I woke up still on my belly, my right hand clamped between my thighs. When I tried to pull it away, I found that it was stuck to my pubic hair by my own dried juices. I moaned as the tender skin ached when I pulled my fingers free.
I rolled onto my back and draped an arm over my eyes. I was too tired to be scared. The room smelled of sweat and female juices. God, I wanted a shower.
Then I remembered my Captain and Major Thrace.
They, too, were asleep, or passed out. They sprawled nearby on their bellies, arms flung wide. Their legs were scissored together, with their asses snugged tight against each other, feet almost in each other's face. I stared at them, trying to envision what had happened. How had I not noticed that? How had I not heard them fucking each other? Had I passed out so quickly?
The Captain's face was turned toward me, her hand resting lightly on Thrace's ankle. Her features were slack, her mouth open, a pool of saliva on the floor. I thought for a moment she might be dead, but her back rose and fell with her breathing.
Her ass was so much bigger, and softer, than Thrace's rock-hard one. Thorne, too, was pale and pasty-looking in the harsh light, a harsh contrast to Clark's olive skin. Thrace's face was turned away from me, but her array of tattoos across her muscular body gleamed vivid on her still-sweaty skin.
I felt a sudden, shuddering sense of my own nakedness as I looked at them. None of us deserved to be humiliated like this, stripped and put on display, our bodies exposed and our basest instincts artificially encouraged. Yet our captors saw us only as animals, useful simply for the fluid our body produced: much as ancient humanity considered their cows.
I wondered suddenly just how they got milk from human women. It must involve some sort of pump, similar to what naturally lactating women used to store milk for their children. Or would it be closer to what was used on old-time farms, cold metal tubes that attached to our nipples and produced irresistible suction so that it pulled the milk from us forcefully?
What would that feel like? Would it hurt? Would we scream in agony? Captain Clark had read files about this, and seemed to know a great deal more than we did. Did I dare ask her when she woke up?
As if on cue, Clark moaned and slowly flexed her fingers around Thrace's ankle. I backed away. I wasn't sure about Thrace, but I couldn't imagine that Captain Clark wanted her yeoman to see her in this condition. Carefully, as quietly as possible, I lay back down on the mattress and pretended sleep, watching the other two women through my eyelashes.
Thrace sat up suddenly, twisting her upper body to look back at Captain Clark. Clark moved more slowly, disentangling her legs from the Major's before they both turned and looked at each other.
They said nothing. But something passed between them that I couldn't identify, and when they got to their feet, they briefly touched fingers, like they each wanted to hold hands but knew better.
I pretended to wake up as well. Captain Clark said, "Are you all right, Yeoman?"
"I'm sore," I said honestly as I got to my feet. My legs were wobbly and I had to use the wall for support.
"I know how you feel," Captain Clark said. "It was more difficult to resist than I expected. When we get back, I'll have to add that to the official files on this."
"What happens to us next?" I asked.
Before she could answer, the door opened, and I got my first look at G'Oran.
They were insectoid, with three-part bodies and heads with multiple eyes. They stood on their second and third pairs of legs, while their first pair ended in grasping digits halfway between hands and claws. They wore fabric outfits of various colors, which I supposed marked rank or status. Their chittering voices, made by the clicking of mouth parts, had never been translated. They also smelled, a sharp acidic odor that made my eyes water.