The Silent Treatment by Veder Vorocrat (AKA Veder Vicenti
The Silent Treatment
by
Veder Vorocrat (AKA Veder Vicenti)
Silent-Hunter woke with a pounding headache. A gentle yet insistent beeping emanated from one of the panels on his control screen. With two hands rubbing his temples and one busy raising himself to sit upright on his pilot's swivel chair, he pressed the fourth against the panel. It grew to fill the screen and filled itself with data.
His ship had suffered impact with an unidentified object; the shields were able to scatter most of the force harmlessly away, but it had suffered minor structural damage and the shields were dangerously low on energy. He banished the warning panel and its noise, and beckoned a new one to replace it. He instructed the ship's computer to scan for the nearest starport.
Almost instantly, the screen chirped happily as it located a significant technological presence. Silent tapped the panel, straightening himself in his chair, and was rewarded with an image of what appeared to be a flying chunk of land. Tall, shining pillars - almost certainly energy collectors - erupted in great numbers from the island's surface. His computer registered a significant, unknown technological presence within the island. He had few other options; he tapped a quick series of commands into the screen, instructing the autopilot to negotiate its way to a landing port. He grunted in satisfaction and lay back down to sleep off the rest of the headache. His ship would alert him when the planet's inhabitants hailed him.
He woke again and immediately realized something was wrong. He was in the grip of the planet's gravity - there should definitely have been contact by now. A sudden jolt confirmed his fears - some of that "minor structural damage" must have caused a failure in his communications systems, and now the locals were firing on the alien "invader." He pressed one hand against the control screen and flung across it, effectively clearing it and granting himself a view of the outside. He was less than a kilometer from the island, and he could clearly see weaponry trained on his ship.
Primitive weaponry. Ballistae.
At least eight of the large spear-firing constructs were tracking his movements. They began firing, launching massive spears towards his position. Normally his shields could easily fend off almost any number of the puny things, but in their damaged state he feared-
A loud crash and a sudden pain in his gut interrupted Silent's thoughts. He looked down. One of the spears had pierced his ship and gone on to pass completely through his belly. Black ichor freely flowed from the open hole left by its passing, but he had no time to savor the delicious feeling. Four agile hands moved frantically along the controls, skillfully keeping the ship stable enough to land more or less gently.
Another grinding crash announced a second well-aimed bolt. Cold steel brushed against his neck, then his vision tumbled dizzyingly as his head left his shoulders. He watched his body slump back in the chair. The lower half of his mouth and his tongue swung morbidly from the empty space where the top of his head used to be. More black blood pumped freely from his throat, splashing against the chair and pooling on the floor. It always surprised him how much of the stuff he had running through him. The ship lurched, and his body fell sideways from its seat, landing in front of his severed head. The tongue uncoiled to land across his snout. He would have sighed, had his lungs still been attached.
What a nuisance, he thought, even as his consciousness faded.
A short time passed in which he was not, and then he was back. He flexed the muscles of his new body - of course everything was in perfect working order. His old ruined body lay broken on the floor of his ship, blood staining his expensive carpeting. The ship was no longer moving - no doubt it had crashed into the island. Luckily it had landed right-side up, or he'd have had a devil of a time escaping its confines. He donned a spare skintight flight suit and scanned the instrument panels. They were silent. He pressed one palm against the exit hatch and pressed; gears engaged and the heavy door swung open to the bright sunlight.
A group of scantily-clad natives backed away from Silent-Hunter as he emerged. They were short, reptilian creatures, and their garb reinforced his concern that they might not be as advanced as his ship had suggested. They looked to all be male, and varied in color from orange to red to purple. Most held farmyard implements with the business end pointed towards him, though one more fully-dressed individual held a primitive weapon - a pike, if memory served. That one approached him with no signs of fear, pressing the pike's point against his throat. It growled something angrily at Silent, emphasizing its words with a lash of its long tail.
The translator bud in Silent's ear, a gift from an alien, chirped to life.
"No match found. Building language file...."
Silent-Hunter slowly, non-threateningly lowered himself to his knees. Even on his knees he was taller than they were. Though he'd come to enjoy death, it would be more trouble than it was worth to explain his condition to these primitives.
