Shorter Chapters = More chapters.
I'm having fun with this one. Expect another tomorrow, or Sunday.

Introduction


I'm being abducted, my mind repeated over and over as I walked up the short ramp into the bay of the ship. I was never one of those people to entertain the thoughts of aliens being real, and here I was being followed into a UFO by a squad of armored and armed aliens. Fuck me.

The scarier thought was that other than the councilors at the camp, there was no one to care that I went missing. For all they would know I ran away, or just got lost in the woods and eaten by a bear. There would be a search-possibly an Amber Alert and then I'd end up on the back of a milk carton...but no one was left to truly miss me.

I was directed to sit on one of the bench seats by the alien in the tan and black armor. I took it quickly as my legs were shaking so hard that I didn't know how much longer standing would be an option. I looked around at the rest of them-all of them in earth toned and metal armor standing around, blocking the exit, looking somewhat nonchalant if you put any sort of human graces on them. Guns were strapped to their backs, taloned hands at their sides, and most seemed to be chattering to each other, barely casting a glance except for the one in tan that sat across from me and began reaching for its helmet.

It happened as if in slow motion-the click of the helmet being released from its mount, and the tilt of the head as the helmet came off slowly revealing the true creature beneath. It was bone in color and had an upper and lower jaw, the upper being bowed up slightly, but it also had mandibles on either side of its mouth that fluttered with every breath that it took. The helmet rose more and I could see blue markings, painted onto its face, going across it's flat nose and around its eyes.

The eyes are what stopped me. Intelligent, feral, and a piercing green. They studied me as I studied it in turn, flitting slightly over the other, sizing each other up, and just generally taking in the sight of a new being without the barrier of armor in between.

I noticed the chattering had stopped, and I looked over at the others who were watching the silent exchange between the white alien and myself. A sharp chattering click from one, sent the un-helmeted creature into an uproar. It rose, pointed to the one that had made the noise, and then at the seat, before gesturing to the others to do the same. It then walked over to a door opposite the closing ramp and banged on it three times.

I'm going to puke, I wrapped my arms around my stomach and doubled over, swallowing quickly trying to make sure what could have been my last meal stayed in my stomach as the other aliens took seats. Most ended up on the other side of the bay, looking at me from behind their visors, but the tan-armored alien fluidly and without hesitation took a seat next to me.

The pitch of the ship's hum began to change as it prepared for flight, getting louder and more shrill. It was almost to the point of pain, but I seemed to be the only one that noticed it. My alien companions were relaxed in their seats keeping an idle eye on me while they waited to go back to...

Where are they taking me? I frowned into the arms of my jacket. Am I going to some mothership above the planet? Are they taking me back to study me? Is it going to hurt? Tears began to well up in the corners of my eyes as I contemplated the very real possibility of being experimented on for the rest of my life.

There was a sudden drop in my stomach, and the shrill sound stopped. The only thing left was the slight humming of the engines, and the pressure pushing me to my left as the ship began to move. Did I just leave Earth?

For some reason that got me, and the tears that had been storing themselves, waiting for the right time to fall began to do so quickly and with force. I let out a ragged sob, and buried my face further into my arms as to quiet my anguish. I was definitely in the state of 'ugly crying' and the very teenage-girl human reaction to hide my face outweighed my need for oxygen. My head pounded with every gasp for air, and every cry that escaped with every exhale.

The ride began to get bumpy at that point. I was jostled enough to have to move my arms to the edge of the seat as to not bump into the alien next to me, and I could hear tiny metallic 'clinks' as the other alien's armor hit each other. That and the sound of my sobbing carried us through the atmosphere and out into open space. The ride again smoothed out, and the jostling stopped. I'm officially not on Earth anymore, I let out another raspy sob.

There was some movement next to me while I grieved for the life I could have had. The sound of something like a zipper and then a quick rustling. Then, suddenly, cold on the side of my head, pressing against the goose egg that was left from being hit by the gun. I jumped at the change of temperature and righted myself to see what was going on.

The tan-armored alien was holding something silver that seemed slightly squishy in its taloned hand. Is that a cold pack? My crying lulled as I contemplated the fact that an advanced species still used cold packs that looked like something from Earth. The alien moved it's hand slightly towards me and opened its talons, offering the cold pack to me. I glanced up and over and saw its mandibles flutter softly as its mouth moved expelling clicks and trills that I didn't understand.

I wondered why if I had been taken it seemed like my captors...or at least one of them was trying to tend to the wound that one of them had given me. Maybe this one was a medic and it had to tend to me? The cold did feel nice, I took a deep shuddering breath trying to calm myself, and reached a shaky hand out and grabbed the ice pack, withdrawing my hand quickly as to not linger near what looked to be blunt, but hard talons.

