Extraterrestrial Moors

2

"Maha, you need to eat," someone other than Rafe says urging me to eat the food. I'd tried it and had started vomiting the first day I woke up here. Where ever here is. Since then I couldn't force myself to even try the slop they call food. I don't even look at the person.

"Maha," This time it's Rafe's voice speaking. "Try this, I think you might like it far more than the other food they are trying to feed you." Rafe sets down some fruit on the movable tray that slides over my bed. It's the smell that drags at my attention and despite myself I look first at the food and then at the man that brought it to me.

My stomach actually grumbles at the smell and a sudden desire to eat overcomes me. I take the bowl of fruit and not taking my eyes off of Rafe start eating. It doesn't matter that he didn't bring me a fork or even a spoon. It doesn't matter that I don't even like half the fruits in the bowl. In my hunger for real food my body chooses to ignore my tastes. It taste's like ambrosia.

I finish the bowl and set it down. Rafe hands me a wet wipe or some variant there of. I use it on my hands, but still I don't speak. I haven't spoken since he said that death was the easy path. He wouldn't kill me. I knew that before I even asked him to.

Once done with the wipe I set it by the now empty bowl and turned away from him. Rafe lets out a sigh that has a touch more than anger in it. "Maha, you need to start speaking to someone. If not me, then someone else. At least look at them." 

I hear every word he says but it doesn't mean anything to me. He still hasn't answered my question from when we were still on Earth and until that question is answered I don't have anything else to say.

He tries moving to the other side of the bed. At least he's smart enough to try that, but it won't do him any good since I'll just keep my eyes closed.

When I feel his lips on mine my eyes shoot open and my hand of its own accord slaps him as hard as I can. Then tears flood my eyes. He's no better than the others at school. 

I curl up into a ball and let the tears and sobs come out. I make sure that he can't touch my face though.

I rub my face where she smacked it. That's going to bruise. She hits far harder than I expected and although the slap is a good sign her sobs were not. Nor was her body curled up into a fetal position. I had just made things worse. The psychiatrist were wrong. We aren't human and we don't respond the same way they would. Or would have since the only living human was currently rolled into a human ball and crying her heart out.

I leave the room angrily and stomp over to the doctor's that had ordered me to do that. "Congratulations Dr.," My sarcasm knows no end. "You just made everything worse." I may not have studied humans like the Doctors have, but even I know you don't take a traumatized being and subject it to that kind of behavior.

"Lt. you forget yourself," one of the doctors says to me. I round on her.

"Oh, no I haven't. I think it's you all that have forgotten yourselves. She is the last of her species, last time we talked she wanted me to kill her, so what do you have me do? You have me sexually assault her. You wouldn't dream of doing that to one of our people, but you don't have trouble ordering the assault on her. At this point, I think her finding death might be the humane thing to do." I am so furious, Maha, is so weak and vulnerable. The others were more than cruel to her and we are no better.

"She needed a shock to bring her out of her depression," one of the doctors explains.

"She has a right to be depressed. She also has a right to not be assaulted like that. We don't even treat our malcontents and miscreants like that. Our prisoners are given better food and not assaulted. You're not trying to help her you're just experimenting on her and it's disgusting." I let my feelings flow strongly. They outrank me and I am powerless to stop what they are doing. I turn, but before I leave, "She won't talk to me again, not after that. You'd better find someone else." I didn't like what they were doing but there is nothing I can do to stop it.

If the so called experts in humanology keep this up, Maha, will undoubtedly die. I think the doctor's want to see to what extreme's they can get her too before she does. I leave no doubt about how I feel about that. I feel sorry for the girl lying still curled up in a ball on the hard bed.

I lose track of time. There is no real difference between night and day. I would eat when they brought in real food and not that other slop. Rafe didn't come  back though. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I refused to speak to anyone else though.

I wish that they would have just left me back on on Earth to die. By now I'm pretty sure that I would be dead. I don't know who or what Rafe and his people were but they are far more cruel than the 'other' people that killed all life on Earth. No, wait he said all oxygen breathing things on Earth. Sounds to me like these other's want the Earth, just not the living breathing things. Something like we'd talk about, terraforming. But it doesn't matter to me, not anymore.

Each day someone comes in and tries to talk to me and get me to talk. They even tried withholding the real food. But when they did that I just didn't eat.

I became lethargic and unresponsive overall. I thought it meant that my ordeal would soon be over. Then one day one of them, I don't know who, "We are sorry. It was on our orders Lt. Rafael kissed you. He was furious at us and how we are treating you." 

There is an awkward pause. I think they are waiting for me to speak, but I don't have anything to say to them really. 

"He has requested that we ask your permission for him to be allowed back to see you. He said to tell you he understands if you don't wish to see him." The unknown person finishes speaking. Well at least they apologized prettily, but I still don't believe them. They still haven't told me anything but expect me to tell them everything.

When I still don't respond they break things down. "Will you allow the Lt. to come back and see you?" I just shrug my shoulders. They are still playing games with me. I never liked it when people played games with me.