Fear and Aggression (18 page)

As she pondered her
extraordinary circumstances, she began to feel a sensation. It was
the first indication of the need to urinate. It was not initially
alarming to her, but it lead to a new train of thought. She knew
that she was dehydrated until she had had all of those glasses of
water. But she had not had any need to urinate for the hours that
she had been awake. She then noticed tenderness in her rectum. She
was aware that her bowels felt entirely empty. That was not her
state before she had been taken captive. The thought of what had
transpired during the time she was out made her shudder. She tried
to think on other matters, but that fourth glass of water had
kicked her kidneys into gear. The initial sensation to urinate was
strengthening,
quickly
.

The people that were
standing guard had been very helpful to her with her glasses of
water and her meal.
How do I communicate
to them that I need to use the facilities?
she thought. The cell that she was in was small, completely
visible to the outsiders, and with nothing that resembled a toilet
facility. Aspiria waited as she pondered, but the urgency was
coming on quickly. She got off the table, and walked to the bars at
the front of her cell. She tried to make eye contact, with the
silver helmets, and the people seemed to be paying attention to
her. She put her hand on her belly and gave a facial expression of
discomfort. The people in suits looked at her, and then glanced at
each other. She could tell that they were somehow speaking with
each other, as she could see that their body language indicated
conversation.

They looked back at her, and didn’t move.
This time she spoke out loud. “I need to use the facilities. I
think that I drank too much water, too quickly.” The people could
hear her, she thought, as they seemed to be listening. They looked
at each other and began to show evidence of communication again.
The one that had brought her the meal and water stepped forward,
and began to walk towards her. He stopped short of the bars, and
appeared to glare at her, though she could see no eyes. She again
placed her hand on her belly and tried to show discomfort and
urgency on her face. The suited person looked on at her for a
moment and then turned to the other suited person again.

***

“
I think that she has a
stomach ache,” Bob said as he turned to Danny.

“
It looks like it. I think
that we should tell Tammy.”

“
Tammy was exhausted, and
she wanted us to take care of things,” Bob explained.

“
Yes, but she will be
furious if something happens to her ‘specimen.’”

“
I’m more worried about
her; she looks really uncomfortable,” said Bob
genuinely.

The woman in cell had turned away from them
slightly, and was looking in the air, as if she didn’t know what to
do. She started to bend her knees up and down a little, almost
unconsciously. She turned back to the men, and gave them the same
gesture when she wanted a glass of water. Bob thought, “Oh that
might help with a stomach ache, I’ll get her another glass of
water. I wonder if there are any Tums in here.” He started to go
for another glass of water, but he saw her shake her head at him in
a strange way. He stopped and looked on again. She showed him the
glass of water gesture again, and then the hand on the stomach and
the grimace of the face expression.

Finally she lifted up her eyebrows and
looked at him as though to say, “Get it?”

Bob didn’t get it. The woman started
bouncing again, and this time with a little more urgently.

“
I think that she has to
pee,” said Danny.

“
Oh, I think you’re right.
Oh, oh. That’s not good.”

“
What do we do?” asked
Danny. “We can’t take her out of her cell. That was our most
important instruction.”

“
Do we have a bottle or
container or something?” asked Bob.

“
Will that beaker fit
through the bars? It looks like it’s big enough to hold
it.”

“
Hand it to me, I’ll try.”
Bob walked with the beaker towards the cell. The alien woman looked
at him with a very concerned expression on her face. He reached it
up to the bar, and saw that it fit—barely. He then pulled it back
and gestured to the woman by holding it in position and gently
squatting. The woman looked at him in utter dismay. First her face
whitened, and then it turned a bright crimson. Bob tried to hand it
to her, but she did not reach for it. Instead she wrinkled her
eyebrows, and shook her head adamantly. “She definitely has got to
pee. But I don’t think she wants to do it in front of
us.”

“
Maybe if we turn our
backs,” offered Danny. The two men turned their backs to her
momentarily and then Bob reached up the beaker again. The woman
lowered her head and looked up at Bob, with her dark eyes
penetrating. She shook her head slowly but assertively. Bob was
mesmerized again. They clearly understood each other. He was
communicating with this beautiful alien woman. Even though she was
the captive and she was in the cell, she had him in the palm of her
hand.

“
We have to get her to a
bathroom. She’s got to go, and she isn’t going to do it like some
kind of animal,” expressed Bob.

“
I am not going to disobey
orders.”

“
I’m calling Captain
Jenners,” said Bob.

Steve and Mike were talking together when
Bob interrupted them over the intercom. “We’ve got a situation in
the lab…with the woman—the alien.” Steve and Mike looked at each
other alarmed, and sat up straight.

“
What’s going on, Bob?”
asked Steve directly.

“
Uh…this woman, uh…she has
to go.”

“
What! Go where? She’s not
going anywhere. Are you talking with her?”

“
No, Captain, she’s trying
to talk, but I can’t understand her. I mean she has to go, as in,
she’s got to pee.”

Mike’s face turned into an instant smile,
and he bowed his head and started to chuckle. Steve smiled from ear
to ear as he and Mike exchanged a look.

“
Bob, this alien is not
leaving the cell. Remember, this is an intelligent creature. That
is the oldest trick in the book. Even they know that trick out
here.”

“
No Captain, she really
does have to go. I gave her four glasses of water, and I can tell
it’s for real,” said Bob in all seriousness.

“
Captain,” Danny came on,
“I think it’s the real thing.”

“
Well, give her something
to go in. She’s not getting out of the cell.”

“
Yeah, um, we tried that.
But she said that she wouldn’t.”

“
I thought that you
couldn’t understand her?”

