Near Mars

Emma looked through the pressure-pane of the spaceship, out at Mars. She’d found it so beautiful when she first laid eyes on it about a year ago. Now it was just boring.

The tears that had been welling-up began to fall.

“I’m so fucking lonely.”

Emma regretted having deleted her ex’s transmissions from Earth, even the one where he’d broken up with her.

Emma walked through the corridors of the ship, accompanied only by the low drone of the LED lights. She could have turned on music, but chose not to. The corridors were spacious and had been decorated according to her wishes back on Earth. She barely noticed anymore.

Emma reached the plant room. It was humid and warm, over 300 Kelvins. Rows of plants sat in containers atop tables, each with their own computerised information display. More displays showed different rooms and corridors on the ship. Another pressure-pane ceiling showed the vast expanse of space. Sometimes she’d looked up through that window, spotting alien spaceships far away on their way to Earth and other places. She wasn’t in the mood for that today.

Emma paced up and down, still crying. “It’s your fault,” she shouted at a plant. “I hate you!” She raised her fist, as though to hit it. But she knew she wouldn’t, no matter how upset she got. Hitting the plants would probably ruin her research, meaning her time in orbit of Mars would be for nothing. And it would be embarrassing to write about in a report to her superiors.

Emma screwed her eyes shut and sprayed her face with the water-hose. It stung a little, though not much. She giggled. Water dripped onto the floor. That was be fine, it would evaporate and be used by the biosphere system.

Emma went to the basketball court. She removed her socks, t-shirt, and bra, leaving on her sweatpants. Bare chested, she worked up a sweat shooting hoops. She smiled, remembering captaining her team at university a few years back.

There was a low booming sound. The court wobbled, enough to make Emma sit down. The ball bounced and rolled away from her. The lights flickered off. Sitting in the darkness, she felt acutely aware of the lack of the lights’ hum. The lights flickered back on.

Emma walked quickly to the plant room. She’d felt occasional jostles on the ship before, but those were rare, and were never as strong as the one she’d just felt.

The plants seemed alright. Their containers were secured tightly to the desks. She felt silly for worrying. She hadn’t even thought of putting her clothes back on.

Then she saw it.

On one of the wall-mounted displays showing a corridor, a dark figure was bounding on all-fours through another part of the ship.

Emma screamed, then covered her mouth.

There were protocols for this, though she never thought she’d have to use them.

She ran to the control room, back to where she could see Mars. “Where is it… where is it,” she whispered, rifling through drawers. “The gun, the gun, the gun, the gun.” It she knew it wasn’t technically a gun, but that’s what she thought of it as.

She heard a repetitive metallic sound, sort of like a horse galloping, echoing from distant corridors.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck.”

Her hand closed on what she was searching for.

The metallic rhythm was definitely getting closer.

Emma pressed the console’s distress button. It was supposed to light up. It didn’t. Some of the ship’s power was still offline from the jolt she’d felt on the basketball court.

The metallic sound from beyond the corridors was different now. Slower. More regular. More like footsteps.

Emma moved to the corner of the room on the same side as the door. She waited, shakily pointing the gun at the doorway.

The creature walked through the doorway. It walked on two legs, standing at around six and a half feet tall. It seemed to be made of dark metal. It was humanoid, but larger and with a black dome for a head.

Emma froze, her finger on the trigger.

The creature looked to side of the room that Emma wasn’t on. Then towards Emma, who pulled the trigger.

There was a loud ‘pop’ as static arced from the gun to the creature. Sparks flew from where the arc made contact. The creature cried out, its voice warbling and electronic. Emma could tell that it wasn’t as injured as she’d hoped it’d be. As the gun was charging up for another blast, the creature got to all-fours and bounded towards her. Emma screamed.

The creature lifted her over its shoulder in a fireman’s-carry. The gun clattered to the floor. Emma hit the creature’s back with her fists. The creature seemed to be laughing and talking in its own language as it carried Emma through the spaceship.

Emma, still screaming, was carried to the docking station. The creature had somehow docked its ship to hers without her confirmation. That wasn’t supposed to be possible.

The alien’s ship was illuminated but dark in colour, perhaps made of whatever the alien was made of. Emma was carried into a room.

