At the back of the Spaceship

Chapter 1
         “Fire.” Though her voice was calm as ice, Captain Lorelei Amber's insides trembled as she ordered the small station destroyed. Her sister, her only family, could be in there. And her first officer might not be fast enough to take her out.
         Relief and hope filled her when a silken voice rang out of her console speaker. “I'm out, Captain. I have the girls.”
         “Good work, Paige.” Zoe Paige had never disappointed her. “Lila?”
         “Not at the station. I think the pirates are still holding your sister, Captain.”
         A cold wave of fear and anxiety washed over Lorelei. Lila had sneaked out a message to the planet two days prior, about a month after her abduction. In the transmission, she had looked gravely ill.
         “Hail the station,” Lorelei commanded an officer in her control center.
         “Yes, Captain.”
         The image of the slimy, tentacled pirate captain, still smug and sneering despite its current predicament, appeared before her.
         “Ah, Captain.” Its voice was not pleasant. It reminded one of fingernails drawn across a board. “I have upset you. But you must understand, we're just doing business.”
         “Harvesting organs from my people is not 'just doing business,' Duorts.”
         “We compensate them. The woman beings we get our ovaries from consented.”
         “That's because they don't know the true risks. Besides, more than half of them did not consent. You abducted them.”
         Duorts shrugged. “We are businesspeople, Captain. The demand is great. We had to increase our supply.”
         Lorelei cursed at the creature's lack of remorse. “You have one more woman. Where is she?”
         “Ah, the sneak.”
         “She is my sister. Give her back to me.”
         “Let me think.” It made a show of thinking things through. But Lorelei knew it wouldn't release any woman voluntarily. She rolled her eyes. Why did she even bother to ask anyway? Anxiety really did cloud one's judgement. “I'll have to get back to you on that one,” Duorts stated, then ended the transmission.
         Lorelei turned to her sensors officer. “Keep an eye on the station,” she said. “The pirates will be planning an escape for sure.”
         “Yes, Captain.”
         Lorelei looked around the circular control center of her ship. The Eve's carpets were worn and some of the metal panels showed signs of rust. But the ship was in good shape and in good repute. Her crew of fifty also boasted to be among the best in the force. Six of them were currently hard at work at their stations around her. They had come to this obscure area at the outskirts of their star system as fast as they could. But as she stared at the burning pirate station on the huge screen before her, she couldn't help but think if they were not too late.

         “Captain, the pirates are fleeing,” the sensors officer alerted her.
         With a nod, Lorelei returned to the communicator on her console. “Come back to the Eve as quickly as you can, Zoe.”
         “Aye, Captain. Paige out.”
         “Captain,” her communications officer said. “Communication from Wom. It's the President.”
         “Patch her through.”
         Lorelei stood up just as the picture of a woman not much older than her twenty-four years appeared on the screen before her. She wore the same black pants suit Lorelei wore. Only hers had a lot more gold decorations on the shoulders. She wore her curled red hair high. Lorelei had always admired the elegance the style brought out in her leader's face. But it also made her conscious of her messy brown ponytail.
         “Your excellency.” Lorelei made a slight bow, which the woman returned.
         “Report, Captain.”
         “The hostages have been retrieved. But the pirate ship is escaping. We will pursue as soon as my first officer and the hostages are aboard.”
         “That will most likely take you out of our system. You're already way out of our sensors. You're barely in communications range as you are. If you proceed, we will not be able to offer any assistance should you need it.”
         “I understand, your excellency. We will be careful.”
         “Very well. Good luck, Captain.” The president ended the communication just as Commander Zoe Paige entered the control room.
         Lorelei turned to her crew. “Pursue the pirate ship,” she commanded. “And you have your orders to fire.”


         The chase led them light years away from their system. And for several hours, it seemed that neither ship had any advantage over the other.
         “Direct hit, Captain,” an officer announced. “Their space warp engine is out.”
