Depression.

- My poison is stronger than yours! - from behind the metal wall I heard someone's boastful voice.

I opened my sleepy eyes. Did you think I had a headache? Or did I feel wrecked? Most of the races of our home galaxy would probably start their story that way. But not me, because I'm a skroge, a human/reptilian hybrid. The perfect killing machine that always feels good. Or almost always. When she's not drinking herself into a moelis pigsticker. 

My name is Kserd, and I'm a member of the crew of ISC-14, "The Berserk". Former head of security. Why former? Hell if I know. I remember an altercation with the security officer, and then it was all a blur. Goddamn it, this chain of command. Allegedly, I'm behaving inappropriately, unworthy of a member of our valiant race's elite unit. I don't care... I've never liked this position. Every day you check how the guards behave at the workplace, the efficiency of the equipment, if necessary, you give in the face and take the troublemaker to the punishment cell. And sit in your office for the rest of the day, dying of boredom. The only thing worse is my current situation, but I'll think about that later.

- No, mine is stronger than yours!

What's going on? Oh, right. It's Yenel and Aurtror arguing over whose poison is stronger. Nothing new, though. What else can you do when there are only 20 human women for a crew of 300 units? There's not much to do on a ship during free hours. And the free hours are when the security camera's empty. That happens a lot. A pretty woman is brought in, injected with various substances for several days, subjecting her body to severe changes. Then some skroge shoots her. For what purpose? To see if her scaly body can withstand the damage. If it can't, the body falls, a pool of blood. Fail. They take the body, you're free to go. I have these dreams almost every day. They say dreams are the cry of the unconscious. When your conscious mind doesn't get what you see every day, it hides where it belongs. Oh, yeah... if she can stand it, she's taken to surgery, where scientists do all sorts of experiments on her. 

Then they bring her back, as if nothing had happened. And nothing seems to happen to her... just an ordinary modified human woman. There's a lot of them in our brothels to entertain the men. But then her belly begins to grow rapidly, causing her, apparently, not the most pleasant sensations. Then a scream, a body falls, a pool of blood. Failure. The corpse is taken away, and you're free again... going to your quarters to watch a program about Scrotes life in their harsh climate. Or human soap operas about life underground. Who slept with who, who cheated on who. Or intergalactic news. Boredom.

- Stop spitting that stuff, it gives me a headache just looking at it! - came the low, gruff voice of the brute, Garg.

I try not to cross paths with brutes. Even though we were taught in training that we are one race, and differ only slightly, physiologically, we should not forget who our ancestors are. So we're no strangers to a kind of racism. Vipers, the poisonous creatures to which I belong, consider brutes to be dumb-headed fools who are already stumped by the question "how much is two plus two". They also think that we undeservedly occupy the status of "face of the race", and they resent it every chance they get. We have only one thing in common - both brutes and vipers do not like slith. Why? I won't tell you why. They are not liked on our ship, their nature is not close to ours. Slow, fretful, often duplicitous-these legless half-snakes here are mostly just idle, lazily, noiselessly creeping back and forth, even though they claim to be busy.

I came out of the cabin and looked at Aurtror, who, puffing, turned his gaze at once to the door of the next cabin, and said:

- Go to hell! - and spit the poison directly onto the floor, not bothering to wipe up after himself.

- Hey, Kserd, you wanna play poker with us? - I heard a familiar suggestion from Garg in the cabin.

- Uh, no.

- But you wouldn't mind a little cayan dope, would you? - The owner of that thin voice knew better than to entice me.

After a moment's thought, I agreed.

- To hell with you, Yenel. Give me your powder, or whatever you got it in..." - I sat down on the bed, glancing around the cabin.

It didn't look any different from mine - the same metal walls, the same colorimeter nailed to the wall, the same porthole, the same metal nightstands where nutritional pills and drugs were stored. Ordinary quarters for ordinary guards. The serene slug sitting across from me on the other bed handed me a pink-colored pill. I chugged it down with water, and a few minutes later a wave of ecstasy came over me. It's one of the few pleasures available to us. Thankfully, drugs don't have too many negative effects on the skroge's body.

- What do you think?

- Wonderful, - I said, dissolving into bliss.

- Not all slimes are useless, are they, Kserd? I had a hard time getting it here. There's only grass everywhere, - Yenel said, wiggling his dark blue tail, which wasn't very long by slime standards.

- That's because you have fangs, too.

I like our company. Garg and Yenel are sort of outsiders among the crew. Aurtror, though he has a temper, is actually not a bad guy either. As far as those words can be applied to skroges...

- Girls, come on in! - A red-haired skroge viper entered the cabin, accompanied by two human young ladies.