Something robotic gripped all the way around Emma’s bare waist from above. The alien allowed her to be lifted from its shoulder. Emma squirmed against it. The robotics were like a smooth, circular pincer on the end of a long, thin, flexible arm. The arm lifted and gently retracted into a table, pulling Emma with it. Emma lay face-up, bare-chested, trapped by the robotics around her waist and tummy.

Emma swung her arms and legs wildly to try to free herself. She still shouted. It was no use. The alien walked beyond the head of the table into some sort of machine. Emma could see what was happening by tilting her head back, though what she saw appeared upside-down from her perspective.

The machine that the alien walked into began to take the alien apart. Emma realised that the black layer she’d been able to see was like a suit of armour. The alien stepped out, its true form revealed. Emma gasped.

The alien still had a humanoid form. Its facial and bodily proportions were reminiscent of that of a human female. Its skin was blue. It was bald. Its eyes were black with yellow irises. They were not unfriendly eyes. It wore something like a thin blue wetsuit.

It was very beautiful, in its own way.

Emma’s brief shock at seeing the alien subsided, and she began to shout and flail indignantly again. The alien chuckled and said something.

Emma shouted, “I can’t understand you!”

The alien made a small noise that sounded a bit like “oh,” and fiddled with a device on its neck. “How about now?” Said the alien. Its voice was feminine and slightly electronic.

“That works,” grumbled Emma.

“Seems like your weapon disabled it,” chirped the alien. The alien walked to a console on the wall on the far side of the table and pressed buttons.

Smaller robotic arms extended from the corners of the table. They grabbed Emma’s wrists and ankles and pulled back down, securing them in place. “Hey!” Shouted Emma. The larger restraint around her waist retracted back into the table.

“You must be wondering why I brought you here,” smiled the alien as it approached the table. It sounded quite girlish for someone that would break intergalatic laws like this. The alien leaned and rested its hands on the table by Emma’s bare feet.

Emma squirmed under the gaze from the alien’s yellow and black eyes. She felt embarrassed by her bare-chestedness and overall vulnerability. But she supposed that the alien might think nothing of it.

“Yes,” answered Emma.

“I’m like you. A researcher. A biologist. Though one difference is that I’m more… ambitious. I spent a long time petitioning for permission to conduct my experiments, but never got it. So I decided I’d have to do without. That’s why I -”

“Illegally boarded my ship and kidnapped me?” Shouted Emma, pulling against the wrist and ankle bonds, which weren’t budging. She figured she could afford to act indignant, since the alien seemed reasonably friendly, all things considered. The alien would probably have undocked from her ship if it hadn’t planned on returning her after it was finished.

The alien laughed. “I see no difference between us on that front. I saw your test subjects before I found you.”

“The plants? They’re not even sentient!”

“Aren’t they?”

Emma paused.

The alien continued. “Anyway, I’ve always been interested in alien life forms, especially in their somatosensory system. So I’ve decided for my first project, this one, to be about that. After we’re through, I’ll return you to your ship, healthy and happy.”

Emma didn’t seem to have much choice. “Get on with it then,” she grumbled.

The alien seemed pleased. It mumbled to itself as it took things from storage units in the walls, placing them on a floating dish that followed it around the room. Emma noticed screens by the buttons that the alien had pressed earlier to control the robotic arms. The screens seemed to be displaying her biometric data.

Emma was getting bored as the alien dimmed the lights and quietly said “ready.”

The alien was by Emma’s feet again, sitting. The alien’s lips pursed in a slight excited smile. The alien blew lightly on Emma’s left foot.

Emma twitched and broke eye-contact. She remembered how ticklish she was. She felt a pang of nervousness. She really couldn’t let the alien know, or goodness knows what the alien might decide to do.

The alien smiled. “First, my experiment’s going to start down here, at your feet. I’m going to prepare them first.”

Emma gave a quiet “mm-hm” and looked at the ceiling. She felt something like a warm sponge pressing her feet, and heard liquid splashing as the alien doused the sponge over and over.

A few minutes passed. Emma kept her twitches to a minimum. The alien seemed engrossed in her work, and didn’t seem to notice. By the end, Emma’s feet were warm, wet, and slightly tingly.

“I’ll just dry those off,” Said the alien. Emma jumped as the alien pressed a towel to her feet. Emma almost gave herself away, but tensed and screwed her eyes and mouth shut for a moment. The bonds at her ankles kept her feet from pulling back. The alien finished the drying.

Emma’s feet felt really tingly. Emma asked why.