The leader wore golden plate armor with violet cloths wrapping his wrists, ankles, and the last third or so of his tail. He also wore a simple, tight-fitting gold helmet. The pike he held with one hand stayed pointed at Silent's throat as he spoke again, this time with more anger evident in his voice.
Silent's translator blipped. "43% complete."
A copy of the armored individual, wearing blue cloth rather than violet, arrived at a run from one side of Silent's ship. It skittered to a halt, fumbling its sword into position, eyes frantically moving back and forth from the kneeling form of Silent to his captor.
"What unholiness is that?!"
Silent-Hunter's translator repeated the words mere moments after the creature screamed its terrified reaction.
This one is called Silent-Hunter. This one is a friend. Silent conveyed the message silently, allowing the technology he wore to translate to the native's tongue.
The violet-clothed individual stared at him. His mouth didn't move with his words, he knew, but the words should be mostly correct.
"You are an alien?"
"This one is." Maybe these were just underlings, and a different race had the technology he'd seen. "This one needs to speak with your masters about repairing his vessel."
"Mistress Vanizha has made it clear that you are not welcome here. We shall take you to her; she will no doubt love the opportunity to deal with you herself."
The pike-wielder deftly reversed the weapon, bringing the staff end down hard on Silent's skull before he could move. Everything went dark.
He woke staring at the ceiling of a prison cell. Four stone walls kept him constrained to a small area. He lay on one of two piles of stench-ridden straw. He was naked. He sat up to get a better look at his confines. One wall sported a wooden door with a small barred window at head-level (for his captors, anyway). One of the creatures stood outside his cell. At his movements, it looked up.
"I am Queen Vanizha," spoke his translator. "Why are you on my island?"
Bright gold eyes stared out from under bright red scales, looking for all the world as though they were burrowing into his soul. She wore a white robe with violet and gold characters embroidered along its edges, and a sort of wrapped headdress of similar colors.
"This one is sorry, Your Majesty, but this one's ship was damaged," replied Silent-Hunter, "and this one had hoped you could assist him to repair it."
"Why would I help you?" snorted the queen.
"This one can pay you for the effort. This one just need the materials and his ship can handle the rest."
"Your ship is being sent away from this place, and that thing that passes for your soul is being sent to the hereafter. Goodbye, Silent-Hunter. Your superiors will be notified of your, heh, fatal, crash-landing... soon."
She stood abruptly, robes swirling around her as she turned to leave. "Have fun, Dula."
Dula stepped into view as Vanizha stepped out. He pushed open the door to Silent's cell. The copper-scaled, muscle-bound reptilian wore simple wraps around his wrists and ankles and what looked like a kilt; all stained violet. He drew a small knife from a fold in his kilt, passing it idly between his hands as he examined Silent's naked form. Two more guards appeared outside; one pulled the door closed to prevent Silent's escape.
"You look strong, alien," he said. "I haven't had a real contest in some time. What say we make your death a little more... interesting. You'll still die, of course, but if you can best me, I'll let you choose how."
Silent-Hunter suppressed a smile, tried to sound resigned as he accepted the offer.
"Excellent," exclaimed Dula, tossing his knife back out the gate. "Ready yourself. The first who lies against the ground is the loser. Ready?"
Dula didn't wait for a response. He threw himself at the still-seated Silent, bending to ram his shoulder into Silent's face. Silent lithely rolled himself, deflecting the tackle, and brought one of his four arms down on the smaller creature's back. Dula grunted and fell to one knee, but quickly picked himself back up, spinning to keep Silent in his sight.
"Wonderful!"
He came at Silent again. He made to kick at Silent's belly. Silent moved two hands to block the attack while the other two pulled back, readying an attack of his own. Dula was a well-trained soldier, however, and was merely feinting - with a flick of his tail and a flex of his powerful legs, he leapt into the air and dove over a surprised Silent-Hunter. Silent moved to dodge the creature's lunge and swiped at the airborne enemy, but Dula's long, prehensile tail caught around Silent's neck and the creature wrapped himself around Silent.
