✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter Two - Part XIV: Belly of the Beast

          Nova was jolted to consciousness by an incessant tapping on the door and Jarah calling his name. He called back out to her in turn as he found the clothes he'd left on the floor and quickly pulled them on. The events of last night and all the information he'd gleaned from Gabriel rapidly flashed through his mind, and it put him on edge. He wondered if Jarah coming to wake him up was related to something that might have happened with him, and he found himself intensely concerned for his safety.

          "Good morning," Jarah greeted him in her vibrating, tranquilizing way, "I'm sorry to have woken you, but I wanted to catch you before you ate something. You will be put under general anesthesia again."

          Fuck, Nova thought when the hairs on his neck and arms prickled at the sound of her voice, she's already doing it.

          "It's okay," he said drowsily.

          "Are you ready?" Jarah asked.

          Nova paused. Her words were quivering in an explicably pleasant manner—the effect was so pronounced that it almost didn't even sound like English. It took a moment for him to hear the words she was saying, but when he did, he felt impelled to answer affirmatively. "Yeah, I'm ready..."

          "Excellent. Let's be on our way, then."

          Jarah gestured for him to accompany her out of the room, and he mindlessly followed. He was thinking hard about how he needed to fight it, but couldn't get much further than that—every time he tried to think about how he might resist her potent salve-like manner of speech, or throw her off in some way, he felt as though his thoughts were being 'reset'. Just on the cusp of a breakthrough, his mind would blank, and he found himself thinking I need to fight this somehow, again.

          "Would you like to receive my own seed again, or would you prefer a sample be artificially implanted?"

          He didn't realize how much he'd been sucked into the thought loop until she spoke again. He looked around and saw that they were already on the medical laboratory deck, and he couldn't help a shudder at that—he couldn't remember using the transport pod.

          "Nova?"

          He shook his head. "Sorry... what did you say?"

          "Would you like to be inseminated artificially or by myself?"

          Even despite everything, it was a question that left him feeling conflicted. On one hand, yes, he did want Jarah's avian lady-dick again, but on the other... he knew there was something wrong with all of this. He realized that he didn't know if he wanted it because her extremely potent speech-magic made it so, or if it was an honest desire.

          "Erm... on Earth, the artificial insemination was pretty successful," he said as Jarah led him to a room in the back area. "So... I guess that...?"

          She flicked her crown and nodded. "Would you undress and lay down, please?"

          He silently did as he was told and laid down on the narrow surgical table. Nearby, he could see metal stirrup-like attachments sitting on a counter, and a sharp pang of arousal passed through his groin. It only grew as Jarah rigged him up to the monitoring equipment and prepared to anesthetize him.

          "After this... I'd really like to try to reach my family again," he said after a short silence. "I'm worried that I haven't heard from them yet."

          "Of course," Jarah said enthusiastically without missing a beat. "We can do that as soon as you wake up."

          He didn't know what to make of her response. It sounded almost too eager, and he wanted to question how true it was... but questioning it would bring to light many dark implications that he didn't really want to think about at the moment.