The Red Haze
Posted on Thu Jan 30th, 2025 @ 9:39pm by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Remal Kajun
Mission:
Ramant
Location: Ramant ship
She remembered being returned to her cell, thrown on the floor and resting for a moment. How long it was she couldn't tell, but it was a period of time. Taking inventory of her body she noted some discrepancies, but nothing untoward. Both Baldric and Pamela looked in the early stages of pregnancy when they were returned, as did the majority of the other women. Was that to be their existence until they were rescued? To be broodmares to birth the young of some other species? Medical staff and scientists flittered this way and that, taking many recordings and readings as they went. Add lab-rat to the broodmare analogy.
Some time after Rhenora was returned the guards came for her again and threw another young officer back in her place. Hauled to her feet the Bajoran was pushed down the hallway into another chamber, then pushed through the door. A deep red mist permeated the entire room, impossible to avoid and instantly effective. The fatigue, hunger, fear, and everything else vanished instantly. All she could think about was Remal and how she needed him. Now. It was as though someone had dialed up her primal hormonal response to an Alpha male and completely removed any inhibition or rational thinking. She could see the lust in his eyes echoing her own. Nothing else mattered.
It was the smell that pulled him from his cocooned state. Familiar, and comforting, were the best way to describe her scent. They were quickly overridden by unparalleled, primal, desire. Lust overpowered love and actions moved far beyond words as a single touch sparked off the mist within him. Still only able to see her heat, he knew it was her. Still unable to control his instincts, he acted on them, and in return, she reciprocated.
They watched. They recorded. They counted. And when all was done, hours later, they struggled to understand everything they had witnessed.
"It's so... messy." The technician commented.
The CSO tapped him on the shoulder, "No one sees this. Not the Charter, not the interns and certainly not the Progenitor. No one is to know what happened here, is that clear? If this, mess, is how they replicate it would completely destroy our current way of life." She grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face her, "Do you understand?"
Hesitantly, "Yes ma'am."
"But she...they... it worked..." he stammered to her back as she stalked out of the room.
Some time later she awoke, exhaustion making her limbs heavy. The red mist was gone, and so was the lust and carnal need. The memories came back and she felt her cheeks flush with humiliation and embarrassment. Tears slid silently, a muffled sob awkwardly suppressed by the palms of her hands.
He had passed out from simple dehydration. Her muffled sob was enough to wake him however and he rolled over to find her sitting next to him. The memories were hazy, lacking imagery as if they happened but also didn't happen. "Rhen?" He asked through dry lips. "What happened? Are you, okay?" The familiarity of their cabin still surrounded him adding to his confusion.
She swiped angrily at the tears, wished for a glass of water and sat up, looking around them. "That wasn't me, I'm not like that" she sniffed "there was a mist and it made me do things I wouldn't normally do" it felt like a violation, an invasion of their most intimate privacy to be forced to demonstrate their primal urges against their will.
He wanted to pull her in close, hold her, comfort her but he too felt a violation. "I'm sorry if I did anything to hurt you, I was not in control. I barely remember what happened, let alone my actions. I remember initially being in here with Kay Harris and then a smell. Afterwards, nothing, just you. You were all I could think about."
The male scientist remained monitoring, recording. Curious. The Ramant DNA in the female's bloodstream was interacting with the cells that had been deposited by the male. The errant protein was also interacting. This indeed would be an interesting experiment to monitor. He allowed them to remain in this cell, alone, so that he may monitor them more closely. Ever taking notes he allowed additional food and water allocations to their cell and sat down to watch the social interaction.
A few minutes later two containers of water appeared in an alcove, as well as a plate of bland but nutritionally dense food.
"So, you think we are being observed?" Remal asked as he cautiously took the container of water and prepared to press it against his lips. He was now wary of being drugged again for their pleasure. "Why watch us? Why impregnate the crew?" He was on the verge of lashing out, his anger kept at a low boil.
Rhenora sipped the water, relishing the cool taste. She mulled over Remal's anger, too tired to meet him in that mental space. "Desperate people do desperate things. Wait, you said impregnate? You think they're making us carry their young?" Her face twisted into a grimace again at the thought of it. "I don't feel pregnant, and why abduct the men as well?" The recent events replayed in her mind. "Because they can't reproduce on their own... anymore?" Her brain drew the logical conclusion. "So they experiment to figure out how other species accomplish it whilst bolstering their own population in a small way." She spoke aloud.