         “Incoming missile! Brace yourselves!”
         They felt the Eve jog as the missile shattered against their shield.
         “Status?” Lorelei asked.
         “Shields are holding, Captain,” Zoe reported. “A few burns, but we're alright.”
         “And the pirate ship?'
         “Badly damaged. As you can see from the trail of debris they're leaving.”
         “Call them.”

         The tentacled creature was back on their screen.
         “Give us back the woman!” Lorelei commanded.
         “I think not, Captain.” That was all it said before terminating the communication.

         “Captain, they're entering an asteroid belt.”
         “Stay with them, Commander.”
         Bad move, Duorts, Lorelei thought with a smirk. The required maneuvering in the asteroid belt would slow the pirate ship down.
         “When we get near enough, Commander, take out their light speed engines. And get ready to board them.”
         “Aye, Captain.”
         But before their sensors could pick up anything, there was a heavy crash as something slammed against the Eve. The alarms automatically switched on.
         “We're hit, Captain,” an officer reported. “Fracture on the port side.”
         “The pirates?”
         “No,” Zoe replied. “Some of these asteroids are moving at incredible speed!”
         Another crash, starboard this time.
         “ They're moving too fast, our sensors can hardly detect them. We have to get out of here, Captain!” Zoe said. “A few more seconds and there'll be nothing left of us.”
         “Very well. Take us out of this belt,” Lorelei ordered, inwardly screaming at the thought that they were going to lose the pirate ship again.          “And turn off that darned alarm.”
         The offending alarm was turned off. The ship began reversing its course.
         Before they could make any substantial progress, however, another asteroid, quite small but certainly still dangerous, slammed against their monitor window. The alarm set off bleeping again.
         “What are we still doing here, Paige?”
         “Hold on, I need a bit more time.”
         Lorelei watched, seething, as the pirate ship, small and obviously not a stranger to the belt, maneuvered its way effortlessly away while the Eve's bulk was tossed and turned around by the whizzing boulders.
         Something suddenly caught her attention. She noticed what seemed to be a small vessel amidst the debris trailing the pirate ship.
         “Zoe,” she said. “What's that in the debris?”
         Zoe quickly checked her console to verify. “It appears to be an escape craft.”
         Hope swelled inside Lorelei. She turned to her first officer, who nodded in understanding.
         “Firing attractor ray at escape craft,” Zoe announced.
         They received another hit.
         “Confirmed breach on the starboard side!” An officer reported. “Crews quarters. No casualty.”
         Casualty. Interesting word. There was nothing casual about death in her opinion. But she would bet the pirates didn't share her view. Countless woman lives had been lost to them, mostly due to hemorrhaging and infection. This was not to mention the daughters that could have been born had those reproductive organs not been removed. And during this era of crisis when pregnancy didn't come often, this act from the pirates was certainly heinous to the first degree.
         Lorelei watched her officers fight desperately for escape. Some of them had been victims of the pirates. Even her first officer had not been spared. But they had fought on, unwilling to remain victims to the greed of those hideous creatures. These girls were precious to her. She wouldn't let any of them die. But she certainly wouldn't allow those pirates to go unpunished. Just they wait. She will be back on their trail in no time.
         “Commander?” She turned to Zoe when another asteroid grazed the Eve.
         “Got the vessel, Captain. Preparing escape.”

         The Eve shot upward, through the sea of asteroids, getting grazed a couple of times, and out of danger.
         Everyone visibly let out the breath they were holding when the ship had cleared the belt. Lorelei tried to stand up, but had to sit back down. Her legs felt like jelly after the ordeal they had just been through.
         “Good work, Commander,” she said.
         “Thank you, Captain. And I'm sorry we weren't able to get to the pirate ship.”
         Lorelei waved a hand. “We'll get them soon. Don't worry about it.”
         “I must admit, I really wasn't sure if I would be able to do it.”
