Up for Adoption!

[WP] When aliens invade Earth, humans are seen as very fascinating creatures, but also confusing. The aliens decide to 'adopt' humans that are sad, scared, or alone as pets. You're trying to avoid your toxic family, who are determined to keep you around and beg an alien to 'adopt' you.

*****

Y’ggrasog’s friends often joked that he was damn near-emotionless. He had seen a lot in his life as a spacer. Many such things were wondrous. He had seen stars go supernova, space dust form beautiful clouds thousands of miles wide, and caught the frosted trails of comets slinging close enough to a star to off-gas their icy payloads.

…But many, many more such things were horrible, tragic, and stark reminders of the fragility of life. He had seen crewmates suffer catastrophic decompression due to shoddy suits, and others die of radiation poisoning after the idiot navigator had added a couple more zeroes than necessary when calculating how far from a star they could safely travel.

Throughout all of this, he took it upon himself to remain stoic, to keep going, no matter how much he wanted to give up. It took a lot to so much as phase him.

…And as he watched the pitiful creature before him, he was struggling to maintain the titanic willpower required to not start ugly-crying on the spot.

The human (female, in her mid-20s by the looks of it based on his limited knowledge of their biology) had long since gotten over the initial surprise upon realizing she had been abducted from her homeworld but was now curled into a ball in the corner of the room where she had constructed a farcical barricade out of whatever was nearby. Cushions, pillows, a shelving unit, and a few thermal blankets here and there. He could see through the shadows she clung to that her arm was bleeding, her unfocused, bloodshot eyes and rose-colored cheeks were wet, her chest heaving, as she went from panicked hyperventilating to quiet sobs to desperate pleading to no one in particular in a voice, rendered hoarse from the initial screaming which had (thankfully) stopped a few minutes hence.

“Please oh please d-don’t let me die here I don’t want to die... I don’t want to die I’m n-not ready to die oh god please someone help me I don’t want to-“

He cleared his throat, the sudden noise causing her to flinch and clutch her injured arm tighter than before.

“…Miss, please, I have no intention of-“

“OHGODPLEASEDON’TKILLME!”

“I- I have no intention whatsoever of causing you to come to any harm. Just…”

She stared at him for a few seconds, gaze full of sheer terror, before she screwed her eyes shut, blocking the world out.

“Please wake up; this is a nightmare this has to be a fucking nightmare, oh god please wake up."

“No, miss, this… I’m afraid this is very much real.”

Her eyes flew open, staring at him, tears welling in her eyes from the recognition that he spoke truly, before burying her face in the crook of her non-injured arm and continuing to weep.

He struggled to remember the portions of intel surrounding the physiology and psychology this species possessed.

“Just… uh- take a few deep breaths. In and out, slow. Can you do that for me? Please?”

He watched as she raised her head slightly and gazed at him with nothing but fear, but as he continued to stand there, not daring to make any sudden movements, he noticed her breathing starting to slow, her shoulders relaxing a bit.

“That’s a bit better. Can… can you please tell me your name?”

She was silent for several seconds before letting out a whimpered answer so quietly his auto-translator barely picked it up.

”K-Kate…”

“Kate. Alright. …Kate, I know you’re scared, but I only want to help you.”

A few moments of silence passed, broken only by the quiet sound of Kate’s slow, ragged breaths.

“Listen to me. The only reason I brought you here is due to your current condition and the vast distance between your position at the time my sensors detected you and the closest human population center. Your appendage is bleeding and a bone is fractured quite badly. While the blood loss is not enough to kill you, the ship’s auto-doc system detected an infection growing within the wound that it calculated would kill you before you could reach aid from your own kind. I merely wish to help you before it gets any worse.”

Another minute of silence passed before she finally spoke.

“…..Ok…”

“Good. This will only take a few moments…”

Trying to move as slowly as possible, he reached up to a nearby panel on the wall and typed in a code. A small drone, about the size of a baseball, appeared from a nearby hole in the wall. He clutched it in his hand and extended it out to her, causing her to shrink back away from him.

“This is a medical droid. I’ve programmed it with all knowledge of human anatomy we’ve been able to decipher. It’s just going to administer a solution to flush the wound of contaminants and sterilize it, apply a medical gel that will bind to any damaged tissues to stop the bleeding, then install a- …hm. I suppose your race doesn’t have this tech yet… uh- just think of it as something like an advanced hybrid between a cast and prosthetic that will prevent you from accidentally injuring yourself further. All I need you to do is just uncover your arm and remain as still as possible for a bit. Ok?”

She remained motionless for a few seconds before slowly, gingerly removing the hand she had been clutching to the wound, wincing as she shifted slightly to face the droid.

It went to work, and the process was over within seconds. She gingerly poked at the metallic substance covering her arm, the fear on her face slowly being replaced by bemusement, before finally speaking.

“What… what is this stuff?”

“A collection of self-sterilizing nanobots programmed to your physiology that will adapt to any movements you make in an attempt to keep your arm as still as possible as it recovers. If you were a member of my own species the bone and tissues would already be repaired at this point, but… well, we still don’t know enough about your kind for that sort of thing to be possible yet, so we’ll just have to let the bone and tissue heal by itself.”

“…What’s your name?”

“Y’grassog.”

She sniffled before replying in almost a whisper.

“…Thank you...”

His mandibles broke into his species’ equivalent of a grin, and his bioluminescence shifted hues to show the change.

“My pleasure. I’m going to check back in on you shortly, and in the meantime, I’ll calibrate the fabricator to produce some food and drink your species can safely metabolize so we can get you fed and watered. Then we can get you back to your people-“

“NO!”

He started at the sudden noise before the meaning of her outburst hit him.

“What… Why not? Don’t you want to see your loved ones again? Your family?”

“I… uh…”

He tilted his head to the side in confusion, and after a few seconds, she continued.

“My… my family did this to me."

*****

THE END.