The ice pack was heaven against my aching skull. I was silently thankful to the tan-armored alien as the crying jag I had just barely rid myself of had made the pain ten times worse. As my head was bowed I began to feel something run down my temple and begin to bead there. It couldn't have been sweat because even with my jacket on there was a definite chill in the air. Finally I saw a drop of red out of the corner of my eye fall to the metal floor and 'splat' leaving a tiny red mark on the otherwise pristine ship.

I rose quickly, and felt myself instantly wobble as my vertigo went on the fritz, and knocked lightly into the tan-armored alien, there was a slight rumbling sensation I felt as we made contact, that reminded me of my childhood cat when she would purr. I pulled myself into a righted position using the edge of my seat and brought my free hand up to the side of my head pulling the ice pack away.

Fuck, I looked at the icepack and saw red. A lot of red. My other hand touched the side of my face to see how bad the bleeding had gotten and came away wet and shining with fresh blood. No wonder I'm dizzy. I brought my hand to the wound that was a couple inches above my right ear and felt around gently. I winced through the enormous pain that my fingers brought but I surmised that the gun had left a two inch gash on the side of my head that seemed to have trouble clotting, from the look of my hands and the ice pack.

The hair around the wound was now matted and saturated with blood, and was probably what was slowing the flow as it soaked up the majority of the bodily fluid, but now that it was soaked, the tiny rivers were flowing freely down my head, around my ear, and down my neck.

I was beginning to feel dizzier at the sight of all the blood. Though I had been in a few fights in my day, I had never stuck around to see the aftermath, and wasn't used to seeing blood in such large amounts. I looked up and over at the tan-armored alien, propping myself up with my other arm on the free seat next to me, and whimpered:

"I think I need a doctor."

The alien's response would have been almost comical if I hadn't been in a state of near passing out. It looked at me, its eyes going from intelligent and fierce to clear and vivid worry. Its mouth opened in a high trill, and I could feel a descent rumble from him through our connected seats. It looked from me, and my wound, over to the others, which made their own noises back at it, starting a conversation I couldn't understand. What happened next, I could only describe as the alien not getting the response it wanted as it reached over and pounded the door at the front of the ship, letting out a lion like roar.

In response, I fell into the free seat next to me as the speed of the ship suddenly increased. I heard another shrill trill from next to me, and a few quieter ones from across the way, that almost sounded like human worry. Part of me wanted to force myself back up to show that I wasn't weak, that I was useful in some way to hopefully sway them in some manner, but the other part of me couldn't manage so much as to wipe the blood that was slowly dripping into my eyes.

The world began to get fuzzy, and redder as we went on. I felt the taloned hand of the alien next to me on my arm, as it leaned over and peered around my puffy jacket to see my face, concern running deep in its striking green eyes. I blinked slowly as my eyelids became heavier, staring deep into the emerald orbs of the alien above me.

"Doctor," I whispered as my eyes closed of their own accord, too weak to open again on their own. I was cold, and tired. At this point, not even the general threat of five alien's surrounding me could keep me going. My consciousness was slowly shutting itself off, needing to conserve energy to recoup from the wound I had received less than thirty minutes before.

"Doc...tor."

Its fucking freezing in here. Are we there yet? I listened for the hum of the engines of the alien ship and heard nothing. Silence. Where am I? My arms and legs felt heavy as I tried to move them. Instead of the slick metal of the seats of the ship, I felt the soft pad of a mattress.

What? I patted around and yep, I was not where I was. It had seemed almost instantaneous-losing consciousness on the ship, and now ending up here, freezing, covered in goosebumps and wondering where I had ended up.

The fact that I was somewhere not on Earth didn't escape me. I didn't know where I was, but I knew where I wasn't. My eyelids still felt incredibly heavy, and didn't want to open. I was fine with that, it felt good to have them shut. I sniffed back a glob of snot, clearing my throat and decided that even though I was probably going to get some weird bird/cat noise back, that I might as well try and see if someone was there.

"Hello?"

"Hello."

My eyes immediately shot open at the sound of a response in English. My head turned wildly as I looked around for the human that surely had to be nearby, and my eyes landed on a black armored alien that was looking back at me from what looked to be steepled talons.

This one looked different from the tan-armored one. He was a dark brown in color and had white markings all across his face. The only thing similar was the green eyes, and I wondered briefly if all of the aliens had green eyes.

My head throbbed as I rose from my prone position and moved to seat myself upright. I brought my hand to the side of my head and felt stitches now in place along with the pain and...

"You shaved my head?"

"You needed stitches."