Aurtror brought two whores. How lovely. One of them, a busty blonde, dressed in almost anything she wore, sat on my lap immediately, pressing her boobs into my chest. The skroge were mostly fascinated by women from other planets, especially human ones. The fact was that our entire race had long been preoccupied with creating a female skroge. A womb that could carry and bear children - that's as easy as humans make it. Without the expenditure of equine resources and the waste of time. And not just give birth - but give birth in large numbers. Like an incubator. In fact, that's why human women are kidnapped - since our DNA is based on human DNA, they try to take advantage of that somehow. But to no avail. Soon after fertilization, the child inside her dies, taking all of the mother's resources and her life at the same time. The only thing they've succeeded in doing is giving the poor thing enhanced characteristics like stamina, strength, regeneration. And make her at least a little like us, if the scales are enough to do it. No one wants either of those things, though.

- Damn, Kserd, you're always lucky with women, - Garg said resentfully.

- You're just a brute, Garg. Brutes are a bit of an acquired taste.

I wasn't insulting my bulky buddy here-it wasn't me. Whores didn't like brutes because of their giant asses and clumsy movements. And they were not particularly attractive: large, unkempt facial features and hypertrophied to absurd musculature - in general, on the amateur ...

- Aurtror, why only two? There are four of us! - Garg was indignant.

- All the others are busy, what was I supposed to do? Pull them out from under the soldiers? - snarled the redhead, hugging a scaly brunette smoking a cigarette by the hips.

- Ugh! - Garg kicked the bed and walked away, - I have to take a leak.

My mind was fogging up more and more, and I didn't resist much when the blonde brazenly asked me to fuck her in my quarters. Not thinking much of it, we went to my place. Plopping me on the bed, she sat on top of me and began kissing my body from neck to stomach. Her slender hands began to fondle my cock under my pants, but a drugged-up Scrooge isn't a big fan of women, so I took her by the hair and gently pulled her away from my pants.

- Oh, come on.

- What's wrong?

- That brute would fulfill your needs better than I could.

To tell the truth, for the past year I had not been interested in whores at all. Their fake behavior made me angry, and I hadn't felt much interest in ordinary, animal sex since my early youth. Better my own hand than that lying piece of flesh....

- It's okay, I'll wait, - she said in a coquettish voice and lay down next to me, resting her head on my chest. My hand reached to the nightstand for a cigarette.

- What's your, - I coughed as I lit up for the first time in a long time, - What's your name?

- Nansy! - she said in an unnatural voice.

- What funny names you earthlings have... tell me, why do you only settle for that? - I asked thoughtfully, staring up at the ceiling and blowing smoke.

My clawed hand was squeezing her lush breasts, clearly giving her, if not pain, the unpleasant sensation of pinpricks.

- What, this? - she questioned incomprehensibly, as if I'd said something stupid.

- Stop pretending you're stupid. Slavery, - I said irritably.

They're so annoying. I can't even talk to them.

- Oh, that's what you mean, - her tone changed abruptly from naive and childish to more serious, - We don't think it's slavery, - the blonde lifted herself up, looking at me contemptuously, as if I'd insulted her with that fact.

- You have to serve dozens of skroges per day, which is not pleasant, given our temperament. I'm not even talking about the brutes... how do you even fit their dicks in you? - I couldn't help but laugh at the sight of it.

A brute of two meters and twenty centimeters puffs on a fragile lady, listening to her feigned moans and naively believing that he gives her unearthly pleasure with his huge cock. It's hilarious.

- Earth's a lost place, you know, - she flicked her lighter, lighting a cigarette, - Most or earth women live in an underground shelter, cooking and having kids around the clock, finishing the day with a five-minute fuck. And if a woman doesn't live in a shelter... well, you can only sympathize with them. So the offer to become a whore of the skroge, while gaining a long youth and a relatively luxurious life is not so bad.

I grumbled, putting out my cigarette against the wall.

- Well, that's what I thought.

- Did that answer convince you enough? - she smiled at me, and her voice changed back to a sweetly flirtatious one before she sat back down on top of me.

It seems that when it comes to vipers, they don't mind getting laid themselves. After all, we're more like humans than any other species.

- I guess so. But as long as I'm high, I don't think you're gonna do anything for me. Why don't you come to Garg?

The blonde grinned, realizing quickly that she was being blown off, but she didn't argue with the obvious fact.

- Ahhh, that's a shame. You vipers are so pretty... - and, jumping off me, left my quarters.

My gaze was drawn to the reflection in the window - that's what I needed now: views of space, not women. The picture didn't change much, so I could make out every star, clearly distinguishing its hue, and the way they blended together into a nebula... the drug gradually began to wear off, leaving only a pleasant feeling of relaxation. But my procrastination didn't last long: the receiver at the headboard of my bed made a hissing electronic sound.

- Kserd! There's an object for you.

Damn it. That was it, another corpse had been brought in... I'd spend the next few weeks in the observation room, staring at the glass, making sure the subject didn't escape. Or that the subject wasn't attacked by any particularly clever fellows... truth be told, there was zero risk of escape. But what can you do? That's the way it is. Discipline first!

- Roger that, - I answered, rubbing my eyes with my fists.

I got up reluctantly, staggering out of the cabin and into the observation room, slamming the metal door behind me.