Chapter 2

Do I smell like trouble?

That's the last thing I hear before I pass out completely. The world quickly darkens before my eyes and I fall into darkness.

After some time, consciousness slowly returns to me, pulling me out of the heavy haze of sleep.

I even have time to think that I would dream something like this: aliens; a spaceship in a clearing in the park; a chain of weak-willed and lifeless women being loaded into it!

And the icing on the cake is my own kidnapping!

A terrible, disgusting dream! But somehow it was too realistic.

I understand in my mind that it's time for me to get up and go to the kitchen to cook something to eat. Pasha likes to wake up when breakfast is already on the table.

I reluctantly open my eyes, and at that very moment I realize that I didn't imagine anything.

This is all happening for real! I'm not at home, in my bed.

I'm God knows where!

Right before my eyes are the backs of high chairs, in which my recent kidnappers are sitting at a huge - three-meter, no less! - control panel and are not paying any attention to me. They are too absorbed in silently tapping the buttons of the control panel in front of them.

All that can be heard is the sound of numerous buttons being pressed, merging into a single rhythm of clicking on the keys.

The brain refuses to believe in the reality of what is happening.

I pinch myself with all my strength and quietly gasp.

This is not a dream.

But maybe I'm just going crazy?

Out of helplessness, I close my eyes for a minute, finally coming to my senses and realizing that all of this is actually happening to me!

I can't escape, I can't even move properly. My body refuses to obey, as if it doesn't belong to me.

I don't understand what these creepy aliens have planned. Why do they need me? And why do they need so many other women?

It's strange, but my reactions seem to be slow: slow and unclear. I don't panic and start screaming, demanding that they let me go immediately.

It's like I'm watching a movie with myself in the lead role. It helps me not to go crazy in this shiny, sterile white cabin, alone with two unearthly creatures.

I look around carefully, trying not to attract the attention of the big-headed aliens.

My kidnappers must have been in a hurry and left me where they had to. I look at myself and am glad that I am still in my clothes, and even my handbag is slung over my shoulder. I have a massive black bracelet on my wrist, but that is not surprising – I couldn't take it off myself.

I'm lying on the floor of a cabin that is probably the control cabin of a spaceship.

On dozens of screens, placed in rows practically from the floor to the ceiling on three sides of the control panel and the two pilots' chairs built into it, images of dozens of motionless young women resting in some kind of flasks are broadcast.

I feel sick from what I see. A nasty feeling rises in my throat.

Why do they need so many Earth women? Are they all dead? Or are they alive, but in some strange state of sleep, frozen naked in exactly the same poses and with their eyes open.

It looks creepy. I try to look less at the screens with the broadcast images of the abducted motionless dugouts. I'd rather think that they are simply frozen and can still be saved.

My thoughts are interrupted by a bright flash of memory of the aliens throwing me to the floor as soon as they enter the ship, continuing to argue among themselves:

- Do you realize that we missed the perihelion of Zingjingshan-Atlas, and we had to disguise ourselves as its anti-tail? And now what? If we get detected, we're screwed!

I don't understand which of them is speaking, but it doesn't matter. They look exactly the same, like clones of each other, no differences.

- What do you suggest? - asks another alien. - We couldn't leave her, she saw us loading! We don't want any problems.

- I told you right away, it should have been disposed of on the spot! Why are you clinging to it? We've lost precious time, and we don't even have a capsule for it. Okay, we'll deal with it later. It's time to cast off! It's already the twenty-eighth of October!

- Sherz, fuck you! - there is obvious contempt in the speaker's voice, - You speak like an earthling! - He mimics his words: - October twenty-eighth! Comet Zingjingshan! You should also watch it through a telescope! - He makes strange sounds.

His creaking gurgling sound is probably laughter.

- Don't talk nonsense! The comet helped us a lot. Thanks to it, we collected females on Earth for a whole standard rotation! There are one hundred and fifty-six selected samples! And this misunderstanding that you dragged in at the last moment, - he kicks my foot with his boot, making me groan.

- You'll see, she'll make us rich! We'll bring her without documents, in addition to the orders, and that means for ourselves! This female is suitable for feeding embryos, I can smell her. My nose has never let me down. So, get to the controls, let's take off!