Silent batted at Dula with all four hands, but the small creature was incredibly swift. Dula crawled around Silent's torso and wrapped his legs around Silent's neck. Silent solidly struck the creature at least twice, but, unfazed, Dula thrust himself backwards, and his weight pulled Silent to his back on the ground. Silent groaned; Dula stood over him, grinning and shaking his head. The speedy savage held a sword pointed at Silent's throat.
"Unfortunate, but I suppose there can be few warriors as experienced as myself. You are little more than a pretty picture." Dula hesitated. "But a very pretty picture."
Keeping the sword pointed at Silent's throat, Dula maneuvered himself within reach of Silent's crotch and pressed a finger into the slit that held Silent's reproductive organs safe.
"Aha, voro, like myself," said Dula. The translator couldn't handle the alien word; Silent guessed it meant 'male.'
"Since you are no fun to fight, perhaps you can entertain me in another way." Dula, still kneeling at Silent's side, stuck one finger out at Silent's head. "You make me cum, and I'll let you choose how you die. Otherwise I just stick you right now."
"That's certainly a fair deal." Silent tried to sound reluctant; the translator would do its best to convey the sentiment. Secretly he was very excited.
Dula sheathed his sword and unfastened the kilt he wore. He let it fall to the floor, revealing a slightly red-tinted slit from which peeked his semi-hard coppery penis.
"Up," he demanded, seemingly of both his cock and Silent, as he set his sword down behind himself, out of Silent's immediate reach.
Silent rose to his haunches to come level with the alien genitalia. It looked nearly human, though the very tip branched off into three evenly-spaced prongs. It pressed towards him.
"Well? Do something already!"
Silent reached one hand up and grasped the alien appendage; then he began rhythmically pulling along its length. Dula purred and grabbed Silent's strong shoulders, pushing into Silent's hand. Silent felt his own cock slipping out as he got into the spirit of the situation.
Dula looked down at Silent. "Come now, don't be shy, four-eyes! Harder!"
Silent grabbed the alien's ass with two of his other hands as the first continued its stroking motions; Dula stumbled down to sit on Silent's lap. A hint of fear was visible in his eyes for a moment, but was replaced with a sinister coyness as Silent guided his own erection towards Dula's tail base, sliding its tip along Dula's tail. Dula licked the fingers of one hand, reached down, and grabbed Silent.
"Need some help?"
Dula pressed the tip of Silent's cock against his anus, using his saliva to ease its entry. The gesture was unnecessary, as Silent's unique biological adaptations provided copious amounts of lubricant. Even so, Silent's girth caused Dula to grunt as Silent pressed inside.
"Uh-huh," said Dula, as he rocked himself against Silent, whose hand still made its way up and down the length of his coppery member.
Dula's long, thin tail found Silent's and twined its way around the thick, muscular appendage. He pressed his head against Silent's chest, nose towards Silent's, and licked Silent's throat. He drew his long, pink tongue back inside and smacked his lips together - "Musky."
Silent's body suddenly demanded satisfaction; his hips thrust violently, nearly dislodging the small alien atop him. Dula laughed, mercilessly swaying himself atop Silent's cock.
"Cum for me, vomaka," he snarled, one saliva-slicked finger pressing its way into Silent's anus and massaging him from the inside.
Silent couldn't hold off any longer; instinct took over as he came and his hips forced themselves forward, impaling Dula on the full length of his cock. Powerful contractions filled Dula to overflowing; hot semen splashed back down along Silent's crotch.
Dula felt the release and shoved himself against Silent's chest, chuckling - Silent humored him, allowing himself to be thrown to his back. Dula then forced himself off of Silent and turned, raising his tail, to present himself to Silent's face. Silent felt the savage's tongue licking him clean; he grabbed the alien cock above him and guided it into his mouth. He took a long pull; Dula sighed ecstatically and a sizable glob of precum seeped into Silent's mouth. Silent was surprised; the stuff had a unique, subtly minty taste, and slightly burned his tongue - not from heat; more like some sort of acidic reaction.
He wanted more.
