Nightmares usually end.
At least that is what Tempest had believed all her life. But waking up for a third time on an alien planet with aliens surrounding her started to make her believe that maybe this wasn't a dream after all.
Maybe this was her new reality.
She was on an alien planet, and so far she knew of no way to get home. Not that anyone had even tried to explain to her how she got there in the first place.
"What are you doing to me?" Tempest forced herself to speak.
After she'd woken up the third time, things had started to move fast. Mexyn was still in the room, but there were three other aliens there as well. All of them looked remarkably like Mexyn, as if they could be siblings.
The four of them spoke among themselves in hushed words that Tempest had a hard time understanding. She could tell their words were being translated to English, but they were being whispered so softly that she couldn't hear them properly.
The soft words couldn't break through the intense pounding in Tempest's head. She had a migraine and was thoroughly convinced that she was going out of her mind.
That would be a fitting explanation.
Not only was she rejected by her longtime boyfriend Sam, but she drove herself crazy in the process.
With a deep breath, Tempest cleared her throat and tried to speak again. "I asked a question! What are you doing to me?"
One of the beings standing next to Mexyn snapped his eyes in Tempest's direction.
"Why does it speak?" He hissed at her.
"It?" Tempest recoiled back as if the alien had just struck her. "I'm a human woman, not an it." She proclaimed, doing her best to stand up for herself.
Mexyn took a step forward and put her hands up in a surrendering position. "Gerax means no harm. My species doesn't have much experience with living humans. I'm pleased to say you are one of the few who have survived this far into the transition."
That did not make Tempest feel any better. Was there really a chance that she would be killed? Was that the end goal to all of this?
"Are you going to…" She gulped hard, desperate to get the words out of her mouth, but nothing followed the gap.
"No, dear girl, we are not going to harm you. Quite the opposite, you might be one of our most prized possessions." Mexyn offered that tight smile once again.
The word possession hit Tempest's ear wrong. She didn't like to think of herself as anyone's possession.
"No one owns me. I'm my own person." Tempest retorted.
"Ah… yes. I've read of your people's history with slavery. You are right. You are not owned." Mexyn nodded her head, this time getting the gesture correct.
"You read of my people's history?" Tempest raised an eyebrow and leaned up further on the hard bed that she had been laid on. "The last time we spoke, you didn't even know what Earth was."
"Indeed, we Thraqens pride ourselves on being a progressive civilization. After you fainted again, I used the time that you were sleeping to do my research and update our database with as many Earthbound customs and histories as I could. I'm sure everyone is going to want to learn about you. The royal court for sure."
Tempest blinked her eyes twice hard as she tried to process what Mexyn had just said to her.
People are going to want to know about her?
Why didn't they already know about her?
Tempest groaned, leaned forward, and cradled her head in her hands.
"What is wrong? Will you faint again?" Mexyn questioned moving further away from the other beings in the room.
"No…no." Tempest replied willfully. Sleeping obviously wasn't going to make this hell disappear. She would have to face this head-on. See what she really had gotten herself pulled into.
"You are distressed. Please tell me what I can do to make it better." Mexyn placed a hand on the bed next to Tempest but still did not touch her.
Tempest wished there was someone around to hold her. She wasn't an overly emotional woman, but at that moment all she really wanted was a hug.
"It's a lot, Mexyn. I don't know where I am. I don't know what you all are doing to me. I don't know how I got here. Now you're telling me that other people are going to want to know about me. Who are these other people? Who makes up the royal court? More importantly, what does all of that have to do with me?" Tempest released a deep breath after she finished her spiel.
The air in the room seemed to get heavier with the silence as everyone besides Tempest slightly tilted their head and waited for the translation to complete.
"I see, you're correct. Maybe we have started the process too quickly. You need to be brought up to date on what is going on. Shall we stop all the medical checks and just talk?"
"Mexyn! We cannot delay." The one called Gerax snapped at Mexyn.
For the first time since Tempest had been in the same room as Mexyn, she saw a dangerous side to the woman as she slowly turned her gaze to Gerax.
"Her well-being is paramount, Gerax, mentally, physically, and emotionally. We will give her the time that she is requesting, and I'll hear nothing more of it."
With that, Gerax snapped his jaw shut and simply turned and walked out of the room. The rest of the company did the same.
Mexyn walked over to the wall and pressed her hand against a panel Tempest had not previously seen, and a chair was fabricated out of a small opening. The luminescent coloring of the wall filtered to the chair and wrapped around it like a shroud.
Tempest didn't understand how the chair came to be in the first place, but she figured there were more important questions to ask.
Mexyn pulled the small chair closer to the bedside where Tempest was and sat. She folded her hands in her lap and looked patiently at Tempest. "You have questions? I will do my very best to answer what I can for you." She gave the tight smile, one that Tempest had already begun getting used to. She understood the desire behind it. Mexyn was trying to put her at ease. It would be hard for her to do, but at least she was giving it her best effort.
"I don't know where to start." Tempest sighed and crossed her legs over each other.
"The smartest beings always suggest starting from the beginning."
Tempest had heard something similar to that back on Earth. That was the best place to start. The beginning.
Tempest's thoughts were being pulled in a million and one directions. She truly had so much she wanted to know. Though Mexyn had been nothing but nice to her so far, Tempest didn't know if she could truly be trusted.
What if she lied to her? How would Tempest be able to tell the truth from a lie?
What if she coerced Tempest into agreeing to something that would get her killed? Would she even realize what she was agreeing to until it was too late?
Tempest felt like a fish out of water. She was searching for a lifeline. She glanced at Mexyn once again, that tight smile still on her face.
Truly she had no idea if she could trust her, but there were no other options.
Tempest had to believe that Mexyn would be her guide through this planet of horrors, and she had to believe that she would make it out in one piece.
Tempest never really thought of herself as an overly strong woman, but she knew before her time on this alien planet was done she'd have to learn how to survive.
It all started with this first conversation.
Tempest sucked in a breath and asked her first question.