Desirée woke to pain. Every part of her body hurt, even her eyelids. She stared up at the pale colours of a sickbay ceiling, blinking against the glare of the overhead lights. Even through the bed, she could still feel the omnipresent rumble of the ship's engines. An IV drip was attached to her left arm.
"She's awake." She understood the words but her ears told her she had only heard a strange croaking sound. She looked down, the nerves in the back of her skull shrieking; she was strapped down to the bed. A nearby monitor beeped contentedly. She couldn't make out any of the symbols.
Ssurhuk-T'at moved into her line of vision, his three eyes bright with concern behind his spectacles. The froglike alien looked gray, as if he hadn't slept in far too long. He croaked something at her.
Two seconds later, her brain caught, "Can you understand what I am saying to you?" Her ears swore they hadn't heard a thing.
Desirée opened her mouth. It was dry, parched. "Water," she barely croaked. "Please . . . water."
He croaked again. "Of course," the words entering her brain half a second later. He picked up a strangely shaped glass filled with water. The glass had a narrow tube extending out from it, like a straw permanently attached.
He croaked once more. "Here." Desirée realized that she was hearing a translation, somehow routed directly to her brain. The water was clear and cold, and tasted wonderful. She sipped from the glass for several seconds before he took it back and placed it on the side table.
"You cannot have too much too fast. Now do you understand what I am saying to you?" he asked again, the translation now coming simultaneously with his croaking.
She ran her tongue around her lips, and found she could speak. "Yes, but it feels strange . . . in my head." Her voice was rusty from lack of use.
"That's the Universal Translation Device working," Veronica walked into her line of vision, black circles under her eyelids and her dark eyes bright with unshed tears. "We installed it while you were unconscious. It works by bone induction, and takes a while to calibrate. But are you all right?" She stood on the right side of the bed, her fingers lightly stroking Desirée's cheek.
"What happened?" Desirée asked as memories came flooding back. "Why am I here? Why did you shoot me?"
"I am sorry, dear, but I had no choice," the older woman said, still stroking her cheek. "In the state you were in, you might have seriously hurt yourself."
"It was a very near thing," Ssurhuk-T'at said soberly in what Desirée was beginning to realize was his native tongue. Her UTD was now giving her the translation almost simultaneously. "You were infected with one of the highest concentrations of Asmodii venom I've ever seen."
"Asmodii what?"
"Meljahza, the Asmodii attendant who seduced you, had falsified her records to conceal the fact that she was a fertilized female." Veronica's lips compressed with rage. "She's currently in the brig, under arrest for attempted murder."
"Asmodii have a very unusual gestation cycle," Ssurhuk-T'at added. "Once the male fertilizes the female's eggs, she carries them for a period of eight of your months. Once she has done so, she injects the fertilized eggs into a carrier. After a period of another 10 months, the Asmodii infants eat their way out of the carrier, killing it as they are born."
Desirée shrank back, horrified. "That means . . . she was trying to . . . and I--"
"Sssshhh," Veronica said, still stroking the teen's plump face, wiping away the sudden tears. "It's all right, darling, it wasn't your fault."
"When the fertilized female is preparing to find a carrier for her eggs, she secrets a hormone through her sweat glands," Ssurhuk-T'at continued. "That venom is the only known aphrodisiac in the Confederation. It will make almost any creature do what a fertilized female asks it to do, which allows the female to plant her eggs inside them. In turn, the fertilized eggs have a special enzyme that counteracts the venom, which is why the infected creature will almost beg the fertilized female to implant her eggs in the subject.
"This venom is highly dangerous," Veronica said. "The Guild occasionally uses it, but only in highly diluted states. When you first interviewed for the Guild, I injected you with a serum that contained a single drop of the venom."
Desirée remembered that incident. Even when diluted, the venom had caused her to masturbate uncontrollably. It wasn't surprising that the undiluted substance from Meljahza's body had made her crave such a violation.
"Ssurhuk-T'at is the Confederation's leading expert on Asmodii venom." Veronica's brown hair hung down in tangles, her hand was still pressed against Desirée's cheek. She looked like she hadn't slept either. "He smelled it on Meljahza and immediately went to find me. Like a fool, I consulted the records, found her file, and told him he must be wrong. Thankfully, he convinced me otherwise before it was too late."
"Thank you," Desirée said to the froglike alien. She shuddered at how close she was to dying.
"It was my pleasure," he replied, smiling at her.
"But why . . . how?"
He understood what she was trying to ask. "As a requirement for joining the Confederation, the Asmodii promised that they would never place fertilized eggs into Confederation citizens, or other sentient beings. However, Meljahza admitted to belonging to a minority sect that believes injecting fertilized eggs into dumb animals weakens their race. In order to purify and strengthen their bloodlines, members of their order seek out intelligent but naive beings and make them carriers."
"Injecting a potential Guild courtesan would have been a major coup for them," Veronica said softly. Desirée pressed her face against the older woman's hand, trying to wish the nightmare out of her head. Her lower lip quivered and tears slid down her cheeks.
"On the plus side, I was very impressed that you were able to absorb such an incredible concentration of Asmodii venom and survive," Ssurhuk-T'at said. "The amount that you received from Meljahza should have killed you. It very nearly did."
"You can thank Ssurhuk-T'at for that as well," Veronica said. "He took care of you and worked hard to get the venom out of your system. You've been in this bed for over a week."
"How?"
"Unfortunately, there is no known antidote and vaccination has had a limited effect." He suddenly grinned. "However, the endorphins released through sexual release do speed the venom's breakdown."
Desirée digested the implications of that for several seconds. "Oh."
"I hope you realize just how lucky you've been, young lady." Veronica's lips twitched. "You've had the exclusive services of one of my best courtesans for more than a week. There are governments in this galaxy that couldn't afford his rates for that extended period of time."
"Thanks again," Desirée said to the tall alien. Then, feeling daring, "I'm only sorry I wasn't there to enjoy it."
Ssurhuk-T'at threw his head back, croaking his distinctive laugh. Veronica joined in, shaking her head in amusement.
