There were few sorts of spaceship that Arky Del didn't know like the back of her hand, but it turned out that she had over-estimated her knowledge of the M'na long-range starships. The ship had only been in flight a few hours when the pilot detected her presence and discovered her hiding place.
The M'na pilot was an imposing figure, a tall semi-reptilian figure whose skin shone like oiled metal under the ship's lights. Humans had never been able to master his language, but apart from the occasional hissing sound the M'na spoke almost perfect English.
He looked down at Arky, who stood about 5'1" in her socks, and said formally: "You are unauthorized on this (hiss) space craft. My rule book states I can leave you at any port of call I visit."
"But..."
"You have no rights in this (hiss) matter."
Arky bit her lip and said nothing. It was obviously no use going into the long involved story of how she had become separated from her ship out past the Semayan system boundaries. But she suspected that there was a "but" coming at the end of the alien pilot's speech.
"But I have discretionary powers. It is possible that I could allow you to accompany me to our final destination on Turl Prime when we reach the Boldan system."
Yes! Arky's heart leapt. It would be easy to pick up a freighter from that system heading earthwards. She tried not to show any emotion, since she wasn't sure how well individual aliens could read human faces. Instead she said in a calm voice "That would be a good thing for me. If it is not an inconvenience for you, I would be happy to travel with you."
The pilot - his name was either Nelf or Nelth, she wasn't sure which - looked at her, blinked once and said apparently as a matter of intellectual interest "The M'na always have two pilots on their ships. I am alone on this run."
Arky looked at him suspiciously. "Yes, and...?"
"It would be useful to have another pair of hands. But also I am in need of companionship."
"Oho!" thought Arky to herself. Now it all started to make sense. She just wasn't used to being hit on by a horny truck-driver who looked like one of the lizard men in Flash Gordon.
Aloud she said, "I guess we're not talking about tiddlywinks here, captain, are we?"
"Pardon?"
"Disregard. A cultural reference. I meant that I was inferring a more intimate relationship would exist between us."
"Yes. This (hiss) would mean you would take the place of my mate for the three weeks it will take us to reach Turl Prime."
"That's 'mate' in a biological sense rather than a nautical one?"
"Correct." He blinked at her again.
Arky sighed to herself. Her choice was either to be abandoned on some backwater planet or to submit to the attentions of a being that looked like the first Komodo Dragon to graduate from West Point. She didn't have a lot of options here - she knew of too many people who'd strayed off the shipping lanes and had simply disappeared forever.
It wasn't as though she'd never traded sex for an advantage before. When she'd first been marooned, she'd even taken a job in a Zalang brothel for a week. The Zalangs were like morose teddy bears and her sexual availability had been nothing more than a novelty - the local males had all visited her once, then gone back to their more compatible lady friends. But she suspected that mating with a M'na officer would have little in common with the frantic fumblings of a curious Zalang.
"All right," she said at last. "You take me safely to Turl where I can get passage home, and I'll be -- accommodating. So long as you don't want anything that harms me physically, I'll do my best to play along. OK?"
He nodded, a gesture he had obviously learned from human space travelers. "You may (hiss) assist me on the flight deck by day. Our other business will be reserved for later." He blinked for a moment, and then added, "On the flight deck I shall treat you as a I would a fellow M'na."
Arky could see that the M'na were as proper and correct as she had heard they were. She almost expected an engraved invitation saying "The Captain requests the pleasure of your company in his bed at 1900 hours."
By ship's time it was still midday, regardless of what the clocks said on the planet they had just left. Nelth gave her some routine jobs to do on the flight deck, watching to make sure she was as competent as she claimed to be. Arky found the M'na way of doing things strange at first, but the basics of interstellar travel were fairly standard. Soon she and Nelth were working side by side at the control desk, although the co-pilot's seat was hardly comfortable for human buttocks.
Nelth's face was unreadable for a human, but he seemed to be happy enough with Arky's work. The last couple of hours soon went round, and she heard with some surprise that the day's work was completed. They ate in a small alcove off the habitat ring, Arky trying not to look at some of the ingredients in Nelth's dinner while she munched her way through some long-life human foodstuffs. When they finished eating, there was silence for a moment.
