CHAPTER EIGHT
Two tall creatures, obviously human, loomed over Vay's prostrate form. She could see very little of their faces, concealed as they were by surgical masks and caps. Only eyes stared out at her - eyes that were little more than hollow black holes that served as windows into a deep abyss, absent of soul. Other than that, everything was white. Too white. It was too bright here. Surely she would melt from the intense brightness and heat. Surely she would burn, dissolve, fade. Surely, surely, she would die. And the baby, too.
My baby! All of a sudden, Vay understood. Everything that followed was a bleary haze of pain and fear and anger and hate. Sharp glints of light pierced the already brutal brightness of the room, and the evil sound of metal clattering against metal signified a tray set with surgical instruments. Words were being spoken, in a language Vay had once learned, but all she heard was gibberish. The baby squirmed inside her, bound and helpless in its womb, just as its mother lay bound and helpless on the table.
One of the humans walked around the table, all but circling her as he went to fetch something from a cabinet on the other side of the room. A cold wind went with him as he passed. Vay's sensitive antenna gave an involuntary twitch. The man came back, and bent over her, extending something that looked like measuring tape over her abdomen. He spoke to the other man, who then wrote something on a clipboard. The first man then proceeded to measure her lengthways, and as the measuring tape was laid against her body again, she realized she was naked.
Burning with shame and rage, Vay bit her tongues and tried to remain calm. It wasn't enough for them to treat her like an object - but this was adding insult to injury. Hers was one of few races throughout most of the universe that had taboos on public nudity. Humans obviously felt the same way about it, since all of the ones she had seen so far had been fully clothed. Of the few women she had seen, she had noted that their anatomy was not entirely different from her own. Anger and embarrassment made her face feel hot as the human male took her measurements, the cold measuring tape pressing against her naked breasts on more than one occasion.
When he was done, both men pulled on rubber gloves and began groping her from all angles, presumably as a crude means of studying her. They seemed in awe over her boneless, gelatinous structure and her single eye, which they insisted on peering into with an even brighter light than the one above their heads. They made a thorough job of inspecting every inch of her body - every nook and cranny - and she felt sure that it was only a matter of time before they reached her kwazuunga.
Vay had been silent the whole time. She hadn't even struggled, except for when one of the men forced her mouth open and crammed something halfway down her throat until she gagged. She had been patient and cooperative, knowing full well what they might do to her if she wasn't. She had submitted herself to them. But as soon as she felt a hand between her legs, she began thrashing like a deranged beast, cursing colorfully in a number of Earthly and alien languages. Far from being daunted by this behavior, the two humans merely readjusted her leg restraints until her entire lower half was completely immobile and her kwazuunga was fully exposed.
Panting furiously, Vay watched a large hand disappear between her legs, none too gentle as it explored forbidden territory. She seethed. A look of shock crossed the man's face, and he turned and said something to his colleague. The other man responded by placing both gloved hands over Vay's womb, feeling the baby's movements. His hands pressed hard against her belly, and the pressure was almost unbearable. Then he relented and went to stand beside the first man, watching as he continued his exploration of her nether regions. A sudden sharp pain made Vay gasp loudly, and the next thing she felt was the man's hand withdrawing, followed by the gush of warm fluid from between her legs.
The two humans backed away, looks of horror on their faces to match their alien captive's. One of them exclaimed something that sounded like a curse, then both of them moved out of her line of vision. A metal clattering was heard, along with something falling on the floor. Then more curses, followed by the sound of cabinets opening and closing. What Vay saw out of the corner of her eye was only a quick blur as the humans bustled about making preparations for something. The gush she'd felt downstairs had been reduced to a trickle, but she could still feel the warm fluid pooling underneath her. That was when she realized - now fully and undeniably - that the baby was on its way.