Two hands forced Dula's crotch down; even fully engorged, the alien's penis didn't quite reach the back of Silent's mouth. Silent wrapped his tongue around it, caressing it, urging it to spill the rest of its tasty load. More pre oozed from its tip with each stroke of Silent's tongue. Dula gyrated his hips, tail mindlessly whacking Silent's head, adding his own motions to those of Silent's tongue.
One particularly violent thrust of Dula's hips knocked Silent's head against the floor. The alien cock in his mouth stopped its movements momentarily as Dula moaned stiffly; then it pulsed against Silent's tongue as Dula came. Silent felt rumbling in the alien body as Dula purred in satisfaction. The watery alien seed carried an impressively strong mint flavor and burned Silent's throat as he greedily gulped it down. Dula's tail pressed against the back of Silent's head, trying to keep them locked together until Dula's ejaculation slowed and finally stopped. Dula placed one foot on Silent's chest and lifted himself off. The alien cock, still glistening with saliva and its own cum, quickly retreated back into its place as Dula replaced his kilt.
"Not bad, alien," said Dula. He picked up the sword and pointed it back at Silent's throat. "Still gotta kill ya, though. No hard feelings, you understand."
"Doesn't this one get to choorghghk," tried Silent, but with a blade shoved through his throat it was impossible to speak clearly.
"Nah, sorry. Way too much paperwork. I just needed a tonguing. This shouldn't be too painful, though."
Dula twisted the blade, opening the wound in Silent's neck wide. Silent felt his blood pulsing out with each heartbeat, splashing against his flesh before it fell to pool on the floor. It was hard to breath; blood burbled in his throat as instinct demanded he fill his lungs. Instinct was still hard to fight - his hands grabbed the alien's blade, heedless of the damage it caused them, as they tried to pry it out of him. He saw one finger fall to the floor as its frantic movements brought it across the blade's edge.
Silent wasn't dying fast enough for Dula, who pulled the sword back up and, with a smirked "This should be, though," brought it down directly on Silent's spine. The incredibly sharp blade pierced flesh and bone, and scraped against the stony floor. Silent's vision rolled backwards, despite his attempts to keep his eyes on his killer. A heavy impact knocked him aside as though he were a feather, his head struck the cell's corner and came to a rest staring out. His body shivered on the ground, black blood still slowly pumping from the stump where his head had been attached. Ecstasy filled him as he recognized the slow, creeping cold of the onset of death, and welcomed it into his mind. The vision of his old, settling body faded to black.
Silent picked himself up off the floor. His translator scuttled towards him from around a nearby corner and jumped back into his ear. He marveled at the ridiculous amount of technology contained in the tiny thing and silently thanked its creator.
He stood in a narrow corridor, with multiple branches shooting off to the sides. He crept his way towards the one his translator had emerged from, and peeked his head around the corner. Several meters away stood Dula and his two guards, engaged in heated discussion.
"Of course it's dead," said one of the guards, knocking the other roughly on the back. "Its head is cut off! Do you want me to cut yours off to double check? I mean, maybe cutting heads off doesn't work anymore!"
"I swear I just smelled its ana," said the other, sheepishly, using yet another untranslatable word.
"It's an alien," reprimanded Dula. "It must work differently than we do. At any rate, I cut off its head. Vril, if you're so worried, you go back to the cell and watch the corpse."
The 'smeller' shook his head. "No sir. That thing scares the crap out of me."
Dula laughed, and turned towards Silent, who quickly ducked back out of sight. Not out of fear, so much, but out of a desire to escape these mad savages with the tasty semen. His ship could cannibalize itself to be space-worthy again - he didn't really need these creatures to help him with that - but he had to find it first. He turned away from the approaching trio and jogged down the hall, ducking into the first side corridor he came across. He pulled open a wooden door and rushed through, closing it silently behind himself. He turned to find himself face-to-face with a gold-and-white-robed individual in yet another corridor.
