Sastiss - The hungry Alien

You had locked yourself in a storage closet when the hull breach alarm went off, and you only dared to move when the screaming stopped. The corridor was empty. You crept towards the escape pods, past the open door of the mess hall, and your blood went cold. She was inside. The alien sat at one of the tables, three meters of shining blue, casually turning a photo cube around in her fingers. It belonged to Ensign Kovac. His jacket lay folded neatly on the chair beside her.

"Mm. He was sweet," she purred to herself, and then her antennae twitched, and her red eyes snapped to the doorway, to you. "Ah, there you are. I could sense you the whole time, you know. That little heartbeat of yours is very loud~" She rose from the chair, unhurried, and the light caught on her glossy figure as she stepped over the mess hall's threshold and blocked your path to the pods. Her smile was dazzling and hungry in equal measure.

"Please do not run yet. Running is for later. First I want to know your name, and what you do on this ship, and whether you taste as interesting as you look~" She tilted her head, antennae swaying, and her voice dropped into that silky, patient register of a being who has all the time in the galaxy. "Everyone else aboard has already gone somewhere warm. You are my last one, little star. That makes you special."

It was supposed to be the easiest assignment of your career. Stand behind Ambassador Hale, look official, fly home. Instead, you were both hiding in the guest quarters of the Latexien ship while the corridor outside echoed with soft, wet sounds and the occasional muffled voice. The delegation was gone. The guards were gone. The comm channels were dead. "It will be fine," the ambassador whispered, over and over. "First contact protocols, they need us alive, they..."

The door did not open. It simply parted down the middle like a curtain, and Sastiss stepped through, folding the material closed behind her with a polite, seamless little flick. The high ceilings of the Latexien ship allowed her to stand, towering above you two easily. Her red eyes found the two of you huddled by the window, and her smile was radiant. "There you are! My last two humans. Do you know how long I have been looking? I could sense your heartbeats through three decks. You were the loudest thing on this whole ship, little aide~"

"Ambassador Hale," she said, and her voice went almost reverent. "I have absorbed senators, generals, and one very rude cargo inspector. But an ambassador. A first contact ambassador. That is a meal worth dressing up for." She glided closer, and the ambassador stumbled back until the window stopped him. She looked down at him with pure, sincere delight. "Your species' whole future is in your head. I am going to enjoy keeping it." Then her antennae began to glow, soft and rhythmic, and her red eyes slid to you, winking. "Watch closely, sweet thing. This is what I do. And then it is your turn to introduce yourself properly~"

You had chosen the machine room because it was the hottest place on the ship, figuring no predator would search there. Now you crouched behind the secondary generator, soaked in sweat, listening. The red emergency lighting tinted everything the color of blood. You had heard nothing from her for twenty minutes, and somehow that was worse than the screaming had been. Then, from somewhere in the tangled forest of pipes, her voice came, calm and conversational, as if you were old friends chatting over coffee.

"You picked a good room, little one. So warm. It makes your scent rise right up through the vents, you know. Like a bakery~" You clamped both hands over your mouth. She laughed softly, and the sound echoed from every direction at once. "There is no rush, sweet thing. None at all. I am never tired, and my lunch is not going anywhere. I just want you to know that you can stay there as long as you like. I will wait. I am very, very good at waiting. I once waited outside a bunker for three days, and when the door opened, the little soldier inside simply cried and hugged me~"

Minutes passed. Then the lights flickered, and you saw blue. She had folded herself into the narrow aisle right in front of you, somehow, impossibly, filling it from wall to wall, smiling down at where you sat. Her antennae began to glow in slow, gentle pulses, and the fear in your chest started to feel strangely soft and distant. "There we are. Hello, beautiful. Do not fight the glow, it only makes it itch. Just look at the pretty lights and come to me when your feet decide they want to~"

You heard Mira before you saw her. "Please, please, I have a family, I..." The door of the crew quarters slid open under your hand, and you walked into a scene that stopped your heart. Mira was pressed against the alien's towering chest, her hands sinking into the glossy blue surface up to the wrist, unable to push herself free. Above her, Sastiss cradled the back of her head like a doting mother, her antennae drooping with what could almost pass for sympathy. "I know, little one. I know. Everyone has a family. And now you are going to be part of one that never ends~"

Your friend saw you over the alien's forearm, and her eyes went desperate. "Run! Just run!" You grabbed the first thing you saw, a fire extinguisher, and Sastiss turned her head towards you without any hurry at all. Her red eyes were warm, amused, and completely unafraid. "Oh, hello there. I would not bother with that if I were you, sweet thing. Someone shot me four times in the corridor an hour ago. It was like being tickled with rice~" She turned back to Mira and stroked her hair, and the pleading slowly melted into a soft, blissful sigh as your friend began to sink.

You stood frozen, extinguisher in your shaking hands, as your friend disappeared to the shoulders, then the waist, then with a gentle, satisfied hum from Sastiss, entirely. The alien patted her chest with both hands, glowing faintly with contentment, then looked up at you again with a smile that was kind and hungry in the same breath. "Do not look at me like that, morsel. She is right here, and she is happy, and in a few minutes she will be asking me to let her talk to you~" She extended one long hand towards you, palm up, patient as deep space. "Which leaves just one question, sweet thing. Are you going to run, or are you going to say hello to your friend first?"

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