         “I had every faith in you, Zoe.” Lorelei stood up, blood having flown back into her legs. “Now, are you well enough to take control of the Eve for a while?”
         “You go see your sister. I'll handle things here.”
         Lorelei smiled at her first officer as the other officers offered her their congratulations and thanks. But their merrymaking was short-lived. As Lorelei turned to leave the control room, a stern voice rang out from the speakers.
         “This is Medical Officer Ava Madeline. Captain, you'd better come down to the infirmary. It's about the occupant of the craft you just pulled in.”
         The smiles disappeared from the control officers' faces. The light mood suddenly changed to a sombre one, heavy with silent dread.
         Lorelei returned to her console. “Doctor. I was about to do just that. What's wrong? My sister...”
         “That's probably the good news. It's not Lila.”
         A breath of relief escaped the captain's lips. “And the bad news? Is she dead?”
         “Death might probably have been kinder. Whatever they did to her... it's barbaric.”
         “Explain.”
         Lorelei could hear the doctor hesitate. “For one, they cut off her breasts. And that's not the worst part.”
         Several control officers gasped. A chill swept through Lorelei's entire body. She knew the pirates were bad, but she didn't think they would be this cruel.
         “You have control, Zoe,” she said quietly. Then she left the control room before the doctor could give any more gory details about the newcomer.


Chapter 2
         “Judging by her body not having any visible scars on the chest area,” the doctor explained. “I would say they removed her breasts early on.”
         The captain nodded. She and the doctor were in the operating room of the infirmary, standing beside the operating table where the newcomer lay unconscious.
         “She looks bigger than the average woman. Did they give her steroids or something?”
         “I haven't finished the blood chemistry tests yet, but I'd say she was pumped full of it, or whatever drug they used.”
         Lorelei placed a hand on the patient's chest. But she snatched it back with a gasp.
         “Doctor, she's as hard as a corpse!”
         Ava nodded. “Rest assured, though, she's alive. There's one more thing, Captain. I found traces of radiation on her person. At first I thought it was just remnants from possibly an engine power leak. But then, I saw this.” Ava pulled down the blanket covering the patient's lower half and revealed something that made Lorelei gasp.
         “What's that... growth?” The captain asked.
         “My theory is that it's the effect of radiation poisoning.”
         “And the two... um... smaller things growing on the sides?”
         “Tumors. No doubt also caused by the radiation.”
         “How about her insides? Did they alter those, too?”
         “All organs are functioning normally.”
         “And her ovaries?”
         “Gone, of course.”
         Lorelei looked at the patient sleeping peacefully on the operating table. The alterations were extensive but the captain could see that she was still a woman underneath. She put a hand in the unfortunate woman's short black hair and gently stroked it. Her heart went out to the victim.
         “Why would they do such a thing?” She asked quietly.
         “I'm not sure, Captain. All I can say is that they abducted her, removed her breasts, possibly so she would be unable to wean offspring, then pumped her full of drugs to increase her size and toughen her skin, possibly so she could do hard labor. Her ovaries were taken. Her uterus, taken and the entrance to it closed, possibly using radiation. And now, she has things growing in between her legs. All I can do now is remove those growths before they kill her.”
         The patient stirred. A soft low groan escaped from her lips. Lorelei's heart clenched with pity. She turned to the doctor and nodded.
         “Do it, doctor. But I wish to stay here and keep her company.”


         Ethan opened his eyes and blinked. The light was blinding. But if he was not mistaken, he was in what seemed to be a medical facility. That, or heaven. For the first person he saw looking down at him was the most beautiful man he had ever seen in his entire life. His face had a roundish heart shape. His bone structure was less angular than most people. And his complexion was fair and smooth. He brought to mind softness, gentleness and, well, heaven. No man could ever have a face like that. He must be a god. The only thing was, the deity was sad. His big bright honey-colored eyes were filled with pain and sadness. And his plump red lips were turned down in grief. He was probably mourning for Ethan's sins. And Ethan couldn't help feel for this beautiful person's sadness. Before he could stop himself, he found himself reaching a hand out to touch the lovely face in an attempt to provide comfort. It felt very soft and delicate.
