Flying saucers, and alien abduction meant nothing more to Timothy Logan than a tired plot for a B movie, until the summer of '06.
The summer of '06 also turned out to be one of the hottest on record. An El Nino wreaked havoc with the Jet Stream. Strange weather patterns kept the meteorologists up late, pouring over maps of cold fronts and warm fronts, high-pressure and low-pressure systems.
Perhaps low barometric pressure caused Timothy to break up with Gloria -- his girlfriend of three months -- as well. Although, Gloria insisted that it was his philandering. Tim had to look the word up. How could he be guilty of something he didn't even know the meaning of? Timothy found out: ignorance of the dating law is no excuse.
Their relationship had already run its intercourse. They were fundamentally incompatible, other than sexually. She wanted a metropolitan existence and he wanted a life distant from concrete canyons. His new job as the manager of "Life on the Edge Outfitters" would take him to Minnesota in September, and Tim wanted to spend his last months back east high in the mountains, unattached.
That was his plan. But plans, like promises, are made to be broken.
By the time he arrived at his father's hunting camp, the black flies were gone, and it was possible to go outside without being eaten alive. Still early in the season, most of the other camps were unoccupied, so he had the lake pretty much to himself.
Because of the unseasonably hot weather, the shallow lake was already warm enough to swim in without the fear of instant hypothermia. To wash off the day's sweat and grime, Tim began taking a swim every night before bed and, since no one was around, he swam nude. Tim had never skinny-dipped, until that summer. It turned out to be the wrong time and place, because when the aliens abducted him, he was literally caught with his pants down.
Standing at the end of the dock, already dried off and about to get dressed, a spotlight from above suddenly illuminated Tim. At first, he thought it was a helicopter, and then realized there was no sound. Unbelievably, his feet lifted off the dock and he had the sensation of being transported through a tunnel of light. Shortly thereafter, he blacked out.
Tim awoke in a room so bright and so white, there were no shadows to indicate the corners, or to distinguish the walls from the ceiling. He was strapped down in what resembled a dentist's chair. Everything was silent.
This had to be a bad dream -- food poisoning. 'I'll never eat leftover chicken salad again.'
From behind the chair stepped a small, gray man, about four feet tall, just like the ones he'd seen on the grocery store tabloid covers. The little guy had a balloon shaped head with bug eyes. His arms were thin and didn't appear to have joints. They squirmed like tentacles. His hands consisted of tiny, round palms with four long fingers.
As much as Tim wanted to tell him how cute his fat head would look over the mantle in the cabin, all his muscles felt immobilized -- drugged like a frog for dissection. The dwarf alien walked around and checked the bonds. His inadvertent touch felt hot.
After he disappeared behind the chair, his big brother stepped out. His features looked about the same, except this one stood over six feet tall. 'Big brother' was a generic term. Tim saw no indication of gender on either alien's body. For that matter, he couldn't tell if they even wore clothes. Their surface appeared uniform and seamless.
Big brother reached up, pulled down a helmet with blinking lights, and placed it over Tim's head. It reminded him of a motorcycle helmet with a full-face shield. He couldn't see anything, until he heard a click and a movie began to play on a video screen. Visually, it was like a miniature Imax theater.
The first scene showed a jumbo jet in flight over a large expanse of water. Soon, one of the port engines began to smoke and then explode -- blowing off the wing. The fuselage broke apart in midair. Beams of light shot out from the direction of the camera and caught passengers as they fell.
The screen went dark and then one word appeared: SPECIMENS
Terrified, Tim couldn't do anything but sit tight.
His visor lit up once again, and he watched a group of about twenty adults being sorted by gender. When they were gone, the only person that remained in the room was an infant.
The screen went dark, until another single word appeared: PET
Tim's skin became clammy.
A new scene showed the infant in the arms of a child-sized alien, with the parent aliens standing behind them. It appeared to be an important family event, like the responsibility of raising your first puppy.
The screen went black. Then: TWENTY-FOUR YEARS LATER
The helmet lifted from Tim's head. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust, before they focused enough to see a door had opened. Nothing happened for a minute, and then a face peeked around the doorframe, a female face, with blue eyes and long blond hair.
Looking like Lady Godiva reincarnated, she edged warily into the room. The long hair covered most of her chest, but she was plainly nude. After two steps forward, she stopped.
One of the tall aliens walked up beside her, and they seemed to converse in sign language. The alien left the girl and moved next to Tim. It put one hot hand on Tim's leg and beckoned to the young woman with the other, as if saying, "See. There's nothing to be afraid of."
Tim assumed the alien must be the owner and this was the pet girl he'd seen in the video. What he didn't understand was what they wanted with him.
The blonde approached cautiously. When she stood beside the alien, it rubbed her back soothingly. They stood and inspected Tim for a few minutes, until everyone relaxed... except Tim.
Then the alien made some signs to the blonde.
The girl didn't respond, but she blushed.
When the alien poked Tim's penis with a hot finger, he guessed the topic of conversation.
After some more signs were exchanged, the girl reached out and ran a finger over it.
His body betrayed him, and responded with a lusty will of its own. He tried to fight the physical reaction, but did not have the self-control to overcome the pleasure of her touch.
She became emboldened by his body's strange response. With further encouragement from the alien, the blonde gripped his shaft and inspected it, apparently curious about this new human's physical peculiarities.
Tim guessed the alien was teaching her about the birds and the bees, and he was the lab rat-bee. Was this some weird sex education class, or worse yet, the first step in their breeding process?
The blonde moved her hand to his scrotum and squeezed his testicles roughly.
The excruciating pain deflated the erection almost immediately. Tim would've screamed if it were possible.
After a quick command from the alien, the blonde removed her hand and made an apologetic face and sign toward Tim, then turned away with what looked like embarrassment.