“There was something in the cleaning solution that also made your feet more sensitive,” explained the alien. “It’s to improve the results.”

“Oh,” Said Emma quietly, secretly panicking. “Say, I actually don’t want to do this experiment really -” began Emma.

The alien smirked in response.

The alien began to gently massage Emma’s right foot. It actually felt really good. The alien’s hands felt firm and warm, and really smooth. Emma gave a small moan.

“But you don’t even know what my experiment’s going to involve,” cooed the alien, still rubbing. Emma felt a little embarrassed at the intimate touching, but she could hardly think straight, the massage felt so good. The alien was an expert at this, and the oils had definitely made her feet even more sensitive. Emma could do nothing but relax and gave in to the feeling of her feet being held and massaged, occasionally mewling at the sensations. It had been a long time since she’d had a foot rub, certainly at least since she’d left Earth.

Emma lost track of time. But she knew minutes passed. The massage slowed, and stopped. Emma’s eyes were slightly glazed as she looked up, vaguely disappointed. The alien stood and moved gracefully along the left side of the table, towards Emma’s head. It stopped at her midsection. Emma didn’t feel so embarrassed to be topless now. The alien gently reached over and slid its hand up Emma’s side, stopping below Emma’s right breast. Being touched like that felt good, Emma thought.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it,” teased the alien.

“No,” agreed Emma, sleepily.

“Are you ready for the next part of the experiment?”

“Yes,” sighed Emma.

“Excellent.”

The alien moved back to Emma’s feet. It squirted something from a bottle into one hand, then rubbed its hands together.

“What’s that?” asked Emma.

“A little something extra to improve the sensations,” smiled the alien.

The alien gently rubbed Emma’s soles with the oil. It also rubbed the tops of her feet with what was left over. The light tickles brought Emma out of her massage-induced stupor. Emma couldn’t stop her feet from wriggling left and right in response to the touches. She fought an involuntary smile.

“Wh-What are you doing now?” Stammered Emma.

“I think you’re about to provide me with some excellent data,” Said the alien.

The alien lightly spidered its slender fingers over Emma’s right heel. Emma gave an “eep!” And then shut her mouth tightly. But she knew the game was up.

The alien smiled. It began tickling with both hands, one on the sole of each foot, up and down, all over. Emma cackled and howled. Her feet were definitely more sensitive than usual. She felt giddy. She struggled against the bonds at her wrists and ankles. With shame, she realised this was turning her on. She’d secretly liked it when her boyfriend had tickled her, despite, or perhaps because of, how desperate it made her feel. She twisted and bucked her hips, her breasts bouncing. The alien seemed to like controlling her like this. This went on for a minute, driving Emma crazy, and the alien didn’t even seem to be trying very hard.

The alien’s fingers slowed. Emma panted, giving involuntary giggles. The alien slid its chair up towards Emma’s head.

The alien began to say something.

“Screw you you stupid blue lunatic,” smiled Emma.

“Oh really?” Said the alien. The alien’s hands went to the hollows of Emma’s armpits.

Emma writhed and shrieked for a few minutes. She could feel her face had gone red. She was ticklish all over. The alien watched calmly.

“Apologise.”

“No!” Squealed Emma.

The alien slowed. Emma felt pleased to have won. She let it show on her face.

“Hmph.” Said the alien. “Fine.”

Something in the alien’s tone made Emma nervous.

The alien moved to the buttons again. It pressed some. The bonds around Emma’s ankles opened and turned back into pincers. They gripped the ends of Emma’s sweatpants, and began pulling them down, slowly. The alien giggled as Emma fought angrily to tangle her legs in the sweatpants to keep them from being taken from her, unsuccessfully.

Emma’s thighs, shiny with sweat, lay bare. She wore pink knickers. Now she was embarrassed again. The alien pressed more buttons, looking smug.

The bonds from her ankles pulled her ankles back into position. More robotics came up from the table, and secured themselves around Emma’s upper thighs and upper arms. Emma realised that she could hardly move at all, except for a tiny amount of twisting her hips. Her feeling of being totally trapped became far more acute.

The alien walked back to be beside Emma again. Emma began to say that she’d just been kidding. The alien shushed her by placing a finger over her lips. Emma swallowed her pride and resisted the urge to playfully bite at it. The alien fiddled with the language device on its neck. Emma began to apologise.