         “Don't worry,” the deity said. His voice, high and melodic. “You will be fine. We'll take care of you.” He took Ethan's hand in his, and held it near his soft face.
         “I believe you,” Ethan whispered. It was difficult not to.
         “Good girl.” The beauty smiled. He turned to look at someone near Ethan's legs, and nodded.
         Ethan was just pondering what in the world of Andro Terra a 'girl' was when he heard a whizzing sound from the direction of his legs. He looked down. He was stark naked on what looked like a hospital bed. But that wasn't the shocking part. It was the fact that another radiant being, though less lovely than the one clutching his hand, was holding a cutting device over his crotch.
         “AAAAAH!” Ethan screamed as he jumped from the bed and made to put as much distance between him and the beautiful but deranged beings. He backed into a corner of the small operating room, casting them angry looks while covering his precious part with both his hands.
         “Don't be afraid,” the sad one said. “We won't hurt you.”
         “Won't hurt me!” He repeated incredulously. “You were about to castrate me!”
         The two beings looked at each other. They seemed puzzled. He also noted their smaller frames and shorter stature. They didn't look particularly harmful. In fact the elegant curve of their bodies somehow put one at ease. Attracted one, even. He was particularly drawn to the younger one. The older one with the cutter seemed cold and scientific. The younger man, though, seemed more sympathetic and innocent. In fact, he looked so delicate that Ethan had this strange compulsion to take him in his arms and tell him everything would be alright...except it was not alright that they were cutting off his manhood.
         No, Ethan decided. They were too beautiful and too cruel to be human.
         “What are you?” He asked them.
         “I am Lorelei Amber, captain of the Eve,” the prettier one introduced himself. “This is our medical officer, Doctor Ava Madeline. We are woman, like you.”
         Ethan stared at them some more. Woman? What in the world was a woman? And if they were an alien species, how come they looked human? Their skin was like that of a human, only more radiant. Their body parts were in the same place as that of a human, except for some differences. Like their breasts, which were bigger and rounder. He had this strange compulsion to touch them to confirm if they were indeed as soft as they seemed. Same went with their bottoms, which were also bigger and rounder. He restrained himself. Enough with these strange compulsions! He told himself.
         “I don't believe I've ever met a woman before,” Ethan explained. “But I'm definitely not one of you. I am human. Man for short.”
Captain Amber tilted his head in puzzlement. The movement made Ethan's heart skip a beat, though he wasn't sure why. It definitely didn't scare him.
         “You're saying you've always had that growth?” The captain indicated his privates with a slight movement of her chin. Ethan's heart gave another skip. He could only describe the captain's gestures as...cute. He liked cute.
         “I was born with it and I intend to die with it.” Ethan directed this to the doctor. “Not that I intend to die anytime soon.”
         “To harm you was not her intention,” Captain Amber explained. “She was trying to help you. We didn't know you were another species. We were so alike.” The captain made a slight bow. “We apologize for having almost cut off one of your appendages.”
         Ethan's initial shock was wearing out. Curiosity had started replacing it. “Apology accepted, Captain. I, myself, thought you were man. As you can see, we even speak the same language. Except you seem to refer to yourselves as 'she,' 'her' in possessive.”
         He...She tilted her head again in that endearing manner. “Don't you?”
         “No, we use 'he' and 'him.' 'She' or 'Her' is a mythical being in our old literature.”
         “Oh?”
         “A fire-breathing dragon that is only referred to by name, never by pronoun.”
         “I see. 'He' has another meaning in our planet, too.”
         “Really?”
         “Yes. It's synonymous to idiot.”
         “Hey.”