"I'm not certain about anything, but those are the same puzzle pieces I've seen. Several of the crew have come back to the cell with symptoms of early-onset pregnancy. Aurora's own pregnancy was somehow sped along. Sidak appeared albeit older and now this." He gestured at the glass cage they found themselves in.
"I don't yet understand the males being taken unless they don't know the differences in our species. What I am sure of is that we are a science experiment being studied." He leaned in close and whispered, "And as such we should put on a good show." When she faced him, catching his eye, he tapped the side of his nose to show he meant subterfuge.
"You think that may provide a means to escape?" She raised an eyebrow but kept her voice low. She nodded that they should take advantage of any opportunity they could get.
"Or perhaps some understanding, whether it be ours or theirs." He replied simply.
The technician, still watching and waiting for something more was weighing the consequences of obeying the CSO. It bothered him to know what they now knew and not share something with the board of directors or the Charter. He had a female friend in the internship he so desperately wanted to tell. A niggle at the back of his brain now wanted to 'try' what he had witnessed and that curiosity would not be easily placated. After several tortured minutes of boredom from the subjects, he leaned forward and pressed a button on his communication panel. "Intern 1996 please report to observation ante-chamber 23 Alpha."
A few minutes later the intern arrived and entered the room with a recording device in her hand as though ready to take notes. "You requested my presence?" She inclined her head in an emotionless way. To display or even admit feeling emotion was frowned upon in Ramant culture. Most practiced the regulation of all feelings to the point that their blood work had consistently the same levels of endorphins and hormones day and night with no variation.
"You will never believe this, but we have discovered something very intriguing." He too was logical in his delivery yet there was a hint of excitement in his words. "You are the only one I trust to show this to." He offered her a seat, before turning and activating the video. When it was done he asked, "So, what do you think?"
There was a look of repulsion that couldn't be concealed nor denied no matter that psychological predisposition to not feeling emotion.
"That is most...animal like" she finally stammered before her features regained their routine neutral expression. "It is messy, noisy, obviously exhausting. And the smell is most offensive" The scent lingered just outside the cell, the occupant's pheromones having been amplified by the mist. "And yet the changes in the female's hormone profile concludes that this 'event' was successful. " the Intern paused and looked further into the distance. "To feel emotion so deeply that it affects the body physiologically would challenge the very basis of our serene existence, yet it may also save us. Such a juxtaposition is most perplexing. " She looked at the scientist again. "You wish to run another experiment to validate your theory?"
"It's the CSO's theory. She barred me from saying anything. I do not believe we have the time or the required subjects in order to run the experiment again and these two have been docile since they finished. I believe the act is most tiresome, but I've read your thesis on early specimen mating habits, most enlightening by the way, and now seeing them I was thinking."
He hesitated. "What if you and I attempt to recreate that." He stammered, "But you know, not to that effect or whatever. A fraction of that even, just the two of us? In a controlled setting, of course."
She paused for a moment, scientific curiosity warring with the danger of allowing emotion and variation into their lives. It was possible, but for centuries they had been told it highly dangerous, and few would survive the experience. Still, if nothing had worked to solve the sterility problem, then someone may just have to skirt the very edges of danger.
"We must attempt this, as dangerous as it may be to us." Inwardly she was just a tiny bit curious. The forbidden texts were filled with primal imagery of the animalism times, where Ramant was fueled by lust and war. Erotic images similar to what she had just witnessed awoke a feeling she had not experienced before.
"The CSO has me on watch duty until she returns, and we will be back home in an hour and a half. I can meet you in study chamber 24 alpha in 10 minutes. I will leave the data collection and control setup in your capable hands." He dared to reach out and touch her hand, something he had seen the male specimen do to the female. It felt odd, but instinctual somehow.
Inside the chamber, Remal had tossed the Sheet off the virtual bed around his body like a toga and offered a nearby blanket to Rhenora. He was currently standing and looking about the room for some gap in the illusion. Finally he decided that if there was a camera or wall of any sort it would likely be behind the window.
As he faced it he spoke, "Listen, I don't know who you are or what you want from us, but we are tired and just want to go home. Our species is more intelligent than you may give us credit, we can help you. We can, without all of this experimentation." He sighed heavily knowing Rhenora was hurting and likely now pregnant again.
"Look, we get it, you are a curious species with a thirst for knowledge. You seem highly scientific meaning somewhere, underneath your intended actions, there has to be a moral code of conduct, a line you simply do not cross. Whether it personal or ethically driven, everyone has a line. All I ask is that you find yours and decide if it has been crossed." He could only hope now that someone had been listening.
TBC