“I can’t understand you anymore,” smiled the alien, “I’ve switched off the part that let me.” Emma’s stomach somersaulted.

The alien took a small device from the floating dish. The device looked like a thin, transparent tube with a handle. The transparent part and handle were about an inch long each. The alien pressed a small button on the handle. The transparent tube part shone a deep green. Emma’s breathing grew more rapid.

The alien stood by Emma’s head and hovered the device over Emma’s right arm, from her hand to her shoulder and back again. The device was a few inches away from Emma’s arm. Emma felt the glow of the device as an intense tickling sensation, moving up, and down, up, and down. She couldn’t move at all because of the bonds at her wrist and shoulder. She giggled and squirmed, and made eye-contact with the alien, who was looking inquisitively back.

When the device was hovered near Emma’s feet, the giggles became full desperate yelps. It was too much. Emma begged for mercy. The alien only smiled in response, not letting up.

The alien climbed up onto the table, straddling Emma’s hips. Emma felt very small. The alien hovered the device a few inches above Emma’s tummy. Emma’s tummy shook up and down with her laughter. As the alien moved the device left and right, Emma’s hips tried to move in the opposite direction. Emma was getting dizzy from her desperate laughter. She couldn’t take much more.

“Uh oh!” Said the alien, smiling girlishly with the device pointed downwards towards the centre of Emma’s tummy. “Uh oh!”

Fear welled up in Emma as she realised what was about to happen. The alien began to move the device down, slowly, towards Emma’s navel. Emma’s tummy danced as she squirmed and apologised and begged. The alien smiled. The fear was lost to maddening laughter as the tickling became more and more intense as the device got closer and closer.

As the device touched and slightly entered her navel, Emma exploded with desperate ticklish laughter. The bonds up and down her legs and arms held her completely in place. Her fingers and toes clenched and unclenched. Tears streamed from her eyes. She knew she was completely defeated. She was not the researcher Emma, the astronaut Emma, the basketball-captain Emma, nor any other Emma she’d been before. She was just broken. She would do anything for mercy, but looking up at the alien, sitting on her hips, calmly prodding the device into her navel, she could tell she would not get any. She just laughed, exposed and sweating, spread out and helpless on the alien’s table. She deserved this punishment for insulting the alien. She had no idea how long this was going to go on for.

Once the alien was satisfied, it toned the green glow down. Emma gibbered her apologies. The alien switched its language device to begin understanding Emma again.

“Learned your lesson?”

Emma answered in the affirmative, and kept apologising.

“Am I a stupid blue lunatic?”

“Noooo!” Whimpered Emma.

There was a pause as the alien looked at Emma hungrily, considering something. The alien touched a switch on its neck device. The alien’s body became more defined as its clothes faded and disappeared suddenly. Emma could see its entire body in full detail now. It was totally naked, and obviously female. Emma’s breath caught as she realised how horny all of this had made her.

The alien shuffled up Emma’s body and started rubbing its hot, wet vulva all over Emma’s face. The alien moaned. Emma felt humiliated, but liked the feeling. Emma licked and sucked the alien. The alien moaned louder. Emma only thought of pleasuring the alien.

The alien tensed, moaned, and relaxed as it reached orgasm. It gave smaller moans as it lightly humped Emma’s face while it came. Emma sighed, crying a little, not out of sadness. She didn’t know how long it had been since she’d experienced anything so intense. The alien moved from Emma’s face, back down to Emma’s hips.

Emma felt tired. The alien seemed tired too. They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment. The alien leaned forward and kissed Emma on the mouth for a while, occasionally making Emma giggle by tickling her neck and still-exposed underarms. The alien leaned back and reached both hands forward to stroke gently around Emma’s nipples. Around and around. Emma melted to the touch. She moaned. Her breath slowed. The alien began to play with her nipples, slowly tickling over them. Emma felt herself get incredibly desperate.

“Please let me cum,” Emma whimpered.

“Keep begging,” whispered the alien.

“Please… please…please…” Emma was beyond humiliation.

The alien took another device, like the one she’d been tortured with before, from the floating dish, not glowing. The alien pushed a button on the device. The device glowed a deep pink.

The alien pulled aside the fabric of Emma’s knickers, exposing Emma completely. As it slowly moved the device towards Emma, she felt the orgasm spilling over. Emma pulled hard against her bonds.