hug the bar to myself, hoping to continue looking like a wild beast that’s strangely protective/attached to the cage. J sort of gets it, and in a calm voice, he talks to the tour group again, but I don’t understand what he’s saying now. J grabs the bar from me, pushes me farther back into the cage by my chest, and places the bar back where it belongs.
The growing crowd asks questions of concern, but J smoothly calms them down with his answers, on the inside I feel like I might cry. His push left a mark on my chest and I punch him through the bars, he hardly notices and the audience members that do, laugh, thinking that I must be a weak human.
J points at me and talks to the audience as though he’s about to demonstrate something, then shoves his arm through the bars. I gape for a moment then bite him since it’s the first primitive thing I think to do, but his scaly skin is too thick for me to do any damage and it looks like I’m hugging and gnawing playfully on his arm instead. He’s making me look like a fool!
“Jerk! Ass! I hate you!” I yell at him, and start punching his arm and shoulder again. He says something else to the audience that I feel may mean, “See? Harmless against me.”
I bite him again so I don’t cry, I made a mistake and this is him getting revenge, it must be. I made him look dumb for a second, so he’s making me look stupid to an entire planet. I throw his arm back at him, pushing his hand back through the bars, not wanting it in my personal space.
J looks at me for a second with pity and takes the keys from his belt before asking the audience a question. Everyone cheers and I feel my face go pale.
He unlocks my cage and I grip the bars in my hands, my knuckles going white. “No no no no, the hell are you doing?” I ask.
J says something else to the audience as he opens the cage door, then pretends to coo at me, but really speaks. “Come on out, after showing that you’re pretty harmless, uh.. They all asked to pet you, or begged that you should come out of the cage for a minute, and a lot of them are willing to pay money just to touch you.”
“Are you crazy? No!” I shout at him as he unhooks my chain from the wall.
“Please, please, I beg of you. Think of all the money we’ll get.” He replies, holding his hand out to me.
I hiss at him, like a creature backed into a corner. “This isn’t a petting zoo, you dick! Pretend to be human yourself and let them pet you instead!”
“Mirella, I beg of you. I’ll monitor everything, and… I’ll give you whatever you want later, on my honor, I promise. I’ll do or give you anything you want later, both even, if you do. Just think about how happy all that extra cash will make the boss and everyone else. I can get you more books, food, I can even do something intimate with you. I know you haven’t had needs like that taken care of since you’ve been part of the crew, and I’ve yet to find an alien with superior intelligence who reproduces with a partner and doesn’t get enjoyment out of-”
“Okay, shut up, fine. Fine fine fine.” I hiss again. “If it’ll get you to shut up. This is the most emotion I’ve seen out of you in two weeks, so fine.” I reply, taking his hand and crawling out of my cage after him. A shiver runs down my spine as I come to face the audience without a barrier.
J hooks my chain to an outside bar of the cage, so I can’t ‘run off’ or something dumb like that. He sits on the steps of the cage in front of its door and I continue to act like a creature, squatting near him, his hand on my chain to ‘guide me’. I feel myself getting more and more annoyed as J takes something from the first in line of lizard people, it must have been this planet’s form of currency or something. This lizard person looks like a young female, pink scaly skin, and wide orange colored eyes that are almost difficult to look at. The creature coos at me in an unsophisticated way and says my name in a hard-to-digest tone. “Mirella. Tnhg tshn Mirella.”
She puts her hand out to me and I sniff her, more out of some instinctual trait or habit than out of willingness. Her claws look sharp and I quickly glance at J, only to calm slightly when he seems nonchalant as he watches.
This lizard girl starts by petting my head gently, and I don’t hate it, so I stand up a bit more than I was while in a squat and take a step closer, to put myself a little more in front of J rather than to the side of him. I’m pet on the head and then rubbed a bit on the shoulders, and that’s all it seems to take to make this alien content before she walks off to a group of skittish friends, seemingly happy to gush about me, I think.
A couple hours go on like this, I smack anyone that tries to touch me anywhere near my nipples or crotch, and J sternly warns or physically stops any of the aliens that try to go further and do some shit like squeeze my breasts, or worse. When a large reptilian man who seems to be alone tries to pick me up, I simply stand and end up feeling like a ragdoll when this creature manages to lift me two inches off the ground, my toes dangling over the grass. I’m lifted under the arms, and his scaly hands on either side of me feel rough but not painful.
He looks me over and talks to J as I’m sat back on the ground, then he kneels in front of me. They continue to talk and the lizard alien man sits cross-legged on the ground and pulls me into his lap, I tremble, confused and starting to panic, but the conversation must be friendly, because J doesn’t notice. The alien rubs my head, neck, shoulders, back, and thighs. I try my best to stand it for as long as I can, but it doesn’t get any easier. This alien doesn’t take a moment the way the rest do, no, he takes minutes.
