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Afew Earth days ago…
Hidden from the view of the people scurrying below me, I sit in my cloaked shuttle and watch the city humans, looking for one or perhaps two who might make suitable pets.
I am looking for a very specific sort of human. One who is not connected strongly to a familial group. Humans become very distressed if you accidentally take a mother or a father. Their young suffer terribly, so I never take any human who has previously bred. This is obvious in the pheromone readings. I have my drone probes flitting through the streets, taking samples from those who pass by, alerting me to any potentials. This gives me time to cast my gaze over this section of the ruined city.
Once upon a time, this was a proud city. Now it is a haven of decay and depravity. Law, such as it is, is enforced sporadically and with great violence. Crime is ubiquitous.
And yet, life finds a way to limp on. In the burned-out shells of what used to be mass retail outlets, peddlers and scavengers sell their wares. They attempt to emulate old styles of commerce with handmade banners and sales pitches. Almost all of them are armed to the teeth with improvised weapons. Seen in a certain distant and rose-colored light, there is a certain cheerfulness to the entire proceedings.
But the people are not well. They are suffering and they are in danger. For every successful trade, there is a raid from a thief and perhaps a small band thereof.
Young males roam the bullet pock-marked streets in large groups. These groups harass others, and when they encounter other groups, large fights break out that leave some dead, many maimed, and all traumatized.
A law enforcement cruiser slides silently and unseeingly past a man who is on the ground being kicked by three youths who asked him if he had a cigarette, then proceeded to beat him when he said he did not.
The man on the ground survives only because he has secreted a handheld incendiary device in his pocket. I watch, fascinated, as he deploys it in a thin stream of what looks to be very unpleasantly hot fire. Their screams make the microphones on my drone probes rattle unpleasantly.
Once upon a time I used to try to intervene in these scuffles, but I quickly discovered the law of unintended consequences, not to mention it becoming absolutely impossible to police. I have a permit to capture humans in the wild, but I am not permitted to intervene in the progress of their civilization in general.
I refocus my probes. At the moment there is great demand for young adult females. One such human is owned by one of the most influential families on Euphoria, and as such, the type has become most sought after.
The problem with finding humans of this type is that young adult females very rarely venture out into the streets of this or any other city. They are kept indoors for their own safety, for all social conventions have eroded over time. The same bands of youths who set upon men will snatch women if given the chance.
I have to hope to catch a female when she leaves the safety of cover to scuttle for fresh cover.
Appearing almost as if on cue, my probes detect a female. Most of them move swiftly, with their heads down and their hair and faces covered in the futile attempt to avoid the ravaging male gaze. She does not bother. She strides out into the street with purpose and a hint of aggression.
My probes sweep toward her and begin relaying biodata. First of all, I note that she has not bred. That is an excellent start. Her hair has been colored a bright reddish pink not found in nature. In many Earth animals, bright colors announce danger to others. I can only imagine that this serves the same purpose. Her rather sweet face is set in a determined scowl. Probe data reveals she appears to be in her mid-twenties, and not currently in her breeding window.
Men look at her with interest as she strides past, but they do not approach, sensing the hostility she emanates. It is a pity, but I know she is not a good candidate for captivity. Something about her is wild through and through. As much as I might personally be intrigued, my brothers and I long ago agreed that we would not take any humans we could not sell. The Pet Shop is a business, and we must run it like one. The temptation to have our own pets must be resisted.
A good pet is someone with a softer temperament, someone who will take well to being looked after. I usually select from the lower ranked humans I encounter. They are usually not much to look at when they are first captured. I take them filthy, sick, and broken, and I rehabilitate them until they are gleaming with health and happiness.
Regretfully letting that target go, I refocus my attention to humans elsewhere in the target area. There are quite a number of them. There’s a promising looking male, strongly built with red hair. Natural red hair has become quite popular back on Euphoria. He does not have any of the obvious markers of having fathered offspring, though it is harder to tell with the males. Their overall contribution to the species is biologically limited to the act of orgasm.
I am supposed to be looking for a female, but there’s no reason I can’t take a good specimen like him too. There are several berths in my ship, and I’d like to fill them all before I leave. I have a waiting list of homes for anything I catch. Trade is good. Life is good.
I prepare the capture sequence, which involves releasing a cloud of psychogenic dust throughout the area, effectively erasing the senses of those close enough to see what happens. The second stage of capture happens when I deploy a tractor beam, effectively plucking the human from the surface of the planet and sucking them into my shuttle. Once I have a freshly caught human on board my shuttle, the psychogenic dust keeps them quiet long enough to get them back to the ship.
“Get your fucking hands off me!”
I hear female distress, and when I refocus my attention, I find that it is the woman who first caught my eye. She has gained the attention of three males, all of whom are emitting threatening mating pheromones.
They have cornered her in an alley, each and every one of them twice her size. They are grabbing at her, initiating coarse sexual contact without her interest or consent.
She jabs at one with her knee, making contact with the part of his anatomy he would like to bury inside her. It is a very effective strike.
He groans and collapses.
One of his friends attempts to help him. The other strikes the female across her face with an open hand and grabs her by the throat with his other. He threatens to kill her.
I am too far away to physically intervene, and I have never set foot on the planet before. But I can help, even though I shouldn’t. A thousand travesties and cruelties take place every second in this city. But my fingers are already at work.
ZIP!
I activate the transport beam, and the human is removed from the situation, beamed from that filthy alley all the way to my shuttle.
“GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF ME, YOU FUCK…”