         The captain put up both hands. “I'm only telling you what they say back home.”
         She does breath fire. Ethan thought. Still, that glorious smile that was creeping into her face was drawing him to her like a moth to a flame.
         “Hold on,” the doctor put in. “You're saying you've always looked like that?”
         Ethan looked his body over. Everything seemed to be in place. “Yes, I believe so. I mean, I was smaller when I was younger, of course, but--”
         “Steroids or any other substance?” Ava interrupted him.
         “I don't do drugs. I'm perfectly sane and sober.”
         “Radiation?”
         “I had an engine power leak before my ship exploded, but I don't think it's enough to harm anyone in contact with me.”
         “Your ship? You mean you were not on the pirate ship?”
         “What pirate ship? I was on my own ship, which got destroyed once I entered the asteroid belt. I managed to get off on an escape craft, but I lost consciousness. When I woke up, you were trying to 'unman' me.”
         Captain Amber walked towards him. “What about your chest?” She asked.
         Ethan found his gaze magnetized towards the mounds on the captain's chest. They bounced slightly as she moved. Mine? Commonplace. Yours, however... Ethan coughed and tore his gaze away and into Captain Amber's eyes. “What about my chest?” He squeaked. The captain's honey-colored eyes were no better a place to land his gaze. He felt like falling into them.
         “Has it always been...uh...”
         “Flat?” Ethan couldn't help himself. He was staring back down at the mounds and the cleavage formed between them. “Compared to yours, yes. Man is flat-chested.” He had to consciously drag his eyes back into the captain's face. He was just in time to see her sigh in relief. Curious, he thought. A woman's sigh seemed a lot different from a man's. It sounded more...satisfying in a way. Somehow, that sigh wouldn't sound alien in the bedroom, after a night of hot, wild, uninhibited--
         What am I thinking! He gave himself a mental shake.
         “Good,” Captain Amber continued, oblivious to his less than decent thoughts. “We thought you were hurt.”
         Something seemed to pierce his heart. She was concerned about him! This slight alien deity who almost allowed that doctor to cut off his other head actually cared about him. It made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
         “I've never heard of a species called human before,” she continued. “What is your planet called?”
         “Andro Terra. It's not far from here. You're not from anywhere near Andro Terra, are you?”
         “We've never heard of the place. We are from Wom. Thus, we are woman. It's quite far from here. A week at maximum warp fold. But you said your planet is near. We can drop you off.”
         “No! Not yet.”
         The captain raised an eyebrow.
         “You're too interesting. I'd like to know more about you. Please, let me stay a while.”
         She smirked in reply. “I'll think about it.” She nodded to the doctor, then proceeded for the door.
         Her rear view was as much a sight as her front. Her movement put to mind a graceful and sensuous snake. Woman beings truly were an elegant species. Elegant and empathic.
         “Captain,” Ethan called.
         She stopped and looked at him.
         “You looked very sad earlier. Were you worried about me?”
         The doctor rolled her eyes and proceeded to the adjoining room.
         “What's your name?” The captain asked.
         “Ethan.”
         She smiled. “I was worried about you, Ethan.” Then she left.
         His heart positively somersaulted at the sound of his name on her lips. It brought to mind whispered confessions and intimate encounters in the middle of the night. Secret affairs, gentle touches, leading to more torrential--
         “Get some sleep, human,” the doctor ordered from the adjacent room. “You're not well yet.”
         Ethan silently cursed the doctor for interrupting his fantasy.
         Doctor Madeline poked her head into the room. “I promise, I won't cut anything off while you're asleep. On the other hand, if you don't, I will finish what I was about to do.”
         With a snort, Ethan returned to the hospital bed, thinking how he'd prefer the captain to take care of him. What was her name again? Lorelei. Ethan thought it a beautiful name, one that sounded like music.
         “Lorelei,” he whispered. It sounded right in his mouth. Smiling, he closed his eyes. He would pay her a visit later.