Every one of them is cold blooded, with cold scaly hands, but this one’s the worst and seemingly last in line as the sun shows that it’s closer to evening now. I mewl for J, “Uh.. J-J, please..”
Finally noticing me, J’s voice takes on a stern tone. The lizard man chuckles and rubs my skin harsher, almost painfully, before beginning to argue with J. He repositions me in his lap just as I’m trying to escape, and wraps an arm around my waist, I squeak and squeal like a creature in distress in the hopes that I’ll be let go, but I’m not, and then the lizard man forcefully pulls my legs apart, to look at me down below, simultaneously flashing more of me to J than I’d ever want revealed. I thrash against the crazy lizard alien man and try to cover myself with a hand.
It’s not J who saves me first, it’s Spark, a performer alien who can conduct electricity through her body to use in shows. She shocks the guy and pulls me away from him, but his arm slips and his claws rake across my stomach, causing me to have four bleeding scratches on my abdomen. Spark shocks him again, just to get me further away, but I gag when I come to the end of my chain.
The lizard man seems to recover quicker than either of us can believe, and yells something at J and Spark, while pointing at me. He licks my blood from his claws and unhooks my chain from the bars, trying to reel me in closer to him just as J finally comes to his senses enough to punch the guy squarely in his slitted lizard nose. Again, and again.
When my chain is finally dropped, Spark manages to get the collar off me and rushes me by hand to the medical tent. I’m pumped too full of adrenalin, and too shocked, to realize that the lizard man is still yelling at J and trying to get to me while they fight.
In the medical tent, my wounds are cleaned and dressed and Spark helps me get some clothes on. I’m crying in her arms and pass out within the next hour.
When I come to, I’m in the same place, but the circus is very obviously closed down fully for the night now. “Spark..” I croak.
She hushes me and holds out a cup of water. “Drink first, speak later.” She says in her weak human English. I nod and take it, emptying the glass before clearing my throat. “Thank you, Spark.” I say finally.
“Is nothing, bad lizard creature assault you, as you say. I attack him, and J put him out of coming to any circus, for life.” Spark replies, I smile.
“Great. That makes me feel a little better, at least..” I fall silent when the tent curtain is pulled back and J walks in, using a human form for me now. I scowl at him with a burning hate.
“Mirella, hey, listen… I know, I’m sorry. I explained everything to the Captain, he took all the cash I made off turning you into a petting zoo. Says you deserve all of it and more for what I did to you. I’ll be a clown for the next month, and on cleaning duty the whole time too. I’m sorry I did that to you, Mirella, I really am. I was thinking out of greed instead of just using my head.” J looked at the ground, “He wanted to buy you. I didn’t think there were aliens with human fetishes this far out in the system. It’s sick, I didn’t realize anyone would try something like that… He knew you were intelligent, yelled about it the whole time we were kicking him out and handing him over to this planet’s justice system. Knew it when he sexually harassed you. I’m sorry I didn’t act quicker, I was… I-It was just so shocking.” J sighed. “He’ll be tried for animal assault though and vandalism of property and the like. I know it’s not true justice.”
I gaped at him. “You were going to keep all that money?” I ground my teeth together, Spark looked as though she were going to blow a fuse after registering everything we were saying. “You said it was for the circus, that it would help all of us to have more revenue, I thought.. For.. For like props and costumes and the rides and games. But you, were GOING. TO. KEEP. ALL OF IT?”
J flinched, “H-hey, I did promise I’d give you anything you wanted afterwards.” Spark threw J out of the tent before I could stand up and do anything to hurt myself.
“We talk about later, you in big trouble with me and Mirella. You owe, piece of mushtakekshiva.” Spark spat at him, her last word or two inaudible to my non-native ears.
I began to cry again when she came over to comfort me. “We get you to you room, okay?” She proposed, helping me out of the tent and walking me there after I nodded my consent.
Just when I was beginning to think J was a nice guy, that he was good and wanted to be a friend instead of a co-worker. It made my heart break all the worse. “Captain talk to you later, okay? I make sure it happen.” Spark told me, I only nodded again.
When we get to my room, I fall into my hammock chair beside my bed and sniff, trying to calm down and let my shaking sobs go. A few deep breaths and I smile at Spark. “Thank you, again.” I tell her.
“You have welcome.” She says, petting my hand. “Good for night?” Spark asks.
“Yes, I’ll be fine for the night. I really should sleep, I’ll wash up in the morning.” I say. Spark lets out a grunt of agreement, smiles at me, and slowly walks away, closing the door gently behind her.
I fell asleep late into the night with red puffy eyes, and a book cradled in my arms.
Science Fiction
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