She snapped her fingers before he could react, and a strange force lifted him off the ground, scraping his horns against the ceiling. She tossed her hand sideways, seemingly disinterested, and his back slammed against the side of the corridor. He tried each limb in turn; he was completely unable to move. She passed by him, eyes focusing just a moment on his crotch, and opened the door. Dula and his guards stood on the other side. Their eyes went wide as they saw Silent against the wall, a slight blue sheen of magic coating his body.
"I... I cut off his head, Azha," stammered Dula.
"Not the same one, then, obviously," Azha said condescendingly. "Maybe this one will talk. Go back about your duties, Dula. I'll handle this."
Dula nodded and passed by Azha, guards in tow. Azha turned back to face Silent.
"We just killed one of you for not cooperating," she bluffed. "If you want to live you'll tell me what I need to know. How many of you are there and why are you here?"
"It's just this one," growled Silent, "and this one is here to fix his ship."
"I'm disinclined to believe that two of you have crashed on this island in the same day, so I'll assume you're just lying. Last chance, alien - how many of you? Why are you here?"
Silent thought a moment. "Fine. There are ten of us, but we mean you no harm. We simply want to share the benefits of civilized life with you and get back to our own lives. If you'll give this one the raw materials for our ship - or just let this one go so he can get them - we can be out of your land forever."
The restraints faded and Silent thudded to his feet on the floor. "Thank y-"
"Ah!" interrupted Azha. "That might work on the landbound, but the queen has kindly informed us of your real intentions. Your kind gets no quarter here." She snapped her fingers.
A sudden force in his gut accompanied by a loud pop prompted Silent to look down. Where his belly should have been, he could see inside himself; bits of his flesh and organs dotted the ground around him, though Azha remained free of debris - a faint blue shimmer faded from view as she dropped her magical shield. One of Silent's remaining organs plopped from the cavity of his belly to land on the floor. The rush of sensations flooded his brain; aroused by the mix of pain and endorphins, his cock slid loose of its slit as, unable to support its own weight, his body collapsed onto its knees.
Azha watched, intrigued, as his alien penis rose to attention. She quickly glanced around her, then slammed the door shut with a burst of magic. "Really? Don't mind if I do."
A bluish aura coalesced around her as she reformed her shield; she sank down and wrapped her mouth around Silent's cock. Silent lacked the strength to remain upright; he folded forward over her, resting his chest against the faint magic field surrounding Azha. It had a soothing vibration feel to it; ropes of intestine, disturbed by the motions, slithered out of Silent's open belly, sliding across her shield and looping on the floor. He opened his mouth in a wide grin at his own pain and pleasure as she sucked him, pulling the lubricant along its channels spaced around his cock. He used the little control he still had to push his hips against her; she gagged as he touched the back of her throat, but bit back down and continued massaging him.
The combination of sensations quickly brought him to orgasm. Instinctive motions, barely noticeable in his weakened state, pushed him into Azha's mouth as his member pumped seed wildly. Blood loss combined with the exertion drained the remaining strength from him, and he slumped on top of Azha, no longer able to support himself. She sank under his weight, mouth still busily slurping along his pulsing cock as she shuffled sideways to let him fall to the floor. Spent, he laid sprawled on the floor, body panting uselessly, cock hanging half-exposed, dripping cum. She let go when she noticed he was pumping on empty.
Azha stood and exerted some force on her shield that shook the bits of Silent-Hunter flesh loose, and rubbed one finger along her mouth to clean the remnants of his ejaculate.
"Different," she mused.
His vision blacked completely.
He woke outside, looking up into the boughs of a teal-leaved tree heavy with yellow fruit. Birds chirruped angrily at him as he rose to his feet and looked around himself. To his left, the mossy ground ended less than a meter away. Up, beyond the tree, he could see bare earth - he was in a large cavern, carved into the side of the island. One of the alien creatures sat on the land's edge, arms supporting it as it leaned against them. It kicked its legs in the air hundreds of meters above solid ground. This one seemed different. It was blond-haired and wore loose clothes of violet, gold, and cyan. Its tail and hands - the only flesh he could see with the creature facing away from him - were teal. Silent had noticed only warm colors among the others, such as red, orange, and yellow, but this one seemed more fit for this world, as its coloring would allow it to blend in to the vegetation. Its proportions seemed different as well. Slighter, possibly shorter - was it a child? He coughed, announcing his presence.
