"That's awful" said Gene, looking up at his magazine. Aisha sat on a chair beside Gene, and Suzuka was pacing around the room. Aisha looked as if she had a bad taste in her mouth. Gene remained silent and returned to his magazine. Suzuka walked out of the room to get some tea.
Jim was sleeping quite soundly. He looked so peaceful now. A few hours ago, he had been scarred out of his wits. Aisha never knew that Jim had tasted the remains of a Terran kid inside the stomach of the female Ctarl-Ctarl. Aisha had assumed Jim was afraid of her because what he went through, but the truth was very different.
"So, why didn't you eat DeZarro?" asked Suzuka as she came back with a cup of tea.
"After he told me that, I lost my appetite" said Aisha. "just thinking about what they were doing makes me sick"
"Why are you being sad about this?" asked Gene. "I thought Ctarl-Ctarl ate Terrans all the time"
Aisha shot a "don't joke about that" look at Gene and sighed.
"Ctarl-Ctarls usually eat Adult Terrans" said Aisha. "we never eat the kids because that would be cruel. It's against the law to eat Terran kids, in fact"
Jim stirred in his sleep, but didn't wake. Aisha over at Jim and stared at his sleeping form. Would Jim be afraid of her from now on? Would he be afraid of every ctarl-ctarl that he saw? Aisha couldn't blame him if he now hated ctarl-ctarls. A surge of anger was bubbling in Aisha now. An anger so deep that she wanted to tear apart DeZarro and his fellow slavers. Eating DeZarro wouldn't be enough, he had to suffer the wrath of a ctarl-ctarl. Aisha would use him for her personal scratching post. DeZarro would plead with her to let him die, but she wouldn't.
"What about DeZarro?" asked Gene.
"What about him?" asked Suzuka.
"What should we do with him?" asked Gene. In answer, Aisha simply got up from the chair and walked out of the room.
"I think Aisha got her appetite back" said Gene, returning to his magazine.


Jim was having a nightmare. A nightmare that had started in the kitchen of Starwind and Hawking Enterprises. In the nightmare, Aisha was cutting up a cake that looked like Suzuka. When Aisha cut the Suzuka cake, the cake screamed in agony even as Aisha ate the piece of cake. Then, Aisha seemed to notice Jim for the first time.
"Aha!" said Aisha. "here's my favorite Terran snack; Jim under glass!"
Jim found himself under a dome of glass and Aisha was lifting the dome away from the table top. Jim was too scarred to move, his legs weighed a ton and refused to move. Then, the glass dome turned into a churning stomach and Jim found himself floating in stomach acid up to his neck. His mouth was open in a silent scream, and something was being forced into his open mouth; it was John the Orphan! John was half-digested already and being eaten by Jim again.
"NOOOOOOO!!!" yelled Jim, but nobody heard him. That's when he woke with a start. Morning sunlight poured into the hospital room. Jim blinked his eyes several times to bring the room into focus, and what he saw made him yell in shock