“
I can’t understand her
words, but I understood that.”

Mike was starting to laugh
uncontrollably.

“
Captain Jenners,” Danny
was still speaking with as much seriousness as possible. “She
understands that we wanted her to pee in the beaker, but she won’t.
I think that we are going to have to do something.”

Steve looked at Mike, and rolled his eyes.
“What are we going to do?” he asked Mike.

“
If she has to go bad
enough, she’ll go in the beaker, I suppose,” suggested
Mike.

Something inside of Steve began to eat at
him. “Look, we captured her, and she didn’t put up any fight. We
have weapons and more tranquilizing darts. We’ve got plenty of us.
Maybe we could give her an armed escort to the bathroom. We could
be like the Secret Service.”

Mike shook his head and chuckled slightly.
“If she really has to go, she’ll go in the beaker.”

“
Come on, Mike, let’s go.
We’ll bring all the arms, and make sure there is no funny business.
There is a bathroom in the lab, so we won’t have to compromise the
air lock.”

***

Aspiria was mortified. She really was aching
in her bladder, and the pressure was increasing. The only hope that
she had was that the people were not offering her the beaker.
Instead, they seemed to be busy doing something. It wasn’t clear
what it was, but they were both fiddling with something. One of the
suited people walked to the far end of the room, and opened a door.
Aspiria looked at it. It was dark in the just opened room, and she
couldn’t make out what was inside. A light came on, and she noticed
strange facilities that looked like they could be a bathroom. A
feeling of relief came over her. Not complete relief, of course,
that would require her being in that room—but relief none the
less.

The next thing she knew, the people were
both brandishing weapons! They were not pointing them at her, but
they were pointed in the air. From the side, two other suited
people entered the room. She was startled when she first saw them,
and was lucky to be able to continue to hold herself. They too were
brandishing weapons. One of them was clearly in charge. He was
pointing and positioning the other people. He never looked in her
direction. The one in charge had two of the other people point
their weapons at her. She began to fear that they would put her out
again—or worse. The one who didn’t have the weapon pointed at her
walked towards her.

The suited person opened
up her cell. She stood motionless. The person put his hand around
the top of her arm, and began to pull her firmly, but gently out of
the cell. Aspiria walked slowly, at the pace that her captors
seemed to indicate. As she walked out of the cell she stared from
one armed captor to another. They moved their weapons keeping them
locked on her as she walked towards the recently opened door. She
realized that they were
afraid of
her
. What a strange thought. She had never
seen anyone show that body language towards her.
Why are they afraid of me?
she wondered. She had plenty of reason to be afraid of them,
but oddly she started to feel some pity towards these strange
individuals.

Her urgency to urinate intensified as the
bathroom approached. She instantly grew concerned that she would
not be allowed to do this alone. But as she went through the door
and into the room, the person holding her arm loosened and allowed
her to walk in alone. She looked around and saw that they were all
facing her—two of them with weapons pointing towards her. She
slowly began to shut the door, but just a few inches. She looked at
them for approval. No one seemed concerned. She continued to shut
the door, and they seemed to accept that.

With the door shut, she looked at the
contraption that appeared to be the appropriate facility. She
lifted up her dress, pulled down her underclothing, and sat down.
The urgency was intense, but the awkwardness and fear made it
difficult to start. She remembered her thigh, and took a look at
it. There was a mark, from the dart, but it was not too tender or
bruised. She was relieved that it still looked fresh. She couldn’t
have been under too long. She was now able to urinate, and as she
did she felt a burning.

Steve had just sat down on his bed when he
heard a knock on his door. He was a little irritated, but got up to
answer the door. Tammy was there, and she looked beautiful, her red
hair had a beautiful curl and shine. She had not just come over
after finishing her lab work, but had taken some time to freshen
up. Steve glanced in the hall before welcoming her into his
chambers.

“
No one’s around,” she
said with a smile as she walked in. As soon as the door was shut,
she put her arms around him tightly. They enjoyed a prolonged
embrace. Steve leaned in for the kiss, and they both poured out
their affection.

Steve looked at Tammy, who had been
apparently very happy just a few minutes ago. He saw a look of
concern on her face. She began to get a little misty-eyed, and then
forced a smile again. “What’s wrong?” he asked tenderly.

“
I’ve missed you,” she
said as she forced another smile. They both sat down on his bed,
close to each other, and Steve grabbed her left hand in both of his
and rested them on her lap.

“
You must be exhausted. I
know that you haven’t taken many of your rest periods. You’ve been
working tirelessly. I’ve missed you, too.”

Tammy looked up at him, and smiled more
genuinely this time. “I’m living my dream right now.”

Steve smiled tenderly at her now. Her
physical attraction to him was growing into something deeper, and
he felt it now more than ever. Steve was beginning to view his
future life with her in it. She appealed to him on so many levels.
Tammy was so beautiful that she would always be a compliment to
him. She was extraordinarily intelligent. She was driven, as driven
as he had ever seen. His ship was filled with people with drive,
and yet Tammy outpaced them all. Tammy was meticulous and
detail-oriented, but still she kept her personality. She could
laugh at herself, and was not so self-absorbed that she couldn’t
see others’ points of view. She was witty and funny. She was very
self-confident and comfortable in anyone’s presence.

The other major attraction he had not
completely formulated in his mind—he and she were destined to be in
the history books. They were going to be household names. They were
both heroes’. Their destinies had been meshed together through this
mission and its attendant success. The name Steve Jenners was going
to be spoken for hundreds of years to come, and Tammy Rogers was
good enough for him. She would not be eclipsed by him or in his
shadows. She would shine by his side. They would both be the elite
of the world.