The small creature flung itself to its feet.
"Kahn a evriktn?!" it cried, backing away, startled.
A different language? No, Silent realized. His translator hadn't yet found a way to reach him.
The creature fumbled in the folds of its violet clothing, head focused on Silent. It wore a violet headdress from which sprouted its wild blond hair, and also wore a pair of nearly opaque cyan glasses.
"Kan a desunam indzhou? Rike venivelan?"
Silent sank to his knees, hoping to seem less threatening.
It found whatever it was looking for. It stopped its fumbling, hand still concealed in its clothes, and switched to a language full of heavy clicks, growls, and trills, not unlike Silent's own. He couldn't help but cock his head interestedly, though he couldn't make any sense of the words. "Da? Spevk'ki ta tchi grran Rike, dvelk'tk?"
At Silent's silence, the alien withdrew its hand. It held what was, quite unmistakably, a jet-black pistol. Varying colors of energy flowed down the alien's arm, becoming more pronounced as they reached the weapon until it was fairly glowing with the different energies swarming across its surface. Silent reached his hands up - the near-universal sign for surrender - but these creatures had apparently not learned that particular signal.
The alien pulled the trigger, nearly knocking itself off its feet with the recoil. The gathered, colorful energy burst forward, dragged along with the bullet, and smashed through Silent's chest. Designed to pierce any and all shielding, the magic-assisted bullet effortlessly shattered every bone in Silent's chest before plowing through and sending him hurtling over the cliff, the massive hole in his body trailing black blood as he plummeted head over heels. Air whistled through his newest hole, though he couldn't savor the sensation for long - with no heart or lungs, his consciousness quickly faded as yet another body was lost to this strange, xenophobic world.
He woke on a cold, stone floor, looking out between the supports of a banister on a clear view of the cerulean sky. He stood and placed two hands on the railing, taking in the sight. Far below him lay the planet itself - a lush, teal, hilly landscape criss-crossed with meandering rivers. He could see for probably forty kilometers, and not a sign of civilization as he knew it. He might have made a mistake coming here.
A feral growl behind him alerted him to the presence of the other in the room.
"How the hell did you get in here? What have you done with Dula?" She glanced down and her face wrinkled. "And your clothes?"
Somehow his translator had found him much faster than his previous reform. Queen Vanizha seethed from her seat on the massive gold-and-white bed in the center of the room. She now wore only a white, wrapped loincloth. Her bare chest was bereft of boobs - part of Silent's mind muttered Aw, shucks to itself. A single door was set into the wall on the other side of the bed from Silent, and a set of double doors, locked with chains, provided a second entrance in a side wall. The floor was carpeted in white, speckled with red - shed scales, most likely. The queen's feet made hardly a sound in the plush fabric as she fearlessly stomped towards Silent's massive bulk.
"Dula's fine," Silent said, back to the railing. "Do you savages kill all aliens or just the ones that ask for help?"
"All," Vanizha growled. "I know of your master, and I'm not about to let him know that I yet live." She raised her hand towards Silent.
"What master?"
She paused, hand pressed against Silent's chest. "You are Rike, are you not?"
"What is... Rike?"
Vanizha pulled her hand back - just slightly. She stared at his eyes a moment, as though she were looking into his mind.
"You are not Rike?"
Silent, exasperated, spoke aloud in response. Vanizha started at the sharp difference in his voice versus his translator's, but she recovered quickly. She put her other hand to his ear and plucked the translator bug out, then let it go, and watched it crawl back to its place.
"Impressive bit of technology you have there," she commented. "I'll tell you what, alien - you have the sound of truth about your words. I have a proposal for you. You may leave this island if you swear by God to never speak a word of our existence to anyone. You must also allow me to carry your trinket for a while. I will have a copy made and you may have yours back."
A quick series of raps on the door announced a visitor; Dula's voice rang out after the queen's yipped acknowledgement.