Finally Nelth rose and showed her to one of the vacant cabins in the habitat ring, which was equipped to handle travelers of all species. At least there's a bed I can sleep on, thought Arky.
Bed. The word echoed in her head.
"I shall join you in thirty minutes," said Nelth and discreetly withdrew while she stowed away the few possessions she had brought with her.
She sat on the edge of the bed, her hands steepled under her chin. "Arky, Arky, how did you get yourself into this mess?" she muttered to herself. "I just hope I can go through with it, or he'll probably throw me out of the air-lock." She had no illusions about the male sex, and a frustrated male from another species wasn't something she was eager to encounter.
She had changed into a light almost gossamer-thin robe that she'd found in the drawer next to the bed; back on Earth it would have sold for a small fortune, she suspected. Her small breasts and large nipples were visible through it, but she had no idea whether this would be a turn-on for a non-mammalian race. She looked up as she heard his even tread nearing her cabin.
"Come in," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. Nelth sat on the bed next to her and nodded in a familiar way, as though they were old friends. "You are comfortable in these (hiss) quarters?" he asked and she grunted something. One of his large sleek hands was on her shoulder and she steeled herself for his embrace.
Then, quicker than it takes to tell, Nelth had pushed her over backwards and grabbed both her wrists. Before she realized what was on his mind, he had forced each wrists into a restraint point she had not noticed on the wall above the bed. She was effectively helpless.
"Stop it!" she screamed. "What are you doing? I told you I'd co-operate. Why are you doing this to me?"
His dark inhuman eyes looked down at her. "I have not done this (hiss) before, but I am told that some females injure themselves trying to resist. It is for your own safety."
"Shit!" she screamed. "That's all crap, you slimy bastard. Get off me!" She wrenched at the restraints, but they were as secure as they would have been in the mental ward of a human institution. "Let me go -- NOW."
Nelth waited patiently till she had finished abusing him, as though out of politeness, then he had straddled her and pushed the robe up around her waist. Arky muttered a stream of invective that probably went over his head, trying not to look at the truncheon-like male member that was now protruding from between his thighs.
He began to move forward against her. Arky had just time for one last emphatic remark about his parents' sexual habits, then he pried her legs apart and began to enter her.
"You bastard - aaaaaaah!" groaned Arky. She could feel the large smooth head of his maleness pushing into her, then he pushed forward slowly but purposefully, trying to bury himself in her yielding flesh.
Arky felt as though it was going to come out the top of her head as he buried himself in her to his full length. The texture was strange, not like a human penis at all, and as he began to thrust in and out of her, she could feel something at the base of his maleness moving against her with each piston-like movement. It hurt. Oh, god did it hurt. She screamed for a couple of minutes, then as he started to pick up speed she passed out.
She woke alone, uncertain how much time had passed. Her arms were free, and the robe had been pulled down over her thighs again. She made her way hesitantly to the tiny bathroom, threw up violently and examined herself in the mirror. She was as white as a sheet and there were bruises on her thighs and wrists, but the only other sign of her ordeal was some dried lubricant around her genitals. Nelth either didn't ejaculate like humans or he considered her unworthy of his sperm.
She ran a hand through her short regulation-cut blonde hair and gave a heartfelt sigh. "Girl, it's going to be a long long three weeks." She went to bed and finally fell into a restless sleep, troubled by half-remembered dreams and starts.
The next day Nelth greeted her with his usual cool formality. "You are not injured?" he asked and she shook her head. She was stiff and bruised, and her pussy felt like a virgin on her wedding night, but she had sustained no injuries. That was his only reference to the night before. They ate together, spent the afternoon balancing the flow of the Space Drive reactor, then shared another meal at the end of the shift.
Arky returned to her room without saying anything. It was useless to resist from a physical point of view, so she had no option but to honor her bargain despite her feelings on the matter. She changed and waited. Time passed and eventually she began to nod.
She awoke with a start and looked at her timepiece. The night was half over and Nelth had not made an appearance. Had the experience so repulsed him that he could not bear to repeat it? Arky wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing - without the need to slake his alien lusts, did he really need her? She slept lightly, half-expecting to hear his steps outside her room. But there was nothing.