My head didn't feel lighter, and I did feel the weight of my shoulder-length hair on my back, so I knew it wasn't all gone. I patted lightly around, being sure to avoid the stitches and found that they had just shaved the one side, leaving the top and back in place.

"Now I look like a Skrillex reject," I moped.

"I don't understand the reference," the alien responded.

"Sorry...musician, has the same haircut," I frowned and dropped my hands to my side. Not only had I been abducted, but I had immediately gotten a make under by my captors. Wonderful.

"We need to speak, human." Its tone was deep, and seemed to have multiple tones to it at the same time. It was kind of a beautiful sound to be honest, almost musical, though the words themselves were flat.

"Okay," I slowly gathered my legs to me in a lotus position and scooted myself so I was facing the alien. "I have some questions myself."

"Speak your mind," he responded, un-tenting his talons and leaning back into what looked to be a more relaxed position.

"Why did you abduct me, is my first question. Followed by why the hell did one of you see fit to bash my head in with a gun, and why was one of you peeking in my window late at night. I want to know where I am, I want to know what is going to happen to me," bile rose in my throat as I babbled on and the tears were making a comeback.

The alien's mouth closed tightly as I was speaking, but its mandibles began to flutter lightly as my voice slowly became filled with emotion. When I was done, and nearly on the verge of tears, he leaned forward and put a taloned hand on my knee. I didn't jump, but I stilled.

"You were taken because you saw too much. Not because we want to hurt you, not because we wanted to take away your family, just because we can't have Humans know we exist. You are young, and curious, but that shouldn't carry a death penalty," he squeezed my knee lightly, and I realized his talons were blunted-not sharp like I had previously thought. "You were in our shuttle, and my men couldn't tell how young you were from what little they saw, so that is why they struck you. They couldn't be sure you weren't attacking. As for what is going to happen to you...that is not up to me."

"What do you mean," I paled.

"There is a Galactic Council, made up of my, and two other species that will decide what will come of you. Humanity is nowhere near ready for the responsibility that the Galactic stage brings. We come to Earth on occasion to monitor your progress, and that is what we were doing as you stumbled upon us. That being said, you would be the first and only human to leave the Sol system, and that brings change for us. Do we lay hands in Humanity and uplift them so you are not alone? Do we leave you alone in a strange place to as the only member of your species, or do we extinguish a life that has barely begun...that is what the council must decide."

"Fuck me," I muttered and hung my head. This was too much. I would almost welcome the ease that captivity and experimentation would bring. "What do you think they'll say?"

"I don't know," the alien responded solemnly. "I just hope it is not your death."

"Thanks," I gave him a small smile. "And thanks for coming to talk to me, I'm glad one of you speaks English."

"I'm not speaking English," he responded with a slight rumbling laugh. "While you were asleep we took the liberty of giving you a sub-dermal translator so we could communicate."

"Wait-what? You put something in me?" There's the experimentation. I shuddered and wrapped my arms around myself.

"It was necessary to communicate. Its a bit of a flight to the Citadel and we didn't want to have to play charades the entire time." The alien stood and stretched out its arms, and I heard the telltale sign of a back crack.

"So...what do I do until we get there?" I rubbed my arm self consciously and looked around the room. There were several beds like the one I was on, and against the far wall there were tubes and what seemed to be giant injectors on the counter. Med bay?

"You, little Human, will come with me and meet the crew. They're dying to meet a real Human, and someone owes you an apology." He laughed lightly and waved me forward.

"Name's Rebecca," I offered. 'Little Human' was a cute nickname, but I didn't need something else calling attention to the fact that now I was the token alien on a ship of extraterrestrials.

"Nihlus Kryik," he nodded his 'hello' hand still outstretched. "Shall we?"

I unfolded my legs and hopped off the table being sure to keep a hand on the edge of the mattress to steady myself. Once I was sure my legs weren't going to buckle, and I wouldn't face plant onto the metal floor, I let go and took a few small steps towards the tall creature.

"Hey, Nihlus," I had to crane my neck to look up at him.

"Yes, Rebecca?"

"What species are you guys? All I know you as is 'alien' and well you know I'm 'Human' and I don't want to offend...you know...might save my life if I'm not offending everyone and their mother..." I wrung my hands together as I spoke. Knowing my life might be on the line had me on edge, and as much as it would suck to be the only Human for the rest of my life, it would be better than being killed at fifteen.

"Hah," he chuckled. "We're Turians. Don't worry, if you're about to offend someone, I'll let you know, and since we have three or so days until we hit the Citadel, we can get some cultural training in."

"Thanks," I nodded my appreciation and took a few steps closer to the large Turian. "So, time to meet the crew?"