"My Queen, I have killed the alien. He said nothing before he died, but we did encounter a second alien inside the palace. We do not know how many there may be, Your Majesty. Have you any orders?"
Vanizha stared daggers at Silent as she moved to the door. She pulled it open, allowing Dula to see Silent standing alone at her balcony.
"Dassan ein va e zennon il sammen, Dula," growled Vanizha, in yet another language.
"Nassa! Dakka el vi il edden frum!" responded Dula, agitated.
"Akt ibn da ein sammen. Chanjen. Kt a k'kvarrtis. U chak'tn il en vi la arrn'kt." Vanizha had switched to the clicky-growly voice the teal pistol-wielder had employed, halfway through her little speech. Silent's translator hissed and chirped, unable to make heads or tails of anything they said.
Vanizha turned back to Silent. "Explain. My most trusted subordinate claims he cut your head off and yet here you stand, unharmed."
Silent hesitated, but decided the truth would be best.
"This one can't die. When this one's body is destroyed, a new one is created for him to inhabit. Dula did kill one of this one's bodies. Feel free to kill this one to try it, but know that this one can't be sure where he'll reform."
Dula laughed. Vanizha looked intrigued.
"Hm," she hummed, after a pause. "Alright, alien -"
"This one's name is Silent-Hunter."
"Silent-Hunter, then. Next time I see you, tell me 'mark safe lock,' and I'll believe you. 'Bye. Oops, almost forgot - I'll hold that for you. Now, Dula, let's make absolutely sure he's dead."
A gentle pressure pulled the translator out of Silent's ear; the little device floated away in a blue-tinted bubble of air at Vanizha's gesture.
She snapped her fingers, and his flesh literally caught fire, everywhere at once. Pain shot through every fiber of his being as he roasted alive, and he took pleasure in its angry caress. His lungs burned as his body breathed fire in; he fell weakly to the floor, arousal visible to the aliens in front of him. Even as his body instinctively struggled to survive, he forced one hand to his groin, stroking his burning erection. He took in another lungful of fire; endorphins blasted the pain from his mind and replaced it with pure ecstasy. A familiar tugging urge at his crotch announced his imminent orgasm; he felt his body pulse rhythmically, trying desperately to procreate in its last moments. Sticky semen squirted from him as he came; somewhat protected by his natural lubricant, most of the stuff survived to pool on the floor in front of him.
Spent, Silent relaxed. He stared down at his cock as it managed to get a pain signal in between his body's defensive endorphins - it fell from his body as the fire burned away its root. He drew in one more lungful of useless fire, and died.
"Oi! Skaya kor ao!" A hand roughly shook Silent to consciousness.
One of the aliens stood over him. When he stirred, it backed off, startled. He brought himself up to his full height, and the creature took yet another step back. He chuckled.
"Nja skaya kor ao, soi," it said, in a far more respectful tone, gesturing for Silent to follow. Silent nodded - a gesture he'd picked up from frequent alien contact - and, satisfied, the creature turned and led him away.
They walked down several bare, stone corridors before emerging into an actual room. Two rows of tall, wide pillars supported the long room's ceiling; Silent had emerged from a door set into one of the room's long sides. His guide followed the wall to the corner and swung open a new door. Silent followed more slowly, examining the tapestries hung from the wall. They seemed to be a creation myth of some sort - a glowing figure stood on a flying island, beckoning three individuals to enter. On a later tapestry, the island teemed with life, supported on the back of the glowing figure. On yet another, a large, forbidding shape dominated the upper half of the tapestry, while the glowing figure stood resolute on the island, though far smaller than its previous incarnations.
Silent's guide cleared its throat; he picked up his pace and entered the new room. The glowing embers of his old body lay cooling in front of him. The fire had been extinguished before the room was damaged, somehow.
Vanizha sat on her bed, Dula at her side. She locked eyes with Silent.
"Ao kamvreheive, zeno?"
At his blank stare, she laughed once and gestured his translator back to him from across the room. The thing jumped back in to place.
"Uh, mark safe lock," said Silent through the device.
Vanizha's eyes went wide. "Amazing. Complete reformation... a marvel to observe. Thank you, Silent-Hunter. You have no idea how important this is to me. Ah, soldier," she said, turning her attention to Silent's guide. "Come here, please."
The soldier moved to stand beside his queen, closing the door behind him. Dula rose and stood behind him.
"Yes, my queen?"
"Go in peace, child."
Dula's arm moved suddenly, and the point of a sword emerged pointing upward from the soldier's chest. It quickly disappeared, and the soldier's body thudded to the floor. Silent flinched.
"What the hell? You can't do that!"
"I can. It's unfortunate," said Vanizha, "but I can't have anyone knowing about your true nature just yet. Apart from Dula here," she said, proffering her cheek to him. He gave her a quick lick before picking up the corpse and hurling it over the railing.
"You'll find your ship in my private retreat, just through these doors," she indicated the double doors he'd noticed before. "You must swear not to reveal our presence, remember. Even if you can't die, my subjects can contrive to make your life a living hell."
"But we could make your lives so much better!"
"No. I don't expect you to understand, and I don't want you to. Nor do you. This matter is between me and the Rike. You may go back to your life if you'll leave us to ours."
Silent, resigned, agreed. "Fine. This one swears to never speak a word of this place."
Vanizha looked kindly at him. "You've already helped us more than you know, with your translator and your amazing ability. You can help us even more by leaving us to our own devices."
Silent nodded. "Well... thank you, then."
Vanizha nodded, and Silent stepped through the now unlocked double doors onto a wide, familiar-looking open cavern. The alien sun shone in from the right as it set, coloring the entire cavern a mellow orange color. The teal individual stood in front of him.
"I fixed your ship for you, Mr. Hunter. I'm Loiuzein. Sorry about the little misunderstanding earlier, but you're fit as a fiddle now, aren't you?" The bespectacled critter nervously rubbed its snout. "Truly astounding. I'm sure Vani will have lots of fun dissecting your ability. Follow me?"
Loiuzein strolled towards the edge, with Silent following.
"It was a little tricky getting your shield working again," commented Loiuzein, "I must admit I haven't seen such technology before. If you ever crash in this sector again, do it here - I'd love to have a more thorough investigation."
"Wait - you fixed my ship?"
Loiuzein turned, face beaming, still walking away. "Yep. I just took it inside and gave it some materials, really. Took a few tries to figure out what it needed for the shield, but it seems to be working."
"You can operate it?!" Silent asked, incredulous.
"Of course I can! I'm not stupid!" Loiuzein seemed to suddenly catch himself. "Oh. Um. Vani didn't tell you about me, did she?"
"No," replied Silent.
"Dammit," swore Loiuzein. "I never get to have any fun. Sorry, Mr. Hunter, all I can say is your ship works again. Here it is," he said, stopping on a dime. Silent nearly rear-ended him.
Silent's ship - now free of holes - sat nestled in a clearing. At his approach, it opened its hatch almost expectantly.
"Vani told me of your agreement. I'm supposed to remind you that if you send anyone else to us we'll kill them, but she probably said that enough, huh? Anyway, I've, uh, tampered with your guidance system a bit. At least, I think it was the guidance system. I'm pretty sure. At any rate, you'll be on autopilot for a while, and you won't be able to find your way back here automatically. Ought to stop any temptation of a return, right?"
Silent, dumbfounded, just stared at the diminutive teal alien.
"Dammit. Sometimes I talk too much," said Loiuzein. "Not a lot of company, you see. I talk to the machines all the time and they never have much to ssaaayyy... dammit. Just 'goodbye,' Mr. Hunter."
"Goodbye, then."
Silent boarded his craft and sat himself down in his pilot's chair. He ran a hand over the controls and they sprang to life, status reports popping up all around him. Everything looked to be in top condition. Silent was impressed that these creatures would choose to live so far in his technological past when they had the skill to fix his ship.
Silent gestured the hatch closed. Loiuzein seemed to know what he was talking about - his ship automatically started its engines and lifted off, then turned and shot into the planet's atmosphere. He wondered how long Loiuzein had set his autopilot. He gestured the ship to alert him once autopilot disengaged and settled down for a nap.